Grab Bag

Name Recognition


I experienced a bit of a weird moment the other day at work. Now, I've experience more than my fair share of weird moments in life, but this wasn't like falling through the cello cabinet and ending up with a tuba on top of me or waking up naked under an afghan in the middle of a group of middle aged and elderly ladies kind of weird. This was an entirely new kind of weird, the weird of being recognized, at least by name, by someone who you've never met.

It happened like this:

I was at work and a customer came in and I began to ring up his order. He noticed that I was wearing a derby shirt, and asked me what team I was wearing. I proudly proclaimed that it was for the Chippewa Valley Roller Girls, and that I announced for them.

"Oh, cool," he said. "What's your derby name?"

"Mat Black."

"Hey, cool. I've heard you game at Pegasus Games in Madison."

I was a little taken aback. But yeah, I told him, when I get the chance. Sadly, I've only really had the chance to actually game there once.

So, as the day went on, it just kept seeming stranger and stranger. Here was this guy, who was, admittedly, a pretty cool guy whose wife is or was a MRD bench coach, but who had heard where I've gamed. Like I said, a totally new kind of weird.

Mutants & Mayhem


I got to run session two of our Gamma World game this weekend. I'm pretty stoked, but pretty nervous as well. I haven't had a home campaign that's made it past two sessions in well over 5 years. So I'm understandably nervous that session three might never roll around.

This time around, we used my house rules, and I think it was a pretty good success. Even with my mechanics, not everyone had the same Alpha Mutation that they started with.

Gobi, Steam Bolt, and Jerry from Texaport (played by Manda from Mandariffic) were joined by a couple of new mutants - Jellie von Faustus, a Gelatinous Demon played by Naomi (from Mind Stain) and Rut Roach, a Cockroach Pyrokinetic played by her fiancee Dustin.

The newly-bolstered group headed back to the badder steading and found that the outside security had been beefed up. It was pretty short work, and then the group prepared for the huge bat-winged lion with laser beam eyes that they knew waited inside. With some recon work from Jellie, and a hypno-ray that Jerry had scavenged, the group made pretty short work of the encounter, ultimately suggesting to the yexil that it fly away and be happy in the wilderness.

They then descended the stairs where they found a couple of badders waiting in ambush. Beyond the landing at the bottom of the stairs, they discovered a large machine humming away, a cage full of mindless humans, and more badders (these had flails). They managed to make short work of the machine that seemed to be draining them of energy and feeding it back to the badders, who, without their healing, didn't last very long.

And that was where we left it. When we next pick up, the group needs to decide what to do with the humans, and if they want to delve into the system of tunnels leading from the machine room.

Pathfinder Society


It's been a long time since I've gotten to play in any Organized Play campaigns. The last time was when I went to an LFR game at Pegasus (see how I tied that together?). While LFR is fun, it mostly serves to make me nostalgic for the days of the Living Greyhawk campaign. That, in turn, makes me nostalgic for the experience of being an even organizer.

It might seem crazy to think fondly back on the hours of labor and headaches that getting gamers to act in an organized fashion can bring, but nonetheless, I do miss it. So, with the Pathfinder Society program entering its fourth year with new leadership, a new storyline, and lots of new possibilities, I'm getting ready to jump back in. Some time in the next month, I will be hosting the first public Pathfinder Society even here in Janesville (at least to my knowledge). I'm sure it won't have a massive turn-out, but that's okay. I've been there before. I'll post more about it as more details are finalized.

Putting the Cook Back in the Kitchen

In case you haven't heard, Monte Cook is returning to the Wizards of the Coast R&D Team. This has thrown fuel on the fire of speculation around an impending 5th Edition of the D&D game and gamers all over forum boards have begun further splitting themselves into pro- and anti-Monte camps inside the larger pro- and anti-4E camps.

One of my dirty little secrets? I can't stand most gamers.

(Chances are, if I've gamed with you more than once, you're probably not one of those. Also, please be prepared to place you tongue firmly in you cheek for most of this.)

Rather, I can't stand the inherent schismatic nature of gamers. I can't stand Edition Warriors. The horrible truth about the "Edition Wars" is that it wasn't caused by WotC publishing 4E, or the cavalier way they announced it, or Paizo tuning up the engine of the 3.5 system, or any of that. It was caused by the overly extremist nature of most gamers.

And it's not solely a D&D thing. Working in a game store, I hear lots of rips of every edition of D&D. I hear gamers extolling the virtue of Old World of Darkness, and how much the New World of Darkness sucks. I hear the exact opposite.

I'm probably a bit of an oddity. If you look through my gaming bookshelves, you'll find stuff from every edition of D&D, from both iterations and multiple editions of World of Darkness, and more. I've never found an RPG where I couldn't find something about it that I liked. In fact, maybe that's why I can't understand most gamers - I'm spending my time looking for things to like, rather than spending it looking for things that weren't as good as the version that I play.

All RPGs, all games in general, will eventually collapse under the weight of their own rules. The more rules you add on, the faster it will happen. It's happened with every edition of D&D, it's happened with the World of Darkness, it's happened with nearly every game. Add to that the fact that in order to turn a profit, a company has to produce new product to sell, and you've got a perfect storm environment. In order to keep making a game, you have to make new product, and every new product you make pushes you one step closer to the day when you will have to reset and put out a new edition of the game. It's the circle of geek.

Of course, sometimes, you're going to have to make some radical adjustments to the rules. If WotC had published 3.75 instead of 4E, you'd still have people griping about having to replace their books and having to do conversions on older products, and why aren't you producing free pdf documents that update all of these old products that I've purchased from you? Which another thing I can't stand about most gamers - their sense of entitlement. The thought that they are the most important customer, and that they are the ones who the company should be catering to. A certain myopic sense of self-importance. But guess what? I work in a game store, I've been to GenCon and Origins and tons of other conventions. There are a thousand more with that same attitude, and not a single one of you would agree on the "right way" to play the game.

So, that brings me back to Monte, and the speculation of 5th Edition.

Of course there's going to be a 5th Edition (also, NEWSFLASH, there's eventually going to be a 2nd Edition of Pathfinder). That's a given, and if you think it's not, you need to get out of your mom's basement more often than to buy the latest supplement for the best and only real version of D&D EVAR! It's not a question of "if," it's a question of "when," and "by whom?"

If we look at the idea of games collapsing under their own rules, 4E is at that point. While I do quite enjoy a number of things about 4E, one of its major shortcomings was the sheer glut of rules material that was produced in a short period of time. Between all of the material crammed into the early issues of the online version of Dragon, and the insane production schedule (both of which resulted in so many "Updates" to the rules that you practically needed a personal assistant to keep up on them) 4E had nearly as much rules bloat in its first year and half as 3.5 had in its entire run.

And then there was the Essentials fiasco. Don't get me wrong, I liked a lot of stuff in Essentials as well, but it seems that its main purpose was to confuse the consumer. What is this? A new edition? Is this better than my old stuff? It's supposed to be compatible, but why have a bunch of the rules changed? Why do I need to remake the character I made with the Red Box? It was a unmitigated marketing disaster for a pretty solid project.

So, 5th Edition IS coming (or, possibly, as Stephen Radney-McFarland at NeoGrognard postulates, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) and I think that it will most likely be produced by WotC. And it's probably one of the things that Monte will be working on. Possibly it was one of the main reasons he was hired back.

