#RPGaDay: Day Twelve - Old RPG I Still Play/Read

Go get 'em, Aragorn!

I've got a lot of older RPGs, and I take them all down at one time or another to read them. Having to pick just one is somewhat difficult, and defining which ones are "old" is also somewhat problematic (though in this case, I'll concentrate on RPGs that were published in the 90's or earlier).

I suppose I'd pick Middle-Eearth Role Playing (and its supplements) as the game I'll take down and read from time to time. Despite my issues with MERP (which I talked about in an earlier entry), there's a heck of a lot of worthwhile fluff in those old Iron Crown supplements. Outside of every single supplement those guys released under the MERP trademark, there's a good bit of Tolkien reference material to absorb within the pages of the Middle-Earth Campaign Guide, which was published in 1993.

The Middle-Earth Campaign Guide includes a wealth of information compiled from two prior MERP supplements, the Middle Earth Adventure Guidebooks #1 and #2. It's an awesome reference for any fan of Tolkien's work, as well as anyone who's running a game set in that world regardless of system mechanics. It even includes references so you know where the information can be found in Tolkien's published work.

As for the rest of the MERP library, ICE published plenty of supplements detailing regions from Angmar to Gondor. Most of these books I picked up are for MERP's second edition, though I have a handful of first edition MERP books, too. The first one I ever bought was Moria: The Dwarven City, which was released in 1984. I also picked up a bunch of adventures for 1st edition MERP on sale for about a buck apiece, and they're great places to look for plot seeds and inspiration.

See that cover? Angus McBride was an awesome artist.

And then there's the maps. ICE loved putting maps in everything, from large full-color geographical maps to maps of cities, buildings, villages, etc. I've got a whole stack of these in an old shoe box in my closet, and I love taking them down every so often just to remind myself they exist.

Even the smallest MERP supplements and adventures from the old days of fantasy role-playing are worthy of your attention if you can dig them up. Are you a big fan of Tolkien's tales and characters? Then you really should check them out.

Given my current love affair with The One Ring, my MERP library is bound to come in handy. How about you? Do you have any of the older MERP supplements? If so, do you ever break them out for a lazy afternoon of reading and re-reading?

#RPGaDay: Day Eleven - Weirdest RPG Owned

HOL: Human Occupied Landfill

It takes a lot for me to consider any RPG "weird." Regardless of the setting, we're talking about a fantasy world, right? So stuff is liable to be different from the reality we know. There are some I'd consider a bit "different" or "kooky," though. If I had to pick just one of those, I'd probably choose HOL.

When HOL originally came out, I didn't consider it a game you could actually play. I thought of it more as satire with rules, similar to Violence: The Roleplaying Game of Egregious and Repulsive Bloodshed. After all, the acronym "HOL" stands for "Human Occupied Landfill," and the game itself is set on a planetary trashbin used as a dumping ground for, well, everything. The entire document is hand-written, and all the illustrations are presented inline with the text. It's incredibly humorous, irreverent, and vulgar, and it doesn't take itself very seriously.

None of this stopped a friend of mine from running it, and I suppose he had some measure of success at doing so. I remember trekking through this bizarre world of garbage, violence, and debauchery with Mr. Bungle blaring on the CD player in my garage. These were the days of our lives in the mid nineties, youngsters. Pull up a chair and listen to my tales of old.

HOL's character stats included "Greymatta," "Meat," "Mouth," "Feets," and "Nuts." Some of the more useful skills included "Organize Fundraiser," "Cause Hellish Agony," and one of my personal favorites, "That Psycho Bruce Lee Shit." Appendix 5 of HOL details several beings that might challenge players during play, such as Cannibalistic Accountants, Dump Technicians, and Sodomy Bikers. Obviously, this isn't a game for people with any interest in serious drama or soul searching.

As far as I know, HOL released a single supplement entitled Buttery Wholesomeness, and it contained a ton of new rules and options for characters. Things like random charts to give your character more depth, such as Table P, "Parental Misunderstanding." There's also a chart of homeworlds to roll on, including vacation spots like "Hug Me IV: The Porcupine Planet" and "Fabio IV: The Beefcake Planet" (yes, all the planets are "Name IV"). You can even get a totem for your character, choosing from powerful and unique options like Parakeet, Lemming, and Earwig (the best of them all).

And if that's not enough, you get a free RPG named "Freebase" tucked quietly away within the scrumptious center of Buttery Wholesomness. Laid out in a small book formatted to resemble the presentation of 1st Edition AD&D, Freebase is billed as "Live action role playing in the World of Reality". It's just as funny, irreverent, and debased as HOL, and is a satire within a satire. Even the alignment system makes sense in a twisted sort of way.

I'd never run HOL, but I still like reading through it from time to time, especially when I need a good laugh. I find something new just about every single time I do this. I'm not sure how hard it is to find these days, but if you're looking for something to give you a chuckle or two, and your humor tends towards the scatological, you'll probably benefit from the purchase.

NOTE: It appears as if second editions of both HOL and Buttery Wholesomeness are available on Amazon, so what are you waiting for?

#RPGaDay: Day Ten - Favorite Tie-In Novel/Game Fiction

The best Dark Sun novel out there.

I'm going to tell you a horrible secret. You have to promise not to tell anyone. Okay? Are we golden? Your lips are sealed? Do you solemnly swear? Right.

I don't tend to read tie-in novels or game fiction. There. I said it.

