Such a long time since I posted. Where to start...Oh yeah - Kuuuuubla! KublaCon was last month and as usual it was a stellar time. Friday I was able to arrive at exactly the starting bell. I picked up my badge etc. and immediately began connecting with people. Sheesh I know a ton of people at Kubla! Saturday I ran into more folks and it struck me how many SF Bay gamers I know. I spent quite awhile with Justin Means. Great guy, who I've only recently met and it was great to get to know him better.
I didn't officially get into a game, but I was able to crash Todd Furler's Hollow Earth Expedition game. As always, top-notch.
At the end of the game I handed out postcards to an even I'm hosting in December - The Dead of Winter Horror Invitational. It's a weekend of horror RPG's at the haunted Brookdale Lodge in the Santa Cruz Mountains - just up the road from my house. Had a teriffic response. Got the website up for it last weekend. 2 Freakin weeks after Kubla, but at least it's up and folks I've invited are checking it out. A coupla guys on the GM Forum have indicated that they'll come and Gil Trevizo's already sent me ideas for two games. I wanna get games lined up as quickly as possible. Finally got details ironed out with the Brookdale Lodge last week, so now everything's current on the website.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Stoked!
Last night I rec'd a pckage from Chaosium. In it was a copy of BRP Adventures. It's a collection of adventures for the new BRP system. They held a contest for adventures. I wrote one of the adventures in the collection. I'm now a published game writer. I'm stoked!
My adventure is Terror At 6666 Feet. It's a B-movie adventure I've run a few times. I've since run another B-movie game. Now I'm now inspired to submit a collection of 13 B-movie adventures to Chaosium as a monograph. I figure I can write up my new B-movie game and convert several CoC adventures. Gotta figure out all 13 and submit a proposal to Chaosium. Fingers crossed...
My adventure is Terror At 6666 Feet. It's a B-movie adventure I've run a few times. I've since run another B-movie game. Now I'm now inspired to submit a collection of 13 B-movie adventures to Chaosium as a monograph. I figure I can write up my new B-movie game and convert several CoC adventures. Gotta figure out all 13 and submit a proposal to Chaosium. Fingers crossed...
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
An A+!
The first session of C-Punk with Player generated characters went off rather well. The run-up to the event was interesting. I asked everyone to write up their character background based on their original idea and any input from the Lifepath portion of character creation. Gotta say that this has produced some veeeery interesting characters. I also had them do 2 things. The first borrowed from Don't Rest Your head.
1. What Just Happened? Tell me what happened to the character within the last 24 hours that's bringing them to the Forlorn Hope (bar) where the game's gonna kick off.
2. What/who connects you to the Hope?
This combo of things made me feel like a teacher. Some Players sent me their bio within a couple of days, complete with photos. I use photos to create 4X6 'standees' in acrylic stands, which the Players put on the table to remind the other Players how cool they look. Others sent them on the last day w/o pics. Lastly, some phoned it in, giving me an hour or so to wedge them into the opening scene. So, some people got A's, some B's and a coupla D-'s. The D-'s had 'reasons' of course. It was fun to get the bio's but kinda weird as people were asking for approval and making sure they didn't need to make any changes. I got to have interesting dialogue with those who turned in early. Mostly the bio's were very cool with only minor tweaks needed.
Once we sat down, (everyone brought food and we had quite a spread) I asked them what time they arrived at the bar - a spread from 8PM -1:30AM. Everyone got a little time in the spotlight when they came into the bar. I played some music to set the atmosphere for the bar. There was a little crossover and then their various connections hooked them up. The next day, I got the following Emails from the Players:
Just wanted to thank Matt for a great 1st Cyberpunk 2020 session with our own characters! I had fun and thought everyone did a grand job getting into character. I can't wait to go play in the Colombian consulate next week. :)
Indeed, thanks.
Kickin' good start. The grand job of getting into character was totally due to the backgrounds. Awesome! The rest of the backgrounds should come in this week. Overall, the opening session gets an A+! (if I do say so myself)
1. What Just Happened? Tell me what happened to the character within the last 24 hours that's bringing them to the Forlorn Hope (bar) where the game's gonna kick off.
2. What/who connects you to the Hope?
This combo of things made me feel like a teacher. Some Players sent me their bio within a couple of days, complete with photos. I use photos to create 4X6 'standees' in acrylic stands, which the Players put on the table to remind the other Players how cool they look. Others sent them on the last day w/o pics. Lastly, some phoned it in, giving me an hour or so to wedge them into the opening scene. So, some people got A's, some B's and a coupla D-'s. The D-'s had 'reasons' of course. It was fun to get the bio's but kinda weird as people were asking for approval and making sure they didn't need to make any changes. I got to have interesting dialogue with those who turned in early. Mostly the bio's were very cool with only minor tweaks needed.
