Some very cool old photos -

http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/print.php?journal_id=67&j_id=6

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/sets/72157625464218629/with/5257979652/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/sets/72157628700735401/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/sets/72157628699736505/

My comment:

Just listened to 38, on the topic of “why release a new version of dnd?”, which came around to a discussion point suggesting a ruleset can be separate from setting, and settings can be developed independently – I agree, and I had a thought:

I think there is a point where players wish to pick-up and play a game without re-work or development. Paying for a bundle of setting + ruleset is time efficient and cheap.

There is also some settings which have proprietary mechanics in the rules (swarms in DeathWatch, flexible magic in Arsmagica) which would be difficult to emulate in other systems. eg. implementing either examples in GURPS would be interesting and probably fun, but would also take significant time to create, and then more time for the other players to learn. With a single book game the players start playing with minimal run-up.

My point is moderately diluted by dnd due to so many editions that are so similar (1,2,3,3.5), except that the choice of mechanics is sometimes very important to players (as seen by pathfinder’s initial uptake), and the separation of dnd4e into what is essentially a new game with dnd branding.

Just a few thoughts, great podcast.

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GM Chris, host of the Order 66 Podcast came up with these questions, believing that a good answer to these three simple questions can be more important than any amount of back story when looking at a game from a GM’s perspective, because they immediately provide hooks he can use to draw the character, and by extension the player, into the game.

So what are these three magical questions? Well, I’m no bridge keeper, but I’ll ask you anyway.

1. What does you character Love? With a capital L. Even the most reviled, evil despot has something, somewhere they care about a great deal, and would give of themselves to protect – perhaps even sacrificing their life to protect and care for. This could be a friend, family member, or lover. Perhaps a homeworld, a group of people, or a village that once sheltered you. Maybe you have a soft-spot for kittens.

2. What does you character Hate? With a capital H. Even the most benevolent and well-meaning character has something, somewhere they hate, would go out of their way to harm, or would irrationally distrust. This could be an individual in the character’s past, or a group of people. Even a planet. Perhaps the character has a prejudice against Trandoshans, or has sworn to destroy the bounty hunter clan that destroyed his village as a child.

3. Why is your character willingly (and eagerly) working for the [rebellion/empire/guild/organization/order/etc./whatever-group-the-PCs-are-actively-working-with]? Why is your character an active participant in what this group does, and willing to work with the rest of the party? Are they devoted to the cause? Do they have a simple love of credits? Are they devoted to stamping out a threat?

They are three short questions, but there is a lot there a skilled GM can work with and build off of, providing hours and hours of drama and entertainment that the players are going to care about, because their characters are directly involved somehow. But I would go so far as to add in a fourth question just to round it out.

4. Your character has a connection with one of the other characters. What is it? Were they childhood friends (or rivals)? Were they sweethearts growing up? Are they related? Did one help another out of a jam (by saving them from slavers or Imperial troops)? Are they mentoring another character?

This kicks the entire notion of “you meet in a tavern” right in the teeth, something that I am happy to do. Yes, it’s a sacred cow in the world of RPGs, but it’s fatted to the point where it’s well past time for slaughter. This begins the game with the PCs already knowing at least one of the other party members in some way, and already begins building  relationships before the first session and gives the players something to work off of. In fact, this idea is so important, that the wildly popular Spirit of the Century has it as a built-in mechanic during character creation.

I tried the three questions in a campaign, and I haven’t gone back since.

So, to finish rounding out the cast, and to make help make sense of things that are going to be put in motion later, I’d like to present to you the abridged versions of my players answers to the questions three.

Skai Kasian

Directly related to events in his past, Skai has been on his own, and has grown to love the freedom that comes from never knowing where your next job is going to come from. For this reason, he hates those that would prey on others and take away that freedom, be they pirates or slavers, believing them to be the worst kind of coward. His lifestyle has led him to the less regulated Outer Rim where he took a job on the growing colony world of Haalthor.

