Status Update

Wow! It looks like I let over a week creep by with out a post. I not doing a good job of keeping up with my self-appointed posting numbers. I should be doing some studying for some up coming games, really, but I'll sneak a post in before that, and hopefully get some feedback.

Speaking of upcoming games, I'll be running my second session of Swords & Wizardry White Box this weekend. All seven players from the first session were so enamored with the play style (particularly the speed and lethality of the combat), that they demanded a deeper delve into the dungeon. When we last left them, they were down a man or two after a scuffle with some goblins in a hallway. Fortunately, they left some potential adventurers up with the horses and supplies on the surface level. Those unnamed mooks will be getting tossed into the scrum.

Tuesday, I'll be running another session of Hollow Earth Expedition for my regular crew. As I mentioned in a recent post, it went over big, so we're going to keep rolling with it for a few more sessions. I decided to drop some cash over at FRP Games to pick up the GM Screen, Secrets of the Surface World and Mysteries of Hollow Earth source books. Eventually, I foresee a longer, campaign style game, with the players actually generating characters instead of using the pre-gens from the book. Well, at least I hope that happens, since I put another $70 into the system.

Expect some brief play reports from the sessions in the next few days. After HEX wraps up, we have to decide what is next. Allen, who runs my regular Call of Cthulhu game has offered to do CoC adventure for this group, which could be a good experience for everyone. After that, it may be time to revisit the ongoing 4e campaign for a few sessions.

Up next will be a post on "Appendix N" and my exposure thus far.

Recording, travel, and the Hollow Earth

It's really too late for me to be writing this post. I should be sleeping by since, since I'm due into the office in about 8 hours. My reason for being awake at 1:00 AM on a "school night"? My band, Abysme, was in the studio for our third day of tracking for our debut LP, Strange Rites. My bass parts were all done, but I wanted to be there with the guitarist while he did his overdubs, so I could verify all my parts were okay. We still need to do the vocals and mixing. No set day for release yet, either, but it is getting closer, hopefully by the Summer of 2011? Hopefully...

Thursday, I'll be heading to San Diego for the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting. If any of my readers know of any awesome gaming stores or used book stores in the downtown area, please let me know. I'll be there until Tuesday and I'll have some down time. Right now, I'm mostly in the market for old stuff, but if I found a store with a good selection of Savage Worlds or Hollow Earth Expedition books, I'd likely pick up a few things. If the store is only likely to carry newer stuff (d20, Pathfinder, 4e), I'm probably not that interested, right now.

To make sure there is at least something gaming related on here, I've been studying the rules section of the Hollow Earth Expedition rule book for an adventure that will start on January 18th, hopefully. Everything "makes sense", but I'm a little nervous, as I haven't actually played the game, outside of a 10 minute demo at Origins this past Summer. I usually like to get some time as a player before I sit down and try to run something, but I don't know anyone who runs HEX. We'll see how it goes. The players are all friends, and are all pretty forgiving of foibles, so it should be fine. It will be a new experience for a few of them, though, because they are more familiar with more "tactics-heavy" rules, like D&D 3 & 4. I'm hoping they can all get into the "mind" of the pre-generated characters I'm providing, because if they spend too much time worrying about what's on the character sheet, this might be a flop. The group isn't that heavily geared towards the actual role-playing aspects of the games we play, it seems. They do great with the exploration, puzzle solving, and combat, though. Role playing is definitely one of my limitations as a Game Master, too. I really need to get more practice at portraying the NPCs in a realistic manner. They aren't (all) just cannon fodder or hint/rumor delivery units. I'm hoping this game experience will bring all of us out of their shells, at least a little bit.

I'm going to use a published adventure for the seed. Since the game is so different from what I'm used to running, I'm having a hard time gauging how long it will take the players to complete the adventure. One thing that is great about the adventure is that it leaves a lot of threads open. When the players complete the primary task, there are still plenty of options. I'm trying not to over-plan, so I don't end up railroading them. I think the system is light enough that I can come up with something on the fly, if we need more content. I hope to keep it running for at least three or four sessions, assuming everyone is having fun and I can come up with enough threads to keep them busy.

