Myrkwell: The Resurrected Gamer

My Obligatory Metatopia Post

2011-11-10T15:47:00.006-05:00

So I attended Double Exposure’s Metatopia this past week. It goes without saying that it was an invaluable experience (well now I went and said it but you get my point). The Game Design Festival doesn’t come close to describing it. In fact, I can sum it up with one word: wow. Yep, that’s it. That’s all you get. If you want more, circle the date for next year’s Metatopia on your calendar. You won’t be disappointed.

Every con I attend sheds new light on what has been going on in the gaming scene for years and to some extent it saddens me that I did not plunge into this world sooner. My favorite part of Metatopia was meeting people whose books I can see sitting on the shelf next to me as I write this blog post. I look over and think “Hey! I met that guy or gal”. It’s a unique feeling that is not easy to attain with other hobbies or interests.

I’m generally a quiet person until I get to know people and feel comfortable around them. I don’t like to go in with guns blazing so to speak. I used this first conference to carefully feel my way through the waters of the game design community. I was surprised at how approachable most of the people were and how helpful in general everyone was toward me.

Now I’m going to name drop. Not because these people are buddies of mine but because I actually talked to these people. This list is not composed of just game designers, but instead it has a sampling of everyone I managed to talk to at the con. As you will see there was quite a variety of attendees. These are my general first impressions and will probably change if I’m fortunate enough to meet with some of these amazing people at future cons. Please don’t take offense if you are one the people I list and don’t agree with my impressions or categorization, like I said these are just my general impressions of the people I interacted with. I didn’t go out of my way to meet these people, I just let the current of the con take me where it would. Imagine if I had applied myself! I am unforgivably horrible with remembering names, so please TRY to forgive me if you don’t see yours here. I will catch it next time!

In no particular order:

Jennifer Wong (podcaster, game designer) – As friendly as she is charismatic. A growing force in the podcast community. And a budding game designer, she is full of win.

John Stavropoulos (gamer, community organizer NerdNYC) – This is one person I wish I could have spent more time talking with. His infectious enthusiasm for the gaming culture in the area is apparent from the moment you meet him. I’m hoping I can get him to run me through some Dogs in the Vineyard some day!

Ken Hite (game design icon) – His encyclopedic knowledge of games and systems can be seen from space! What do you say to a man this knowledgeable about a field you hope to break into? Also, I’m afraid I nearly insulted him asking about a game he didn’t seem to care for. I’ll fix that with a beer when next we meet!

John Adamus (Editor, Designer, One-man army)– Enthusiastic best describes John. I have a feeling he will be the unseen hand shaping the careers of many local writers and designers.

Fred Hicks(Designer, Publisher, panelist,) – Purple-haired Lord of Loquaciousness. Frank and pragmatic, he was a whirl wind moving through the convention like he owned the place. And I think if you would have asked most attendees, he did.

Brennan Taylor (Game Designer, Publisher, Panelist) – His laugh. You know the laugh. Loud and infectious. The man has a great sense of humor. I’ve played games with him twice now and it’s always a blast. He was perpetually styling in his Bulldogs flight jacket (I was jealous every time I saw it!)

Rob Donoghue (Game Designer, Publisher, Comedian) – Genuine, thoughtful and surprisingly hilarious. I will never forget the laughs his role-playing brought to the game I played in with him. I really like the way he seemed to actually listen to what I had to say (which wasn’t much). Great guy. You should say hi to him if you ever see him.

Vinny Salzillo–Ubiquitous. I swear he has cloned himself. HE WAS EVERYWHERE. Thanks for making this con happen.

Joshua A.C. Newman (designer) Inspired and passionate. This guy is driven. He has a unique view on games and is a vibrant member of the game design elite. The community needs a ton of people just like him.

Brenden Conway (Gamer, Panelist) – Friendly. He is a catalyst for fun. He hosted a play test panel I attended and played in two games with me.

Hanna Shaffer (Gamer, future designer) – Great smile. Friendly and inquisitive. Her interest in learning more about the gaming scene is apparent. As a gaming newbie she performed admirably in the game I played alongside her. I know I’ll see her back at future cons!

James “Call me Mendez” Hodes (Gamer, Designer) He can bring the funny. Like Brennan Taylor I’ve gamed with him twice now and he has had me cackling every time. Play a game with him, you’ll see.

Tim Rodriguez (Designer, Gamer, podcaster) A great guy (in fact he’s Mister Fantastic). Played in an entertaining game with him and hung out a few times at the con. Listen to his podcast. Check out his kickstarter project.

Russell Morrisey (Designer,gamer) Friendly and enthusiastic. I’ve been following Russell’s game design progress with interest. I’m rooting for him.

Darren Watts (Publisher, IPR guy!) Friendly and knowledgeable, this gentleman’s IPR booth is the bane of my wallet!

Dave “the Game” Chalker (Secret Santa) I signed an NDA or I would tell you more about the awesomeness that was the Marvel RPG game run by Dave. He’s a great GM and I hope to be in his future games.

Larry Bogucki (Game Designer) This man is on a mission! Support Warparty or else!

Joseph Bloch (Game Designer) Beneath that perpetual scowl lurks an intense game designer passionate about his game Adventures Dark & Deep!

Jim & Meg (play testers for my game Champions of Midralon) – I never caught your last names, but I would like to thank you again for taking part in my spur of the moment play test. The fact that you were laughing and enjoying yourselves so much gave me hope that I’m on the right track with my game.

See who you missed? Now kick yourself in the ass and make your reservations for next year!

[The Adventures of an RPG Game Design Noob: Part 1] Surprising Progress!

2011-09-19T18:22:00.000-04:00

Progress is it's own reward and I'm seeing lots of it with the game I'm designing. I feel good about how it's shaping up and I like the direction I've decided to take it in. I'm still tossing around a few ideas for pacing mechanisms (look at me talking like a game designer!) and what actually constitutes "winning" the game. I mean winning as in how to end the game—not in the Charlie Sheen I AM, THEREFORE I WIN sense.

I guess I can thank my two hour daily commute for helping out with the game. The commute has given me plenty of time to listen to some excellent game design podcasts like: Master Plan, Narrative Control, Jennisodes and the latest one: New Style! I've picked up some valuable information already and sent out a few emails to some of the guests on the shows. I'm hoping they are as friendly and helpful as they sound on the podcast.

I'm surprisingly close to actually having something I can play test. With any luck I can round up some of the usual suspects this weekend and throw the first iteration of the rules set at them and see what survives. I still don't feel comfortable talking about the actual theme of the game yet but I will reveal this small piece of the intro blurb I've written: my game is a game about proud, boastful warriors overcoming mighty challenges and deadly rivalries to earn glory and prestige. It is a game about heroes becoming legends.

I've even started to think about art, layout and editing. I'm hoping to form some kind of collaborative network with some other designers/artists/gamers looking for the same thing. Maybe using some kind of work barter method, we'll see. There you have it, more to come soon!

It has begun!

2011-09-17T19:31:00.000-04:00

After kicking around the idea of creating my own RPG game for a while I finally started putting it together. I've written a short piece of fiction to set the theme of the game and serve as an intro for the book and now I'm hashing out the main rules. I've so many ideas bursting out of my head right now I'm trying to get a handle on them. I woke up this morning and my muse just kicked into overdrive.
I want to ride the streak for as long as I can so I'm trying to keep writing as much as possible, which includes updating this blog! I'm not sure how much I intend to document my process at this point but I know there will be some kind of progress tracking. I need it for myself more than anything. I know I perform better when I see quantifiable milestones being achieved.
The first hurdle has been cleared, I've started it. Here's hoping I can cross the finish line!

I survived Dexcon 14!!

2011-07-12T16:39:00.000-04:00

Working on the blog posts for Dexcon 14! So much to blog about I didn't know where to start, so I've decided to post about each day of the con starting with Thursday (technically not the first day of the con, but the first day we arrived there!)

Stay tuned for more!

Cthulhutech: Smoke and Mirrors

2011-05-13T15:32:00.003-04:00

Here's another chapter in our Cthulhutech story! Brought to you by ramen: noodles that fuel creativity.

Cthulhutech: Smoke & Mirrors

"Form up on me. Keep your scanners wide and stay frosty." Lt. Coccio signaled and the other mecha gathered around him, save for Zephyr still in his pod. “Greyhawk, how many rockets do you have?”

“20 sir.”

“I don’t have any left,” Ritz added.

“Alright, let’s ration our rockets.” That didn’t comfort Akita. Fighting the Migou took all of Ritz’s rockets and cost them Zephyr’s mech. What hope did they have now?

"Stand watch. I have a transmission coming in from base." He didn't sound too pleased. After a minute, Zymani heard his voice again.

"Shit! We got incoming. Set up a perimeter. Shit, we don’t have stealth. Everyone who can fly keep watch. You’ll see a friendly ETA 10 minutes." Zymani wondered if it would be a NEG operative that would tell her what the hell was happening and give the next set of orders. She rose with Ritz and Moody into the sky.

Exactly 10 minutes later Zymani got a blip on her scanner for a transport, not a mech. A man in a black suit came out. He looked like he was part of the President of New Earth's government, but Zymani could tell the President wasn't in that transport. A NEG reporter stepped out instead. She quickly surveyed the battlefield in front of them, hurrying her camera crew along.

"Quick Tim, get my mic up. Oh, this is a good shot." She smoothed out her shirt and took a breath. “Another great victory over the Migou by Captain Chip Savage! Led by Captain Savage, NEG forces were able to repel a Migou invasion force heading for Camp Juneau. There must be over 30 mecha here from both Nazzadi loyalists and Migou invaders. Tim! Come get some footage of the debris. This is good." The reporter and her camera crew walked back into the transport followed by the suit.

"Alright, you three can come down." Coccio couldn't see Zymani barring her fangs. If she wasn't fond enough of the NEG newscasts already, this encounter with the Division of Propaganda strengthened her opinion. As she descended, she noticed a faint blip on her AR display. It disappeared the instant it came up.

“Did anyone see that?”

“What is it RoseRage?”

“Wait, I saw it too.” Ritz’s response assured Zymani that she wasn’t completely crazy yet.

“Hm, whatever it was, we shouldn’t stay here long enough to meet it. We’re heading back to Camp Juneau. Moody, stay half a click behind and scan for bugs. If anything comes up on radar, get back here as fast as you can."

“Yes sir." his mech was gone in almost an instant.

"Greyhawk, make some room in your cockpit for Zephyr. I know it'll be cramped, but he needs better shielding than a pod."

"Understood sir." Gir lowered the pod and Nasala made his way from his pod to the opening in the Claymore.

Nasala fist bumped Grayson. "Best friends!" he sat close to Wright to make sure he didn't hit anything that could detonate.

