How I stat out characters

I post a lot of characters here.  Lots.

Usually I have something in mind or I want to try out a new system with something I already know or a combination of the two.  But how do I take a character like Zatanna, or Red Sonja, or Willow and Tara or anyone and figure out how they are supposed to "be" in a particular system.  I have a couple of things I like to do and it has usually worked pretty well for me.

I always start out with what the character can do and who is this character supposed to be in my mind.  If I am working on Dirty Nel then I have a good idea, "sassy street faerie prostitute. cute. smarter than anyone gives her credit for. Enjoys her creature comforts and knows how to get them."  Some of that doesn't translate into game stats. Well...most games anyway. But a lot of it does.  I know she has quite a bit of knowledge about the world, street life and the occult.  I know she has a bit of magic in her and I also have a good idea about what her fighting prowess is like.

Skills
In most systems there are skills.  I look for signature skills the character has, say being able to program computers or speaking 4 languages and figure out how these are represented in the system.   For someone like Willow I look for high numbers in computers, science but also occult knowledge.  I know this is going to suck up most of her points and want to get them figured out first.  Plus they are very iconic to the character.  If I am working on Batwoman then I want to be sure her acrobatics are good, if I have Robin Sena I know she is young and most of her skills are weak except for things like occult knowledge and maybe her languages.

I like to stay within the rules as much as I can.  This helps me define the character in terms of that world's reality. If a Unisystem character gets 25 points for skills then I need to have good reasons for going to 35.  If I am using PL 9 as a base for Tarot and PL 11 for Tara in Mutants and Masterminds then I want their skills to comparable to those realities.

Skills are good Rosetta Stone really.  Most systems have them and there are lot of good translations.  Knowledge (Supernatural) could be the same thing as Occultism or Occult Knowledge.

Magic
Since I tend to make a lot of magic using characters using magic as another yardstick is good.   For D&D and d20-like games I know they need a certain spell and they need to be a certain level to cast that.  That is how I came up with Willow and Tara's levels in d20 Mod, a combination of spells and skills.
In a game like Ghosts of Albion the same is true, but then I can decide on how many levels of magic they might need.
For something like d20, this is pretty easy to work backwards from.  Find the spells, find the levels that can cast those spells, fill in the details.
For a point buy system like Ghosts, it is only part of the equation.

Combat
A lot of games feature combat or fighting.  To ignore this does the character an injustice.  Even in Call of Cthulhu or Doctor Who the character might need to stop running or talking and fight it out.  Thinking about combat like a skill then is a good way to figure out a character.  In M&M I know Tarot for example is a better fighter than Willow or Zatanna, but she can't match either of them (or even come close) in magic.  That doesn't mean she can go toe to toe with the likes of Red Sonja either.  It means that there is a good balance to be had.  Where that balance is sometimes is up for debate.  My Red Sonja may be different that someone else's based on the same PL (to use an Mutants and Masterminds example).

Feel
This is less "quantitative" really.  I'll start with a premise, "Willow is the most powerful witch in my game" then I work down from her.  I think what would it take to get the character to this level, what would it take to get a different character to a similar level.
For characters like the Hex Girls I want to make them total novices at magic.  So in Unisystem they have Magic 1 or 2 tops.  But still give the points where they would be better than average, music and showmanship.   I usually feel pretty confident in my builds, but each one usually takes longer than say just stating up John or Jane Doe Character.

Sometimes I have such strong idea for a character concept, like Justice, that I also just like to see the character in different systems too.  In the case of Willow and Tara I am also seeing if I can stat them up in as many systems as I can.

Horror is a matter of tone

Quick question.  Which movie is scarier, The Shining or Mary Poppins?
Have an answer?
Are you sure?

Watch these movie trailers then and come back.  You may already seen these.

Shining
Mary Poppins

Horror games are like that.

There is a theory out there on the net (I think I first read it at Krell Laboratories)  that if you take the final girl of horror films and turn her into an ass kicking male then you have an action film. The converse is also true.  Take an ass kicking hero and depower him, or put him is a situation he can't control then you have the start of horror.

The recent trend in books has been the Modern/Urban Fantasy.  You take the tropes of horror and make them into a fantasy story.  Vampires are not hideous monsters, they are different now. Same with witches, werewolves and all sorts of beings that just a few of decades ago were creatures of horror.  We can't blame the Twilight crowd for this, this dates back to even long before Anne Rice and Lestat.  Dracula, was still a monster, but a sexualized one.  Movie Dracula even more so.

What does this mean for games?

Nearly any game can be horror.

D&D has always had a strong undercurrent of horror. Fantasy and Horror have always shared a link.    So often times you can turn a fantasy game into a horror game with something as subtle as the presentation.

The Ravenloft setting had a great example of this.  In D&D you if you go up against a kobold it is described as a sort of reptilian humanoid.  In a horror game it is some foul combination of human, reptile and dog the size of a child, but with murder in it's eyes and blood on it's lips.

I think it is this tone that attracts me most to horror.  I like the tropes, but take the same tropes and given the hero a lot of guns and well there is the action flick again.  "Underworld" is action adventure, "Silence of the Lambs" is horror.

I try to do this in my games as much as possible, but I try not to over do it.  Even the scariest horrors become yawn worthy after to many repeated occurrences.

