Convention Report - VENGER CON IV

 

You know it's going to be a good time when God strikes your house's water well transducer with a lightning bolt, frying it two days before your convention. 

Call me a crazed cultist, but experience has taught me that when something awesomely momentous happens, it's usually preceded and / or followed by potential misfortune (in other words, you never roll all 20s).  As it happens, this fits with my latest DriveThruRPG release Zeeku.

Luckily, the day before the con, that got sorted out.  Had to spend a Divine Favor to take care of the issue, but that particular juice was well worth the squeeze.  A $700 bill is much preferable to $10k (if the entire system had been destroyed, requiring replacement).

Yes, VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse happened this past weekend.  So many, many things!  I felt like I was all places all at once, much like Yog-Sothoth.  I didn't take many photos, but the ones I did take were primo!  And I didn't even record any video.  Although, Lord Matteus recorded his podcast at the end of the first night, and I made a cameo.

Ultimately, it was successful.  Not perfect, but then what is?

Sandy Petersen was this year's Guest of Honor and he did not disappoint.  I started off (after the ceremonial gong, of course) by asking his origin story.  Between all three days, Sandy must have fielded hours of questions, but he was happy to chat with us about roleplaying games, ye olde times of publishing, the Cthulhu Mythos, and what he's been up to lately.  

All the Call of Cthulhu RPG books (with his name on it somewhere) acquired in the 1990s (and a few I lucked into acquiring through garage sales and such) were signed, along with my "demon skin" Cha'alt campaign bible notebook.

Attendance didn't hit above what we did last year, about 35.  I've got some new ideas for next year... yes, I'm already planning on VENGER CON V.  But an official announcement will have to wait a month or so.

I ran two sessions on both Friday and Saturday, but nothing on Sunday as I came down with some sort of cold and was barely hanging on by the convention's end.  So, I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to run Alpha Blue for that final slot as I planned, but shit happens.  I'm still recovering, will probably be back to my old self by tomorrow.

Every session I ran was Cha'alt via the Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer ruleset.  Sometimes, the Cha'alt X-Cards played heavily (occasionally, a bit too heavily) in the proceedings.  Other times, they were barely touched.  

I got to debut my take on the complication / opportunity + enhancement game mechanic that I released on DriveThru over a week ago.  Zeeku is something that happened intentionally and by accident, consciously and via my subconscious.  While not every single instance was a knockout success, those little prompts proved to be, overall, fun and useful for my sessions.  

Get Zeeku, now!

The most notable examples were someone's face hitting the floor of a worm-flesh cavity and being covered in pink goo - and then covered in demon flesh and bone when one exploded a round or two later.  A couple PCs avoiding that invisible sorcerer's fireball when they were in a different area of the temple dungeon beneath Kra'adumek.  And a squeamish rogue not having to murder a dark-elf woman getting a massage because, as luck would have it, the masseur planned to assassinate her himself and plunged a dagger in her heart before the PC could raise his dagger. 

I was able to playtest what became Zeeku in a couple game sessions prior to VENGER CON IV.  It held up then and it holds up now.  

While I had originally wanted to find a superior alternative to whatever DaggerHeart thought it was doing, the cherry on top (my own unique twist on something that's been done before) is the idea that the universe is curved or cyclical.  If something bad happens, something good can come out of it - especially if that suffered is consciously experienced.  

While not for the faint of heart, Zeeku will give Game Masters that sharpness which could mean the difference between a memorable game and sessions you never think about twice.

It's hard to write enough text to cover all these great pictures!  Oh yeah, I could talk a little about the central adventure I devised.  Instead of multiple adventures, I decided to write one big, multi-part scenario with the possibility of mixing in older stuff.  

So, Escape From Tenzarith was modified into Hunted In Tenzarith with a lot more encounters written down + micro-scenario side-trips to places like Qada'ath and Chud-Letha'az.  However, we never got around to exploring those areas.  Next time!

Going back to the narrative game mechanics, those Zeeku moments and many, many more would not have happened if not for the 1s and 6s on those narrative d6s.  So, that was an absolute win and something that I'll continue to use in my Cha'alt home game.  

Oh yeah, I decided to use pre-gens in my VENGER CON sessions.  In years past, I've saved pre-gens for other conventions where disruption (noise and other distractions) might have made character generation difficult.  But I've come to realize that that little bit of extra thought I put into pre-made characters elevates them to a higher level.  

Let's face it, you sit down to play an unfamiliar game (or maybe one that you've only played once or twice) with a GM and fellow players that you don't know too well.  Perhaps the rule-set is also strange.  You're probably not at your most agile and inspirational, creativity-wise.  Take my advice, GMs.  Come up with pre-gens for your con games!

The amount of players also varied from session to session.  One table had 8 (it's a good thing I came up with 8 pre-gens), another 3, and the other two were somewhere in the middle.  I had one player from my home game (another planned on coming but he couldn't make it, sadly), a couple from the previous Gary Con, a lovely couple who looked like they wandered into VENGER CON by mistake.  An OSR gamer who I've known for years who brought his two buddies, a bunch of awesome VENGER CON regulars (irregulars?), and a few folks who I'd never met but were willing to give the Cha'alt experience a try.

