WEGS-vangelizing at Glory-Con, and More! So much more!

So, Wright State held their annual Glory-Con this weekend, and the Witt-Weggers were out in-force to sell some of the Wright State folks on the indy-game sensation...

Ebbs and I put together a scenario that was briefly called "Return to the Escape to Castle Von FitzYummenSteinoVich--Part VII, the Revengenationing! (A Prequel). Basic premise of the scenario? The citizens of the nearby village have been traveling in secret to the High Castle on the Hill and returning with delectable sweets, the likes of which you've never seen. The only problem being? The castle is guarded by the spirit of the one of the ancient candy-making elves, the Princess Khee-Blar!

Ebbs' major idea with this one was to create a draw by using various types of candies as minis. While our headliner didn't actually appear--a massive chocolate rabbit, riding a racecar--the battlemap was full of marshmallow peeps, gummi bears and dinosaurs, and Swedish "moat monsters".

Here are the pics!

First, here's the castle itself. Since we didn't have El Willy's Copper Pot to use, we had to make do with his bastard half-cousin, the Crystal Pot!



Here's the Princess, in action during our first session.



So, one of the more complicated elements of WEGS is the "Cold Roll". To make a Cold Roll, you start by rolling 2d6. This is to represent your target number, for a following percentage roll. The highest value on the 2d6 becomes the tens place, the other number becomes the ones place.
Typically, in WEGS, a roll of 00 is a complete and utter failure. However, on a Cold Roll, this is replaced by 'boxcars', or two sixes. A critical success is typically an 01, or in the case of a Cold Roll, snake eyes (two ones).

Given that, I present to you, courtesy of Eric Ebbs....Schroedinger's Cold Roll!



My favorite picture from GloryCon--truly sums up the dice-rolling mayhem of WEGS!




All told, I was fairly pleased with GloryCon, though there's a lot of improvement to be made. Wright State's Adventurer's Guild is really an organization in a rebuilding stage, after a major fiasco several years ago which really killed their funding and their attendance.

That said, there were many fundamental flaws with the con itself. Advertising was incredibly sparse, and the rooms used seemed cavernous and not very well suited to the audience. The biggest difficulty, though, was the lack of a schedule. Every con I've ever been at always has at least some kind of schedule, telling you what events will be held when. it gives patrons something to expect, and something they can rely on.

This really wasn't the case at Glory Con. It was difficult to get things organized, and to get players, so as not to interfere with other events. While our second session had many more players than the first one, it still left some to be desired.

All said, I'm really jazzed about Origins this year. We have 7 Witt-Weggers rocking out in Columbus this year, and will be just in time for the premier of D&D 4th edition. While I'm personally excited about D&D's new incarnation, I'm actually a little burned out on D&D. Needless to say, that's kind of odd for me, as it's my typical game of choice. Our current game group, in fact, has somewhat given up on D&D for a tick--naturally, Pirates of the Underdark is on hiatus--in lieu of a series of one-shots. While we're off next week, as my parents are in town to discuss wedding plans, I'm planning a Dark Heresy game right now, using the new Black Industries/Fantasy Flight rules.

Oh yes, this game makes me happy. Never have I seen a book that so seamlessly blends its crunch and fluff so well. Yes, there are flaws with the book--most notably the utter weakness of starting characters--but those are easily fixed...the God-Emperor commands it!

Room Tiles, WEGS, and some random musings...

So, WittCon V brought about the second draft of Dungeon Slam!...sort of.

I say 'sort of', because so far, I reformatted the encounters, the loot, the character cards and the board....but not the room tiles. That's been my project over the last few days.

If it's one major failing that I messed up with, which I absolutely did not want to do, was to fall into the room syndrome that Order of the Stick falls into. In OotS, rooms have almost no bearing on the game. Nearly every room you encounter is "Just Another Dungeon Corridor"...which bores me to tears.

Just like in a D&D dungeon, rooms are supposed to be exciting and challenging--they add to an encounter just as much as the enemies you're fighting. What's more exciting to you--a fight with orcs in a 40'x40' stone room, or the same fight over a lava waterfall? Obviously, the lava.

In OotS, there's no lava. Ever. It's boring. It's one of the reasons that we haven't played this game in nearly a year.
In Dungeon Slam!--draft 1, that is--waterfalls were incredibly rare. Some rooms were cool, but most were either boring or predictable.

However, in draft 2? HA! The problem has been addressed. Every room has at least something going on with it--either there's added loot, a more difficult or different challenge, or the possibility of some real weirdness.
While I think this tends to make the game slightly more difficult--you've got to plan which Blue tile you want, not just that you want a Blue tile--it simultaneously makes the game more speedy. Loot is given out much more freely, which allows for faster advancement. This, in turn, lets people take on tougher encounters more quickly.

So, hopefully this weekend, I'll be demoing the new room tiles at Witt's Game Day, and life will be good. On top of this, Ebbs and I are prepping a WEGS scenario for Wright State's GloryCon. I'd give you more details, but...well, then I'd have to send you Off to the Spheres! Well, I can't say that...there is one thing:

I'm itching to use the Astral Spider minis I picked up at Bell, Book and Comic. :D

And now, some more WittCon V pictures!

Here's Karl, in front of the ad I hung for Dungeon Slam!



Here's Willy the 2 (Wt2) and Josh, hanging out in the midst of some PvP mayhem:



After no one showed for the beginning role-play session, Lionel and Co. kicked back with a friendly game of "Venus Needs Men!"



And, finally, some WEGS--Emily, Ebbs, and Rachel try to keep the 88s at bay in "Dungeons OR Dragons"

WEGS 'n' WittCon V Wrap-Up

My apologies on the delay, ye loyal few readers--the funeral in Pennsylvania for my grandfather was somewhat delayed, which led to a slight inability to blog. However, the Warlock is back in action and ready to give you the rundown.



Here's our geekdom hero, El Willy, arriving at Krystal Keep. Krystal Keep is the virtual successor to Wexford Hills Hobbies (boo! hiss!), which is a great improvement over the earlier incarnation. El Willy arrived with his resident Minion Master, Willy the 2 (known here, and in the Tale Wegziotic as Wt2), but neither had any readiness for the chaos we were about to inflict upon them...

...mainly because the vast majority of our gaming group came out for the festivities! While El Willy and his compadre were more used to running game for 5-6 people, we started the WEGS demo with no less than 9 sitting around the table, with more joining the fray!



The pic above is of the whole group of players at Krystal Keep! Needless to say, a massive amount. Even those who weren't playing got a whole earful of WEGS throughout the night--a great thing for El Willy's publicity and the sales at the Keep.

The game itself was a series of encounters, linked around a "Dungeon-crawling" theme, but ended in a massive PvP fracas. I bowed out approximately half-way through the dungeon-crawl to focus on getting the photos, and to let a newcomer play, taking over my Humz mage. However, this gave me the chance to act as an "assistant Minion Master" with El Willy and Wt2, running a Level 8 Ranger Minion, sniping out poor Will's Warrior, who laid on the ground in Lost Action Phase.




However, that was only the beginning of the festivities as Saturday brought about WittCon V--"Alea Iacta Est". This was an exciting con for me, as it brought about the first chance to premier Dungeon Slam!

While I only had 8 total takers for Dungeon Slam! the players really seemed to catch on fast, and enjoy the game itself. I really got quite a few solid responses, as well as some great ideas to enhance the game from Wt2, who sat in on the second session.




Here's a picture of the full-game set-up, as it is now:




While I did not end up running the Cthulhu Dark Ages game I had originally planned, this gave me the chance to partake of some extra WEGS-ing!
El Willy, Ebbs, and Wt2 teamed up, using the "Fist Full o' Boomstick!" varient WEGS-rules to provide us with a Cthulified WEGS scenario. With their creative genius on the run, we faced down the horrors of the Column-Golem, and then a massive creature bearing a significant resemblance to a certain tentacled horror-from-beyond...



All told, this year's WittCon left me a little conflicted. While we had a ton of great events----the debuts of both Dungeon Slam! and MOE--The Boardgame, the arrival of El Willy and full slate of WEGS games, a Reaper-Minis paint-and-take event, The Light Trading Company selling dice----attendance was pitifully low. Very few Guilders came out, and much of the Con was made up of community members and people running events. Needless to say, this is frustrating, particularly when even the president of the guild was only in attendance for an incredibly short time. One hopes that this is a fluke, but it is particularly worrisome.

That said, life goes on, and the games go with it. Currently, Ebbs and I are getting ready to evangelize some WEGS over at Wright State's "Glory Con" two weekends hence.

Hell, we even have our own nickname: the Witt-Weggers!

I'm sure I'm missing a whole lot in terms of the Con, but that's life. If you'd like to see more pictures--I have nearly 100!--drop a line in the comments and let me know!

WittCon V Wrap-Up....well, not yet.

I'd normally be giving you the run-down on WittCon V, but right now, I'm blogging from Pennsylvania, due to my grandfather's pending funeral.

Expect more news coming, this weekend, as to how the Con went, as well as some WEGS-o-riffic news...

Go WEGS Go!

So, the Warlock and his beautiful fiancee have noticed a significant thing: for each of the next months, we have a major gaming event, until June.

March: this weekend--WittCon V.
April: first weekend--Wright State's Con
May: Memorial Day--TopaCon at Bookery Fantasy
June: First weekend, D&D 4e comes out. Third weekend (my birthday!)--Free RPG Day. The next weekend? Origins!

