In Which The Warlock Ends His Convention Run...

This time of year is a really exhausting one for me, friends and neighbors.  With the academic year swinging into gear and the convention season wrapping up, I've been up to my eyeballs with places to go, things to do, and people to see!

The Warlock's swag shot from GenCon 2012!
Two products from The Laundry
Some Savage Worlds and Deadlands
Richelieu's Compendium for All for One: Regime Diabolique
and a new GameWick Games t-shirt!

This marks the third year I've made it out to GenCon, but only the second that I've been running games:  in this case, a Laundry adventure set in equatorial Africa entitled "The Scramble for Buranda".  Investigators trekked through Ghana in search of the fabled Blade of Kings, while avoiding Grand Leader Charles Umtali's  guards and chatting up Black Chamber zombie drones.

This year's adventure was significantly better-written than last year's adventure, which seemed to switch titles off-and-on through the various drafts we were sent!  The pre-generated characters, as well, were significantly more interesting, with tons more role-playing hooks than their predecessors.  All three of my games went off without a hitch, with my players having a blast sneaking through downtown Buranda City and   trolling through the jungles.  Plus, Cubicle 7's games this year were situated in the posh J.W. Marriott, which was a massive improvement over last year's overly-crowded Omni.

Great DC Cosplayers
at GenCon 2012!

I've got to say:  my GenCon experience overall was a massive improvement from last year's.  The construction that plagued the downtown Indianapolis area has finally been completed, with skywalks linking all the major hotels.  My schedule actually allowed me to enjoy the convention itself, with plenty of time to talk to the folks at Pinnacle Entertainment (and even go to their seminar!), schmooze with the gang at GameWick Games, and even check out EEE's booth:  the Mythic Eras of War Games (spell it out...MEoW!).

Cosplay, too, seems to be really taking off at GenCon.  In previous years, costumes have been somewhat of an afterthought in Indy.  This year, though, costumes were plentiful, varied, and of a genuinely high quality.  It's nice to see this part of the con really take off!

But, as the school year gets started, it's time to focus on the things to come.  The Witt Guild's first meeting is this Friday--come, if you can make it to Shouvlin 203 this Friday evening!--and there's a ton of editing left to be done on Cold Steel Wardens!   Time marches on, friends and neighbors.

In Which The Warlock Preps and Ponders...

Just a short entry this time, friends and neighbors, as I'm getting prepped for my final convention of the year:  GenCon Indy.

Like last year, I'll be running The Laundry for Cubicle 7 Entertainment.  This time around, our intrepid Laundry agents are set to trek off to exotic Buranda in search of a mysterious blade associated with a nefarious cult.  Will they survive, or is CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN right around the corner?  Come play this weekend and find out!

I also just wrapped up on a new project, which I had mentioned a few posts ago.  You see, with a much-abbreviated convention season this year, I felt somewhat left out of my usual ritual of scenario writing.  But, with the rules for Hell on Earth coming out so recently, I felt that it was time to make a tribute to my favorite  of the Hell on Earth Classic scenarios:

Killer Clowns!
a classic Hell on Earth adventure by John Goff

Yes, that's right, children!  It's time for another visit to Dempsey Islands!  Except, this time, you'll be visiting the West Coast islands.  Try your luck at Nevada Smith's Shootin' Gallery, ride the Iron Dragon and race your way through Junkyard Station, and enjoy a leisurely soak in The Maelstrom wave pool...just don't hope to leave the park alive!

I'm still playtesting this module with my Friday group, so I'm going to hang onto it for a little bit for the sake of revisions and the like.  But, expect to see "Killer Clowns 2:  Return to Dempsey Islands" in my "Bag of Holding" very soon.  And I've already decided that I'll be running this one next year at Origins' "Savage Saturday Night".

Oh, and one last thing!  If you haven't yet donated to Will's "Wild Card Creator" Kickstarter, you're missing out!  He's already up to his base funding goal and is already gunning hard on his first stretch goal:  a 150 piece art pack by noted Savage artist Storn Cook.  Give him your support, fellow gamers!  It's a fantastic, revolutionary product that's going to be well worth the sticker price.

