DundraCon 33 Submissions

Wow, it never ends. 
 
So, I’m thinking about DDC 33.
 
Here are my ideas:
 
1. My first thought, based off how well My Life with Joker was received would be My Life with Palpatine.  And while I LOVE the idea, frankly My Life with Master kind of underwhelmed me mechanically.  I think the scene framing is cool, but the actual crunchy bits varied from mediocre to disappointing.  So, I might run it with PTA instead, or Paul Strack’s Improv.  Whatever it is, I want short scenes with only one test (die roll, card comparison, whatever) for conflict resolution.  Any ideas on that front?
 
2. Star Wars Sons of Liberty / SotC mash up.  The players take the roll of important Star Wars characters (like Luke, Leia, Han, etc) for a short (1/2 hour) Sons of Liberty engine driven (using turns rather than free play) vs. a character playing the Empire (maybe me).  The result of the short game conveys the state of things in the long game.  If the rebels win, things look good at first, to reveal the dark side hidden in shadows.  If the Empire wins, thinks look grim from the get go.  The long game would use SotC to make minor (non-cannon) characters doing something minor that will help the major characters along.  Once they succeed or fail, we finish off with a SOL sytel game with the major characters kicking ass and taking names.  Hmm.. this game is still very rough around the edges but I like the idea of macro/micro play.
 
3. 1001 Parsecs.  You’re a slave of Jabba the Hutt.  In efforts to stay alive and maybe be freed you must entertain him and appease his disgusting tastes.  Using the engine for 1001 Nights.
 
Hmm.. can you tell I’ve got a Star Wars kick and an Indie game kick going on right now? Any thoughts.

Narrative Control – Episode 1 – Back Story

Hi, Welcome to Narrative Control. This episode is on Backstory, a quick technique for GMs to use at the start of games to connect characters to each other and to the story

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Liner Notes

[0:28] Show Introduction – Backstory
[0:48] Source: Brian Isikoff
[1:40] Where we first learned about Backstory
[2:58] This has been talked about before on 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction – Episode 8
[3:44] Sean’s first experience with Backstory – Questions Brian asked me.
[5:40] Backstory is part of the game itself.
[6:45] How this helped resolve the “Leader” role
[8:10] Used to fill a gaps in a long term game
[8:36] Established player buy in
[9:30] Does this give players Narrative Control?
[9:45] What if players throw curve balls at you?
[10:45] Method 1: Roll with it
[12:20] Method 2: Establish the genre in advance, tailor response to fit the theme
[13:54] Where could Backstory present problems in long term games?
[15:21] Paul Tevis and Remi Treuer on limitations of endowments in role-playing
[16:15] How to work in Backstory in a long term game.
[16:40] Other games that incorporate back story like elements: Dread
[19:10] Shaun Hayworth tweaked Dread to be more like Backstory
[20:40] Other games that contain similar character creation elements: Spirit of the Century, Dogs in the Vineyard, Prime Time adventures.

2d6 Feet in a Random Direction, Episode 8
EndGame
This Modern Death
Have Games Will Travel, Episode 98

Dread
Spirit of the Century
Dogs in the Vineyard
Prime Time Adventures

Download: NC_Episode_001

Narrative Control – Episode 0 – It’s up!

Hi, Welcome to Narrative Control.  This is our first episode.  It focuses on what the show will be about, a continuation of a conversation.  What conversation you ask? Stop reading and go listen to the show.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Liner Notes

[0:28] Show introduction
[0:36] Dedication to Kristin Sullivan (of This Modern Death)
[0:58] Main Topic: What is this show about?
[1:16] The But-one-Justin
[1:50] Being a pretentious ass – Name dropping Ryan Macklin of the Master Plan Podcast
[2:52] rpgpodcasts.com (Sean got the name wrong and called it .net, Tool!)
[3:30] Sean: This show is about our gaming experiences and our reactions to those.
[4:38] Justin: One big conversation about a hobby we all love
[5:00] Inspiration from other podcasts
[5:40] Who might be interested in Narrative Control
[6:32] Can we expand on the “Agony and Ecstasy of games”
[8:53] “Show Notes” vs. “Shnotes”
[11:00] Who is Sean? Why is Sean?
[12:38] Good Omens – A group of GMs that Justin and Sean are part of.
[15:57] Who is Justin Evans?
[18:15] Why is Justin podcasting?
[19:39] Geek Philosophers or Pretentious Tools?
[20:42] Justin expands on “keeping the conversation going”
[22:40] We’d like to hear what you have to say
[22:56] Closing

