Gen Con!

I went on holiday to Gen Con! It was Awesome! Here is an incomplete list of all the cool things I did when I was out there:

Getting out there - Due to a misunderstanding about how time worked I ended up running for the plane with 2 kg of chocolate. Meanwhile as I outdistanced the girls they got a lift on a cart.

We stayed in the awesome looking JW Marriott Hotel which had been built two years previously for the Superbowl.

Tuesday -

We went to Indianapolis Zoo, stopping on the way to look inside their museum. At the zoo there was shark petting, a dolphin show and lots of other animals.

Wednesday - spot the industry insider, K8 and Nats went on the stadium tour, We also picked up our badges and tickets from the reception and that went extremely smoothly.

Thursday - The show officially opened, the queues to get into the trade hall were massive and there was lots to see in the trade hall and the games hall.

We went to a seminar called Why Shadowrun is Awesome.

We went for dinner with Charles Ryan whom I used work with at Esdevium (and more importantly who ran one of the best campaigns I have ever played in Magica, a D20 Ars Magica hack that Charles wrote. There is a blog that had session summaries in somewhere on the internet.) He is now working as the COO of Monte Cook Games who have released an awesome looking Game called Numenera at the show. While we were arranging dinner we bought several copies of Numenera and met Monte and Shanna who were lovely and got invited to the Numenera launch event.

At about 16:00 We went to the Numenera Launch where we discovered that I had a “Trustworthy Accent”, and it was revealed that Bruce Cordell was joining the team at Monte Cook Games. We also got a special limited edition bonus Cypher Deck with a bunch of extra cards in it.

Later in the evening we went to see a Nerdlesque performance which was extremely funny and entertaining. It was hosted by The Glitter Guild.

Friday - I went to a work meeting with the guys from Cool Mini or Not, who were awesome and have some excellent games. Their new miniatures game is extremely pretty and is called Wrath of Kings. It is kick starting now. One of the faction commanders is a guy riding a Squid:  

That night I went to the Ennies with Charles, where we interview bombed the EN world livestream of the event, while the girls took part in a world record attempt and they made a new record for the number of people playing Settlers of Catan at once. The girls joined us in time to see the final few awards being given out. You can see a list of the Ennies winners here.

Saturday - Nats, K8 and I went to try the Foam Fighting Arena. It is a really interesting way of fighting, They don’t allow head hits but also don’t pull their blows. The weapons are made to stand up to hitting people at full force and are slightly softer than the UK equivalents as a result. We each went roughly even with our opponents which was pretty good considering they were much more familiar with the style. I also smashed one of the guys across the head because I had forgotten the no head hits rule and he was not guarding his head.

Nats stopped for a massage and K8 and I went on to have a quick look around the trade hall again, there we chatted to the guys that make US style foam weapons and then got interviewed by The Dungeon Bastard, our bit is about 1 min 30 sec in.

That afternoon we went to the 13th Age launch seminar. Which was very cool. Saw the Doubleclicks live, and they were hilarious. This song reduced K8 to speechless tears of laughter.  

We met and got books signed by Dave Gross,

Went to the Numenera Launch party, where Charles introduced us to the lovely Cindi Rice (who is the producer for Dungeon Bastard) and loads of other interesting industry people.

Sunday - The show closed at 16:00 on the Sunday so while Nats spent the day getting demos of various Mayfair Games and became a Knight of Catan I ran a 13th Age Demo on the Pelgrane Press stand. K8 and I looked at the Shadowrun 5th ed books and ended up getting one. We chatted to Dave Gross again and spent most of the last of our dollars.

Coming home was very smooth.

Next time - Phones that work in America, taking more people and playing more games.

Here are a load of my photos form the holiday: https://plus.google.com/photos/100343142332087709654/albums/5914868812643633985?authkey=CJOay-eL5ai5cQ

Other places you can look for info on Gen Con:

Dungeon Bastard coverage: http://www.youtube.com/user/GenConVideo?feature=watch

En World coverage: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpbzuJtxfbQKMwZM76CHtCg2QWKb6xJ1r  

Short list of the cool stuff i saw there that you should go look at:

13th Age

Numenera

Shadowrun 5th ed

The Duke boardgame from Cryptozoic (they had a giant version Natalie bought the game off the back of the Demo)

Star Trek Attack Wing - DS9 promo

Cool mini or not Wrath of Kings kickstarter (dude riding a squid!)

New Star Wars X-Wing ships

Shadowrun Crossfire Deck building game (not out yet - due in september)

What I did at my LARP event.

