In my judgment

Burning Acidus - The World

2011-01-05T23:00:00.001-06:00

The world of Acidus lies on the outer edge of the Karsan League, near the border of the Darikhan Empire, far enough from the core that they don't have to put up with much of the Imperial bureaucracy unless they do something to draw attention to themselves.

A major industrial center, the planet was originally settled to take advantage of the massive oceans of toxic and corrosive chemicals that dominate its surface. Though hazardous to human life, these chemicals are a huge boon to the Acidus' manufacturing industry, as a manufacturing tool, component, and easy method of waste disposal. These toxins however mean that much of the ground near sea level (everything beneath an average of 1000' above sea level) is hopelessly polluted and unsuited to human life.

This fact has lead to the creation of massive city-states that dominate the tops of mountains and high plains, with a person's social status being linked directly to the elevation of their homes and businesses. Serfs and peasants, for example, live at or just below the line of toxicity, near the factories where they work, while freemen live progressively higher according to their means, and nobles and high state officials living in virtual palaces at the world's summits and peaks. This is both a status symbol, and matter of practicality. People live as high as they can afford to because, while roaming vapors and atmospheric carcinogens linger in the low places, they can be blown up to great heights during gusty winds or so-called 'acid storms', and those who live at lower elevations are far more likely to come into contact with them and thus average much shorter lifespans and experience far more health complications.

Living at high elevations has additional advantages for the nobility as well. Particularly near the poles the nobles' homes are often blanketed in snow and ice. On a planet with little access to fresh water, this near constant supply of such an important resource is a point of friction between the nobles and the lower classes who are forced to drink foul-smelling 'recycled water' distilled from the planet's polluted reserves and the colonists' wastes or import expensive water from off world.

These nobles, often referred to by the peasantry as "Winter Lords", a somewhat mocking title with the underlying implication that they are so named because of their cold and heartless attitudes as much as the ice and snow that bedecks their homes, are the rulers of this planet, separated into a number of Houses, great and small that each rule a landmass or mountainous 'island' that rise above the Line (as most call the line of toxicity, or the average elevation at which life can be sustained long term without technological aid). Each house is theoretically autonomous within their own territory, but in reality each is answerable to the planet's Forged Lord, who is chosen from among the heads of the greatest noble houses (though in doing so he gives up his claim to his own house and is expected to rule with the well-being of the entire Council of Lords in mind). Usually this head of state is little more than a figure-head, competed for by old men who are ready to pass on their houses to their heirs, and looking for a way to give them an edge in the future. In times of war or as representative to the League however, he is seen as the face of the planet, and his orders are expected to be followed.

Being distant and divorced from the League gives the nobles of the planet a great deal of freedom. It also means, however, that the local nobility is responsible for most of the planetary defense, and while many of the noble houses keep a small private army for their own use, this is not the planet's primary means of defending itself. Younger children of a noble house, those not due to inherit lands or high-ranking titles of their own, are usually expected to enter the military, creating a core of officer-nobles at the head of a well-disciplined military class of peasants and freemen who are tasked to work together in defense of the planet.

By tradition the heads of two of Acidus' most powerful noble families lead this military jointly, to avoid any single noble house from acquiring too much power over the world's armies. Realistically however this has lead to a major rift between the planet's Hammer stellar defense force and Anvil planetary army, as the two powerful Lords vie for power and funding. It has yet to be seen how the two will be able to work together in the face of coming threats.

The nobility and military aren't the only powers on Acidus however.

Near the equator a growing colony of Kerrn gathers, living on a sizable island in the middle of the toxic sea, so close to the Line that no one has dared to settle it. Of course, aliens grabbing this 'prime' piece of land that no one wanted until they took it has caused some controversy among the freemen of the world, but some ambitious factions are looking toward this group with real, practical experience fighting Vaylen as possible allies in the battles they fear are yet to come.

Also unaffiliated, but somewhat more threatening, is the mercenary group that occupies a series of high, craggy islands just north-west of the planet's greatest city. Recruited to help the factions that would become this planet's noble families to fight for territory during early colonization, these soldiers banded together once the war was over to claim territory for themselves that they felt they had earned with their blood during the fighting. They still hold this choice land because no single family has had the power to defeat them, and they've never proven enough of a threat to justify the world's military intervening, but there are many who fear that, as their activities off-world increase and the mercenaries gain power, conflict may be inevitable.

On top of all this, is the powerful Merchant League who controls the manufacturing industry of the world and is primarily responsible for the importing of food and fresh water to the world. Without their backing few would care if Acidus lived or died, and it would have little chance of living.

Finally, there is the Karsan League itself. Though the planet is far enough removed from their influence that the Empire has little power here in itself, they do have a number of representatives present who are responsible for maintaining planetary loyalty and ensuring the integrity of the Planet's Quarantine. Though of little real import directly, their leader, the Lady Eliza Blake, has the backing of the emperor, and her control over the quarantine (which she argues would be better used keeping out drugs and aliens than searching for imaginary worms)its enforcement arm, and the privacy of her own space station, giving her authority and the means to back it up. Further, there are those among the planet's population, particularly its serfs, who might welcome imperial intrusion.

Burning Acidus

2011-01-04T23:00:00.000-06:00

First up, I'm going to start a series talking about our new Burning Empires game. I first received this system as an ENnies entry in 2005 and have been dying to start a regular game since. Thanks to the group I play with on Skype, that has finally happened.

Last night we got together and burned up Acidus, the world we're going to be playing on, and I want to chronicle that here a little bit. We'll be playing mostly via Google Wave, with conflicts resolved via Skype. I think Burning Empires is an excellent game for this kind of set up, and I will be taking advantage of the text-based nature of the game to post detailed write-up and recaps here.

The next few posts are going to detail the world and major characters in it. Once we get a few maneuvers under our belts I'll go ahead and post details of those here as well.

Let me know what you think, or if this is going to be at all valuable to anyone. It's my hope that this can serve as a bit of a review, inspiration, or maybe even a primer for those who are unfamiliar with the game.

Relaunching

2011-01-03T23:00:00.000-06:00

Given my decision to stop judging the ENnies it seemed like the best option was to discontinue that blog and restart this one. I loved my time with the ENnies, and I'm proud of what I accomplished there and of the friends I've made because of it, but judging is time consuming, and with school and family I simply don't have what it takes to give it what it deserves any more.

That said, I'm extremely excited by the new leadership there, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us this year.

On my own front, however, this frees me up to work on my own gaming and design stuff, and I'm excited about that and want to share. To that end I'm going to begin posting here again regularly to talk about what I'm up to and where I'm going.

Starting immediately with Burning Acidus, the new game we just began.

GenCon or Bust

2009-07-23T09:55:00.002-05:00

It's GenCon time, and due to some unexpected expenses I'm not going to have the spending money I'd like. To help remedy the stituation I'm sadly parting with a few gaming books that I haven't been using. Most have been read once for review purposes, and all are in mint condition. If you see anything you might like please just leave me a comment or send me an email.

Thanks.