Links

This Modern Death
Master Plan
RPGPodcasts.com
Good Omens

Download: NC_Episode_000

I’m Burning for the Dresden Files RPG

I just got accepted for the second alpha test of Dresden Files RPG. Our group is collectively known as the Burners and we’ll be seeing the product packaged in a different form than the previous batch (the Bleeders). We get one chunk at a time to review, consume, shout about and then give Evil Hat feedback on.

I’ve got a lot of games going on right now (D&D, Buffy, SotC) but I’m confidant I can squeeze in Dresden, simply because so many people will be exited about the content. I’ll either be posting here, on my small games forum, or some new fangled Wiki just for DFRPG, This Modern Death’s Forum, or maybe all of the above.

For now, I make you all jealous with my new fancy banner add (compliments of Evil Hat):

Check out Evil Hat for more.

Actual Play – Dungeons and Dragons – 4th Edtion update

System: Dungeons & Dragons

Following up on buffaloraven’s last post, so far 4th Edition has been really good to me. Good enough that I’m considering how I can get more of it. The two game’s we’ve played have been simple and completely absent of interparty conflict and relatively minor player disputes. The fact of the matter was we all came there to throw some dice and check out our new powers, and that we got to do.

The first game buffaloraven ran was the first part of the Keep from Shadowfell, a fun game but one that many people who picked up the quick start a few weeks back are probably familiar with.

The second, set in his own campaign setting (one that I am going to butt into soon, more on this later) is set in the city of Ostrava and has a fairly nice balance of power (two strong merchant orders, a powerful bank, nobility who own the lands and a strong navy). As fitting for the setting this is a bright point of light in an otherwise dark world. The story started with a simple hook. Baron Morgant had assembled a team of adventurers to go find his son Edmund Morgant (or Morgund the Incredible) who set out to find his own fortune as an adventurer.

Without wasting much time we set out of the city on the same path that Alex had taken and were soon beset my kobolds, let by a particularly vicious warrior named Gel. Despite his savagery Gel and his compatriots were easily defeated by our heroic adventures. The Warlock was very impressive with the amount of damage she could dish out from a distance. The Wizard felt a bit handicapped (I think) during that first fight because he couldn’t use his area of effect spells without hurting party members. This will probably work better when the team learns how each other’s moves work. Our cleric completely saved my ass (twice actually, once in each fight) and for my part I was REALLY happy with the “Commanding Shout” ability that allowed me to give up my attack to give another character a basic attack of their own, adding my Intelligence modifier (+4) to the damage. Not only did that rock, but with the Warlord class abilities and feats, when my companions spent action points they got +2 on their attack and +4 on damage. KICK but. Now there is a support class/leader. This is what the Bard always wished he could be. Steve pointed out that this could had two drawbacks. 1) The Warlord is encouraged to metagame. His abilities are all about making tactical decisions, so he’s going to look at the map and look for flanks, Opportunity Actions, etc. 2) Since the Warlord shouts out commands, it might feel to other players like I am taking control of their character. I think this mitigated by the fact that the Warlord offers an extra attack instead of controlling their normal one. I think my Wizard was pretty happy being able to fire off extra Magic Missiles and have them do more damage.

Argg… didn’t even get to the point of this post which was to talk about the game I’m going to run on Thursday, which will be a follow up of buffaloraven’s game. Gotta get back to work.