Kirikinerry-tovante

Holovids have always been an escape for Kiri, and have become his one true constant companion and love through a life of constant upheaval. Kiri also maintains a strict code of honor and has a strong distaste for those who don’t play “fair,” which granted, sounds a little strange coming from someone with criminal tendencies. If you’re going to lie, cheat, and steal, then at least be elegant about it. Unfortunately for Kiri, the law finally caught up with him, and he was forced to sell his ship to get enough bribe money to get the charges dropped. This has effectively stranded him on the colony of Haalthor.

Rann Antilles

Rann still carries a torch for his first love, Seela, a Twi’lek dancing girl. When he left Corellia, they drifted apart, but the peace officer still cares deeply for the spirited young woman. Coming from a long line of decorated CorSec officers, the thing he hates above all is dirty cops and the politics that follow in their wake, catching everyone else in the waves. In fact, this sort of led to him losing his position in CorSec. “Pressure from upstairs” for busting an Imperial loyalists son on a drug charge lost him his job and he drifted away from Corellian space, taking his particular set of skills and knowledge to work on a security detail on a small Outer Rim colony.

Jasem Osar

If Jasem could choose one word to define perfection for himself it would be this. Harmony. His  time with the Revwien and his time studying the way of the Tyia Adepts have taught him that nothing is more important in this world, and the peace-loving ways of his species play to that particularly well. Because of this, he hates being required to perform a violent act. He will do so if the act is necessary, but it tends to push him into a cycle of self-loathing and hatred that tends to lead to further destructive actions and hatred of the person who necessitated the action. After being exiled from his homeworld and being trained as a Tyia Adept, he traveled the Outer Rim, seeking to bring harmony back to those that had suffered at the hands of this new war, moving from planet to planet, eventually leading him to Haalthor.

Niera Kurucz

Niera has always loved droids, more so than even a normal droid technician would. She has always been surrounded by droids and has even gone so far as to take steps to make herself more droid like, putting her at odds with her own people and other organics in general. This has led to a hatred of disrespect, stemming from the disrespect she got from her own people as well as from seeing so many people use and abuse droids as nothing more than simple tools. She was sent to the colony of Haalthor by her company to act as a technician for the colony.

Next time – The First Session.

Originally posted on Word of the Nerd Online

I had a thought about the debate on DnD Next, and how the version wars are puttering along. What would happen if the same mechanic ruleset was released by somebody else? Is it disliked because of a fear of change, or an inclination of disinterest?

Pathfinder took a variation and made it popular. Could be that they fixed a lot of frustration, and did so without the yoke of owning the product. The same action by the owner might not have been as popular when Pathfinder was released. We now see Pathfinder further tweaking their rules, and getting a mixed bag of acceptance feedback. Coincidence?

DnD 4e went to a new place mechanically with the highly tactical play, and I think it would have been hailed as an innovation if it wasn’t meant to replace older versions of the dnd brand. Meaning as a new game it was very clever and innovative, as dnd a segment of the community hated it.

The same things feels true about 5e – that a third party could release the “Next” rule-set as an indie mod, and probably get a better reaction than dnd’s publishers. Why? Less extremes to worry about. You’d get everyone who wants to test it happily trying, and all the core rules fans ignoring it. The edition war would not start because it would not be an official edition.

If you hold that position as plausible, then it is kind of sad. A new rule-set should be evaluated without that prejudice. Like it or hate it, it should be given the opportunity to be played properly. An rpg is not removing the rulebooks from our shelves, so that if an old edition is a favourite, then it can continue to be played.

Just a thought.

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Traditionally the table-top roleplaying group consists of  a games master and a set of players this can work very effectively as the sole GM has control of a consistent world and can tailor it to his players and their characters which as time goes on he gets to know well. The negatives are that with regular gaming sessions (however lucky you have them) fatigue can set in the same set of players start to bore the GM with certain automatic responses and the GM capacity can become eroded. From personal experience after a monster length successful campaign it can be very difficult to get players to engage with a new setting, rules etc;

Many games follow the pattern of episodic TV or traditional questing party books in having a set group adventuring together but if we look at other sources like superhero comics , more recent fantasy novels (in particular I’m think of the Shadow of the Apt series), TV shows (HBO/AMC/Showtime stuff) and our suspicious cousins in the world on multi-user online RPGs characters flit in out and out of different groups, settings and storylines much more chaotically and I’d contend realistically.