Inspired by a comment by my mate Martin, I have decided to post about what I do in an LT mainline event. In an effort to show people what my game (how I play) is like.

The Lorien Trust is a massive sprawling system with ten factions and ten ish guilds all of which support very different styles of play.

For the last 10 years or so I have played in the Scouts Guild. For the last 5 years I have been writing plot for them and have been leading the Guild. This year I have a new role and am in the process of stepping away from that bit of the game which I have played for the last decade. I’m finding it quite tricky, so in addition to talking about my game I also want you to talk to me about yours.

Some of the things I did at the Moot (this is a brain dump so bear with me):

I arrived IC at the event ‘live’ from a plotted fight and dropped a load of plot on the scouts. I was then sent to a mind healer.

I watched a Ritual that Rath did for the Harts. As the ritual finished the mythical White Hart of Albion showed up, not so mythic it seems!

I bought some scrolls which I put in a pouch in order to forget about them for a year, its not like I think they age well like wine or anything its just that its become a tradition!

I binned 4 expired scrolls because I had put them in a pouch a year ago and forgot about them.

I went to all the NPC meetings (normally I miss a couple).

I chatted to NPC’s and players from the various Martial Guilds to see how they were doing, I listened to a great conversation about Elemental Forges at the Armourers.

I chatted to Sparkey about how hard (tough) he was.

I got in a good scrap with some Caligar worshippers and tried to Save Wellspoken’s Character with 12 other brave/foolish heroes.

I hid from the Archon of Good under a tree (he is unreasonably peeved with me).

I made the Scouts Guild Linear more complicated by sending an hysterical, unarmed woman in love with the bad guy along.

I had awesome roleplay with the family of said hysterical unarmed woman as well as the liability in person after the linear.

I listened to players open a complicated, heavily trapped puzzle box before watching them pour over clues.

I watched the result of the ritual warning bells tolling and Satuun (MAJOR, HUGE baddy) doing a ritual. Then nodded to Dark Reaver who is less unreasonably peeved with the Scouts and I.

I watched Sai and Promethean Dave have a fight while I provided commentary about it to the guild.

I nearly died laughing thanks to K8, Nick and Becca

I got involved in the big final fight, I borrowed a pole off Donk and had some really good scraps.

Thanks to Dave for a great pole/knife fight, Brian for keeping up with me for the first half of the fight, the five factions that charged to my rescue when I got dropped by Becca and Slieve for turning up to help me when I was fighting near the Harts camp towards the end.

What do you do for the 3-4 days you spend at an LT mainline? Pick five things you do at most events and let me know here.

I wrote a post after the Gathering last year about levels of live roleplayers it’s here: in it I awarded levels for trying lots of different parts of the game. People also suggested other things that could award levels.

http://tohitarseclass0.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/new-targets-and-levels-of-live.html

As of Right now I am level X so at the Gathering I am going to level up!

Roleplaying Games!

I really like Roleplaying Games. A lot of people continue to talk about how Roleplaying is dying and becoming a smaller part of the hobby business but I think that in part that is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Talking about roleplaying and more importantly playing it with people is what is going to get it to continue. I don’t think it is dying, I think the rest of the hobby is getting stronger and Roleplaying isn’t increasing at the same rate. To that end here are some cool roleplaying games that are out recently or coming soon:

Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG has been selling strongly since its release.  It uses custom dice like the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy, which gives its system a depth that isn’t as easy to get with more traditional dice systems. We are expecting a restock of the Dice and GM’s Kit and Beginners Box in the next couple of weeks.

FATE Core and FATE Accelerated. These are some of the nicest presented Roleplaying books we have at present and both are an excellent introduction to roleplaying. Both are available on Bits and Mortar so that you can get a free copy of the PDF’s if you buy it in store. They are also available online for pay what you want. FATE is one of the best systems I have come across for modeling fiction and has a Character Generation system that is entertaining enough to be played on its own.

Only War is the most recent Roleplaying release for the Warhammer 40k universe. It features a lot of the rules updates that we are expecting to see in the Beta of 2^nd Edition of Dark Heresy.

The two most interesting Roleplaying releases coming soon are:

13^th Age is a Love letter to Dnd, Written by Rob Heinsoo and Jonathon Tweet, designers of 4^th Ed and 3^rd respectively this game is the best iteration of D20 I have played to date. The book is already available on Bits and Mortar so if you pre order it form a shop they can give you the PDF. Shops should have the physical books in the next couple of weeks. Pelgrane press and Fire Opal media are also working on an Organised play program that will be launching soon. I like this game a lot and it is what I am currently running. If you want more information check out my Blog or the Resources page on the Pelgrane website.