Finally, I'm working on scheduling the next session for the Swords & Wizardry White Box game. All seven players seem pretty excited about it, so hopefully we'll be able to continue the game for a while. One nice thing about dealing with that many folks: if someone misses a session or drops out of the game, we still have more than enough people at the table to play. Dealing with that many personalities (and schedules) can be a real challenge, but I think it will work out in the end.

Projections and Reflections

Seems like the blog-0-sphere is rife with posts giving the "2010 in Review" and "What's on the Plate for 2011" type posts. I figure it's as good a time as any for reflection and prediction. The slate is clean, in a sense. I was hoping to get a few more posts made before the end of 2010, but averaging over a post a week isn't so bad, all in all. I got a little distracted by the holidays, shopping, a new Wii and episodes of Angel on Netflix. Granted the blog was buried from March until October. If it weren't for successfully completing the Daily Blog Challenge in November, I wouldn't be anywhere near that number.

I started this blog about a year ago...I made few posts and it stalled. I recognized the problem almost immediately. There was no direction. I wanted to leave it as open as possible, allowing me to write about all sorts of topics of interest. The problem? It didn't really keep my interest. You see, I don't think of myself as a natural writer or anything. I don't dislike the writing process, but the words don't just "flow" for me, either. Combine that with a long standing desire to procrastinate and0 any lack of focus is probably a bad thing. If you go back to those earliest posts you'll see a bunch of brief movie reviews, some commentary on Food Network programming, a couple posts on RPGs.

Back in October, I decided to resurrect the blog and give it a bit of focus. Gaming, and RPGs specifically have been taking up a lot of my free time these days (although I still do watch a fair amount of trashy movies, listen to heavy metal records, and watch Food Network programming -- though I do wish we had access to their newish Cooking Channel with our current cable service. The programming over there appears to me much more my "style"...I can't believe I just admitted to that...anyway)...

So what is in store for 2011? More gaming, for sure, and hopefully more posting. Right now, I'm considering setting a schedule for myself. I'd love to average 12-16 posts a month, which is quite a high number, considering my posting history. For that to happen, I'm going to need some inspiration, so in the coming days, expect to see some posts that are more brainstorming than content or review. We'll see what happens. I'm going to apply for the Role Playing Game Bloggers Network at the end of January, because I'm hoping that having potentially more readers will be an enticement to post more content.

Well, what about 2010? It was a big gaming year for me, for sure. I've met a bunch of cool new people, I went to a couple gaming cons, I've found some great blogs, I've bought some box sets, and I've played a bunch of games.

October was my first visit to GASP Games day, and honestly, I'm kicking myself for not checking out this group sooner. Great people. Great games. I highly recommend it to anyone in the Pittsburgh area interested in trying out new games. At that first event, I didn't know anyone there. I started making some contacts on the forum, but just showed up ready to play. I got to check out a bunch of board games and I was finally able to check out Labyrinth Lord. I also went to my first "big" gaming convention, Origins, where I got to play Aces & Eights and Hackmaster Basic, sat through some RPG demos, checked out a bunch of board and card games. 2010 was my inaugural attendance at GASPCon, too. Again, I wish I had checked the event earlier. I met even more rad people and played way too many hours of RPGs. Right now, I'm planning on signing up to GM at least on session at the next con.