Actual Play – Kubla, The Khan of Cons

Kubla this year was my redemption for DDC. During all of DundraCon I was regretting not running a game… so what did I do for Kubla? Yep, run two. More on that later.
Friday 2PM – Check In

We arrived Friday afternoon with the kids in toe and check into the hotel. Without going into a rant here, though I love Kubla, I think that the Hyatt is the least hospitable hotel of any convention hotel I’ve ever been in. The building and rooms are beautiful but the staff, check-out process, and elevator/stairwells all exude irritation. If I ran a horror hotel game, it would definitely be set in the Burlingame Hyatt. We arrived around two and my game wasn’t until six but somehow the hours flew by. Between catching up with friends, eating, buying Dread (a game I’m very exited about) and doing all the normal registration business I barely made it to the game on time.

Friday 6PM – Exalted Unplugged

To be honest I was a little nervous about this game. The play-test had only been mediocre and had exposed several holes in the game that I wasn’t 100% sure I patched. Let’s face it I was trying to jam Exalted into a Wushu box and cover it all over with a thick glaze of the 1980’s LA Music scene. That meant two rules systems, two settings and trying to loop them all together with a common theme.

The premise in a nutshell was that the characters were a high school band (White Gold) in the 80’s in a battle of the bands. In the middle of the competition they, along with their rival band (Maidens of Mercy) were sucked through a dimensional portal (as we all know there were many in the 80s) into creation where they were revealed as the chosen ones (i.e. Solars) who had to save the south of creation. The game was positively perforated with ridiculous 80s references, such as the high priests pray “Woah, we’re have way there… woah… living on a prayer” and the leopard familiar that was hard of hearing, ending with the great weapon being found a top a Stairway to Heaven. Yes this game was designed to be cheese, with cheese on top and a side of cheese to go.

So how did it go? In a word, it was Def! According to Kevan Forbes I broke the geek-o-meter. I’m not sure if that was with the Cult of the Blue Oyster or with naming his Night Caste character the “Rhythm of the Night” but whatever it was, it was a great compliment. This was the first game I had ever received applause for at the end. My players were Alex D, Kevan F, Greg M, Jen M, Brendan and Justin E. They were great. They were better than great, Greg was the one who gave me the Stairway to Heaven, they were awesome. I’ll stop gushing now.

As for the critical breakdown of the game system, I used the Wushu system for the first portion of the game and then used the Exalted adaptation Wuxalted for their time in creation. The system did an excellent job of not getting in the way. Traditional Exalted allows for over the top action, but the game mechanics have a way of slowing down when things get to crazy. Wushu (and the wuxalted adaptation) both get behind wire-fu action and make it integral to the mechanic which I love. Further I found that a battling other bands in a Rock and Roll competition is surprising like fighting mooks in a battle, mechanically speaking at least. I was quite surprised to see Wushu do so when it was clearly social combat. My greatest accolade for the system would be to say that it did not impede the story or the player narration, and for me, that is really saying something.

Saturday 8AM – Breakfast

Saturday morning came a little too soon for my tastes. Thankfully however, I was playing in a pickup game run by Justin Evans so the start time was flexible. I gave my seat in Rich Taylor’s Unhallowed Metropolis to Elizabeth the Rock Star (seriously, she’s probably 18 now and I’ve game with her at cons for the last three years, and she is amazing) and did the breakfast thing. $7.00 Mocha… Wow!

Saturday 9AM – Roanoke – Justin Evans

Mike B, Jessie S, Shaun H, Kristin S and I all meandered up to Justin’s room for a game or Roanoke. Before playing the game I knew nothing about the setting (except for that I thought it sounded vaguely Japanese, yeah… five moron points here) but did know it used the Wushu system and that Justin had added mechanics from other systems (such as the duel of wits from Burning Wheel) so I was really looking forward to seeing what this Roanoke was all about.

I had an ulterior motive here, I’ve got to admit. Justin has been in two of my games before (Office Waste last year at Kubla, and my previous night’s Exalted Unplugged) and both times he was awesome. The master of subtle humor, Justin has an amazing talent for grabbing onto a small morsel of hilarity and beating you to a giggling pulp with it. I guessed (and was correct) that he would also be a great GM but before begging him to join, I felt it obligatory to play in one of his games and see for myself. Man, am I glad that I did.