Numenera is the new game and setting from Monte Cook. It had a massive Kickstarter campaign and is being used as the basis of the new Torment Video Game. You can get a free copy of the PDF by emailing a picture of a pre order receipt from you to: preorders@numenera.com

I also really like Shadowrun and there is a new PC game and 5^th edition of the roleplaying game out in PDF with the Physical book out by the end of August. They also have an excellent OP system and the new season of Shadowrun Missions is set in Chicago.

I originally wrote this for a restock list at work and edited it slightly to put it up here.

What is your favorite roleplaying book or system?

Running and Shadowrun Returns

I weigh 13st and 9lbs, I have hit my target for the July Diet Bet, Due to 2 larp events and a Trip to Gen Con my goal for August is to finish it no heavier than I am now. Then I will work on losing more weight in September.

One of the things that has helped me kick the last few pounds is that I have actually succeeded at starting to run. Thanks to Dave I found Zombies, Run and downloaded the 5k training version.  It is a game and a story overlaid on an interval running program, and so far I have done 3 of the runs and the introduction (which is just a free run with the introduction of the story overlaid on your music) had me accidently run to the next town as they kept telling me I was being chased by Zoms.

Sometime last year I backed Shadowrun Returns on Kickstarter by Hairbrained Schemes. It released last Thursday and I spent the weekend playing it. I really enjoyed it, the game is quite simple and short but very engaging. It plays a bit like Neverwinter Nights with guns. Having finished the Campaign i’m now investigating the level editor, and in a wave of nostalgia it made me go look at the new 5th Edition of the RPG.

This Video also about Shadowrun Returns made me chuckle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXVO1HCNQ8M

Also 12 days to go until Gen Con!

Golden Age of Piracy Game

My Friend Mark is running a monthly Golden Age of Piracy game using the Swashbuckling adventures D20 variant. The next session is this Saturday and this is a recap of what has happened so far:

Session 1 (We played this on holiday in Scotland)

Everyone is taking ship from Portsmouth sailing for the new world.

The Ship is the HMS Redoutable heading for Virginia.

The other notable passengers are Brinna O’Leary an Irish Herbalist, Flo and Six a pair of Highwaymen, Miss Eleanor Greyburn an educated lady, Sir Anthony “Girl” Duboir, a youngest Noble son sent overseas by his family and Bella a hard looking sailing woman.

Several weeks of sailing later Six heard a scream and we found a dead body in one of the 2nd Class cabins they had been stabbed in the neck.

The Murder is investigated by Lft Thorgil a Marine officer seemingly separate from the authority of the Naval Captain of the ship.

Something odd is going on with the marines, they are guarding something in the hold.

More murders, someone gets thrown overboard in a storm.

Miss Eleanor Greyburn is killed by terrible Poison gives us a letter to take to the Explorers Society in Port Royal. Tells us “The Order” are trying to stop her.

She asks us to take a letter to a map maker named Samuel in Port Royal.

Then the cry went up that the Spanish are attacking!

Session 2

Fight the spanish! Boarding action goes well thanks to us. However the Cannon exchanges do not favor us and despite a strong showing Captain Havelock Surrenders.

We all get locked in the brig.

One of the other prisoners was magically disguised. Her disguise runs out and she is taken to the Spanish Captain. It turns out she is Milady De Winter the world famous spy and operative of the Order.

Luckily Pirates attack, a stray cannon shot allows us to escape the vrig and we sneak back aboard our ship and turn its guns against the Spanish.

The Pirates are led by Henry Morgan and he offers us a place among his crew.

The Pirates take possession of both ships the HMS Redoutable is renamed The Valkyrie and given to Agneth Olafsdottir to captain.

We get to Port Royal and find Samuel the cartographer. He invites us to join the Explorers Society and gives us cool magnetic coins so we might know other members.

Turns out Captain Morgan is already a member so we join his crew as a cover.

The note that Eleanor gave us turns out to lead to a lost island that we must get to ahead of the Order.

Session 3

We need to get to this island before The Order

Turns out the island isn't on any charts, “I guess that is why its lost?”

There is a fisherman that knows how to get through the reefs around it is but he is in prison on Tortuga.

Samuel wants us to rescue him.

His name is Stefan Lefluer, we can recognise him by his shaven head.

Tortuga has been held by the French for the last 5 years. The governor is named Betrond D’ogern and he has been in charge for 4 years.

We carefully planned the break out.

Sir Ant and Bella went to visit the Governor and got drunk either with him or with his staff.

Six and I got into a fight and got arrested.