Arbor Productions

Autumn Arbor

Expeditious Retreat Press

1 on 1 Adventures 10: Vengeance of Olindor

1 on 1 Adventures 11: Unbound Adventures

World of Nevermore

Advanced Player's Guide

The Sarcophagus Legion

Lands of Darkness: The Swamp of Timbermoor

Lands of Darkness: The Woods of Woe

Lands of Darkness: Cesspools of Arnac

Lands of Darkness: The Barrow Grounds Plague

The Seven Shrines of Nav'k-Qar

1 on 1 #3: Forbidden Hills

AA: Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom

Magical Society: Silk Road

Fantasy Flight Games

Dark Heresy: Purge the Unclean

Dark Heresy RPG

Firefly games

Faery’s Tales

Giant in the Playground

No cure for the Paladin Blues

Goodman Games

Character Codex

DCC 28: Into the Wilds

DCC 29: Adventure Begins

DCC 30: Vault of the Dragon Kings

DCC 31: Transmuter's Last Touch

DCC 32: Golden Palace of Zahadran

DCC 33: Belly of the Great Beast

DCC 34: Cage of Delrium

DCC 35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms

DCC 36: Talons of the Horned King

DCC 37: The Slithering Overlord

DCC 38: Escape from the Forrest of Lanterns

DCC 39: Ruins of Castle Churo

DCC 40: Devil in the Mists

DCC 41: Lost Arrows of Aristemis

DCC 42: Secret of the Stonearm

DCC 43: Curse of the Barrens

DCC 44: Dreaming Caverns of the Duergar

DCC 53: Sellswords of Punjar

DCC 54: Forges of the Mountain King

DCC 55: Isle of the Sea Drake

DCC 56: Scions of Punjar

DCC 57: Wyvern Mountain

DCC 58: The Forgotten Portal

DCC 59: Mists of Madness

DCC 60: Thrones of Punjar

Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor

Xcrawl: Coney Island Crawl

Xcrawl: Dungeonbattle Brooklyn

Xcrawl: Necromerica

WFF: Rumble in the Wizard's Tower

DM Campaign Record

Haiiiii-Ya!

Master Dungeons Presents: Dragora's Dungeon

Points of Light

In Search of Adventure

Master Dungeons Presents: Curse of the Kingspire

Blackdirge's Dungeon Denizens

The Random Esoteric Creature Generator

PC Pearls

Hero's Handbook: Dragonborn

Green Ronin

Buccaneers of Freeport

BEA 1: Mansion of Shadows

BEA 3: Dirge of the Damned

Damnation Decade

Deck of Many Things

M&M: Time of Vengeance

Greymalking Designs

Desolation RPG

Hero Games

Tuala Morn

HinterWelt Enterprises:
Freedom Squirrel: Nuts to the '70's

Margret Weis Publishing

Knightly Orders of Ansalon

Serenty: Out in the Black

Mongoose Publishing:

Battlefield Evolution: World at War

Traveller: 760 Patrons

Wraith Recon

Paizo:

Pathfinder Chronicles: Campaign Setting

Pathfinder Chronicles: Second Darkness Map Folio

Pasthfinder Chronicles: Dragons Revisited

Pathfinder Chronicles: Gods and Magic

Planet Stories: Infernal Sorceress

Paladium Games

RWB 29: Madhaven

Rifter: Swimsuit Edition

Relentless Publishing
Prophecy: Player Manual

Rite Publishing:
A Witch's Choice

White Wolf Publishing

Daeva: Kiss of the Succubus

Mehket: Shadows in the Dark

Vampire the Requiem: Mythologies

Windmill Games:
12 Dread, Tales of Terror: Issue 1: Wastelands

Wizards of the Coast:
Player's Handbook 4e

Monster Manual 4e

DM's Guide 4e

Dungeons and Dragons Roleplaying Game Starter Set

Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide

To quote one of my players...

2008-10-15T12:28:00.002-05:00

HOPLITES. IN SPACE.

If that makes you excited the way it does us and you haven't seen Hellas yet you might consider checking it out. He got an add for it when he received his order for Burning Wheel and told me about it. Of course, being the Bronze-ophile that I am I went over and downloaded the quickplay and it looks pretty neat. Hopefully I'll have some time at work tonight to read it over.

In the mean time I'm still waiting for Zach to send out the ENnies books. It's been three weeks now and I'm itching to get started. It looks like one of the books they got was Don't Lose Your Mind, the supplement to a game I loved last time I was an ENnies judge, Don't Rest Your Head. I think I meantioned it last time, but if not, the worst part about being a judge is waiting to see what gets entered. There's just so much good stuff out there right now.

Speaking of which, back to reading the Magic Burner so I can prepare for my new Burning Wheel game.

Judge voting

2008-08-10T22:12:00.000-05:00

The ENnie awards, the gaming industry's awards handed out at GenCon every year, is currently voting for next year's judges. For anyone who is interested in throwing a vote my way my name is Jeramy Ware. I was a judge in 2007, and I've been nominated again this year. The voting margin is narrow, so every vote counts and is much appreciated. If anyone who wants to see the work I that I did last time you can pop over to http://enniejudge.blogspot.com/ where I blogged the whole process to see how I do it.

The voting booth can be found here: http://www.ennieawards.com/voting/judges.phtml

Thanks in advance for any support,
Jeramy

An example of Dresden character creation

2008-03-13T02:07:00.002-05:00

One of my players did a fantastic job of writing out the exact method he used to create his Dresden character, and I've been granted permission to post it, so here it is:

*Lae Erg (Faerie name - given by mother)
*Russell Carver (Given name by Sophia Abaris)

High Concept: "Half-Fae Battle Wizard" (All Evocation, All the Time)
Personal Struggle: "My Father's Bargain" (Constant approaches by mother's minions, occasional distrust by the White Council in dealing with matters of the Fae, absolute hatred of father)

*Early Childhood*
*Father - the wizard Walter Carver - made a pact with the Sidhe Lady Siofra (Winter Court) for the life of his first born son in exchange for POWER
*Siofra made power play, trying to fuse a mortal line of wizards and the Sidhe
*Inherited Mother's Willfulness
*Intuitive understanding of magic's ebbs and flows - closely parallels Faerie Magic
*Father goes Rogue, becomes a Warlock and is "killed" by Wardens of the White Council - obviously, not dead
*Refused to take part in mother's plan - requested Asylum with the White Council at the age of 15

Skill Biases: Discipline, Conviction, Rapport and Deceit, Performance
Aspect: "Kissed by the Winter Court" (Appearance, Demeanor, Implied
Political Ties, Magical Aptitude, Smoochies with Maeve???)

*Apprenticeship/Rising Conflict*

*Studied under the tutelage of the witch Sophia Abaris - a Warden of the White Council
*As a Warden - Sophia excels at Evocation - a talent she has passed on to her pupil
*Apprenticed for 10 years, found his natural understanding of magic (and incidental usage of Faerie magic patterns) rapidly increased the progression of his studies
*Passed the tests to become a Wizard and was voted in as a member of the White Council at the age of 25
*Possible undercurrents of romance with his mentor
*White Council sometimes doubts his loyalty due to Sidhe heritage

Skill Biases: Discipline, Lore, Weapons, Scholar
Aspect: "Pupil of Sophia Abaris - Witch, Warden and Evocator" (Magic use, Lore, Weapon/Combat Skills)

*Novel*

"An Unnatural Union"

When a Warden of the White Council of Wizards is found slain - killed by internal watermelon growth, the White Council dispatches Wizard Russell Carver to investigate the possibility of an alliance between the Faeries of Summer and the Red Court of Vampires. But the truth is even more sinister than the White Council could ever have imagined. Can the half-fae wizard break apart an unnatural union between Summer, Winter and Vampire before they tip the war not just against the Wizards, but against mankind itself?

(Frankie's Addition)
With it being mid-summer in Texas, Russell decides to use his powers of persuasion to coerce his cousin, and occasional collaborator, Private Investigator Liz Carver, to help him narrow down the investigation. After all, watermelons are plentiful in this area and could have come from many different locations. The impulsive wizard’s got some good ideas, but it’s going to take some major digging to unearth this mystery.

Skill Biases: Presence, Empathy, Fists
Aspect: "Blood of the Thunder Dragon" (Asshole extraordinaire, maybe could be used in combat given his grandpappy's propensity for it)

Other Aspects: "Heir to a Dying Rage" - From Will's Addition (Heir to Ramon's curse - can tap to summon Ramon, or as people accuse him of creating the curse itself, consequences of the curse) , "Stubborn as a Ram" - From my addition to Kele (Use is obvious - hates to agree with people, thinks he's always right, can also be tapped positively for Will Power kind-of checks)

The introduction to my new 7th Sea game

2008-03-10T15:16:00.001-05:00

The Explorers and their charge ducked down a tight alleyway just in time to avoid a half-dozen of the Cardinal's men as they rushed past. They were all breathing heavily for running and fighting, but there was exilleration there too. A mad amusement that can only come from battle.