"Let's move out." The squad moved forward, matching speed with the lumbering Claymore. Akita kept watch behind the group. One blip. Three blips. Ten blips. They were swarming up, chasing the small squad. Soon the blips had almost caught up with him. They saw flashes of Dragonfly wings in the distance.

“Sir! There’s a shitload of Locusts coming!"

"Shit. Come up Moody. We need to get to base. Form a perimeter with Greyhawk." Akita moved his mech forward and caught up with the squad. The ghost blips were coming up closer and more frequently now. A large four legged mecha came skittering into view.

“Come in Juneau, we need air support!” The urgency in Coccio’s voice put Zymani on edge. Chatter filled the radio waves between them and the base.

“I gotta save the newbies’ asses again?” Chopper’s familiar gruff voice came over the comm. His mech was a welcome relief as he lead his squadron of mechs into range of the fleeing group.

The Locusts pulled away as Camp Juneau came into sight. The pilots guided their mecha into the maintenance bay and emerged from their mecha as repair crews rushed out to meet them.

"You are all dismissed. I need to find out what's going on from Captain Boomhouser." Lt. Coccio rushed off.

"Ugh, first thing I'm gonna do is get a shower," Wendell brushed the Engel fluid off his mecha suit.

"Where's my mech?!" Sergeant Wynn looked to Nasala. Nasala outranked him, but he still seemed a bit intimidated.

"The bugs tore it. Do you think you could get me something sturdier?"

"...Sure. Twelfth one this month..." Sergeant Wynn grumbled as he went to check for any more missing mechs.

Even though none of the Engel fluid actually touched him, Wendell made sure to scrub every last bit of the goo off his skin. He headed back to his room for a change of clothes. Luckily Chopper wasn't there. He leaned over Chopper's bed and mussed up his sheets for good measure. Wendell liked Akita's idea of going straight to the bar and headed there for some fun.

Zymani let the cool water hit her face and drip off her bobbed scarlet hair. It was refreshing but it wasn't as warm as the fluid in the cockpit of her Engel. Sitting in the Engel was like sitting in the warm Spanish sunshine back at the Barcelona arcology. However comfortable it was, the cockpit wasn’t exactly the safest place to be. You can still feel chill in the summer, thought Zymani.

After she was washed and clothed, Zymani headed down to the rec room. She saw Greyson there with Panic and Lt. Allen. She slowly crept up and grabbed Panic’s shoulders.

“Saved your life!” She giggled as Panic jumped.

“Not funny! D-don’t do that!” Panic scowled at her. “I’m gonna head to the bar. You coming Allen?” Allen shrugged.

“Eh, I’ll just watch over these rookies. What are you guys playing?”

“Just a round of pool or something.” Wright racked up the balls and Zymani grabbed some cues.

“So I heard you guys ran into some trouble.”

“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Zymani replied absently, focusing on her shot. The two ball sank neatly in the corner pocket.

“I heard there were some news crews too.”

Zymani paused for a moment. “That was definitely an…interesting encounter.” She lined up her next shot.”Five, side pocket.”

“Yeah…?” She stopped again and looked up at Allen, gauging his reaction as much as he was gauging hers. She figured the only way through this conversation would be to finally give an opinion. “…I love how Chip Savage was so kind and convenient to help us win the fight.” She banked the one ball so hard it almost flew off the table and missed the side pocket.

“I know what you mean. You know what? In all my years of service, I have never seen the guy? I wonder if he’s even real. Hell, we’re not even near Juneau.” Wright and Zymani’s heads snapped up.

“…We’re not?” Zymani didn’t care how stupid she sounded. “Did they name it to throw enemies off? Like some sort of misdirection?” But the Migou had still found the base.

“Almost. They named it Juneau because they don’t want the public to know the truth. The Migou invasion has pushed farther inwards than they know. Juneau fell a while ago.”

Zymani’s angry shell shattered. Chip, the news reports, and now Juneau. What did the NEG tell her that wasn’t a lie? And how were they supposed to win a war if the people fighting didn’t know the truth half the time? Her grip on the cue tightened. How was this different from the Migou feeding her people lies and treating them like pawns? No, she would not share the pawn’s fate!

“Barcelona? It’s your turn…” Zymani blinked at Wright who looked at her as if she had bug wings. She looked down at her knuckles, almost white with rage around the cue. She shook the thoughts out of her head. She was an Engel pilot, not some Migou slave.

“Sorry guys. Here, Allen, you can finish the game.” She handed the cue to Allen and brushed her bangs away from her face. “I’m kinda tired. I’m going to go to my room. Buenas noches.”

***

Wendell walked into the bar. He spied Akita trying to chat up Honey. The old Ritz charm would probably work better.

"So...you come here often?" Honey looked at Akita. That was seriously the best he could muster.

"...Yeah. We're stationed here."

Wendell interrupted their conversation with a slap on Akita’s back. "Hello there sweet Honey." He gave her the famous Haversham eyebrow wiggle. "Can I get you a drink?"

"I'll always have a drink with a comrade." She didn't seem too fazed by the Haversham eyebrows.

"Can I get you two drinks?" Akita piped in. Honey smirked at him.

"Sure. Oh hey Panic!" Honey motioned to Panic as he entered the bar. Bensen sighed as he walked over to join them.

"Hey Honey," he sat down at the bar and ordered a beer.

"Well I gotta go catch up with someone. You'll remember me later." Wendell gave Honey the Haversham brows again before leaving.

***

"What do you need?" Cookie leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk.

"Well Officer-"

"Please, call me Cookie."

"Seriously?"

"Everyone does."

"Okay, Cookie..." Why was he doing this again? Right, cause he might as well have some fun and make some low friends in high places while he was here. "Is there a corner of the office that we could talk in with nobody hearing?"

"This is my office. No one can hear us."

"Alright then...Have you heard of the Havershams or Ryan Orwell?" He gave Cookie a small wink.

"I may have. Why?"

"They might have some profitable business offers for you in the future."

"I see. And what would they want in return?"

"Some kickbacks, mostly in the form of goods."

"Of course. Anything else?"

"One more thing. Roses and chocolates delivered to this room." Cookie raised a brow.

"I see. Well, thank you for your business."

"And you for yours." Wendell closed the door behind him.

***

The bar got louder and friendlier as the night went on. Panic leaned closer to Akita, the alcohol heavy on his breath.

"Y'know, you...you're a pretty good guy Akita. I didn't think I'd find anyone here that saw things like I do. I-I mean it's not great here, but it's better than the other option."

"I know what you mean." Akita gave him a light pat on the shoulder.

"Hey Akita, can I talk to you for a sec?" He perked up as Honey called him over.

"What do you need?"

"Nothing, it just looked like you needed rescuing," she gave him a warm smile.

Wendell walked back into the bar, wondering what else he could accomplish on this oh so productive day. He saw Akita talking with Honey again. Wendell hung back this time, looking cool and unconcerned. He saw out of the corner of his eye a woman fluttering her eyelashes at him. His chances with her were better but ugh, Nazzadi. Oh well. He walked over to the bar and ordered her a drink. She giggled as she took the glass.

“My name’s Kitia.” She leaned in close, looking up at him with big red eyes.

“…I’ll call you Kitty.” She giggled again, not taking those damned red eyes off him. “So, your place?”

“Um, I dunno about that. My roommate might not like me bringing back a guy again. But I do know one place…” She pulled him by the shirt and led him out of the bar.

Honey stretched and looked at her PCPU on her wrist.

“Oh, it’s getting kinda late. I should get back to my room.” She started to get up, but Akita was already helping her with her chair.

“Do you want me to walk you to your room?”

“Akita,” she put a hand on his shoulder, “You’re sweet, but you’re not my type. Thanks anyways.”

“Oh, alright…” Akita watched her walk out, then sat in her stool and ordered another drink.

Zymani knocked loudly on her door, in case her roommate had any male company.

“Gregs? It’s Barcelona.”

“Come in.” She found Lt. Gregs alone, changing into pajamas. “And you don’t have to worry about knocking, but I expect the same of you.”

“Understood,” Zymani gave her a quick nod.

“Don’t have to be so formal either…” Honey crawled into the bed and pulled the sheets over herself. “Goodnight Barcelona.”

“…Night Gregs.” Zymani changed into her pajamas and slipped under her covers.

Kitia leaned against the door, panting.

“That was-“ Wendell hit her head against the wall and she slumped, unconscious. He buckled his belt and put his shirt back on. He waited and her eyes flickered back open. “Wha…?”

“That just happened.” He tried not to look smug.

“Woah…but why does my head hurt?”

“Oh, um, blood pressure, heart rate…that stuff.” He slipped away before he had to answer any more questions.

Wendell was surprised not to find Chopper in their room yet. The sheets were still mussed. He shrugged and went to sleep.

It seemed like he had just fallen asleep when an intense pain rocked him out of his sleep. Then realization hit him.

“I owed you that one,” Chopper slurred.

Wendell pulled the sheets over his face and turned away from Chopper.

“If you’re gonna kiss me, cuddle first.”

“Get up you sonnofa bitch!” Wendell tiredly rose from the bed. Chopper was swaying in the middle of the room, whiskey bottle in hand.

“Hey, before this goes any farther…” He paused, and then punched Chopper in the face.

“You bastard!” Chopper swung, but he stumbled and missed. Wendell jumped behind him and held his arms.

“Cool it McBane!” Chopper started shaking as Wendell realized that he was sobbing and let go.

“My…he was my best friend…” Wendell locked the door, sat next to Chopper, and patted him on the back. McBane tilted the bottle to him and Wendell took a sip. “You…you smell like Nazzadi…” Wendell was not amused, but Chopper seemed to ignore it and took a swig of the whiskey. “I wasn’t crying…” Chopper wiped his nose on his arm. Wendell took the bottle back and finished it off.

“No, you weren’t.”

The sun was excruciatingly bright for Akita. He had just woken up and it was already a terrible day. He was gonna be late if he didn’t get to the Captain faster, but everything wouldn’t stop moving. Captain Boomhouser glared at him as he stumbled into line.

“Those Locusts from yesterday are pressing our borders. Lt. Wright, you’re going to head a scouting mission covering six waypoints. The route will be loaded into your HUD. Do not stray too far from the route and do not pursue the enemy. We c an’t afford to lose any more mecha. Good luck, soldiers. Dismissed.”

Greyhawk grabbed a bagel before climbing into his mech. Moody couldn’t keep his breakfast down. He decided to just go with coffee. Ritz found a surprise in his mech: flowers and chocolates.

“No! This isn’t where they’re supposed to be!” Ritz sighed with exasperation. “Guess I’ll just deliver it myself.”