Brinna and Anna used a Bell that Flo got made in port royal before we left as a shaped charge on a weak section of the fort’s wall.

There is explosions and fighting guards!

We get the guy and escape using a firework to signal to Captain Morgan.

Session 4

Stefan can guide us through the reefs to this island.

Captain Morgan is in a terrible mood because he lost his hat in a game of cards.

We board a passing merchant ship and Captain Morgan steals the merchant’s nicest hat.

The Island we are looking for is really just a sand bar and is only visible at low tide but it is surrounded by reefs so you can only get there at high tide.

On the island we found a  tar sealed stone entrance to some smugglers caves

the tide is coming in so we have to explore fast! (Mark ran it as a real time Dungeon Crawl, it added an awesome sense of urgency to the session)

We explore! Quickly!

There are traps, a water filled passage, a room with a floor covered in bones with rats, a talking spider and then dead guys!

We fight the dead guys.

We find all the treasure including a  part of a map made of gold

“we make our maps out of paper, they make their maps out of precious metals, imagine what they make their precious metals out of!”

Then there were bad guys waiting for us outside the dungeon, they killed Stefan.

The bad guy is an empty suit of plate mail from the black forest in germany, Samuel later tells us that the order uses them as shock troops.

We go back to Port Royal and show Samuel the bit of the map, it leads to the city of Eldorado!

Random 13th Age Character Gen

Stats.

4d6 drop the lowest in order.

Races/Places:

Roll	Where you are from
1-5	Human from one of the cities
6-10	Human from outside the Dragon Empire
11	Human reaver of the Iron sea
12-16	High Elf from one of the cities
17-21	High Elf from the Queens Wood
22	High Elf reaver of the Iron sea
23-27	Dark Elf from under the Queens wood.
28	Dark Elf reaver of the Iron sea
29	Wood Elf from another wood (pick one)
30-34	Wood Elf from the Queens Wood
35-39	Wood Elf from the Wild Wood
40-44	Half Elf from one of the cities
45-47	Half Elf from outside the Empire
48-52	Half Elf from The Queens Wood
53-57	Dwarf from Anvil
58-62	Dwarf from Concord
63-65	Gnome from Concord
66-68	Gnome from Glitterhagen
69-71	Gnome from Shadowport
72	Half Orc from Cloudhome
73-77	Half Orc from one of the cities
78	Half Orc from The Frost Ranges
79	Half Orc reaver of the Iron sea
80	Halfling from Concord
81	Halfling from Shadowport
82-84	Halfling from the three towns
85-89	Halflings from one of the cities
90	Asamir from Santa Cora.
91	Asamir from the ruins of the Golden Citadel
92	Asamir from Starport
93	Tiefling from outside the Empire
94	Tiefling from the Demon Marsh’s
95	Tiefling from the Red Wastes
96	Tiefling reaver of the Iron sea
97	Warforged from Dwarf lands
98	Warforged from Horizon
99	Dragonborn from Drakenhall
100	Dragonborn from Starport

Separate table for the cities

1	Axis
2	Santa Cora
3	Shadowport
4	Concord
5	Glitterhagen
6	Horizon
7	Drakkenhall
8	First Triumph
9	New Port
10	Anvil

Outside the empire table:

1	The Red Wastes
2	The Demon Marshes
3	The Giantswalk
4	Moonwreck
5	Cloudhome
6	Frost Range
7	The back of a Koru Behemoth
8	The Iron Sea Wall

If you roll something undefined you get to define something cool about it for my campaign.

Class:

Pick the one that uses your highest stat or roll:

1	Barbarian
2	Bard
3	Cleric
4	Fighter
5	Paladin
6	Ranger
7	Rogue
8	Sorcerer
9	Wizard
10	Monk

Icon Relationship:

You get one relationship with the Icon associated with your home city if you have one.

The Prince of Shadows loves games of chance (like rolling your character randomly) so get a 1 point relationship with him. Then roll a d12 for the other two points:

1	Archmage
2	Crusader
3	Diabolist
4	Dwarf King
5	Elf Queen
6	Emperor
7	The Great Gold Wyrm
8	High Druid
9	Lich King
10	The Orc Lord
11	The Priestess
12	The Three

Sample Backgrounds:

Have one suggested by where you come from and then make the rest up in play based on the first three things you are asked to roll.

This article also has some interesting non standard background ideas: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=11434

Now make up a one Unique thing.

If you are stuck for one look at this thread: https://www.pelgranepress.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=988

Gear:

1d6 x 10 gp and your class’ default armour and a weapon.

pick 3 items an adventurer would own.