• There were weird connections between stuff I created just for this convention and stuff that transpired randomly in The Black Pyramid, like Milton's stapler from Office Space.  
• Combining locations in unusual ways - gargantuan worms below subterranean dungeons and holes in cave walls that led to different cave systems of adventure.  
• I spontaneously asked for a random d8 vibe-check.  
• One Dead Game Society player and VengerCon alum, who played the 40-year-old virgin PC, clung to those dirty panties like his life depended on it - hilarious and Cha'alt-appropriate (which basically translates into wildly inappropriate for every other sort of game, aside from those based upon lounge lizards).
• Great throw-away lines were said, such as "The map is not the worm's anus."  A riff on the adage "The map is not the territory."
• I read the room and subverted expectations (in an actual good way - take note Disney Star Wars) that led to a fish-folk massacre when the PCs learned that these were reformed cultists who didn't believe in ritual sacrifice.  
• I heard and/or read post-game commentary such as "That is the most crazy weird fucked-up adventure I've ever experienced." And... "Venger's DM style is outrageously fun."
• Described a new (to me) weapon type, the "2 finger" lady knife - inspired by Deadpool's blind roommate's pearl grip handgun.
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• The players got a nice running gag going with a pre-gen PC's name.  "Don't queef this one up."
• The Cha'alt-X Cards brought forth both White Goodman's Globo-Gym and the Kool-Aid Man (thank the Dark Gods not in the same session - that would have been too much, even for me).
• A player came up with an amusing porn / Lovecraft title for a book, movie, or whatever - "The Jerker at the Threshold."
• Players made me realize that all rooms in The Black Pyramid either look like Arizona or New Hampshire.
• A player chose his character's animal companion to be a night-clown pygmy that I think was also described as a juggalo goblin. 
• And who could forget (well, I almost did) the adventurers finally encountering Spongeba'ab Trapezoidal Pants and his entourage under the sea?  They went to Hell where they belonged, after Vandrake, son of Uthrak the Unconquered bested the little yellow freak.
• "What happens when a frog and a bat have a baby?  Evil mogwai or the Great Old One T'sathagg-Kha?

A few months ago, I bought a soft plushy fish.  I didn't know why, exactly, except that I would at some point slap a player in the face... for reasons.  I let the unknown sit in my unconscious like a naughty idea on a time-out.  

But then, when a player rolled an 11 on his d20 and a 1 on his d6, I realized that "111" meant something important.  I remarked upon it at the time, but it wasn't until the next day when it hit me.  I excused myself from the game I was playing in and walked over to the room across the hall with my fish to slap the player from last night who was, as of now, DMing his own game.  I asked the table to pardon my intrusion for 5 seconds as I needed to slap their DM in the face with my soft fish.  Thankfully, he was all about it, and demanded pictures be taken to memorialize the occasion.  

Henceforth, when someone rolls an 11 on their d20 roll and a 1 on their d6, it shall be known as "one-eleven."  That player shall be slapped in the face with a fish because the fish-slapping is also happening in the game to that player's character.  A portal opens (or maybe there's an NPC nearby), the PC is slapped with the fish, and then it's over. 

Well, not completely over.  I'd feel bad if there was no compensation for such a gratuitous display, so that player gets a polished fuchsia stone - Divine Favor!

Random stuff... 

• I'm so glad that Sandy brought his Hyperspace boardgame to the con.  He got a chance to demo that with an assortment of folks several times.  And since a handful of GMs scheduled to run games had to back out or left the con early due to unforeseen events, it was a nice activity to make up for the shortfall. 
• I never showed-off my tattoo!  One of the reasons I got it when I did was to have the thing for VENGER CON.  Well, I did have it, since it was tattooed to my forearm.  And it did come in handy, in a metaphysical way, being the Kort'thalis meta-sigil that leads to Cha'alt and has come to symbolize the skinematic Vengerverse.  But I never called it out or drew attention to it.  It just was.  That's fine, I suppose.
• I played in three sessions this convention.  Two were under GM Judd as he ran the Red Room's Wretched New Flesh and an indie RPG called Tripod, d6 dice pool where insects have colonized humanity in the far future.  The other session where I played was under GM Bill Allan.  He ran a tactical paramilitary RPG using d4 dice pools called Ruins and Remnants in the world of Cha'alt.  This is the promo video he made.  Fun games!
• Sandy Petersen's seminars on creating a horror scenario and campaign were great.  Just hearing the information from another perspective gives it that little bit of extra life. 
• I had purchased a bunch of unusual but cool looking dice from an online retailer prior to the convention.  Since I already have a million of them, I decided to sell each new dice set for $10 a pop.  There's no way I didn't lose money on that deal, but I always think it's fun to get new dice at conventions.  There was nearly a dozen, I think.  And only a couple sets remaining by the convention's end.
• I sold a bunch of softcovers and gave away lots of Cha'alt hardcovers.  Next year, I'll have a bit more stuff to offer attendees, in terms of homemade Cha'alt X-Cards and those dice display stands like the one I use for my set-of-seven. 

Several people at the con and afterwards told me they had an awesome time.  That's the main reason I do it.  

Next VENGER CON will be marketed in a completely different way, so expect to see some wild stuff in the months to come.

If you have any questions, please ask!  I'd be more than happy to provide whatever insight I can...

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  Want to join the Kort'thalis mailing list to stay up-to-date on what's going on in the skinematic Vengerverse?  This is it!! 

p.p.s.  RIP, Ozzy!  You were the Prince of Fucking Darkness!!! 

His Arduous Journey Into Night

 

Ok, I was wracking my brain trying to think of what I should run for yesterday's game.  

Very soon, I want to create some kind of Cha'alt + Wretched New Flesh scenario, running it for my group and then self-publishing it through The Red Room... or letting them publish it themselves (I don't really care, as long as it gets out there to fans of both Cha'alt and Wretched New Flesh).

A few interesting details came to mind, but the stuff that was supposed to gel in order to fashion an entire adventure just wasn't coming.  Time was running out, unfortunately, so I didn't think I'd be able to get a Call of Cthulhu type scenario ready by the game.  It's Halloween season and with my 5 kids, there are so many activities happening that free time is precious few at the moment.

But then the night before the game, I buckled down because I knew I had to get something on paper as time was running out.  And then an idea for another investigative, Lovecraftian horror scenario entered my brain and I feverishly wrote it down.

That's what we played yesterday.  Well, sort of... I have my own Call of Cthulhu hack that's perfect for a rules-light D20 Game Master like myself.

Same characters.  We lost one player, but picked-up two more.  Here's the roster of PCs...

