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.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Fear and...well, more Fear
Just under 2 weeks from the MiniCon and I'm almost ready with Paranoia. One last character background to finish. Anyone who hasn't run Paranoia before has got to try it. You just set up fear, suspicion and give the characters reasons to shoot at each other and lots of weapons to cause mayhem, throw in a hint of plot and Bang! hours of entertainment, mostly generated by the Players. It's so much fun to prep. I just sit there creating the character backgrounds, giving them impossible conflicting goals and chuckling over what might happen. No doubt it will be more entertaining than whatever I think of.
Finally have a story for the haunted house game. Whew! Gotta work out the details, but I'm mixing stuff from a screenplay idea, the character background system from Fear Itself and using BRP to make it all work.
The weekly game went off without a couple of Players and those who regularly attend are starting to grasp the C-Punk system. I'm playing with my own rules for Cyberpsycosis and it seems to be working well. Odd thing is that most people want to try going Cyberpsyco - weird. I guess I shouldn't be surprised as I'm running it like a convention game. There's just not the investment in the characters as there is in an ongoing game.
Finally have a story for the haunted house game. Whew! Gotta work out the details, but I'm mixing stuff from a screenplay idea, the character background system from Fear Itself and using BRP to make it all work.
The weekly game went off without a couple of Players and those who regularly attend are starting to grasp the C-Punk system. I'm playing with my own rules for Cyberpsycosis and it seems to be working well. Odd thing is that most people want to try going Cyberpsyco - weird. I guess I shouldn't be surprised as I'm running it like a convention game. There's just not the investment in the characters as there is in an ongoing game.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
So Little Time
I've got an event coming up. Endgame in Oakland CA runs MiniCons. 1-day events from 10AM-Midnite. 3 game slots with an hour break. I've signed up to run Paranoia and BRP B-Movie horror. Got the characters for Paranoia done. Working on their backgrounds, etc. Plan to do more tonite. Barely started on the BRP characters. It's a haunted house thing, but I don't have a story yet. MiniCon's less than 2 weeks away... Gulp! I might buy my 1st .pdf thing online. Yeah, I'm slow, alright! Chaosium has a monograph called This Old House by R.J. Christensen. Just the thing for a haunted house game.
The weekly group was missing a couple of members this week. One's in Japan and one's a workaholic with a new job. Made progress in the game anyway. Fewer people = fewer decisions. No need to get anyone in line yet. This might work after all...
The weekly group was missing a couple of members this week. One's in Japan and one's a workaholic with a new job. Made progress in the game anyway. Fewer people = fewer decisions. No need to get anyone in line yet. This might work after all...
Thursday, January 1, 2009
NOT a New Year's Resolutiion
Well, here it is 2009. I've decided to write every day and am starting here. Gonna shoot for regular posts on Tuesdays. Not a resolution, I just want to get back into the swing and need to give myself a schedule to do all the computer-centric stuff I'm wrapped up in. Here goes...
It's lining up to be quite a year. I've got the monthly SF game, and a gaming event (convention, minicon, etc) already lined up in January, February and March. There might be an event in April and the end of May Is Kubla! Labor Day weekend is PacifiCon and likely another event a month or so later. During all of this I'm going to push my own event in December.
I'm looking to do something I'm calling the Dead of Winter Horror RPG Invitational. This would be two days of gaming at the Brookdale Inn & Spa, just up HWY 9 from my house. It would be all horror RPG's. There would also be a Friday meet & greet. The Brookdale Inn (formerly Brookdale Lodge) is a haunted location. It's in the process of being renovated and should be totaly done by the time Dead of Winter happens (December 12-13). I'm hoping to have about 20 people attend. Pitched it to the SF group and they liked the idea. I'll require that everyone stay Fri & Sat nights. We'll see how it goes. Gonna need to get the Terror Rabbit website up & running for it. Should be interesting to go online with that.
Of course the weekly game continues. I'm now running CyberPunk. I'm doing a scenario I already ran for the SF group, which is mostly a published adventure (The Osiris Chip - with my own flair, natch). This is to get everyone used to the system. We'll then generate new characters and go from scratch. The Players have agreed to run straight with this (no foolin' around). It should be interesting. Already looks like I'm gonna need to have a talk with one of the Players about keeping with the tone of the game. More as this progresses.
