GameHole Con 2021 [part 4]

 

Check out the previous blog posts if you want to read what led up to today's.  

The Alpha Blue session was good and fun, but my head's definitely in another place.  That helps, actually, because if I have Alpha Blue on my mind, then it's going to distract me from Cha'alt... which is my primary focus right now.  Especially, as I'm working on book three of the trilogy Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows.

And the Encounter Critical session was really just Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 tooling around Cha'alt.  When telling Gamehole Con what games I wanted to run, I thought I'd be diving into the next edition of Encounter Critical.  Instead, I decided to shelve that until I was finished with Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows.

Since Encounter Critical inspired both Crimson Dragon Slayer and Cha'alt, I didn't feel too bad about it.  I broke out Beneath Kra'adumek because that's a fun little one-shot scenario.  For an extra bit of strangeness and because it was almost Halloween, I offered the players monster races instead of traditional, elves, dwarves, etc.

I'll share what I came up with here, just in case you want to use it in your own Halloween inspired sessions...

• Vampire - Hypnotism (save to resist).
• Wolfman - Transform into wolf and/or wolfman (Advantage from savage attacks).
• Mummy - Resurrection, unless completely incinerated, vaporized, or annihilated.
• Creature From The Black Lagoon - Swim, breathe under water, and fast healing.
• Ghost - Incorporeal at will.
• Demon - Can force humanoids to make a deal; the Devil's bargain.
• Frankenstein - Super strength (extra d6 damage).

It was a fun session, and I finally got to use the d100 weird magic table included in Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise (I've used it before the book was printed during playtest sessions).  Unfortunately for the party, one of the PC sorcerers turned the Ipsissimus of the temple into an invulnerable pillar of green flame.

But one of the highlights of the weekend was my running The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  There's a reason why so many gamers love this one.  You can see the primordial roots of Cha'alt in the purple islands.

This being a one-shot, I almost had too much material to choose from.  For some of the session, I used whatever was written down for the hexes the PCs traveled.  The rest I cherry picked because I was excited to see the players' reactions.  A decent chunk of the session was spent on something I just made up - a sleestak temple containing a pit housing their god - a gigantic purple worm.

After killing the worm, they looted its lair of amethyst crystals that radiated with magical energy.  It was night and the PCs bedded down with their crystals.  One of my favorite things about the purple islands is the "while you were sleeping" random table.

So, I rolled on that and a totem had been driven into the ground, just outside the sleestak temple.  It was a warning or curse from a competing faction, the Sect of the Crimson Tongue.  Someone casted a spell during the night, as well.  So, I rolled on the weird magic table again and, I kid you not, the result specifically says that all crystals within 50' of the sorcerer explode.

All of the PCs took heavy damage.  One guy was left with 1 HP.  

When something accidentally turns out to fit exactly in the random chaos of what's going on, I'm sometimes in the habit of shouting "THE PROPHECY!!!" at the top of my lungs.  These guys got to experience that twice.  ;)

A couple players were returning guests from previous games, which was nice to see.  

The PCs were moving through the violet cloud of radiation and picked up some nice mutations, as well as a magic sword.  Instead of metal, its blade was forged of concentrated willpower.  

I rolled on the d30 table from Cha'alt since that was easily at hand.  One woman rolled 30 and so got two mutations - acidic sweat and her lower half became serpentine.  Seriously, watching her face throughout the session was a trip.  She went from incredulous to pleased to concerned to laughter to defeated to triumphant.  It was quite the rollercoaster of emotions for her.

One-shots don't give you a lot of time to work in PC motivations and overarching stories.  But if everyone has a sense of who their character is and the agency afforded them to explore an eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic island, that's all you can ask for.  

At the session's end, I got a lot of praise for running the game.  I could tell the players really enjoyed it and that made my day.

The purple islands session was the first one on Saturday.  I decided that I'd had enough of trying to run a game muzzled, and so I either ate a banana or drank a sip of bottled water throughout the three-hour session so that I didn't have to wear my mask.  That definitely helped improve my experience, though it was still plenty loud in there.

Tomorrow's blog post should be the last of this series.  Thanks for joining me on this insane journey!

VS

Oblivium Review

You had me at Twelve Demon Satchel...

Inspired by such old school gems as Carcosa, Yoon-Suin, and my own Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence, Oblivium is a campaign setting on a weird island that's meant to fuck shit up while taking no prisoners.

The author, Thomas Alexander, has created a world of insanely specific detail.  The book is 135 pages and it feels dense.  There are plenty of black and white illustrations, but I think this could have been 200 pages if laid out differently.  Personally, I like a lot of paragraph breaks, but that's a minor criticism.

Oblivium is like a gonzo inter-dimensional Ravenloft, its mist transporting individuals to a strange world where the kitchen sink is your sandbox.  Oblivium absorbs anything and everything, that's why you get magic, technology, bizarre new races (the hollow being one of my favorites), exotic locations, creatures, random tables, and new magic items.

Basically, this is like Purple Islands if Prince of Nothing flamboyantly re-wrote it with Endzeitgeist's eye for mechanical coherence. In other words, something special, but not exactly what I, myself, would create.

Below, I'm going to give you an example of the writing...

For eons, purple rain has fallen on the petrified corpse of Lalene, Demon Prince of Lava. What was once a cone of volcanic rock has been eroded into a haunted city. Tortuous streets wind between edifices of cruel opulence. 

