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.