As I mentioned before, this decision has even further splintered and polarized people. A quick read through the 4E forums on WotC's site revealed accusations of Monte being a egotistic hack who lives only to soak up adulation from fanboys and who couldn't design his way out of a paper-bag using his decade-old ideas (of course these accusations were made by people who didn't co-design one of the best-selling RPGs ever, so whatever). It has also been pointed out that he might be Batman.

It's this very thing - this overly-sensitive reaction that someone is out to "ruin" THEIR personal game - that irks me. It's the basis of the "Edition Wars," and it's the reason I can't stand most gamers.

I'm happy that Monte is back designing at Wizards. I'm looking forward to see what he does there, whether it be 5th Edition or not. And if it is 5th Edition, I'll probably play that too.

So, my message to most gamers out there? Stop being little bitches, grow up, grow a pair, and realize that it's just a fucking rules system, not a part of your core of being.

A Night at the Museum, Lovecraft Style - A Review of Fantasy Flight's Elder Sign Game

So, let's just get this right out of the way. I work at Noble Knight Games, so when I do game reviews, the links that I'm going to provide to where you can get the game are going to be links to Noble Knight. That's just the way it is.

Now, it took a little while for this game to finally come in to the store. But, anyone who knows me knows that I love me some Lovecraft and I love me some gaming, so Fantasy Flight's Arkham Horror line is right up my alley. So I was pretty excited about this one.

Was it justified? Let's find out.

Naomi from Mind Stain came over yesterday morning to play Elder Sign with me. Neither of us had played before, and I only gave a very cursory glance at the rules before going to bed the night before. I figured that would be a good way to gauge things like ease of learning the rules. But, as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Elder Sign is a card- and dice-based cooperative game for 1 to 8 players ages 13+, designed by Kevin Wilson and Richard Launias (who might be the man who has ALMOST won the Spiel des Jahre more than anyone else) and published by Fantasy Flight Games. While it has Fantasy Flight's well-known production quality, it is part of the Silver Line, so it doesn't have that over-the-top-ness of their bigger releases. Still, it's a gorgeously produced game that's going to wow newcomers and satisfy long-time FFG fans.

If I may indulge a tangential thought (and you really can't stop me), I've recently heard that in an effort to keep the price point on their games low, Fantasy Flight will be moving the bulk of their new games to the box size of their current Silver Line games like Elder Sign and the revised edition of Red November. Whether or not this will have an effect on their usual component quality remains to be seen, but it's something that I'll be keeping an eye on.

The basics of Elder Sign are pretty simple: you and the other players are investigators resolving strange events in and around a museum; Events that presage the awakening of one of the Ancient Ones who will burn the world to a cinder. In order to stop the Ancient One, you must collect Elder Signs to seal them off from this world. Of course, collecting the signs isn't easy, and if you fail to stop it from awakening, you will have to fight a desperate and nearly hopeless battle against the Ancient One.

If you've played any of the Arkham Horror board games, or the Call of Cthulhu Living Card Game, or the Mansions of Madness board game, you'll recognize most or all of the investigators in the game. Anyone familiar with those games, or just with the Lovecraftian Mythos, will also recognize the Ancient Ones: Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Hastur (Hastur! Hastur!) and more are all here to try and turn our world into their own apocalyptic party house.

One of the coolest components of the game is the clock. The clock starts at midnight, and at the end of every player's turn, the clock is advanced three hours. Every time the clock hits midnight, certain card events trigger, and the Ancient One (usually) gets one step closer to our world.

The brilliant thing about this mechanic is that it will make games with more players very difficult as midnight will come around more and more often. It also lends itself as an incredibly easy way to change the difficulty of the game. Want an easier time? Simply advance the clock two hours (or even just one) instead of three. Want a tougher and more desperate game? Advance the clock four hours at the end of each turn. These variant rules aren't presented in the book, but should work to fine tune the difficulty of the game.

Setting up the game for the first time can be a little bit confusing. Like most Fantasy Flight games Elder Sign has a lot of different types of cards and counters, and like many of their games, the rules simply aren't as complete and laid out as well as they could be (I'm looking at YOU, Death Angel), and are at times somewhat vague. As an example of this, the rules provide a very helpful "Anatomy" of an Ancient One card and an Investigator card, but fail to provide anything similar for the Adventure cards, which would have been a big help in setup and in game play in general. It took us about 30 minutes to set Elder Sign up, but this will likely be cut down to no more than 15 minutes the next time we play.

Each investigator has different starting equipment and different special abilities. We played using randomly drawn characters, with Naomi playing the magician and me playing the doctor. Right off the bat, this illustrated that not all character abilities are created equal in this game. The doctor has the ability to heal one stamina on any investigator (including himself) at the beginning of his turn. The magician gets to draw an extra spell card whenever he would normally draw one. I used my ability on every turn of the game while Naomi got to use hers only once or twice.

The layout is pretty simple. The museum is made up of six cards laid out in two rows of three underneath an entrance card. Each card is a room or area in or around the museum and has specific tasks that must be completed before the card can be resolved and a new one drawn in its place. The entrance card is a sort of "safe" area, where investigators can heal and get items or spells. The actual layout of the cards are actually kind of meaningless, as investigators can move freely to and from whichever cards they choose.

While this freedom of movement does allow for strategic options on which rooms to face at any given time, it also has two distinct drawbacks. First, it detracts from the feel of actually exploring a museum by moving from one room to another. Second, it can bring on a bit of "Analysis Paralysis" as players figure out which of the cards is the best option to attempt to resolve each turn. I am actually working on some variant rules that changes the movement a bit, making the game more challenging and interesting.

Each room in the museum has a number of challenges that need to be resolved in order for the card to be completed. These challenges are represented by a symbol or series of symbols that correspond to the faces of the specialized dice that come with the game. The dice mechanic is really the meat of the game, and is somewhat reminiscent of Steve Jackson Games' Zombie Dice game.

There are six green dice, one yellow die, and one red die. Any time a task is attempted, the player rolls all six of the green dice. If the player has one or more combinations of dice that match one of the tasks shown on the card, they can choose to complete one task per roll. If they successfully complete a task, the corresponding dice are set aside on the card, and the player may choose to roll the remaining dice in an attempt to complete another task. If a roll does not result in a combination of dice that complete a task, the player may choose to attempt again by setting one of the dice aside and rolling again. This goes on until a card's tasks are all completed or the player is unable to complete any further tasks. Rewards for success and penalties for failure are listed on the cards with fairly simple and easy to remember iconography.

There are additional rules elements that will let players add the yellow die or the red die to their rolls, or let them re-roll single dice or entire pools, or let them "save" die results for later. Some of these are pretty straight forward while others are somewhat vague, but in all, it's a very strong system.

Monsters are fought using the same system as completing the adventure cards, with each monster having sets of symbols needed to defeat the monster. Like Arkham Horror, Elder Sign uses as "Monster Cup" to randomly draw monsters when they are encountered. Our main issue with monsters was that the rules seemed somewhat unclear on where monsters were placed when they were drawn, and how they interacted with tasks in the rooms that they appeared in. I'm sure that after another game or two, it will make a bit more sense, but it was a little confusing the first time around.

There are, of course, other rules and elements to the game, but these are the basics that everything else is built upon.

Our two-player game lasted about two hours, including set up time and time spent figuring out rules as we went. We were fighting against Shub-Niggurath, who adds an extra requirement to every monster in play, making our game pretty tough, as we had a glut of monsters appearing almost every time the clock struck midnight. We didn't get a chance to finish, but at the time we ended, Shub-Niggurath's doom track was about half-filled, and we only had about one quarter of the elder signs needed to win. Had we had enough time to play the game out to its conclusion, it probably would have been a very close game.