The mecha moved through the forest in a pack. Moody scouted up ahead with Zymani between him and the group. They made it to the first waypoint without a problem. Then a ghost blip popped up on Moody’s scanner, out of the way of the route.

“Greyhawk, we’ve got a ghost.”

“Alright. Moody, investigate the last location of the ghost. RoseRage, stay between us.” This time the ghost popped up between Zymani and the main group.

“I saw it, transmitting coordinates.” Gir tensed up around her. She didn’t like this.

“Everyone, form up at the last known location of the ghost.” The hair on the back of Akita’s neck rose. Something gave him a feeling that he was being watched.

“I think I see a shimmer.” He switched to thermal and then x ray scanners. Two Dragonflies stood cloaked in front of a tree, two more were in the air. “There’s two pairs of cloaked Dragonflies.”

“Moody, relay the coordinates and come back to us. Don’t let them know you saw them.”

“Permission to drop a grav bomb, sir?”

“…Permission granted.” Zymani held her breath. Two Dragonflies popped up in front of her where she guessed the bomb landed. She fired her plasma cannon at them, but somehow they still managed to dodge. Zephyr turned and let his shiny new Blizzard’s rockets loose. A Dragonfly appeared with a chunk missing from its left side. Shrapnel shimmered over the other Dragonfly. Greyhawk’s rockets turned it into shimmering confetti. Ritz shot a laser and cut its friend in half.

Moody’s laser missed the Dragonflies near the trees. They fired back him, but he stumbled and moved out of the way of one blast. The other glanced off his armor. Zephyr’s mech held out its palm and an arc of lightning jumped back and forth between the two Dragonflies. Smoke rose from their shells as their circuits fried. Greyhawk shot a laser at one, shaving off its armor before it exploded. Before Zymani realized what she was doing, her Engel crouched and then lept at the last Dragonfly.

Its wings buzzed as it struggled in Gir’s claws. She wanted to kill it quickly, just as the Migou would if they caught her. Then she heard another voice. Yes, it would be fun to see now a Dragonfly fluttered with its wings pulled off one by one. Ritz’s Cherub landed nearby. Its tail whipped around, twirled, and bashed the Dragonfly in half. Gir’s head snapped to look at Ritz. Zymani’s cockpit rumbled as Gir let out a low, ominous growl.

Something else grabbed their attention. A Migou fluttered up from the wreckage in Gir’s claws.

“Oh god, what the f-“ Moody’s comm was cut off. Zymani stared at it with morbid fascination. Maybe now she could pick it apart and play with it, find what made these flies such a difficult foe. Before she could reach out to touch it, the Migou started to melt and imploded. Damnit.

“Moody? Moody you there?” Ritz’s Cherub moved towards Moody. His mech was slowly drifting towards the ground.

“W-what? What happened? Why is there puke in my helmet?” Moody’s mech righted itself.

“Moody, do you see anything else on the scanners?” Greyhawk hadn’t been close enough to see the Migou like Zymani did.

“Negative, I don’t see anything else.”

“Alright, let’s continue on.”

This was only the second waypoint, Zymani thought.

-VT|RR

"I love Kirby!" "That's lame, all you do is spam rock attack." "But you just got rocked."

CthulhuTech: First Contact

2011-05-01T18:04:00.008-04:00

Here's some fiction based on our group's first true session for CthulhuTech. It's lengthy (about 4 hours we played?), but I hope you all enjoy it!

Cthulhutech: First Contact

The young mecha pilots saluted their old drill sergeant one more time before they loaded their bags onto the waiting transport. Sergeant Tockett , that lovable asshole, saluted them back and said “you finally got your bananas, don’t let me see you apes cry now.” He had busted their asses for several grueling weeks, but they were better officers for it. He made them earn their “butter bars”, the derisive nickname for the thin golden second lieutenant insignias they now wore on their uniform collars.

“Where do you think we’re going?” Wendell picked up his bags and started for the shuttle.

“I don’t know. I’ll-ask-ya,” Zymani replied with a sly grin, her fangs stark white against her black skin. Akita, walking ahead of her, stiffened. Alaska was the main North American front against the Migou. She remembered Officer Flemming’s parting advice just after he had cleaned them out with a game of dice during their trip to basic training: It’s a real shit hole fellas, pray you don’t pull duty here.

“Ugh, this flight is gonna take forever,” grumbled Nasala. The surly Nazzadi stowed his gear under the seat in front of him and next to Naransa’s neatly arranged gear. Soon everyone was loaded onto the shuttle. The craft trembled slightly as its A-pods lifted it into the air, and it was off to Camp Juneau.

“Hey, is something wrong?” Zymani leaned toward Akita. He had barely said a word all morning. Lieutenant Akita “Moody” Nazza-Dhuni looked at her with dull red eyes.

“...It’s just one of those days.” Akita shifted closer to the window and stared off into the distance. Zymani looked over at Greyson who just shrugged and reclined in his seat. Zymani gave a small sigh and did the same. An AR video console projected down from the ceiling and played a feed from the New Earth News Network.

…And on the North American front a Migou incursion into the Anchorage Alaska arcology has met with stiff resistance from NES Armed Forces led by the battlecruiser NES Victory and her daring mecha pilots! Captain Chip Savage is credited with destroying five Migou Mecha and will be receiving a citation for bravery from the President of the United Earth; this will be Captain Savage’s fifth citation for bravery! The Ministry of Information has scheduled a parade in front of the New Earth Government’s capital of Chicago to honor this brave hero of the New Earth Armed Forces.

Chip Savage. A real New Earth hero. Zymani wondered if a Nazzadi could ever be a poster child for the war effort with their onyx skin, red eyes, tribal tattoos and sharp fangs. Captain Zymani “RoseRage” Barcelona. It had a nice ring to it. But she was fine with second lieutenant for now. She’d see action and get a shot at those dammed Migou soon enough. But she was getting tired of hearing the same propaganda. She picked a song on her PCPU and let the thumping bass lull her to a comfortable sleep.

“Time to get off!”

The air was chilly as Zymani opened her eyes. Sergeant “Bam-Bam” Wynn was waving everyone to unload their bags and line up in front of the shuttle.

“Finally!”barked Lieutenant Nasala his impatience obvious to all. Nasala “Zephyr” Nazza-Dhuni was always the first one reporting for duty. Behind him came the ever prompt Lt. Naransa “FlashBang” Nazza-Dhuni and Lt. Wendell “Ritz” Haversham. Zymani stepped off the shuttle ramp behind Lt. Greyson “Greyhawk” Wright. Akita was the last to drag his bags out.

Sergeant Wynn directed their attention to a small man, trembling in the chilly Alaskan air. The man carried himself with a mousy demeanor. “Welcome to Camp Juneau,” he said. “I’m Lieutenant Bensen.”

“Alright, um, if you…guys…” Bensen looked at Zymani, unsure of how to address her in a mostly male group, “Follow me, I’ll uh, show you to your rooms.” They picked up their bags as he led them into the base.

They followed him into the barracks and he stopped before a door with two AR plaques showing “2^nd. Lt. Gregs. The other plaque was empty.

“Lt. Barcelona, this is your room, you’ll be bunking with Shannon “Honey” Gregs. You can set your stuff up in there.” Honey gave her a polite wave and helped bring the bags into the room.

Lt. Bensen led them to another door.

“Lt. Nazza-Dhuni?” Bensen looked at the three Nazzadi males standing in front of him. “Um, you all related?”

Zymani gave a small huff of exasperation. He obviously didn’t know anything about their culture if he didn’t realize Nazzadi take their surnames from their home arcology. She was the only one not from Nazza-Dhuni.

“Kidding…” mumbled Bensen. “Um, Lt. Akita Nazza-Dhuni? Yeah, you’ll be here with Lt. Coccio. He’s probably down at the rec room right now, but you can put your stuff in there.”

He led the remaining group down the hall and opened the door to another room. “And here…oh, these were supposed to be moved. Sorry, I’ll have someone get these out.” The room was empty save for the bags of two other soldiers. “This room was…um…recently vacated…”

Everyone understood what those bags represented. The grim reality of war on the frontlines. “Lt. Nasala Nazza-Dhuni and Lt. Wright, you’ll be rooming together.”

“Best friends!” Nasala eagerly carried his bags in, unfazed by the bags left in the room. Greyson stepped in behind him wondering if this would go good or terribly, terribly bad. Bensen moved onto the next room with Wendell and stopped in front of a closed door.

“And you’ll be rooming with…well, I apologize in advance.” He gave a meek knock on the door. “Chopper…it’s your new roommate”

“I don’t want a new fucking roommate!”

Zymani could hear the shout from down the hall. Bensen’s hand shook as he knocked again. The door opened. “I said I don’t want a f-“

“Too goddamn bad!” Wendell’s fist made full contact with Chopper’s face. A few drops of blood hit the wall. Zymani and the others rushed out into the hallway.

“Sonnofa bitch!” Chopper swung at Wendell, but not with the same force. Wendell just laughed.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!”

Bensen nearly shit his pants as he stood up straight.

“Commander on deck!” Everyone stood at attention except for Wendell and Chopper, still grabbing each other’s shirts.

A grizzled captain that looked like the absolute last guy you wanted to fuck with entered the barracks room. He looked like he ate the soldiers in action movies for breakfast and spit them out for lunch. Buzz-cut, square-jaw, rough looking and scarred, the whole deal. Zymani could see why Bensen nearly shit his pants. Wendell finally let go of Chopper and stood at attention.

“I am Captain Bart Boomhouser and I want to know what the fuck is going on in my barracks!”

“Just reviewing combat, sir!” Wendell let go of Chopper and stood at attention.

“Well review your combat training with the Migou. There are enough of them to fight without fighting amongst ourselves too. New recruits, follow me. Lt. McBane, get yourself cleaned up.”

Lt. Mcbane shot Wendell a glare as they left the room.

“Don’t touch my shit!” Wendell called after him. He joined near the back of the Captain’s group. Bensen caught up with him.

“Hey, sorry about that… he’s never been a pleasant one, but his friend and roommate just died the other day…”

An elbow met Wendell’s side.

“Ow, what was that for?” Wendell turned to Nasala.

“You’re such a prick!”

“How was I supposed to know his friend died?”

Captain Boomhouser led the pilots to the rec room. There were two men leaning over a pool table. The taller one with black hair gave them a silent, polite nod and went back to his shot. The smaller one with glasses waved excitedly.

“You guys made it!”

“I’ll leave you in the hands of Warrant Officer Flemming and Lt. Coccio. I trust there won’t be any more fights?”

Wendell looked around innocently.

“…yes sir,” squeaked Lt. Bensen.

Captain Boomhouser left the rec room.