The Montaigne swordsman gestured for the others to follow back out into the streets. "We are almost there," he said with a thick accent, and added under his breath: "I think." The streets and canals of the Vodacce city were maddeningly complex from a foreigner's perspective. Why in the world they would trust boats and stinking rivers to carry their goods and people through town, the swordsman would never guess.

They had only broken cover by a few steps with the cry came out. No one waited to be told, they simply drew their blades and formed a circle, backs together and waited for the press of men that was sure to come. The nobleman who was their charge smiled bitterly. "A raging battle through zee streets was not what I had intended when I asked you to help me put and end to a war." His words were chastising, but his eyes betrayed his amusement. His blade had proven no less eager to taste inquisitor blood.

The first group of inquisition soldiers threw themselves against the group, and for a moment there was too much confusion to hold a real conversation. Never-the-less, it didn't stop them from trying.

"Begging your pardon, your Lordship, but there was really very little choice after the Ussuran decided to take missuer Andres' cloak by wrenching it off his neck." He ducked one blow, caught another with his crossed rapier and main-gauche, and then kicked his assailant backwards to make room for a fatal thrust.

The big Ussuran snorted, and brought his blade down heavily onto the weapon arm of yet another brute, severing it cleanly. "I had no choice. It was a skin taken from brother hinde without permission. The thing screamed for me to set it free."

Their Avalonian companion laughed a bit."Next time someone's garments start yelling at you, could you give us a touch of warning perhaps?" He swung his axe in a tight circle, bringing all the force he could forward onto the neck of the man facing him. His face still bore a look of surprise as his head rolled into a gutter while the body fell back into a canal.

"Enough." The nobleman seemed amused by their banter, but he was on an important mission. A quick riposte and an almost surgical thrust into the heart ended his opponent, and he began to move almost immediately through the breach he had created. "We need to move before half the city is upon us." He glanced into the canal at the boats stopped there to watch the battle. "Follow me." With a smooth motion he dropped down into the canal, stopping long enough to tip his hat to the man whose boat he had landed in, and the leapt from ship to ship until he reached the far wall, and scrambled up it.

With a smile and a shrug the Avalonian followed him, not even glancing back to see his two companions finish off the last of the patrol and run after him. Within minutes they were away from the patrols, their enemies just a cacophony of shouts and alarms well behind them. The next time they ducked into an alley it was because they had arrived at their destination. The Explorers' charge knocked three times in quick succession at the door before them, and a tall Castillian dressed in black answered. "Missuers," Lord Defoe said as he introduced them to their host, "I present you with the Marquis Darius Vilanova de Castille."

The last of the Dresden rules fall into place.

2008-03-05T11:15:00.002-06:00

So, yesterday the Dresden playtesters finally got our hands on the magic rues, and I'm just starting to tear into them. So far they look great, though I know this is an early draft, so I expect there to be some minor changes.

This is exciting to me, because I'm running two playtest campaigns, and thus far we've been glossing over magic, or postponing the game. I intend to get into the actual campaigns later, but I thought I should at least jump on real fast while I had a minute and let those who are waiting know that it's getting significantly closer to the finish line.

Now I'm off to actually finish reading all those rules. I'll post more when I'm done.

Legends fall

2008-03-04T23:54:00.007-06:00

As we watch our legends fall,
We see the light they've brought.
The dragons slain,
Princesses saved,
The darkness that they fought.

And here we stand alone at last,
On lonely mountain top.
Dreaming dreams,
Telling tales,
Our quest will never stop.

We will meet in darkened taverns,
Fight and drink and win.
Sally forth,
Down shadowed trails,
Blazed by greater men.

So come with me my boon companions,
Let us fight in his brave name.
Swing your swords,
Sling spells and dice,
Adventure, laugh, and game.

Your loss will be felt world-wide,
Mourned in homes, offices and schools
We will prevail,
The darkness fall,
Because you taught us the rules.

By Jeramy Ware, March 4, 2008
For E. Gary Gygax.
July 27, 1938 - March 4, 2008

To me nothing seems more fitting than the first Dungeon Master should pass on GM's day. Now the day will truly have meaning.

Austin in the Dresden-verse.

2008-02-08T16:03:00.000-06:00

This is my group's first attempt to create a city using the city-creation rules in the Dresden RPG. I've only read the first four novels, so what I have here may not jive completely with what came after, but here goes:

Outsiders point to Austin, Texas as an eclectic blend of the liberal and conservative, tech savvy and environmentalism, party town, and business center. This perception, however, barely reaches below the surface, no matter how hard the chamber of commerce tries to force the illusion.

This city isn’t some beautiful blend of ideology; it’s a town at war with itself. Environmentalists strike socially, politically, and economically at any attempt to bring business into town. New businesses bring pressure against the city council to extort rules exceptions and tax abatements. The city council leans on its citizenry, rewording long-standing ordinances to fit their agendas and transforming the roads that form the city’s arteries into illegal toll-ways. And all the while the citizens argue with each other, fighting over special interests and private agendas to the point where reform is impossible.

Nothing but rats, fighting for high ground on a ship slowly sinking into chaos.

Aspects:

State capital
Warring ideology
College town
Live music capital
Partying on 6^th street.
Keep Austin Weird
Environmental battles
Silicon hills
Plugged in
Bats at sundown
Robert Venaliter owns this town

Who cares about the city?

Since the city was nearly abandoned by vampires of the Red Court in favor of better picking just to the south in San Antonio it has become a sort of haven for young wizards and hedge mages seeking to avoid the war. None of these are particularly powerful, but all feel a sort of vested interest in keeping the town neutral, and they’ve proven themselves willing to fight when necessary.

Just because the Red Court has abandoned the city, however, it doesn’t mean that the town is free of vampiric influence. Austin is well known as a party town, with 24/7 live music, bars, and college students out looking for a thrill. This is an image perpetuated and financed by the White Court, who find the young party-goers to be a virtual smorgasbord of emotion and appetite every weekend night.

Finally there’s the striking figure of Robert Vinaliter himself. A much-loved politician who keeps his fingers in every pie in the city, carefully riding the fence, simultaneously avoiding tying himself to any cause while convincing the people of the city that he supports them completely. Unimpeachable and untouchable, there is a darker side to Mr Venaliter however. The hedge mages of the city are convinced that he dabbles in the dark arts, and that the endangered bats that call the city home and give it its identity somehow answer to him, going forth at night as a legion of tiny spies gathering information for him to use against his enemies. Then again, they also believe that the toll roads serve as some sort of mystical process by which he purchases pieces of your energy a tiny bit at a time, so no one really takes such stories seriously.

Who keeps the peace?

For the longest time Austin was sort of a haven for the supernatural, kept as elysium by mutual unspoken accord. A group of aging hippy hedge mages did their best to keep the worst offenders in line, while the White Court made an example out of any of their own who went too far and began to scare away party goers and tourists.

Recently, however, there has been a subtle shift in the balance that threatens to ignite the chaos boiling just under the city’s surface. A new group of technologically adept vigilantes seems to be very aware of the supernatural in the city, and very willing to bring the finances and technology of the city’s formidable tech center to bear against it. No one knows quite what they do with the creatures they capture, but it’s clear that they see no difference between creatures of the Nevernever and mortal practitioners. Anyone who draws too much attention makes themselves a target. It’s true that they serve to keep the peace, but without a clear idea of who might really be behind their attacks (though hushed whispers speculate that a member of the Black Court might be seeking victims), one begins to wonder about their deeper motivations.

How do mortals cope?