What this means, dear reader, is I've never read any of the Forgotten Realms novels (and that includes the ones my friend Bob Salvatore wrote about some mini-maxing Drow). I've purposefully avoided the Dragonlance books. I tried reading Troy Dennings' Dark Sun novels, The Prism Pentad, but I hated pretty much every single character and couldn't get past the first part of book two.

Now that I've spilled my guts, let me add that I have read game fiction/tie-in novels and enjoyed them, but there are only a handful of them.

The one at the top of that list is The Brazen Gambit by Lynn Abbey, with her second Dark Sun novel, Cinnabar Shadows, at number two. The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King trails close behind those. Lynn has a way of writing that has always drawn me in, and it doesn't matter what she's writing about. I cared about Pavek, precisely because he was an anti-hero. Lynn makes that world--Athas and the city state of Urik--come alive, grounding it in such a way that it's utterly believable.

That's not to say other authors who write game fiction won't be the same way. I'm positive I could pick up a Drizzt novel and enjoy the hell out of it. Thing is, I never did, and it's not because I don't like Salvatore's writing (because I do). It's because I was never interested in reading about the Forgotten Realms, so I never invested money in the associated novels. With Dark Sun, it was different because I was running a DS campaign at the time. When I started reading the tie-in novels, I was doing it as a form of research and immersion. Once I realized I was enjoying the books, particularly Lynn's, it was already too late to turn back.

Starfall was an awesome Star*Drive anthology.

I guess the take-away is that if I'm interested in a setting, generally because I'm running a game in that world or working on a freelance project related to it, I will definitely pick up and read the associated fiction (if I haven't already).

As an aside, I also enjoyed all the Alternity/Star*Drive related fiction that was released by TSR in support of that game line. I absolutely adored Alternity, and I still do. It might very well have been my favorite game that I never get to play if my tenure with Cyberpunk 2020 hadn't lasted so much longer. I really wish the game had done better out of the gate, because it had a lot going for it. I still have all my books, so there's that.

So, yeah. Lynn Abbey's Dark Sun novels are pure shining gold. Go buy them.

Want to tell me about your favorite tie-in novel/game fiction? Feel free!

#RPGaDay: Day Nine - Favorite Dice Set

My favorite dice set. They have killed many PCs (a blatant lie).

Like every other gamer in the entire world, I've got way too many dice. I've had something like thirty years to collect them, right? I have sets that I used religiously growing up that I don't even look at these days. Not to mention all the specialty dice (yes, Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion, I'm looking at you).

I'm a pretty simple guy, though. I have aesthetics, sure, but I like dice that feel good in my hand, even if they don't roll particularly well. Of course, they're dice. They're supposed to be random. I take that to mean that sometimes they will roll low, sometimes they will roll high, and most of the time they will roll average. That's something I can live with.

My favorite dice set, pictured, is a sort of marbled green from Chessex. The dice in the background are the others I keep in my usual dice bag. They're all pretty similar, but I like the jade green mottled color best of all. If I'm running D&D, I'll usually pull two sets from my bag--the green one, and whatever other one I feel like using. Typically the second set will be either the purple or the red ones.

I think that's enough minutiae of my dice-rolling habits for one day. What about you guys?

#RPGaDay: Day Eight - Favorite Character

An old sketch of Deadeye.

I'm a career game master. What this means is that I rarely do anything but run games for my friends. I'm pretty well open if my players want to run something, but I've tended to be the one behind the screen for the majority of my gaming life. I used to say, "I've been riding the GM horse so long I'm practically a centaur," for a reason.

I did a lot more playing in my youth, but I guess I liked being behind the screen too much. Players are more than happy with that arrangement, for the most part. Not everyone's made to run RPGs, and that's perfectly okay. I tend to get good marks from my players, so I assume I'm doing just fine. That's not to say I don't miss playing once in a while. I do. It's strange feeling when you don't have to worry about more than one character.

After I was introduced to the Cyberpunk RPG by a good friend, he and I ended up playing it a lot. I'd run games for him, and he'd run games for me. The character I eventually settled on playing was patterned after a dime store Billy the Kid. I went in all the way, too. He had no cyberware outside of his optics (one of them black and "dead"), and all his weapons were analog--an old .45 Peacemaker, a Winchester repeater, and a Bowie knife.

I remember my friend's declaration that I'd never survive the first game with a load-out like that. Either he went easy on me, or I proved him wrong. Whatever the case, I ended up playing Deadeye for a long, long time. It's the one character I've gotten the most mileage out of, and I've even let him make cameos in some of the games I've run in the past (and not as a dreaded "GMPC," either).

As the sessions went by, Deadeye changed. He got somewhat deeper as a character, more than just a sociopathic cowboy-punk with a chip on his shoulder. He lost three out of four limbs--Cyberpunk was kind of brutal that way--but that was sort of par for the course. His "outfit" (CP2020 slang for "gear") upgraded, too. The chronology is somewhat complicated at times, but like any character you play for a long time, it makes sense that it would be that way.

I don't know how many years it's been since I sat in a player's chair and played Deadeye. Maybe twenty years? A little less, maybe? But I'll always remember him and the fun I had playing him. I'll let him show up in any future CP2020 games I run if it's appropriate to do so, but I won't let him overshadow the PCs. After all, he's had his time in the spotlight. It's time to let someone else save the day.