So let's get to some numbers. I'll be rating games that I review in a number of categories using a 1-10 scale, with 1 being very, very bad and 10 being amazingly good. Let's see how Elder Sign stacks up.

Graphic Design/Presentation - 8
Like all Fantasy Flight games, Elder Sign's components are very nice and well-designed. The graphic design is simply beautiful on this one, but being a Silver Line game, the components are just a little less spectacular than bigger games like Talisman, Mansions of Madness, and Arkham Horror.

Ease of Learning/Clarity of Rules - 3
This is the area where Elder Sign falls very flat. Simply put, this game is going to take a little time to grok. The rules, as I've previously mentioned, are sometimes a bit opaque. I would suggest having someone read the rules thoroughly a couple of times before playing this game, and maybe even play a solo game to have a good idea of how things work in order to explain to other players. If your group picks this up and plays it out of the box, there will be a lot of questions and missed rules for a number of turns. Hopefully, FFG will be quick on the draw to post some rules clarifications or FAQs on their site.

Ease of Play/Mechanics - 7
Once you've figured out the rules, the game usually moves pretty quickly. There are some moments of "Analysis Paralysis" as players gauge their chances at completing the available adventure cards, but this is balanced, in my view, by the coolness and fun factor of the dice rolling mechanic.

Theme/Feel - 6
Elder Sign falls a little short here. As it's part of the Arkham Horror line, the theme is nothing new, and there's not enough in this game to really set it apart in a manner like Mansions of Madness. That being said, the Arkham Horror/Call of Cthulhu theme is one that never gets old for me, so it's not a major flaw. However, the game doesn't quite hit the mark on feel. While the flavor text on the cards is as good as anything else in the Arkham Horror family, the ability to move wherever you want on a given turn really detracts from the idea that you are exploring a museum.

Fun Factor - 9
All issues of feel and vague rules aside, Elder Sign is a lot of fun. Even with two players, there were moments when Naomi and I had a good cheer when making an especially important roll, and groans of disappointment when we failed. Once you get the rules figured out and running smoothly, you WILL have fun.

Replayability - 8
With a good number of different investigators, Ancient Ones, and adventure cards, it's unlikely that you'll ever have a game that plays exactly the same as one you've played before.

Value/Price - 7
At a retail price of $34.95 (NKG has it available for $29.95), Elder Sign isn't going to break the bank or be a major investment like Mansions of Madness. With the game's good replayability rating, you're going to stretch your money as well. You definitely get your money's worth with Elder Sign.

Overall Rating - 7
This is a game you or someone in your group should pick up and play. You're going to have fun, even with the steep curve. If you're a fan of the Arkham Horror line, and looking for a game that won't take quite as long as a typical game of Mansions of Madness or Arkham Horror itself, Elder Sign will fill that niche. It's dice mechanic is unique enough to keep it from getting Jones-Theoried in favor of other games in the genre, and it's a game that you'll be able to play time and again. If you aren't already familiar with Arkham Horror or other cooperative games, this is actually a pretty good way to get your foot in the door with either. If you have a great time with Elder Sign, you're also going to like Arkham Horror and other co-op games like Pandemic, Defenders of the Realm, and Castle Ravenloft. If you're looking to pick up a copy, head to Noble Knight Games to get yours now.

Thanks for reading this far into my first game review here on Libram X. I'll be playing this one again, and will be posting my thoughts about further sessions of Elder Sign in the future. I'll also be writing up some proposed variant rules to change the game's difficulty level and add more feel to the game with limited movement.

My Weekend at the Dream King's Palace - Part Three

Okay, so you want me to get right to juicy stuff, right? Where's Neil's house? Did you see what he's working on now? Did he have any dirty underwear lying about or anything like that?

Well, I'm not going to go into any of those details, save to assure that there were no Hugo-winning drawers anywhere in sight. What I will say is that Neil's house is gorgeous. For as long as I can remember, I've loved old Victorian and Edwardian houses, and I've always wanted to live in a house with a turret. Until this weekend, I had never had a chance to go inside a house like this.

The way there was long and winding, and I'm glad that we followed Lorraine and Kyle from the after-party, because I probably never would have found it with only directions.

My first thought at seeing the house was that it was pretty much THE house that I had always wanted to live in. It was large and dark, but still inviting, with a large open porch and, yes, a turret.

We got to meet Lola and Cabal right away. They are truly beautiful animals, even more so than they are in pictures. And friendly, to boot. Lola put up a big show of ferocious barking at first. She bounded up to us, but switched to nuzzling and sniffing mode when she got there. Cabal was, of course, more reserved. He waited by the back door for us to come to him, and accepted our petting and scratching with a quiet dignity. In short, they are the kind of dogs that anyone would love to have around.

Kyle went off for a midnight walk with Lola and Cabal while Lorraine took Kristen and I inside. When it comes down to it, Neil's house is a house much like any other. Sure, it was filled with lots of books and Beautiful Things, but it was like any other home and it exuded it's owner's presence even in their absence.

Lorraine gave us directions to our bed for the night - all the way up the stairs to the top of the turret. Cool. On our way up, we met the first of the cats, Coconut. He was a mixed white and gray, and didn't seem to mind the fact that there were strange people climbing his stairs too much. We stopped a bit to pet him and introduce ourselves, then continued the ascent. Up we went into the attic.

Now, I honestly don't know if Neil writes in the attic. If I had the house, I would most certainly write in the attic, and it seemed like a place the Writing Happened. There were shelves and shelves of papers and other stuff. I made a point not to be too nosy about it, but my inner geek couldn't help but notice (and drool) over some old Sandman and Death merchandise that I would have loved to play with. If Neil does write in his attic, I think I spied the room where it actually happens. I'm good with getting that close to things.

"Um, I don't know if this is where we're supposed to be," one of us said to the other.

"Yeah, I don't think so. This is like back stage," the other replied, looking around in wonder.

We had lost the flow of the turret and were unsure where to find the next set of stairs.

"Maybe we should go back down and wait for Lorraine to find us," said one of us.

"That's probably a good idea," said the other, casting last second glances around the attic as we made our back down.

And so we hung out with Coconut some more. Or possibly he hung out with us, it's kind of hard to tell with cats.

We waited at the end of a long hall. Between bouts of petting Coconut and marveling at how loud his purr was, I explored the length of the hall, checking out the beautiful works of art hung on the wall - Dave McKean and Charles Vess and others. Stuff that you wouldn't find anywhere else, personalized and personal sort of things. Beautiful Things.

Eventually, Lorraine found us again, sitting somewhat sheepishly, I imagine, and the top of the stairs. It was eventually decided that, because of our allergies, it would be best if we stayed in the library instead. In Neil Gaiman's library. In case that wasn't perfectly clear already.

The library used to be Lorraine's room, she told us, before she got her own house. She was an excellent hostess. We met another of the cats, Princess Snowflake, the distinguished matron of the house who followed us to the bathroom. Princess likes to drink out of the faucet, and in fact, it might be that the main reason that she allows humans to reside in her house is that we have the ability to turn the faucet on.

Joey, the third cat, also seemed to enjoy the bathroom. Every time I saw him that night, he was in the bathtub, looking expectantly at the tap.