As for tonight, friend to all gamers and friend to us Witt-Wegshogz, El Willy rolled into town, ready to run demos at Krystal Keep. I don't think he and his Minion Master were ready to run for 11 of us at once, though!

I'll have more details on the weekend as it progresses. Dungeon Slam! will be facing its public debut tomorrow, so there's all kinds of excitement from that! If you're in the neighboorhood, come see us at WittCon V!!!

In Which the Warlock Pours 4d6 Ounces on the Curb...

This past Tuesday, the father of gaming--E. Gary Gygax--passed away from complications surrounding an abdominal aneurysm.

Regardless of your feelings on D&D, this man nearly single-handedly made western fantasy into an acceptable genre. Without him, Lord of the Rings goes down as a footnote in literature, role-playing as a hobby does not exist, and the monolithic industry of MMORPGs fades to black.

Gary, enjoy whichever of your various Heavens corresponds to your alignment. You gave us all a wonderful gift--I only wish I could have met you in person to thank you for it.

In Which The Warlock Would Have Just Cast "Color Spray"...

So, as a pseudo- "belated-Valentine's-Day" cum "thanks for putting up with my incessent hacking" present, I bought the PlatinumChick Across The Universe, which she had been wanting to see since it had come out. Since game was cancelled this week, because of the weather, we ordered some Italian and curled up on the couch to watch her new acquisition.

If you're not familiar with the concept, AtU was an attempt to structure an entire film around the songs of The Beatles--something that was done on-stage with moderate success with Billy Joel's Movin' Out. However, Movin' Out was created with the assistance of the artist himself--Billy Joel wrote the libretto along with Twila Tharp, lending specific advice to her as she tried adapting his songs for the Great White Way.

Across The Universe, however, does not gain such a benefit. When (arguably) the two most talented Beatles are dead, it's hard to ask them for advice. That said, the film forges on with a decided vision, but with a greater hand on spectacle than on storytelling.

Here's the story, in short:

Jude, a Liverpudlian lad looking very purposely like a young George Harrison, heads off to America in search of his dad, who knocked up his mum during WWII. He soon meets Max, a hoodlum on the verge of dropping out of Princeston, and his sister Lucy, who quickly becomes Jude's major love interest. Max and Jude decide to pull what we're going to call a "Johnathan Larson"--that is to say, go to New York City and live bohemian style in a house owned by landlord-cum-lounge-singer Sadie (who sounds unsurprisingly like Janis Joplin).

Long story short, Jude and Lucy fall for each other, Max gets drafted, Janis Joplin leaves her band for solo fame (including her lover, JoJo, who looks like Lenny Kravitz), Lucy starts joining the VietNam protests, and the random Asian bisexual chick (named Prudence), pops in and out generally getting her plotline lost in the shuffle.

Sound like a lot? It is. Things get somewhat confusing at times, particularly with the psychedelic visuals that accompany each song. The scenes that accompanied Max's draft physical--with the accompanying "I Want You/She's So Heavy" from the Fab Four--seemed like they came straight out of Pink Floyd's immortal The Wall, with massive Uncle Sams looming out of the walls like the eponymous schoolmaster from "Another Brick in the Wall Part II". An early scene, showing Lucy and Max's older brother being buried, along with JoJo's brother being buried, confused the ever-loving hell out of me, particularly as we hadn't seen JoJo till that point.

The problem with the idea of using all of The Beatles' songs is the fact that you want to use all of their songs. At times, plotlines become unnecessarily conveluted as the narrative shifts between characters. Max is nearly dropped for a third of the film, as he disappears off to VietNam. Prudence, however, gets the song most 'fitting' to a bisexual--"Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play..."--but then disappears herself. Same thing happens to Sadie. Things seem to happen to the characters, but then are dropped quickly, as things shift back to Jude and Lucy or over to someone else.

This probably could have been fixed, from a narrative standpoint, by focusing more closely on Jude and Lucy's romance, and leaving certain plotlines by the wayside. Trust me--rare is the case where I would want to take out a cute Asian bisexual character, but in this case, Prudence is only a distraction. The problem with that fix is the fact that you lose out on the opportunity to use the great songs, around which the plot is structured. A difficult balance, to be sure.

That said, the film is filled with great cameos. Both Bono and Joe Cocker lend their voices to a song each--I'm not really a U2 fan, but Bono's section was particularly good. However, it didn't hold a candle to Joe Cocker, playing a pimp/street-bum, singing "Come Together". Two more spectacular cameos come from Eddie Izzard, playing the psychedlic carnival-owner Mr. Kite, and James Urbaniak, better known to many as Doctor Thaddeus Venture. Man, if Urbaniak had his wire-frame glasses, his manager character would be a dead ringer for the animated super-scientist.

Performance-wise, I can fault very little with the film. The acting was geniune, the music was clear and well-sung, and you can't deny much about the score when it's done by one of the greatest bands in music history. The biggest problems, as I've said, come with pacing and narrative style, which is wrapped up in the film's intent. That, and the ending.

About halfway through the movie, Across The Universe becomes sad. Really sad. The happy little "Johnathan Larson" coven starts to break up, the bleakness of1968 starts to set in, and little seems to be going well.

The problem being? It's not how the movie ends. The movie ends on a sickeningly sweet high, with a mock-up of The Beatles' rooftop concert, everyone united and happy, and the oppresive police pushed back long enough for the last number.

Up until this, I would be giving this movie an absolutely glowing review. I've only ever once shed tears for a movie--Robin Williams' and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s "Inferno" send-up What Dreams May Come. Had Across The Universe ended before the sickeningly-sweet ending, it would have been a second. However, the filmmakers went for the happy ending to appease the mass-market audience, which left me somewhat unfulfilled, especially for what was essentially a large-budget indy film.

All told? Go see Across The Universe, particularly if you appreciate The Beatles. It's an interesting way of looking at the 60s CounterCulture, made even better by the fantastic music. If you can get over the jumpy musical-style narrative and can suffer through the Hollywood ending, you'll come out with some enjoyment.

Overall Grade--B+

In Which the Warlock Fails His Fortitude Save...

...work on DS has been put on hold for a bit--to say nothing of my day job!--as I've had an upper respiratory infection since Saturday. Never fear, though--the finishing touches will be soon in coming, ready for WittCon V.

That said, there's really not a whole lot left for me to fix! While I plan on making a new board for the game, most of the card revisions have already been finished--they're just waiting for me to hit Kinko's.

WittCon V Nears...and the Playtests Continue

So, in preparation for the coming festivities of WittCon, the typical krew has been very generous with their time, in playtesting Dungeon Slam! with me, and I've been working hard on getting the revisions in as they're putting out ideas.

Some of the highlights:

Spells have undergone a lot of revision. On the main, the cost for them has gone down across the board, and they've become a lot more specific in what they can do. Beyond this, I've added some additional spells to fill some voids that haven't been available before.

Blood Rune, as a skill, was way too good. I'm still plotting out a way to tone it down, but it still packs one hell of a punch.

Most of the +Stat or +Health/Arcana skills were too weak to consider really taking, so they each got a potent boost which makes them particularly worthwhile.

The "Bane" skills still aren't seeing too much use. They're just not that potent, in comparison to what players typically want.

The Character cards are undergoing a style revision. They'll be bigger (currently postcard sized, but now 5 1/2" by 8 1/2"), which will make them easier to read and manipulate.


These are just some of the major revisions I've been playing with. By March, I'm hoping to run another printing over at Kinko's, in order to put up the best possible showing at WittCon V.

Hope you come out to join us! Here's the site: http://www4.wittenberg.edu/student_organizations/rpguild/wittcon/v/

PS--Oh, yeah, and there's WEGS, too! Woot for dicin' with the WEGSHogz!

Proof that I am, in fact, Chaotic Evil...

So, I had earlier had my players roll up stats for the upcoming Pirates of the Underdark game. Some of them were incredibly pleased--the PlatinumChick, in fact, was exceptionally happy, as she ended up with 18, 18, 16, 16, 14, 12. The only problem is that we have players who ended up with stats just the opposite--Chris ended up with a 6!

I usually love having people roll their stats, as it ends up with a unique randomness that point-buy just can't match. However, there was just too much separation here. And, to be honest, I can't stand point-buy. It's bland. Every paladin, every monk, every barbarian always looks the same.

So, with the help of Green Ronin's "Advanced GameMasters' Guide", I developed a new system for stat generation. A cut-throat one. A pirate-y one!

Begin by granting each player 7 points. The points represent a +2 bonus to each stat, which all start at a base of 10.

In order, stats are auctioned off via a silent auction. These stats are, in order, an 18 in Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma....followed by a 16 in each stat. After those are ran through, three "floating 17s" are auctioned for--these 17s can be placed in whichever slot a player likes, instead of the 'assigned' spot as before.

If no player wins a given stat during the silent auction, due to a tie, the auction becomes "live," and the two players can place a mouth bid for that stat. If a player wins during this section, they win that stat. If no winner is found, all bids are returned and the stat moves to the end of the auction, at which time it will be placed up for bids once again.

After all stats have been purchased, any remaining points can be used to raise any stat of 10 on a basis of 1 point = +1 modifier, but only up to a total stat of 14 (+2).