#RPGaDay: Day Seven - Most "Intellectual" RPG Owned

Having gills really pays off on Poseidon.

Intellectual RPG, huh? Does that mean "complicated" or "thought-provoking"? I'll go with the latter, I suppose. It's easier that way.

I have to say that Blue Planet is probably the most intellectual RPG I own. That's not to say it doesn't have room for action, but it certainly got me thinking back when I picked up the first edition at GenCon '97. Jeff Barber even signed my copy, which I really appreciated.

Eventually, after Fantasy Flight Games took the reins and released the second edition, I went all in and picked up every new supplement as they were released. It was a sad day when the line was brought to a close. It looks like Capricious Games has the rights, though, so maybe they'll get around to publishing new material at some point.

Anyway. Intellectual. Right.

Blue Planet has a lot going for it. The setting is really, really deep (and I don't mean that from an oceanic standpoint, though it might be implied). Given that, there's so much a GM can do with it that isn't strictly defined in the source material. It's about exploration, exploitation, new horizons, and old nightmares. It's part cyberpunk, part trans-human, and part space adventure. It's gritty, too. Plus, you can play dolphins and killer whales. For real. Eat your heart out, David Brin.

Whatever you do, don't call him Shamoo.

There's a good bit of science in the game, as well as a lot of conjecture. It's not so science heavy that it alienates people like me, and that's probably what I appreciated most--its accessibility. I always dreamed of starting a Blue Planet game set on Earth for a number of sessions, then bringing the characters to Poseidon (by hook or by crook) and introducing them first-hand to this new land of opportunity and adventure.

I've never actually run a game of BP. That hasn't been for lack of trying. I came really close a couple of times, but the groups fell apart just before we could get the games started. I'd like to think the game mechanics are solid. I always thought they were good on paper, but I haven't used them in practice. I hope I get a chance to someday, but when I start skipping around between this system and that system, I don't get much done.

#RPGaDay: Day Six - Favorite RPG Never Get to Play

One of the games that defined me.

I have so many favorite RPGs that I never get to play. It's sort of disturbing, really. In some cases, I'm in love with the concept of a certain game, system, or setting, but for whatever reason it never comes up in my rotation. It's tough to narrow down. I suppose if I have to pick just one of them, the one game I'd love to break out and play (assuming my players would submit to it), it'd probably be Cyberpunk 2020.

The original "black box" Cyberpunk RPG was one of my first true loves when it came to tabletop RPGs. When Cyberpunk 2020 came out, I played it, too. It was my go-to game. Being a designer at heart, even in those days, I fiddled with the game and house-ruled it all to hell and back. All those little house rules are still documented on the web, too. Cyberpunk was one of those games that made me want to get into the industry in some kind of creative role.

The last time I ran a Cyberpunk game was over four years ago, shortly after I started working at 38 Studios in Maynard, Massachusetts. I even started a blog about the game, which was called "The New Untouchables," but I never got very far in updating it. I think we had three or four sessions in total, but for some reason it fell apart. I'm thinking it had something to do with work getting busy, which is always a concern when I'm running games in the office. I'd start that game up again in a heartbeat if I could.

Wow. Four years gone by. The way time flies by never ceases to amaze me, and not in a good way.

I still have a shrink-wrapped copy of this.

Anyway, my Cyberpunk gaming library is pretty big. I have everything R. Talsorian ever released, more than one copy in some cases. As bloated as the game got over the years, it was still lots of fun. I used the system for a lot more than Cyberpunk, too. I adapted the movie "Aliens" to the system, eventually updating it with material gleaned from Leading Edge's Aliens Adventure Game and the Aliens Technical Manual by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood.

When R. Talsorian started developing their Fuzion! system, I didn't switch over. I have a copy of Cyberpunk V.3 (as well as the Bubblegum Crisis and Armored Trooper VOTOMS books), but it wasn't what I was looking for. Call me a grognard or whatever you like, but nothing beats the simplicity and flat probabilities of the original 2020, even if it does require a number of house rules to make some of its flaws less inconvenient.

About the only game that inspired me the way that Cyberpunk 2020 did was AD&D's Dark Sun campaign setting. Seeing as I ran Dark Sun in a similar manner to Cyberpunk, I guess it's not terribly surprising. Maybe I can talk about Dark Sun more in another #RPGaDay entry.

#RPGaDay: Day Five - Most Old School RPG Owned

This is a tough question, since I have trouble defining what an "old school" RPG really is. Even then, if I narrow my library down to those RPGs commonly considered as old school, I'd have a short list of titles. It's hard to pick which one is more old school than the others, because the definition of "old school" is so variable. I can pick one, sure, but I think I'll have to list a few others. Honorable mentions, if you will.

I'm not really an old school guy. I understand the appeal, and I've played such games and enjoyed them. I prefer a little mechanical definition to my characters, though, and eight attribute scores written on a piece of lined paper isn't enough. I like systems with skills, I like systems with merits and flaws, I like systems that provide rules for various common circumstances. That's not to say I can't wing things, or make rulings on the fly, since I do that all the time. I just like a little more framework than systems like original D&D provide.

I have to say that The Morrow Project is pretty old school, IMO, and of the old school games I have, I consider it the best one. The system focuses on stats and not skills (up until they borrowed the BRPG skill system for it) with heavy combat mechanics that can be somewhat complicated at times. The black and white line art, layout, and organization certainly give it an old school feeling, too. It's one of my favorite games of all time, mostly because the setting--a post-nuclear apocalypse where the world has devolved into whatever the GM decides to make it--is so damn compelling.