So, yeah... download this!  Use it with your other OSR, 5e, or whatever you already have, mine it for awesome ideas, combine it with similar campaign settings, or just all on its own.

VS

p.s. Speaking of gonzo science-fantasy, I'm down to about 150 luxurious hardcover Cha'alt books.  If you want to snag one or more before they're gone, check this out!

Blast From My Purple Past

A confluence of events has deemed The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence worthy of two new reviews... even if it has been 6 years since I birthed it.

I remember fondly my time writing, running, and witnessing peoples' reactions to that book.  Without further ado, you can listen to the 2 part podcast here.  Dan Davenport, GMshoe, has a text review here.

Want to go straight to the PDF?  Here you go.  But if you prefer the b/w softcover, I recommend buying it on Amazon.

That campaign setting hexcrawl paved the way for Cha'alt, so for that alone I'm happy to see it mentioned on the internet.

If anyone has a purple islands story they'd like to share, I'd love to read it.  Comment below!

Thanks,

VS

Amber Diceless RPG & Purple Islands

So, what does Amber: Diceless Roleplaying Game and The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence have in common? 

They were both reviewed poorly (yes, I meant that in two different ways) by some dude on RPGnet called Lev Lafayette - which I assume is a pseudonym because generally speaking, the French have pretty good taste. 

Right over here is his recent review of Amber.  This is where you can find his Purple Islands review. 

Clearly, this guy doesn't know his ass from page 2.  What an ignoramus!

Anyway, just thought that was amusing...

VS

p.s. Speaking of reviews, it's been over a year since many Kort'thalis Publishing titles have been reviewed, either on DriveThruRPG or anywhere else.  Let's change that!

The First of Many

It's been a long time since I've spent serious time and energy making my own maps. 

For a number of reasons [Cha'alt being one of them], I decided to try my hand at it once more.  Got a couple decent hours of peace and quiet over the weekend and bashed this out. 

The map in question is called Beneath Kra'adumek (City of the Purple Demon-Worm).  It's on 14" x 17" drawing paper, so I'll probably have to go to my local copy shop to scan it.

This dungeon could be something for Cha'alt, the Purple Islands, or possibly both...

Trying to find my own style.  It's fairly simple, didn't want to start with anything too challenging.  I figure after a couple dozen, I'll hit the next plateau.  We'll see.

Let me know if you like it,

VS

p.s. If you haven't yet, please support my latest kickstarter.  Cha'alt needs you!

Kort'thalis Publishing Reviews

Yeah, some really neat ones have cropped up here and there in 2018.

Let's start with my favorite - Prince of Nothing reviews The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  I quoted a paragraph in our last episode of Inappropriate Characters, but really the whole thing is a fascinating, pleasurable read.

Almost as awesome is his review of Liberation of the Demon Slayer.  He's not wrong - it's a hot mess (in places).  Hey, it was my first attempt and some wires got crossed.  Still, my philosophy hasn't changed - published adventures are meant to do 85% of the work.  The remaining 15% is left for the GM to handle on his own.

This is the latest review of Alien Ass, Hydrogen Gas, or Cosmic Grass... No One Warps For Free by Endzeitgeist.  He also reviewed Dead God Excavation...

Speaking of which, the prolific and potty-mouthed Bryce Lynch also reviewed that very same scenario!  He didn't love it.  Not only did he brutalize Dead God Excavation, the man added insult to injury.

As per usual, I give as good as I get (better in some cases).  So, you can read my pithy little riposte in the comments below his review.  It's followed by occasional "witticisms" from the peanut gallery.

Last but not least, we have a brief review of Adventure Writing Like A Fucking Boss II.  I think that speaks for itself. 

I encourage more reviews, even sucky ones... like the turd that Bryce Lynch excreted from his analysis-hole.  The more, the merrier!

VS

p.s. As someone in that cavalcade of crappy comments noticed, I'm no longer fucking around.  This outspoken iconoclast has become the boss behind the boss of internet shitlords.  It's take no prisoners time, ladies, gentlemen, and za'akier!

Game Hole Con, part I of II

I had one day for this year's Game Hole Con because my wife's parents only had so much time to donate for childcare, and I have a thousand kids.

Signed up to run two games.  The first was Crimson Dragon Slayer exploring The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  The second was Alpha Blue.

Due to lack of players - a Game Hole Con email earlier in the week assured GMs that even if their games weren't full, convention goers will fill in the gaps with same-day registration and such.  Unfortunately, that was not the case for me...

Despite the great location I was given and full tables for my games at all but the very 1st year of Game Hole, I had only one player.  Before I forget, nice job on the curtained sections in Hall A, they did a lot regarding noise reduction!

So, +Tim Virnig and I hustled for a solid 20 minutes.  We separately went out and looked for gamers without anything to do.  I must have approached 30 or so people asking, "Hey, looking for a game?"  I got a half-dozen positive responses ranging from "Maybe" to "Yeah, I'll swing by after I'm done with ______."

I never saw any of those people again.  However, on my way to the bathroom, I ran into one of my fans who I chatted with earlier in the day and earlier in the year at Gary Con.  Running into him again, he was waiting in line for some 5e thing and told me he'd be over when he was done.

10 minutes later, it was the three of us.  5 minutes after that, a friend of Tim's sat down to play, as well.  And then 10 minute from that point, another guy I regularly game with dropped by the table to see how we were doing.  Since he and his friend were between games, they stayed to play until their next event.