• Aleister Bird - artist who dabbles in the occult, really good with his hands and capable of stabbing people with his paint brushes.
• Jack Hawkins - ex-cop turned private eye who's a marksman
• Ha'akeem - the son of a wealthy Arab diplomat who consults for Two Jacks Detective Agency, knows sleight of hand, likes to gamble, and wears a turban.
• Billy "Knuckle Samich" Cannoli - low-level mob enforcer who provides security and drives the investigators around in his car.
• Finneus Smythe - university professor and amateur parapsychologist who wears a fedora and pencil-thin moustache.  His sexuality is questionable.  

I'm not going into a ton of detail for this scenario, similar to last session report because I'll be self-publishing these two adventures.  I also came to another decision that I'd been waffling over... what to run for this March's Gary Con?  

I keep being pummeled between the twin forces of consistency and variety.  I don't want to run all one thing the entire con, but I also think running a wide variety of stuff during my six-session shift is a mistake.  

On Saturday morning, I'll be running the first scenario, and Saturday evening I'll be running the second.  The other days, I'll either be running Cha'alt, Alpha Blue, or a mix of both!

The situation is as follows - last month, a person was murdered on each night of the full-moon (I'm going by standard Buffy/Angel full-moon cycles that last three consecutive nights).  This month, the full-moon phase has just started and the person murdered the previous evening was a friend to the investigators - Finneus Smythe's player took it upon himself to engage with this bit of roleplaying, suggesting that he had a somewhat closer relationship with the deceased.  

So, the PCs took up the adventure, and began their investigation.  Same as before, Chicago 1929.  I didn't forget the sanity checks this time!  And by the scenario's end, there was a whole lot of shaken, not stirred going on.

When I run these scenarios at Gary Con, I'll have not only revised them slightly but will provide some period color in the way of props (or at the very least, pictures).  I almost included some non-plot related period action, but decided against it due to not having foreshadowed it from the beginning.  Something I'll rectify when I'm running it at Gary Con.

All in all, the game was a success.  It was nice diverging from Cha'alt... and yet I feel myself being drawn back into my eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse, humorous, sleazy, pop-culure, grindhouse exploitation campaign setting.

Speaking of which, I decided to put the Cha'alt X-Cards [info about that here] on DriveThruRPG.  It should have final approval and be available to download for FREE tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,

VS

p.s. I've still got Cha'alt hardcover for sale - get a deal here!  And, of course, there's July's VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR in Madison, WI - grab your weekend badge here!  If you're inquiring about getting your own custom, tentacle-made set of Cha'alt X-Cards, email me at: Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

The Call of Crimson

 

A few of my gamer buds online have been asking me about my d20 hack of the Call of Cthulhu RPG...

Well, here you go!  Do this, and you'll be playing a rules-light investigative horror RPG worthy of H.P. Lovecraft himself.

• Every PC gets 10 HP per level (if this is a one-shot with medium to high challenge, make the PCs 3rd level).  You're unconscious at zero HP and lower, up to your level in negative numbers.  Go beyond that, and you're dead.
• AC for normal, unarmored humans is 10.
• Every PC gets 1 point of luck per level that can be spent throughout the scenario.  Spending a point of luck allows that PC to re-roll his failed die result.
• Choose an individual special skill that has nothing to do with your character concept.
• When attempting an action, favorable circumstances yield Advantage (roll twice, take higher result) while unfavorable circumstances yield Disadvantage (roll twice, take lower result).
• The target # for skill checks is 15 (assistance yields Advantage).
• When attempting an action, roll a d20.  If your character would have that skill (you may have to justify it with a recollection from your character's past), add your level to the roll.  
• Sanity - if a person sees something unbelievably shocking or just plain scary, make a saving throw (your save is 20 - character's level).  Each failed save means the PCs gets worse...  1st failed save means character is visibly shaken; Disadvantage on all rolls for the next hour.  2nd failed save means he's developed a lasting phobia (choose as appropriate), as well as, some kind of off-putting mannerism or tic.  3rd failure means permanent insanity and unable to function as an investigator.

Ok, that's all I've got so far.  If something else comes up during play, I'll add it to the list.

Again, nothing revolutionary.  Just my attempt to make Call of Cthulhu play like Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer.

VS

Call of Cthulhu one-shot [session report]

 

Well, it finally happened.  I ran something other than Cha'alt for my face-to-face gaming group.

This time, especially considering the season, I decided to run Call of Cthulhu.  Except, it was my own rules-light, O5R hack of the game using Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer as a model.

In a 3.5 hour game, I think each player rolled maybe 4 or 5 dice.  So, the system was virtually invisible, which is exactly what I wanted.

Instead of the usual character creation which can burn up to 30 or 40 minutes of game time, I opted for pre-gens.  After all, this was a one-shot (or was it?) and why bother the players with character generation if they're never going to play these characters again?

Last Gary Con, I decided to make my life easier by coming up with a one-page list of available characters - each having 3 or 4 sentences describing that character's concept (including name, class, race, background, etc.) along with relationship ties to both the setting and other PCs.  

I gave every player a sheet containing all the possible characters.  Since I made more than enough characters, there was not only a decent amount of choice, but if something happened to one of the PCs, it was assumed that the non-chosen PCs were sort of hanging around in the shadows and could be played in a pinch, so no one had to sit out for even a short period of the game.

Worked fantastic for Cha'alt at Gary Con, but I think it makes even more sense for something like Call of Cthulhu.  There was a 7-person investigative team that formed Two Jacks Detective Agency.  Some investigators were part-time consultants, so it makes sense for only a handful of agency personnel to tackle any particular assignment.

I had 4 players and each chose a pre-generated character with instruction to invent some little character detail on their own, that wasn't written down for them.  This gives players some creative control while allowing for customization and future roleplaying opportunities.

The PCs included (this is the truncated version)...

• Jack Hawkins - Private eye and co-owner of Two Jacks Detective Agency + marksman 
• Jack Princeton - Private eye and co-owner of Two Jacks Detective Agency + plays the piano
• Billy "Knuckle Samich" Cannoli - Mob enforcer and hands on security + good cook
• Finneus Smythe - University forensics professor and amateur parapsychologist + took boxing lessons from Billy

I started writing this homebrewed scenario the day after our last game and it took me until the morning of our actual session for me to say that it was "done."  Something like 6 pages of notes, descriptions, key NPCs, eventualities, clues, timeline, and so on.