Is Morrow Project the most old school RPG in my library? Oh, I don't know. It's a matter of opinion. I've got the original Twilight: 2000, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, AD&D, 2nd edition AD&D, Reich Star, 1st edition WFRP, Stormbringer, MERP, and a number of Palladium's old titles, to name a few. Which of them is "old schoolier" than the others? I suppose I can leave that up to you, dear reader.

So, yeah. There you go. As always, commentary is welcome.

#RPGaDay: Day Four - Most Recent RPG Purchase

Did you hear me "squee"? Did you?

I'm trying not to over think this question, but I'm assuming by "Most Recent RPG Purchase," I'm supposed to tell you all about the last thing I bought for any RPG, not necessarily core rules. So here goes.

Yesterday, I went down to my FLGS and picked up a copy of The Darkening of Mirkwood supplement for The One Ring RPG. I've been waiting for this one to hit the shelves for a while, let me tell you. I was repeatedly tempted to pre-order it from Cubicle 7, but the money was always better spent on necessities... until today.

I absolutely adore The One Ring. As a long-time Tolkien fanatic, it's the first time I've seen a Middle Earth game that is so close and faithful to the source material. Iron Crown's Middle Earth Role-Playing game (MERP) was plenty flavorful, but the system was a clunky, indecipherable version of Rolemaster that Middle Earth had been grafted onto.

Don't get me wrong, I love the wealth and depth of information in the MERP supplements, but I could never get past the system mechanics, or the way magic items (and spells) we so damn prevalent. In my mind, the only magic-users in Tolkien's world were powerful being like the Istari, Sauron, or the Witch King of Angmar, and the only magical weapons were things like Glamdring, Anduril, and Sting. Why does Lobelia Sackville-Baggins need a magical umbrella, anyway?

After MERP, I picked up Decipher's The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game. Unfortunately for me, it hewed too closely to Peter Jackson's films and not closely enough to what I consider canonical Tolkien. The system wasn't all that impressive, either, and 98% of the illustrations consisted of still photographs from the films. As much as I like Jackson's adaptations (which is to say I have a love/hate relationship with them), I have a hard time considering them to be something I'd want to spend my time playing or running.

In the intervening years, I've attempted a number of times to adapt Tolkien to other game systems, from West End Games' D6 system to Chaosium's Stormbringer and Avalon Hill's Runequest. Those attempts never turned out quite right, and I never put any of them to the test. The closest I came was running a 2nd Edition AD&D game set in Middle Earth where the players portrayed orcs attempting to retrieve a bauble in a barrow for one of the Nazgul (I later adapted that adventure to Midnight and ran it for FFG at one GenCon or another).

With The One Ring, I don't have to fake it anymore. The game is marvelous and I can't say enough good things about it. The only trouble I have is when players inevitably make comparisons to Jackson's films, but even then I can smile, nod, and let it pass. If anything, Jackson got the visuals and grandeur of the setting down pretty well, and if that helps folks imagine the game better, more power to them.

#RPGaDay: Day Three - First RPG Purchased

When I was eleven, all I wanted was to be the guy on the left.

I don't remember where I bought it (or, rather, where my mom bought it for me), but I distinctly remember having the Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn boxed set and eagerly reading every bit of it from stem to stern, over and over. I'd learned a little about the setting in the Endless Quest book, Villains of Volturnus, but beyond that I was a complete newbie. Even though I'd never played a real RPG at that time, I was still very interested in them. Not to mention Star Frontiers, as a science fiction RPG, was right up my alley, Star Wars fanboy that I was.

As much as I wanted to play the game, I didn't know anyone else who played RPGs when I was eleven years old. As a result, Star Frontiers joined my copies of Monster Manual and Monster Manual II as a sort of embryonic gaming reference library. It was all fodder for my imagination. I'd read the rules, I'd pour over the maps, and I'd make one character after another in the hopes that someday I'd be able to actually play. My favorite parts were the species write-ups, complete with cut-away pictures of their alien anatomy (including the Sathar that was obviously dead and laying in some kind of dissection tray).

There's no glowing fingers on these guys.

Try as I might, I had some issues with the rules of the game at that age. Being unfamiliar with RPG rules in general, a lot of the concepts were Greek to me. I understood the basics, sure, but without being able to use them in practice, I never had much chance to really learn how they worked and functioned together. I was very much a child who learned by doing. I got the concept, but was never quite able to grok the execution.

At some point I ended up losing my copy of Star Frontiers, and I don't remember why or when. As an adult I found a huge stack of SF material on a used games shelf and I eagerly snatched it up. Going over that stuff for the first time in decades was pretty magical. I remembered everything, and with my years of gamer experience I read the rules and wondered why in the hell I'd been so confused by them as a kid.

#RPGaDay: Day Two - First RPG Gamemastered (belated)

The first game I ever gamemastered.

As I've said, my best friend and I used to play in his big brother's games. Eventually we wanted to play whenever we wanted to, and that meant running our own games for each other. While we were casing the mall, as young teens were apt to do in the mid to late eighties, we happened upon TSR's Top Secret/S.I. boxed set at B. Dalton Booksellers... and it was only $20! We looked it over and both ended up buying a copy. The game had everything! Maps! Books! Dice! A GM screen! The only thing it didn't come with was a pencil, and we had plenty of those. What a score!