“There goes the Reaper, biggest, baddest son-of-a-bitch this side of Neptune.” The Logistics Officer eyed the group standing before him, noting Wendell’s split lip.

“Ah, I see you met Chopper. Eh, I don’t care what happened he’s always been an asshole. Wanna play a game of pool after Coccio and I finish up?”

“Hey, you’re the guy who conned us on our ride to basic training!” Nasala did not look amused.

“I didn’t con you. I’m just a lucky guy with good dice.” Flemming gave them a small wink. “If you guys wanna try me again, or if you need anything, just ask for Cookie. I’ll try to get it for ya.”

The door burst open as a sergeant walked into the room. The named tag on his chest read “Gore”.

“I’m sergeant Bill Gore and I am your duty sergeant. New recruits are gonna get their first taste of duty tomorrow. Recon. Your mechs should arrive tonight. Be ready at 0500.” He departed as abruptly as he had arrived. The recruits looked at each other and got settled in.

The pilots were up, ready, and in position by 0500 sharp. Zymani recognized everyone from yesterday aside from 3 pilots introduced to her as Lt. Simon “Cutter” Vaillancourt, Lt. Allan and Lt. Shana “Splat” Nazza-Dhnui. Captain Boomhouser and Sergeant Gore were there to give squad assignments.

“First squad, Lt. McBane, you’ll be taking Lt. Bensen, Lt. Gregs and Lt. Allen. Second squad, Lt. Vaillancourt, you’ll take Lt. Wright, Zephyr and Splat. Lt. Coccio, you’re heading third squad with Lt. Barcelona, Lt. Haversham, and Moody. First squad will do deep recon. Second and third, you’re investigating a nearby settlement. Dismissed.”

Zymani walked over to her Engel. A 30-foot tall man-made organic hybrid of machine and…something else. No one liked to talk about what that else might be. She had her Auphin she named Gir. A Reconnaissance Engel. Those who saw it liked to call it the Hound. She could see that, with its werewolf hunch, hanging arms ending in claw-like fingers, and legs that resembled the hind legs of a dog. The only thing that threw her off was its head. It was streamlined like a dog’s head, but to her it looked more like an ant’s head with its two mandibles protruding in front. At 28 feet tall, it was a damn big dog.

Zymani slid into the control capsule. She felt the warm fluid press against her suit as it filled the cockpit. Displays flickered on the front of her helmet. The Engel Synthesis Interface allowed her to see everything her Engel saw. She moved her head back and forth to get used to the sensors again. Gir started moving his head in time with hers. They were almost one now.

“Starting to regret that whole ESI thing,” Wendell sounded uneasy.

“Don’t worry Ritz, Cherubs don’t have tentacles. I think it’s rather comfy in these engels.” Zymani wiggled a bit to demonstrate her point and was surprised when Gir moved too.

Cutter’s voice sounded loud over her intercom “Enough chatter ladies. Let’s kick some tires and light some fires!” His mech ran ahead of the group.

“Tires? But…A-pods…I don’t even,” mumbled Nasala .

RoseRage chuckled while Gir turned its head to stare down at him; she knew it unnerved him the way the Engel looked at him with its eyeless head.

Nasala quickly piloted his mech away, not waiting for the Engel to creep him out any more than it already did.

Zymani saw nothing but debris outside the high metallic walls of Camp Juneau. It was strange how there were no signs of life aside from the few plant still clinging to existence in this harsh climate . There weren’t even bugs, unless you counted the insect-like remains of the torn Migou mecha lying on the ground. There were even NEG mecha with odd-looking paintjobs. They must have belonged to Blanks. Migou liked to brainwash humans and turn them into permanent mind-slaves; no one had found a way to reverse the process yet. Blanks. Just the thought of having that done to her made Zymani shudder. She knew she would not be that lucky, the Migou despised the Nazzadi for turning on their former masters; they completely destroyed any Nazzadi they captured.

“Zephyr, keep an eye out for blips,” ordered Lt. Coccio.

Nasala’s Eclipse moved ahead at incredible speed. The sleek Nazzadi mech was tiny compared to the other mecha but could probably outrun a bullet.

“Moody, you go on watch too.”

Akita’s Hurricane was the other small Nazzadi mech. It was almost as fast and had more of a pyramid shaped head than the Eclipse class of Nazzadi mecha.

“I’ve got movement,” radioed Zephyr. Zimani cringed as she heard a long wail from Zephyr’s audio system.

”Switching to thermal scan. There’s someone in the middle of the wreckage sir. It scans as a human, sounds female. Permission to approach sir?”

“Go head.”

Zymani watched Nasala’s mech disappear as its stealth systems activated. Gir raised its head as if it were sniffing the air. The walls of her cockpit tensed and trembled as it growled.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this too,” Zymani grumbled.

Zephyr edged closer toward the target. His video feed showed her a naked woman chained to a post in the center of the courtyard. The woman was screaming hysterically and didn’t seem to notice the shimmering outline of the stealthed mech in front of her.

“It’s a trap!” screamed Moody.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Zymani saw a purple winged mech uncloak behind Zephyr.

“The masters are coming!” The woman’s wails turned to maniacal laughter.

More blips popped up on Zymani’s HUD; her IFF system identified three more Dragonflies moving out of the village. Past the village, three Migou Locusts scuttled toward their patrol. The Migou mecha each had four insect-like legs with a long neck and long deadly looking pincers.

“Where’s a can of bug spray when you need it?” Zephyr fired his lightning gun, but the Dragonfly swiftly dodged the shot.

Zymani started to fly over to him, but something was pulling her Engel back down to the ground. The Dragonflies and the Locusts were out of range. Why did she feel so heavy?

“Sorry guys…” Moody’s apologetic voice echoed across the comm.

The nervous pilot had mistakenly fired his weapon system and a grav bomb had backfired on the entire squad. One of the Dragonflies turned its attention to Zymani and scratched Gir’s plating with a laser. Greyhawk‘s large Claymore responded with a blast from its lasers, punching a small hole through the Dragonfly’s armor. Somehow it stayed hovering in the air.

The Flies shot back at him, but his Claymore was a heavy support mech and shrugged off the effects of their weaker weapons. Ritz’s Cherub tried pulling away from the ground as it launched rockets at the small swarm. The Dragonflies circled around as they dodged each missile.

Zymani felt the antigrav field lift from her Engel as she sped toward the Dragonflies. She fired her plasma cannon, but her Migou adversary dodged again.

Ritz changed direction and fired another barrage at a Locust. The Dragonflies returned fire at the pair of mecha. Gir’s armor soaked the blast again while Ritz moved out of the way. Another Dragonfly hit Moody’s small mech, still trapped by the effects of his grav bomb. The last fly aimed a blast at Greyhawk. It somehow managed to miss the largest mech on the field. The Migou didn’t live long to regret the decision as Greyhawk’s laser seared it in half.

The Locusts concentrated their fire on Zymani’s squad. She managed to dodge the barrage, but Moody and Game-Over each took a hit. Zymani turned her attention back to the Dragonflies as Gir leapt at one midair. She managed to catch one and sunk her acid-filled mandibles into the small mech. She tossed her head back as Gir ripped the fly in half. She felt a deep satisfaction in tearing her former tyrants into pieces. The remaining pieces were crushed in Gir’s claws as it turned and shot another Dragonfly. The Migou mech crashed to the ground, smoke trailing behind the smoldering metal. One of the two remaining Dragonflies tried to escape.

“I’ve got this one!” Zephyr’s mech grabbed it by a leg and punched it. He swung again, but missed. Zymani and Moody set after the Locusts. A blast from the Locust hit Moody, nearly disabling his mech. Another mandibled mech tried to take a bite out of Zymani. She tried biting back, but only got air. Greyhawk fired at the Locust but they were almost as fast as Dragonflies and scurried out of the way. Ritz took aim and managed to hit one as it scurried back into position. A laser blast hit the other one as Moody returned to the fight. The Locust tried to snap at Zymani again, but Greyhawk stopped it with another blast of his laser.

“Take this you bug-faced freak.” Ritz fired his rocket pods at the Locust in front of him. “I hate you. Die.” As if on cue, the Migou shook and crashed to the ground. Ritz laughed at his impeccable timing.

Zephyr finished off the last Dragonfly with a punch and flew over to the Locusts. The Locust dodged away from Zephyr’s fist and into Ritz’s rocket. Zymani leapt back and fired her plasma cannon at the Locust, but it crawled out of the way. There was a flash to Zymani’s left as both Greyhawk and Moody hit a Locust with their lasers. Then she heard the sickening crunch of metal. She looked back at the Locust in front of her with Zephyr’s mech caught between its pincers. His emergency pod ejected itself from the mech before in the two smoking halves hit the ground. She stepped between the pod and the Locust and tried to fire at the Migou, but her cannon malfunctioned and the blast hit her instead. Luckily, Gir’s armor soaked the impact. Ritz seemed to have the same luck when his gun backfired.

Even without Zephyr, the Locusts were sorely outnumbered and started skittering back. Gir leapt and managed to tackle one to the ground. The other one didn’t get far as Moody’s laser sent it stumbling. Gir rolled off the remaining Locust before Greyhawk blasted it into pieces. Gir climbed back to his feet as Zymani scanned for Zephyr’s pod. Once she spotted it, Gir ran over and picked it up in one claw.

“Don’t worry Zephyr, I’ve got you.”

“Thanks Rose. Maybe next time I should get a sturdier mech, huh?”

“Let’s focus on getting you back to base first.”

“Well be quick about it.”

Zymani smirked and headed toward the rest of the group.

“What do we do with the crazy broad sir?” Ritz’s barbed tail pointed back at the woman laughing and screaming.

“I say we fry her.”

“No Zephyr. We leave her. Let’s get back to base.”

The mechs turned back to Camp Juneau. Zymani could still feel the adrenaline coursing through her body after the battle with the Migou. The crunch between Gir’s mandibles was so satisfying, but as she looked down at Zephyr’s pod she remembered how easily they caught and crushed Zephyr’s mech. This was called the Aeon War for a reason. This didn’t even count as a battle in a war that wasn’t ending anytime soon. But as long as she was Nazzadi, Zymani would tear apart each bug she came across and make the Migou pay.

-VT|RR

"If that movie was as good as its soundtrack, it would've blown everyone's mind."

Episode 6: Return of the Fangirl

2011-05-01T17:49:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone! I'm back with the new tag RoseRage. I even made myself a cute little icon to commemorate the occasion!
Cute ain't she? Probably not, I'm terrible at drawing chibi. She also doesn't look very rage-y but there's another little drawing in the works. Maybe you can decide which one will win for my official RoseRage icon.