That Labyrinth Lord game at GASP Games day really set me off on a huge OSR / OD&D / retro-clone kick. I had been following some of the games for a few months, but hadn't played that style of D&D since the late 80s. Since then, I've played 4 additional sessions of LL, a session of Spellcraft & Swordplay, a session of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and a session of Hackmaster Basic. I refereed a session of Swords & Wizardry which appears to have the potential to turn into a campaign. In addition to all that, my "every other Tuesday" group is still going strong. We started out as a 4e group, but due to a little 4e burnout on my part we've been exploring other games. We just wrapped a 3 session Gamma World (new edition) adventure. In a couple weeks, I'll be running a Hollow Earth Expedition adventure. We're not sure where were going after that; maybe back to the 4e campaign for a while, maybe some Savage Worlds, maybe something else. More details as they become available. The 3.5 Ravenloft Campaign I play in sputtered for a while, but seems to be back in the swing. The same could be said for the 3.5 Forgotten Realms campaign. The Call of Cthulhu game is still going strong, although I believe we're approaching the end of the story arc.

Since deciding to focus this blog on gaming, I haven't posted much on other topics. I quit my regular DJing gig down at the Smiling Moose. We were doing a weekly "Metal Night". All vinyl. Old school. Anyway, the crowds morphed into packs, and the packs morphed into stragglers. I was burned out of playing records for the same 15 dudes every week, so we called it off. No regrets, but my heart really wasn't in it any more. My heavy metal record collecting has definitely slowed this year, too. I already own more records than I know what to do with, but the lure of vinyl is strong. I have all the old records I want that are easy to find. I got lucky and started collecting Heavy Metal records before the collector mentality took over the scene, so I was able to grab a lot of the cool 80s stuff before it got out of hand expensive. There are still some gaps I'd love to fill in, but I have no love for eBay (or paying $50 for 30 year old record). Because of eBay, and n00bs willing to drop that kind of cash, I'm kind of out of luck. The cool records just aren't showing up in the shops like they used to...they're all in collectors hands or sitting on eBay at ridiculous prices. Oh well, like I said, I already have more than I know what to do with.

My band, Abysme, is set to begin recording our debut LP, Strange Rites, tomorrow. It's death metal, taking influences from Entombed, Nihilist, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Repulsion. If that sounds like it's up your alley, check us out. We'll be playing the Smiling Moose on January 15 with Nunslaughter and Derketa.

Well, that's enough for now.

Swords & Wizardry White Box game report

Well, I guess I'm one step closer to being a complete and "official" member of the Old School Renaissance. At least that is my opinion. I felt like I was just on the edge of the OSR chasm. I have PDFs of Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, and Swords & Wizardry. I own the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role Playing box set and the Swords & Wizardry White Box box set. I've played convention games of LotFP and Labyrinth Lord convention games. I'm playing in two Labyrinth Lord campaigns at GASP Games Day. I write about OSR games, at least occasionally, on this blog. Off the top of my head, I can come up with 3 major gaps in my participation in the OSR. I needed to DM a game, design a mega-dungeon and publish something....anything...for someone else to use at their table.

Sunday evening I DMed/Refereed my first OSR game, checking one of my gaps off the list. We used Swords & Wizardry White Box. I selected White Box for a couple reasons. First, I had ordered the third printing of the S&W White Box from Brave Halfling and wanted to try it out. I hadn't played any of the S&W flavors and this seemed like as good of an opportunity as any. Second, I was looking for something rules-light. I was going to have 7 people around the table. Only two of them had played any of the retro-clone games. Three of the players had very limited experience with table top RPGs. The last two are more familiar with the more modern flavors of D&D. I wanted this to play as sort of a "beer & pretzels" style RPG. I figured it was unlikely that most of them would actually read the rule book (a correct assumption, from what I can tell). I wanted something where the players are open to "try anything" and I could make a ruling without having to check through a million rules. Finally, I just wanted to run one of them funky OSR games. I've been reading the blogs and buying/downloading some of the product, so I just need to check it out first hand.

I got together with the players and we rolled up characters. 3d6 straight for the stats. They then picked class, based on those rolls. I did let them start with max hit points at level one, because I was kind of nervous about how deadly the dungeon might be. As it turns out, it was plenty deadly...more on that later.