I'm not sure of the exact timeline, but I'm pretty sure we were running games for one another within a week. Though I don't have a flawless recollection of the first game I ever ran, I'm pretty sure it involved my friend breaking into a suspect's house to tap some phones, and my friend's character ended up blasting the guy who lived there with a Browning Hi-Power (right in the face). That sort of made the point of tapping the phones moot, but we were young. Shooting stuff was the best part of the game back then.

All those memories sort of gel together nowadays. It's hard to pinpoint any chronological order. We had fun, though, enough that we continued to play and run games with each other for months. Taking Top Secret/S.I. out and looking through it provides an incredibly strong sense of nostalgia for me. I almost feel like showing it to my son and running him through a scenario where he has to tap some phones. He'll probably cap the suspect, too.

I still have that boxed set, along with all the supplements I bought (as well as a few more I've picked up over the years). I still feel that Top Secret/S.I. was one of the best games of its time, both for some of its innovations as well as the quality of the material and its ease of use. In fact, it's one of those games I'd actually consider dusting off and running these days, and that's no small feat.

#RPGaDay: Day One - First RPG Played (belated)

What's the first RPG I ever played?

I didn't fight orcs. I fought Charlie. He was bad ass.

That's sort of a tough question, because it was so long ago. Still, I'm pretty sure I can make an accurate guess. I want to say it was Palladium's Revised Recon, a game my best friend's older brother would run in a rather brutal fashion. We rarely lived through any of his scenarios. I half think he enjoyed watching us struggle and ultimate die in those games. I'm pretty sure we didn't really care, at least not at first. It was fun to play out all the Vietnam war movies we'd been brought up on, despite our sadistic game master.

When I first started playing role-playing games, I was in seventh grade. My experience with tabletop gaming was pretty slim by that point, and largely consisted of me reading Monster Manual and Monster Manual II. The reason I'd purchased those two tomes in the first place went back to my love of the Endless Quest books, which I'd picked up at an elementary school book fair in sixth grade. I'd read and re-read those things for hours at a time. I kept a good stack of Choose Your Own Adventure books, too, as well as one or two of the Time Machine series.

It's safe to say that in sixth grade, at the age of 11, I had only a passing idea of what role-playing games were. I'd learned from a neighborhood friend that Dungeons & Dragons was a real game where, unlike the Endless Quest books, you could do anything you wanted to. It wasn't about choosing between two or three pages. You could also play any kind of character you liked. I thought that sounded swell, but I didn't know anyone who played those games. Even my neighborhood friend was barred from playing them due to his mother's strict religious views (our conversations on the topic often took place in whispered confidence away from her prying ears).

I'd picked up the Monster Manual books because they looked really interesting, and because I wanted to know more about the creatures I was "fighting" in the Endless Quest books. I didn't know what any of the stats meant (though I was pretty sure what "Alignment" was all about), but I ate up the fluff and descriptive text like a starving child. I'm pretty sure that at some point I'd bought (or had my mother buy) an actual RPG boxed set (more on this in another entry), but the rules threw my little mind for a loop and I never did anything with it. It didn't help that I had no one to play it with.

Seventh grade pretty much changed everything. My best friend's older brother was a "real" gamer - none of that juvenile Endless Quest stuff for him. He played strategy games (I recall his stack of Avalon Hill bookcase games) and RPGs, and as a result, so did my new best friend. I would go to my friend's house and we'd end up begging his older brother to run something for us. Oftentimes, he'd have a game scheduled with friends and invite us to join in. That's where Revised Recon came into the picture.

After that first game, I was hooked for life. It opened the doors to other games, including AD&D, The Morrow Project, Kill the Commie Bastards, and Palladium's Robotech RPG. I really miss the fresh naivete of those days sometimes, because as time has passed and I've become exposed to more and more games, those old ones offer little more than nostalgia. I don't think I'd ever run a Revised Recon game today, mostly because the system mechanics are so archaic.

Then again...

#RPGaDay? Who knew?

Why didn't anyone tell me about this? RPG a Day is exactly the sort of thing I like to do, and I'm just finding out about it now.

I've got two days of catching up to do, and day three to finish after that. Oh, Internet. You're such a merciless taskmaster...

Out With the Old...

The beginning of the end.

On a lark, I went ahead and updated the template for this blog. Blogger said it would save a copy of the old one, but I'll be damned if I can find out how to restore it. So, yeah. Progress. I'll probably screw around with it a little bit and get it just the way I want to.

Also in the new category, the Age of Rebellion Core Rules are out, representing my first published freelance work since 2010. They even let me write a brief article about my part of the project. I've got a number of other projects in the pipeline, things I've already finished that should be released eventually. When they're announced, I'll be more than happy to fill everyone in.

I'm sure everyone's had a chance to check out the D&D Basic Rules by now. Everyone but me, that is. I have yet to check it out, though I have downloaded it. I'm a pretty horrible grognard about some things, you see, and I'm pretty happy with all the 3.5 stuff I've got for the game. I never even made the switch to Pathfinder, and as for 4E... well, let's just say that I've played in a number of 4E games, and it never really did much for me (and I'm not looking to argue about it, either--it's just a matter of taste).

I have a penchant for picking up core rules for games, so I'll probably do the same with 5th edition when they come out. Whether or not I switch over to the new rules remains to be seen.