Example of use:

A coming game has 5 players: Adam, Bob, Carrie, Dan, and Elmer. Each of the five players gains 7 points and awaits the coming auction.

The first stat up for bids is the 18 Strength. Adam wants to play a tank-fighter, so he writes on a slip of paper a bid of 3 points. No other player is that interested in Strength, and the next highest bid is 2 points. Adam places an 18 Strength on his character sheet and smiles to himself.

The next stat up is the 18 Dex. Bob is looking to run a Swashbuckler and writes a bid of 3 points. However, Dan is planning on playing an Archer and bids 3 points as well. The GM smiles and asks the two to stand. They do, and the GM asks if either will make a bid of 4. Not wanting to pay full price, and banking on the other settling for a lower stat, neither budges. As such, the 18 Dex goes to the back of the order to be bid on after all other stats.

Bids continue until all 18s, all 16s, and the three "floating 17s" are assigned. Carrie, planning on a Bard, is pleased to have gotten an 18 Charisma and a 16 Intelligence, but is worried about her Dex. She has two points left over, and spends them in Dex, raising it from 10 to 14. Her final array, then, would read: 10 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 16 Int, 10 Wis, 18 Cha.


This form of auction was first presented in Green Ronin's "Advanced GameMaster's Guide," but makes no mention of silent auction as an option, nor does it include the "floating 17s". The 17s were included due to size of group, as well as for a more "controlled" element for players to incorporate. Green Ronin, further, mentions using 10 points, which was reduced for a slightly lower-power setting.

Updates!

Boy, this week has been chock-full of gaming news....

Today marked the first ever live-playtest of Dungeon Slam! and things went phenomenally well. The game's clocking in at the right amount of time, and everyone seemed to have a blast. There are still a lot of changes left to make, though, and it looks like I'm going to be one busy game designer here in the future.

Jules' Eberron game wrapped up on Friday, and Garius ir'Dolanian--my 12th level ranger--made short work of the Lord of Blades, clearing his name in Sharn and gaining the favor of Kaius III of Karnnath. Time for him to kick back and drink some kuryeva!

With that, I'm about to start running Pirates of the Underdark. Friday, we'll be playing with a new character generation system based off of one created by Green Ronin Publishing. Suffice to say, it's particularly pirate-y, and their characters' lives will all be depending on 7 important points.

And, speaking of rolling 7s, I finally managed to scrounge together enough gamer-cash to buy WEGS! There's nothing like sitting around and tossing in some spante for a Flaming Fryball. With Karl back in town this past week, we threw down two games--Ebbs ran the WEGS classic "Dwarf Walks Into a Bar", while I kicked up an original creation, which was dubbed "One Shitty Adventure". "Dwarf Walks..." ended with my Skolar nearly getting bashed to death by an irate barkeep, while "Shitty Adventure" ended with the adventurers heading Off to the Spheres after a deadly encounter with a sewer necromancer.

All this, and curry, too! What more's a gamer to want?!

A Dungeon Slam! Preview--The Ragged Apprentice and the Staff of Night

Here's a preview of one of the Skull Sanctum encounters!

The game cards are completely finished and we're ready for printing! Yays!

Skull Sanctum Encounter

THE RAGGED APPRENTICE

Dressed in rags and undeniably mad, eldritch energies swirl around this apprentice mage. The loss of his master seems to have caused him to lose his mind…

Combat Notes: Before combat, face the top Black Monster Encounter. This Monster is not kept as a trophy.

First Strike: +8
Attack: +13
Damage: 8 Lightning + 8 Fire + 2 Ice
Defense: 22 (Immune to Lightning, Fire)
Health: 20

If you defeat The Ragged Apprentice, you may use the Staff of Night! Keep this card!
If you use the Staff of Night, flip the top card of the Spell deck. Spend the appropriate amount of Arcana. That spell takes place immediately with no Intellect test necessary.

“The Staff of Night” counts as one of the the 3 Skull Sanctum artifacts necessary to win the game!

The Slam! Nears Completion...

After a hectic holiday season, I've gotten some time to work on Dungeon Slam!. With that time, I've managed to complete nearly all of the game components:

* Character Cards--Characters done, stat values added in, starting skills completed. Completed--Awaiting Printing!

* Skill Cards--Skills revised and tuned, cards reformatted for printing. Completed--Awaiting Printing!

* Loot Cards--Loot awaiting revision and formatting for printing. Completed--Awaiting Printing

* Monster Encounters--monsters created and formatted for printing. Currently undergoing final showing markup!

* Non-Monster Encounters--awaiting formatting and revision. Currently undergoing final showing markup!

* Room Tiles--awaiting formatting for printing. Completed--Awaiting Printing!

* Board--already created, and awaiting the other game components.

* Minis--selected and awaiting online purchase. Arrived--awaiting assembly!

I honestly can't believe that this game has actually taken shape in the way it has. I'm so excited to be actually approaching a finished prototype--one that's ready to be playtested and demo-ed--I really don't know what to think!

Here's for hoping that you can swing by WittCon and see what I've been up to!

[Edited 1-8-08, for your pleasure...]

A Dungeon Slam Preview!---The Alchemist Class

More on the Slam! or On Design and Development

So, unable to sleep yet again this early morning, I broke out some of my work on Dungeon Slam!

One thing that the game is particularly lacking is a series of straight-forward damaging spells. Bolt of Lightning provides one such spell, as does Shadow Storm, but aside from those two, there are no major damaging spells. Virulent Toxin and Spirit Poison both fulfill that role, as well, but...well, we're talking about 4 spells in the entire deck so far.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. I like the idea of damaging spells, but I also tend to feel that the spells are meant to be strategic elements, rather than simply "the beat-stick". The weapons and their concurrent enchantments (which stack really nicely, by the way!) are meant to put the beat down. Spells, in my eyes, are more meant to be the means by which you wear down your foes--take out their resources, milk their Arcana, break their equipment--before you move in for the kill.

Beyond this, it's looking like I need to tone down the Intellect tests necessary to cast the spells. Right now, with a lot of spells (even moderate level ones) requiring an Intellect test of 18 or higher, it becomes impossible for almost any class outside of the spellcasting classes to achieve with any regularity. While it's obvious that the Sorcerer and the Warlock should get the best shot at pulling off a spell, even the Berserker should be able to whip out a spell once in a while with his miserable Intellect score.

The gear, so far, looks good. I'm liking where the weapons and armor are, but I the costs have some issues involved with them. I think that's something that I can get ironed out in playtesting, though. I would like to put together some additional miscellaneous items that would add to various Skills or Stats, but that's easily done.

One of the things that's hung me up on this game for so long was the ability for me to get a stat array down for the characters--a range for each of the characters for their basic six stats. I decided to go back to one of my major inspirations--Arkham Horror--for some help here.

AH uses a basic Stamina + Sanity = 10 formula. While I like this idea, as it levels the playing field for all of the characters, I don't like the fact that there seems to be a definitive favoritism. The best characters, almost always, are either 6/4 characters or 4/6 characters. 5/5 Characters lack focus, while 7/3 and 3/7 characters remain so weak that they fall short of accomplishing their intended focus.

As such, I decided to use a similar formula, but with an odd number. Health + Arcana = 13. Right now, there's only one (out of 12) character that has a 9. The skew that weakens the AH characters, hopefully, will be absent, while still retaining the nice focus that is retained with characters like my personal favorite in Arkham, Bobby Jenkins. :D

As I've planned in the past, the stats will work on an opposed slider system (again, taking a page from AH), but with an expanded array for additional heroics. Having a max of 6 just isn't going to cut it. This'll all make more sense once I post one of the first character cards, I'm sure.

So, priorities for the holiday break?
1) Encounter cards. Right now, I only have 6 White Encounters. I need a ton more, in all 5 types.

2) Refine the spells. Gotta adjust the Arcana costs, as well as incorporate at least two more direct damage spells.

3) Add more miscellaneous items. Items designed specifically for each class, perhaps, may be in order, but that could get messy. Center perhaps on skills and class abilities, perhaps?

4) Put it all together. Get the pieces together, bring the board with it, and all will hopefully be well.

5) Run the first playtest! If I can get all this done by WittCon V, I'll be a happy man!

Baal's Just Not So Graceful...

So, after a ton of preparation, we came to the big day. Friday. The Guild's grand one-shot....excitement, no?

No. No, not really.

Y'see, we had a few problems.

1) Announcements Usually, large guild events are supposed to be announced well in advanced, so that the gamers can clear their schedules for a raucous night of gaming. Such was not the case this time. A desperate e-mail went out on Tuesday, calling for an end-of-semester guild meeting, as well as one-shot info. RSVPS only trickled in...which led to...

2) Lack of gamers I did my best to recruit for this game. Lionel, Ebbs, Nick, and Jules all gleefully joined in, and we picked up three more throughout the week. I was expecting two more, but they flaked out on us, which led to greater problems, as you'll see later on. Without a definite gaming group, we were at a definite loss.

3) Design flaws I really tried to do my best to try to make this game as fun as possible. The backgrounds I wrote up were interesting, and made for some nice inter-party conflict, but we never got so far as to experience any of them. Because of the lessened number of gamers (7, compared to my expected 10), we didn't even get through the first battle. Three of the PC were killed at the headwaters of the River Styx, which left the quest as kind of a moot point.