It was literally double )in some cases triple) the amount of preparation that I'd spent on any session of the Cha'alt campaign, but that's the nature of the beast with RPGs like Call of Cthulhu.  If there's a way to "wing it" and still have a reliably satisfying investigative horror game, I don't know what that looks like.  If you do, teach me!

I might release my house-rule hack for Cthulhu as a free one or two-page PDF sometime down the road.  And since the adventure is already written, it's a no-brainer to self-publish the thing in the near future as a system neutral scenario.  Would go well with The Outer Presence of any Lovecraftian investigative horror RPG.

The scenario took place in 1929 Chicago.  It involved the mysterious disappearance of a retired shipping magnate.  I'm a huge fan of Masks of Nyarlathotep, so this adventure was reminiscent of that campaign.  I suppose if a group had already experienced the first session or two of Masks but not the rest and wanted to give it another try (sometimes, groups break up at inopportune moments), this could be a satisfying re-introduction.  

I won't go into too much detail, but I felt it went well and everyone seemed to have fun.  After the adventure was over, the players told me it was a success, so that was encouraging.  Shaking off the cobwebs, I suppose I still have the knack.

Towards the end of the session, things started to get weird.  That's when I should have asked for a sanity check or two, but in my slow descriptive build-up, I forgot to pull the trigger and only realized the missed opportunity when things were back to normal.

There were a few moments where we stopped to view what was happening through a Cha'alt lens... "Now, if this were Cha'alt, we'd just start lapping up the milky-green goo dripping off those tentacles," or some such.  Good times!

Predictably, there was a civil disagreement about what to do with the evil cultists at the end - hand them over to police or deal with them ourselves?  I remember that hotly contested dilemma from back in the day when I was running my Call of Cthulhu campaign almost 20 years ago.

In two weeks, I'm going to run something else in the horror vein... and could possibly continue the Cthulhu game with the same players + new people since I'll be hosting that meetup game at the local library, instead of my house.  I did that specifically to give some new meetup folks a chance to game with us.

If I did stay with my own take on Call of Cthulhu, I would write another scenario for the same cast of characters.  The revolving PCs inside a fledgling detective agency just worked too well to abandon the idea.

Ok, that's it.  Thanks for reading!

VS

p.s. Yeah, it's not until July, but my Madison, WI old-school RPG convention, VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR, is currently selling weekend badges!  Also, I still have Cha'alt hardcovers for sale - I need to sell a couple dozen more trilogies before kickstarting Book 4 of the Cha'alt trilogy.  So, order yours today. 

The Horror In Clay

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to fashion my own Cthulhu idol out of clay...

Well, last week I did just that.  And also made a kind of dice tower, which is actually more of a dice tunnel/slide.  But that I'll show off in a video and blog post this weekend.

Clay is difficult for a noob like me to work with, but I hope to improve on my next attempt.  The painting comes easier to me because I've been doing that all my adult life.

So, there you go... ia ia Cthulhu fh'tagn!

Enjoy,

VS

La Bas Chartreuse

This is something I've been toying with for a few months.  Finally decided to present things in a bare bones way, rather than couching the outstanding elements in a passable storyline.

I present La Bas Chartreuse!  You can use it with The Outer Presence or any investigative horror / eldritch pulp RPG.

For $2, you get the usual Kort'thalis Publishing treatment - awesome layout, fantastic art, evocative writing, and random tables. 

Thanks for checking it out,

VS

p.s.  The piece you're looking at here is from none other than Paul "Night Serpent" Carrick!

#RPGaDay 2017 (part II of III)

Here's part I of my RPGaDay answers.  Let's get to some more questions, shall we?

#7:  What was your most impactful RPG session?

I've had RPG sessions that were so bad that it forever changed how I approached the hobby.  Some games were too boring, others too difficult, many too complex, a few that were too stingy.  I've talked about many of these experiences before.

One that I've never mentioned happened just 2 or 3 years ago.  Not sure why, but I was interested in joining a D&D game as a player.  There was one I had heard about in my home town and even knew one of the players.  Looking back, I can't remember if it was D&D or Pathfinder.  I was coming into the middle of this "adventure path" type campaign.  The entire session was getting from A to B and encountering a few things along the way.  Most of it was combat and everyone had this specific role, including my character - a wizard.  We were mid to high level and I just kept lobbing fireballs.  While it was mildly exciting being in combat, the entire thing just left me wanting.  So, I never went back.

Also, the game took place in this guy's cold, unfinished basement that smelled weird with boxes of kitty-litter everywhere and cats with dried dingleberries on their bottoms constantly roaming around. Oh, and we were seated on metal folding chairs that were super uncomfortable.  Are you surprised I never returned?

These days, I've got to play somewhere decent and always try to give players something for their characters to do besides these ubiquitous robo-battles that could easily be handled with some kind of RPG autopilot or computer program.

#8:  What is a good RPG to play for sessions of 2hrs or less?

Personally, I think both dungeoncrawl fantasy and investigative sessions are best when there's at least 3 hours to play.

What works best for shorter sessions, in my opinion, are RPGs that focus on interaction.  These also take the most out of a GM, so it's probably a good thing that they're usually shorter.

Over the past year, I've run about a dozen 60 - 90 minute sessions of Alpha Blue on Roll20 and while they felt short, it seemed like quite a bit was accomplished.  You go somewhere new, talk to some people, get in some trouble, have a short combat encounter, and get laid.  Boom!  Done.  In, out, and put the kettle on.

#9:  What is a good RPG to play for about 10 sessions?

Pretty much anything.  If you're not doing a one-shot, I think somewhere around 10 sessions is just about ideal for any campaign.  But then I prefer shorter campaigns.

#10:  Where do you go for RPG reviews?