This is when Stephen stuck the knife in and twisted it.

After a lull, the boy and I have been playing the X-Wing miniatures game again. We tried out the CR90 corvette using the opening scenario from the epic campaign that came with it. Basically, he had six TIEs and I had the CR90, and his objective was to cripple one of my ship halves within six turns. He had me down within four turns.

The CR90 is pretty neat, but it really needs close support. Its turbolasers are useless at close range, and outside of a salvo or two in the opening turns, I didn't get too many shots off.

WildStar keeps on keeping on. I've got lots of exciting work to do in the office these days, so I can't complain too much. I've been moved into the Narrative office after being in the same cube for the past two years. Speaking of which, this Wednesday is my two-year anniversary with Carbine, and I celebrated by 41st birthday five days ago.

I'd say it's funny how time flies, but it isn't. So I won't. Wait, didn't I just? Oh, the hell with it.

Age of Rebellion at Pair a Dice Games

A couple months back, I approached the management of Pair a Dice Games in Vista and asked them if they'd like me to run a game of Age of Rebellion for them when Free RPG Day rolled around. I did some work on the AoR core rules, and I thought it'd be a neat way to get the word out about FFG's latest entry into the Star Wars RPG market.

Just before we got started.

They thought it was a swell idea, especially since I contributed to the game. I was suddenly being treated like a minor celebrity, even being mentioned by name in their email flyers leading up to the event. It put a little pressure on, to be sure. After all, I didn't want to go in there and run a crappy scenario for folks who were expecting champion-level storytelling from someone "in the industry."

Thing is, I don't generally go out of my way to tell people I do freelance writing/game design and that I've worked for several big-name game publishers. When they get to know me, they usually find out. Maybe it's worth bragging about, maybe it's not, but I keep it on the down-low most of the time. I don't think I'm better than anyone because of it, and I'd hate for anyone to assume I feel that way. It's just something I do because I find it fulfilling.

Anyway. It is what it is.

Kane, Jared, and Bridgette.

Yesterday was the day of truth. I'd put together a small adventure along with seven pre-genned characters. Since the AoR core rules haven't been released yet, I had to rely on the AoR Beta rules. Using the Beta wasn't a problem, and I don't think any of the players had even seen the book before. Hopefully, when the core book comes out next month, it'll have a positive response with folks. It really is an excellent product.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. The day of truth.

I was worried that the publicity would result in me having too many players to fit into the scenario. In the end, the player group consisted of five very awesome players. Three of them were experienced with Edge of the Empire, so they knew what they were doing. This was great, because they ended up explaining rules to the players who weren't familiar with the game. By the end of the session, everyone was rolling the dice, reading the symbols, and contributing to the story effectively.

Robert and Vance.

My other fear was that I hadn't had an opportunity to playtest the adventure prior to Free RPG Day. The schedule's been tight lately, so I ended up going in blind. Fortunately, the adventure worked. I made a couple of changes on the fly, but overall I felt it was successful (in fact, it might have been too easy!). We got rolling around 1 pm and were finished up by 5:30 in the afternoon.

A number of my personal friends showed up to say hello to me. Since I was running the game, I couldn't break away and socialize, which made me feel kind of bad for them. They understood, though, and it was nice to see everyone, even for a brief moment.

The players succeeded on their mission, and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. Hopefully I run into them all again sometime. If I had more time, I might even make a regular night of it. As it is, my schedule is pretty crowded, so I can't. It's going to have to be an occasional thing rather than a regular one.

In the end, I'd like to extend my thanks to Vance, Robert, Bridgette, Jared, and Kane for playing and making the game a success. It wouldn't have been the same without you guys!

Paul

My wife's grandfather, Paul, died on Tuesday morning. He lived about ten minutes from Carbine, so I would drive over to have lunch with him whenever I could. For a while, it was our Wednesday routine. I'd drop in, we'd eat and chat, and then he'd walk me out and say goodbye. As things got busier and busier closer to launch, my visits became less common. There was so much to do and so little time to do it all. I'd go when I could, but it wasn't as often as before.

I felt very close to Paul. My grandfathers had already passed, and he'd always treated me like family. The first time I met him, we got to talking about my interest in history. I was a Civil War reenactor then, and Paul thought that was the neatest thing ever. He opened up and told me about his experiences in World War II, something he'd never done with anyone else according to my wife and her grandmother.

Paul in Germany, 6/20/1945

Paul served on the ground in Europe as part of an ambulance crew, starting on D-Day +2, through the Battle of the Bulge, and until well after the end of hostilities. He was proud of his service in the war, rightly so. It was an experience that shaped him and changed him forever, and he wrote a memoir about it and sent me a copy which I've kept to this day.

Paul was a little old fashioned about some things, but he was a great guy. He had a quick wit and a jovial laugh, even though he'd often tell the same jokes over and over again. I never minded. It was a pleasure to sit with him and hear about his past, as well as his thoughts on the future. Oftentimes, when we would have lunch, he would talk about the technology of his youth as compared to the technology today. He had no idea where the world would be when my kids were his age, but he was certain of one thing--that it would be amazing.

Paul's in the pink shirt (10/2008)

Since I was always coming from and going to work before and after our visits, he always asked me how things were going. It was clear he didn't quite understand what an MMORPG was, or what it was I did exactly. Still, he'd listen when I tried to explain it, comparing it to this or that, trying to make some kind of sense out of it all. He was proud that I was supporting his granddaughter and his grandchildren, who he loved a great deal.