Equally in the world of TV and comics very few bodies employ just one writer, (or director for TV) which suggests to me there is no need for the one GM-one Group model.

There is an alternative. I know, I’ve tried it a few times and modern technology in the form of skype can help.

There are a great many roleplayers & GMs out there, many with other commitments (like myself) can’t make regular gaming sessions like they’d like too. But…

• There is nothing to say a game has to have the same player-characters in it week after week, scenario after scenario.
• There is nothing to say a game has to have the same GM week after week, scenario after scenario.

At University I GM’d and participated in a pulp SF game.  In that initial game 3 out of the 4 roleplayers interested wanted to run it so we arranged to all make up a few characters and one of use would run a scenario then the GM would change some or all of the characters would change and we’d experience another planet or sector and other elements of the world. By the time that campaign came to an end there had been I think 7 GMs involved and including a multi-party all nighter ‘special’ game maybe 30 people had played c120 characters in that world. Some characters were even swapped between players!

Well it could be said that says more about how you can spend your time doing an arts course at University, but…the game stayed fresh for 5 years, you never knew what to expect and the depth and breadth of characters was extraordinary.

Other examples include a dimension-hopping game with one GM as the main GM but others guesting when they had ideas for scenarios that he approved a broad synopsis of. I also in 6^th form ran a cyberpunk game where characters were offered 2 jobs one was GM’d by me the other by another GM. The only issue there was because of our style and attitude to description time unfolded much slower in his game than mine.

Skype means you are no longer limited to players of GMs in your neighbourhood for games having ran http://alfiesantics.wordpress.com/ on skype and have heard other groups using the voice-over internet system for free conference calls successfully for games. So to run a co-operative game what do you need…

• To be clear that all GMs are consistent on their interpretation of the rules
• To be clear what bits of the world the GMs can play with (either divvy it up but territory or establish certain ground rules like ‘no successful detonation of weapons of mass destruction,’ ‘no killing Sherlock Holmes’ or whatever is essential to your world.)
• Agree Tone (pulpy, gritty and lethal whatever.)
• Some central record of what’s going on – be that blogs, facebook group, forum, podcast stream whatever so when people duck out they can catch up.
• And speaking as a world building control freak..you probably have to push back and restrain the world building control freak each GM to stop them wanted to define every little detail restricting the freedom of the other GMs.

Examples of worlds were this may work would be:

• Three musketeers France with the character
  bouncing around Paris
• Four colour Supers
• Call of Ctuhlhu – rather than a set of investigators various lone fighters of the cosmic bumping into each other (is also very much the premise of Delta Green.)
• Though I’d love to hear other people’s ideas.

If you would be interested in playing or Gming in something like this then please get in touch at dissectingworlds AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk or twitter AT clarkythecruel

The ruleset has always been trivial when compared to the influence the playstyle the team brings to the table has on gameplay. A bunch of tabletop war-gamers could railroad 1st ed just as well as a bunch of roleplayers could chatter happily in 4th ed.

I made this comment on an article over at GeekoSystem about getting into the dnd playtest. Its not that I don’t respect the debate, or even that the ruleset affects the players – I just feel that getting hung up on the mechanic resolutions is a detractor to why I roleplay. I ply rpgs for entertainment, and that entertainment is based around acting in character; the mechanics are secondary.

Some player are the opposite, and more power to them. I hope they love every game they play too. Perhaps players who don’t really care so much are not the target audience for the new edition? Those players would play almost any system, so a switch to dnd 1st edition, plus 4e options, minus counters and powercards, plus whatever else is irrelevant to them.

The trick is that I think the dnd market is so segregated into sub-streams that it is almost impossible to get any book now published with a dnd heading which will sell to 30% of the potential market.

So what is the solution? Sell settings and experiences, not rulesets.