So, once Lorraine made sure we were all settled in, she took her leave to go back home for some well-deserved rest. She had, after all, just skated in her first two derby bouts, as well as being in charge of setting the whole thing up. We gave her hugs and congratulations and some carrot bread that Kristen had baked as a thank-you.

Then we were alone in Neil's house.

Kristen observed, and I concurred, that it was akin to being a kid and deciding that you were going to run away to live in a museum, like in "The Mixed-Up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler." It really kind of was.

Neil's library is a lot like you would probably imagine it would be, except you probably wouldn't think to put a futon in your version. There were lots and lots of books, of course. Old books, new books, red books, blue books; Books you would expect like fancy versions of his own works, antique books of Poe and other classic literature. I was thrilled to see a couple of old Fritz Leiber Lankhmar novels sitting out on the desk. They had been purchased from a library sale. There were other things you would expect like classic literature and the huge bookcase filled with all manner of texts on mythology and folklore.

There were also a few surprises that you wouldn't expect to see, like a Chelsea Handler book and Stephanie Meyer's "The Host." If you take a minute to think about it, though, even these make sense. It's obvious that Neil loves books in the same way that I do. If I had a library, I could only hope that it looked a lot like his.

And of course, there were the awards. Hugos (three of them), the Newbury Medal, the Nebula (the coolest looking award I've ever seen), and more. While they really are huge deals, their presence in the library was natural, like it would have seemed strange for them not to be there.

So, weary from a long hard day, we prepared for bed. Kyle returned from his trek with Lola and Cabal. He would be staying in the room next to ours, and we chatted for a bit, he enlightening me on the power dynamics between Coconut, Princess Snowflake, and Joey.

You might expect that sleeping Neil Gaiman's library would lead to wondrous and mystical, meaningful dreams filled with characters from mythology, but the honest truth is, I was so tired that I can't even remember if I dreamt at all. I do know that I woke very happy and well-rested, even though we only got 6 hours of sleep and had to hit the road right away.

There was still a bit of wonder left over in the morning. Sadly, though, we wouldn't be able to stick around and enjoy the venue. We got ourselves together, wishing we could stay longer, and headed out.

Kyle was outside already, playing with the dogs. We chatted a bit more, and said our goodbyes. As we pulled out of the driveway, our last sight was Kyle, Lola, and Cabal heading off into the woods for a morning walk.

And, just like that, it was over, which is, generally, how these sort of things end.

So, if you're ever wondering what it's like to visit Neil's house, I would have to sum it up by telling you that it is very obviously the house of a Very Nice Man.

Thank you, Neil, for your hospitality, and Lorraine, for so very many things that I can't even begin to list them, and to Kyle, for being a Very Nice Man in his own right, and for making us feel like we weren't ghosts haunting an empty house.

My Weekend at the Dream King's Palace - Part Two

For those that don't know, aside from an accredited Gaming Geek, I am also the announcer for the Chippewa Valley Roller Girls, the Eau Claire area's original Women's Flat Track Roller Derby league. Not only had this sport made me friends with a great group of dedicated and fun ladies, but it's had a few side perks as well.

Now, I know that this about this weekend, but there's really a year-long preamble to how things got to this weekend, and I think it's important to recount my side of those events.

Last Halloween, I had the pleasure of attending The Gathering of American Gods at the House on the Rock. I was thrilled just to be going to one of my favorite places on the face of the earth to celebrate one of my favorite works of fiction. Little did I know how it would my personal worlds of derby and literature collide in a most unexpected way.

So, I kept running into Neil at the event all weekend, in strange ways that often seemed to be driven by fate. And perhaps they were.

I had heard that the Fabulous Lorraine, Neil's assistant as well as a very talented lady in her own right, was a fan of derby. I thought that was pretty cool, since she was lived in the Eau Claire area, and I should find a way to invite her to our upcoming bouts. Then, on a late October Saturday morning, things happened that changed a lot of stuff.

Through a series of rather inexplicable events including my inability to make a decision, rocking out to a Drums album so intently that I missed an important left turn, and forgetting a pack of cigarettes in my car, I ended up entering the House on the Rock right alongside Neil and Lorraine.

I gave a polite nod and hello to Neil, and sort of pulled back in the group a little, not wanting to intrude. I ended up walking next to Lorraine, and decided that it would be a Good Thing to strike up a conversation about derby. So, I confirmed that she was a fan, let her know about CVRG and my announcing for them, and found out that she was one of the people who got turned away from our first sold-out bout. We chatted for a bit about derby and her getting to join Neil and Amanda Palmer and others on stage at the Evelyn Evelyn show I had attended a month or so prior, and then let the group go on their way to take photographs in the carousel room.

"That was pretty cool," I thought.

As the weekend went on, I met Neil in passing a couple more times, and kept running into Lorraine. We talked derby some more, she introduced me to Joan of Dark from Naptown, and talked about how excited she was to get to skate for her first time that weekend.

I became facebook friends with Lorraine, and we would chat about derby. I'd let her know when the bouts were, and when practice was, and encouraged her to come and skate with the girls and give it a go. You can read all about Lorraine's adventures on her blog at her website.

The months rolled by. Lorraine attended the bouts. Neil came with her to one, and it was great. I got to meet Joan of Dark again, as well as Lorraine's awesome friend Daisy. Things were going well.

Then Lorraine started attending practices, which made me very happy for her. I knew how much she wanted to, and how scared she was at the same time, and it was just great to be there to see her take her first steps, as I had for a lot of other girls on the team. It's amazing to watch that confidence develop and really empower these ladies. You can tell just by watching how life-changing it is for most of them.

So, fast forward to the beginning of Season Two, and the Back-to-School Bruise-a-Thon mixer this weekend. In that time, I've moved twice and ended up in Janesville, a four hour drive from Eau Claire. There's no way that I'm not going to announce for CVRG, though, as long as it's realistically possible for me to do so. Lorraine is now head of the Events Committee for the league, and has been nice enough to provide a place for Kristen and I to stay when we come up for the bouts.

So, a couple days before the big event, I get a message from Lorraine that there might be snag - photographer Kyle Cassidy is going to be in town, and she's not really going to have enough room at her place.

"So," she says, "you guys will be staying at Neil's house."

In the second or two following that, a lot of stuff went through my head. Part of me fainted dead away. Part of me just kept screaming "OMIGOD!" over and over again. Part of me was trying to calm the other parts down. Neil's just a person. He does regular old person-y stuff like everybody else does. Part of me thought, "Is that what my life is now? Spending the weekend announcing four back-to-back derby bouts, meeting world-famous photographers, and hanging out at an award-winning author's house? I can deal with that."

I'm pretty sure the cool and collected part won out at first, but as the days went on, that "OMIGOD!" voice got stronger. Not only was I getting to announce for these lovely roller warrior women, but I was going to get to sleep at Neil Gaiman's house? OH. MY. GOD!

So, the weekend was furious and fun. A four hour drive from Janesville to Eau Claire, most of which was spent coming up with some, if I do say so myself, pretty awesome intros for a ton of skaters from other leagues that would be attending. It was so nice to see everyone again when I arrived, and I'm still always a little surprised at how warm the welcomes are. Self-esteem issues, I guess, but whatever.

Then set up at the venue, which is always a blast to witness. Thankfully, the arena had internet access, so I could get some sponsor info. Most of the rest of the time was spent wrangling data into spreadsheets for team rosters, ref info, sponsors, timelines, season schedule, blah blah blah. All rather tedious stuff that you're not interested in.