He called me a couple of weeks ago. "I haven't seen you in an awfully long time," he said. "Maybe we could have lunch soon."

"How about tomorrow?" I asked. We were close to launch and I wasn't as strapped for time as I'd been in those busy months leading up to the fin
al stretch.

I dropped by the next day. My father-in-law was there, too, and the three of us had lunch. Paul was miserable, and he had been since his wife died. His health was slowly deteriorating. His eyesight and hearing had gotten worse, and he hated it. I tried to direct the conversation to other topics, like the kids or the things he'd done way back when. We toyed around with the idea of having a Fourth of July bar-be-que at my place so he could see my children. He made a fuss about not wanting dessert, but I cajoled him into eating some ice cream (which was his favorite thing).

When the hour was up, he walked his son and I to the door and we said goodbye. Despite his complaints, he still seemed strong to me. He appreciated my visit, and I hugged him goodbye and patted him on the back. I drove back to work, knowing that WildStar's launch was only a couple weeks away. I wasn't sure what the future held, but I sure as hell didn't predict that it was the last time I'd see him.

Paul in his favorite chair.

At midnight on Tuesday, June 3rd, WildStar went live. Six to eight hours later, Paul was dead. I didn't find out about his passing until just before noon on the 4th. It hit me hard. I still can't believe he's not with us anymore, and I can't get it out of my head. I'll never sit down to lunch with him again, or show him the game I spent so many hours working on to give him more context into how it worked and what my part in it had been. He'll never tell me about his experiences before, during, and after the war. All those memories, except for those he wrote down, are lost.

We make sacrifices every day. One thing trumps something else so we can get things done. I feel bad that I wasn't able to see him as often as I wished. I know he didn't blame me for it, but I'd give all those overtime hours for just one more hour with him.

Reflection on the Past and the Unknown

As you may or may not know, Mythic Entertainment closed its doors today. This is especially meaningful for me, as Mythic was my first industry job. It's also meaningful to a lot of other folks who worked at Mythic, from the CS reps to the QA testers to the engineers, designers, artists, and everyone else who made the studio what it was.

Before joining the Mythic family, I worked as a buyer for an orthodontic manufacturer. I did a good bit of freelance writing and design for tabletop games prior to that, including work on the 2nd edition of the Warhammer Fantasy RPG. Mythic was developing Warhammer Online at the time, and when an opportunity to apply for a Content position opened up, I somehow managed to make it onto their radar. After a phone interview, they flew me in for an on-site. I must have done something right, because they hired me.

I left my job at the orthodontic manufacturer, and my family and I moved to Fairfax, VA. Making a cross-country trek in a Scion xB with my wife, son (then 2 years old), daughter (4 months old), and three cats was quite an experience. We celebrated July 4th in a cheap motel on the Virginia/North Carolina border. By the end of the next day, we were in our new and very empty apartment. Not long after that, I was at the office learning the ropes from a number of very talented people.

I was pretty green back then, and it was all very exciting. There I was, working on a triple-A MMORPG for the company that had made Dark Age of Camelot. I was thousands of miles from home supporting my family and doing a job that I was actually happy to get up for every single morning. That's not to say it wasn't work, but for the first time in my life--with the possible exception of a 13 month-long stint in a hobby game store--I loved my job.

Warhammer Online eventually launched, but it wasn't the success that the powers that be hoped it would be. Things got scary for a while, and I survived two rounds of layoffs before I found myself out of a job in November of 2009. In all, I spent two and a half years on the Mythic payroll. I worked with and met wonderful people, made many friends, and learned a lot about what to do (and not to do) when developing an online game.

"Play WildStar, or I vaporize game designer!"

I don't regret my time at Mythic, not one bit. Being laid off was scary, especially so far from home and without any manner of safety net, but I bounced back. By January of 2010, I was employed by 38 Studios and living in Maynard, Massachusetts. Once again I had a job I loved. Once again I was working with a lot of very talented, passionate people. I'm sure we all know how that story ended, but I'm not here to talk about Amalur. I'm here to talk about Warhammer... and WildStar.

The studio that gave me a shot back in 2007 closed its doors today. Tomorrow at midnight, the studio that gave me a shot in 2012 will launch its first title. It's bittersweet in some ways, but it's also exciting. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm going to meet it with my head held high.

I'm proud of my co-workers, I'm proud of myself, and I'm proud of WildStar.

Things Are About to Get Real

In less than a week, WildStar will drop. That would be 6/1/14 at 00:00:00 am. Three days after that, it goes live for everyone (the first three days are a head start for those who pre-ordered the game). I've worked on the game for just under two years now, and I'm proud of what the team at Carbine has accomplished. We've all been waiting for this day to come for a long time.

I still need to get a computer that can run the game. We've got two old desktops in the house that, sadly, date back to 2007. My wife and I both have newer laptops, but they were cheap and I'm not sure if they'll be capable to doing WildStar justice. The game is beautiful, and while I see it in all its splendor at work, day in and day out, I'd hate for my wife to experience it in less detail.

In other news, I continue to do some freelance in my off time. It's looking like my first published work in almost four years will see the light of day when Fantasy Flight releases the Age of Rebellion core book. I don't know when that will be, but I'm nearly as excited about it as I am about WildStar dropping.