Until recently the supernatural activity in Austin has been seen as little more than a joke, an urban myth the college kids use to scare one another when walking home from a late night on 6^th street. Lately, however, one is forced to wonder. No one outright says that they believe something weird is going on; well, not supernaturally weird, but everyone can feel the subtle shift in the air, and they seem to subconsciously draw themselves into small groups of like-minded individuals, fighting their little economic and political struggles as a prelude to real war.

All the while they laugh at themselves and proudly proclaim: Keep Austin Weird, as though the mantra would ward off the truly disturbing creatures that roam their streets.

What interests a supernatural tourist?

As noted above, Austin is home to a number of supernatural creatures and practitioners. Most of whom would be glad to help a visitor to the city in exchange for their service in whatever is to come. The White Court makes an appealing offer to the young and disenfranchised, with party’s drugs, liquor, and music available on-call, and the town’s hedge mages work well together to provide holistic and spiritual guidance to those new to their power.

The Driskill Hotel, a famous Austin landmark, is also home to the Suicide Brides, a pair of ghosts who each committed suicide in room 525, 20 years apart on their wedding day. For years the room was bricked up and sealed off from the rest of the hotel to try and contain their curse, but ten years ago the current owns tore down the brick as part of the hotel’s renovation, only to find the bath tub filled with crystal clear water, though the faucet didn’t drip and the floor was completely dry. To this day it is said that one can go to the room and refill the tub with water to speak with the brides, who seem very self-aware and tuned into the spiritual happenings in the city.

Lastly, there dwells in Barton Springs an exiled noble fairy of the summer court who calls the underground spring and pool her home. She is said to make deals with other fey creatures and mortals alike to protect her home and grant her a measure of power in our world. This fairy, fashioning herself as “Lady of the Springs”, may well have given rise to the environmental movement that seems to have completely gripped south-west Austin, a movement most easily identified with the “Save Our Springs” (or, SOS) Alliance.

A note: The character of Robert Venaliter is completely fictional and not based on anyone really (except maybe a tad on our corrupt governor :) ). Also, I can't help but equate Willie Nelson in my mind with the hippy hedge wizards. Does that make Matthew McConaughey an apprentice?

A busy couple of weeks.

2008-02-04T10:46:00.000-06:00

Wow, I let two more weeks slip by...

Anywho, I've been keeping busy, which is good I suppose, but I took Saturday night off and vegged out, no games, no work, no planning adventures, and played a couple of mindless Flash games on the internet.

The primary reason I've been so busy was that I finally got around to running a Riddle of Steel one-shot that I've been thinking about for a while now. I called it Cry Havoc, and it was set in Briton in 419 AD. It was a lot of work, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. I spent most of the time boning up on the RoS rules, researching the time period, and writing up histories, descriptions, and character sheets for the pregens. If I get a chance I'll post them here some time, I think they turned out well.

Anywho, the game went great, with nearly everyone playing their characters to the hilt. I did have a couple who just couldn't seem to run their characters as written, but it didn't really matter at all. The roleplay was fantastic, the story was great, and the system held up well. Or, at least I thought so...

Some of my players weren't too happy with Riddle of steel, which is unfortunate, because I really want to use it to run my Pendragon campaign. Sigh. It is pretty darn crunchy, and the one combat we ran did take an hour and a half, but I think a lot of our problems simply came with lack of familiarity.

Ah well, maybe we'll try it again some time.

Other than that I didn't do a huge amount of game-related stuff. I own a small business and the end of January is a tough time, taxes and paperwork eat every free moment.

I did get a whole slew of Dresden stuff, and I'll be running my first playtest Thursday. I finally managed to get NDAs to all of my players Saturday, so thing with that will start rolling fast now.

I can't even begin to describe how impress I am with what I've gotten so far. City creation, which I'll be doing this week, is a neat addition, and the non-supernatural stunts are pretty damn cool. I desperately want to make a martial artist who uses Conviction and Fists to kick supernatural butt. A dedicated Taoist...

Anywho, I'll post more after we finish the first session later this week, but it's pretty darn hot.

Speaking of Dresden.... I've been putting off reading the background stuff we got pretty much first thing because I was afraid of spoilers, but I can't really do that anymore. I just finished book 4, Summer Knight, earlier this morning, and I don't see myself getting to the others any time soon. It's too bad really, they're a heck of a lot of fun.

Alas poor Spirit of the Century, I knew him.

2008-01-19T08:36:00.000-06:00

My Spirit of the Century game ended last night, and, while I feel pretty good about how it ended, I'm pretty bummed about the aftermath.

The game itself was fun, especially the end. The final battle took place on an Atlantean outpost which had been raised from the bottom of the sea by a volcano. The group got into a gun battle through the ruins as the unstable city itself crumbled around them, slowly but inexorably falling into the volcano while they fought with the shadowy mastermind whose plans they had been opposing for the last three sessions.

It was brilliant, it was fun, and it really hit on all cylinders. In the end we finished an hour and a half earlier than usual without even noticing. Everything just flowed so fast and free that it was over before we knew it.

And then there was nothing. It was over.

It's a little sad really. We've played eight sessions in a row, and it's been so much fun, yet most of us feel like we're ready to try something new, and use Spirit of the Century the way we had originally intended, as a pick up game for those days when some of the group can't make it to our other regularly scheduled campaigns.

The problem is that one of our players is so into the game that I actually feel bad insisting on changing when its very clear that she doesn't want to. Even the thought of moving on to Dresden doesn't really excite her. She's really into the characters we made and the vibe we created, and as a newish gamer I worry that she thinks we won't be able to recapture it. The only other game she had played in with us was a Shadowrun game that ended disastrously with an out of character group blow-up that ended with the loss of two players.

I guess when your first experience with a group is tainted by two players who added so much stress and conflict that it felt like they were trying their hardest to tear apart the whole group you kinda hold on to the game that has been fun and exciting throughout.

Still, I really feel like it's time to step into something else (while keeping SotC in reserve for pick up games), and I have a lot of games I really want to do right now, but none of them really seems to interest her. At best I get a "Whatever you guys want to do," which I find infuriating.

Ah well, I guess it's back to the drawing board for now at least. I'm not going to attempt Pendragon with a group without total buy-in, and I know it's only a matter of time before I have enough Dresden to really get down and play, so maybe it's best this way.

Still, I'm going to miss that Spirit of the Century game.

A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

Some switching around of games

2008-01-16T09:40:00.000-06:00

Beginning work on playtesting the Dresden Files RPG is going to cause a few small problems in my group, most notably the fact that I have too many games, and not enough time. Now that is a very good problem to have. How many players actually complain that they have too much gaming to do?

Anywho, it's going to cause a bit of shifting in my current play schedule. Mostly because I'm too stubborn to give up the games I really want to run, and I've well and truly talked myself into playing Pendragon. Well, I've talked myself and my group into it.

I was a little shocked honestly. I expected some arguments when I broached it as our replacement for Spirit of the Century, but I think sometimes I don't give my groups enough credit, particularly that one. I always think I'm going to have to pull teeth to try something new, but they always jump right on board. It makes me pretty proud of the people we've gathered together. So many GMs out there complain about never playing what they want, and my players always just step up and tell me that they trust me to pick a good game and make it fun.

I love my players.

Anywho, the point is, I'm going to have to do a little shuffling. I talked up the Pendragon game so much I doubt I can back out now, so that needs to be fit in, and I have to make room for Dresden too.

I think for right now Dresden will take the place of the Spirit of the Century game we're wrapping up this Friday, but that really only gets me half the play time I want. I run Spirit of the Century every-other week, and I want to do weekly playtests. So I think the solution there is going to be running two Dresden games with two separate groups, both bi-weekly. That'll give me weekly playtests, and get a few more ideas from more players. For that, I think I'll see about moving one of my Spycraft games to a bi-weekly schedule. Then I can use my Sunday group to help out as well. That's not a game I'm running right now (one of my players is trying his hand at game mastering), so I'll have to ask, but I don't see it being a problem.