The bout itself was spectacular, even though it was incredibly cold and attendance was low. I got to see a lot of great skaters from other leagues and got to witness some of the new crop of CVRG skaters - Velveteen Rogue, Toxic Hell, Emmachete, Medium Rare, Sissy Strangler, Shawtown Shankher, Jinx'd Karma, and of course Quiche MeDeadly (Lorraine).

"This is really fascinating, Mat," you're probably saying, "but when are going to get around to your stay at Neil's?"

Well, kids, THAT is going to have to wait until tomorrow's post.

I know, I'm such a tease.

My Weekend at the Dream King's Palace - Part One

We followed the Dream King's Seneschal and the Artist to the palace. The way was long and winding, and you couldn't tell if you were approaching the palace until you were already there. We had received an invitation from the Seneschal, a friend of the family, to stay the night while we in the area. Morpheus would be away, but we were welcome to partake of his hospitality along with the Artist. 


As we arrived, the guardians of the palace came alive. They were four-legged and pale as mist; beautiful creatures who shouted their alarm at the presence of newcomers. The younger of the two bounded toward us, barking ferociously. As she reached us, she began to nuzzle and sniff, dropping her threatening demeanor to welcome us. She lead us toward the palace and introduced us to the other guardian, an older and distinguished gentleman who offered his head and back to be petted in greeting. The guardians and the Artist went off for a walk around the grounds while the Seneschal lead us inside.


The palace seemed to hold its breath in the King's absence. The Seneschal brought it to life with her presence. Though Morpheus himself were absent, his aura still permeated the place, a shadow in the corner of your mind's eye. The Seneschal directed us to climb the long stairs to a chamber at the top of the highest spire in the palace, where we would be staying. We began the climb while she went of to take care of some very important business.


As we climbed, we came across one of the many oneiric denizens of the palace. He lounged across on of the stairs, furred in white and gray, and eyed us curiously. His name, as we would come to find, was Coconut. He and his two companions, Princess Snowflake and Joey, were the real owners of the palace. They were however, nice enough to let Morpheus and others think they owned it. They also gave others the great pleasure of feeding them and appreciating them. It was a good system, and everyone was happy.


The stairs seemed to shift as we ascended. Perhaps we only turned left when we should have turned more left. We found ourselves in what seemed to be a backstage store room. Bits of old dreams were piled on shelves. I'm pretty sure we caught a glimpse of Morpheus' work room. Not sure if we supposed to be here, we headed back down the stairs to a hall of Doors, where we indulged ourselves by admiring the dreams and visions hung upon the walls and appreciating Coconut some more. Eventually, the Seneschal found us again.


It was decided that instead of staying in the tallest spire, we would spend the evening in the library. The Seneschal showed us around, assuring us that everything would be okay. Before she took her leave, we gifted her with carrot bread and warm embraces. Then we were alone in the palace of the Dream King.


The library was everything one might expect and more. Shelves lined with generations of dreams, both those of Morpheus' own design and those of others. There were fantastical cities, dark and twisted tales, rocket ships, even a tiny galaxy encased in glass. Tired from our day, we readied ourselves for bed.


The Artist returned as we finished brushing our teeth. He would be in the room next to us, and it was nice to know that we weren't the only ones haunting the palace. We chatted with the Artist for a bit, and then turned in.


So, what does one dream when they sleep within a dream? I wish I could recall, but we woke refreshed, with gray light seeping listlessly into the room.


The morning did not change the palace much, except for the lighting. We prepared ourselves for the journey back home, gave some more appreciation to Coconut, Princess Snowflake, and Joey, chatted some more with the Artist, and played with the guardians a little. Before leaving, I left a dream of my own, knowing that it would be one among many in Morpheus' collection, but still something that felt like I needed to do.


As we drove away, we watched the Artist and the guardians going off for another exploration of the grounds. Then it was back to the real world, though we will always feel a pull to return.

Putting Some Thought into Your Character

Once you know what you're doing, it's pretty easy to roll up a RPG character. But even once you know what all the numbers mean and how they interact, it can still be a chore to make a character that's more than a set of numbers.

For me, character creation is a bit of a holistic process. I'm able to come up with story ideas as I choose feats or powers or other character options, and those story ideas in turn inform other choices I make. Unless I'm making a quick throwaway character, I have a pretty developed background by the time I'm done.

However, I understand that not everyone is able to think along those same lines. It's become especially important for me lately to realize this, since I've been doing a lot of gaming with people who haven't gamed much, or at all.

To help with this I've developed a few ways or made a few adjustments to usual ways of thinking to help these people out.

First, I usually try to create a reason why characters are adventuring together. There are some great elements in my article on inserting the FATE system into Pathfinder, but even before that, I would have each player choose two other characters to have some sort of link with. In the future, I will be doing something similar, but in reverse. I plan on having a player choose two other characters, but have those two players determine what the link is. This will go around the table, and the only rule will be that you cannot choose a player whose character you already have a link to. If I start off with the players who are a bit shy or uncomfortable with this sort of thing, it should work out. It takes the immediate pressure off of them, and by the time it gets to the point where someone chooses them, they should have some good ideas to work with.

But what about developing backgrounds for individual characters? Some people just aren't sure where to start, so I've developed a worksheet with some basic ideas that allow the player to fill in the blanks. By the time they're done, they will have a nice stable foundation on which to build more ideas.

The worksheet is easily usable for any version of AD&D or any other game that uses a race/class combination. It's easy enough to adapt it to any system. A player doesn't need to fill in every blank, especially if it doesn't apply, but the more they add, the better.

As an added bonus, this can be used as a tool to choose Aspects if you are using my rules for putting FATE into Pathfinder.

Enjoy.

4E Fatigue (Alpha Version)

Action economy can be a very important part of game design. But it's not the end all be all of the rules. I've played a few games where you are free to determine how many actions you get per round, though there are penalties for going outside of the norm of the system. I've been mulling over how to bring this concept into D&D for some time, and I've come up with a system that would work with the 4E rules - Fatigue.

First off, since the Fatigue system will allow characters to take extra actions during combat, it makes getting rid of the existing Action Point system a necessity. Secondly, since it will make characters able to do a bit more during combat than they could with those Action Point rules, you'll need to make sure that enemies are a bit more buffed up than they usually are. Start by using the updated monster stats from the Monster Manual 3 and the Essentials Monster Vault. They're a bit tougher than the original wave of monster design. Lastly, if you normally use Fortune Cards in your game, you should probably forgo using them, at least while you initially try out this system.

Before I go any further, please note that these rules have not yet been playtested. If you decide to try this system out, please leave a comment letting me know how it worked out and any changes that you made to make it work better. OK, on with the show...

Threshold

The threshold statistic is an abstraction of how far your character can push themselves before becoming fatigued. Your threshold is equal to half of your number of healing surges per day, rounded down. Effects such as rituals or magic items that give you temporary or conditional healing surges do not affect your threshold. Only effects such as feats or class features that give you permanent healing surges affect threshold.

Fatigue Points

You gain fatigue points by taking extra actions in combat. You may take any number of extra actions during your turn in combat, but for each action you take beyond your normal allotment, you gain one fatigue point as soon as the action is resolved.

When your character gains a fatigue point that puts his total equal to or greater than his threshold, he gains the Fatigued condition (save ends). You may not attempt a save on the turn that you gained the Fatigue Point that caused you to gain the condition. If a character has a number of Fatigue Points equal to their Healing Surges per day, they become Unconscious.