Once we sat down, (everyone brought food and we had quite a spread) I asked them what time they arrived at the bar - a spread from 8PM -1:30AM. Everyone got a little time in the spotlight when they came into the bar. I played some music to set the atmosphere for the bar. There was a little crossover and then their various connections hooked them up. The next day, I got the following Emails from the Players:
Just wanted to thank Matt for a great 1st Cyberpunk 2020 session with our own characters! I had fun and thought everyone did a grand job getting into character. I can't wait to go play in the Colombian consulate next week. :)
Indeed, thanks.
Kickin' good start. The grand job of getting into character was totally due to the backgrounds. Awesome! The rest of the backgrounds should come in this week. Overall, the opening session gets an A+! (if I do say so myself)
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Plan Comes Together
Spent Monday evening working on the Cyberpunk characters. Everyone picked roles they like and it looks like a team will emerge. The plan of running a sample game to prep people for this process worked like a charm. Folks came with ideas and them tweaked them easily during the process. + it was fun! Character generation can be a drag, but we had a good time.
I asked for them to work up bios based on the Lifepath process. I've already had several Email exchanges on this. Everyone's going to have a connection to the Forlorn Hope, a bar from an supplement. I Emailed everyone the background on the bar. I also 'borrowed' from the game DON'T REST YOUR HEAD. The character generation process includes a series of questions. One of these questions is, "What just happened?" For the C-Punk game, this will tell me why the characters are going to the bar at this time.
It goes against my grain to start the game in a bar. It's so old school D&D. But then we're playing C-punk 2020. It's now a retro 80's game. Weird. One has to go with the tech as imagined then, as opposed to where it's actually gone. It's like original Traveller where ship's computers were figured in tons. Funky. Next week's the kickoff...
I asked for them to work up bios based on the Lifepath process. I've already had several Email exchanges on this. Everyone's going to have a connection to the Forlorn Hope, a bar from an supplement. I Emailed everyone the background on the bar. I also 'borrowed' from the game DON'T REST YOUR HEAD. The character generation process includes a series of questions. One of these questions is, "What just happened?" For the C-Punk game, this will tell me why the characters are going to the bar at this time.
It goes against my grain to start the game in a bar. It's so old school D&D. But then we're playing C-punk 2020. It's now a retro 80's game. Weird. One has to go with the tech as imagined then, as opposed to where it's actually gone. It's like original Traveller where ship's computers were figured in tons. Funky. Next week's the kickoff...
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
...And The Winner Is...
Big news - My BRP adventure TERROR AT 6666 FEET was selected as a winner of Chaosium's BRP Adventure contest. The pdf version of the 13 part adventure compilation became available 3/13. My lucky day. I'm now a published writer. Sweeeeet! The bound version should be available early April.
Attended ConQuest Sacramento last weekend. Didn't expect much as I was told not to. The con isn't much to speak of, but I did get to play 3 games I've never had a chance to try, 7th Sea, Buffy and Alternity. Average adventures all, but it was cool to try new games. I was barely able to find enough people to run my Cthulhu game. Daaaaang! My Paranoia game didn't go as only 1 person signed up for it. Double daaaaang! I'm used to turning people away. Seems that 6-8 hour games with 6 Players are not the norm. More like 4.5 hour games with 4-5 Players. Weird. I did get to hang with my friend Matt DeHayes & his girl, Nicole. That was cool. We live nearly 3 hrs apart, so don't get much hang time. We gamed together most of the weekend & he let me crash at his place, which made the adventure affordable.
I did a fair amount of networking at ConQuest + met some new people. I also bumped into folks who attend KublaCon and DunDraCon. 2 of them had played in my games and said nice things about them. One even mentioned that he was talking about my game on his way to the convention. I'm honored and glad that I was able to entertain.
The weekly group finally finished the 'sample' C-punk game I've been running for them. Now onto creating new characters for an ongoing game. Gonna start with TALES FROM THE FORLORN HOPE adventure pack. I good central location to start with, though I can't believe I'm gonna start a game in a bar. We'll spend one evening creating characters which will give me a week to get good hooks for them. We'll see what the LifePath generates.