That just leaves Pendragon, and I'm not really sure what to do about that. It may just have to be put off until my Spycraft games end, which is really too bad. Mostly because I think my Spirit of the Century players will really enjoy it.

My plan is to actually run two Pendragon games, with two separate groups, on the same timeline, in the same world. Have them follow competing (though not necessarily fighting) lieges, and watch as hilarity ensues.

I could probably squeeze in one more game right now, but I doubt I could do two without giving up my Monday nights, the only night I keep for myself, and I'm just not willing to go there yet.

Ah well, good game ideas can wait, especially for something as good as I know Dresden is going to be, and it's only a matter of time until my Spycraft games both wrap up.

Huzzah! We have Dresden!

2008-01-15T20:46:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I will soon have Dresden, in some form or fashion, but I'm very hyped at the moment.

If the new tag on the left isn't obvious enough, my group was selected to be a part of the Bleeding-edge alpha playtest that Evil Hat is doing, and from the briefest of teases I've seen so far I simply can't wait.

I've been wanting to run Dresden since I first caught the show on Sci-fi, in fact, I intentionally tapped a little of that vibe with the Eternal Warriors game that I recently finished up, but having really gotten into Spirit of the Century over the last few months I really can't wait to sink my teeth into this.

There will definitely be more to come.

What I've been up to, or Games Galore.

2008-01-10T19:13:00.000-06:00

Since I stopped blogging I've done a ton of reading and writing, but I'll touch more on that some other time. Today I just want to talk about games.

I mentioned yesterday that I've been gaming more than ever before since I got back from GenCon, but I thought I'd go into just a touch of detail to show just how much that is true.

Right after GenCon I wrapped up the Shadowrun 4th edition, Scion: Hero, and D&D games I had been running. Not long after I got back I had my car accident and took a bit of time off, but I put that time to good use, writing, planning, and preparing.

When I pulled myself together we jumped right into two biweekly games (alternating Fridays). Part of the group and I started a fantastic Spirit of the Century campaign that's still going on (though, much to our sadness that will be wrapping up next week). It's been the most fun I've had with this group, but it's time to move on for a bit, and given the contents of an email I received tonight I might know exactly what we're moving to. More on that when I find out what I can say.

The other Friday game was a GURPS 4e Traveller game set just after the 3rd Interstellar War. That one's still going as well, but it has the whole group in it, and it's been more than a little rocky. Hopefully however the kinks are starting to work themselves out. We had some player changes, and these things always seem to cause a few grouping pains.

Let's see, what was next. I'm pretty sure the next game we did was a one shot Don't Rest Your Head game for Halloween. I took out a bit of the supernatural and ran it as a zombie survival horror game, which I think the system itself did perfectly. The game itself could have been better, but I think that had more to do with us as players than the game. We simply weren't in the mood, and it's hard to be scary when everyone is laughing and getting to know one another again (as per the "growing pains").

Right after that I started a new GURPS game on Sunday nights that I'll go into a bit more detail on later. It's a bit of a cross between Fireborn In Nomine, and The End. To date it may have been the most powerful time that I've had running a short-term game in the 25 years I've been gaming. Even though... strike that... probably because both characters ended up dying in the final act.... Sacrificing themselves to save the world.

In November I added a Saturday game to my roster as well. This one is a Spycraft 2nd edition game set in a world very much like our own. It's been a lot of fun, but I see it morphing very soon into something much deeper.

Finally, my newest game is a Tuesday night DnD game set in the Five Fingers. If anyone read my review on the other site you know how much I absolutely love that product. It's been a little slow, but we're only three or so games in, and I can feel it picking up steam, which is cool.

So, I guess that's it really. I know it's not a huge number, bt it is 5 games run 4 nights a week. Actually, that's not quite true. I forgot to mention that one of my players is running a short-term Sunday night Spycraft game now, replacing the GURPS game in which I killed his character. If this works out it will mark my first significant time as a player in 15 years.

As for what's next, who knows, but I'm dying to find out, and that's a first for me in a really long time. That's really how I know I've recaptured whatever it is that I had lost. It's not just that I'm gaming more, or even that the games are that much better. It's that I'm liking it more, having more fun, and looking forward to the future.

Hopefully this other thing will work out, but if not, who knows, I'm thinking Pendragon....

GenCon is a great cure for burn-out.

2008-01-09T14:28:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I know GenCon was a long time ago, but I've been meaning to make this post since then.

I went into GenCon with some pretty heavy burnout. Like, thinking about stopping playing type burnout.

At the time I was in denial, calling it anything but burnout, but really, that's what it was. Maybe it had something to do with the ENnies, or maybe it was some difficulties my group was having. Heck, maybe it was just a touch of mid-life crisis, who knows. The fact is, it hit me hard.

And then I went to GenCon.

You know, at the time I was there I wasn't really sure I was having a great time. Nothing really worked out the way I wanted it to, I didn't really game much, I had no plan, and my friends were staying at a hotel so far away it may as well have been on the other side of the city.

And yet... I'm not sure how to describe it, but a week after I was home and rested I wished I could go back. I felt refreshed and revitalized, I found myself thinking about cons and trying to make plans to make sure I could make it back in '08. Basically I just felt like I had recaptured a little bit of that RPG magic that I had let drain away. Maybe it was all the great people I got to meet, or the new books, but I really feel like it was just something in the air. There's something about being surrounded by thousands of people who think just a little like you do.

Anywho, I just had to get that out of my system. I went from being at one of the lowest moments in my gaming career, to playing more than I ever have, and enjoying it like I did in the beginning. To me that's pretty special. Sappy, but special.

Thanks to everyone who was a little part of that.

And you thought I said I was back....

2008-01-08T16:00:00.000-06:00

Yeah, so it turns out that right before the holidays is generally a bad time to start doing much of anything, even blogging. Especially if you're just gearing up for a court battle with the ex-wife.

Anywho, this is not about such things, so it's the last time I mention it, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for all the down time.

Hey, I'm alive.

2007-12-05T01:47:00.000-06:00

So, it's been a little over two months since I last posted, but I'm making a concerted effort to catch up. It's rough. Not only have I not posted here, I haven't gone to any forums (not even ENWorld), I haven't heard a single podcast, and I haven't even done much emailing.

So yeah, I basically dropped off the planet.

It was unintentional I assure you, but things just became a huge mess after my accident. My broken thumb made it a pain (literally) to type, and both my shoulders nd my knee ended up being a lot worse than I had at first thought. After a couple dozen X-rays and several hours spent in MRIs, it looks like there is finally a solid plan for continuing on my treatment. My thumb is finally starting to heal (though whether it'll ever bend again or stop hurting is up for grabs), and I'm going into a series of surgeries on my knee and both shoulders starting after the beginning of the year. I chickened out and took the less-effective, but easier surgery path to start with. The doctor says there's a 20% or so chance of relapse as opposed to the 100% recover rate of the more complicated procedure, but he also says the harder procedure will make me completely unable to take basic care of myself for a little while, and I'm not ready to go that route yet.

In the mean time, I have these injections that hurt like heck, but are supposed to see me through to the surgeries, and physical therapy twice a week (plus a home regiment to keep the muscles from weakening).

So yeah, basically it sucks, and hopefully you can see why I've been gone. It's a combination of difficulty doing it, no free time, and a general lack of enthusiasm for much of anything.

Interestingly it hasn't stopped or even really slowed down my gaming, so I'll spend a bit of time catching everything up to date on that front in the next few days. One nice thing about gaming is that I can work on it regardless of how bad I'm doing physically. I spend hours plotting stuff out while I'm doing therapy, waiting around in doctors' offices, or just sitting at work.

All in all it's been a great distraction.

A little love for my players.

2007-09-29T21:13:00.000-05:00

Just a brief word of appreciation for my players who never cease to surprise me. I sat down to game last night fully expecting to have to argue a little about what I want to play, and maybe even having to compromise and play something that wasn't very high on my list of choices.