The Characters / Players -- 
Logthark the Oxford - Magic User, played by Ed
Meruus - Cleric, played by Brad replaced by Teruus, Cleric
"Dutch" Elmsplitter - Dwarf, played by Allen
Arum Vulgare - Cleric, played by Gina
Lorch - Magic User, played by Ben
Filthy - Halfling, played by Dave replaced by ???, ???
Angus Longshank - Fighter, played by Curt

Play Report
The party had left their home land of Syrtaff many days ago, traveling to Moseen. There are many rumors of great treasures in the hills and mountains of Moseen. Unfortunately, very few who travel to the region seemed to ever return to Syrtaff. They must have found their fortune and were living like kings....right?

The party consists of the seven listed about, plus a few other adventurers (OOC -- potential PCs in the case of character death), a torchbearer named Rais (NPC), two mules, and their handler (NPC). 

The journey to Moseen has been tough, and, in truth, more than the party bargained for. The weather has been uncooperative and the maps have been inaccurate, to say the least. They were running short on supplies, and from the look of the storms on the horizon, in dire need of some solid shelter for the evening. As luck would have it, the party has spotted an ancient outpost on the crest of a hill in the distance and hastily made their way towards it.

After arriving at the the outpost, they discovered the upper levels mostly abandoned, but there were a few signs of recent activity, particularly a couple of underfed wolves held in the stables. Surviving the wolf attack, and few other tricks and traps (included a chest that left Filthy and Logthark temporarily blinded), the party was able to find a couple passage ways into deeper levels. 

Meruus was not quite so lucky in the second combat of the session, as he was swarmed by giant rats. After just a couple well placed bites, the young cleric was bleeding out. The party called for his brother, Teruus, but alas, it was too late. The priest had passed on...Teruus took up his holy symbol and joined the party. 

After discovering another secret passage that led to an even lower level, the party came across 4 goblins guarding a hallway. Unfortunately, where there are 4 goblins, there are often more goblins in waiting. 12 additional goblins poured out of nearby rooms to join the battle. Lorch was able to charm one of the creatures and Logthark put many of the others to sleep. Again, unfortunately, the brave little (and scummy) halfling was still surrounding, and eventually cut down, by the monsters. 

At this point, we called it a night. There is still much to explore in the dungeons below the outpost, but that is another story for another time.

Commentary
I was using the module The Outpost on the Edge of the Far Reaches, which I found online. I liked that it was a nice generic dungeon with a nice variety of monsters and treasures. I wrote up a few notes, but kept the intro as short as possible. I wanted to imply a bit of setting without spending any time developing it. I was presenting the game as a one-shot, with the potential for future adventures, so I didn't want to put too much into back story. I think what I came up with leaves the game open enough for sandbox style adventuring for the future.

As I expected, combat was quite deadly. Meruus the Cleric dropped dead after two rat bites in the second fight. Filthy the halfling was felled by a pair of goblins with short swords. Even with max hit points at first level (6 or 7 depending on class), a single swipe from a sword was enough to kill a character. I had a few characters I had created to practice rolling up, so Meruus dubbed my example cleric Teruus, and decided he was his twin brother. We wrapped the game after Filthy died, so I'm not sure what Dave is going to do for the next session.

The players took to the abstract combat and d6 based initiative pretty well. A couple of the players said they preferred it to the more concrete tactical combat of 3rd/4th edition. They felt that the cinematic quality was much more in line with the rest of the game, rather than feeling like a tactical wargame with some RP stuff tacked on to it. In general, I tried my hardest to present information about a room and let them go at it. Sometimes that was pretty challenging. There is a balance between providing enough information to pique a players interest and just giving everything away. I think learning that balance will come with more practice.

I was curious to see how players handled some of the standard "let the thief/rogue find the trap/pick the lock" type things, since I was running with just the 6 basic class/race options. It worked pretty well. I ruled some doors/locks could be pried open with a crowbar or bashed down and others would just require a key (or the discovery of another, possibly secret, entrance). The players seemed to accept that and there were no arguments.