I'm in negotiations with the Brookdale Lodge, a local haunted hotel in the Santa Cruz mountains, to run a gaming event of my own. It's the DEAD OF WINTER HORROR INVITATIONAL. It'll take place December 11,12,13, 2009. I'll host a mixer at the hotel lounge on Friday night as folks arrive. It will be an all horror RPG weekend. Games will start Saturday at 10AM. 1st session will run for 6 hours. 2nd session will run 6PM to midnight or so. Repeat on Sunday. Hoping to get 28ish people. That would make 4 groups of 7 (6-Players, 1-GM) I'm renting the 19th Century Log Cabin, part of the original hotel, built in 1870. A big log room with giant fireplace, it should be a great place for horror. I'll have to figure out how to keep the noise down. No 'open gaming room' for this event. Once a vacation destination for movie stars and gangsters, the lodge has seen better days but is currently being renovated and will emerge as the Brookdale Inn & Spa. Most of the rooms will be finished by December, so there'll be an excellent combination of rustic and modern. So far everyone I've pitched the idea to, likes it. More here as it evolves.
Attended ConQuest Sacramento last weekend. Didn't expect much as I was told not to. The con isn't much to speak of, but I did get to play 3 games I've never had a chance to try, 7th Sea, Buffy and Alternity. Average adventures all, but it was cool to try new games. I was barely able to find enough people to run my Cthulhu game. Daaaaang! My Paranoia game didn't go as only 1 person signed up for it. Double daaaaang! I'm used to turning people away. Seems that 6-8 hour games with 6 Players are not the norm. More like 4.5 hour games with 4-5 Players. Weird. I did get to hang with my friend Matt DeHayes & his girl, Nicole. That was cool. We live nearly 3 hrs apart, so don't get much hang time. We gamed together most of the weekend & he let me crash at his place, which made the adventure affordable.
I did a fair amount of networking at ConQuest + met some new people. I also bumped into folks who attend KublaCon and DunDraCon. 2 of them had played in my games and said nice things about them. One even mentioned that he was talking about my game on his way to the convention. I'm honored and glad that I was able to entertain.
The weekly group finally finished the 'sample' C-punk game I've been running for them. Now onto creating new characters for an ongoing game. Gonna start with TALES FROM THE FORLORN HOPE adventure pack. I good central location to start with, though I can't believe I'm gonna start a game in a bar. We'll spend one evening creating characters which will give me a week to get good hooks for them. We'll see what the LifePath generates.
I'm in negotiations with the Brookdale Lodge, a local haunted hotel in the Santa Cruz mountains, to run a gaming event of my own. It's the DEAD OF WINTER HORROR INVITATIONAL. It'll take place December 11,12,13, 2009. I'll host a mixer at the hotel lounge on Friday night as folks arrive. It will be an all horror RPG weekend. Games will start Saturday at 10AM. 1st session will run for 6 hours. 2nd session will run 6PM to midnight or so. Repeat on Sunday. Hoping to get 28ish people. That would make 4 groups of 7 (6-Players, 1-GM) I'm renting the 19th Century Log Cabin, part of the original hotel, built in 1870. A big log room with giant fireplace, it should be a great place for horror. I'll have to figure out how to keep the noise down. No 'open gaming room' for this event. Once a vacation destination for movie stars and gangsters, the lodge has seen better days but is currently being renovated and will emerge as the Brookdale Inn & Spa. Most of the rooms will be finished by December, so there'll be an excellent combination of rustic and modern. So far everyone I've pitched the idea to, likes it. More here as it evolves.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
MiniMax Weekend Part II
A new SF Shadowrun game was in the offing the day after the MiniCon. I'm not a fan of the setting or system, but the SF group's just too much fun to hang with. Tired after MiniCon, & with allergies kicking my ass, I went up anyway.
Sad to say this was not the best SF game. Kim made it, so that was totally cool. She brought her new hubby which was fun except that he's a bit rusty and couldn't quite come up to our level of gaming. He gave it a helluva try though, so props to him. They had rearranged their 6-month anniversary to attend, so 2 thumbs way up.
The GM gave me a mage. A complicated character to play, though with some interesting background stuff. Alas, I wasn't up to the task and didn't really grasp the role & best methods of utilizing the character. The GM had turned the tables on the C-Punk game I'd run and that was interesting. The group kept it fun until about 3/4 of the way through. The GM killed off Gil's character (a helluva surprise, I'll give him that) and then handed Gil the NPC that had killed his other character. Gil was having his usual fun with the 1st character and got handed an aggressive authority type character - one we'd all come to hate and fear. Turns out Gil doesn't like to play this kind of character, so he wasn't able to make the transition. From there the game kinda fizzled. It ended with a whimper and early as well. Good for sleep-deprived me. Home at a decent hour.
