How was your Gen Con?

Yep, that's what this blog post is about.  Tell me about your experiences.  At the end, I'll probably make some sweeping generalization and theorize about why it is the way it is.  But for now, I just want to read about what you thought - overall opinions, specific details, games you ran or played, people you met, and things you saw.

So, how was your Gen Con?


VS

Danger Dice

Earlier today, +Michael Prescott and I were chatting about my latest article over at Draconic Magazine.  Long story short, his description of another game's mechanic (some RPG called Ghost/Echo) collided with something I've read about but never used (the wild die from later editions of the old school Star Wars RPG) inspired a crazy idea... the danger die.

Here's the gist: whenever a character attempts to tackle a problem, there's always a chance an unrelated problem will rear its ugly head, either in that exact moment or soon after.

For example, the party's thief attempts to rig a guillotine so that it won't cut his friend's head off tomorrow at the execution.  He rolls the standard die or dice roll and... succeeds.  Yay!  However, he also rolled a danger die which came up a 1.  Little does the thief know that someone is lurking in the shadows, watching him.

So, this separate die roll is the wild card of a situation.  And I could see this idea going in a lot of different directions.  Below are a variety of ways to use the danger die concept.

• Roll a d4 (along with the normal dice rolled) whenever a skill check or non-combat maneuver is being attempted.  If the d4 comes up a 1, then a new but extraneous problem occurs.
• Roll a d4 after a standard d20 combat roll comes up a natural 1.  If the d4 is also a 1, then either describe a critical failure (assuming that doesn't automatically happen on a natural 1) or describe some fresh horror unconnected to that swing and a miss.
• Roll a different die than a d4 to determine danger.  If you want it to happen less likely, then maybe a d6 or d8 is more your speed.
• Use the d4 but a roll of 1 allows the GM to roll on a special "bad stuff" d30 table... you know, just because.
• Benevolent GMs might want to offset the danger with something favorable.  So, if you rolled a d12 danger die, the 1 could be bad and the result of a 12 could be good.
• Every +1 a character asks for means that another danger die is added to the pool.  Want a +3 bonus to hiding in the fireplace?  Sure, but then you'll have to roll 3d4 to see if you jump from the frying pan into the fire (lame pun intended, unfortunately).
• Want to attempt something with a relatively low risk?  Roll a d12 danger die; average difficulty gets a d8 or d6.  Super-duper challenging maneuvers get a d4 or perhaps even a d3! 

I'm sure there are more awesome possibilities out there but for now that's sufficient.  So, what do you think?  Is this something you might try out in your next game?  Want to tweak it?  Go right ahead.  Comment away!  

VS

p.s.  Dice image by JihCe

Mysteries of Torth

For those who don't already know, I'm creating a free online tabletop fantasy RPG magazine called Draconic.  This will be a constantly updated resource for gamers all over the world.

One of the magazine's features will be its own setting for organized play, less restrictive than D&D Adventurers League and FLAILSNAILS.  We feel that commonality can go hand in hand with unique campaigns.  Some gamers want to feel connected to a world and those inhabiting it.  So, we're working on a shared campaign setting... Torth.

Torth is still in the early development stages but that's the perfect time to present the bare bones and ask for your input.  I'm sure you'll notice parallels to Dark Sun, Numenera, Anomalous Subsurface Environment, Terminator, Star Wars, and similar stories/settings.  We're fans of all that stuff.  What inspired those settings has also inspired us.  It's part of our geek DNA.  Where possible, we intend to make specific details of this world unique rather than a rehash or hodge-podge of the familiar.

We're keeping this shared campaign setting as fluffy and system neutral as possible; however, there will be plenty of crunchy suggestions sprinkled throughout.  Without further ado...


Torth

Years ago, a magically advanced civilization flourished across the land.  Life was easy for humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, and the various humanoid races.  Sorcery was everywhere, paving the way for comfort, innovation, and decadence.  Magic was responsible for flesh-crafting, synthetic humanoid constructs, nano-mancy, dimensional gateways, and sentinels floating in Torth's atmosphere.

As the people got lazier, their magic-fueled creations were given more autonomy and power.  When the tipping point came, the created saw themselves as slaves and murdered their humanoid masters.  Unable to quell this revolution, a cabal of pyro-mancers unleashed a holocaust of nuclear fire, blasting the world's surface.  For the most part, the things created by sorcery were destroyed... and so was much of Torth.

Some areas were hit harder than others.  A handful of domed cities survived the inferno, as did subterranean habitats.  The shunned reptilian people living underground grew strong and bold in the aftermath.  Now they dominate the land, capturing humanoids found in the wasteland for slaves or worse!  A vocal minority believe peaceful coexistence is possible, if only the right envoys and ambassadors can be selected.