Without hesitation they picked my top two campaign suggestions with only one minor change suggested. They even volunteered to play Spirit of the Century, which makes me very excited.

After a rather disappointing last month it's great to see that my players are still right there with me.

Playtesting opportunities and back to gaming.

2007-09-28T09:29:00.000-05:00

I was pretty excited to see that playtesting is about to start on the Dresden Files RPG. I mentioned on an earlier blog that I'm pretty excited about this game, so I went ahead and applied for a slot. I'm not hugely familiar with the world yet (having only seen the TV show and read Storm Front), so I doubt I'll get in, but the idea appeals to me.

Besides, playtesting means that the game may actually be coming close to a finished product, which excites me a great deal.

In the mean time, my various groups are all starting up their new campaigns. I've run two sessions of my GURPS game (tentatively titled "Eternal Warriors") and one session of Cold City, which is my first time using the Cold City Companion. It's a freaking great book, but anyone who has read my blogs knows what a fan I am of Cold City. I don't know why, but the darn thing just beats me over the head with cool-factor.

Tonight I'm starting my next game, for which I am trying something new. I won't tell anyone what we're playing. I know it's kind of starting to annoy people, but I'm a little tired of everyone showing up to character building sessions with a character in mind, or worse, a sheet in hand. If no one knows what to expect no one's mind will be working over time before we even get a chance to talk about what kind of group we want.

It's my hope that we'll get there, I'll present a couple of world options, we'll pick one, and then the players will talk about what kind group they want and what kind of adventures they want to play. With any luck we'll have character concepts in mind before we even talk about which system we'll use.

That's my hope anyways.

Tonight will likely be all character/group building, or at least I hope it will be. If so, we'll play this game again next week, and the week after that we'll start playtesting Chains of Aether. Since I had my car accident I haven't gotten the chance to work on it at all, so it'll be good to get back to it and finally get my chance for a "proof of concept."

One final comment. In my accident I lost my iPod. I'm not really sure if it flew out and someone picked it up (I checked the roadside after I got out of the hospital), or if perhaps the tow guys stole it (a possibility since I'm also missing some CDs that mysteriously vanished from my case), but regardless, I haven't caught any of my podcasts in the last few weeks and I'm really starting to jones a bit. I had no idea how much I had come to rely on them for entertainment during my drive into work.

With any luck the jerk at State Farm that is handling my claim will get off his butt some time soon and start reimbursing me for my losses.

The dangers of loose notes.

2007-09-17T19:42:00.000-05:00

Last night, on my way into work, my car was hit head-on by a drunk driver. I have some injuries, but I'm more or less ok. There was some bleeding near my heart, but it resolved itself without surgery and I have a bruise on my lung that make deep breaths painful, but other than that there's mostly cuts, bruises, and the usual airbag/seatbelt injuries.
My car, which was less than a year old, was totaled, but even that's not the bad part. The bad part is that I keep a lot of notes on game stuff in my car. Just interesting ideas or what have you that I write down on what ever is handy.

These were unfortunately scattered all over the road in the crash, and during the night while I was in the ER they all blew away and were forever lost.

Remember that, though laziness may seem to be harmless, I've now lost months of ideas that I have no way of getting back. Put to put good ideas on recoverable media quickly and back up often.

As for me, well, my memory is too bad to really do much about what was lost, but I'm going to hope that I can rebuild the important stuff, or at least remember what it was that inspired me.

Buying attributes, and a small problem

2007-09-15T08:28:00.000-05:00

I think I figured out what I want to do about attributes for Chains of Aether, which is good I suppose. There are seven attributes (including Centering), rated from 1 (human perfection) to 6 (unplayably low), with 4 representing human average.

For PCs I'm, considering a point buy for attributes. The hard part is coming up with a good number to use, but for now I'll go with my gut and hope playtesting gives me a result I like. For now I'm starting with 12 points, using the following table:

6: Not available
5: +1 point, no more than one stat this low.
4: 0 points.
3: 1 point.
2: 2 points.
1: 4 points, no more than one stat this high.

So, that done I do have one problem. I have no idea how I want to handle damage. For a penalty I'm thinking of lowering the number of cards available in a character's card pool, but I'm not sure entirely how to implement it.

I think if I can get past this hurdle I'll be ready for a "proof of concept" playtest. It'll be enough to just play through a quick game and see if the system works the way I want it to before pushing on further.

It turns out that I'm a cheapskate...

2007-09-14T15:12:00.000-05:00

Who knew?

I was over at Half-price books today and stumbled across one of the later Dresden Files books. I really liked the TV show, so I decided to check it out. Unfortunately they didn't have book one, so I went over to Hastings to get it.

Since when do paperbacks cost $9?

Don't get me wrong, I bought it, but wow it's apparently been a while since I bought a new novel, because I had no idea they cost so much.

It's funny really, I have no problem dropping $50 for an RPG I'll likely never play, but a book the cost of a movie ticket shocks me.

Ah well, I'm really looking forward to it, and apparently I need to get out more.

Speaking of the Dresden Files, I'm totally stoked about the fact that it's being made into an RPG. This is partly because watching it made me really want to play, but mostly because Evil Hat, makers of two of the best RPGs I've ever read are putting it together.

Man I hope it comes out soon.

The basic mechanic

2007-09-13T06:25:00.000-05:00

The basic mechanic for Chains of Aether is pretty simple. Basically you just add your attribute plus skill (lower is better) together. This gives you the target number for a task of average difficulty. You then play a card. If the card's value if above the target number, the task is a success. The higher it is above the target number gives you the degree of success.

For tasks that are more difficult than usual you would increase the target number. For easier tasks just increase the value of the card.

So, why the cards and card pools are important:

The basic idea of card pools is to allow the player to think tactically a bit and hopefully to encourage him to describe his actions with little fear of them failing. Under most circumstances you will know whether or not you action is successful ahead of time because you get to decide which cards you are playing.

The other reason card pools are nice is because they allow for Chaining. I'll go into that in a bit more depth some other time, but the basic idea is that the number of actions you are capable of in a round is only limited by the size of your card pool (though you can spend to add items to a chain). As you describe your actions, you play a card.

I leap up on the table [play a card], kick the guy's shield out of the way [play a card], punch him in the face [play a card], and stab him with my sword [play a card].

This gives two benefits. First, the only action that really matters is the last one, but you increase the degree of success by the amount that each action beat its target number (target numbers are set by your lowest skill used), less one for each action attempted (this number needs to be playtested, but it feels right for now).

Second, each chain has a pay-off. The strength of the pay-off is determined by the number of actions successfully chained.

Like I said, I'll go into this in more depth later, especially its non-combat applications and how it works with allies, but hopefully this is enough to give you the basic idea.

Ok, I'm pissed

2007-09-12T13:14:00.000-05:00

I found out at the end of last week that the place I had set up for my gameday fell through.

We were supposed to be doing it in two weeks.

Now I'm screwed. Luckily there wasn't a huge amount of money involved or anything, but I bought some prizes, printed fliers, that sort of thing, and now I have no idea what to do. With zero time left and no where to host it, I'm likely to have to postpone at best, and cancel at worst.

This crap makes me angry. You know, as a business owner I can't even imagine doing this to a potential customer, especially one who was intending on bringing in a great deal more potential customers. I know it isn't limited to gamers, but you'd think that people who play games would at least take them more seriously. The guy actually said, "Yeah, I've know we couldn't do it for a while now, but I didn't know how to tell you, and I knew you were busy getting ready for GenCon."

Getting ready for GenCon! He knew at least four weeks ago?!

Arg. I've spent the last week trying to find a decent place, and short of throwing myself on the mercy of the local FLGS I have no idea where else to try for a decent price. Heck, even if David (the LGS owner) did let us do it there, which I doubt, since Dragon's Lair seems to be phasing out RPGs, there isn't time enough to change the location without changing the date.