Monday saw a new chapter in the C-Punk game. Yesterday we finally got out of the initial combat. Now to decide if we want to press on or move to new characters and adventures. I'll send out a group Email and we'll figure it out from there.
Running the same Paranoia game at DunDra, so I've already reset everything. Thanks to Lisa, I made multiples of all the material. Sweet! I need to reset TERROR AT 6666 FEET. With luck I'll be ready for a Con a full week ahead of schedule (weird). Hopefully the resets for ConQuest Sac will go just as quickly.
Final news - I had to call Chaosium 'cause the PDF I wanted wasn't on the Monograph page. I asked about the BRP momograph contest. I submitted TERROR to the contest. No answer at that time but got an Email a few days later letting me know that they were about done with it. Winners & prizes to be announced shortly. Fingers crossed...
Sad to say this was not the best SF game. Kim made it, so that was totally cool. She brought her new hubby which was fun except that he's a bit rusty and couldn't quite come up to our level of gaming. He gave it a helluva try though, so props to him. They had rearranged their 6-month anniversary to attend, so 2 thumbs way up.
The GM gave me a mage. A complicated character to play, though with some interesting background stuff. Alas, I wasn't up to the task and didn't really grasp the role & best methods of utilizing the character. The GM had turned the tables on the C-Punk game I'd run and that was interesting. The group kept it fun until about 3/4 of the way through. The GM killed off Gil's character (a helluva surprise, I'll give him that) and then handed Gil the NPC that had killed his other character. Gil was having his usual fun with the 1st character and got handed an aggressive authority type character - one we'd all come to hate and fear. Turns out Gil doesn't like to play this kind of character, so he wasn't able to make the transition. From there the game kinda fizzled. It ended with a whimper and early as well. Good for sleep-deprived me. Home at a decent hour.
Monday saw a new chapter in the C-Punk game. Yesterday we finally got out of the initial combat. Now to decide if we want to press on or move to new characters and adventures. I'll send out a group Email and we'll figure it out from there.
Running the same Paranoia game at DunDra, so I've already reset everything. Thanks to Lisa, I made multiples of all the material. Sweet! I need to reset TERROR AT 6666 FEET. With luck I'll be ready for a Con a full week ahead of schedule (weird). Hopefully the resets for ConQuest Sac will go just as quickly.
Final news - I had to call Chaosium 'cause the PDF I wanted wasn't on the Monograph page. I asked about the BRP momograph contest. I submitted TERROR to the contest. No answer at that time but got an Email a few days later letting me know that they were about done with it. Winners & prizes to be announced shortly. Fingers crossed...
MiniMax
The MiniCon has come and gone. No chance to post since then as I lost internet contact @ home. Some hardware fixes later & I'm up & running. Thanks James! Soonish a new laptop & more coolness. Yeah!
I was able to put the B-Movie game together and even find images for each of the characters. Rather than have players pick their own images, I pre-picked which meant that I could put the character names on the picture stands. I did this for the weekly C-Punk game as well, after they picked their image. The game was full (5 Players) though they didn't all arrive on time. Gil Trevizo played and took the requisite blonde college student. Thanks Gil!
There was an interesting player named Erik who is only able to be 'home' a couple of days a month. As he goes to other towns to work, he tries to hook up with local gamers. Very interesting. Some time it would be cool to chat about his experiences.
4 hours just wasn't enough time and I had to rush the ending. Good horror requires time to set up. Also, more & more I like to get the character interaction going before the badness begins. It seems to be a good technique. Even rushed, it seemed like everyone had a good time. One character almost escaped from the house. I was able to purchase & donwload This Old Haunted House PDF from Chaosium a couple of days before. It really helped. A tool I've needed for a long time. I got a couple of nice compliments.
1. Part way through the game, as we were walking to get our cars out of the soon-to-close parking garage, Erik told me that it was clear I ran a lot of horror. The characters were learning more and more and getting progressively freaked out. Perfect!
2. Gil mentioned that he'd like to play the scenario again with the SF group. High praise from Gil. He's a great Player & I will run it for the SF group. I can take my time with them and really get the freak out.