RPG.net, TheRPGsite.com, Endzeitgeist, Ten-Foot Pole, Tenkar's Tavern, and Swords & Stitchery.

#11:  Which "dead game" would you like to see reborn?

Encounter Critical or 1st edition Vampire: the Masquerade.  Basically, all I would be interested in are adventures.  The former just needs more official content while the latter quickly jumped into meta-plot and option bloat.

Although, if the game exists, it's not dead.  Sometimes, a company can kill an RPG by over-supplementing it.  Like a really great movie, sometimes sequel after sequel dilutes its awesomeness.

#12:  Which RPG has the most inspiring interior artwork?

Dungeon Crawl Classics is probably the best black and white interior artwork RPG I can think of.  I was going to also pick out one with color artwork, but I'm drawing a complete fucking blank!

#13:  Describe a game experience that changed how you play?

I'm trying to remember the first time (or just a vivid early memory) of using random tables during an adventure to improvise some detail about the adventure.  I must have been exposed to random tables early on and loved them because that's the thing I'm probably best known for.

Hmm, besides rumors and wandering monsters, I can't come up with a damned thing.  Too bad, that would have made for an interesting anecdote.  [Edit: ok, I took a short walk before posting this and came up with something.]

I used one of the introductory adventures in the back of Call of Cthulhu 4th edition multiple times - especially when I wanted to introduce new people to the game.  I dimly recall a d6 table for what happens when someone touches or activates this strange cube found below the house.  Back then, it struck me that rolling on the table would send the rest of that adventure into entirely divergent narrative threads.  And it did... forcing me, as Keeper of Arcane Lore, to go with the flow.  Controlled chaos!

#14:  Which RPG do you prefer for open-ended campaign play?

Most campaign play should be open-ended.  The only type of RPG campaign I can think of that isn't open-ended is an investigation that keeps going and going, leading deeper and deeper into the heart of a singular mystery.

#15:  Which RPG do you enjoy adapting the most?

If by adapting, you mean "changing," then I'd have to say D&D.  There are so many rules and so many editions and partial editions or versions of the rules, plus all the retro-clones and retro-compatible RPGs that it begs to be adapted... molded to suit each individual table.  In 2017, no two D&D games are exactly alike.

#16:  Which RPG do you enjoy using as is?

The RPG I've adapted/changed/house-ruled the least might be Call of Cthulhu.  Turning everything into a percentage role is so easy to use that it's almost a shame.  I'm a firm believer that house-rules should organically occur during play - it means you're group is interacting with game instead of merely adhering to its rules.

#17:  Which RPG have you owned the longest but not played?

There are a few RPGs I acquired in the late 80's / early 90's that looked promising but for one reason or another, we never ended up actually playing.  Here's a brief list...

• DC Heroes RPG - too complex.
• Kult - lack of accessible entry point, but love the vibe.  
• Skyrealms of Jorune - what are you supposed to do in the game - try to become a citizen?  Uh, no thanks.
• Cyberspace - I'm not sure why I never tried to run this.  From what I remember, it wasn't overly complex, though it did have a lot of numbers.  Maybe lack of an introductory scenario?

________

Ok, I'll try to get the final installment of my #RPGaDay Q&A posted tomorrow.

VS

Call of Cthulhu session report

I finally got to game again (tentacle fist-pump)!  This was last weekend.  The twins are over 2 months old now and things finally settled down enough where I could organize a monthly session of roleplaying.

I gave the players their choice of games, a variety of stuff that I already had and knew how to run.  The first voters chose Call of Cthulhu.  Figures, that's the one game that can't be GMed on the fly.  I had little time to prep, probably a total of 2 hours.  That was barely enough time to read through a scenario, let alone take notes and consider changes.

I decided to just create a new scenario from scratch.  One hour spent creating the basic framework the night before and another hour fine-tuning it the day of.  Below is a quick rundown of what happened.

If you're interested in my Call of Cthulhu hack, check it out.  It effectively cut our character creation time and effort in half.

The characters were an odd assortment from the 1920s - gangster, archaeologist, journalist, occultist, etc.  I read over the motivations in Trail of Cthulhu.  When I came to the entry for "ennui," I braced listeners for my ignorance on how it was pronounced.  Minutes after learning that it was pronounced "on-wee," I purposely referred to it as quinoa... which made everyone laugh.

It began with a ski trip to the Alps organized by The Outdoors Society - a Miskatonic University club.  The PCs were on the ski trip for a variety of reasons.

After the obligatory warning that something ominous might happen (a comet was seen overhead last night), the PCs were settled into the ski lodge, either socializing or retiring for the evening... when some kind of starship landed a mile away.

These icy shoggoths with tentacles shambled out of the ship, attempting to grab a human specimen from one of the many onlookers.  That specimen just happened to be the party's Austrian bodybuilder.  There was a struggle, a second alien, and a couple of NPCs getting melted by a milky discharge that came out of their tentacles.

Luckily, all the PCs made it out ok.  The aliens decided to cut their losses and flew away in their ship.  However, the force from their departure caused an avalanche!  Two of the PCs were buried in snow.  Thankfully, they were buried out in time and all returned to the lodge.

A year later, each of the PCs receive a telegram inviting them to Herr Zandyke's castle in Austria.  Herr Zandyke being an alumni of Miskatonic and generous donor, everyone attended.

Upon arrival, the celebration was in full swing.  About 50 attendees were present and all wearing fanciful masks.  One was a peacock with shimmering blues and greens, but also suckered tentacles hanging from where the mouth should be.  Another was a demonic spider with bulbous scaly head and membranous sacs inflating and deflating as the mask wearer breathed.

Each of the PCs was being wooed to join a certain faction and wear a particular mask pertaining to that faction.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to work out the intricacies of these factions, but I want to flesh that out in the near future if I run this scenario again or self-publish it for The Outer Presence.

Regardless, the PCs ended up below the castle on the shore of a subterranean lake.  At the center was a small outcropping of rock, a grotto which contained something of great value.  Each PC was given a ceremonial knife and locked down there for an indefinite amount of time.