At this point I'm considering scrapping the whole idea and just trying to put on a little mini-con this spring. By then I could gather some cash and rent a real space, with a real contract.

The problem is, though I know Austin is a good gaming town, and I know central Texas needs a decent con for gaming, I wonder if the number of people who would come would make up for my out of pocket expenses. I wouldn't mind losing a little money to get the chance to do something cool for local gamers, but I don't want to lose my shirt and then have no one show up.

I frustrate myself sometimes.

2007-09-05T10:13:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in my very first blog here that I wanted to do a little game design work, but I'm having several issues, and even though I know they're mostly in my own mind, I can't seem to get past them.

Right now I'm working on two games, but one is definitely on the back burner. The other, which I'm tentatively calling Chains of Aether, evolved out of that one, but since I think it'll be a bit easier I've decided to focus on that one for now.

It really started as a solution for an issue I'm having with my other game. I wanted a fairly typical
roll-under percentile system, but I wasn't content with the degree of randomness that a straight percentile roll allows.

Unable to find a good solution I came up with something that I thought offered some predictability and had some potential for an interesting tactical twist. Basically it works like this:

Players have a stat called Centering. It basically represents perfect balance in one's life. The six other stats, which govern the usual things (combat, magic, intelligence, social acumen), all circle around Centering. Raising these things makes you better in the field they represent, but the further any stat is from your Centering, the smaller your die pool is. Hopefully this encourages balanced builds and gives non-magical or unenhanced characters a reason to shine without making focus characters any weaker.

Die pools are important because players roll a number of dice equal to their pool at the beginning of an adventure. Then they line the dice up in front of them, and choose the ones they want to use each time they attempt to use a skill. This gets rid of most randomness and adds a tactical element to the game. Players must choose when to use their high rolls, while bleeding off low rolls on easy or unimportant tasks.

When a die is used, the player rerolls it and adds it back to their pool. The difficulty here is that, should you only use high rolls, eventually you're going to run out and you'll only have low rolls remaining. That's why having balance is important. Large dice pools mean lots of dice to choose from.

Die pools also allow for Chaining, which is a little complicated, so I'll save that for later. Basically it just means creating action chains by sequencing the dice from your pool (and possibly the pools of allies who are assisting you).

The problem is that having a lot of dice just sitting there on the table is asking for trouble. While at GenCon I came up with an alternate idea. I would use cards instead of dice. Cards are easy to hold in large numbers, and much less likely to be knocked over. I really liked the idea, but it didn't really fit with what I was trying to do in the other game, so I spun the idea off into a game of its own.

The problem now is that I'm left with a conundrum. I have no idea what the new game is to be about, and it frustrates me because I can't just think of something. Every time I think about the game I focus on what the characters can do rather than who they are, and that's not what I want at all.

It's an old problem of mine, and one I don't know how to get past. Whenever I design a game starting with the rules I always focus on powers over story or characters. I don't know what it is about my brain that just shuts down, but I do much better design work when I start with a solid game concept first, and just let the rules grow around it.

I guess that's it, that's why I frustrate myself. I know I have this problem, but I have no idea how to get around it.

Playtesting group

2007-09-04T12:32:00.000-05:00

I was listening to a podcast (Voice of the Revolution I believe) and thinking a little bit about what I wanted to do with my group when an idea occurred to me.

I spend a lot of time playing. Right now I'm going to be running games three times a week, and playing in another game every-other week. The problem is, I ended all of my games before GenCon, and I have no idea what I want to play with all of these groups. Then the guys mentioned how hard it was to find good playtesters, and it occurred to me that it might be a lot of fun. I've run some playtest groups in the past, but since I have three separate groups of veteran players right now, it might be a great time for me to look into doing it again.

Anywho, I think it might be a good idea to start looking into the idea. If there really is a need, I think I'd really like to volunteer my group for the task.

Reviewer for sale or rent.

2007-09-02T09:15:00.000-05:00

Thanks to some good advice from CW Richeson and a suggestion from the guys at Zeitgeist Games I've decided to start reviewing game products. I'll publish reviews here, at ENWorld, and over on RPG.net.

Unlike the informal reviews I did over on my other blog I'll do my best to give clear, in depth reviews on as many products as possible, and where possible I'll playtest materials before publishing my thoughts.

This'll give me a chance to continue contributing to the RPG community in some small way, and it'll give my group a little variety in the games we play, something we really enjoyed about working on the ENnies.

If anyone has a product they'd like to see me review, please just let me know. My collection is pretty extensive, and if I have it I'd be glad to talk about it. Right now I plan at least one review a week (to be released on Mondays) starting September 17, when my personal schedule slows down a bit. If I can get something up before then I will.

If anything should be submitted for review it'll go straight to the top of my list, and I personally plan on a two week turn around. Barring emergency I should always hit this, unless we need a little bit more time for playtesting. My schedule allows me plenty of freedom to read, write, and play.

Anywho, thanks to CW for the suggestion, and thanks to the guys over at Zeitgeist for getting me started. If anyone has questions or idea for reviews, let me know here or at jeramyware@yahoo.com. If you email me, please put the word [Review] in the title so my spam filter doesn't eat it.

A new blog.

2007-08-29T09:56:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned over on the old In My Judgment, I've decided to move my personal blog over here. I'm going to give the other blog over to this year's crop of judges in hopes that they will continue the work that I started. I know I'm really excited to hear what they have to say, and I think a lot of other people will be as well.

I also went ahead and started a second blog to cover my personal life. I like the opportunity to vent a bit, but I thought I should keep it separate, since it has little to do with gaming.

As for this blog, it will contiue some of what I started over on the old blog, as well as allowing me a place to talk about my gaming life a bit. I'll go into a bit more detail later, but I wanted to go ahead and get this thing started. The next couple weeks will be hard on updates, but I'll start working on it as soon as possible.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me, and I hope that I continue to have something new and interesting to add.

GenCon report, and moving forward.

2007-08-28T05:48:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a week since I've gotten home from GenCon, which probably makes this the latest report on the internet, but I honestly just kind of took the last week off. Not from work, mind you. I went to work the day I got back, and have been working since then to make up for the time I took off, but from games. With the exception of learning how to play the WoW card game I got as swag, I haven't opened a game book, taken a note, or typed a word on the campaigns I'm supposed to be working on. I basically took last week to decompress a bit and hang out with my wife and kids before school made our lives crazy again.

Anywho, I guess I had better start with talking a little bit about the awards. The ceremony was awesome, and best of all I got to spend a bit of time hanging out with all of the great people that I got to know on line over the last few months. There weren't a whole lot of surprises among the winners, though I sincerely wish that a few of the outstanding small press titles had gotten a bit more recognition. I really thought there would be at least a few more medals going out to them.

And then of course there were the announcements for the judge elections.

Since that night I've heard a huge number of people come out to tell me they were sorry that I didn't get elected, and how shocked they were. I appreciate that a lot, but it wasn't entirely unexpected. I was far more shocked that Jeff Ranger (who had been a judge in every previous year) didn't get elected. My election the first time was a fluke, and the result of a whole lot of hard campaigning, drawing from groups that most other judges simply didn't have access to. I hit local gatherings and nearly every gamer in central Texas looking for votes while the others campaigned among the people who could already be counted on to vote online. This meant that I got a nice little surge of votes, but it also meant that they went away as soon as I wasn't around to remind them to get online and vote for me. While everyone else was online, campaigning and answering questions like they should have been, I was on vacation with my family. I knew I was taking a chance with the election when I made the choice, and I don't really regret it.