I felt bad, mainly because I forgot one of the key rules of both teaching and GMing--Monitor and Adjust. I should have adjusted the encounter on the fly, to make it more accessible to the party that I had, but we rolled on with the monsters, and Dr. Gearbox, Z, and Theodore all bit the dust because of it.

4) Poor party design/tactics I realize that everyone wants to play "their fun character", but at some point, something has to give. The party descending into the Abyss was made up of the following: a Reaping Mauler (grappling specialist), a Warlock (basically an Arcane sniper), a Rogue/Bard (diplomat/skill monkey), a Dragon Shaman (a commander-type), a Tinker (good for blasting), a Paladin (light healing and tanking), and a Jade Phoenix Mage (fighter/mage hybrid).

The party lacked the following: any type of Area of Effect support (wizard, sorcerer, etc), a full-time Healer/buffer (cleric, druid), a heavy damage dealer (rogue, barbarian, etc). Even tanking was limited to Jules' ordained champion...which doesn't say much.

Honestly, I didn't use tactics that were all that unnerving. The giant they fought took point and smashed things, while the two demons in the back cast their spells. Pretty standard. While being well aware that the monsters were above standard difficulty--perhaps even too much so--is it too much to ask that someone in the party can cast Fireball? Or Heal? I mean, the rules are built around the standard party of Fighter/Wizard/Cleric/Rogue--one would figure that, at least some point on the line, we'd get some of those. Not so much in this game.

5) Timing I had expressed my frustration about this one, upon leaving the apartment before the game. In the e-mail sent out, I had included everything that someone would need to build their PC--stat array, gold available, sources they could use...the works. I had also asked for an rsvp describing their character, so that I knew what the group would look like.

Nick, Lionel, and Dan arrived with their characters ready. Jules needed to pick spells, while Ebbs had to build his constructs. The others had nothing. We didn't start the game (which was scheduled to begin at 6), until 8:45. There's nothing more frustrating to me than knowing that you could be gaming, in a time when there's nothing to do but wait.

6) Blackfall I really tried to make this game like the Blackfall games of old--lots of skullduggery, and lots of character backstabbing. Only one problem--Blackfall is a city, while the Underworld is a giant dungeon. Dungeons mean combat, and lots of it. Yes, I know--D&D is a combat filled game. However, it's a social game, too, and that's what drove Blackfall at its core. Too much combat, planned even from the very start, meant too much dice-rolling and not enough fundamental, person-on-person fun.

In a city, you can get away with not killing anyone--there are guards, there are other adventurers, and there are mercenaries, all waiting to take a piece out of some interloper who thinks he has a right to swing a sword around. Take that social stigma out of the equation, and it's all about the combat now.


I'm being very negative here, I suppose, for no good reason. Everyone at the game had fun, and enjoyed the long night in the Science building, which is what matters. What makes me most frustrated, though, is the fact that this is the second game in six months, DMed by me, to have failed. Am I losing my touch? Am I not as good as I once thought I was?

Blackfall, originally, was a masterpiece. Parts I through IV each had their own individual, if sanity-blasting charm. My players loved running the gauntlet of a Blackfall game, seeing who would survive this time (Adam, by the way, has the record! He was the only one to survive Blackfall II!).

Saltmarsh was just as good. I had 'em hooked, even buying into their group's slavery and imprisonment. Hell, I had most of the group turning slowly to Lawful Evil, thanks to all of their dealings in Hell.

But now? Well, it looks like I'm going to be running Pirates of the Underdark, as soon as Jules' Eberron game wraps up. I just hope I can get back in shape over the break, to give the people what they want!

Last Grasp at Baal's Grace

So, the guild asked me to run their end-of-the-semester one-shot this year, and it's coming along in high style. I was asked to do "something" with the idea of the Underworld and came up with the following concept:

Sometime after the beginning of time and after the creation of man, the archangel Baal was cast from the heavens for that most heinous of crimes--deicide. Baal had killed the sun lord Amuantor, condemning him to the Astral Sea. The remaining powers gathered together and removed Baal from their sight, casting him into a massive pit.

That pit has been found, where Baal first landed. As one of the few known gates directly to the Underworld, a great city has sprung up, named after Baal's sword--Grace.

However, rumors of Baal's deity-slaying sword have never settled amongst the demihuman races, and many lust for his powerful blade. In particular, three great noble houses seek the blade: House Amenthetep, House Yu, and House Marduk. While the trio conflict on all fronts--particularly on who should get the blade--they agree to send a party into the Abyss to find the legendary sword. The adventurers, eager to enter the Underworld for their own reasons, take up the quest...

...but when they return, how can they decide who gets the magic blade?


In other news, Dungeon Slam! is on hiatus until Christmas Break. I'll be honest, I can't wait to get back to it, though. While the teaching life has kind of subsumed me right now, I really want to be able to premiere this at WittCon V.

Oh, and it's looking like the next campaign I'm running is going to be Pirates of the Underdark. Life is good, maties! Yarr!!

If you ever need inspiration for a magic weapon...

...take a page from the PRC:

"The Sword of Goujian (Traditional Chinese:越王勾踐劍 , Simplified Chinese: 越王勾践剑) is an archaeological artifact of the Spring and Autumn Period found in 1965 in Hubei, China. Renowned for its sharpness and resilience to tarnish, it is a first-level protected artifact of the People's Republic of China currently in the possession of Hubei Museum."

"In 1965, while performing archaeological survey along the second main aqueduct of the Zhang River Reservoir in Jingzhou, Hubei, more than 50 ancient tombs of the Chu State were found in Jiangling County. The dig started from the middle of October in 1965, ending in January, 1966. More than 2000 artifacts were recovered from the sites, the most interesting of which was a bronze sword."

"In December, 1965, 7km away from the ruins of Jinan, an ancient capital of Chu, a casket was discovered in Wangshan site #1. Inside, an ornate sword was found on the left of a human skeleton."

"The sword was found sheathed in a wooden black lacquer scabbard. The scabbard had an almost air-tight fit with the sword body. Unsheathing the sword revealed an untarnished blade, despite the tomb being soaked in underground water for over two thousand years. A simple test conducted by the archaeologists showed that the blade could still easily cut a stack of 20 pieces of paper."

"On one side of the blade, two columns of text were visible. In total there are eight characters written in an ancient script. The script was found to be the one called "鸟虫文" (literally "text of birds and worms"), a variant of zhuan that is very difficult to read. Initial analysis of the text deciphered six of the characters, "越王" (King of Yue) and "自作用剑" (made for (his) personal use)."

"The remaining two characters were likely the name of this King of Yue. From its birth in 510 BC, to its demise at the hands of Chu in 334 BC, nine kings ruled Yue, including Goujian, Lu Cheng, Bu Shou, Zhu Gou, etc. The exact identity of this king sparked an active discussion/debate among archeologists and Chinese language scholars. The discussion was carried out mostly in letters, and it involved famous scholars such as Guo Moruo. After more than two months of exchange, the experts started to form a consensus that the original owner of the sword was none other than Goujian, the King of Yue made famous by his perseverance in time of hardship. So the entirety of the text reads "越王勾践 自作用剑", meaning "(Belonging to) King Goujian of Yue, made for (his) personal use)".

"The Sword of Goujian is 55.6 cm (21.9 in) in length, including a 10 cm (3.9 in) hilt. The blade is 5 cm (2 in) wide. In addition to the repeating dark rhombi pattern on both sides of the blade, there are also decorations made of blue crystals and turquoise. The grip of the sword is bound by silk, while the pommel is composed of 11 concentric circles."

(Information from Wikipedia--full site is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Goujian )

Nothing like a 2500 year old sword that still has a sharp edge, and hasn't tarnished in over two milennia. Madness!

Nothing New Under The Sun...

Well, this is kind of odd, but I guess I'm writing to say that I have nothing really to write about.

Seriously.

Not a thing.

Dungeon Slam! has sat idle for weeks, with not so much as a new Spell or Miscellaneous Item to show for my ideas. I haven't been able to write anything, mainly due to the stress of my job.

There are many, many days that I wished I worked at a "normal" school. Hell, I'm just getting sick of the label "normal."

Oh, but I guess Jules' campaign is going well. My ranger, Garius ir'Dolanian, is now wanted by the Korranberg Watch, after trying to expose an illegal creation forge in Sharn. Never fear, though, we're not on our way to Argonessen, where (I hope) we'll bilk the dragons out some of their "ancient artifacts of the bygone ages" in exchange for the giant Khyber shard we have....which just happens to be a gateway to Hell.

Oh, and I bought a copy of Arkham Horror, now that it's back in print. To go with it, I also bought a nifty little craft box to keep all of the pieces straight. With the sheer number of pieces that AH has, the box comes in uber-handy.

Oh, and speaking of Arkham Horror, a fourth expansion is in the pipeline, according to Fantasy Flight Games. This one, called Kingsport Horror, includes a whole new board. Should be interesting, especially if it lives up to the previews.

That's about it. I think. Maybe there's more...if so, I guess I could update more often.

The PlatinumWarlock's Stat Block?

I Am A: Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard (4th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-10
Dexterity-14
Constitution-13
Intelligence-17
Wisdom-13
Charisma-13

Alignment:
Chaotic Neutral A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn't strive to protect others' freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it. Chaotic neutral is the best alignment you can be because it represents true freedom from both society's restrictions and a do-gooder's zeal. However, chaotic neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all authority, harmony, and order in society.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

News in the PlatinumLife

...only one item here: The PlatinumChick and I are officially engaged!