Some of my favorite books that helped me the most as a GM and author are Nightmares of Mine, Chill, Vampire the Masquerade (oWoD, for personal horror), and Call of Cthulhu.

D6 or not?

D6 from West End Games has always been one of those systems I have known about, toyed around with but never actually played.

DriveThruRPG has the most recent collection of D6 games for free.
I had Hercules & Xena for a while and still have a copy of DC Universe.

I get the basic system (and even better now after talking to Jason Vey).

Is there anything I am missing by not playing/knowing D6?
Is it a system I should investigate further?

I am not a huge fan of dice pool games and I have enough games to keep me busy for the next 10 years to be honest.

I'm having fun, how about you?

A bunch of posts this past week and weekend about the supposed creative dearth in modern RPGs.

If you have not seen them, here are some round ups.

• Malcolm Sheppard, Why Do RPGs Suck?
• Steven S. Long, The Licensing Trap.
• RPGPundit, ranting about what ever it is he rants about.  Frankly I don't pay him any attention since his relevance to my world of RPGs is minimal at best.

And a few analyses.

• James Raggi throwing in his 2cents (or Euros).
• Errant RPG
• Bat in the Attic
• Old School Jump and Playing D&D with Porn Stars for their own point of views.

I am sure there is more.

Now Long and Sheppard have earned their stripes with Hero Games and White Wolf respectively and RPGPundit has...what exactly has he done anyway?  Anyway, they are not some RPG noobs or someone on "teh internets" with a half-baked opinion.  But I think they are missing a very important point.

RPGs are supposed to be fun first.

Sure creative, well manufactured RPGs that take advantage of the medium they are in is a great thing.  But sometimes what is great for me is not great for you or some other group.  There are a lot of designers out there doing really cool things, but some of those "really cool things" would bug the shit out of me as a player.

D&D still works for me now for the same reason it worked for me in 1981; it is fun.

I think that is what games should be about.

State of the Hobby 2011

I wanted to share this link.
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/19151.html

According to ICv2 the hobby is on the rise.  I have to say this does have some face validity to it.  More people staying in and engaging in the relatively cheap hobby of rolling dice and talking in-character.

Hopefully their data is good.

Return to the Palace of the Silver Princess, Session 3, Finale

Well we finished the adventure.

I changed it a bit and actually had the character fight Arik of the Hundred Eyes who was in reality not so much of a god, but a really, really powerful fiendish beholder.  Set him at 20 HD and let the group of characters, 6 of them, 10th to 14th level, deal with him.

In the end it was pretty awesome really.  Lots of fun.  Everyone got a chance to level up and I forgot how much book-keeping 3.x is.

Now need to figure out what to do for the next adventure before they take on Tiamat.

D&D 4 Essentials today instead

So we had our "Little Kids" game today.  We had been playing Pathfinder with the boys, but the DM showed up with something else in mind.  He re-did all the Pathfinder characters using only D&D Essentials and we went through the adventure from the Red Box.  We had, as he described it, the D&D Essential experience.

It was awesome!

The boys picked up on the rules quickly, but they had all played 3.x, Pathfinder and D&D 4 before.  The characters were familiar to them all, that was also a plus. The tokens worked great, the maps are cool and the new Rules Compendium made looking things up a breeze.

We got through three encounters in about 4 hours, not too bad really.

Greg, the DM, and I are going to talk, but this might be the game we play with the boys. I still ahve our 3.x game to wrap-up and then start their 4.0 game.  Greg and I are still going to do Pathfinder for our "Big Kids" game, so this makes crossovers between the two groups more problematic, but not impossible.

Looking forward to more of this.  I am really, really enjoying the 4e Essentials stuff.

And yes, I played a Fey-Pact Warlock. Gotta stick to what works for me.

Leverage RPG is now out

The new Leverage RPG from MWP is now out in PDF.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=85727&affiliate_id=10748

Like Smallville and other games from MWP, this uses a variant of the Cortex rule system.  The system in Leverage is a streamline version designed to focus on what Leverage the TV show does best, crime and con games.  So there is not the complexity of character building as you see in Smallville.

What is most interesting about this is that it really opens up the system to different types of play.  You are no longer "killing things and taking their stuff", you are pulling a con...and taking their stuff.

What appealed to me right away is that with some tweaks you could run any type of Law and Order or CSI style game right away.  Given the proliferation of these types of shows that would have some appeal.

So far I like the rules quite a bit even though I know nothing of the show it is based on.  I do miss the classic skills listing though.

Why can't I find a good Sci-Fi game?

A post over at Grognardia, http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/09/sci-fi-goulash.html, has prompted a reoccurring thought in my head.

Why can't I find a good Sci-Fi game?

I have mentioned before that I have had a hit and miss, mostly miss, luck with Sci-Fi games. Every so often I am convinced I have the One, only to be ultimately disappointed in them.
I after I posted a reply to James' post I went back to the Star Frontiers book I have and online at http://starfrontiersman.com/downloads/remastered. I also went through all the Star Trek books I still have left.

In terms of Sci-Fi I like Trek the best, loved Star Wars as a kid, but got into Dune or the hard sci-fi of Asimov. I did like Heinlein and Arthur C. Clark a lot though. I loved Farescape when it was on and I even enjoyed LEXX.  Never watched Space Above and Beyond, could not get into Babylon 5 or the new Galatica (though that is not really a reflection on them) and I thought Firefly was stupid.