So, narrowly avoiding that epic fail, we had a good time with the purple islands.  I asked each player if they wanted to create a character that was more fantasy or scifi since this was equal parts of both. I believe there was a single fantasy option.  The Alpha Blue characters (such as the aliens) were a lot more colorful than the reptilian warrior.

A few catchphrases were in the early development stage by the time we got to the end - which was the surviving natives of the islands (who had been blue crystal miners for the Mi-Go) escaping into a starship and taking off to the nearest planet.  No big boss battle.  Should have had the Purple Putrescence attack their ship at the end - that's my only regret of the day.  Well, that and ordering the BBQ pork asian meal from the food cart just outside the convention center.  The pork was decent, but extremely fatty.

Thus concludes part I.  Here is part II with more pictures!

VS

p.s.  Before the con started, I was inspired to create this little beauty!

Battle For The Purple Islands PDF is live

Well in time for H.P. Lovecraft's birthday (he's in the adventure, after all), I proudly present the latest work in the Purple Islands franchise.  Oh yeah, this purple shit is getting real!

It's O5R compatible and fully illustrated - the art and layout is expensive, but so worth it.

Additionally, I planned on this scenario and jungle hexcrawl sandbox to combine The Planet of the Apes, The Dream Lands, Thundarr the Barbarian, Heavy Metal, Land of the Lost, and so many other things that inspire me.

Get your Battle For The Purple Islands PDF here from DriveThruRPG.

Thanks to everyone for supporting me here, on Kickstarter, and other places in the universe.  I'm grateful for your continued awesomeness!

VS

Battle For The Purple Islands

I've come full circle.  My very first Kickstarter campaign was for The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  I've covered a lot of ground since then, and now it's time to return to those dreaded islands purple.

This project wasn't on my mind at all.  I didn't plan for it.  In fact, I made quite a few plans going into 2018 that had nothing to do with the purple islands.  But inspiration struck when I noticed a new exhibit in an art museum near my work.

I went in, looked around, saw some cool stuff and then found this little room - an entrance covered with a black velvet curtain showing this weird art film.  Strange words, bizarre imagery, and dark ambient tones reverberating in the void.

But it was that first moment walking into the room, before I knew what was ahead.  For a couple seconds I was completely enveloped in blackness.  The fear and thrilling joy of anticipation awakened my senses.  What would I encounter beyond?

Upon leaving the art museum, I knew that I wasn't done with those islands - not by a long shot.

So, if you're down for some more purple action, back this project.  It's going to be fucking awesome!
And it will include stats for both conventional OSR/O5R and the OSR outsider 4th Wave type stuff that I've been doing with Crimson Dragon Slayer and Alpha Blue.

Got a question?  Please ask!

VS

Gary Con IX

I left Friday mid-morning and returned Sunday late-afternoon.  I really shouldn't have gotten so much convention time, but plans changed and I got lucky.

Overall, it was a great time.  I ran into, met, gamed with, or became reacquainted with many awesome individuals during those three days. Such as... +Erik Tenkar +Clint Bohaty +Jeff Bernstein +Timothy Brannan +Follow Me, And Die! +Julian Bernick +Harley Stroh +Forrest Aguirre +Del Teigeler +Jeff Talanian +Bill Webb +Satine Phoenix and many others (I'm terrible with names... and sometimes faces).

It surprises me to hear someone say they're a fan of my work, and I was pleasantly surprised quite a few times.  So, that was really cool.

Volunteering to GM is one of the things I love about RPG conventions.  Although, I'm never sure what's going on 4 - 6 months in advance.  I might have a new product out, I might want to playtest something I'm currently working on, or I might feel like running something completely different.

Over the last year, I've become increasingly comfortable with and excited by Alpha Blue, my sleazy scifi RPG.  Every half-dozen times I describe Alpha Blue to people who don't know what it is, I find myself coming up with new ways to characterize it.  Over the weekend I came up with this - it's like Star Wars... with a money shot.

I signed up to run The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence using Crimson Dragon Slayer on Friday afternoon, Alpha Blue Saturday night, and Alpha Blue again on Sunday afternoon.  I was able to sneak in an off-the-books session of Alpha Blue on Friday night.  That's a lot of sex, sleaze, and exploitation in space!

So much happened this weekend!  It's probably a fool's errand to try and document it all.  Instead of going through each day, I'm just going to bullet-point some random highlights.  That way, if I suddenly remember a detail (or someone who was there reminds me) I can just add it to the list...

• For whatever reason, I decided to start the session by using The Outer Presence character creation.  Everyone was a "normal" human in the real world.  It made the purple islands seem more like Lost and Land of the Lost rather than D&Desque science-fantasy gonzo.
• There's usually at least one "table captain" in each game.  This is the kind of player I talk about in my latest book - Play Your Character Like A Fucking Boss. 
• The Doctor-without-borders character (Dr. Haywood) who crashed onto the beach of a purple island was the most devious PC in recent memory, and when he stranded his former guide and now prisoner of the lizardfolk (Enik-type Sleestaks) while capturing a lizardman to bring home for showbiz riches before closing the pylon's gateway, we all thought the adventure was over.  And then the Purple Putrescence ripped its terrible way into our world...
• I really love the movie StarChaser: The Legend of Orin.  I had the PCs start as subterranean mind-wiped slaves mining for blue crystal.  It was a good setup which I'll be using again in the future.  And from there, it went off the rails - in a good way.  
• An ooze with bio-luminescence when turned on rubbing up against a lamppost in the red hologram district while various other PCs were having sex on the street.  
  