The Fatigued Condition

• You take a -2 to all Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution-based skill checks.
• You are slowed.
• Any effect that would cause you to gain the slowed condition instead immobilizes you.
• Any effect that would cause you to gain the dazed condition instead gives you the stunned condition.
• Any effect that would cause you to gain the stunned condition instead knocks you unconscious.
• If you take a standard action (including using a standard action to perform a lesser action), you grant combat advantage until the beginning of your next turn and you gain a fatigue point.

Healing Fatigue

At the end of a short rest, you reduce your fatigue point total by 1. At the end of an extended rest, you reduce your fatigue point total a number of points equal to your threshold. You may not reduce fatigue points by more than your threshold in a 24-hour period, even if you take successive short rests.

 

Any time a character would spend a healing surge to regain hit points, they may instead choose to loose 1 fatigue point. Effects that grant additional hit points of healing do not affect the number of fatigue points lost. A character spending healing surges to reduce fatigue points may reduce their them by more than their threshold.

Fatigue from Other Sources (Optional)

At the DM's discretion, other powers or effects may deal fatigue points. In general, an effect should never deal more than 1 fatigue point at a time, and should deal it as a replacement to something else the power does, not in addition to it.

Monsters and Fatigue (Optional)

To even out the score, you can let the PCs opponents take advantage of this system as well. Minions and regular creatures of level 3 or lower do not have threshold scores. Regular creatures of level 4 or higher have a threshold score equal to half their level, rounded down. Elite creatures of any level have a threshold of half their level, rounded down, plus two. Solo creatures of any level have a threshold score of half their level, rounded down, plus five.

Magic: the Gathering - Why I Left and Why I'm Coming Back (Sort of) After 17 Years

I'll admit it: I had a brief love affair with Magic: the Gathering when it first released in 1993. It lasted less than a year (not the shortest of my relationships, by any means), and the break-up was rather bitter. It's interesting to note that if a child had been born when I stopped playing, this would their final year in high school (ironically, the same age that I was when the game released). It gives one perspective.

Why did things end so badly? As is often the case, it was mostly an economic reason. I simply didn't earn enough to keep Magic happy.

When the game first came out, it was all great fun - buying starter decks and boosters, hoping to get some of those really cool cards that you've seen but never owned, playing games with friends and hoping to get something cool from the ante, developing and testing new strategies, trading cards, and coming up with new ways to play the game, especially with multiple players.

Then the secondary market began to stir.

In the beginning, everyone was on pretty equal footing. Sure, some people were better at deckbuilding and identifying combos and strategy, but they were happy to share it and teach others. As the game began picking up steam and becoming more and more popular, though, people became more aggressive about the game. Why would they want to give you hints on how to build a better deck when they were winning good cards by beating you every time? Why would they want to help you beat them and win their ever-more-expensive cards. What was once friendly competition became more and more cut-throat.

People were spending more and more on singles in the secondary market, and were beginning to starters and boosters by the box and the case. People would agree to go in together on cases, and when they arrived would fail to have their portion of the money. Feelings were hurt, friendships were damaged. It was like a nerdy drug cartel war at times.

I do not come from a wealthy family. At best, we could be considered solidly middle-class, if not lower-middle class. I didn't work at the time, and didn't have a lot of disposable income. I also still had an ongoing RPG habit to support with what little money I did have. This meant that my collection of cards became comparatively underpowered relatively quickly.

That's not to say that I didn't have some good cards. I had a number of "good" cards, and people LOVED to play against me because I was relatively easy to beat, with the possibility of getting one of those good cards in return. It took me a little while to catch on this, but eventually, I got there.

Shortly after the Antiquities expansion released, a couple of friends went to a game shop a few hours away and dropped a total of around $700 on a combination of 4 or 5 cards. To me, that was the big orange blinking signpost to get the hell out.

I sold off my entire collection of cards for a little more than my total investment and never looked back.

So, why, after 17 years, have I recently picked up a few decks? There are a few answers.

I bought my first deck a few months ago. It was an old Fifth Dawn pre-constructed Stampede deck that I got for 50 cents at Goodwill. I had initially planned to trade in the singles at the game store at which I work for a bit of store credit. Then we started packing for our move from Stoughton to Janesville, and the deck got packed away and was mostly forgotten.

As I said, I currently work at a game shop. This is the main reason why I've decided to get familiar with the game again. We have a Magic expert at the store, but even he gets a day off once a week, so Tuesdays are sort of a "No Magic Questions or Trades" day. While I'll never know as much as our expert, I think it would be a fine idea to be at least somewhat conversant in the game - more than my bitter memories would let me be, at least.

Also, there are times when I just want to play a quick friendly and competitive game, and only have myself and another person. I simply don't have many games that fit that bill - most of the competitive games I own really need at least three players to be interesting.

So, the other day, I picked up a Knights vs. Dragons Duel deck from work. While it might take some finesse to convince Kristen to play, it's a possibility. It will also allow us (or, more likely, me) to play against a couple of friends who we play other games with. They have been fairly regular Magic players in the past, and while they've sold off the majority of their cards, they've held back a few decks in hopes that they get a chance to use them again.

Now that I have a bit more disposable income than I did in high school and work at a game store, I can more easily afford to keep up on the game. While I'm never going to play seriously in tournaments or raid the secondary market for the coolest uber-combos and deck builds out there, I plan on trying to keep up on the newer releases. If nothing else, it will fit into my goal of playing more games over the fall and winter.

Fantasy Gaming and Art

I was a fantasy gamer long before I ever rolled my first twenty-sided die. As far back as I can remember, I was enthralled by fantastical artwork, and ruminating on the matter, I realize that a lot of it was directly related to Dungeons & Dragons.

Prior to knowing what a role-playing game really was, D&D's artwork had captured my attention. My dad was a model rocket enthusiast when I was a little kid, and we would often go to our local hobby shop, The Hobby Hub, for him to buy supplies. While he was purchasing his rockets and engines and such, I remember being transfixed by what was to be a big part of my life going forwards. In particular, I remember a large poster advertising something called The Dungeon Master's Guide.

At the time, I had no idea what a Dungeon Master was, but the image stuck with me. Who were these brave heroes, and what was this frightening red thing they were fighting? And who was I rooting for? I wasn't entirely sure.

At some point before or after that (it's all a bit hazy decades later), I became aware of D&D as more than just some vague concept. One of my earliest introductions, as it was for many my age, was through TSR's Endless Quest series of Choose Your Own Adventure-style books. The book that sticks out in my mind the most is Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons.

I was always fascinated by the aesthetic of and concept of the color spectrum, and seeing it combined with a fantasy element really captured my young imagination.

The other image that I always associate with these formative pre-gaming years is the cover from Dungeons of Dread.

The strange thing about this image is that in my memory, it's not only the illustration used for this booklet, but also the one used for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons video game for the Intellivision that my dad's friend had. I would play it endlessly whenever we visited, even though I had no real idea what I was doing. With some research, though, I could not find any images of the Intellivision game with this artwork. What I did find, tickled part of my brain.

The moment I saw it, I remembered it. Maybe it was the snake arching to attack that layered itself onto the memory of the water weird that made me remember the image incorrectly. In any event, it goes to illustrate (pun only slightly intended) my point that, for me, fantasy gaming has been largely informed and influenced by the art that goes along with it.