For games I started out with Traveler, moved to Star Frontiers, Doctor Who (FASA), Star Trek (FASA), Alternity, Star Wars d20, d20 Future and others that I have forgotten.  More recently I have used Unisystem (All Tomorrow's Zombies) and Doctor Who (Cubicle 7).  Yet nothing seems to fit just right.  I looked over Star Blazer Adventures, Rogue Trader and others and didn't really care for them.  I don't like GURPS enough to honestly consider it, same for FUDGE and FATE.

What do I want?
That is a very question and one I don't have a good answer for.  There are bits and pieces that I like from all the above games.  I like the sandboxy feel of Star Frontiers and Traveler. I love the tech in Trek, the scope in Star Wars.  I could get better buy-in from my Kids with Star Wars, even if my youngest says "I am not into Star Wars" and lightsabers are cool.   I like some of the features of Alternity.  I liked some of what I read in Dune.

And I don't want to spend a bunch of time figuring out a new system.
I suppose this points to two things.  Unisystem and d20 3.x.

Why?
Well I have a bunch of d20 materials laying around including Star Wars, d20 Traveler (T20), Dragon Star,  and d20 Future (which has material from Star Frontiers and Alternity).  I like the idea of using the d20 Mod/Future classes. I am not thrilled with the idea of levels though, but multi-classing looks like it could be fun.  Plus I have a metric ton of d20 material.  Bring back mind flayers as an alien race.  Baator?  Now a planet; literary Planet Hell.

Unisystem is more flexible and I can do it better than d20, but despite how good All Tomorrow's Zombies is, I want something more.   I am not big into mixing magic and SciFi.  Psionics is ok (in fact I also don't like Psionics in fantasy games), weird I know. I think in the end, d20 might be the way for me to go, or this could be a thinly veiled attempt to do "D&D in Spaaaace!"

Star Wars, like I said, has a great scope and is full of aliens. Adding a Trek-like Federation to battle an Evil Empire is also very cool and a great backdrop.  I'd make it more of a cold war, with hotter areas on the edges.  Lots of room then for black markets and ops.  Maybe even steal a page from Battlestar and make the evil Empire one of artificially intelligent machines.  T20 has a lot of cool stuff too and the Imperium is neat and again lots of cool races.

What is lacking in all of this is unified narrative.  Maybe I don't need one.  D&D doesn't have one, never did.  A lot of what I don't like about the various systems out there is I find their "fluff" to be restrictive.  I don't want all the baggage that go with Jedi, or the Imperium, or Aslans, or Fraal.    I guess say here is Oerth, here is Yavin, over there is Krynn and Vulcan and just let the universe take care of itself.

I guess until I find that perfect mix, I keep searching.

Reflecting on D&D - Sometimes you can't go back

This is not a retro-clone post, nor is it an old school post.  This is about the original games that so many games today get their inspiration from.

I was back in my home town over the weekend to visit my brother.  Grognardia's post was fresh in my mind and was something I was thinking about during the long drive from Chicago to Springfield.  We were meeting my parents, sister, and brother at the local mall, a mall that during the heyday of my D&D days was one of my FLGS.    Of course, the Waldenbooks was where I had bought so many books and dice was gone.  As was the B. Dalton's where I had bought my first set of clear dice.

In my home town, they are redoing the downtown area that had been busy in my youth and then died.  While it is nice to see it coming back one thing that I won't see back is "Belobrajdic's Book Store".  They were closer to me (Springfield was 30 miles away from Jacksonville), but they did not carry as much stuff.    Belobrajdic's ("bell-o-bray-dicks") did have Dragon magazine.  I eventually became a subscriber, but not for another 20 years almost.  I think my first issue was 85 and then I bought it as my meager job as a paperboy would allow.

Waldenbooks, B. Daltons, Belobrajdic's, and even Black's Hardware (for miniatures) all share something in common. All were places I connect with the Golden Age of D&D. And all are gone.

Today I spend my time and money at Games Plus.  A place I would mail order when the above stores would not carry something I wanted, like Eldritch Wizardry.   But what did this trip down memory lane teach me?

Well. Try as they might, and they do try very, very hard, the Clones just can't capture the same feeling of those early days. The Zeitgeist is gone.  I remember hearing a rumor that Belobrajdic's was going to stop selling D&D due to the "Satanic Scare" of the 80s.  You just don't get that these days.
Every book was something new, every purchase was tinged with anticipation and excitement of new worlds to explore.

Some of it isn't just Zeitgeist. Some of it is age and all that goes with that.  I don't have to save or anticipate anymore.  If I want a book I go buy it on my way home from work.  There is sits on my desk or game table till I get a chance to read it. Back then I got the S-series of modules and read them cover to cover all the time.

New games help.  Pathfinder and D&D 4 give me that thrill of the new.  Clones scratch my nostalgia itch.  But none really combine them all very well.

You can't go back to the Caves of Chaos anymore.  The monsters of old are gone and there are Eladrin, Tieflings, and Dragonborn in the Keep talking about needing Warlocks or Sorcerers to help them complete their quest.  Clerics talk about healing surges, druids spend more time in animal shapes and have forgotten the trees.   It is a new world out there full of change.  I can't bring back the old felling or the old D&D anymore than I can bring back the stores that contained those memories and books.