Cheers, all!

More Fun with the Slam!

So, I decided to get back on the proverbial horse and work some more on Dungeon Slam!. Not feeling quite creative enough to take on the Encounter cards, I settled for working on the Potions/Miscellaneous Items, which I had yet to touch.

Most of the potions are fairly straightforward--they change your damage type, add damage to your strikes, or add to your stats for a short time. However, some of them are real killers.

My personal favorites are the Crystalline Freezer and the Malevolent Teleporter (which was the PlatinumChick's idea!). The Crystalline Freezer not only deals ice damage to a target player, but also forces them to lose a turn, if they fail their Quickness test.

However, the Malevolent Teleporter may well be even more devious. Played after another player's movement, but before they draw an Encounter Card, it teleports them to another part of the dungeon--either directly above them or directly above them.
Now picture this: Joe the Berzerker is low on Health and Arcana, and wants one last, easy encounter before heading back to TownTon to cash in his moolah. He moves into a White Encounter Tile--a position to get back to town next turn, only to have Bob the Alchemist slap a Malevolent Teleporter down.

Joe's only choices? A next-to-definitely-lethal Red Encounter, or a surely-lethal Black Encounter. Ha ha! Sucks to be Joe!

Only problem is that I'm running low on ideas for Spells. I have 23 down right now, but ideas are coming slow and short so far. If you have any, by all means: let me know!

A Few Observations...Okay, So More than a Few...

It's late, but I feel like geeking it up....hence, blogging.

Now that the school year has started, Dungeon Slam! has been somewhat put on the back burner. This is not to say that work has stopped, but rather that (as usual) real life has to take precedence over the fantasy life. Alas.

That said, I came upon an interesting bit of information, as I've been researching the slider system that Arkham Horror uses to determine character statistics. I entered all of the values into an Excel file, which allowed me to sort them by column. The findings were....to say the least, a little bizarre.

It seems that, statistically speaking, there are definitively better characters than others. Ashcan Pete, for one, has no less than three separate sliders that exceed a value of 5. Sister Mary the Nun, on the other hand, starts with only one--the most useless stat in the game: Luck.
At this point, one might raise the argument that Sister Mary might have some other advantages over Ashcan Pete, but such is not the case. Ashcan starts with better gear and skills, including an ally, and the pair are tied in terms of money. The only advantage that Sister Mary has over him is the fact that she begins the game Blessed...even Ashcan Pete's special ability is better than Mary's.

This is something I'd like to try to avoid in Dungeon Slam! While I want each of the characters to play differently, I want them to maintain some sort of statistical balance, that way there are no "nuns" in my game.

Oh, and by the way? The best characters in Arkham Horror to play, from a statistical vantage-point, are Amanda Sharpe (the Student), Leo Anderson (the Expedition Leader), Dexter Drake (the Magician), and Jenny Barnes (the Dilettante).

In other news, the Witt gaming season kicked off with a board game night, over in Shouvlin. It seems like the WittFolk have some pretty solid plans for this year, which is a major plus, and will be getting a lot of community support. Always pleasant.

The night was capped off with a rousing game of Order of the Stick....which left me feeling somewhat mixed. The more I play Order of the Stick, the less I really enjoy that game. Every time we get about half-way into the game, the repetition of the gameplay just seems to overwhelm everyone, and the massive stacks of monsters overpower the players' ability to aid one another or to defeat the monsters single-handedly. We gave up on the game before even reaching Xykon's lair.

Because of this, I'm really beginning to wonder how much OotS was really playtested before it hit the market. The massive length of the game alone tips me off that games were never played that often in playtest-mode. I could only hope that Dungeon Slam! turns out a little better.

Speaking of Order of the Stick, Rich Burlew has apparently taken a sabbatical from his uber-popular webcomic due to some health issues. I somewhat wonder about this--no doubt that he's been ill. I won't dispute that fact whatsoever. However, details regarding his illness have been sketchy-at-best, and no one exactly seems to know what he has, or what the severity of the illness might be. I really enjoy OotS--I've bought both prequel books, in fact--but I'm beginning to believe that its creator might be making some excuses....

As I mentioned in my prior post, 4th Edition D&D is coming out. The previews I've seen look particularly good, as it seems like they're really trying to take care of some of the rules bloat that 3.5e grew into. The massive amount of books in 3.5e is incredibly overwhelming to anyone joining the game in this day and age, so having a more streamlined system (with fewer messy AOOs!), will make things much easier and happier. I'll be eager to see what happens in the near future with the D&D line. It definitely seems to be heading in the right direction.

The Digital Initiative idea, as well, seems to be pretty interesting. I would like more tangible previews in terms of content, though, before I decide to fork over cash for their functionalities.

I guess that's all....I'll catch up with more later, I suppose.

Oh, and the new Marvel Animated Feature, Dr. Strange? Pure gold. Yays. Makes me want to run a mystic-style game.

The Sky is Falling! (and a Dungeon Slam! Update)

It appears that this year's Gen Con is going to be a doozy....

In addition to the release of WEGS (go read up on it, on the Official WEGS Blog!), it seems that the 4th Edition of D&D is nigh.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/welcome&dcmp=ILC-DND062006FP

The countdown is nigh, and the stars are right, it appears.

The licenses for Dragonlance and Ravenloft have reverted back to Wizards. Wizards regains the licenses for Dragon and Dungeon from Paizo, and plans to make them part of the new "Digital Initiative" (now featuring a floating brain-in-a-jar!). And, the 2008 product schedule for 3.5e remains noticably sparse.

I suppose we'll all know the truth, come 6:30 PM tomorrow, when the Gen Con seminar announces whatever it is that's about to hit the fan.

I'll keep you posted, as I learn more.


In other news, Dungeon Slam! has really made some significant progress. I have a prototype board created, and many of the cards are finished. While I still need to work on the Spell deck and the Potion/Miscellany deck, and (most of all!) the Encounter decks, nearly all of the other cards are done. The characters are all but finished--all they need are the slider values for the 6 core stats. The room tiles, the Weapons/Armor deck, and the Skill deck are completed and are only waiting on the rest for playtesting. Even the manual's already written.

Y'know, I didn't think things would come together this fast, all told. Very surprising, but very pleasing. Again, more updates to come!

Goodbye, Losers!

No, I'm not leaving, believe it or not. And I'm not giving up on Dungeon Slam! which, by the way, has a board now....

Rather, I'm saying goodbye to Wexford Hill Hobbies, which is going the way of the dodo.

Y'see, I really used to like Wexford Hill. Their selection was always really good, in terms of game books, and they picked up Keebler, who used to work at Howling Wolf in Springfield before they closed.

Problem was, the honeymoon was short, and none too sweet.

Several times, Lionel, myself and others approached Wexford Hill about working together to build up WittCon. After being given lip-service for nearly a year, they didn't show. We gave them a second chance, the following year--same crap.

Beyond this, Lionel had requested them to special-order certain items on several occasions. Did they ever show up? Not a chance.

So, our preferences quickly changed towards Bookery Fantasy, in Fairborn and, more recently, Bell Book and Comic in Dayton.

Y'know, it's normally a sad thing for me when a game store goes out of business. I was genuinely sad when Readmore left Upper Valley Mall, when Bill and Walt finally gave it up in Greensburg, and when Howling Wolf folded. The owners there knew how to treat their customers--they served them as they themselves would have liked to have been treated. They treated gamers like gamers, because they were gamers themselves.

I'm not sad at all that Wexford Hill is gone. In fact, I somewhat reveled in "looting their corpse"--picking up items I've wanted at half the normal cost, as they tried desperately to unload their stock of gaming supplies.

As we were leaving, I had to chuckle--I'm more than happy going to Bookery and Bell Book. The people that care about their business and care about their customers deserve to stay in business--and that's them, not Wexford.

A New Endeavor...Dungeon Slam!

Having somewhat stalled out on writing up Blackfall as a campaign setting, I've been working on a new project since Origins--a board game.

Having gotten a good glimpse of several games while there (including Dragon War, which just about told me everything not to do, when writing a game), I found myself somewhat dissatisfied. There wasn't really a niche for the "dungeon crawling, backstabbing, cutthroat-competitive" sort of game that would make for a ton of fun.

I mean, I love Arkham Horror. The mechanics of it are particularly well-balanced (well, aside from the accidental loophole we stumbled on last night, which gave Kev every spell in the deck), and the encounters are unique, varied, and a ton of fun. However, there's no competition in the game, as you're all working together to stop the Mythos monster. Plus, there's a metric-buttload of playing pieces. The card decks alone are massive.

I really enjoyed playing Ebbs' Runebound, as well, but the mechanics are incredibly generic. All the characters feel the same, which makes for a very similar play experience every time. While the exploring is there, I can't stand the movement dice mechanic, and you rarely interact with the other people at the table. While the rules to combat each other are there, they feel shunted to the side, rather than featured.

I liked Order of the Stick quite a bit, but the game takes bloody For-Ev-ER to play, due to the massive stacks of boosted monsters you can end up with. One game, I recall, we had a room that held 18 monsters in it--Absurdity! While solid PvP rules were there, they only slowed down the game-play even more, as it was amazingly hard to actually Kill anyone. Plus, most of the room areas felt really generic, as the most found room was "Just Another Dungeon Corridor." Plus, the character balance is practically non-existent.