But, back to my dad's friend for now. At some point in the early 80's, a very important thing happened. We kids were digging through my dad's friend's closet looking for games to keep us entertained. That was when I came upon one of the most important finds of my life. It was a game, but smaller than any game box that I had ever seen before. And there was no board, only words and strange, almost hypnotic artwork, and bizarrely-shaped plastic dice like I had never seen before.

I was, for lack of a better term, instantly in love. I took it to my dad's friend to have him teach me how to play it. He admitted that he had no idea how to play it. He had bought it to play with some friends, but they could never figure it out. So he told me that I could have it if I was interested. Why he thought a six-year old would have a better shot at figuring out a game that a group of relatively intelligent adults couldn't figure out is, to this day, quite beyond me, but I'm glad that he did.

I spent the next couple of days trying to wrap my brain around the game, but it was a bit beyond my comprehension. So I spent a couple of weeks trying to get my mom to explain it to me. As it turned out, she had even less of an idea than I did, so eventually, the game went into a box in the attic. It sat, in the attic and in the back of my mind, waiting for a day that I had no idea was on the horizon.

Today, it seems a bit strange that I would have such a hard time grasping the game, but it was a much different time. Concepts like "characters," "levels," "classes," and "experience" weren't as widespread a concept in gaming as they are today. We had video games, but they were systems like the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and Odyssey2, and were largely the domains of the "bigger kids" and adults. For us, games were things like Memory, Battleship, Monopoly, and Sorry. Or running around in the yard, whacking each other with sticks. It was a simpler time.

So, years passed and that old Basic Set sat in our attic, but my fascination with fantasy continued. I read a lot of books about greek mythology, watched a lot of movies like Dragonslayer and The Beastmaster, read The Hobbit, and played with my Masters of the Universe toys. I also had a bunch of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons action figures. All of this helped keep alive the part of me that would eventually bloom into a fantasy gamer.

I remember being on a multi-school field trip in first or second grade (possibly later or earlier, the period is still a bit of a mish-mash). On the bus, I met a bunch of kids, a year or two older and from another school, who sat in the back with a bunch of books and papers and seemed to be having a great time. Investigating, I discovered that they were playing D&D. They had obviously been playing for quite some time, and weren't interested in teaching someone how to play, but I got to watch for a while. I didn't understand the rules, but I got first real look at role-playing, and I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of.

While I'm still not sure if the timeline really matches up, I'm fairly convinced that one of the books they had along on that field trip was Oriental Adventures.

The cover immediately captivated me. I had spent a lot of time watching the USA network's "Kung Fu Theater" on the weekends, and the thought that this game would let me play a ninja or samurai just made it so much cooler. But, as things do, the field trip ended, and I never met those kids again. At that point in time, kids who went to other schools may as well have been from other planets.

Time passed.

It wasn't until Christmas of 1988 that I would finally get to play D&D for myself. A phone call from my cousin set the whole thing off. His cousin from the other side of his family had visited from college, and brought his D&D books with him. He showed my cousin and his other cousins how to play, but had left. More D&D was needed, and I was the answer. I spent a couple of hours digging around the attic and uncovered the Basic Rules, the Keep on the Boderlands module, and most of the strange dice. I headed over to my cousin's, and came back a different person.

That was an epic week. Four of us shut ourselves in a basement, only venturing out to beg grown-ups to take us to a place where we could find more D&D books to buy. The Hobby Hub had long since shut down, but we happened across a place downtown called the International Toy Company. They specialized in Playmobil and other imported and expensive toys and games, but they had a small section of role-playing games. And dice... oh, the dice.

After a couple of our initial adventures, I had taken over as the Dungeon Master. This was a trend that has carried through my life. We blew through the Basic levels in a night, and so the first product purchased was the Expert Set.

Now, here was some art that changed my life. Sure, that old D&D art was cool in a weird sort of way. But this... this was cool in a COOL sort of way. Who wouldn't want to be a warrior on horseback facing down a pouncing dragon? Not to mention that it included an adventure with DINOSAURS! The moment I purchased this product was the moment that I consider myself to have really and truly become a gamer.

School went back into session and we began to show our friends this new wonder. And we began to make new friends to game with. Weekend family road trips became excuses to look for game stores. Two of the most important to me were Professor Books in Winona, MN and Pinnacle Games in Rochester, MN (both of which have been gone for a long time now).

Professor Books was the store where I picked up two very important books. The first was the brand new Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Player's Handbook. We had been playing for a little while now, so we were ready to take it to the next step. For quite a while after that, there weren't many distinctions, for us, between OD&D and AD&D. There certainly was never too big a distinction between 1st and 2nd Edition.

The more important of the two books, though, was actually a novel.

I picked up Chronicles, Volume 3 at the same time, but it was this cover that blew me away. I had, of course, read fantasy books before, but this was somehow different. This was fantasy that wasn't something that was just for kids. It took me less than a day to finish Dragons of Winter Night, and I didn't slow down for years.

Pinnacle Games is a singularity in my life for two reasons. The first is that, until then, I had been completely unaware that there even COULD be a store devoted solely and entirely to games. It was like entering a wardrobe or being whisked away by a tornado and ending up in an entirely different world. 

The second reason is the first issue of Dragon Magazine that I ever purchased.

This is my all-time favorite piece of D&D-related artwork. It spoke to me in a lot of ways. Autumn has always been my favorite season, and Halloween my favorite holiday. It also showed me that it was not only possible, but incredibly cool to mix horror in with fantasy. I still have the very issue that I purchased that day. It's one of my most sentimental possessions.

We discovered other stores back in town that sold D&D - Kay-Bee Toys and Waldenbooks in the mall both sold books. Kay-Bee had a ton of adventures that were on clearance for a dollar or two each. This was probably the single largest source for our adventures in those days. Waldenbooks, though, was our source for rule books. I still remember two very important books that were purchased there.

The cover of Unearthed Arcana still defines, for me, a "wizard's laboratory." I have a framed puzzle of this artwork hanging on my wall right now. It also opened our eyes to more options for play.

The second book was something that built upon my budding love of horror mixed with fantasy, and is a staple of D&D history.

This adventure shows up on a lot of people's favorite lists, and for a lot of good reasons. For me, it was the beginning of paying attention to authors and artists. A horror adventure written by the one of the authors of the Dragonlance books? Yes, please. And what was this strange, forlorn cover art? And this strange symbol as an artist's signature? I think Clyde Caldwell was the first artist to really make me realize how much my love of gaming tied into my love of the artwork. A lot of people criticize his art for various reasons, but he's still one the best in my book.

From here on out, it became a wild and wooly love affair with fantasy, horror, and art. I could go on for hours about just about every piece of D&D product art covering most of the span of the game and what it means to me, but instead, I will just leave you with some of my favorite product covers over the years.

Perhaps I will go into my relationship with art and other RPGs in a future post.

Gamma World, Session One

Just finished up running the first session of what will hopefully be an ongoing Gamma World campaign. First, let's meet the characters:

Steve "Steam" Post (played by Nick)

Steam is a mutant with the Speedster and Exploding origins. He is enthralled by things that blow up and go fast. He sports a fancy letterman's jacket and his weapon of choice is a baseball bat.

Gobi (played by Kristen)

Gobi is a mutant with the Plastic and Plant origins. She is a humanoid plant decked out in a leather jacket and who attacks with prehensile vines. She can also produce various fruits.