• The telepathic pimp kept me laughing throughout Saturday night's session, but everyone was in rare form - both getting their sleaze on and doing a deal with one of Grabba the Butt's girls.
• Another space pimp was looking to further his business by stealing one of the most popular Satisfiers of Alpha Blue - Jessica 3.  After the indigo haze roofie, he was having sex with her (while she was unconscious) while a laser shootout was going on in their hotel room.  
• Arra was played by a woman who'd been in one of my Crimson Dragon Slayer games from last Gary Con.  Her character was a really interesting alien - humanoid with slimy with translucent seaglass skin.  She rolled "lesbian" for Arra's sexual fantasy/fetish, and that led to some interesting moments.  
• There was a player who randomly rolled "pirate" as his profession and "noble" on the something special table.  Confused with the juxtaposition at first, we discussed it for a couple minutes and decided that he was a pirate king, so well-versed at pirating that he became lord of the seven space seas aka The Pink Diver because of his pink, magenta, and pink pirate outfit.
• Finally getting to play Alpha Blue with girls was a nice treat.  Despite close-minded and just plain wrong "conventional wisdom," women can be and often are just as dirty, depraved, and wild as men... if not more so!  Anyway, the ladies impressed me by being just as sleazy as the guys.  
  
• There was so much sex in that session that I should have had PCs roll for acquiring a venereal disease, but forgot all about such things in the heat of all those moments.
• Speaking of which, I got a big reaction from debuting the desert planet Akockiss, commonly known as P'oon.  The players came up with a great new villain - Acock'n'lips (or Acock'n'licks... season to taste).
• Had a wonderful dinner at the Grand Geneva Resort hotel Friday night.  The prime rim, mashed potatoes, and shrimp were fantastic.  I also was in great company with Peter Tiso (who played in the purple islands game).
• Had a very satisfying breakfast with Erik Tenkar on Saturday morning.  We demolished our omelettes like a pair of fucking bosses!
• Only a single game was in one of those big rooms full of tables and gamers - the first.  All my other games, I made sure they were in quieter and less distracting areas of the convention.
• Speaking of places to game, my favorite was on Sunday afternoon.  I asked the con staff if any of the fancy private gaming rooms were going to be free as of noon.  One of them was, and I got to run the last Alpha Blue game of the weekend in the Geneva Room (or something like that).  It was so peaceful and awesome that I almost wept for joy!
• Brought a dozen books with me to use and possibly sell if people wanted and came back with only one!
  
• Got to try out my latest dice rolling tray - scifi themed.  Lots of compliments.  
• Had a chance to talk about the philosophy of Game Mastering with a purple island player named Jeff.
• Bought a bunch of gaming stuff - most notably (and expensively) books at the DCC booth.  Finally took the Metamorphosis Alpha plunge, got a nicely illustrated hardcover book on adventure design (cause even old Venger runs into writer's block), and had a 20% off ticket for the mammoth leatherbound tome on Traps.  I don't do enough with traps, so this should open up a whole new universe for me!

That's about it, though I'm well aware that I'm leaving many terrific moments out.  Oh well, those are for my fellow gamers to document!

VS

Outer Purple Fury

I just read the latest review for The Outer Presence.

It's my contribution to 1970s, Lovecraftian investigative horror RPG/scenario combo from last year.  I think Endzeitgeist did a fantastic job analyzing it.

This is an actual play report using The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence as hex-crawl inspiration.  Good stuff!

And here's the second blog post talking about Death Race: Fury Road.

Until next time, keep reviewing, blogging, and playing my stuff.  It drives me onward and downward, spiraling into the black nothingness at the very heart of awesome itself!

VS

p.s.  My dice go out to my brother and sister gamers at Game Hole Con happening right now.  Wish I could be there with you all!

Purple Reign

In honor of the music icon Prince, I've decided to have a sale on The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence for the next few days (both PDF and print).  If you'd like it on a slightly heavier, cream-colored paper, then I've also reduced the price over at CreateSpace (that's Amazon's print-on-demand service).

If you have a personal story or anecdote involving The Purple Islands, please feel free to share it in a comment below.

Let us celebrate the man, the myth, the legend... and the color purple!

VS

p.s.  I was going to end the sale on both Alpha Blue (CreateSpace) and Girls Gone Rogue (CreateSpace) yesterday, but under the circumstances, it seems fitting to keep the reduced price going.  Keep it weird and sexy, y'all.

Post Gary Con Analysis (part 2 of 2)

Just as I was finished eating dinner (BTW, here's part 1), I got a g+ community group text hangout message thing - technology, not my bag, baby.  Someone asked, "What do you do when it's been a half-hour and the GM hasn't shown up?"

"Riot," I replied.  And then in a more serious tone, offered my services as Game Master for that table, not really knowing who was there, what they were playing, or any specifics at all.  All I knew was that I didn't have a game scheduled and GMing is what I was born to do.

The person texting gave me their table # so I could find them.  I paid the check and made my way there.  As it turns out, everyone except the guy texting and his wife had vacated the premises a couple minutes before my arrival.  I can't blame them for leaving.  They were probably frustrated and didn't want to roll the dice.  After all, no one knew who I was and I could have been awful.