Lots happening and I'll do my best to keep regular posts. From here on out I'll be up front, honest and likely brutal.
It's lining up to be quite a year. I've got the monthly SF game, and a gaming event (convention, minicon, etc) already lined up in January, February and March. There might be an event in April and the end of May Is Kubla! Labor Day weekend is PacifiCon and likely another event a month or so later. During all of this I'm going to push my own event in December.
I'm looking to do something I'm calling the Dead of Winter Horror RPG Invitational. This would be two days of gaming at the Brookdale Inn & Spa, just up HWY 9 from my house. It would be all horror RPG's. There would also be a Friday meet & greet. The Brookdale Inn (formerly Brookdale Lodge) is a haunted location. It's in the process of being renovated and should be totaly done by the time Dead of Winter happens (December 12-13). I'm hoping to have about 20 people attend. Pitched it to the SF group and they liked the idea. I'll require that everyone stay Fri & Sat nights. We'll see how it goes. Gonna need to get the Terror Rabbit website up & running for it. Should be interesting to go online with that.
Of course the weekly game continues. I'm now running CyberPunk. I'm doing a scenario I already ran for the SF group, which is mostly a published adventure (The Osiris Chip - with my own flair, natch). This is to get everyone used to the system. We'll then generate new characters and go from scratch. The Players have agreed to run straight with this (no foolin' around). It should be interesting. Already looks like I'm gonna need to have a talk with one of the Players about keeping with the tone of the game. More as this progresses.
Lots happening and I'll do my best to keep regular posts. From here on out I'll be up front, honest and likely brutal.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
T.M.I.
So I was at the SF game this weekend. We played the in-book scenario from Ken Hite's ink-still-wet new Trail of Cthulhu. This is C-O-C using Robin Laws' Gumshoe System. I recently bought Fear Itself, and have been having some difficulty with the system. Thought perhaps it was just reading 20 minutes at a time, days apart. Doesn't help, but the GM running T-O-C had a bit of struggle also and he'd been in a playtest of it. The Player's review at the end didn't give the system very high marks. It does work to eliminate possible missed clues, which is one of the primary goals of the system, but the mechanics remained a bit unclear. But this ain't a review of Gumshoe. I'll do that once I've had a 4-hr block to read Fear Itself.
This is about character backgrounds. In SF we run monthly 1-shots where the GM hands out characters w/backgrounds, like a convention game. We've had some great character interaction because of many of these. In this game, one of the character's background involved them in action outside of the central plot of the game. This meant that he and the GM had to run off sometimes and do things on the side. At one point I even joked about whether or not this character was going to join us in the investigation.
Ultimately it all came together, but it put that Player and his character at a distance from everyone else. The drag is that the character was an Army buddy of 2 of the other characters. This could have led to a number of interesting moments, but since he wasn't always around...
In the post game analysis (what is this, freakin' sports!?) the GM revealed that he'd put that stuff into the character background to make things more interesting. They were, but also very distracting. Note to self: design 1-shot character backgrounds to feed into the central storyline, or to add color. Beware of possible character sidetracking. 'Character Sidetracking' have I just invented a term?
This is about character backgrounds. In SF we run monthly 1-shots where the GM hands out characters w/backgrounds, like a convention game. We've had some great character interaction because of many of these. In this game, one of the character's background involved them in action outside of the central plot of the game. This meant that he and the GM had to run off sometimes and do things on the side. At one point I even joked about whether or not this character was going to join us in the investigation.
Ultimately it all came together, but it put that Player and his character at a distance from everyone else. The drag is that the character was an Army buddy of 2 of the other characters. This could have led to a number of interesting moments, but since he wasn't always around...
In the post game analysis (what is this, freakin' sports!?) the GM revealed that he'd put that stuff into the character background to make things more interesting. They were, but also very distracting. Note to self: design 1-shot character backgrounds to feed into the central storyline, or to add color. Beware of possible character sidetracking. 'Character Sidetracking' have I just invented a term?
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