Jerry from Tech Support (played by Manda)


Jerry is a mutant with the Saurian and Plaguebearer origins. He is a man-sized Tyranosaur armored with old couch cushions. He prefers to bite his enemies. Jerry likes collecting buttons, eating meat, and performing science.

Our group of lovable misfits have taken on the job of saving the village of Blisterin' Faire from a daily visitation of robots that sometimes destroy the city walls. Following leads, they discovered a small tower occupied by badders and their hired guards. After dealing with the outer guards, they found themselves outmanned by the badders' yexil pet. Narrowly escaping death, they have set out to return to Blisterin' Faire to find more help.

My Initial Thoughts


For our first game, I decided to forgo using my home-brew rules and just use the rules as they were written. After the first session, I think that I was pretty right on with my changes. While I do get the design idea that getting a new Alpha Mutation every encounter will make players more likely to use those cool powers, in practice it didn't really play out like that. Next session I'll be instituting my changes and we'll see how those play out.

Next time we'll hopefully be adding two more to the party.

Chainsville

[Chainsville is a home-brew setting for Wizards of the Coast's Gamma World D&D 4E RPG. It is based on Janesville, WI, where I currently reside.]


Overview


Chainsville is a small fortified town along the banks of the Rawk River. The town is sandwiched between the radioactive wilderness known as the Ur-Ban Jungle and the Wastelands - the picked over ruins of the much larger Ancient city that Chainsville is built upon. The town is named for the massive chains that have been built across the Rawk River at various points, allowing complete control of traffic along the river.

Leadership

Chainsville is ruled by the Loved and Most Reasonable Emperor Norton Kane, a militaristic tyrant who inspires fear and terror in his subjects. However, he also keeps them protected from the horrors that reside in (and sometimes decide to venture out of) the Ur-Ban Jungle and the barbaric residents of the Wastelands, as well as offering a comfortable life for his army.

Kane's rule is indirectly opposed by an enigmatic figure known as Mother Mercy, a healer who oversees the Temple of Mercy and offers rest and succor to all those who need it, no questions asked. While Mother disagrees with Kane's military mindset, she does not openly speak out against him or foment rebellion. At the same time, Kane finds himself unable to move against the healer, as she provides a great service to his wounded soldiers. At the moment, the two leaders are at a stalemate, but many speculate that an open conflict is inevitable and imminent.

History


Before the Big Mistake, Chainsville was a city of a comparable size to the Ancient cities of Madzon, Uclare, and Luhcroz, though not as large as the nearby Ancient mega-cities of M'wahkee or She-Coggo. At the very same moment that the Big Mistake happened, a small nuclear device was detonated in a shopping mall. The explosion, combined with the forces of the Big Mistake, devastated much of the city and birthed the strangeness of the Ur-Ban Jungle. The areas southwest of the Rawk River were the least affected by the disaster, and many of the surviving populace eventually congregated there.

For decades, the area was a lawless and barbaric area. Between the abominations of the Ur-Ban Jungle and bloodthirsty mutations living in the ruins, life was often short and brutal. Then Norton Kane arrived with Ancient weapons and vehicles. In a relatively short amount of time, he built walls and offered protection from the dangers of the area. As more and more people fled to the safety he offered, he organized military scavenging parties, stripping the areas that are now known as the Wastelands of materials used to rebuild Chainsville. The famous river-chains were forged, giving Kane control over travel and trade on the Rawk.

A decade after Norton arrived, the healer now called Mother Mercy emerged from the Ur-Ban Jungle, bloodied and near death. She was taken in by Norton's guard for questioning, but after months of interrogation, it was determined that she had no memory of who she was or how she had come to be in or survive the Ur-Ban Jungle. After her emergence, Norton declared that the Ur-Ban was strictly off-limits. No expeditions would ever go in, and anything or anyone coming out would be executed on sight. This decision, and the timing, has caused many to speculate that Mother Mercy's interrogation was not entirely fruitless.

After being released and allowed to stay in Chainsville, Mother Mercy took up residence in the Ancient Temple of Mercy. The temple had been abandoned and ignored by Norton, who had no inclination toward such things. Over the decades, Mother Mercy has restored the temple to a semblance of its former glory, and has gathered a small cadres of followers, known as the Daughters of Mercy.

Current Events


The fifty years since Kane's arrival have been more-or-less uneventful and lead to a new prosperity for the town. While his rule is absolute and, at times, seemingly cruel, the Emperor has brought a respite from the creatures of the Ur-Ban Jungle and the Wasteland raider, established a standard currency, and brought business and trade to the area. Chainsville is perfectly placed as a crossroads for both overland and river trade caravans from many surrounding cities. However, there are others who are interested in more than trade in the town...

Adventure Hooks


The nuclear explosion during the Big Mistake and the resulting Ur-Ban Jungle make Chainsville and area of interest to the Radioactivists. While Kane has established a lockdown on travel into or out of the jungle, there are still holes in security that can be exploited by those adventurous or wealthy enough. PCs belonging to the Radioactivists might be sent to the city to find a way into the jungle to explore it. Alternately, PCs might be hired by either Kane or Mother Mercy to enter the jungle and stop a group of Radioactivists before they achieve whatever nefarious plot they have in mind.

Emporer Kane's claims of rulership extend far beyond the walls of Chainsville, though he does not currently have the military might to back these claims up. These claims might conflict with the wishes of Emperor Napoleon III and the Brotherhood of the Fit. Brotherhood characters could be sent to town to sow unrest or to try and take out Kane directly. Alternately, Kane might have need of a group of individuals to make a scouting run or strike on nearby Brotherhood encampments.

The Wastelands are not unpopulated. A strange mix of outlaws, barbarians, and hermits live beyond the western walls of Chainsville. Mother Mercy or Kane may need to find someone who has fled to the Wastelands, possibly to avoid being found altogether. Alternately, members of the Red Death or the Iron Society may have taken up residence in the Wastelands and may be looking to start a bit of genocide.

September (and Beyond)

September is here, and that means lots of good things. Halloween stores are starting to open and the holiday itself is only two months away. Roller derby season is starting up, and that means a lot of trips from Janesville to Eau Claire to announce for the Chippewa Valley Roller Girls. It also means that the big convention season is over, and most of the really big gaming product releases have passed.

One of my goals for this fall and winter is to play more varied games. RPG-wise, I hope to get in some of the new Gamma World, Eclipse Phase, The Dresden Files RPG, Scion, World of Darkness (old and/or new), Star Wars Saga Edition (I'm champing at the bit to play Calman Artis, con-man, techie, and slicer) and the Laundry. While I do love D&D/Pathfinder, and plan on playing it as well, there's a lot of other stuff out there, and it's time to make some of it happen. Board and card game-wise, I'm hoping to dig into my library a bit more. Game nights usually default to Talisman or Castle Ravenloft/Wrath of Ashardalon. Come October, I'm sure The Legend of Drizzt game will added in there, too. But I've still got games in my collection that I've never played once (Vampire: Prince of the City, Letters From Whitechapel, Battlestar Galactica, and Merchants & Marauders, to name just a few), or ones that I haven't played enough or in a long time (Mansions of Madness, Red Dragon Inn, Defenders of the Realm, and Killer Bunnies, to name a few more).

The real question, though, is how to achieve all of this while at the same time working six days a week, announcing for derby one or two days a month, starting up a monthly Pathfinder Society game, get started on a top-secret project, and still having some time to myself once in a while. It's going to be an interesting adventure...