So, I wandered around and used the google hangout machine to ask if anyone was interested in an unscheduled session of Alpha Blue.  One guy said yes.  His name was +Tim Loughrist.  He and I were hanging out at a free-for-all table between gaming rooms, waiting for the previous tenants to vacate.

Tim was asking me questions about Alpha Blue because he had heard some things about it.  As I was explaining, the dude who had just playtested his Model U.N. but with pirates game joined in the conversation.  I recognized him from Game Hole Con, but can't remember his name.  Somehow, another dude sat down and by some miracle we had a game!

The three players created characters.  All were scoundrels, one a mutant.  The random tables provided the rest.

There's something about the sci-fi genre.  Especially, action-pulp space opera sci-fi.  More than once, the very first encounter I rolled at the start of the game became the centerpiece (centerfold?) of the session.  Spacers just seem to know what to do, I guess.

Tim's character was in debt to a bounty hunter so that he could begin the game with his own ship.  I told him it looked like a cross between an X-Wing and the Millennium Falcon.  The reason being my car was parked about a mile away from the convention entrance.  And it was cold, windy, and snowing.  So, I didn't want to spend 15 minutes walking (again!) back to my car to get all my Alpha Blue and Girls Gone Rogue maps.  Probably should have, but oh well.

Anyways, Tim drew his interpretation of that ship and named it the Iron Pigeon.  His interpretation was quite literal, which I thought was hilarious and took a picture of the thing.

After exchanging some of their credits for blue bucks and purchasing a trucker hat and some risque snow-globes, the action started.  A hologram appeared in their section of the space station.  Some diminutive alien threatened to blow Alpha Blue up unless a Blue Flamingo starship was delivered to him.  Behind him was a full-scale orgy.

So, the PCs grabbed their blasters and dove right in.  They landed their starship on a strange planet and infiltrated an enemy starship and nearby compound.  There was wheeling and dealing, negotiating a deal that played both sides against the other.  It reminded us of Clint Eastwood from The Man With No Name trilogy - aha, yes!  His name was +Clint Bohaty.  No clue who the third guy was, though.

A sexy, leather bodysuit-clad NPC tagged along.  Being the professional bounty hunger, mercenary, and assassin each of them was, they saved pleasure for the end, after their mission had been completed.  The mutant assassin had sex with a mature prostitute originally picked up by the merc, who also planted a thermal detonator inside of her, but I won't get too deep into that.  You just had to be there.

It was a good game and I thanked everyone for playing.  Unfortunately, GMs have to submit games far in advance of the actual conventions.  Planning 4 months ahead of time isn't my style.  I didn't know how Alpha Blue was going to go until after my games had been submitted, so I was pleased to have the opportunity to run my latest book.

No idea how, but I got lost from the Grand Geneva to my Comfort Suites hotel.  It was a straight shot and only a half-mile away, but somehow it eluded me and I was lost in a blizzard for about 40 terrifying minutes in an unknown town.  Thankfully, the woman behind the desk at Comfort Suites guided me in via phone.

Saturday mid-morning was my last session, The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  Two years ago I playtested Purple at Gary Con VI, so it was fun bringing The Purple back to Lake Geneva.

Just like Friday's Crimson Dragon Slayer game, I had 5 players.  A single guy played in both my scheduled games.  One woman this time.  She has the honor of being the only female I GMed that weekend.  Every time I said something, like "Yeah, you can start out with machine guns," she replied with "That's cool," or "So awesome," or something like that.  She wanted to play a minotaur cyborg.  "Sure," was my response and she was happy about that, as well.

I've run Purple about a dozen times and no session has been exactly like any other.  It's so sprawling and random that each game seems like a unique experience.  I'm running out of time, so I'll quickly mention the highlights...

• Started as slaves.
• Stumbled onto a security system.
• Encountered a silly gnome driving a high-tech tank with laser canon.
• Hid from The Thing That Rots From The Sky in a black pylon.
• Wandered into a dimension that looked like an Erol Otus painting.
• Helped a cult summon Yogsoggoth!
• A few participated in an orgy with strange magenta-hued women.
• Broke into an underground base.
• Received a starship in exchange for not killing any more of Mannix's men.
• Flew the ship to a shattered dome city that had seen better days.
• Fought some Lovecraftian aberration and won.
• Went to another galaxy or something.

All in a full day's work.

Everyone seemed pleased at the end.  I surprised myself with the Yogsoggoth encounter - it got even more indulgently weird, gross, and erotic than even I expected!

Not sure who the player to my immediate left was.  He was playing a snake-man wizard and kept improvising these cool spells involving his ancient reptilian ancestors and glands to the point where it was both awesome and ridiculous.  Anyway, I really enjoyed his roleplaying.  And he brought purple dice to the game!  Next time, maybe you can prevent those meteors from bringing down the Jurassic period.

So, that was it.  Hope you enjoyed reading my report on Gary Con VIII.  If you have any questions, please ask.  Thanks to the friends and family of Gary Gygax, as well as, all the great people I met during my all-too-brief stay.  

Unless a new baby is born just before or after Gary Con IX, I'll be there.

VS

Q&A with Dan Davenport

The prolific RPG reviewer, Dan Davenport, virtually sat down with me yesterday to ask me questions about stuff.  Mostly about The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence, but our discussion wasn't confined to just that.

I also fielded a few questions from others in the chat room.

VS

Game Hole Con III (part 1 of 2)

This blog post is going to be my experience at Game Hole Con III.