This then starts the second holy war, which is which setting. Sheesh – stick to the ones which used to sell well and develop good deep modules and campaign material. Even better if the Living Realms or combined story type aspects can be added too.

Essentially give the community material that they can absorb and use and they’ll keep buying products. Many gaming groups can consume every pre-generated module created for a system, so why not ramp up the production to match.

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Not great like Sophie art, but my own humble attempt at something.

This issue has a heavy focus on the mystery of ships with new ways to incorporate maritime elements and themes into games.

“A mild winter has left us busy but issue #10 is now here, full of stormy skies and unfamiliar magic, with a dash of mystery and a ship to sail it by.

Accented with lavish art, you’ll find pieces from Ars Magica veterans like Jeff Menges and Angela Taylor alongside Sub Rosa regulars like Vincent Belmont, Alexandra Dopp, Barrie James and Jason Tseng.

Weighing in at 60 pages, the Storyguide’s handbook considers the Dramatic Journey, Mark Lawford gives you the blueprints for a Hermetic Shipwright, and there are mystery cults and twilight scars to go around.

Vulcanis Argens returns and there’s a thundering scenario sure to keep your saga engaged, no matter what Tribunal your troupe calls home.” (cont)

Quick Review - Another excellent issue. My first impression was that it contains material which I can use in any Ars Magica game, but also some great new ideas for odd encounters and scenarios.

I have a love for boats and ships in roleplaying games as I think they were a fundamental part of the world, but are largely ignored in most settings. This issue provides magical backdrops and ideas, complete with stats, and a small scenario.This builds from material already published in the Hermetic projects book, but is provided stand alone for use as well.

One part of a story reminds me of a SpellJammer touch – which is all I needed to see to know I’d be reading the article a few times at least.

Some articles in particular made an impression:

• Artwork and presentation is good. Layout is clear, and while there is a lot of material in this issue it does not feel like a hotge-potge of elements.
• Perhaps the best article in the issue is for GMs – a Storyguide’s perspective of telling Dramatic Journeys. It discusses advice and examples for how to guide the story through dramatic events, and how to ensure the result ends where everyone will be happy. It is an excellent article.
• A walk through of very detailed character design: Hermetic Shipwright. This type of article demonstrates what value deep thinking about a character can have.
• A mythic mini-scenario called Stormbreaker, which gives a setting, personalities, and particularly a very well illustrated backdrop for adding an odd story into a current Ars Magica game.
• Twilight Scars, gives a very simple system for determining impact and severity of Twilight Scars (failed comprehension in twilight events), and then many pages of good examples for each, sorted by Art. This material is good enough and useful enough that it really could have been straight from the core ArM rules.
• Mappa Mundi contains resources from around the internet which are useful for storytellers, and in this issue contains information on travel routes and times, treasure hordes, a viking mass grave, and even a set of glyphs for summoning demons.
• I always like reading what the Ars line editor thinks, and what is occurring back at the Atlas Games studio.

I feel this issue is far more aimed at a more general audience instead of specalising on a specific region or setting, and explains its thinking very well to the reader.

The players are all people from the d20 Radio boards, some of whom I have gamed with before, and a couple who I have not. After deciding on some character creation guidelines, I let them cut loose, and was very excited when I saw what they had come up with.

I decided to allow the characters both a Background and Destiny for this game. The Destiny system was introduced when the game launched. Each character has a destiny they are working towards completing. In doing so, they get a small number of Destiny Points, which allow them to do incredibly powerful things in the game ranging from completely negating a hit to causing an automatic critical hit to changing when you act in combat.

The Background system was included in the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide and was intended to replace the Destiny system. Instead of focusing on where your character is going, it focuses on where you character came from. You choose a defining event, a job you worked at before you became a hero or a different planet of origin for your species. You draw certain abilities from your background, as well as the ability to draw from certain skills that may not normally be in your classes list, a powerful ability to be sure when used correctly.