Actually, I hope to have a lot more in the works for my sections in the future. I have a few blog posts sitting in my draft box, never to see the light of day. But now I'm determined to make more updates than Rez Gamer (shouldn't be too hard ;P). I'll be giving my fangirly perspective on all things geek and game related. I'll even have short stories made from actual game sessions! That's right, real rolls and quotes from the table now in writing.

So that's all for now. Happy gaming!

-VT|RR

"C'mon, this is the guy who crited Han Solo in the face."

A Blog Post Sneaks in Between Game Sessions!

2011-03-06T06:13:00.012-05:00

No news definitely is good news, at least in my case. You see I’ve been so busy gaming that I haven’t gotten around to updating this blog. I would promise to update it more but no one is reading it and internet promises are like kobolds with gold; swiftly slain and forgotten about!

Since my last post I’ve had the pleasure of attending TempleCon 2011 in Rhode Island. I also accomplished one of my new years resolutions and ran two events at TempleCon. I ran a Deathwatch session and a Gamma World session, both were a huge success (in my not so humble opinion) and I plan to do a write up on them when I can! I came to a realization that I enjoy running games far more than I do playing in them, so I am using the cons I attend as a training ground to further improve my GMing skills and make new contacts to grow my RPG gaming group resources.

My Saturday Shadowrun group is still going strong, despite the holidays and snow trying their best to disrupt it! The system is very crunchy and even after 5 or 6 game sessions we are still learning the rules. We’ve got a solid core of players and usually average 6 players on any given Saturday. Sadly, one of our players is departing and may no longer be able to make the gaming sessions (we’ll miss you Dave!) I still love the fluff and rich history of Shadowrun and I hope that we can keep the campaign going strong for sessions to come!

That brings me to the point of this post; I am preparing to launch a brand new CthulhuTech campaign on Sundays. Some players that haven’t been able to make my Saturday sessions, along with some brand-new-to-role-playing gamers have expressed an interest in playing in it and I’m looking forward to seeing the dynamics of a new gaming group. I am going to be experimenting with something I heard about on an older Jennisode podcast called Fluency gaming (Jennisodes Episode 4: Fluency Play). I've only just started listening to the Jennisodes but I definitely like what I hear so far and would heartily recommend it to other gamers. The gentlemen that Jen interviewed in this particular episode, one Jason Godesky, spoke about teaching players how to play a new game system in easy to digest bite sized chunks. He gave a very wordy term for it, but then shortened that description to something called fluency gaming and I’m going to give it a try in my CthulhuTech game. I’ve already started writing the introduction to the rules and I think it will be a blast to play this way! If it works out, I intend to incorporate it in other future sessions I plan to run like DC Heroes which is based on the mutants and masterminds rule set. I may even reboot my Shadowrun group and give fluency gaming a try to help us better get a handle on the very crunchy rule set of that system.

Lastly, I’m planning a make over for this site and possibly a name change. When I can squeeze some time in I’d like to set up an obsidian portal site for the new CthulhuTech game and put links to that and other resources here on the blog. As usual, only the fickle whim of fate can tell which plans will trickle through my geek A.D.D. and actually come into fruition! Until next time!

The Stars Have Aligned

2010-12-03T09:57:00.007-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted and a lot has been happening gaming-wise for me. Since my last blog post I've attended my second gaming convention. It was UberCon XIII held November 5th-7th in Edison New Jersey! Had a blast but didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked! Played lots of different games from minis, boardgames, console games through RPGs. UberCon didn't seem quite as big as DexCon but it had a very friendly vibe and I will probably attend again next year.

I also got a chance to play a demo game of Ex Illis while at that con and I've got to say I think it is a fantastic game, especially when used as a gateway game to introduce new gamers to the world of miniatures war gaming. It really abstracts the rules of the game and allows you to concentrate on strategy instead. The content-to-price value of the starter set really eases the start up cost of getting into this hobby and the hybrid use of computer software and physical miniatures is an interesting approach. I will be posting pictures and battle reports as soon as I'm finished painting my starter set.

The biggest news for me is that a brand new local hobby shop opened up! It's called Close Encounters Comics and is located in the Toms River New Jersey area. The proprietor, Marc, is an avid board-gamer and has opened the store with the goal of making it a place where people gather to play games of all sorts. He's been very amiable and open to new gaming suggestions which leads me to the biggest point of my post. I'VE GOT A NEW GAMING GROUP! Finally, after a ton of failure-to-launches, it looks like I've found a place and group of people to game with!

After a flurry of email exchanges we all met at the store (see pic below) and decided that we would start with Shadowrun. We are playing Saturday afternoons and once I get this group established and rolling I want to start another gaming group on Sunday afternoons!
I will be posting details and session notes from our games in the future so stay tuned for more!

Confessions of a Game Convention Newbie

2010-07-12T14:45:00.002-04:00

I call myself the resurrected gamer because for all intents and purposes my gaming life had truly flat-lined. Not long ago after a lengthy hiatus—and much to my shock—I discovered that my love of gaming had not died completely. The path back has been long and twisting but I’ve slowly nursed that initial spark of life into a steady flame. Bearing this torch of gaming desire I continue on my journey seeking gaming nirvana. I knew that any real gaming revival would be incomplete without a visit to a gaming convention— the mecca of all true gamers.
I felt it was important to start with a smaller con, I’ve heard about the masses of gamers that attend GenCon and Origins and how it makes those cons into less intimate affairs. I knew this was not for me; I did not want to get lost in the crowd, I wanted my first con to be a more personal gaming experience. I was originally aiming to attend two very small cons: MEPAcon and then Fear The Con 3. In both cases scheduling conflicts kept me away. It looked like I was going to be out of luck again when another July con approached but at the last minute my schedule cleared up and the way was paved for me to get some time off.
This past week I attended DexCon 13 held at the Hyatt hotel in Morristown New Jersey on July 7th through the 12th. I had done a little anecdotal research about cons and prepared myself for the worst case scenarios: toxic body odor, poorly air conditioned rooms packed with gamers, throngs of black t-shirt clad elitist gaming system fanboys, poorly scheduled or over-crowded events, loud boisterous hammerheads and, dare I say it…..over-zealous LARPers!
The convention started on a Wednesday but my adventure began that Thursday. I packed up myself and my eldest daughter, Emily, and we made the commute upstate to see what we might see. I planned this initial excursion as a scouting mission; I wanted to test the waters and see if this was really something I wanted to invest my gaming time in. We arrived around noon and after struggling to find a parking spot we tentatively entered the lower lobby of the hotel. We were immediately surrounded by conference rooms filled with miniatures war gaming tables and I felt giddy at the sight. My daughter looked over at me and grinned. We were at a con! Thumbs up!
We rushed upstairs to the main lobby to register. I expected a long line but there was almost none. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to attend for just a day or the full week but when I got there I made a spur of the moment decision and decided to buy week long passes. Donning our freshly printed convention badges, we grabbed an event guide and began flipping through them. We were like kids in a candy store, pages full of so many events we wanted to try and disappointed when we saw timing conflicts.
I believe there are tons of gamers like me that have shelves full of gaming books and board games that they’ve never even played. Well I was determined to fix that. There were two RPG gaming systems I had my heart set on trying: Shadowrun and CthulhuTech. There were others, like Burning Wheel and Dog’s in the Vineyard, but those were the two I was dead set on experiencing. In miniatures gaming, I wanted to try Flames of War, Firestorm Armada and Malifaux. As for board games, there were a ton of them that I was looking forward to playing like: Tannhauser, Descent, Battlestar Galactica, Wings of War, Horus Heresy, Shadows over Camelot and Battlelore.
As luck would have it, there was a Malifaux demo scheduled for that very afternoon. We rushed downstairs to the wargaming section and after being helped by several courteous and friendly gamers we made our way to the gaming table. There we met Matt and Tyler Steele (a very cool name, we joked about whether he was a super hero or a porn star). For our demo match, the Guild faction would be taking on the Neverborn faction. Initially, there was a lot to take in regarding the fluff of the game. The characters are very unique and there is really no cookie-cutter faction to make it easier to start with. After some initial hiccups we started to get the hang of the game and when the final turn came we ended in a draw. I’m not sure if I like the card flipping mechanic of the game, but we both had a good time trying it out.
After that we decided to have a look around while we waited for the next block of events to start. We visited the vendor room and ogled all the merchandise on display before we headed back out to the main areas. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and I have to say that was one of the downers for me. The food provided by the hotel catering was horrible and way over-priced. I know next time I will go outside of the building for food, but we were starving and naïve and so it was what it was.
Our next event was a Tannhauser board game demo presented by Stephen Rogers. This man was very prepared and after some initial setup and rules explanation had us fighting through Hellboy-esque World War II action sequences. I was soundly beaten by Emily and at that point we decided to call it a night. We had an hour and a half commute back home full of excited geek chatter about what we had seen and the possibilities for the rest of the con.
We arrived home and regrouped and I decided that my fourteen year old soon would be right at home at the con. He had already flipped through the event guide and had his heart set on playing in a Star Wars Saga edition session. He owns most of the RPG books and has read through them several times. We had earlier noted that several of the Star Wars sessions looked full, but we decided to wait and see how it would work out.
By this time I had decided I should get a hotel room instead of heading back home each night. Unfortunately, only Friday night was available at the Hyatt and I had no wish to stay in another hotel. So I made the reservation and we headed back the next morning three strong!
We arrived in the afternoon and missed the morning schedule of events, but I saw that a Firestorm Armada demo was scheduled to begin and we hurried down to find it. Much to my disappointment, the event was overbooked but a friendly guy by the name of Chris offered to demo Warmachine for us. We gladly accepted and he quickly ran Emily and Devin through a game of Khador versus Protectorate of Menoth. We have all been painting up Warmachine armies but haven’t had a chance to play through a game yet, so it was nice to get a feel for the rules. Devin made us laugh when he turned to us and asked, “How do I move the guys?” You see he was looking for a grid. He’s only played in the current d20 system or board games and he had no idea what the tape measure was for.
After this we headed back to our hotel room for snacks and a quick power nap. Then we set out for the next round of gaming. At this point we split up. Emily and I heading for a Mage:The Ascension campaign and Devin happily making his way to a Star Wars Saga Edition game. I have to say I was surprised to find we were using the old edition of the Mage rules and I found them a bit clunky to use. It’s my fault for not noting the “Ascension” part of the title in the game listing. I own most of the new White Wolf game books and was hoping we were going to use that system. Still we had an entertaining time and finished our game with nary a party member death!
We headed over to Devin’s table but his group had not yet finished their session. I brought along Monty Python Fluxx for just such an occasion and Emily and I played a round while we waited. Things worked out in my favor and I pulled off a last minute upset victory, driving my daughter crazy. I seem to be unusually lucky when it comes to Fluxx and my whole family usually teams up against me when we play. They don’t care who wins as long as it’s not me!
Devin’s game ended and we decided not to try and catch any of the later games and headed back to our room to crash. We had to be up bright and early the next morning because Emily had signed up for a Firefly LARP.
The next morning Devin and I decided to tag along with Emily since we hadn’t found anything on the schedule yet. As were passing by another LARP room, Devin saw they were conducting a Boffer tournament and his eyes lit up. He looked up at me and I nodded and he took off for the room with a grin. I spent the next few hours traveling back and forth between the two LARP areas and was having so much fun watching them I decided not to try and find an event myself.
While I was waiting for them to finish I happened to be passing by a table and I saw all of the CthulhuTech RPG books laid out on it. Then I saw a sign-up list for demos! This was one of the games I badly wanted to take for a spin. So I went ahead and put all three of our names down and I’m glad I did (more on that later.)
I caught up with Devin and Emily as their sessions ended and as we were heading back to the signup area Devin caught sight of what looked like another LARP in progress. It turns out that Mystic Realms was running a demo of their sci-fi themed LARP. Devin and Emily were approached by one of the LARPers and they were immediately hooked. She gave them a quick rules run-down and they spent the next couple of hours fighting their way through an alien infested ship, escorted by androids and shock troopers. They both had a great time and were sad to leave but we had to make an early departure because I did not want to miss out on the CthulhuTech demo.
Next we met with a gentleman by the name of Bob Arens who would be running the demo for us. He quickly gave us some background on the CthulhuTech universe and handed out character sheets and we were soon fighting our way through Esoteric Order of Dagon mechs in our very cool bio-mechanical Engel mechs. Bob was hands down the best GM that I gamed with at this con. He knew his stuff inside and out and knew what to leave out and what to include while still delivering a thrilling and compelling game experience. I would later find out that this was none other than the infamous Martian Bob I had heard about on many Fear The Boot podcasts. I can see why there is always a clamor for games run by him. I am going to make it my goal to find his games whenever I can at future cons. Bob even showed us some very cool artwork on his signed copy of one of the books. The unique artwork and interesting concepts are what drew me to purchase a copy of the main RPG book and now that I’ve played through the rules I am very interested in starting or joining a CthulhuTech campaign. I have to say this was the highlight of the con for me.
Having no hotel room for Saturday night, we knew our con experience was coming to a close. We made one last pass through the dealer’s room and purchased some t-shirts and souvenirs for family left behind and headed off for the next round of gaming. Devin had signed up for another Star Wars Saga session and Emily and I headed off to a game of Rogue Trader.
Our Rogue Trader group was a great one and we had a blast. The GM knew several of the players already so maybe this contributed to the lighter atmosphere but I don’t think I laughed more in any other group than this one. There was a lot of good natured banter going on the whole night and when the game came to a close I left the building wishing I had a gaming group like that one a regular basis. We were all sad we had to leave and I missed out on a Flames of War demo scheduled for Sunday but it was time to call it a con.
It was my first time experiencing a gaming convention and not knowing what to expect I have to say that I was very satisfied with the whole event. Much to my relief, I have to say that I encountered almost none of the terrible things I had heard about at other cons. Sure I caught the occasional whiff of some foul body funk, but in most cases the rooms were very well ventilated and the temperature remained very cool. There were a few loud boisterous convention goers but they seemed to be in the minority. In general, everyone was kind and courteous and it appeared that they all shared the common goal of just having a great time gaming.
I would have to say that for my first con experience I had a tremendous time, in fact, my son and daughter gave it a hearty thumbs up and I would have to agree! Who has two thumbs and enjoyed DexCon 13? This guy!