I felt the post-convention blues yesterday - everything just seemed kind of lame and I didn't care about the ordinary world much.  Basically, business as usual, except intensified a bit.  However, I'm my usual self today.

Running games at a convention is the equivalent of playing music live.  Everything is faster; smaller details fall by the wayside, and you're probably less inclined to go off-script and improvise because you're not GMing (performing) in front of your usual gaming group in your home, friend's basement, local library or game store.  No, you're doing it live in front of a bunch of people you don't know.  It's a bit nerve wracking and the pressure's on.

Plus the noise and distractions!  Subtlety is usually lost.  Forget about speaking quietly, hushed tones, whispering, or even delicate gestures.  You either speak loud and clear so the whole table can hear or you've lost a couple people along the way.  This goes for movements, too.  Either grand and sweeping or not at all!

Basically, it's like GMing with one hand tied behind your back.  Of course, it's also very exciting and gratifying to deliver a great gaming experience to people you've just met, who trust (or at least hope) that you're going to give them something enjoyable.

If you're +Frank Mentzer or James Ward you get to have a slightly more private room.  Even though this is my third time attending and running games at +Gamehole Con (and I've self-published about 10 well-received RPG books), I'm still fighting at the front lines.  It'll probably be awhile before I can watch the battle (with lake view) from a cushy office back at HQ.

So, all my games ended earlier than planned - because I couldn't help but speed things along.  Except for the impromptu "off the books" session on Friday night, they all ended on a high note, mysterious cliff-hanger, or with the utter destruction of that corner of the world.  Friday night's game came up against the lateness of the hour (about 10:30pm - I'm old and lame) so I cut their dungeon exploration a bit short... plus I had a big day of gaming ahead of me.

I got extremely lucky with a few things.  First, the weekend before the con, I had completely lost my voice.  I can't remember the last time that has happened, but it did.  While I was voiceless, I kept thinking, "Thank Cthulhu this didn't happen a week later."  But then on Monday I still couldn't talk, Tuesday I was extremely horse, Wednesday wasn't much better... I was starting to panic.  My voice was noticeably better on Thursday, and by Friday I was pretty much out of the woods (though still coughing).

Second, each and every session saw at least one friend at the table.  Even though I consider myself a non-paid professional Game Master who doesn't need such comforts, it's still really nice to have a familiar face amongst all the strange ones.  So, that was really cool and I appreciate having +Tim Virnig, +Brandon Watkins, +Jacob Nelson, +Forrest Aguirre, and West there.  Little did I know that a few others knew of me, but I'm terrible with names and so few people have their actual selves as avatars.

Highlights

I'm not going to do a detailed session report for each and every game.  Just certain details that stood out or illustrate a particular point.

I ran my one-page zine, "The Sanctuary of the Scarlet Sorcerer", on Friday night; Liberation of the Demon Slayer and The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence on Saturday (back to back); along with The Outer Presence on Sunday.  By the end, I was ready to be done.  Although, by Monday night I was wishing I had another at GMing sometime mid-week.

I set up Liberation and Purple to be run with Dungeon Crawl Classics.  Now, I do love that system and the whole DCC vibe.  But when I've run it in the past, I hack it or dumb it down or Basic-D&D-it into oblivion... only keeping the mercurial magic and a few other bells and whistles, while drastically altering the rest.

Recently, all the games I've been running this summer and early fall have been based on a d6 dicepool system.  I suddenly found myself looking awkwardly at the d20 and thinking... I'm not ready to go back.  Luckily, I had been turning over my d6 dicepool ideas over and over in my mind.  Trying to come up with something that's even lighter, easier, and noob/one-shot/convention friendly than Crimson Dragon Slayer.

Just before Friday night's game, I came up with something workable and tried it out then and there.  It worked really well and use that for every session, except for Outer Presence.  I can attest that no player complained, balked, or criticized the core game mechanic I used throughout the convention.  That right there was a great opportunity to playtest the system.

Just as Purple was getting underway, +Doug Kovacs sat down and watched for a few minutes.  He even jokingly said that he was there to make sure I was "running the game right".  Some nervous laughter followed along with my admission that the game was going to be unorthodox, but still adhering to the Heavy Metal aesthetic from which practically all over-the-top, science-fantasy exploitation flows.

I dressed up!  Weeks before the convention, I bought a renaissance / LARP / pirate / Cosplay shirt (black) from ebay.  I wore that, the black velvet cloak I've had since college, a gothic halloween medallion, the fanciest black jeans I own (and was married in), and my black dress shoes.  It's exactly the type of thing I would wear to a Satanic ritual.  So, that felt appropriately inappropriate (which is right where I like to be).

Also, a couple months ago I decided to grow out my "wizard beard".  So, I probably looked like an extra from some Game of Thrones knockoff.  The facial hair still in phase 1, but just wait until Game Hole Con IV.  By then, my beard shall have taken over half the known realm!

I also brought in a lot of props.  Some fantasy calendars that had big, colorful pictures that I could show the entire table.  And a realistic foam sword (my wife: you paid how much for a fake sword?!?), plus a bunch of other illustrations, Terminator mask, glow stick, etc.

Taking the temperature of the room is important for a GM.  More so in a convention setting.  One table contained a jokester - one of those guys who has everyone laughing, like, every 10 or 15 minutes for the entire session.  He was seriously hilarious.  Now, it would have been a mistake for me to set myself up as his opposition, trying to "play it straight" and keep things serious.  So, I took his lead and upped the gonzo, humor, running jokes.