For those who know nothing about Roanoke, fear not. You are part of the majority. The setting is a small island in the Chesapeake Bay. From Wikipedia:

Roanoke Island was the site of the 16th century Roanoke Colony, the first English colony in the New World in what was then called Virginia, in honor of England’s ruling monarch, Queen Elizabeth I. There were two major groups of settlers who attempted to establish a permanent settlement at Roanoke Island, and each failed.

In 1587, the English again attempted to settle. John White left the colony to return to England for supplies that he felt would help the colonists to survive, expecting to return to Roanoke Island within three months. Instead, he found England at war with Spain, and all ships were confiscated for use of the war efforts. His return to Roanoke Island was delayed until 1590. When he finally returned, the colonists had disappeared. The only thing he found was the word “CROATOAN” carved into a nearby tree.

The game of Roanoke is the story of what happened to those colonists during those three years. I will not reveal the storyline as I believe Justin is going to run the game again, but suffice to say, Justin ran a great game. His depictions of characters, control of the pacing, and improvisations were great. In addition he (as I expected) added several mechanics to the game:

  • To represent the impending doom or Roanoke he used a doom counter system that determined the relative horror of the final outcome.
  • To handle out social combats he used the battle of wits from Burning Wheel.
  • To flesh out NPCs, which he handed to the characters to play he gave us aspect cards with descriptors similar to the decriptors you would find in Spirit of the Century.
  • To help flesh out our characters and connect them together he had us each contribute to each other’s character sheets elements like “fatal flaw” and “saving grace”. We also decided as a group why the head of the militia had chosen us to work together as his aids.
  • And one of the coolest bits, we drew the island, including adding all the elements like mysterious caves, mute water sellers, mud pots and the works
  • Finally, at the end to evoke real urgency, our characters got put on a timer to resolve the last scene. Using a chess clock we rallied back in forth (between players and GM) to describe our actions. In a game that is heavy on the narration, this was awesome

Were it just for Justin the game would have been great, but in addition we had an amazing group of players. Everyone in the room was so immersed in the game I could taste the salt water off the Chesapeake Bay!

Saturday 3:30 PM – Rock n’ Roll Dreams – Carl Rigney

We had to peal out of Justin’s game just after it ended, leaving no time for the normal game debriefing yack that I love to do… we had to run to make it to Carl Rigney’s Dogs in the Vineyard game. Jessie has never played Dogs before and I was very exited for her to get a chance to a) play Dogs, b) play a game that Carl runs and c) get to be a Rock n’ Roll legend. The con gods must have loved us because we both got in.

Carl’s games (which you can hear at length about over at 2d6feet are great, and this was no exception. He used a Dogs in the Vineyard adaptation to run this game:

Brand Robins’ “Jim Steinman: The RPG” comes to life using Dogs in the Vineyard mechanics in a rock n roll opera of desperately pretty rebels without a cause, 50’s ambiance with 80s hair and modern hyper-sexuality. It’s all about the Bat Out of Hell, Nowhere Fast, Streets of Fire, I Would Do Anything for Love over the top emo porn modern fairy tale, with nothing less than 3 true loves, 5 broken hearts, a fight with sledge hammers under the L train in a thunderstorm, a beautiful ‘57 Ford, and the blowing up of that beautiful ‘57 Ford. If you’d offer your throat to the hungry wolf with the red roses in the pale moonlight, this is the game you were born to play.

Yes, I drove that ’56 Ford and yes I did get in a sledge hammer fight with the biker gang leader, and yes in the end I did explode in an inferno of love, glory and teenage hyper-sexuality (oh.. not to mention fire and wreckage). Our race was to get out of town and Dean Able (my character) found one way out. Rarely have I been quite so satisfied with my character dying horribly.

Thanks Carl, that was awesome.