Deep Ones came for those who stayed on the shore and another Deep One protected the grotto from those who tried to swim to it.  One loss of sanity was so great the character went temporally insane. A swimmer almost drown; being at zero hit points from a vicious claw attack, he fell unconscious before reaching the rocks.

Luckily, the occultist swam over to save him before he drowned.  Meanwhile, the others were trying to break through the door in order to get back into the castle.  Thanks to the bodybuilder, they managed it.  Taking out a couple of cultist guards, stealing a car, and engaging in a high-speed chase / firefight.

Eventually, the PCs evaded the cultists and flew back to the United States.

It turns out that 3 of the players had never played Call of Cthulhu before.  So, it did my RPG fanatic heart good to pop a trio of tentacled cherries!

VS

p.s.  For the record, "69" was rolled 5 times over the entire evening.

Last call for Awesome!

If you didn't know, my final Kickstarter campaign until Summer of 2017 (at least) is winding down.

And guess what?  VS, your fucking boss of a hoss, is planning on over-delivering... again.

Yeah, not only are you lucky dogs getting three PDFs for $3, but they'll be double the promised length.

But that's not all!!!  Glynn Seal +MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal) and I have a good relationship.  I tell him to make something awesome while shouting out random words like "Tentacles," "Veins," and "Vagina Whale!" then he turns around and makes it visually awesome.

Case in point, the eldritch fantasy adventure will have the red, the investigative horror will have the green, and the sleazy space opera will get blue.

of

Click on them to get the full effect!

So, thanks for backing.  Keep telling your gaming friends about this wondrous deal of insanity on acid meth!  Let's see if we can hit $2,000 in four days.

VS

New Investigative Horror Scenario

I finished the text for Alpha Blue last week.  Glynn is almost finished doing the layout.  [Get your interview questions submitted now, before it's released!]

I had last Saturday free for roleplaying but didn't know what to run.  These days I only get to GM about twice a month.  So, it makes sense that I would come up with a little something and use my upcoming session as a sort of preliminary playtest.

There were so many different genres, products, systems, and worlds to choose from, but I ended up deciding on The Outer Presence.  Partly due to a conversation I had with +Brandon Watkins months ago about reptile people within the hollow earth and my desire for a humorous ripoff of Delta Green.

The system for The Outer Presence takes place in our modern world around the 1970's, investigating weird and horrifying stuff.  However, I envision the game to be more like The Tomorrow People or Jon Pertwee era Doctor Who than Call of Cthulhu - even though Lovecraft will always be a huge influence on my writing.

Character creation was short and sweet, providing a balanced group of a-holes, wack-jobs, and addicts.

The scenario I concocted contains reptoids disguised as humans (did some research on David Icke and his conspiracy theories), time travel to the far future, shoggoth-like nastiness, and an agency that monitors all the crazy stuff influencing our world, its people and culture.

All I had was a couple dozen bullet points.  So, it was short, and there was quite a bit of improvisation on my part.  Some things didn't fit as neatly into the scenario box as I had anticipated.  But the players were excellent, driving the play forward and occasionally making cool suggestions - like the translucent strands hanging from the ceiling - having them worm their way into the pilot's orifices was a stroke of genius.  I believe my friend, +Tim Virnig came up with that one.

Anyways, it was a good time.  TheRPGpundit recently reviewed How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss.  In my opinion, he was dead wrong about the d100 table of colors.  That happened to be the only random table I rolled on all session.  The non-human PC (I sort of pictured him looking like 70's David Bowie) was shot during the adventure and his blood turned out to be mauve.  Mauve, damn it!  That's an important detail.

All ended well.  The PCs were even asked to join a secret organization who watches the watchers, none other than Theta Chartreuse!

When I'm finished with the scenario, it should have enough meat on its bones to support about 6 hours of play.  If it's somewhere between 10 - 20 pages, it'll probably just be a PDF.  If it spirals out of control into something larger, there will be a print version available this Spring.

Thanks for reading!

VS

p.s.  Almost forgot... here's my favorite quote of the session, "As you manhandle her through the portal, her heaving reptoid bosom is exposed."

WTF Kickstarter: Cthulhu Dice Tower by Fred Fields

So, just uploaded my video (above) describing the box I received from Fred Fields' Cthulhu Dice Tower Kickstarter.  In the interest of transparency, I'm copy/pasting my email to Mr. Fields below.  It's been over 48 hours since it was sent.

Attention Mr. Fred Fields,

I just received the box of sculpted Cthulhu parts.  I knew it would be unpainted and unassembled, and even assumed there might be a little flashing here and there to flake off with nothing more than my hand, but was wholly unprepared for the massive undertaking that's required to assemble the Cthulhu dice tower in its present state.  

The mold hasn't been cleaned at all!   Particularly the crown piece that goes at the very top.  It looks like a miniature frying pan - what am I supposed to do with that massive chunk of a handle at the back?  It's impossible for me to snap it off... even wearing gloves.  And I see some clay that's meant to fix missing pieces from the tentacles.  That's fine in theory, but the clay isn't well-sculpted - it's just crudely patching the holes.

There are large chunks at the ends of almost every piece... sharp, jagged, massive chunks that I'm going to need special tools in order to make everything fit together - assuming I don't accidentally snap an important piece off in the process.  

Plus, there are no pictures.  The upcoming video will probably show us what goes where and how, but at the moment, I have nothing except the KS picture to go by.  That's not too bad, trial and error will eventually get it where it needs to be, but the pieces are in such an unrefined state that I can't help but feel displeasure at having opened and investigated the  box's contents.

At this time, I'm requesting either a replacement box with the pieces taken care of, so all I need to do is get some glue and put it together before painting or a refund of my $99 (if you send me a postage-paid return address label, I'll happily mail you back the box with all the raw pieces).

Thanks for your time,

Venger Satanis 

___

UPDATE:  Fred Fields agreed to refund my $99 after I mailed the box back to him.  He got his box back, I got my money back.  Hopefully, we're both a bit wiser.