Springtime is in the air and my inner geek is stirring

2010-03-18T09:34:00.006-04:00

I've been in a board-game frenzy lately, mostly inspired by listening to the excellent Game On! Podcast! Much to my surprise, my wife and children have also been very enthusiastic about this recent trend. We've played quite a few different games but our current games of choice are Pandemic, Red Dragon Inn, Dominion and the various editions of Fluxx. We've played both cooperative and competitive games. The competitive games are especially tricky for me, for some unknown reason my wife has convinced friends and family that I am not allowed to win and so most of the time they team up against me. But that which does not kill me, makes me stronger or at least (I hope) a better gamer! Soon I intend to introduce them to some of the more rules heavy games like Descent or Runewars.

I've also made my way to what appears to be the online mecca for board-gamers: BoardGameGeek.com. I took a perverse joy in cataloging my games for my profile. My collection is not that large by any means, but hey we all know it's not the size of your collection but how you use it! (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). I do have some (what I consider) vintage games like the original Space Hulk and Advanced HeroQuest mixed into my collection. I also have quite a few party and traditional games. I have to say that among the traditional old school boardgames like Monopoly,Clue and Life, my all time favorite is Risk!

As for my other geek hobbies, I'm still working on my series of fantasy novels and trying to put together some D&D 4th Edition gaming groups. I actually have one group almost ready to go, we are just trying to work out the scheduling problems. As usual I have too many geek distractions vying for my attention and the end result is that they all suffer!

I'm still playing World of Warcraft, although it doesn't consume as much time as it used to for me. I absolutely love the new LFG tool. I can just pop in and run a random dungeon and I get my WoW fix for the day!

On top of all this I want to start actually painting and gaming with the uncountable horde of miniatures dwelling in my basement! I've decided to stick with the systems that are smaller in scale so I won't have to paint battalions of minis. I am currently working on Khador & Cryx battlegroups for Warmachine and I plan to start painting some of the minis that came in my Battletech boxed game (I love you Catalyst Labs).

Well I've run out of things to say for now, I'm itching to go play a game or paint something! I also want to mention that you can follow me on twitter as ResGamer and I'm also on formspring as well.

To paint or not to paint...

2009-09-26T13:44:00.002-04:00

I'm trying to get back into mini painting and I'm doing my best to motivate myself. I started looking at all my old painted minis (remembering how much fun I had painting them) and I even took a few pics. My initial goal is to paint up two small squads of Warmachine forces (another goal is to actually play the game!) I'll be posting pics of my progress on the blog, along with painting notes.

Stay tuned!

Viva la Fasa or the Internet and All Its Friends

2009-07-19T09:23:00.006-04:00

I got a bit excited this morning to find an e-mail from my dad with the headline "new mechwarrior game". I opened it to find the tinyurl link http://bit.ly/kOG7T .

The trailer looked amazing and I wondered when this would exactly be out so I could mark my calander like the little fangirl I am. I checked the sites for Piranha Games and Smith & Tinker but found nothing. I did a quick google search and was dismayed to find articles about the project being cancelled. I noticed that the year was 2003 and looked up at this:

Once I clicked the correction, I finally found what my wild goose chase on the internet was looking for. A site came up mentioning a teaser trailer that looked like a new Mechwarrior game. It said that IGN was going to interview Jordan Weisman who formed both Fasa and Smith & Tinker. I checked IGN and found a couple of articles, all recent. The first one showed all 3 teaser trailers practically confirming the new game. Another told how the newly formed Smith & Tinker is planning on rebooting other Fasa games such as Shadowrun and Crimson Skies. I died inside when I read that.

Now, I've never actually sat down and played any of the RPGs (with the exception of that one MechWarrior simulator at Chuck E. Cheese), but I did grow up with my dad having all the rulebooks and miniatures. I used to watch him play Mechwarrior all the time. We even bought the Shadowrun Duels figures and played that. All of this has given me a healthy love of Fasa games. When I heard that Microsoft was making a Shadowrun game back in 2007, I was excited. When I finally played it, I realized it had a cool concept and fit in with the story, but it didn't exactly have that "feel". So now that the game's almost back in the hands of Fasa, I can't wait to see how it'll turn out. Mechwarrior 5 looks very promising from the official trailer and I can't wait till it comes out. I just wonder if once you eject from the cockpit, you can use a sidearm for protection. I realize that would be useless, but if I'm going into battle inside a giant robot, a gun on my back or a pistol on my hip would make me feel better.

-GeekGirl

"It's like the Medigun. Sure it does, like, .5 damage, but it makes you feel better to contribute."

I REFUSE TO CALL THEM MINIONS!

2009-07-19T08:41:00.002-04:00

Meta gaming at the table is actively discouraged in DM advice columns and literature from WOTC, yet they expect me to tell my players that the pipsqueak they are facing is a minion? I won’t do it! Let the players figure out for themselves that the creature they are fighting is a minion. I think labeling a monster as a minion when it is encountered encourages players to save their encounter and daily powers for “Real” threats and removes some of the creative problem solving required by past editions of Dungeons & Dragons. I want to see my players mow down minions with their dailies and encounter powers and then have to face the big daddy boss monster with nary a thing but their at-wills and a healthy dose of creative problem solving!

I’m in a unique situation, I currently DM a game for four teenagers who are relatively new to the game (with the exception of my daughter who was introduced to the corrupting influences of the D20 at a young age!). They are not familiar with the canon and lore of D&D from other editions. To them a kobold is as threatening as a troll is, I love it!
I have not explained to them the concept of minions and at this point I don’t intend to. They’ll figure it out….eventually.

The same goes for bloodied. It is not as bad as the minion mechanic with regards to meta gaming, but I still don’t like announcing “Your opponent is bloodied”. I would prefer to say something like: “The scent of so much blood on the creature you face drives you into frenzy” or “You feel your wounds are starting to slow you”. Instead of just announcing it to the player, explain the mechanic before the game and let them figure out the details. Soon they will just know that the mechanic is in effect without the announcement.

Upcoming MMO's

2009-06-14T08:08:00.003-04:00

As much as I've grown to loath MMOs and the whole treadmill/time sink they represent, I still finding myself interested in three upcoming Online RPGs: Champions Online, Star Trek Online & Star Wars: The Old Republic. Two of my favorite genres are represented, SciFi and Superheroes. I think Star Trek lends itself to the MMO format better than Star Wars does, but I did enjoy the original release of the Star Wars Galaxies MMO (dancing twileks anyone?).

I don't expect them to do any better than the current crop of MMOs though. In the end they all come down to the same thing, classes that are balanced into losing their uniqueness and endless, repetitive level-grinding tasks. Maybe if they go the route of Guild Wars and lose the monthly subscription fee I will take a look, but otherwise, I really doubt I will even try the demos unless I see something totally innovative from any of these offerings.

Momentum Subsides

2009-05-03T06:48:00.002-04:00

I'm really trying to push forward with my recruiting efforts to form a second gaming group but the onset of spring and weekend yard duties has slowed me down. I have heard from a few people who are interested and I have a couple I am waiting to hear back from, so I am hopeful that it will happen soon. Then will come the herculean task of trying to coordinate a night everyone will be available!