I also decided that I was going to run a little experiment with this game. Those of you with an ear to the ground within the RPG industry have no doubt heard of the FATE system, which has been generating a lot of talk lately for their intriguing system. The crux of that system is what they call “aspects,” certain phrases, characteristics, or even quotes that describe a character. They can be invoked for bonuses or compelled to make situations interesting. I have decided to try something similar for this game (and so far, it seems to be working pretty well). Instead of Fate Points as FATE uses, the players use and get Force Points when invoking or compelling their aspects instead.

But enough of that system talk. Onto the characters!

We have Skai Kasian, a Zabrak mercenary who suffered a terrible loss at the hands of pirates. He was marooned on a remote planet after pirates shot down and killed the entire crew of the transport ship he was on. He was left alive to be hunted as sport and through skill and a little bit of luck he killed the pirates and was able to escape, dedicating his life to making life as difficult as possible for pirates and others that would prey on those less powerful than them. He is a survivor through and through, and more than a little superstitious, due in large part to a trinket that he discovered while he was being hunted by the pirates. Mechanically, he is a solid fighter, a Scout/Soldier build with the focus on survival, allowing him to avoid some damage as well as push his defenses higher. His aspects are Survivor, Superstitious, and Merc With a Heart of Gold

Next we have Kirikinerry-tovante, or Kiri for short. He is a Squib who was forced into a life on the Outer Rim through his own actions. He had a long and profitable career with the Squib Reclamation Fleet as a scavenger until war plunged the galaxy into chaos again. While the business was still profitable, Kiri was uncomfortable throwing himself in the middle of galactic events, especially those involving the Sith. He took his skills and went into business for himself as a smuggler until the authorities caught up with him. He was able to pay off the officials to look the other way, but it involved him selling his ship and effectively stranding himself on the colony world of Haalthor. Mechanically, he is a pure Scoundrel, focused on stealth and deception. His aspects are Outer-Rim Lifestyle, Caught in the Middle, and Holovid Junkie.

Then we have Rann Antilles, the near-human from Corellia. Rann was a cop, and a good one at that, working for CorSec until he found his commission revoked for busting an Imperial official’s son on drug charges. Finding himself unable to do anything else, he left his former life and bounced around from security position to security position, eventually finding himself signed up on an Outer Rim colony as part of the local defense. Though cocky and smart-mouthed, Rann is an honest cop through and through and actively hates those that give his profession a bad name. Mechanically, Rann is a Scout/Soldier build, another fighter, though this one more focused towards offense as well as some tricks up his sleeve outside of combat. His aspects are An Honest Cop, Chronic Wiseass, and Streetwise.

Next, there is Jasem Osar, the Caamasi Force user was exiled from his tribe after an incident with some slavers. A race that is wildly pacifistic, often to the point of complete and total non-violence, Jasem broke those tenets when he stood up to a group of slavers intent to take some of his people away. Though the results were appreciated, his actions could not be tolerated, and he was exiled from his clan. He drifted for a while before discovering and being discovered by the Tyia Adepts, a Force-using tradition that exemplified harmony and peace, but also showed him how to use his gifts to non-violently handle situations should the need arise. Since then, he has been moving about the Outer Rim, seeking to keep himself out of the war as well as to promote his new doctrine. Mechanically, Jasem is a very interesting character. He is a Noble/Soldier build, and the words used to describe him are “Force Tank.” Despite his lower than average hp, he is built to focus enemy fire on himself and absorb it through various talents and Force powers. His aspects are Peacekeep, Wise Man on the Mountain, and Stubborn Old Fool

Finally, we have Niera Kurucz, the Arkanian Tech Specialist. She always loved machines, and spent more of her childhood with droids and circuits than with other children, tinkering both with a droid that has become a personal companion as well as with herself, going so far as to remove one of her hands to replace it with a cybernetic prosthetic. As she grew, she found herself more and more distanced from her people, she left her homeworld after some “encouragement” from the leaders of her community. She eventually found employment with a very large droid and cybernetics firm that paid her incredibly well to do the things she loved to do. Most recently, they sent her to Haalthor to oversee the installation of several devices that the Imperials had paid the company for. Mechanically, she is another interesting concept. While Force-sensitive, she doesn’t show any signs of it yet, but she is focused on being able to affect the minds of droids with mind-affecting powers which they are normally immune to. At the moment, she is simply a very talented droid mechanic. Her aspects are Uncomfortable Around Organics, Droid-Lover, and Internal Encyclopedia.