Jonny Quest

The last few years have been about moving forward - new projects, new games, new players... and looking back - Star Trek, Thundarr the Barbarian, Dungeons & Dragons, old 80's favorites like Big Trouble in Little China and Flash Gordon, The Twilight Zone, The Smurfs, Scooby Doo, Land of the Lost, and now Jonny Quest.

I just finished the original series (only one season long) this morning.  Sure, the nostalgia made it that much better, but even if I'd never watched it as a kid - Jonny Quest is a great cartoon - especially for gamers.  I can see it fueling any kind of action, adventure, pulp, espionage, spy, secret agent, lost world, or investigative RPG (even horror!).  Every episode has something to recommend it.

Before I get to my bullet points of favorite stuff, I would be remiss for not mentioning the show's sub-textural xenophobia.  One might go as far to call it "racist", except there are instances of Caucasian evil-doers as well (though they are decidedly in the minority).  At least one line was removed from an episode for going too far.

A few of my favorite things about Jonny Quest

• Cool gadgets.  The series has a pseudo-sci-fi thing going on with weaponry and technological advancements in communication, transport, chemistry, and more.
• They make a great team, like a party of professional adventurers.
• Race Bannon is a certified badass - he even has a mercenary, femme fatal hook-up out there in the world, occasionally looking out for him.  Her name is Jade.
• The bad guys are generally sinister, warped, and insane.
• There's a James Bond and Sherlock Holmes type of super-villain who's behind several of the schemes... Doctor Zin.
  
• The visual aesthetics of the show are dark, shadowy, and more realistic than later Hanna-Barbera shows like Scooby Doo.
• NPCs die.  If there's a prolonged shoot-out, someone's going to get killed eventually. 
• Lots of creatures - sometimes we get poisonous snakes, but other times we're treated to a giant spider, Yeti, and pterodactyl!
• There are lighthearted, fun moments (usually with their dog, Bandit), but the show never devolves into slapstick.  The writers take the serious parts of the show seriously.
• Exotic locations - jungles, deserts, mountains, the ocean, ice and snow, etc.  

Well, I could go on and on and on, so I'll just stop there.  If you're running a Hollow Earth Expedition, Call of Cthulhu, or Savage Worlds game, Jonny Quest could be your inspiration!

VS

Less than 24 hours to go!

The Outer Presence kickstarter campaign is about to come to a satisfying close.  As of this moment, it's about 22 hours from completion.

So, get your backing in while you can.  When this is all done and for sale on DriveThru and Amazon, it's probably going to be around $10 for the PDF and $15 for the softcover.

To the right is a rough sketch by a new artist I've been working with.  Just asked him to create some new pieces and he happily agreed.

An eldritch thank you to everyone who is helping to make this book possible!

VS

p.s.  Help me out by sharing this post.  Thanks!

[KS] The Outer Presence

Yep, doing the kickstarter thing for The Outer Presence, my investigative horror scenario I wrote and playtested a couple months ago and have been slowly refining ever since.

But it's not just a scenario!  In addition, the PDF contains the barest bones of a "complete" RPG system *.  The core mechanic is very similar to Crimson Dragon Slayer, except even more simple than that game.  Definitely has an old school feel (both the adventure and rules).

Also, the rules can easily be discarded.  So, if you'd prefer to use The Outer Presence with another RPG, that's easy to do with a little conversion.  Conversely, you might fall in love with the system, using it with your next investigative horror campaign.

If you're into that kind of gaming, I hope you support this endeavor.  If you have questions, most likely they'll be answered on the KS page.  If you have more questions, comment below!

VS

* As complete as a 5 page RPG can be.

Are they paying attention?

This blog post is basically an open-ended question.  Do other, bigger paper & pencil RPGs (including their audience, fans, players, GMs, and scene in general) even know about the OSR?  And here's my followup question: If they know about it, do they care, do they use it, do they buy our products or use our free resources, are we influencing them at all?

Ok, here's a post-followup question I came with after discussing it a bit with +As If and +Erik Tenkar:  I assume that certain OSR blogs, podcasts, products, resources, etc. permeate the RPG mainstream from time to time, despite their niche within a niche status.  Does that increase awareness of the OSR as a whole or is it merely limited to the stuff that has managed to break out of the OSR ghetto?

I believe the OSR effectively changed 5th edition for the better, but what about the average D&D 5e gamer?  Are they aware that the OSR exists?  But specifically, I'm wondering about Pathfinder, Dragon Age, Numenera, Dungeon World, 13th Age, Fate, Savage Worlds, and other popular titles I can't think of right now.  Call of Cthulhu?  World of Darkness?  Post apocalypse RPGs?

Since mostly OSR people will probably see, read, and comment on this post, let me know what you've experienced.  If anyone actively into the above RPGs but not the OSR actually stumbles upon this, please answer as best you can.

Thanks,

VS

Writing a Modern Day Investigative Horror Scenario

It's been awhile.  While working on the Game Mastering book and other life stuff, I haven't had much time to roleplay.  That's why the long space between posts, in case you were wondering.

However, a confluence of events had prompted me to write an investigative horror scenario.  This will be a short thing that can be completed in three hours.  Probably 9 or 10 pages.  I'll most likely release it as a $1 PDF on DriveThru when it's ready.  I'll craft it as mechanically generic as possible, should be good to go without much conversion for whatever your RPG of choice is or might be in the future.

So what are these stars in alignment?

1. Walpurgisnacht (May Eve) is upon us!  I've actually got prior commitments on that night, but was able to secure a local library meeting space for playtesting on both April 18th and May 15th (let me know if you'll be in the Madison area and want to participate on either of those dates).
2. I've wanted to both write/publish and Game Master something other than D&D for ages.  Now's my chance!
3. I'll be running this scenario at Gamehole Con this fall.  If you check out their website (or simply look at the upper right corner of this post), the artwork for Gamehole's 3rd year as a convention is about as Cthulhu as it gets.  Yes, my "investigative horror scenario" will be inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.  Did you have any doubts?