I might wax nostalgic, but I look forward to the next new purchase and the new worlds it will bring all the same.

D&D Red Box, I have it and Post 300

So something special today for Post 300.  I picked up the new D&D4 "Red Box" starter rules and I like it.

As you can see it fits in nice with the other boxed sets I have picked up over the years.  But how does it stack up to these worthy predecessors?  After all that "magenta" Basic Box with the Erol Otus cover is the box that got everything going for most people my age (not so much the "other" Red Box, which I don't own).  I suppose I had better make some distinctions so we are all talking about the same things.
There are a lot of games called "Basic D&D" and a few of those are even red in color.  Here is how The Acaeum breaks it down.

D&D Basic Set (blue box) edited by J. Eric Holmes and cover art by David Sutherland, 1977-1979, also called "Holmes Basic" or sometimes "Blue Box Basic". That is edition on the far left of the screen. Packaged with module B1 and dice.

D&D Basic Set (magenta box) edited by Tom Moldvay and cover art by Erol Otus, 1981-1983, also called "Moldvay Basic" or "B/X". The book inside is red. Package with Module B2 and dice. In the center of the picture.

D&D Basic Rules Set 1 (red box) edited by Frank Mentzer and cover art by Larry Elmore, 1983-1989, also called "Mentzer Basic" or "BECMI". Comes with Player's and and DM's books, dice and no separate adventure. (not pictured above).

There were more, like the D&D 3.0 one up there and one for D&D 3.5 that came with a softcover of the PHB.

Now we have this one for D&D 4.

Unpacking the box is like that of unpacking the old Mentzer Basic, which this one owes a lot of homage too.

Inside there is a Player's book (32 pages), a DM's book (64 pages), 4 color character sheets on heavier paper, 6 dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20), a poster map, power cards (lots) and tokens (repalce minis).

A few things are obvious from the start here.
1. This game assumes you have never played D&D in your life. This is a starter set.
2. The game is still D&D 4.  The wailing and gnashing of teeth can stop now.  This is not 4.5, 4.1 or even 4.0.1, it is still the same game from 2 years ago.  Things have been simplified to make learning and getting right into playing faster.
3. Wizard's knows the Grognards are out there.  This game might not appeal to them, but it might to their kids.

Ok what is actually here?  Well let's start with the Player's guide since it has a big "Read Me First" label on it.
The Player's Guide sets the stage on what is D&D and RPGs in general, and it gets you right into thinking about your character.  Not what your powers are, but what you want to be in the game. I liked this.  The rest of the book is dedicated to a pre-programed adventure (yuck) but I can see where this is god for a newbie or a solo player.    As you go through this adventure you are introduced to your abilities, skills, spells, feats and other powers.
The DM's guide is similar.  It gets you up and running fast and explains things along the way.  Obviously lots of room for future books here, OR you could take this game and mover right into the D&D 4 hardcovers proper.

The adventure is nothing great.  It will not ever measure up to the epic quest of Keep on the Borderlands or even In Search of the Unknown.  I played it at Gen Con with my kids.  They had fun.  It is a good mix of combat, skill challenges and role-playing.  Yes. I said role-playing while talking about a D&D4 product.  there is a coupon inside to let you download another adventure for it for free, The Witchlight Fens (which does not seem to be up yet).

The tokens are nice.  Cheaper than figs and certainly have more utility.  Bloodied? Flip it over, same picture now with a red border.  While this will make it easier to stock up on all sorts of characters and monsters, I see a third-party market of blank tokens and instructions on how to print out and glue on your monsters, characters and the like.

The dice are nothing special, but look like they won't chip like the old marbleized dice from the old basic sets.

The redesigned character sheets are really nice.  Heavier paper and full color the skills are now listed under their associated ability.  Visually it makes skills seem like a sub-set of ability checks.  Maybe they are going after the Grognards?

So who is this for?
Well obviously it is designed with the new player in mind.  If you are reading this on my blog then chances are that is not you.  If on you are reading on Facebook, and you have never played but are interested, then this might be a great start.

I like D&D4, should I buy this?
Well....There is nothing new here.  I got it for playing with my boys.  I am sure you can get the tiles elsewhere.  Unless you are a completist, or teaching the game to someone new (I am a little of both) then this is a good buy.

I hate D&D4 should I buy this?
Can't help you there.  I like D&D4, but like I said there is nothing here that is 100% new.  If you hate D&D4 you will hate this too I think.  But in truth the rules are streamlined now and this is a much better "D&D" than 3.0 was.  Hell, when we played at Gen Con we were one character death away from a TPK; so yeah it felt old-school.

I have 20 bucks, is this a good buy?
Yes.

I have some friends that have never played, is this a good buy?
Yes. You can't go wrong with this.

Nitpicks
Well.  The adventure is not great and there is something up with the paint/ink on the books that is giving me a huge headache; before I use them I am going to air them out a bit.
I was hoping for something new (not just revised or tweaked); but I think that is just me and not a fault with the game itself.

Overall
I like it.  I'll catch grief from my D&D4-hating friends, but it is going to do exactly what I need it for and rarely can I say that about a game.

Coming Attractions

So what is on tap here at the Other Side post-Gen Con?  Well I'll do some blogging about Gen Con, especially if I buy something.  But here are my big plans.

Cortex
I like this little system ad want to do some more with it.  I especially want to look at Supernatural, Demon Hunters and Smallville.  I have already seen some really cool posts on somethings people are doing with Smallville.