So there you have the cast of this adventure. Next time, we’ll finally dive into the story so far. Keep your eyes peeled, and remember – let go of your conscious self, and act on instinct.

Originally posted on Word of the Nerd Online.

DND Next as Wizards of the Coast has termed it has been in “family and friends” testing for some time now, but today marks the availability of the playtest rules to the general public. The emails for those that signed up for it went out earlier today, but don’t fret. You are still able to get your hands on the materials. Just head over the Dungeons and Dragons main webpage and you’ll see a big splash page to sign up to get the materials. 

Fair warning: their page is crawling right now. Just be patient, and they will soon be in your hands. I’m still waiting on mine in the time it took to write this post.

Keep your eyes peeled here.. We’ll be bringing you all of the latest news on the open playtest for DND Next. Until then, keep those d20s warmed up, and good adventuring.

Originally posted on Word of the Nerd Online.

However, I have had an idea in my head for a campaign for several years now, one I have tried to run several times. Neither of them got off the ground, unfortunately.

So, when I saw that several people on the d20 Radio boards were looking for a GM to run a Star Wars Saga Edition game over Skype, I figured “what the heck,” and tossed my hat in to GM, knowing that several of them were very committed role players.

This time I had no problem deciding what I was going to run.

This particular campaign I have tried to set in numerous eras. It’s first incarnation was in the Old Republic as a one-on-one game with my wife. The second was a Play by Post experiment that existed completely out of the canon timeline, but would have taken place right after the New Sith Wars and the implementation of Darth Bane’s Rule of Two. After doing a lot of thinking on how I was going to pursue it this time, I decided on the Legacy era, having just re-read the Legacy comics from Dark Horse publishing.

For the uninitiated, the Legacy Era is set over 130 years after the events of Episodes IV, V, and VI and shows us a galaxy once again dominated by a Sith Empire. However, this is not the Sith of the classical era. Instead of the Rule of Two, the Rule of One has been instituted – one ruler, one order. There are numerous Sith Lords across the galaxy, pursuing their own agendas, all the while working for the Sith Lord on the throne.

The Jedi Order is once again a shadow of it’s former strength, and Jedi are hunted mercilessly due to a large standing bounty placed on their heads by the Empire. The Sith Empire is in a state of near constant warfare with the Empire in Exile, the legitimate rulers the Sith betrayed to take power in the first place after helping them in the last great war. The Sith Empire is also forced to deal with the remnants of the Galactic Alliance, the government that existed before the last Empire was established by the Fel dynasty some 80 years previous.

As you can see, the Legacy era puts a lot on the table and in the toolbox of any aspiring GM. All the major pieces of previous eras are taken, put into a blender, and set to “frappe.” It gives a lot of opportunity for both the players and the GM to take the Star Wars sandbox and build what they want with it, and for this particular reason is becoming a fan favorite.

At the time this campaign begins, the galaxy is in a state of turmoil. The Sith Emperor, Darth Krayt has supposedly been assassinated by a Jedi of the name Skywalker, and a series of deadly power games is taking place within the ranks of the Sith Empire. The Empire in Exile as well as the Alliance Remnant have stepped up their pressure on the Sith Empire as well, even going so far as to set aside their differences after the last war and fight as allies.

It is into this mess that five strangers take the stage, working to uncover a sinister plot from an unknown faction deep in Imperial space. Hailing from the Imperial colony world of Haalthor, their story is about to begin.

Be sure to keep checking back as the story of this campaign is told. I want to give you all a peek behind the GM screen. I plan on speaking a little bit about my thought process on encounter creation, house rules that I’m implementing, as well as general system thoughts. But most importantly, I hope to entertain you all with the story of six people who come together for a few hours every couple of weeks and play make believe over the internet.

Next time, you will be introduced to the main players on this stage. Until then, remember to fly casual, and may the Force be with you.

Originally posted at Word of the Nerd Online.