As some of you may know, I work best when faced with a deadline (self-imposed, preferably).  The more pressure I'm under, the better I perform.  So, there are plenty of disconnected ideas floating around my subconscious, but I don't have anything written as of right now.  That'll change as April 18th draws nigh.

Have a suggestion?  Please feel free to make one (or a thousand... who's counting?)  If I incorporate something you suggested into the scenario, I'll be sure to give you credit in the front-matter of the PDF.

VS

The Shadow Over Hollow Earth

Got halfway through True Detective tonight.  In some sick world that's probably a kind of victory.  Kids won't sleep.  I think they might be allergic to it.  Oh well, at least it gives me the chance to update my old school gaming blog.

Anyways, earlier today was our first time with Hollow Earth Expedition [HEX].  Virgin blood.  Had some trouble getting the original hardcover edition of the book.  It's been out of print for a little while, but with amazon's help I now have both the travel sized softcover and a mint condition hardcover with the colored end papers and character archetype plates - better than mint, actually.  My used copy is signed by Jeff Combos.  Whoever you are, "Jen," thank you.

Onto the game!  Rather than do the easy thing, which, in this case, would be running the introductory adventure at the back of the book, I decided to "do my own thing".  The outsider's curse.  It took me until the night before to come up with something decent.  HEX's game world environment is simultaneously specific and vague.  I love that, but sometimes I struggle to find a purchase on the slippery setting.  From the moment I read about dinosaurs, Nazi occultism, mad scientists, 1930's, and the lost city of Atlantis, I knew Lovecraft would have to be involved.

I decided to do a HEX makeover/hack of "The Pits of Bendal-Dolum" - a Call of Cthulhu adventure from the Cthulhu Classics scenario book by Chaosium.  Old school.  The middle was almost identical, but the beginning and ending took on drastic changes...

The Beginning

The memoirs of Jasper Hedrick were published a decade ago.  Hedrick was a small-time explorer back in his day.  His primary claim to fame was an expedition to Baaldum-Jale, a temple devoted to the forgotten gods.  However, his editor, Lawrence Talbot, made sure it was barely mentioned in an effort to preserve Hedrick's credibility.  "An account bordering on the fantastical."  he said.

A fortnight ago, Mr. Talbot died.  Among his papers were the original notes of Hedrick's central American expedition to Baaldum-Jale, where he observed carvings depicting inhuman creatures, strange phenomena, the practice of black magic, and something he never dared describe at the bottom of a stone stairway containing 777 steps.

A room full of people listened to this new account thanks to the blabbering mouth of Tuffy MacStinson.  Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal, but Tuffy spilled the proverbial beans in the drawing room of the Intrepid Explorer's League club.  Several expeditions were launched by week's end.

The Middle

Native tribesmen encountered, the survivors of a competing expedition saved, some kind of dread seal or talisman found, a giant Tulu statue marked the temple's perimeter, and nightmares disturbed everyone's slumber.  Except for an increase in reptilian aesthetics around the temple, it was a lot like the Call of Cthulhu adventure.

But this is where we got to try the Ubiquity System.  Basically, you roll big pools of dice and try to get evens.  As GM, I got very few.  Everyone else seemed to do fairly well, about average, sometimes better than.

If you think Call of Cthulhu is deadly, holy shit!  Playing a Big Game Hunter or Fortune Hunter if you want to see the bodies pile up.  The adventurers killed a saber-toothed panther jaguar in 1.5 shots.  Later, they took out a traitor/cultist/Hell-plant in a single round.  But what do you expect when rolling 14 dice to the defender's 6 or 7.

I believe only 1 Style Point was spent during the game.  Unfortunately, I can't even remember what it was for.  But a few of the players really hammed it up roleplaying-wise in order to get them.  The Christian Missionary was the best.  At every turn, he had a sermon ready or a passage from the bible - the guy even brought an old beat-up bible to the game!

The End

After the demonic vegetation burst out of the cultist's back, the Thule Society wandered in suggesting a combined expedition.  They had a man in their group who had actually been to the hollow earth before and was pretty sure this would be a way back.  Plus, they had a special girl with them; she was physically blind but also a spiritual medium.

Boldly stealing from Star Trek, the super-expedition climbed down the Cyclopean steps only to find a de-materialization area for beaming people down to where the action is.  They went.  Jungle again but more exotic... and dangerous.  PCs saw their first T-Rex, the missionary befriended an Ape-Man, convincing him to let everyone into the Atlantean ruins.  That's where the session ended.

Experience points were given.  I can't remember if it's in the rules, but I allowed players to use their unused Style Points as XP if they wanted.

"How was it?"  That's a question I frequently ask since I've started running new games on a regular basis (new to me and my players, that is).  Because sitting behind the screen - figuratively, because the HEX GM screen is harder to find than a solid night of sleep at my house - doesn't tell me everything.  Even though I try my best to gauge player actions, reactions, expectations, verbal and non verbal cues, etc... sometimes you just don't know until you ask.  Not that you always get an honest answer, but it's better than guessing.  The verdict?  Everything had fun, liked the system, and wanted to keep playing.

After session #2, I'll end at a good stopping point, ask people if they want to continue playing HEX or move on to something new... like The Mutant Epoch.  Thanks for reading.  Feel free to comment.  I enjoy the feedback.


VS

p.s.  After session #2, I have some fresh insight into HEX: given enough time and enthusiasm (especially when fueled by an awesome idea), the PCs will pretty much be able to do anything they want within the setting's context and never die.

It would have been nice if the introductory text had said that up-front, but I got there in the end.  That's how this style of game should go and that's what the system facilitates.  Once the GM is aware of this, the game noticeably improves for all.

If your players are tired of scrounging and scavenging for a +1 sword, constantly trying to survive battles with giants, dragons, and wizards, then they'd probably enjoy a little vacation.  Give them some well-deserved R&R.  Run HEX.  Somewhere between 1 and 3 sessions should do the trick.