Super Hero RPGs
I also want to spend some quality time with some of the new super hero RPGs I have or will have bought.  As a quick rundown I want to look at DC Adventures, ICONS, BASH, Villains and Vigilantes 2.1, and Smallville.

Since my goal will be similar in each I might spend one day each week covering the game in question, instead of a week to look at one game in depth.

Horror Games
Every so often I feel like I am neglecting my RPGs of choice; Horror.  So I want to also spend some quality time with Slasher Flick and Little Fears.

Revised Plan; Generational Mega Plots

I plan to come back to Cartoon Action Hour here in a bit, but I have something I want to get organized first.

So a while back I posted a plan for the adventures I wanted to run with my family using 4E.

Well since that time, some gaming has happened, some looking over various adventures and some tests on my part has brought me to the conclusion that I can't run some of those old school modules under 4E after all.  Certainly I am still working on my current 3.x adventures with my kids.

Now mind you, this is not a bad thing nor is it reflective of the modules, 4e or "Old School".
But it has forced me to change my plans.

So for the "Dragon Slayers" game I am running I'll add some of those classic modules.  The characters are all right around 13th level now, with one just on the verge of 10th.  The ultimate goal of this game is to defeat Tiamat in the "Graveyard of Dragons". What can I say, my kids like the old D&D cartoon.    The rules are under 3.x edition, which has an odd mix of D&D 3.0, with some 3.5, minor bits from Pathfinder, BESM d20 and Star Wars d20 (the revised one that came out after Attack of the Clones).

Also some of these modules are going to be played by me under Pathfinder in either my "Big Kids Group" or the "Little Kids Group".  Currently the LKG is going through "B2 The Keep on the Borderlands".  I have already used bits of "X1 Ilse of the Dread" and "B4 The Lost City".  I know that in the one of the Pathfinder groups we will go through the GDQ series at some point, most likely the Little Kids Group.  I will be running "C2 Ghost Tower" under the Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space game.

After that those characters will retire and their descendants will complete a new Quest.  The defeat of Orcus.
I'll run this one under D&D 4E and I do plan on it taking many years.

I am not 100% certain how the adventures will pan out, but I do want to use the D&D4 ones for ease.

• H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
• H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth
• H3 Pyramid of Shadows
• P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens
• P2 Demon Queen's Enclave
• P3 Assault on Nightwrymn Fortress
• E1 Death's Reach
• E2 Kingdom of the Ghouls
• E3 Prince of Undeath

Part of this is my desire to have them battle Orcus at the end. Plus I like to overall plot of involving the Raven Queen vs Orcus and Orcus getting a hold of some ancient artifact of Tharizdûn.

Those modules will get them from 1st to 30th level.  But I might want to add a couple here and there.  Not sure yet since I have not read them all in detail.   I also know some people have had issues with these modules, both in terms of how they fit together, plot and playability.  So I want to get things that are out now, and then tweak them as I need.  Afterall, if this is about fighting Orcus who gets an artifact from ancient Tharizdûn then I can lay some ground work in my 3.x game now for that.

So after all that I have some modules left over.

• B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, levels 1-3 (using bits from both the "Green" and "Orange" versions).
• L1 The Secret of Bone Hill, levels 2-4
• X2 Castle Amber, levels 3-6 (place it in the Shadowfell, which is the new Ravenloft anyway)
• I6 Ravenloft, levels 5-7. That is if I don't use it as a convert Ghosts of Albion adventure. Use some of the Ravenloft campaign/world setting stuff here too.
• S2 White Plume Mountain, levels 5-10
• I10 Ravenloft II, House on Gryphon Hill, levels 8-10.
• S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (with some of the info from the 3.5 update), levels 6-10
• WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, levels 5-10
• S1 Tomb of Horrors, levels 10-14 (though I might just wait for the new D&D4 version)
• S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, levels 8-12
• CM2 Death's Ride, levels 15-20. 

Then there are these modules:

• H1 Bloodstone Pass, levels 15+
• H2 The Mines of Bloodstone, levels 16-18
• H3 The Bloodstone Wars, levels 17-20
• H4 The Throne of Bloodstone, levels 18-100

Like the E series for D&D4, these send you to Orcus's layer to defeat him.   Of the lot, H4 would be the best one to use, maybe as a buffer between E2 and E3.   The others seem more suited for the Dragon Slayer's Pathfinder game.    Of course, I could convert the H1-H4 Bloodstone series to feature Tiamat instead of Orcus.   S4 and WG4 are linked and deal with Iggwilv, her Demonomicon and Tharizdûn.  They are good to set up the history of Orcus and Tharizdûn.  They can happen in either game. In the 4th Ed game I'd stick it in between H and P.  CM2 Death's Ride has some cool stuff in it. Good to set up the whole Orcus wants to be a God thing in the 3.x game.  Plus it would give me a good arch-nemesis for the characters to fight throughout.

The Ravenloft ones would be great for the Sunsword (a good weapon against the undead) but there is the Board Game coming out and I want it.  Plus I'd rather run Ravenloft these days under True20.  So I might have to find something similar.  If I use the new Tomb of Horrors then I could place a good aligned sword there.  There is a D&D4

There is a lot to do and figure out here.  But I see this as a good thing. Look at all the time I have.  I can plan out a mult-year arc of adventuring that would take my kids all the way to college.  Wouldn't have died to have done something like that?

