Austin in the Dresden-verse.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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...

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.