The thing I found most challenging was being descriptive enough with the rooms. The players were doing their own mapping. Some of them clearly didn't care and were just bouncing from room to room. Others wanted to get it documented. Again, finding the balance was a challenge, but I think we will be able to overcome those challenges with more practice/experience.

Everyone was pretty excited about the session and wanted to continue, so I'll be scheduling another game in the near future. I think the set-up I have so far will allow for fairly casual play which should be fun for all involved. I'm excited to see where this all goes. I'll definitely keep the blog updated with additional updates.

Being Busy

Well, I'm certainly not keeping up with the blog with the same ferocity I did during the Daily Blog Challenge. I suppose that is to be expected. I didn't set any hard deadlines for myself or anything. Honestly, I'd probably rather be gaming or working on something game related than writing about games, at least right now. Plus, I post on a couple message boards, so that gives me some lower commitment opportunities to write about gaming experiences (and often provides nearly instant feedback)...

So I said I was busy, right? Well I've played 6 RPG session in 4 days this week. Saturday was GASP Games Day, which I wrote up last Sunday. Sunday, the 3.5 Ravenloft game resumed. Unfortunately, for the third session in a row, 3 of the players weren't able to make it. The three of us that did make it soldiered on and advanced the plot, though. Monday, I played in a grinder of a 3.5 Forgotten Realms game. My poor rogue was getting destroyed. I tried to design him as more of thug/brute than a sneaky type (he's got 2 levels of fighter and 6 of Rogue), but he was getting hammered on. I think he took nearly 200 points of damage over the night and was down/dying once or twice. Ouch. Tuesday we played Call of Cthulhu. We're still working through Masks of Nyarlathotep.

This weekend, I'll be running my first OSR game. It's going to be a one-shot that may lead to more sessions, depending on how it goes. The game is going to be made up of 3 guys from my usual Tuesday night game, another gamer friend with a lot of experience with new and old editions of the game, and 3 total novices. Two of them haven't played any RPGs in over 10 years and had pretty limited experience then. The third has never played anything, ever. I wanted to keep everything loose and light on rules, so we'll be using Swords & Wizardry White Box. I'm going to run a dungeon I found online called "The Outpost on the Edge of the Far Reaches". Since at least a couple of the players read this, I'm not going to give away any info. I know they're good and won't spoil it for themselves.

For the game system, I thought about using Labyrinth Lord or LotFP, but White Box is so stream-lined, it just seemed like a good fit. I want to save LotFP for my regular Tuesday night crew. Depending on how this goes, I may run a future one-shot with Labyrinth Lord or S&W Core, to see if people like a slightly more advanced system.

I am limiting to the 3 base classes and races -- Fighter, Cleric, Magic User, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling. Players are going to roll their stats 3d6 straight. I've already come up with a few simple house rules to fill in the intentional gaps in the system, and I'm excited to see what I'm going to have to rule on the fly. All the combat is going to be abstract. We're not going to worry about minis or tactics or anything. I'm even going to try to get them to map the dungeon on their own, just using my descriptions. None of us are used to playing this style of gaming, so hopefully it goes okay. I want to have a little bit of culture shock for the people at the tabe, with out putting them off from old style play.

I'm really curious to compare the play style of the completely new person to the people that have been spending a lot of time playing newer editions of the game. Are the regulars going to get tripped up by the lack of skill system? You'll notice, I am running the version without the Thief class. I'm excited to see how they handle those locked doors and trapped passageways without somewhere there who can just roll a couple dice to "fix" it.

Anyway, I think I'm ready to do this. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I was a bit nervous. Running this kind of game seems like a significantly different experience than what I'm used to. I think I'm going to do just fine, but the unknown element always adds some jitters (and excitement). I'll be back with a full report on how it goes and probably some notes on the S&W White Box and the adventure.