Though I do need to figure out a way to get more dragons into the 4th Ed game for my oldest.

Now this is my attempt to bring Old Schoolers and New Schoolers together.

NEW SCHOOLERS:  What things should I be aware of when running the HPE series?

OLD SCHOOLERS: What classic, epic modules are a "must run" for a group of kids that were not even alive when Clinton was in office, let alone Carter.  What memory of "D&D" is a must have?  Barrier Peeks?  Tomb of Horrors?

Clarifications on Games being Played
- "Dragon Slayers" is a 3.x game that I play with my two sons and sometimes my wife joins us. The goal of this game is to defeat Tiamat.
- "Big Kids Game/Group" is a Pathfinder game where I play a Paladin.  In this group are my kids and the DM's kids (6 players, 1 DM)
- "Little Kids Game/Group" is a Pathfinder game where I play a Witch (same witch as I do in Dragon Slayers).  This is the group with the Problem Player.
Both Pathfinder games have the same DM.
- "Untitled 4th Ed Game" is a 4e game where the players are the same as Dragon Slayers, but the characters are their children or descendants. The goal of this game is to defeat Orcus.

Problem Player

So I play a lot of games.  It is cool really, it gives me the chance to meet all sorts of people and really get to know them.  I have made some great friends while gaming and I hope to continue to do so.

But this time I am not talking about any of that.

Today I want to talk about the problem player.
We have this guy in one of my groups.  I am not going to mention his name or which group he is in, but suffice to say he is just not working out.  He seems to be a nice enough guy.  He isn't a freak or psycho or anything like that. He just doesn't fit the group dynamic well.
So far through his actions at least two characters have died over the course of the game.  I am not sure what exactly he is trying to do half the time and he spends the session getting so jacked up on caffeine that it is hard to watch him.  No he is not running around like a squirrel on meth or anything, but there it is like his whole boody is vibrating at a frequency that only he and the Flash can relate too.

I think part of the problem too is there is a significant age difference between him and the other players.  The GM is ready to cut him, based on the "he should know better" principle, a couple of the players want him out now and the rest are rather non-committal.

I want to restate it is not that he is screwing up.  I am playing a different character type than I am used too (we all are really) and all of us have made silly rules mistakes that noobs would not make and some "type" mistakes (ie I keep thinking I can throw spells so I put myself in situations that would be good for that).

But he is not bringing anything to the table really.  He is a good guy, but he just doesn't "get it" I think. He throws off the group dynamic.

What are your opinions?  Have you run into the same situations?  How do you / did you handle it?

Weekend Recap

My big birthday weekend is coming to an end and it was a blast.

Pathfinder
Finally leveled up in Pathfinder yesterday! Yeah!  We are all still making tweaks to our characters which is to be expected. Still enjoying this game but there are some minor rules tweaks we are still getting used to after 3.5 and 4.0.  I am also playing a Paladin.  Something I have not done in maybe 20 years or more, so I have to get used to being a front line fighter again and not the sneaky arcane type that fires magical bolts from the background.  So I have combat tactics to read up on.

New Games
Got Dresden Files.  Wow that is a good looking book, can't wait till the dead tree version is out.  Great stuff and I love the city creation guidelines and it does have one of the most detailed character creation systems I have seen.  I am not sure if I will like it as a game yet, but it goes a long way toward's selling Fate to me.

Mentioned this one on Friday, but I am still loving my new Monster Manual 3 for D&D 4.  The guys over at Wizards know their audience, all the monsters in this book appeared (more or less) originally in the various AD&D modules from the Golden Age of AD&D.  So there are your GDQ monsters, your S series ones (some, not all) and more.  It was nice to see some old faces.  There were new ones as well to keep things interesting.

I worry about D&D 4 though.  It seems to me that the wind is gone out of it's sails (and maybe sales too).  I like the game, but I see why some gamers don't.  The market is more factionalized than ever before and it is somewhat due to the one thing that was supposed to bring us all under one system to rule them all; d20.

I have new Witch Girls Adventures book on the way, so I want to talk about that soon too.

Wedding
Next week I have a Civil War reenactment wedding to go to.  I am in the wedding so I'll be wearing my Victorian suit.  I will be wear a full wool suit, in Illinois, at the start of Summer, outside.  I must be insane.
I want to get XP for this like it was a LARP and be able to apply to any of Ghosts of Albion characters.
In any case I won't be posting near the end of the week.

Fudge and Fate

So I have some new (and some old) Fudge and Fate games I want to talk about.

But in general, what do you all think of Fudge and Fate?

I get the indy appeal, but something about them just never has jelled with me.  Maybe I don't get it.

I like numbers I guess.

Tell me.  What am I not getting here?  I'll have some reviews up soon, and I like the games that use it I just tend to like the games and convert them over to Unisystem.

More later in the week, or whenever I finish up Anime.

Family Game Day: All Wet (rain and ocean adventures)

Taking a break from Anime RPGs for a sec to talk about yesterday's family game day.