This isn't, however, bad news. For the judging panel we got five qualified and excited people who came straight home with piles of books and got right to work. I think they're going to do a fantastic job, and I can't wait to sit back and see what they come up with. As far as what that will mean where this blog is concerned, well I have even better news. At least three of the judges told me that they are interested in blogging like I did, and together I know they'll do a far better job than I ever did alone. I have offered to give them this blog site, since it would be a bit disingenuous of me to keep using the enniejudge address, and hopefully they'll take me up on that. Even if they maintain separate blogs, a combined blog here might make for interesting reading. Liz also asked me to consider writing a guest column on occasion, which would be extremely cool, though I have no idea what I would talk about.

As for me, I accepted a staff position doing outreach for the Ennie Awards, and I'll be moving my private blog onto another feed just as soon as I figure out whether or not there is any way to transfer over all the stuff I've already written. I'll leave my entries here as well, but I wanted to archive them on my own site if possible. Beyond Ennies stuff, I'm thinking about starting a pet project. Dan Repperger told me that he believes that everything happens for a reason, and that he was able to speak far more for podcasting by presenting the award than he ever could have in a simple acceptance speech. That got me thinking, and though I personally feel the same way, I don't usually have many opportunities to apply that to gaming. Here perhaps I do. I have two RPGs that I have all but complete, that I never bothered to do anything with because I never had any desire to try and get them published. As a judge I never could have anyways.

Having met a lot of great publishers and writers at GenCon however, I begin to understand why people might want to put their stuff our there, even if they know it'll never make them a real living. So I think I may give it a shot as well. I'm going to take this year to try and get together at least an ashcan edition, and hope that the Ashcan Front has room for one more. I really loved what they were doing there, and it would be incredibly awesome to have the chance to be a part of that.

Anywho, enough of that. Let's talk about GenCon.

Maybe it's just been too long, or maybe I'm just older, but it sure seemed like GenCon was bigger and much more of a presence than it was in Milwaukee ten years ago. You couldn't swing a boffer weapon without smacking a gamer ("2 magic!"), and you couldn't walk down the street without meeting someone cool.

That's good, because I turns out that I am the worst GenCon planner ever. I went to the con signed up to run two unofficial games, and to play in one more. Beyond that, all I had to do was two shifts at the Ennies booth. That's it. Silly me, I thought I'd just find a few games when I got there.

I did, however, run Hollow Earth Expedition, and the players there made it the most fun I've ever had in a con game, and probably the best time I've had with any game in a really long time. I cannot express enough how much I love that game, and as glad as I am that it got a silver for Best Cover, I'm pretty saddened that it wasn't honored beyond that at the Ennies. It helps of course, that the people who make it are so completely awesome. Not only did they set aside a special copy of the limited edition Secrets of the Surface World supplement for me (number 10!), they gave me a copy of the GM screen for running the game at the con, even though mine wasn't an official game, and loaned me a ton of the extremely cool new style chips to use.

I also played in a game of Traveller20 run by Psion from the ENWorld forums. There I made the unfortunate choice of playing the pilot, and I basically spent the entire game sitting on the ship hoping to make myself useful. I'm sure I was a ton of fun for the poor other players who kept trying to encourage me to leave the ship, but the paranoid GM in me was sure that the moment we left the ship unoccupied it was going to take off without us. Yeah, it's tough switch from GM to player. If you guys are reading this, sorry if I was a stick in the mud.

Finally I managed to worm my way into Chris Hussey's Skies of Glass demo (the game written by the guys over at Fear the Boot). The game itself is still in early stages of development, but it looks really cool, and that demo adventure is the best written con game I've ever seen. It's really tough to write a game for a bunch of strangers. Doubly so for a group different enough to touch on all the features of a game, and that game was perfect. Everyone at that table had something to do, and we were all engaged the entire time. I can't heap enough praise that direction. Even if my best friend did betray me to the law and get me executed...

That's really it for my gaming experiences. Like I said, I just didn't plan well at all. I was really hoping to do some stuff that I never get to at home, play some board games, demo a few story games, and play in a LARP. Ever since I read the excellent new version of the Cthulu LARPthat was entered in the Ennies I've been dying to give it a try. Anywho, I never really got the chance. That's not entirely true. I did get to do a cool demo of Breaking the Ice, which was a huge amount of fun, but I was desperate to try out Dogs in the Vineyard and Prime Time Adventures, and I'm bummed that I never made that happen. Especially after hearing the latest Sons of Kryos talk about the great Star Wars game they played with PTA.

In spite of my terrible planning I did get to meet some extremely cool people. Wednesday night the guys from Fear the Boot took me out for a great dinner, and not only gave me a Baron von Badass mug, but introduced me to a new beer to fill it with. I also got to hang out with Jeff and Judd from the Sons of Kryos, though I never did meet Storn; Paul Tevis, who also introduced me to Ken Hite (sorry, Kenneth Hite in print); Jeff, Melissa, and the Exile Crew; Lenny and Fred from Evil Hat; all three of the All Games Considered crew, Jared Sorenson; Luke Crane; all the ENnies folks (Denise, Russ, Rich, Liz, Kennon, Michael, Gertie, Jeff, Stuart, Kevin...); the list goes on and on, but now I'm just listing people, so I'm going to stop while I'm ahead. Sorry if I missed anyone. I had such a great time at GenCon, and it was all because of the people I met.

So, I guess that's really all I did. I missed the Judges' Party Thursday night, so I don't have all the great stories everyone else does. I skipped it at first to run my HEX game, intending to show up late, but then promptly forgot about the party by the time the game ended at midnight, and went up to my room to sleep after my 20 hour drive earlier in the day. Other than that I spent all of my time in the dealers' room. You'd think that I'd have managed, in all that time, to get everything that I wanted, but I didn't. I don't have my stuff with me, but let me see if I can remember the list:

Play Dirty, by John Wick (Dude, if you stumble across this, you're my hero. Just throwing that out there.)
The Blossoms are Falling, by Luke Crane
Jihad, by Luke Crane
Cold City Companion, by Malcolm Craig (Who also gave me a second, signed copy, to give away at my game day next month.)
Monte Cook's World of Darkness
Hollow Earth Expedition: Secrets of the Surface World
Hollow Earth Expedition: Player's Kit (A cool little bag with Ubiquity dice and Style Chips.)
Hollow Earth Expedition: Game Master's Screen
Aces and Eights
Classic Battletech TechManual
Classic Battletech Technical Readout 3050
Shadowrun: Augmentation
Dogs in the Vineyard
GURPS: Martial Arts
Blackmoor: Clock and Steam (Which was given to me for review by the guys at Zeitgeist.)
and the guys at Eden sold me Forsaken Rites, Cryptozoology, and Atlantis Rising for $5 a piece on Sunday :)

I know I'm forgetting some stuff, but I won't remember any more until after I publish this I'm sure, so I'm going to press on. I guess the combination of crunchy and narrative games that I bought may make me the most eclectic gamer ever, but I just love new games. So long as they fulfill their design goals I'm willing to give anything a shot.

What's really notable is what I didn't get, mostly because I'm an idiot. In retrospect I'm angry with myself for skipping the new Battletech boxed set. I was already so far over budget I couldn't justify buying a starter set since I already had all of the regular books, but man I wish I had a copy. A similar thing happened with GURPS Supers, where I got money concious and started thinking about the likelihood that I would be playing a Supers game any time soon. Somehow I also missed three of the games that I specifically went into the dealer's hall to buy. Reign, Prime Time Adventures, and Dread were right at the very top of my too buy list, and I have no idea how I missed them. I went to the Forge booth to pick them up, got distracted when my inner fanboi took over and I went around getting my books signed, and managed to walk away without thinking about it. I didn't notice that I managed to leave without them until I packed up my suitcase Sunday night.

All in all however it was certainly the best four days in gaming. I can't begin to describe what a great time I had and how much fun it was meeting everyone. Next year I'll plan better, and I'll do all of my shopping Thursday in case I miss anything. Other than that, I have no regrets.

Thanks to everyone who made GenCon, and this blog, such a blast. Especially to all of those who voted for me or vouched for me when I was running for judge. I got a lot of love this year, and win or lose it meant the world to me.