I am continuing to DM for the group of teenagers recruited by my daughter. Although, finding time for them has been hard as well. I suspect that when summer break rolls around there will be plenty of time for this group, as their weekends won't be consumed by book reports & homework!

I got my copy of Arcane Power and am slowly making my way through it (while reading Werewolf: The Forsaken and other novels for entertainment). So far it looks like they've added some very fun stuff for the wizard (familiars,summoning). Not so sure how much it helps the other classes though. I may put a review up here when I'm done reading it, we'll see.

That's all for now, just wanted to write up a short post to keep myself going on the gaming front!

You've Got Experience!

2009-04-21T20:43:00.008-04:00

So far I've gotten 3 Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition sessions under my belt. All three times have been a pretty fun experience. Having played the game so much in just a month's time under different circumstances each time, it's safe to say that I can start seeing the ins and outs, ups and downs of the new system.

Though I did not play much of the older edition, I have been fascinated with Dungeons and Dragons since I could flip through a Monster Manual. I was super excited when my dad got me my own set of 3.5 core rulebooks around middle school and they still remain in pretty good condition.

At first, I was shocked to find that Wizards of the Coast had not included my beloved Druid in the first Player's Handbook nor the ranger's pet, but was appeased when I found them in later sourcebooks. Other than that, the way the game was streamlined made it like it would help the flow of the game. Still, combat in 4th edition seems to be oddly long even though I haven't run many encounters with other editions. Because of this, whenever anyone asks me what character they should pick, I usually tell them to pick a striker class. Having characters that do a decent amount of damage could help speed up the game. Another thing I noticed that my group and I usually did was that we attacked what ever was closest to us instead of targeting a single, powerful target. Instead of concentrating the damage, it was spread out and divided among the weaker enemies that ran up to us. Knowing your spells beforehand also tends to move things along. It also helps if you want to plot against the main enemy and play off each other's attacks.

Despite the length of the combat encounters, I had fun with eveyone I played with. My first time playing during DnD Gameday with my dad and brother was enjoyable even though nobody exactly knew what to do. That was more due to the fact that the game started us with 11th level characters so we didn't know the strengths, weakenesses and tricks up our characters' sleeves. The combat took up the most time. The second time, I invited my friend and my boyfriend over to play with my sister, brother, dad and I. Once again, combat dragged on but we still managed to get a good laugh out of eveything that happened ("I use fire breath and...HIT NOTHING?! But I'm in the middle of a mob of goblins!" "I don't know, that looks like a roll of 1 to me...Epic fail."). The last game I played with some friends from my library. Warning, do not do this or else you will only get through one round of combat. Some people were new to 4th edition and took a while to find out the class they wanted or had the sheet for wasn't in the PH1 which was the only player's handbook the library had. It could also be that we went on every tangent possible that strayed away from DnD. Despite only making it past the door, that game was one of the funnest and I look forward to playing with both groups again.

So class, what did we learn?
-Strikers are very valuable in combat
-Concentrate damage on the biggest/most important target
-Collaborate (or at least do some devious plotting)
-Know your spells and abilities ahead of time
-Make sure you have your character made ahead of time or at least have everything needed for your character

Having lucky dice never hurt anyone either.

-GeekGirl
"Wait, so you said we have unlimited free actions? Well, then, I use a free action to inhale. Now I use a free action to exhale. And I use another free action to inhale..."

First impressions DMing a 4th Edition D&D Game

2009-04-18T09:48:00.005-04:00

I finally found some time to run my first Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons game during my mini-spring vacation last week. My daughter Emily had recruited a couple of her highschool friends to join us, so counting my three children, we ended up having a five person group. The party mix was fairly balanced, the group was composed of: an Eladrin Bard, an Elf Druid, a Goliath Warden, a Dragonborn Ranger and an Elf Wizard.

I ran the party through the introductory adventure "Raid on Loudwater" found in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. Using Dundjinni mapping software, I created and printed out a map to represent the market square where most of the action was to take place. If you haven't used the Dundjinni software before I highly recommend it, using this application, I was able to create a pretty accurate representation of the map from the book.

My oldest son and daughter had already participated in a D&D Game Day event with me, but the other players were all completely new to the game. So I let them know that we would all be learning on the fly and might miss some rules here and there as we became more familiar with the game.

I noticed something in my game that I noticed when I participated in the Game Day event. Combat in 4th Edition takes FOREVER! It's nice that every character has a selection of powers and something to do on every turn, but for some reason it seems that damage just isn't lethal enough. The non-minion NPC's can hang around for a very long time. Granted my memory may be fuzzy, but I don't remember 2nd edition D&D taking this long to resolve combat. In fact, I recall being able to clear half a dungeon in one night's worth of play. I am not sure this is possible with the current edition.

Of course there are some factors that may have contributed to the longer combat. Neither I, nor my players were overly familiar with all the powers, but I don't think anyone took an unreasonable amount of time to select and use their powers. There were a couple of times I had to quickly look up some rules, but I remember doing this in older editions as well. Also, I don't remember any players sitting around doing nothing (except for two that became unconscious towards the end of the battle, but even then, they were making saving throws.)

After the session, I had a brief discussion with the players and made some recommendations and observations regarding the battle. First of all, the party spread itself out too thin, with almost every character taking on a separate opponent. They also failed to concentrate on what I considered the most dangerous threat to the party, a high level controller (goblin hexer). I am wondering if it will become necessary for one of the players to switch to a striker character in order to add more of the firepower that seemed to be missing. I encouraged them to come up with power combos between their different characters that might enable them to quickly chain together their attacks and mow down more of the non-minion creatures they encounter.

It's still a learning process for all of us, but I think everyone had a good time (I know I did) and I think it will get better next time. I am letting them go back through the power selection process and discard or reselect their powers now that they've had a chance to see how the character powers work, hopefully with an eye towards useful combinations.

I have read other blogs dealing with shortening combat in 4th Edition, but I really do not want to make any wholesale house rule changes to the system until I've run through it a few more times and see if the combat pace improves with experience. Stay tuned for the results!

On a side note, I have created a twitter account for this blog. You can find it at: http://twitter.com/ResGamer

The Recruiting Begins!

2009-03-28T16:13:00.006-04:00

Today I visited a few of the easier to find geek hot-spots in my local area, hoping to drum up some leads for new gamers. The first stop was a comic shop named Steve's Comic Relief where the owner kindly allowed me to hang up a "Gamer Wanted" flyer. Then it was off to the Game Room, a fully stocked hobby shop where there already was a couple of gamers engaged in a tabletop game of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I picked up a copy of the Settler's of Catan and the store staff also accepted one of my flyers. The last stop was the local library, again another flyer was posted. With the bait set, I can only hope to lure some interested gamers to my campaign!

I am a little nervous about trying to find new people to game with, it's a bit like online dating. You never know who you are going to meet and I feel you have to take the same precautions. I am going to lay down some ground rules and meet prospective gamers in a neutral location. A Fear the Boot podcast offered some great suggestions on how to recruit new gamers and I plan to use a few of them. In addition to this I also searched on Meetup.com for some local gaming groups but there weren't very many in my area. I am going to try the forums at some of the more popular gaming sites and see if I can find some more local gamers! Wish me luck!

Why I chose 4th Edition D&D for my return to gaming

2009-03-25T06:00:00.003-04:00

It's not too hard to guess why I chose to GM 4e D&D in my return to role-play gaming. First of all, it's easily the most ubiquitous RPG around, even your grandma has probably heard of Dungeons & Dragons. I mean, besides the heavy nostalgia it induces every time I see a new WOTC book published, it holds a commanding share of the tiny niche that is the RPG hobby. To that end, I'm hoping it will be that much easier for me to find and recruit new/existing gamers to my gaming group.

It was my first choice, but it was not my only choice. My wife and older children are serving as my guinea pigs for the experiment that is my return to GMing, so in an effort to make it easier on them and not crush any desire they might have for RPGing right out of the gate, I wanted to go with an easier, more established ruleset and they are semi-familiar with previous editions (3.0 & 3.5).

There were other games on the table for consideration. My wife and offspring have all been exposed to my huge collection of RPG titles and (under my watchful eye) have thumbed carefully through the pages of some the titles in my collection at one time or another. Foremost among the contenders to D&D was: Shadowrun 4th Ed, Star Trek RPG (I have both the LUG or Decipher versions, but sadly not the Fasa one!), BESM, Star Wars Saga edition, Battletech and Mutants & Masterminds. I myself was strongly pushing for Star Trek in some form, but we all couldn't agree. In fact, the only one we could all agree on was D&D 4th ED, so in the end the choice was made. Still I do not want to give up the other RPGs and I have decided that once I get my GMing abilities back up to par, I will run another campaign in one of the other systems. Set your phasers for fabulous!

Where's my Character Builder update?

2009-03-24T05:30:00.003-04:00

I am impatiently awaiting the announced update for the D&D 4th Edition Character builder. Like some Pavlovian experiment, since about 5am EST, I've been clicking the character builder icon, waiting for the update message, then closing the application in disappointment when there is no update. My geek impatience knows no boundaries. I must be appeased! I require instant gratification! This is the age of G3 networks and wireless connectivity. I want my stuff now!

Maybe I can distract myself with wistful musings. For example, I can't wait to start generating some of the new characters with the "official" ruleset! I am also wondering why WOTC didn't coordinate the character builder update with the official release of the Player's Handbook 2. It seems like that would be a logical target date to generate maximum interest. Some of you reading this may wonder why I don't simply roll my characters up the old school way. I would and I still do, believe me, it's one of the small pleasures I enjoy when I have time. The key phrase being "when I have time". The character builder is just so convenient! With a busy family/work schedule, I need to allocate every minute of my free time to whatever hobbies I can fit in, so anything that saves me time is a bonus!

Back to the update, I still think the Druid, Sorcerer, Bard and Gnome should have been included in the first Players Handbook, but now that they are finally released I will reserve my criticism. Sadly, I am already looking forward to what could possibly be in the Player's Handbook 3! Monk's are assumed, but what other new class awaits? The necromancer maybe?

I just checked again, still no update (witness my OCD, recorded for posterity!)

UPDATE! I just checked and the site is down for maintenance! This leads me to believe the update is imminent! My mouse finger is poised over the clickity-click-clicker!