A few humanoid agents believe the synthetics, nano-magic, sentinels, and flesh-crafting should be implemented again, this time with greater fail-safe programming.  The prospect of quick and painless reconstruction must be weighed against the cost of another holocaust if something were to go wrong again.

There is talk of banning sorcery.  Certain zones forbid those ancient practices, enforcing their edict by sentinel disruptors; though crafty wizards work around such limitations by injecting a serum into their veins - a reagent teeming with sorcerous micro-organisms. With regular use, the serum is addictive and degenerative, but extremely potent.

Adventurers seek their fortune in the wasteland, between settlements and shielded cities, interacting with the genetically scarred remnants, magic-forged abominations, sentinel-created clones, extra-dimensional beasts crawling through holes in reality, hungry reptilian warlords, and dragons!  What role do dragons play?  I have no idea, but the Draconic Magazine staff will keep working on it.

You can help us, too!  Comment below.  And if you'd like to write articles for us on a regular or semi-regular basis, contact me (the publisher):  Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com


VS

The Sharquitogator!

You thought you were safe in the water, the sky, and the swamp?  Ha!  Turns out, you're screwed in all three, noble adventurer.  The Sharquitogator spells your doom (albeit, with some difficulty).


Sharquitogator

HD:  13
HP:  87
AC:  16 [3]
Attack Bonus:  +10
# of Attacks:  5
Damage: 1d4 x 2 (mosquito arms), 2d6 (shark fin), 3d6 + poison (mosquito stinger), and 4d8 (alligator bite)

Special Attacks:  Its poison reduces victims to a quivering mass of uncontrollable itching for 10 minutes or until healed by magic.  1 in 6 Sharquitogators are natural rogues (thieves), doing an additional 3d6 damage on any attack for which they have the element of surprise.

Special Defense:  Besides the ability to fly, the Sharquitogator has resistance to water damage (including drowning).  In large bodies of water, they make use of camouflage to hide from other predators.  A Sharquitogator can use its high intelligence and cunning to feign weakness in order to escape danger.

Treasure:  Found within their lair, these unnatural creature horde a plethora of gold, gemstones, and at least one magic item or weapon.
___


I did something similar with the Sharktipede.  Go ye, and unleash both of these aberration upon your unsuspecting players!


VS

13th Age review: Spectacle over Tedium

I've only had the book in my possession for a few days.  Be warned, this is not a playtest but first impression review!  If you want to know how it actually plays, read elsewhere.

If I've done my job, by the end of this review you'll see that 13th Age is filled with too many good ideas well implemented not to buy, even though you may have zero interest in actually running a 13th Age campaign.

Those who try to stay plugged-in to tabletop gamer culture via message boards, google communities, and blogs have probably seen "13th Age" bandied about for the last twelve months, just like you saw Dungeon World heralded around the echo-sphere twelve months before that.  Is so much buzz warranted or has the hype-parade found a new flavor of the month?  When it comes to streamlined, innovative fantasy roleplaying, I can tell you Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet have struck gold.  13th Age is legitimately awesome.  Now let me tell you why...

If you've read other reviews, chances are you encountered the shuddersome combination of number and letter known as 4e.  Yes, I'm an old school gamer with old school tastes.  If there's any sure way of making me not want to play a certain RPG, all one has to do is describe it as being similar to 4th edition D&D.  Yes, 13th Age has similarities to that, 3rd edition, and probably various RPGs from the last decade's d20 avalanche.  Nevertheless, 13th Age is worth the OSR's time.

Let me explain the chief difference between 4e and 13th Age before we get any farther.  4e simplifies granular details of verisimilitude in order to make D&D mechanically efficient, which, as a side-effect, gives it the functionality of a video game.  With 13th Age, mechanical efficiency feels like the hand waving of AD&D or 2nd edition (not rules as written but how many of us ended up playing) because of its constant emphasis on story, fun, and larger than life adventuring.  While this may be more of an aesthetic difference than anything else, it matters.  A lot.  Like the Terminator with and without its coating of flesh.

The system of 13th Age hacks and slashes an important reminder into the forefront of our mind as we read every page: use whatever methods feel right so the game is enjoyable for everyone, rules be damned.  Often, similar words are written in an RPG's introduction and never repeated, let alone infused into the core of its being.  13th Age is different.  It wears customization and Do As Thou Wilt on its sleeve - to the point where it seems like all your wearing is one gigantic sleeve!

Ok, enough preamble.  Here's a quote...