So, I decided to change that. And, since I doubt that any of the above games' creators would very much like some random yokel heckling their games, I decided to just go ahead and start putting together my own....the project I'm calling, at least for the time being...

Dungeon Slam! A Decidedly Non-Cooperative Fantasy Board Game for 3-8 Players

The premise of the game is simple. The mad archmage has finally died, so you (and several other adventurers) have decided to pick through his underground dungeon. Find enough wealth, and you'll be living on easy street for life. However, you also have to make it out of the dungeon with your gains....and your fellow players are probably more dangerous than the monsters!

Basically, I'm shooting for something that marries the beautiful mechanics of Arkham Horror (minus half of the playing pieces), the cut-throat nature of Munchkin, the explorer-fantasy feel of Runebound, and the claustrophobic dungeon-feel that Order of the Stick shoots for.

Thusfar, I've already developed all 12 character classes, including their skills, as well as the skeleton-outline for the weapons. Armor, Spells, Potions, and the other items come next...followed by the Room Tiles, then Encounter Cards.

If this sounds like something you might like....let me know! I'm accepting all input!


Edit: Oh, and by the way....I might just have a preview of one of the classes for you readers....all two of you. We'll see if I can pump that out this week.

Ultimate Match of Ultimateness!

So, Lionel and Ebbs have been getting into Hero/HorrorClix...in a big way. Ebbs picked up The Great Cthulhu and the Galactus minis, in addition to the whole Aliens vs. Predator line that he bought out at Origins.

With both of the big figs on the table, we set aside tonight to have the battle royale: Devourer of Worlds vs. Devourer of Souls.

Now, for those of you that haven't seen these minis yet, let me put this out there: they're Not Mini. They're huge. Massive. Cthulhu is nearly a foot tall, with an equal wingspan. Galactus is even taller, probably closer to 18", all told. They are big. I must say, though, I wasn't really impressed with the level of detail on the Galactus mini. For $60, he doesn't even come close to the level of detail that Great Cthulhu has.

That said, he totally pwns Cthulhu on the battlefield. You see, in a typical 1800 point battle, Galactus starts at his full strength and only grows weaker as the combat goes on and he takes damage. Cthulhu, on the alternate side, starts out in his slumber (i.e. weak) and grows stronger as he approaches death. My side, running Galactus, routed Ebbs' Cthulhu before I was even through my second dial of clix.

That said, the 1800 point warband was a ton of fun. After the short rout of R'yleh, the three of us decided to give Cthulhu another fighting chance against 1800 points worth of cyberpunk zombies, government agents, and Predators. This time, though, the Great Old One put up a much tougher fight. While our warband emerged victorious, driving Cthulhu back to R'yleh, the field of battle showed the casualties....I lost my three most powerful figures, Ebbs lost all but 3 predators, and Lionel's field of Scrubbers were all but scrubbed from the field.

All said, this was a really interesting intro to HeroClix for me. It hasn't been something I've been interested in so far, but that may change, if this trend continues. None too bad at all...

Post-Origins Thoughts....

So, going into Origins, I had been seeking some new inspiration for game. Things haven't been going quite the way I had been hoping with Demonweb Pits, and I've been looking towards the fall (or maybe even this winter) to start a new game, after the PlatinumChick runs some Eberron.

I have it down to three choices:

1) Masques of Extraordinary Gentlemen--Basic premise of this game would be a riff on Alan Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." The players would play a literary or stylized historical figure and figure their way through the mysteries of 1890s Victorian-Gothic Europe. Character creation and combat would be done using a modified True20 system, coupled with the Call of Cthulhu sanity system. Emphasis would also be put on literature and little-known historical events of the time period, including the emergence of the First World War.

2) Pirates of the Underdark--I had come up with this concept after seeing the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but wanted somewhat of a darker twist. Basically, the PCs would be wanna-be pirates on a massive Underdark sea, exploring the ruins of the caverns after Lolth's fall and the ruin of many drow citadels. The D&D alignment system would be somewhat thrown out the window for this one, with the focus being on cinematic combat and tactics, as well as magical ship-battles. Emphasis would also be put heavily on treasure maps and skulduggery, as well as pirate legends....like that of The One Living Man, or the Black Redeemer.

3) Depths of the Warehouse--After reading through GURPS Warehouse 23 (and now Pagan Publishing's fantastic Delta Green d20), I find myself itching to run something a little more conspiratorial. In this game, the PCs will have been taken from their homes by the mysterious Men In Black, only to find out that they've been commissioned to work in the most secret storehouse of all--Warehouse 23. The players will have to find out who commissioned them into such a drastic career, why they were chosen, and what their own dark pasts may mean within a grander scope of conspiracy, paranoia, and global fear.

So, basically, I'm just looking for some input. Would you play one of these games? If so, which would you be interested in? What do you like and what don't you like?

Please vote in the poll, and let me know!

The Warlock's Origins 2007 Report--Observations and Musings

If you've managed to read both of the prior blog entries already...well, congratulations. You've managed to be more voracious than I could imagine. I'm sorry if the earlier entries seemed to be a bit "listy", but I wanted to try to get all of the details in that I could remember, before they started disappearing to history. This last little bit, though, is just a bunch of my impressions on things and how the con went overall.

When we arrived on Wednesday, I was expecting utter chaos. However, things were surprisingly organized. We made it through badge-pick up incredibly quickly and started checking out some of the events going on around that night. The Miniatures room, taking up nearly all of Exhibit Hall D, had some absolutely fantastic displays. My favorite may have been the massive, volcanic pirate-isle, complete with immense rickety suspension bridges leading to the island proper. The Mos Eisley spaceport, on the other end of the hall, was also particularly good.

The dealer hall, when I first entered it on Thursday, made my eyes buggy. Quite literally, I didn't even think about buying anything. The Reaper Minis room--courtesy of Miniatures-Giant--made my head spin, but in one of those good ways. Thousands upon thousands of green-labeled minis, over all four surrounding walls. I was a happy gamer.

When Lionel and Ebbs registered, they picked up a ton of generic tokens with it. Pre-registration comes with a deal for 10 generics for $10. Aside from giving some to Adam, so he could register for events for free....these were almost entirely worthless. However, they were hickory and, at least according to Ebbs, taste like good barbeque. Go figure.

The Columbus Convention Center is a giant line. This makes walking painful. I think I may have gotten more exercise at Origins than I have all summer. Yes, I realize the irony of this statement.

By the way, the next things out for SJ Games in the Munchkin line will be 1) Munchkin Cthulhu 2, Munchkin Quest (a board game!), Muchkin Cthulhu 3, and Munchkin Booty (Pirates!).

Things learned for next year:

1. Don't register for so many events at 8 or 9 am. This makes for a long day, and no drinking at the bar afterwards.
2. Be more discerning about D&D games. The two games I played were both sanctioned games, which meant a lot of paperwork, which distracted from the games themselves. Plus, they were all low level games, which limits options.
3. Play a higher level game! Use all those cool books I have!
4. Play more Rogue Cthulhu games. The group is absolutely 8 ways of cool, with quality GMs and great storylines. I have nothing but good to say about those people. Quality people and quality games.
5. Don't buy any generics. Event registration lines are relatively short, and generic players generally get booted.
6. Play with your friends. Whether you meet old friends or new ones, just have a good time. It's all just a game, anyway!
7. Use a point buy system for pre-gens. That way, people won't throw fits when you bring your own to the table.

The Warlock's Origins 2007 Report--The Swag!

Part of any good convention is the swag you get, and Origins was no exception. Here, I'll detail some of the great stuff that the Springfield Mafia (including myself) picked up, and some of the neat stuff that was around the dealer room.

Ah, yes. Speaking of the dealer room, I must say that I was impressed. I've heard some complaints already that the dealer room was "more of a flea market than an exhibition of the industry." With that, I can wholeheartedly agree. However, if I want to hear from "industry professionals," I'll go to one of their seminars and talk to them. When I want swag, I want the flea market. As such, the dealer room was fine by me!

And now for the Swag!