Due to the rain yesterday and a general lack of motivation we decided to play a game of D&D.  This is the on going saga of the "Dragon Slayers" which consisted of my oldest son's three characters (I have alway let him play multiple characters since it was just us), my youngest son and his Archer Ranger/Thief and even my wife got into the game for a bit.  A couple of D&D tile sets (which my wife told me to go out and buy more!) a few  of my son's toys that work great with the minis, and a half baked idea all came together for "Dragon Slayers and the Quest for the Dragon Pearl!"

I used my Hero Lab for Pathfinder to put together a character for my wife really fast; a duel wielding Ranger/Fighter multiclass. Now this is not the same game as the Kid's Pathfinder game I have been playing in.  Though Connor is playing an older version of that character in the Dragon Slayers game.  Liam's characters are also somehow related in both games.  I am playing the same witch character.  In Dragon Slayers she is a 9th level witch using my Liber Mysterium rules for D&D 3.0 and in Pathfinder she is a 1st level witch using the new witch class from that game. In Dragon Slayers she is a GMPC/NPC of course, but her job in that group is to record all the knowledge the characters gather on dragons.

The Dragon Slayers game has turned into a rather cool one.  It is at it's base D&D 3.0 with various 3.5 add ins, a little Star Wars d20 (for the Bounty Hunter) and some BESM d20 and Mutants and Masterminds where needed.  It is set in my Mystoerth world which is another unholy union of various D&D worlds, so it all fits really.  The over arching plot here is that evil dragons are planning to take over the world by killing all the good dragons, the characters are finding all the big bad evil dragons and hunting them down, while collecting pieces of an artifact so the can defeat Tiamat. So it has it's own built in end game.   While they are seraching for these artifacts they are also looking for other items of power.  They are supposed to head to the South Pole next time, which I am going to draw heavy from At the Mountains of Madness for, but before they get there they will come to Ansalon, a country they did not know was there (it's not on their maps) and this gives me the excuse to have them gain some Dragonlances.  So yeah, this game is more cartoon than it is fantasy adventure epic, so in a way it does connect back to the topic at hand; how to add Anime Style to your games.  My son's character sheets are an odd collection of D&D 3.0, M&M and BESM d20.  For this game the BESM d20 sheets work the best since his wizards tend to have "powers" instead of "spells".
I know there are purists out there cringing, but all I can say is it works and it is fun.

Yesterday the Dragon Slayers were convinced by an Ogre to retrieve a "Dragon Pearl".  Why were they dealing with an ogre?  Well he had the only boat that would take them from The Four Kingdoms north of the Zakhara desert to the South Pole where they believe another piece of the artifact was.  The pearl was in a submerged cave system and protected by a Deep Sea Dragon Eel and an Aquatic Dragon.  Which were stat wise just two adult black dragons with about 200 hp each.  The Dragon Eel was a toy viper fish that my son got years ago and the aquatic dragon was this sea dragon toy he bought recently on Amazon.  The "ogre" was also an "igor" figure from a Castlevania Succubus, so while he is a small figure to her, to a 7ft tall Dragonborn mini he is about 10-13ft tall (hard to tell, he is hunched over).

The adventure went great and nearly everyone gained enough XP to level up.  My sons started talking about the "end game" of this; when they defeat Tiamat and retire to pick up on 4th Edition.  While I Am looking forward to playing some 4th edition with them, I am finding I am not really ready to see the end of the Dragon Slayers yet.  It has been a ridiculously fun ride.

What adventures will the Dragon Slayers have next rainy day?  Unknown, but it will certainly be a blast.

Anime RPGs

My first Anime was Akira.  I remember hearing a lot about it in college and I finally watched it, but I was not all that impressed.  Sure I liked the whole neo-Tokyo vibe that pervades so much Anime and it had style, but the story left me flat.

Then, a change happened.  I was teaching at night so I had my days free.I also had a NetFlix account.  Ao I began to get anime, and flankly a lot of it was so good I even dragged my wife into them.  I do admit I sought out what had been considered some of the best, Witch Hunter Robin, Cowboy Bebop were our faves.  We also enjoyed the Witchblade anime as well as some that were even less than family fare.

What I liked about them were obviously the stories and in many the humor, but also the style.  Anime have a beginning, middle and an end.  Obviously due to their manga origins.  Some TV shows in america seem to go on ad nauseum.   It is a style I would want to duplicate in an amime based RPG game.  Get in, tell your story, and get out to let others have the stage.

It's a style more than a system thing.  You could do high action anime D&D (and some claim that is what D&D4 is) or even horror.  But all the same I sought out various games.  Here is a breif run down before I get into details.    For this I even have new "label" for these threads; Anime.

BESM
My first Anime game.  I started with 2nd Edtion and quickly found out that there was a 2nd Edition revised.  What was great about BESM was it was a primer on all things related to Anime.  I learned what "Fan service" was, even if I already had an idea, the history, the conventions of anime (not Anime cons) and in there was also a pretty slick system.  There were parts I didn't like, but that is fine.  BESM + Unisystem in my mind was  a great mix.  I picked up BESM d20 (which I really liked to be honest), Silver Age Sentinels (using the same system) and a bunch of the splats to go with it.  I also bought BESM 3, which I really did like a lot, but never could find anyone to play with.  I like BESM, it is very easy to write for, I just wish there was a market for it.