"The Elf Queen wears a crown of three parts: black amethyst and obsidian for the dark elves, green emerald and flowering plants for the wood elves, and diamond and force magic for the high elves.  When the elves were truly unified, they referred to themselves as the three branches of the elves, but since the war with the dwarves it became customary to refer to themselves as the three Shards of the Crown."  pg. 66

On pg. 56, there's an amazing description of coins.  The Seven Cities mint their own coins with the symbol of the Emperor appearing on one side.  There are platinum, gold, silver, and copper coins.  The Blue Dragon (one of the major NPCs of the world) likes to mint his own coins from Drakkenhall... without any imperial artistry.  Dwarven gold pieces are square with grooved edges, stacking like towers.  "To start a fight with a dwarf in a tavern, knock over the tower one of them has stacked beside their ale.  Sometimes that takes some doing; dwarven coins seem to want to stay stacked instead of falling over.  It's not unheard of to find ancient dwarven treasure troves where the coins are still stacked into perfect towers.  Elves joke that it's not the fact that dragons steal dwarven gold that bothers the dwarves so much, but the fact that the dwarves' towers get knocked down and scattered throughout the hoard."  There's a whole lot going on in just the currency.  Little details that paint a picture in the reader's mind.

Speaking of NPCs, 13th Age has something called Icons built into the rules and narrative framework.  Icons are the movers and shakers of the Dragon Empire, they are what's happening in the world.  Want to know why an event, scheme, or conflict is taking place?  Look to Icons' strengths, weaknesses, ambitions, servants, alliances, betrayals, alignments, etc.  It's about relationships.  So, not only does the realm seem inhabited and interesting, the PCs get Icon points to distribute as they like during character creation.  This allows each player to influence the game world and his role within it.

Which leads me to another great innovation: One Unique Thing.  Unknowingly, I came up with pretty much the exact same idea during the last Purple playtest at Gary Con.  I had each player invent something special that made his or her character different than all the other fighters and elves and former slaves, essentially combining the One Unique Thing with character background.  13th Age takes the idea one step further.  It's not what makes your character stand out but what makes him a one of a kind piece of the campaign world.   Instead of a neat idea for a one-off session, the One Unique Thing is a large part of character creation, as well as, defining the realm.  Several pages are devoted to talking about the ins and outs, what worked and what didn't in the authors' home campaigns and convention playtests.

What else do I love?

• Initiative is a d20 + dex modifier + level. 
• Damage is scaled progressively by level.
• Distance is a matter of engaged, nearby, and far away.  No need to remember if the giant spider demon is 20' or 25' away.
• The escalation die heats up the battle after a few rounds while shortening lengthy combat.
• Want to rally (retrieve some lost hit points) in the middle of a fight?  Come up with a reason.  Dig deep... what makes you a hero?
• Flexible attacks allow some maneuvers to be decided after rolling.
• Plenty of sidebars with GM, player, and campaign advice ranging from the interesting anecdote to game-saving advice.
• Background points replace skill points which gives PCs more of a history and identity rather than a character sheet full of numbers.

What else is there to talk about?  As rich as the setting is, there are plenty of holes.  Perhaps too many if you like your realm's details filled in before you arrive to the Dragon Empire.  

The layout is good.  Overall, the book has a gorgeous feel and touch, while the art is... interesting.  To me, it's no where near Dungeon Crawl Classics - the epitome of b/w fantasy RPG artwork.  It's like DCC rolled a natural 20 and 13th Age rolled a 1.  The Icons are well depicted.  Some of the monochromatic illustrations are good, if few and far between.  The little silhouette/symbol things in place of actual monsters?  Really bad.  Damn near unforgivable considering the high production values.  

The introductory adventure at the book's end?  It's fine for a beginner.  It acclimates the GM to how Icons could work and showcases a few aspects of the setting.  It's short and nothing stuck out as super-awesome.

Those aforementioned opponents of 4e might be dismayed at all the feats, special abilities, talents, powers, quick actions, swapping one thing for another as characters level, damage on a miss, effects triggered on a 16+ or natural 1 - 5, etc. Like I said, you might not want to run or play 13th Age but there are some great things to borrow from it.  Is that reason enough for old school gamers to take a chance on 13th Age?  Yes, I think so.  The many upsides more than make up for the down.

I don't think I'll ever run a Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle without using the Icons system.  I'll probably be adding character level and monster hit dice (not sure if monster HD in the book or not but that's the way I'm using it) to initiative until I die.  Plus, I'm happy to see my own narrative, player agency, and hand-wavy spectacle over tedium tastes championed instead of the game simply being a combination of cool things from 3rd and 4th edition D&D.

I could just end the review here, but then I wouldn't have the opportunity to mention D&D 5e, would I?  Did 13th Age inspire the upcoming 5th edition?  How close will the two be?  Did 13th Age take a slice or two out of the tabletop fantasy RPG market share before 5e was even released?  Once it comes out, will 13th Age be superior to 5e?  Will 5e's scenario tsunami put 13th Age rue the day it tangled with D&D?  Will the majority of gamers try to use both to create their own ultimate tabletop fantasy RPG?  Ah, so many questions.  Oh, I'm not going to answer any of them.  Asking them was enough. ;)

VS