No weekend entry this time, kids!  I'll see you in Indy!

In Which The Warlock Contemplates Something Odd...

A few days ago, while trolling around RPG.net, I came across a pretty standard thread in their d20/D&D forums.  Quite simply, the thread posted the question "What's the best setting for D&D?"

Immediately, I started running down my favorites in my mind, about to post my opinions.  I contemplating picking Planescape, then Ravenloft, then Dark Sun.

But as I deliberated between my options, weighing what I liked and didn't like about each, something strange occurred to me--something that I never really considered throughout all of my years of gaming.

You see, friends...I don't think I actually like Dungeons and Dragons.

I can hear you gasping from here.  Please, take a deep breath.  You're probably asking, "But, Warlock, you've been playing D&D for years!  You constantly regale us with epic exploits, thoughts on your new campaigns, and the like!  How can you possibly not like D&D?"

It was about as shocking to me, as well.  I've been playing some variation of D&D for over 15 years now, in any number of campaigns and one-shots.  But (bear with me here!), I don't think I was actually enjoying D&D.

Not your "typical"
D&D adventurer...

My favorite thing about Planescape isn't the D&D elements to it.  Rather, it was the pseudo-Victorian age philosophy, used to justify the archaic D&D alignment system.  I love the idea of "good" nihilists in The Doomguard, and the "survival of the fittests" ethos of The Fated.  I loved the idea that the "standard fantasy" archetypes were utterly flipped on their head. 

My favorite thing about Ravenloft isn't the fact that it's D&D.  Rather, it was the vulnerability of the heroes, as they made their way in a world ruled by Hammer movie monsters.  I loved the investigative nature of things, the rarity and superstition surrounding magic, and the swashbuckling-action-meets-creeping-horror feel.  Again, the "standard fantasy" was thrown overboard.

All of the things that I enjoyed about D&D....were the very things that made them not D&D. These settings were set apart because of their individuality, and TSR/WotC even made significant efforts to keep them separated. Dungeon Masters were encouraged to keep the settings and rules separate, due to their massive differences, while they simultaneously put out game material like Spelljammer, which meant to link them all...

I cut my teeth on Dragonlance, back when I was in high school, but by the time I hit college, I'd all but dropped the series.  There were no ethical questions to be explored, no tension-filled investigations to be had, and no inversions to keep me interested.  Elves, dwarves and humans were good, kender were irritating, and dragon-men were bad.  Everything was so...cut and dried.

Great game...but not for me.

To be honest, I have absolutely no interest in Cubicle 7's The One Ring rpg, despite a beautiful-looking book, and a creative game mechanic.  I just have no interest in doing the typical fantasy setting any longer.  And D&D?  Well, that's what it tries desperately to emulate...and I just don't care for it any more.

While I'd love to revisit Ravenloft sometime, I can tell you right now, I don't think I'd ever use any form of D&D mechanic to run it.  Rather, I'd probably use All For One--Regime Diabolique, by Triple Ace Games.  If I wanted to play some Dark Sun, I'd probably just use Savage Worlds.  For Planescape?  Well...I haven't quite figured that one out yet...

But still, there's a bit of an empty void in me right now, realizing that in all actuality, I may never have enjoyed the fundamental game that started the hobby that I love, cherish, and hope to work (more) in.  It's a strange feeling....

In Which The Warlock Muses on GenCon...

With my British overlords at Cubicle 7 needing GMs for their games at this year's GenCon, I couldn't help but volunteer my services to run The Laundry.  In addition to being able to make good with the muckitty-mucks of C7, I wanted to be able to get a crack at GenCon!  Plus, Will the ManMan (also known as the Journeyman GM) joined me out there, running some sessions of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space.

A glimpse of the dealer hall at
GenCon Indy 2011

While it's true I'd been to the "best 4 days in gaming" before, you could hardly call my visit to GenCon last year a true representation of the convention itself.  While gaming with Keith Baker was a massive treat, I only managed to spend about an hour in the Dealer Hall or surveying the convention itself.  This time, while I was still busy, I got a much better handle on the convention itself!