• GURPS Warehouse 23. Now, I'm not a GURPS fan by any stretch--I'd rather run d20, just for the fact that I'll have more interested, involved players. However, when this was on the "3 for $10" table at SJ Games' booth, I couldn't pass it up. Conspiratorial goodness, and a detailed rundown of how the Warehouse would work in several different genres, as well as lots of neat items to put in there. Along with this, I picked up a box of skeleton minis (everybody loves skellies!) and Silicon Valley Tarot for Jules.
• The Critonomicon. A softcover book from Technomancer Press, this book doesn't look like much. I can't believe I missed it, though, with its Day-Glo Orange cover and its hundreds of tables. This book is chock-full of unique critical hits, critical misses, wild magic effects, and rules for other crazy happenings. With the way my players and I roll, I'm going to get a ton of milage out of this...
• Faiths of Eberron. The PlatinumChick picked this up in anticipation of her upcoming Eberron game. Flipping through it earlier, it looks to be pretty quality, with tons of information about the various religions and cults that pop up all across Eberron. There didn't seem to be much crunch to the book--only a handful of feats and divine spells, and a few magic items--however the fluff more than makes up for it. Very nice job, all in all.
• A Shoggoth on the Roof (Libretto). Finally, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has released the libretto to the Musical That Cannot Be Produce. I already own the Cast Recording, but having the full script/libretto makes this all the sweeter. If you're a Cthulhu fan in any sense of the word, check this out.
• Dungeons and Dragons Icons: Gargantuan Blue Dragon. For a mere $28, the PlatinumChick couldn't pass this one up. Personally, I like the Gargantuan Black better, myself, but the mini is still a very sweet example of how well Wizards of the Coast produces their project. Love and care were involved in making this, and it shows. High quality, indeeed.
• Nightmares of Lovecraft: Cthulhu and Dagon. Lionel picked these up on the cheap, and man....they did not disappoint. While they're a little on the small side, they're still amazing sculpts, which are...well, disturbing to look at. Just what they need to be, for the subject material. Lovecraft would be proud.
• Aliens vs. Predator HorrorClix. Ebbs picked up these on the cheap, as well, getting most of the line. While we haven't played yet, the sculpts were nice. Only problem was mainly the fact that many of the clix were slightly broken, particularly around their feet. The Alien queen looked particularly impressive.
• Cults Across America. Again, a Lionel purchase. We haven't played yet, but this one looks to be good! I'll review it, as we get into the box.
• Unspeakable Words. We played this during some downtime before going to bed. Wow, was it a blast. Incredibly simple game play, the idea is to make words from your 7 card hand. You get points based on how many angles are in each letter, but must make a Sanity check against your word's score to avoid going nuts. Lose 4 Sanity, and you are insane--if you're nuts, you can use ANYTHING as a word. Lose 5, and you're out of the game. First to 100 points (or the last one sane!) wins. This game is simple, yet amazingly fun. Highest recommendation I can give.
• Kellen, Nobleman Adventurer. I've been looking for a mini to use during Jules' imminent Eberron game, and this one fit the bill. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one with twin axes, so I settled on one with a sword and a long fighting-dagger. A sweet little mini, it looks just as well as I can ask. If nothing else, Reaper's Dark Heaven Legends Line are of a truly high quality across the board.

Links for the Swag--If you're looking to buy any of the above, follow the Little Blue Links!

GURPS Warehouse 23: http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=SJG6523

Skeleton Minis: http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=SJG13-0200

Silicon Valley Tarot: http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=SJG1324

The Critonomicon: http://www.technomancer-press.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1&zenid=7021670c7fb5f895765638a9c06afbbd

Faiths of Eberron: http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/w/wizardsOfTheCoast/featuredBrands/eberron/roleplaying/v5748btpy7rug&source=search

A Shoggoth on the Roof (Libretto): http://www.cthulhulives.org/store/store.lasso

Gargantuan Blue Dragon: http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/w/wizardsOfTheCoast/byProductType/miniaturesGames/dnd/icons/v5748btpy7t6o&source=search

Nightmares of Lovecraft: Dagon and Cthulhu: http://www.sotatoys.com/store.php?brands_id=21

Alien vs. Predator HorrorClix: http://www.gameoutfitter.com/items/miniature-games/horrorclix/horrorclix-alien-vs-predator/list.htm

Cults Across America: http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=AG1210

Unspeakable Words: http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=PLE26100

Kellen, Nobleman Adventurer: http://www.reapermini.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=4320&cat=0&page=1

The Warlock's Origins 2007 Report--The Events!

Well, now that I've recovered a bit after the Origins Experience, I can give you the run-down on what all happened in the Springfield Mafia's Origins Tour.

Wednesday--7/4/07

Our happy quartet (Lionel, Ebbs, Jules and myself) finally arrived at the Hyatt around 3pm on Wednesday. We only had slight difficulties in finding the hotel, so I can't complain about that too much. Only thing that might have helped more is....well, road signs that lined up with our Mapquest directions. That's life, though. After a quick and efficient sign-in, we unpacked our room and got some grub...just in time for:

Stargate--By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Put bluntly, this was not the way I wanted to start off my Origins experience. I love Stargate (the show and the rpg), so I had high hopes. Ebbs joined me for this one, chipping his way in on generics. The only problem with this was the fact that he wasn't the only one. The game was completely overbooked, with no less than three characters being played by 2 people. I was lucky enough to play a fairly interesting character...who just happened to be an NID operative.

The game started off somewhat unimpressively, with the GM amused with his ability to run 7 adventures concurrently in the same SG complex...at the same game-time period. Shrugging it off, we continued on with a scenario in which we may-or-may-not be clones. In order to find out, we sought out some Goa'uld mind-scan devices.

This is where the metagaming stepped in. When the mind-scan device was used on me, the Tok'ra PC who used it critically fumbled. I was shown to be completely clean, unique, and with no signs of mind-alteration. When 2 others went under, though, they used someone with a higher Intimidate score...and were shown to be altered. Suffice to say, arguments ensued, and my character (refusing to take orders from a commanding officer whose mind was shown to be altered), ended up K-Oed, and then executed by the Tok'ra.

End Opinion? A solid D. The DM was too wrapped up in his self-wanking fandom to deal with the elements in-game that were going on. I had negative fun, if that's possible.

Thursday--7/5/07

With the PlatinumChick already at work, I woke up early for a delve into...

Undermountain Adventures: The Crypt of Yeldoon

I love D&D. Not like this, though. When we joined, there were no pre-gens ready, despite the fact that this was an RPGA-sanctioned event. When I suggested my pre-gen, I was shot down. Instead, myself and several others decided to pick up characters from the D&D Dungeon Delve and take them down a level.

The DM who ran for us looked openly exhausted, and had run the adventure twice during the previous night....and was set to run it 7 more times throughout the con. It showed. Very little description, and very little interest in what was going on. This was made even more frustrating by Mr. Hyperactive. Mr. Hyperactive was a "supreme power-gamer", bringing to the table a Mountain Orc Fighter/Barbarian/Rogue with a 22 Strength. Mind you, we were running on 28 point buy. He and one of his fans ran roughshod over the entirety of the adventure, while I and three others sat back wondering if we could get our credits back.

End Opinion? C-. It wasn't the DM's fault that the RPGA can't give their DMs a variety. If it weren't for Mr. Hyperactive, I might have actually had fun with this...mainly because I would have been useful in any sense of the word.

After Undermountain, I scoped out the dealer room, with my eyes going just about buggy. More on that in the "Swag" chapter. But, after a nap with Jules, we reassembled the Mafia and headed off for...

WEGS--Pigskab's Skewl 4 Wizzards

By this point, I was getting just a touch frustrated with the selections I'd made. If it's one thing that I could depend on, though, it's a great game from the WEGSHogz. El Willy and his crew sure know how to throw down.

Basic premise? As students at Pigskab's, we came up on clean-up duty for the marsh. Survive for one night in the marsh and clean out some of the pests, and the free tutition continues. I ran a Humz Trickster, who was surprisingly good at his Ruggedness tests, despite having only a 22% in it.

With our whole WEGS lovin' crew in the mix, the game was a ton of fun. Unfortuneatly, the PlatinumChick's perennial dice-pox affected her again, and we all got a chuckle at her lack of successes. In the end, the group defeated ToeGash, the chef, and made it back to the Skewl.

End opinion? A. I love playing with El Willy and his crew, and this was exactly what I needed after two really disappointing games earlier in the con. The only reason that this wasn't an A+ was the fact that the WEGS 101 book got delayed for release. If this book had been for sale there, I would have bought one on the spot.

Later, that night, though...we had enough time to catch a movie:

The Call of Cthulhu--Silent Film Screening

I hadn't prepared myself for a real silent film in this. It was a unique (and pretty accurate) way for Lovecraft's story to be presented. The film was of particular quality, and set the mood very well. It was a worthwhile trip, though the midnight showing (while atmospheric!) left me incredibly tired.

End opinion? B+. Great film. See it, if you can!

Friday--7/6/07

Again, waking up early, I headed down to the Rogue Cthulhu room for a healthy dose of...

Call of Cthulhu--No Blood for Oil

I was somewhat disappointed on Thursday because I had actually tried to get in on an earlier CoC game run by the Rogue Cthulhu dudes, called Ex Silentio. Lionel and Ebbs had gotten in on it earlier, but I was shunted out as the last person with a ticket arrived just as the Keeper was handing out characters.

This game made up for it. As an Army Rangers Echo group in 2003 Iraq, we were set to take out an Iraqi oil rig that had supposedly been harboring WMDs. We ventured through an oil-creature infested rig, only to find our Alpha group had already been compromised. Though suffering several casualties, my comm officer managed to use a radio transmission to keep the oil-creatures at bay long enough for us to call in the napalm. Tons of fun, no questions about it.

End Opinion? A-. Some of the guys were a little hesitant, but the group worked really fantastically. Unfortunately, the tactical maps got lost, but we didn't need them too much. Th game was evocative and a lot of fun to play in, especially with the Cthulhu room's decorations. Apparently, the guys liked the way I played, because I picked up some Rogue Cthulhu chips, garnering some free swag from them later in the con--a set of dice, and a set of glass counters.

Strangely enough, the group that I was in had two other Daytonians--one over from Wright State, the other from Wright-Patterson. As we left, we exchanged some info and set off for...

The Paizo Dungeon Delve--Crown of the Kobold King

A fun little game of killing kobolds and saving children, we picked up an unlikely 4th to join us--Adam, back from Cincy! I hadn't expected Adam to join the Springfield Mafia's expedition to Origins, but here he was...ready for Friday and Saturday gaming. I helped him get registered quickly, just in time for us to kill some kobolds.