For instance, a couple people (including the jokester) recognized the pre-generated character name Xeljanz from the rheumatoid arthritis commercials.  That ad came on TV not too long ago when I was scribbling notes down for the convention PCs and seemed the perfect name for a dark elf or half-demon character.  Well, Xeljanz became a lighting rod for comedy.  So, too, the jeweled, egotistical sword named Zirkik.  Throughout the session, we kept calling him Zurich, Xerox, Zeke, Zircon, etc.

Also, plenty of premium Nyborg (space cocaine) was lying around the violet-black sand surrounding the islands.  I gave everyone a bonus to attack if their characters were coked out of their minds.  GMing at a convention is all about adapting to expectations, desires, and game table "texture" - those unexpected events that create myriad ripples and wrinkles in the pattern.

Rule #37:  It should be easier to die in a convention game, but also easier to be resurrected.

Purple had the weirdest ending.  I kind of painted myself into a corner, but it was super-cool.  Like my choices were silently being stolen away by Salvatore Dali.  So, I didn't mind and just went with it.  The party hid from the Purple Putrescence overhead.  Normally, a black pylon is the safest place to hide when The Thing That Rots From The Sky comes around.  But one of the players asked an innocent question to no one in particular: "Do you think we're safe in here?"  I took it upon myself to roll my 33% rule.  If the percentile dice came 01 to 33, they would not be safe at all.  The dice came up 27 or something.  So, one of those gargantuan, veined, purple tentacles wrapped itself around the pylon and uprooted the thing.

The adventurers did the only logical thing - experiment with the colored crystals until a portal opened.  They did, it did, and they escaped... to another universe that was far more Lovecraftian than even the one tenanted by the purple islands.  They had heard about a dream vision or prophecy of a man in black who would destroy the world.  The PCs thought they had met him earlier but were unsure, now there was this other dude cloaked in black and surrounded by glistening flesh full of eyes, tentacles, mouths, and leering mutant faces.

I knew I couldn't top that, so ended it right there.  Fade to black...

Liberation and Outer Presence went more as expected... but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow or the next day.

If you have a question, comment, or anything else.  Please leave a comment below!

VS

p.s.  Special thanks to +Meredith Spearman for taking notes and then a picture of those notes.  Zirkik loved the attention but couldn't understand how his name got so mangled.  I'm pretty sure he blames Glarg or whatever that half-orcs name was...

p.p.s.  Thanks to +Tim Virnig and +Glenn Holmer for taking pictures.

The Purple Islands run Crimson

I really wanted to introduce Crimson Dragon Slayer to a group I'd never roleplayed with before... just to make sure my love for the game wasn't solely dependent upon the people I was constantly gaming with.  I got my wish earlier today, playing with +Forrest Aguirre, his two friends Tony and Julius, and veteran of the Ultra Zone, Daniel (who made up for Forrest's other friend who was sick and couldn't make it).

Not having time to prepare much beforehand, I decided to use The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  I've done both 'getting to the purple islands' and 'having been on the islands for awhile' one-shots, so decided to go with the latter.

Here are the characters...

Shade Ivory, a halfling ranger/shaman was played by Julius.

Great Mega Dread, a crystalline wizard was played by Tony.

Little Plasma Bane, a robot wizard was played by Forrest.

Rex Slaughter, a dwarf warrior was played by Daniel.

Everyone rolled 3d6 in order.  Daniel rolled an actual "3" for Rex Slaughter's intelligence.  He had the option to re-roll in exchange for rolling on the dark secrets table in Liberation of the Demon Slayer.  He took advantage of that option... but to raise one of his other ability scores.  Daniel is one of the weird ones (which is probably why he feels at home at my table).

Let me see if I can get the backstory we hashed out for his character correct: he started off as the CEO of a successful company, like Christian Grey from 50 Shades of Grey.  So, in the real world (before he was sucked into the Crimson Dragon Slayer text-based RPG for the Commodore 64 by Infravision, circa 1983) he was really smart.  But then he communicated with Yogsoggoth in the public restroom of his office building.  In the stall next to his, there was a demon lord who asked for some spare toilet paper... and was denied.  Instead, he got a face full of Yogsoggoth!

"You ask for extra toilet paper, you get a Great Old One!"

The sanity-crush was too much.  Rex Slaughter went from CEO to "I like candy corn!" and I think in that moment was ushered into the Crimson Dragon Slayer game.  Thule suddenly had a new village idiot.

I won't go into too much detail, but there were several encounters.  Some cavemen inside a cave.  The savages became a cult under the leadership of Faashko, the Practitioners of the Black Path High Priest (the PCs found a wallet inside his robes).  They were sacrificing none other than Kalthalax, the legendary demon slaying sword!  Because... why not.  I had rolled on the "what are they sacrificing?" table and got relic/artifact (found in How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss).  Just so happens that I had brought my newest acquisition, a foam LARP sword that looks like it was corrupted in Hell.  So, I slapped that down on the table once the PCs had possession of it.  The players were impressed with that bit of visual aid - the kind you can take a few practice swings with.

"I like candy corn!"

Purple also has a personality table for magic swords.  It's like the dice new what the Hell they were doing... Kalthalax demanded to be worshiped.  So, that led to some interesting roleplaying between the blade and its wielder.  "Announcing my presence before I wade into the blood of your enemies would be nice."