One of the biggest things that struck me was the sheer size of the Dealer Hall.  The hall itself was about half again the size of Origins' hall, with a massive amount of vendors, authors, and publishers.  The crowds were incredibly dense, but I didn't feel that they were that much larger than any I'd already seen at the Big O. 



Pieces for Fantasy Flight's upcoming
"X-Wing" miniatures game.

One of the neatest things that The Journeyman GM and I got to take part in was a demo of X-Wing--a forthcoming by the new owners of the Star Wars license, Fantasy Flight Games.  While still in development, X-Wing was a neat little miniatures game, built to be playable without the need for a map or measuring tape.  I'm not too heavily into miniatures games, per se, but the game was quick, enjoyable, and easy enough for newbies to pick up.  I'd like to see the ships deal a little more damage, but this was an early prototype, with many changes on the horizon.

But that wasn't why I was there!  Rather, I had some Laundry agents to drive mad!  I ran three sessions of "Case Goblin Willow" (or, was it Case Goblin Winter?  It kept changing with each draft of the adventure I received...), with some great moments of role-play at the table.  I was really shocked at the amount of fans for Charles Stross' series--I'm not exactly up on the sci-fi/fantasy scene anymore, but still--wow! 



Laundry Agents make their way through
Quarae House, in CASE GOBLIN WILLOW

My favorite session of the three had to be my second session, which got ambushed by two zombies...who promptly managed to nearly kill off two of the agents (with shovels, no less!), and send the others into a fighting retreat.  As the police arrived to investigate the gunshots, the agents realized quickly that they still had a corpse lying in the middle of their home-base!  With two of the agents hospitalized and three more incarcerated, none stood in the way of the adventure's villain from summoning STAIRCASE DWELLER (read: Yog-Sothoth!) and causing an early occurance of Case Nightmare Green...

One thing that did frustrated me was the layout of the convention center, and the fact that numerous games--RPGs, board games, and many others--weren't even in the convention center proper!  Rather, they were in the adjoining hotels, which could be up to 3 blocks away!  That makes for a ton of travel time, which makes the whole process much less convenient.  Plus, with many of the streets near the convention center under intense repair, it only became much more difficult to get around!

Overall, though, I was really pleased with GenCon.  With Origins moving their dates forward, it's looking more and more likely that GenCon will soon become my "con of choice" for a weeklong game-a-thon.  All in good time, no?

(See my whole album from GenCon 2011 on Facebook!)

In Which The Warlock Reveals the Fruits of His (and other's) Labor!

So, as I mentioned a few months ago, I'd been picked up by Cubicle 7 to work on an upcoming book for The Laundry--C7's rpg based on the novels and short stories of Charles Stross, which is something of a mash-up of traditional Call of Cthulhu, James Bond-style espionage, with just a touch of The Office for good measure.  I've been holding off on talking about my work there, because I wasn't sure when (or if!) the product would actually hit shelves. 

But then, one of my co-conspirators on the project revealed this:  newly installed at the Cubicle 7 store for pre-order!

The Laundry RPG--The Mythos Dossiers
the PlatinumWarlock's first-ever real RPG writing gig!

As I'd mentioned earlier, I was alerted to an open call for writers by C7 through Dread Pirate Tim, who dropped me a link on Facebook.  The 'audition' material was to write an in-character document, describing one of the "Great Race of Yith"--the conical beings from H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow out of Time.  A few days after submitting, I received word from Gareth--the project lead and staffer from C7--that I was on board.

The Mythos Dossiers is a really unique sort of book.  While one could call it the "Monster Manual" of the Laundry-verse, it's...not quite that simple.  Rather, all of the material in TMD is written up as a series of files sent to the head of the Laundry organization, compiled by various field agents.  As such, instead of just a series of stats or a generic description, the files include first-person sightings, autopsy reports, interviews, scientific reports and more.

Each of the authors--there were about 8 of us, all told!--were in charge of a specific monster (called Primaries), and would submit secondary documents for others' primaries.  Yours truly was made Primary for a classic Lovecraftian monster--the burrowing Cthonian!  I also submitted secondaries on serpent-people, ghouls, and shoggoths.  But, I managed to finish out my personal work early, and was even afforded the chance to work in an additional Primary:  Flying Polyps!