Mutants & Masterminds: Mecha & Manga
I love M&M and was really looking forward to this.  To me anime and supers are of a similar breed.  Both typically have comics or cartoons as their storytelling medium, so that gives them a lot of surface similarities and similar stories are often told.  Astro Boy and Superman are more alike than different.   But while I like M&M, Mecha & Manga left me a little flat.  It is a great book to add to your normal M&M game and it is a great book to add to a BESM game for other ideas.  But I think I was expecting more.

OVA
This is a new one to me, but not a new game.  I just got it and I like what I see so far. The system is very different that BESM, but it has some good character creation guidelines that I think would work nice with any game.

Cartoon Action Hour Season 2
AKA CAH:2. Another new one for me.  Like OVA I have not gone over it much other than to print it out.  It is not really an Anime RPG, but a Cartoon one.  But I am not going to let that stop me.
It also has some great character creation ideas and a series creation worksheet that is great for every game really.  Of my recent purchases (OVA, BASH and CAH:2) this one is my favorite so far.

Heart Quest

Heart Quest is a Soujo Anime/Magna RPG using the Fudge RPG. Why did I choose this one? Well a lot of what goes into Shoujo can be found in Buffy as well and visa versa. There is even a very anime looking Buffy-like character on page 43.
It is obvious from the start that while the mechanics are mostly the same to other Fudge games, the tenor is very different. HQ only has five attributes in what looks like an odd cross of Unisystem and BESM. In fact, the holds up that Fudge Universal Translator theory well since HQ looks like it could convert to BESM in a snap. Skills are the same, mostly, as are the Gifts/Faults. Magic becomes a Supernormal Power, so more inline with Buffy here.
Where HeartQuest has the most to offer is half-way through the book with different Shoujo genres. Teen Romance can add lighter feel to a younger Junior High or just starting High School set game and has some good advice on how to deal with relationships and sex on a more mature level.
The chapter on Magical Girls shows the connection between and obvious debt owed to Sailor Moon by Buffy. Here again is advice on how to run a game where a group has magical powers, fighting against some evil, and yet still trying to live a normal life. In fact all seven of the types of Magical Girl games they suggest can be done with the Buffy rules. Extending the TV theme farther it is easy to see shows (and thus Buffy or Now Playing rules adaptations) for most of the Magical Girl types. Team: Sailor Moon; W.I.T.C.H., One Girl: Buffy, Witch Hunter Robin; Rivals: Winx Club, Psychic Girls: Twitches; Witch In Training: Kiki's Delievery Service, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 8th season of Charmed.
Charmed and my Willow and Tara series has run the gambit to include all of these at one point. The book goes on to describe Historical Romance (great for Ghosts of Albion game), a sample setting for the three different genres and some sample characters. There is also a sample bibliography and resources not to be missed.
There is also another Fudge game actually called Shoujo Anime that covers similar material. The bibliography in fact is identical. Which is fine for Fudge I guess, but a little odd all the same.
I also have a post about Fudge/Fate coming up sometime soon.

Bounty Head Bebop
A game using the Inverted 20 system.  I reviewed it here.

Open Anime
This one just came out from Battlefield Press.  Looking to buy it here soon.

Random Anime
I have never been able to find a copy of this game, but have wanted to try it out.

I'll detail some of these games in, well, detail, as the weeks progress.  I'll start with BESM since that is where I started.  I am most looking forward to OVA and CAH:2.

Looking at any Game through the Anime Lens
What happens when you add a bit of Anime to your games?

Well some things change that is certain. Obviously the easiest answer is, it's the same game only there is more of it. Black Cat above notwithstanding there is more to it than that.

I'll try to detail that when I deal with each game, but the idea is this is something different.  I in fact separated out my normal Unisystem-based Willow and Tara game (the Dragon and the Phoenix universe) and my anime based Willow and Tara the Animated Series.  They had a lot of things in common, but enough differences that I was compelled to make them different worlds.  With doing things Anime or Manga it is ok to break the rules that are often the sacred cows of the normal worlds.  For example, in the Marvel Universe Iron Man is Tony Stark, but in th eMarvel Manga universe it Toni Stark who is the Iron Maiden and the Hulk is a 70 ft tall Godzilla like monster. Small changes, but there are a lot like that.

Cartoons and Anime

I am gearing up for a bunch of posts on Cartoon and Anime RPGs.

Not really a genre (like Horror, Fantasy or Supers) it sort of covers them all really.  It is more of a style to be honest.

With anime and Cartoon RPGs you can do things that would seem crazy or otherwise rule breaking in other games.  They can be silly, or very deadly.

Why?  Well I have picked up a few new games.  Cartoon Action Hour Season 2 and OVA.  I will also likely pick up Open Anime from Battlefield Press, so I'll mention that too.  But I am going to start off with the game that got me into all this mess, the late, great BESM.

Given how much I like horror and magic, I am certainly going to look at those from an animated perspective. And what can Anime/Cartoon RPGs help all games with.

Treasure Discovery!

So I found a disk I had burned a bunch stuff.  Mostly this was some writing I had done back in the days of the Buffy-Angel playtests and then later the Ghosts of Albion playtests.

Most of it will stay on the disk.  It is either too old or not really representative of the kinds of things I do now.  But here and there there are some gems I had forgotten about. So things that would make for some good posts. Mostly Unisystem, there is also some d20 stuff, a few other systems, and even I think something for AD&D 2nd ed.  Quite an assortment really.

It might take me a bit to sort it all out, and then a bit more to bring anything on it to post-able quality, but I am looking forward to it.