Since the episode was only 15 minutes long, I'll keep this short.

End opinion? B. The adventure looks good, and is somewhat lethal, apparently. The DM added a lot of description, which left our time being somewhat eaten, but we each got a key to the Paizo chest for playing. In fact, the Wright-State dude ended up opening the chest, winning a free copy of Stonehenge, a new board-game anthology.

Because of Adam's arrival, he still needed to be added to some events and gotten to the room. As such, I ended up missing The Novelists' Workout--Basic Plotting. Eh. I wasn't too concerned. It was free, and I had gaming to take care of!

After a great dinner at a nearby Japanese steakhouse, we arrived just in time to catch our showing of:

The Gamers: Dorkness Rising

The Dead Gentlemens' sequel to their prior indie-hit, this movie was ball-bustingly funny. Apparently, we were only the second audience to see a screening of the finished film, which made us fairly privledged.

As great as the first one was, this movie shows the development of DG's producers, writers, and direction. It feels like an actual "film", yet keeps all of the in-jokes and funny situations that bring us gamers back. Their enhanced budget, as well, shows, as the special effects here are better than anything you'd see on Sci-Fi Channel. I'll save the plot for you to see for yourself, but suffice to say that it involves an ancient artifact, god-killing power, and....cross-dressing characters.

I can't wait for this to hit DVD, to be perfectly honest. With luck, the Dead Gentlemen will have their distributor by the time they hit Gen Con, and it'll be out just in time for Christmas.

End Opinion? A+ Fantastic film. The house was packed, and it was totally worth it. See it, if at all possible.

At this point, we decided to relax and play some Runebound back in the room, just so we could rest up for our last two days...and the most hectic to come!

Saturday--7/7/07

Arising early for the third day in a row, Adam, Ebbs, and myself headed down to the board-games HQ for a demo of:

Dragon War

As one of only 4 people at this game, the game itself moved rather quickly. Choosing a character, we started out on a board of 40 cards, each with 3 spaces. The concept is simple--it's a race game. Beat your fellow characters to the end of the board, and roll a 13 on 3d6 to win the game. The game itself can run with a fair amount of cut-throat behavior, as the game encourages beating the Life out of your compatriots using Fate cards to drive them onto negative spaces.

While the game itself cost only $20 (which led me to consider buying it), each expansion cost another $5, and usually only included optional board cards or a single new character. Kind of a rip-off, to say the least.

What's worse, though...the rules seemed somewhat incomplete. When an event occured in-game that led to a slight dispute, the fellow running the demo had no idea what to even suggest. The small rules packet (a two page leaflet) added nothing, and we had to work by general consensus. Disappointing to say the least. The art, as well, was unimpressive, despite being drawn by a "professional graphic artist".

End opinion? C. Not a bad little game, but the expansion price is entirely too high, the rules need to be refined, and the art....not something I want to look at. I'll stick with Munchkin, thank you!

After lunch, Adam, Jules and I set out to join:

D&D--The Blackmoor Wives' Club

A fun little scenario designed as an intro, we all played at 1st level, taking care of the household chores of some famous adventurers. The game itself was a lot of fun, with a laid-back, enjoyable DM and a good, well-balanced party.

That is, except for That Kid. Oi. A 14 year old, That Kid must have been an ADHD/Aspy, as he ran over everyone at the table, the DM included, frustrating us to no end. He was seated next to a young girl who had barely played before, and had never made her own character. He talked incessantly, even to the point where the DM was becoming openly frustrated.

Very rarely do I raise my voice. With him, I had to restrain from yelling at him several times.
Luckily, Adam's half-orc monk knocked him out...accidentally. ;)

End opinion? B+ Aside from That Kid, the game was a lot of fun, and the scenario was really funny. Well worth the time.

From there, we rejoined Lionel and Ebbs, then attempted to hit up BD's Mongolian BBQ. However, it was packed, and we settled for the food court before hitting up:

Paranoia--Lightning Rod

Lionel had played with the GM we had this with earlier in the week and, when he described the GM's orange asylum jumpsuit, I knew we were into a great game. With all 5 of us involved, as well as a couple from Dublin, we had a blast.

Here, I played the Communications officer, Chuck-R-FAR, as well as his talking hand-puppet Socko. Our job? Deliver devices to a security tower on the outskirts of Alpha Complex. After being sucked into a Vulture Squadron Flyer engine, I knew we were in for some fun. While the game ran down somewhat at the end, it was still an absolute blast. I could have wished for some more inter-party fighting and a little less conspiracy, but that's hardly a problem.

End opinion? B [You are not cleared for this information, citizen!]

We retired back to the room and wished Adam goodbye, then winded down by playing one of Lionel's new games--Unspeakable Words, which I'll describe in the Swag entry--and got ready for our last day's event.

Sunday--7/8/07

We ended our Origins experience with a familiar classic for our group, but with a new twist:

Arkham Horror--The King in Yellow

We play Arkham Horror quite a bit out here, but with the new KiY expansion, we were all excited. We arrived just on time after checking out and dropping our things at the car. This was much to the chagrin of several players who were trying to get in on generic tokens. Having 4 of us plop down at the table didn't make them too happy....

This game, though? Wow. I've never seen an Arkham Horror game run so positively. Normally Arkham Horror fits its name, as you lose Sanity and Stamina hand over fist, picking up Insanities and Injuries like drinking wine. This time, no. Not so much. Instead, it was more along the lines of "Oh, here...have 15 unique items each. How about some skills? Mythos phase--what's mythos phase?"

Seriously. When the cooridinator told us where the first gate would open and I (playing the scientist) told him that "No, that won't be opening there," the look on his face said it all. I had never been in a game where we were actively waiting for Nyaralothotep to appear, just so we could beat the ever-loving-crap out of him. Very cathartic, but even more unusual.

End opinion? B-. It was fun to beat the crap of the game in the way we did, but I wish it would have been slightly more challenging! The game felt like a walk in the park, compared to what we've played in the past!

This is only 1 portion of our Origins experience. Be prepared for at least two more entries--The Warlock's Swag, and The Con Itself.

We're Baaaack....

The PlatinumChick, myself, and the rest of the Springfield Mafia just rolled back in from Origins, with all kinds of swag in tow. After 5 solid days of gaming, feasting and no sleep....I'm ready for a nap.

I'll have a full run-down of all of the stuff gotten, games played, and other fun events that ran down with our happy little crew.

On that note, I'll leave you with one word.... "Niw!"

Prepping for Origins and a Slight Lament

Well, the time is nearly here. In 3 days, the Warlock, his Mistress, and two fellow flunkies will be on our way to sunny Columbus for the 5 day geek-orgy that is Origins 2007.

I've gotta say: I'm stoked. Thusfar, the only cons I've ever been to have been WittCon (which I, y'know, helped found) and TopaCon, down at Bookery Fantasy. Both of these events didn't even hit 150 people. Origins will have 100 times that amount in attendence. That many gamers, events, and games....it has to be a great time.

I spent most of yesterday and this morning writing up characters for D&D. I wanted to be prepped for any spur-of-the-moment games that I might drop into, as well as if I run a pick-up game. Having HeroForge helped this process--man, D&D can get really numbers-heavy at high levels--but it still took quite a bit of time.

I suppose the reason that I've been looking forward to Origins so much is the opportunity to play, as opposed to running game. Don't get me wrong; I love to GM/DM/ST/whatever just as much as the next geek. The problem is, I feel like I've been doing it forever. After running Fall of Saltmarsh for 6 months, as well as running games at TopaCon, WittCon, and randomly on weekends when the guys want to play....I feel like I've burnt out.

I mean, I didn't even really get to play at WittCon, even. I ran two sessions of game, then hung out and watched Paranoia. Don't get me wrong--it was all fun--but I'm still not playing the games I love so much.

This is leaving me a touch conflicted, in some ways. I have a fine gaming group right now, running through Demonweb Pits. Everyone has a novel character concept, and they sometimes seem to be having fun. However, just as often, I feel like everyone's falling asleep. I do my best to keep everyone involved, but...only about half the group seems "into it". In this case, Raymond Chandler's advice of "Have two men with guns burst through the door," hasn't worked in the least. And, what's worse, it has me questioning how much fun I'm having with this game. The answer, I'm finding more and more, is "not much." I love Planescape. I love D&D. This game is lacking both of their flavors, and becoming quite bland.

So, I raised this concept to my group. Two seem really receptive to the idea of changing campaigns (one of which is the PlatinumChick, who knows me like a well-read PH). One thinks that I just don't like running game, but is willing to change. Two others, though? No response. None. Not even head nodding.

I asked them whether they were having fun. I got nothing back.
I asked them whether they would want to try a different campaign, as the PlatinumChick has been itching to run Eberron. One sat there playing WoW. The other shrugged and started rolling up a Samurai, which I'm still trying to figure out how it fits into Eberron.

It could be worse, I guess. I think I'm just a little burned-out and seeing things that aren't there, but it's still frustrating to have to deal with on Friday nights, especially when the idea of the game is to have fun.

That said, I'm going to live it up at Origins, and hopefully I'll come home refreshed. True enough, maybe all this Warlock needs is a healthy dose of D&D, Paranoia, WEGS, Call of Cthulhu, all washed down with some Munchkin and a side of Arkham Horror.

Happy gaming, weasels!