While I can't divulge too much about the book itself, outside of what I already have, it'll definitely be exciting to see it hit print!  Some of the ideas that made it in really take some of the Lovecraftian classics and turn them on their head.  I'm especially proud of the Flying Polyps...the mad scientist Dr. Juurian Groeningen will make for a fantastic NPC adversary for an entire campaign of his own!

Have a nice weekend, cats and kittens!  :D

The PlatinumWarlock's Origins 2011 Live Blog--Sunday!

Exhaustion really does catch up with you, after a while.  After day after day of hot gaming action, and night after night of no sleep, I was set to drive ChaoticKarl to the airport at 4:30 this morning for his 6am flight.  Unfortunately, I passed out and he forgot to set his alarm, which meant that at 5:20, we were desperately rushing towards Dayton International, trying to get him on to the flight on time!  We made it, luckily, but it just goes to show what happens when you're running on empty!

The PlatinumChick and Rogue Rod
conspire in "Severed Seas"

Sunday was the one true day of Origins where I had no real responsibilities.  The PlatinumChick and I had one game--a Rogue Cthulhu game called "Severed Seas".  The big plus on this one was that we got to play with two of our favorite Rogues, Justine and Rod; we've never managed to get all four of us into one game before, so this was a real treat!  Playing high-society Brits (or, in my case, a Russian engineer), we were set to investigate the mysterious crash of the Russian ship Antonov.  And, as is the case with all good Cthulhu adventures, horrible things ensue...

While I loved the role-play between characters--though, admittedly, there were probably 2 more seats at the table than really necessary or comfortable--this was maybe the first Rogue game I wasn't particularly enamored of.  For the first half of the adventure, tension was high as we began exploring the Antonov and the atoll it had crashed on.  Something big had created a huge hole in the hull, and not a single crewmember was to be found.  However, as we made our way through the adventure, the GM unwittingly took the horror right out of his own adventure.  When a hideous beastie made an appearance, the initial reaction was fear...until he let it slip that they were simple Deep Ones.  At that point, the guns came out and bullets flew...and the horror went down the drain.  And, for the record, why did everyone have a gun?  Surely the physicist and the archaelogist shouldn't randomly be carrying a revolver and a double-barreled shotgun, respectively!

BoardGameKaren and L-Train in
front of the dealer hall...

After the game, the PlatinumChick and I made our way through the dealer hall one last time, to make some final purchases and to day goodbye to the mighty WEGSHogz.  On the plus side, I actually got to introduce the PlatinumChick to Angus Abranson, one of the head honchos at Cubicle 7.  We had spent quite a bit of time talking earlier about the plans for The Laundry RPG and the demo games at GenCon 2011, but I figured that if I'm going to be writing/running games for them for any extended amount of time, it's a great time to meet and greet! 

As I mentioned earlier, I'll post a little more about what I picked up from C7 and the other booths during my Wednesday entry: my swag report and post-con wrap-up.  Till then, I'm going to just relax!  It's sleepy-time, fellow gamers!

In the meantime, enjoy my pictures from Saturday and Sunday at my my Origins Facebook album!

In Which The Warlock Begins Living the Dream...

This is a short one, but with some really exciting news.

Back when I was still a student at Witt, I became acquainted with Dread Pirate Tim--a comics/game shop owner in Springfield.  Dread Pirate Tim had some pretty serious health issues, which contributed to his store closing, but he's an avid gamer and occasionally makes appearance at WittGuild meetings.  I hadn't talked to him in quite a while, when he messaged me out of the blue.

Apparently, Cubicle 7--the company that produces the Doctor Who rpg, among several others--was taking an open call for freelance writers, to work on their new rpg The Laundry.  Deadline was March 1st.  Hurriedly, I worked up a submission to their specifications and sent it off.

Just yesterday, I received an e-mail from Cubicle 7--they want me on board for a new product release!

I'm not sure how much I'm able to say at this point on the new product, but I'm beyond excited to be working with them. 

Ever since I began gaming, back in 7th grade, this has been my dream--to actually write for a real, published RPG product.  And now, years later, that dream is really coming true...it's unbelievable!  :D