We still continue to play games here at home. Outside of the Edge of the Empire game I've been running since December, I've recently started up a D&D game for my son and a couple of the grown-ups from the Star Wars game. It got a little emotional last time when Stephen's character was dominated by a vampire. He's still new to these games, relatively speaking, and he felt somewhat cheated when his Will save of 18 wasn't quite good enough to resist the vampire's gaze.

Amy and I managed to talk him down from a /ragequit over the next few days, and the boy seems to be feeling better about the ordeal now. The next game is this coming Saturday, so we'll see how it plays out.

I took Stephen to see the new Godzilla movie today. He loved it. I enjoyed myself, overall, but I had some reservations about the movie and how often the G-Monster shows up on screen. I've given it a more detailed treatment at my new blog, "Popcorn, or Popcorny?" which is where I'll be reviewing horror films that I've seen. If you guys can't get enough of my blog entries (and we all know you can't!), please check out the newest blog if you have a spare moment.

That's about all for now. Keep an eye out here for more WildStar and Age of Rebellion news!

Another Sporadic Update

I really should try to update this blog more often. I don't usually think about it, to be honest. Life consists of work, family, and the occasional game. Is there really enough time to write on my blog? Or, better yet, do I have anything interesting to say?

This evening I'll be appearing on my friend Peter's vidcast, Mythwits, to talk about games, gaming, and (of course!) my contributions to WildStar. If you're free and willing to listen to (and even watch) me discussing the creative endeavors of my life, tune in. The show starts at 9:30pm EST (that's 6:30pm for all us west-coasters).

Work at Carbine has been hectic. WildStar is set to launch in June, and there are plenty of things for me to work on in the meantime. This is pretty exciting, overall. I haven't launched a title since the late lamented Warhammer Online went live. There are some parallels to WildStar and WAR, but not many. WildStar is definitely its own beast, and one that I'll be proud to see running free out in the wild.

I've also continued to freelance. Most of the projects I've contributed to haven't been announced, so I can't so much as tease you with generalities, much less specifics. One title has been announced, though, and that's Fantasy Flight Games' Age of Rebellion. It's the second of FFG's Star Wars role-playing games. Whereas Edge of the Empire covered the fringes of galactic society and the scum that dwell there, Age of Rebellion focuses on the war between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance.

My contribution to Age of Rebellion is the adventure that appears at the end of the book. I'm very excited to see it in print later this year. I haven't had an RPG product with my name on it since Galaxy of Intrigue was released by WotC back in 2010. Part of the reason I stopped freelancing back then was lack of time, but I think it mostly had to do with Wizards' loss of the Star Wars license.

Ever since, I've missed freelancing. I mean, it's awesome being able to write about the things you enjoy and to create things that other players will find interesting and fun. Plus, it's Star Wars, which I've loved since I was three or four. My kids are also coming to grips with what their dad does, both in the office and when he wears his mercenary freelancer hat at home. My little girl spotted a book I'd worked on years ago (the Future Player's Companion) and was delighted to see my name on the cover.

As far as gaming is concerned, I'm still plugging away. My home gaming group and I have been playtesting my last freelance project out (sorry, I can't tell you what it is). It's been fun so far. At work, I started a Hollow Earth Expedition game with six of my co-workers. We've played one session so far, and it's going to be interesting to see where it goes.

Oh, and this morning, I found out that Dave Brockie died yesterday. Dave was the lead singer for GWAR, one of my favorite bands dating back to my high school years. I've seen them in concert about four or five times, the most recent show being last October. It's not like I knew Dave personally (though I did shake his hand once), but I've certainly enjoyed his antics. I wonder if the rest of the band will keep GWAR alive or not.

That's about it. Time to get back to work!

Another Year Gone

I don't place much stock in the new year. I never make resolutions, but as much as I'd like to keep my eyes forward, I always end up looking back.

This was the first full year I've spent back in my home state of California since Amy, the kids, and I left for Virginia (and EA Mythic) in 2007. I'll admit, I like the familiarity of this place, even if a couple of things have changed since I was away. I'm not all that fond of Santa Ana weather (then again, I never was), and I could do with a bit more rain.

As far as my job goes, WildStar is a lot of fun... not to mention a whole lot of work! I continue to learn a lot and improve in my craft (I hope). There are a lot of great people there - folks from 38 Studios, folks from EA Mythic, and many, many folks I'd never met before I started - so I'm in awesome company.

One good thing that happened this year is that I was given the chance to freelance again. So far I've worked on four projects, and I've enjoyed the hell out of them all. I figure they'll start to hit the presses in 2014, and I'll have my name in print once again after all this time. That'll be a trip and a half, let me tell you.

Gaming... I've done some this year, though not as much as I'd like. Feels like there's too much going on, and I'm not as young as I used to be. After all, I turned 40 this year! Life goes by so fast, and it never seems like there's enough time to do all the things I want to do.

I'm trying to learn guitar, but I get increasingly frustrated at my fat fingertips. Practice makes perfect, I suppose. If I can write well, I can learn to play guitar... right? RIGHT?

So there it is. Not a lot to say, really. Not much of a retrospective. But it's the thought that counts. I'm looking forward to 2014, because there's a lot of great things on the way. As those freelance projects begin to come together in a more official capacity, I'll be sure to let you all know about them.

Happy New Year!