Brave New World
Before I go into Gen Con further, I have something to say.
Goodbye to Dragon and Dungeon Magazines
I received both last issues this month. I think Rich Burlew’s comic summed it up for me.
His comic-strip heroes free a dragon named Dragon from suits intent on destroying him and Dragon thanks them. The heroes demure and reply, “We should be thanking you.”
Dragon responds, “For what?”
And the heroes reply, “For everything.”
Gen Con
I stayed at my brother Tim’s house again. Tim is the guy who introduced me to gaming and Ronnie James Dio. Thanks Tim. For everything.
Meeting Gary Gygax
Mr. Gygax was autographing the re-release of his book, The Anubis Murders, by Paizo Publishing in their booth. I spoke with him for about ten minutes, mostly about fiction authors he likes. He also told me where he got the ideas for D&D trolls and ioun stones from.
I finally understand the impact he had as a DM. Reading his modules gives one the impression of iron-hard ruthlessness and hardcore gaming. In person, he is charming. I have never used that word before to describe anyone, but here it applies. Mr. Gygax is charismatic and I can easily see how he could get people to sit for hours and listen to him explain the wonders of his D&D world to them.
An amazing experience and opportunity to meet such an outstanding individual.
Meeting Monte Cook
I saw Mr. Cook at Gen Con last year, but not being a hardcore fan, didn’t say hello. This year I picked up Monte Cook’s World of Darkness and became a fanboy. I bumped into Mr. Cook randomly, gushed about his new book, and he signed it for me. He also checked out my blue Cthulhu mini.
Mr. Cook is a class act and he can create the most amazing settings. I can see why he wants to write novels.
Talisman 4th Edition
Fifty a day to sell and no more. I was the fiftieth person in line on Friday morning. Shiny black box was mine!
A gem of a game. I have friends I played Talisman 2nd Edition with fifteen years ago who are going to buy this game because it is just so damn fun.
Is it balanced? Yeah, in a random generation sort of way. You’re as likely to get randomly whacked as you are to win so in that way everyone has an equal chance at getting screwed. But you can increase the chance of the demise of your friends by actively hunting their characters. And that is where the game leaves the rules behind and begins to really shine.
Is it fun? I can hardly begin to describe how much fun it is. In our games, when one player gets down to 1 Life everyone else actively hunts them down and tries to kill them. The joy of killing another character sometimes outweighs the joy of winning. And if someone gets turned into a toad? Well, everyone goes on a toad hunt and tries to squash the poor weak, stupid pathetic amphibian.
Is it modern? No, except for the art. But part of the fun of being a veteran is that I can tell everyone what each space does without reading the fine print. Some can yell out “Ruins!” while I have my head in the fridge and I can yell back, “Draw two cards, encounter the lowest number first, if it is two monsters or spirits add the Strength or Craft together!”
And in fact, you’re likely to end up staying up to 2 AM trying to finish the damn thing and getting drunk as hell with your friends. So knowing the board while having one’s head in the fridge is a good thing.
There are things to be said about upgrading games. But when I play Fantasy Flight Warrior Knights and I have to not only track my twelve options but also track everyone else’s as well as the numerous discard decks? Well, let me just say you can’t do that at 2 AM while drunk.
The fact that you can play Talisman while sleep deprived and full of tasty toxin is one of the highest recommendations I can give the game. You just haven’t gamed until you shoot beer out of your nose laughing as you watch yet another friend’s toad die when Evil Darkness covers the land.
Priceless.
D&D 4th Edition
I wasn’t interested at the show but now that I’ve learned more it sounds really cool.
Other Stuff at the Con
Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo, was running the cash register when I bought Mr. Gygax’s book (I already had the original printing, but hey, another copy doesn’t hurt especially when signed by the master). I was impressed with Ms. Stevens on two accounts. One, she is a CEO who will run a cash register, thereby meeting the customers and seeing what they’re buying. Two, she was doing this so her staff could hang out with Mr. Gygax. I don’t know many CEOs (period) but the ones I’ve seen would not normally give up a chance to smooze to let their subordinates do so. I was impressed.
I bought Dust the board game from Fantasy Flight Games. War World II? Check. World map? Check. Aliens? Check. Mechs? Check.
Also, stormtroopers were everywhere at the Con. But we weren’t the droids they were looking for.
The Current Plan
Table top gaming is pushed back to October this year. My plan is to continue RuneQuest as a play by post and start a new game for the table top.
In this column, then, I’ll be covering world building and campaign running for both. I’ve never run two games before so I’ll try to avoid muddling the column too much and will try to clearly label the two different games here.
I’ve always wanted to run two games because I enjoy gaming so much. I just don’t have much time. However, doing one as a play by post will make that option much easier.
Monte Cook’s World of Darkness
I first considered D&D because so many of my players are familiar with the game. Kevin responded back saying he didn’t want to play 1st level (again) and that he wanted to play a monster. The other players agree that not only did they prefer starting at 3rd level but they were interested in playing a monster as well.
Seven years and I’d seen only one player play a monster (a fire giant). I had no idea of the level of interest.
So instead of D&D, I said let’s try something new where you start at basically fourth level and can play monsters. Monte Cook’s World of Darkness.
I picked it up and Gen Con and was amazed by both the story and the rules. I took a level in the Monte Cook fanboy prestige class immediately.
And my players have gone crazy. I’ve regained one I lost due to fumbling running D&D. I got another new player who joined for the new game.
And they are writing up the most amazing backstories. I have found a real winner of a game here. I’ll have more to detail as we delve into the game in the coming weeks.
Fiesive, Ralios for RuneQuest Glorantha
As for RuneQuest, my online players have just started A Raven in the Roost adventure from Signs & Portents, the first RQ4 adventure that I am aware of. The players have moved out from Fiesive and into the tribal lands of the Orlanthi.
The PCs have already impacted the town of Fiesive. The Pentans have moved on and Jarnkipe has been driven out. A new temple of the God Learners is going up and Greencowl, the duck from Fisticuffs at O’Malley’s Place, is opening an inn of his own. I wonder where he got the silvers to start that venture?!
Myths in Glorantha
One way the PCs in my RQ4 campaign can make silver and befriend NPC God Learners is to bring back new myths. One of their patrons is paying good money for myths.
What RQ4 and Glorantha needs is a book of myths and HeroQuests to go with them. I’m just making myths up as I go along because the Cults book really doesn’t have a lot of information for me to use. For instance, duck myths.
Max the Cog and God Learner asked about myths from the ducks of Roost. They had this to say.
“Icarus is the name of one of our gods. He was once human and made a deal with the Chaos gods to gain the ability to fly. They changed him to gain duck like features and he took off into the sky.”
“But the Chaos gods tricked him and as he flew higher his feathers burned from his arms. Afire, he fell into a pond, extinguishing the fire but losing his arm feathers and his ability to fly.”
“In the end though, he had the last laugh because he could swim well with the ducklike form he was given. He took to boating like, well, like a duck to water.”
Obviously, I take the name Icarus from the mythical human who wanted to fly. Who’s to say we didn’t get our myth from Glorantha and not the other way around?
Next Month
I’ll continue setting up the campaign setting for MCWoD. Also, for RQ4 the PCs will face a troll for the first time as I continue to add details to the Olanthi tribes of Ralios.
Charli