Sunday 9 AM – There Is no Spoon

Back for the second game I ran, again with the Wushu, I took six coppertops into the Matrix and gave them the chance to Free their Minds. If I said above that the Wushu system didn’t get in the way of the narrative for my Exalted game, it positively made that same narrative ROCK in the Matrix game. There is no single system that would have supported the Wire-Fu, strange Matrix philosophy, Bullet time and inevitable fight and flight from the Agents. I’m getting tired now, and these descriptions are getting shorter. Suffice to say, thank you Martin , Matt , Vicky , Joel , Jessica and one other who’s names escape me for an awesome time in the Matrix. That game was a blast.
Sunday 4 PM – Podcasting with thismoderndeath.com

My first podcast. Rock! Check it out at thismoderndeath.com

Thanks Shaun and Kristin, that rocked.

Sunday 8 PM – Board/Party Games

We played Amun Re and Time’s up in our room. Just a little bit of alcohol and Time’s up becomes a truly awesome game. Kevan Forbes and I OWN Michelle Pfeiffer.

Once again. Kubla was six kinds of awesome!

Actual Play – Wushu – The Matrix Has You

Wow, I’m feeling very happy. I play-tested my Matrix game (There is no Spoon) yesterday and it went very well, better in many ways than the Exalted game I ran two weeks ago. Both used the Wushu system but after having run it once I felt much more comfortable doing it the second time. We had some awesome scenes including a very John McClane moment of blowing up and entire building floor, leaping down six stories, then eight stories then thirty stories!!! The fought agents, more or less got pummeled by them, but got to bash them around quite a bit too. We had explosions, car chases (or sorts, one of the characters was leaping from moving cars), and deception. I really enjoyed the game and the feedback given by the players will make it even better during the con. Two of the best compliments I got at the end was Steve saying it was “pretty good” which a huge achievement given that he doesn’t like the Matrix and Erik wanting to borrow my copy of the movie after the game. All in all, I feel much better about this game than I did before the play-test.

I’ve got a long list of good things to keep as well as improvements to make so I’ll have some work cut out for me before Kubla, but I’ll be happy to do it.

Next post… later last night.

Actual Play – Mage (7/2/2007)

GM: Sean Nittner
System: Mage

Yay for a fun Mage game Monday night.

Things went slower than I had hoped (as always). The Cabal learned of a Magath, or a spirit gone wrong living under the Golden Gate. There just so happens to be a spirit locus on the Gate (which is part of he reason the Magath was hanging around it) so they were able to cross into twilight (notably not shadow) to look for this thing. Their first encounter were its minions, great white shark spirits with bloodshot eyes and if possible even more teeth than a real shark. The one who tasked them to go after the sharks just watched as they took on one of them. The thing really gave the cabal a run for their money. Sharks are tough, strong and fast and their spirits are no exception. Eventually they defeated it, but not without taking a licking themselves. Nightshade unfortunately was cut and nobody thought to do anything about the wound, so naturally they would be detected later as the sharks tracked the smell of blood. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

They traced the patrol back to a kelp bed with labyrinthine qualities. They passed through tunnels of kelp and oily, murky water to find a whole mess of sharks circling over a monolith of bike parts, running shoes and spandex shorts. This of course was when the pack noticed the bleeding mage and came chasing them. Fun Fun. With a little help from the previously useless councilor the cabal got away from the sharks, waded through the kelp and made it to the monolith.

After further inspection the made out that the monolith was actually the begining of an arch made up of salvaged parts. Also, scribed in bike frames, fenders and cell phones were Atlantean Ruins “The Guardians” but was clearly unfinished. Then Valkyrie notices the Magath and it notices him. Of course what does a Bridge Toll spirit look like… Yep, a troll. And what does a Bridge Toll spirit that has mixed with a salvage spirit look like, yep a Troll from Shadowrun. Anyway, he was insisting on being paid his “toll” which had to be some form of transportation. He was given some flippers, a buoyancy control device, a bike Val found in the kelp and other sundry bits. Eventually the Magath was appeased (nobody wanted to know its name, or actually they did want to know its name but when it told them it would answer 5 questions, nobody asked it) and they found out a demon and Constructum had gotten together to form this gate leading to the Alahan Monastery in Turkey. Good Fun.

Mix that up with suspecting their councilor (Paracelsus) is a mole for the 53rd and we have fun time. Next session is off to Turkey.

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