The Paranoia game didn't fill up, but had 4 of 6 Players. I should have looked a little closer at which characters I handed out as one of the elements (R&D vs Armed Forces) couldn't play out because I didn't hand out any of the R&D characters. That'll change for DunDraCon. I had 3 new Players and Noam who I've played with before. He's a cool guy and didn't fall for my 1st Paranoia GM trick (rats!). Another Player, Shannon, used one of my house rules against me. It was a great move and earned him some Perversity Points. I ain't tellin' what he did... Anyways, we chatted afterward and we've been in Email contact since. He's a fellow GM and that's made for some interesting discussions. The game went off well except that I had to keep reminding the Players not to cooperate. I only killed off about half of their clones, but heck I only had 4 hours! Again, a good time had by all and I'm always pleased to introduce new people to my favorite games. Turns out Shannon has been trying to get into my games for awhile.
I'd been battling a cold prior to the MiniCon and so decided to skip the AM games. Good call. One of the 2 games I was intered in was cancelled. It turns out I could have gotten into Brian Isikoff's game (bummer). Ah well, getting some sleep was better for me anyway. I still got to chat with Brian for a few minutes and hang with the Endgame crew. Those guys rock.
Jack Young ran a C-O-C game while I ran BRP B-Movie. Drag. It would be fun to be in a game of his. Don't know that I'll be able to at DunDraCon. I'm probably gonna hit new horror GM's
I picked up some discount products for Etherscope and finally ordered the game itself. Looking forward to diving into it. So, even for an abbreviated MiniCon I was able to maximize the fun. I left exhausted but fulfilled. Next day - the SF game - it was like I had a MiniCon weekend.
I was able to put the B-Movie game together and even find images for each of the characters. Rather than have players pick their own images, I pre-picked which meant that I could put the character names on the picture stands. I did this for the weekly C-Punk game as well, after they picked their image. The game was full (5 Players) though they didn't all arrive on time. Gil Trevizo played and took the requisite blonde college student. Thanks Gil!
There was an interesting player named Erik who is only able to be 'home' a couple of days a month. As he goes to other towns to work, he tries to hook up with local gamers. Very interesting. Some time it would be cool to chat about his experiences.
4 hours just wasn't enough time and I had to rush the ending. Good horror requires time to set up. Also, more & more I like to get the character interaction going before the badness begins. It seems to be a good technique. Even rushed, it seemed like everyone had a good time. One character almost escaped from the house. I was able to purchase & donwload This Old Haunted House PDF from Chaosium a couple of days before. It really helped. A tool I've needed for a long time. I got a couple of nice compliments.
1. Part way through the game, as we were walking to get our cars out of the soon-to-close parking garage, Erik told me that it was clear I ran a lot of horror. The characters were learning more and more and getting progressively freaked out. Perfect!
2. Gil mentioned that he'd like to play the scenario again with the SF group. High praise from Gil. He's a great Player & I will run it for the SF group. I can take my time with them and really get the freak out.
The Paranoia game didn't fill up, but had 4 of 6 Players. I should have looked a little closer at which characters I handed out as one of the elements (R&D vs Armed Forces) couldn't play out because I didn't hand out any of the R&D characters. That'll change for DunDraCon. I had 3 new Players and Noam who I've played with before. He's a cool guy and didn't fall for my 1st Paranoia GM trick (rats!). Another Player, Shannon, used one of my house rules against me. It was a great move and earned him some Perversity Points. I ain't tellin' what he did... Anyways, we chatted afterward and we've been in Email contact since. He's a fellow GM and that's made for some interesting discussions. The game went off well except that I had to keep reminding the Players not to cooperate. I only killed off about half of their clones, but heck I only had 4 hours! Again, a good time had by all and I'm always pleased to introduce new people to my favorite games. Turns out Shannon has been trying to get into my games for awhile.
I'd been battling a cold prior to the MiniCon and so decided to skip the AM games. Good call. One of the 2 games I was intered in was cancelled. It turns out I could have gotten into Brian Isikoff's game (bummer). Ah well, getting some sleep was better for me anyway. I still got to chat with Brian for a few minutes and hang with the Endgame crew. Those guys rock.
Jack Young ran a C-O-C game while I ran BRP B-Movie. Drag. It would be fun to be in a game of his. Don't know that I'll be able to at DunDraCon. I'm probably gonna hit new horror GM's
I picked up some discount products for Etherscope and finally ordered the game itself. Looking forward to diving into it. So, even for an abbreviated MiniCon I was able to maximize the fun. I left exhausted but fulfilled. Next day - the SF game - it was like I had a MiniCon weekend.
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