Midway through, the PCs fought space invaders... like the video game.  As damage was done, their chartreuse neon pixels went out until all three were eventually de-rezed.  The fight was only half over before the 8' tall robot went offline for repairs.

More cultists happened by while the adventurers were sleeping.  Luckily Great Mega Dread was on watch.  Trying to ward them off himself, he cast mesmerizing magenta mist.  It worked, but the purple islands can have a strange affect on magic.  His spell also conjured 3 small sub-species imps that served him for five rounds.  In that time, the little demonic critters offed two of the cultists.

Then a purple lighting backlash electrocuted the wizard.  His scream woke up Rex Slaughter... who went back to sleep, annoyed at the interruption.

One of the strangest moments was after the new cultists' bodies had been looted.  They found a singular gemstone.  I rolled on the colors table (also in How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss) and got "color changes based on mood", #82 or something like that.  For the robot, it stayed grey, for Shade Ivory's happiness it turned yellow.  For Great Mega Dread's frustration I wanted another random color.  Believe it or not, I rolled the exact same result!

After a few seconds of thought, voicing my curiosity aloud, and a little back and forth from the players, we determined that the gemstone changed color based upon the mood of the holder, as well as, its own mood determined by how it felt about the person holding it.  Weird...

Rex Slaughter wanted to smash it, but being crystalline, Great Mega Dread was determined to keep it safe.

"Dumb is not an emotion."

Back to sleep... and that's when I rolled on Purple's "while they were sleeping" table.  I got the sleepwalking result and wondered if that mood-gem wasn't somehow responsible.  Great Mega Dread sleepwalked for a couple hours, until he came to the edge of an enormous crater filled with a hideous violet mist.

That's when a damaged tank was found with a working laser cannon.  Also, a small, thin rectangle communicator that put the adventurers in touch with Navigator Jones First Class.  He was on a space station called Alpha Blue and would pick them up in about 25 parsecs.

Before their rendezvous, the guys felt a tremor along the ground.  Seconds later, a giant purple worm erupted from the crater's center.  That's when Rex Slaughter slashed at the worm eleven times in a row (my own misinterpretation of badly worded rules regarding fighters being able to attack until they miss).  He did 64 points of damage.  Little Plasma Bane was back at the laser-tank and shot the thing for about 35 damage.  Kalthalax and a spell from the crystalline wizard finished it off after the worm had just about eaten the magic-user.

Just in time for the session to conclude, Alpha Blue descended and beamed the travelers aboard with a soft cerulean light.  They were greeted with a bevy of blonde bombshells in sparkly-silver bikinis.

From what I could tell, everyone had a great time.  There was some post-session discussion about that warrior's special ability.

In my mind, when I wrote those words, I think I meant that only new targets could be hit, if they were within range - not that a warrior can attack and just keep attacking until he misses.  Because if he's going to roll 3d6 for his dice pool, it could be a dozen rolls before his turn ends.  That's too much for everyone else to sit through.

Daniel came up with an intriguing alternative.  For every extra attack, a warrior loses a point of constitution temporarily.  I think I like that better than mine.

Well, that about does it.  Thanks for a great game, guys!


VS

p.s.  Forrest did his own write-up here.

p.p.s.  I came home from the game to find this review of The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  So, thanks for that, +Bill Adcock!

Simulation One-Eleven

My friend +Oli Palmer is running his weird-as-fucking-hell The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence campaign with session reports on his blog.  As a special favor, he asked me if I would do a short video for when the PCs get to the end and find a room with a large screen where the creator personally congratulates, curses, or confuses them.

It seemed just the kind of surreal, over-the-top, meta thing that the purple islands call out for.  I purposely made it brief and open-ended so that individual Game Masters could tailor the experience to their liking.  If you ever use this, GMs, I definitely want to read about it.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

VS

Blessings of the Purple Putrescence

Soon...

VS

p.s.  The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence (both PDF and softcover) will be on sale until the baby comes.  Might be tonight... could be the middle of next week!

Purple like a Fucking Boss!

I've got two THREE things to blog about today...

The first is Eric's review for The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  After reading the Dungeons & Donuts review, Eric felt compelled to read and critique Purple for himself over at Swords & Stitchery.  He was very complementary.  Of course, it's old school, science-fantasy gonzo.  If that's your cup of tea, then most of the time you'll love what I did with Purple.  At least, that's what I keep reading on the internet.

The second thing is a sneak preview of my forthcoming book, How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss with an exclusive look inside!  It won't be available until June, so there's still plenty of time to send me Game Mastering questions.

Here is the third Purple review over at rpggeek and several other places.  Look the fuck out, it's raining purple!

Thanks to Eric Fabiaschi, Geek Native, and Matthew McHale respectively.  ;)

VS

Illustrated review for The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence

Kiel Chenier of Dungeons & Donuts fame graciously reviewed The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence with purple illustrations on his blog.  Up until the very end, I thought his analysis was really cool, interesting, and funny (though, I'm a traditionalist when it comes to the male pronoun as neutral).  His downgrade of two stars notwithstanding, I still enjoyed Kiel's take on the book. Thanks, hoss!

Those interested in acquiring The Purple Islands for their own bizarre purposes should look on the right side (and down a bit) of this blog or check Amazon (that softcover is printed on a slightly higher grade cream-colored paper).

VS

p.s.  Terrible art?  No such thing!

p.p.s.  Looks like the reviewer got some backlash.  Take a look.