So I Joined the RPGA

2009-03-23T06:15:00.000-04:00

I was unable to sleep after returning from our Game Day event and I stayed up into the wee hours on Saturday night, registering my DCI# so that I could join the RPGA. The WOTC website kept crashing on me, but seemed to calm down as the evening went on. I even took the open book GM test to become a 4th edition Herald GM. I scored a 95%. I expected to score a 100%, but a vaguely worded stealth question lead to the demise of my perfect score (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). I will take comfort from the words of Cypher in the Matrix "No one makes the jump the first time." Wizards has changed how stealth works in the new Player's Handbook 2, so I will be sure to brush up on that weak spot.

I read as much as I could about the RPGA, it seems fairly structured, but I'll find out for sure when I put it to the test very soon. My two oldest children wanted to become members as well, but it seems like I'll need at least four RGPA sanctioned gamers to make my home events official. My daughter is busy trying to recruit one of her friends from high school, but I may have to draft more members of my family to fill in the extra spots. I also put in an order for more DCI membership cards (it was not a very intuitive process, I hope I did it right!) so that I can expand the geek gaming forces with gamers from the local area, but that is a topic for a future blog post!

I browsed through the huge choice of modules, selecting and downloading two adventures to run my group through and we are in the process of rolling up some RPGA legal characters. I chose the ADAP1-1 Barrow of the Ogre King and CORM1-1 The Black Knight of Arabel modules. I didn't get a chance to read through them yet, but I hope to squeeze some time in tonight! Hopefully, by this coming weekend I will be running my group through the first one!

On a side note, I read an interesting article (Got Wiki?) over at At Will. It was in reference to a Gnome Stew article and looked like a good idea to help any GMs pressed for time. I think I will try and get a wiki set up for the group we create.

We Came, We Saw, We Almost Conquered!

2009-03-22T09:26:00.024-04:00

I took my two oldest children to their first ever gaming event! It was the Worldwide D&D Game Day: Player’s Handbook 2 event hosted at The Comic Lair. If you haven't been to the store, you should stop in when you get a chance, Chad(the owner) is a great guy and is very knowledgeable about everything in his store. The place is literally packed wall to wall with geeky gaming goodness, from comics to action figures to boardgames, he has a little bit of everything!

It was a little under an hour drive for us, but we still arrived early and took advantage of that time to sign up for the RPGA. I wanted to make sure that we all joined so that we could participate in any future WOTC sanctioned events. I even plan on trying to organize some events closer to home.

Turnout was light for the event and some expected gamers didn't show up, so when our GM (Matt) arrived we ended up drafting the proprietor Chad into the group and ran through
One Dark Night in Weeping Briar with just four characters in our party. My son had his heart set on playing the warforged barbarian Squeaks and was immensely pleased when the GM passed the mini and character sheet for the character to him, to start the game.

I was given the dragonborn paladin Balasar and my daughter chose to play the tiefling invoker Markaria. Chad opted to play the gnome bard Roswyn. With the minis and character sheets handed out, it was time to game!

Matt (our GM) seemed a little nervous at first, but soon warmed up and had us combating the evil creatures assaulting the poor inhabitants of the town of Weeping Briar. The WOTC pre-generated character sheets were very handy, although I wish they would have printed the power stat blocks in color, it made it a little more difficult to quickly select the powers we wanted to use. It was also difficult trying to use some of the abilities of the characters since we were not familiar with most of the powers. I think WOTC should have designed the adventure with lower level heroes, the eleventh level characters had so many options that our combat started to bog down as we scanned the huge amount of choices available to our characters. I imagine it would have been a lot smoother if we had leveled theses characters from first through eleventh ourselves (and thus gained familiarity with the nuances of the different powers), but as it was, I didn't think it was very new gamer friendly.
We ended up gaming for about four hours, but didn't quite make it all the way to the end of the adventure, because plans we had for later in the evening required us to leave. Still we all had a good time, Chad & Matt were great and my kids got their first taste of 4th Edition gaming! I myself had a good time, much better than my own first experience at a gaming event as a teenager.

We were already talking about things we would have done differently with our characters on the drive home and planning for our next event! I've posted some pictures from the event in this article and I will post the remainder up in a gallery!

Worldwide D&D Game Day ... and so it begins

2009-03-21T04:40:00.000-04:00

It's 4AM on Saturday, the 21st of March and I woke up so excited about Worldwide D&D Game Day that I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to blog out some of my nervous energy! As part of a promise I made to myself to get back into active RPG gaming I decided to start trying to attend more gaming events and cons throughout the year. As luck would have it WWD&DGD has arrived at just the right time. Last week I did a quick search on the Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) website and found two fairly local spots that were hosting the event. I immediately fired off some emails inquiring about the event details and asked my two oldest children if they wanted to attend! Their answer was a resounding yes!

The three of us have gone over the tiny amount of information provided by WOTC and have tried our best to be prepared. I've read over the fourth edition rules a couple of times and I've run my oldest son through a mock combat or two to test out the rules of the system. I'm hoping the DM that is running the event is a good one, so that he can help us with any rules we aren't familiar with.

The marketing blurb for the game day reads as follows:

Ready an Action to Play on March 21st!
Prepare yourself (and your friends) to join D&D fans all around the world on March 21st for Worldwide D&D Game Day: Player’s Handbook 2. Everything you need to play will be on-hand, so it’s a great chance for new players, as well as veterans, to band together and find some adventure.
Come try out the new races (such as the gnome) and the new classes (like the invoker and barbarian) while you battle wicked fiends and thwart dark plots. No matter if you’re new to the game or a 4th Edition veteran; we'll have everything you need to embark on an all-new adventure.
The adventure, entitled One Dark Night in Weeping Briar, runs in 2-3 hours and includes five pregenerated 11th-level characters. The characters are:
Ilvarra, drow avenger
Markaria, tiefling invoker
Roswyn, gnome bard
Squeaks, warforged barbarian
Balasar, dragonborn paladin (uses material from the upcoming Divine Power product)
In addition to the adventure, there's a trivia activity sheet. Test your knowledge of our 4th Edition releases since the game's launch.

We have no idea how the DM plans to assign characters so we've tried our best to brush up on the details of each of the classes and races. Since I prefer DMing over running a player character I have no strong preference for any of the characters above, but my son is hoping for the warforged barbarian and my daughter is torn between the avenger and the bard. I'm thinking I will choose last if given the option.

My main goals are to ensure my kids have a great time and hopefully make some new gaming contacts/friends. I had a bad experience at my first gaming event as a young teen (that's a blog story for another day!) and I am determined that my kids will have a better first time than I did! Being somewhat of an introvert, part of the challenge for me will be to make sure I keep myself and them engaged in the story and the gaming. A lot of that will depend on the DM, but I am going to remain optimistic! A secondary goal is to sign the three of us up for the RPGA. I'm hoping it will be quick and painless! I am planning to join the GM Program and start running sanctioned RPGA games.

The event is about an hour away (in New Jersey traffic) and starts at noon, we are going to listen to some of our favorite gaming podcasts (Fear the Boot, WOTC Penny Arcade/PvP) on the way down to get our gaming mood stoked. We are bringing our own dice, the Player's Handbooks 1 & 2, a camera (so I can post some pictures of the event here) and our game faces.

LET'S GET IT ON!

A little bit about me...

2009-03-20T12:09:00.000-04:00

I thought I would use my first post to share a little bit of my gaming background. Like most role-playing gamers, I got my start in the hobby with the classic D&D rules at the ripe old age of thirteen! I was living in Victory Valley, California at the time. I already had a strong interest in fantasy books, having read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. None of my then current friends were into fantasy, so it was mainly a passive interest, but then a slightly older kid named Bryan moved into a house across the street from me and changed my life.

Bryan was a member of the Science Fiction book club and owned tons of fantasy books. He was a bit anal about how his books were treated and immediately laid the smackdown on me the first time I flipped a book over and set it on the floor, open pages down, to mark my place. He went on to "school" me in the proper reading of a book. He hated creased spines and dog-eared pages, he loathed grease and food stains on the pages and I feared what would happen should a page actually be ripped or removed from one of his books!

One day as we were sitting in his room talking about one of his books that I had just read, he went into his closet and pulled out a new curiosity. "You ever hear of Dungeons and Dragons?" he asked as he set a stack of booklets on the floor of his room. He actually was showing me 1st edition D&D and he also had the Chainmail rules and if memory serves something called Blackmoor. I was immediately drawn to the game!

Bryan quickly explained the basics of the game to me and I spent the rest of that afternoon rolling up a couple of characters while he put together a quick dungeon delve. I still have fond memories of those long summers days, with nothing to do but game to our hearts content! Did I mention Bryan wanted to be a chef? That boy could cook up some mean desserts! We would sit around and stuff our faces and roll dice all day long.

The big turning point for me came when Bryan asked me if I wanted to try my hand at being a DM. I suspected that he preferred playing more than Dungeon Mastering, but I was willing to give it a try. I was immediately hooked on DMing. The complete power and creativity it gave me just blew my mind. I sat around for days creating and populating dungeons, we soon decided that I would always DM and I have never regretted that choice!

The spark of interest I had in D&D soon grew into a raging bonfire! I found a hobby shop in nearby Apple valley and soon I was happily paging through my very own copies of the Dungeon Master's guide and the Monster Manual. I started buying all the dice and miniatures I could get my hands on. I started mowing lawns for money so I could support my hobby! The addiction was immediate and permanent!

Bryan and I even attended our very first gaming convention at the same hobby shop in Apple valley, but it didn't turn out so well (that is another story). Still it did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for the game.

I eventually ended up moving to Germany, but the damage had been done. I took all my gaming gear with me and found or recruited like minded players over seas. When I returned to the states (New Jersey) after graduating high school, I began recruiting my neighbors, DMing for several groups of husbands and wives. I joined the Air Force and recruited guys from the barracks. Everyone I met was a potential gamer!

I branched out into other games and types of gaming. Warhammer Fantasy Role-play and all the Games Workshop tabletop miniatures games. I was painting and collecting hordes of miniatures. My geek horde was truly massive!

Then something happened, I met a girl and fell in love. Suddenly, I didn't have time to game. I left the Air Force, went to trade school and began a career as a programmer. We started having children and suddenly I had no time for anything else.

Skipping ahead several years and my life began to stabilize again. I had kept my love for gaming and began playing computer games like SSI's Curse of the Azure Bonds, Wing Commander, even the now much despised Everquest( aka Evercrack!), but the demands of family and career left me no time for pen & paper gaming. I was still collecting all the role-playing game systems (and miniatures) I could get my hands on but I never played them.

Fast forwarding to my current life and my four children are now growing up and have been carefully raised and nurtured appreciating all things geeky. My sixteen year old daughter can wow her friends with her spotless imitation of a raging Tusken Raider or her knowledge of the player classes from the current edition of D&D, my thirteen year old son has level 70 characters in World of Warcraft, my youngest daughter plays the priest for instance runs and my nine year old is a deadly adversary on the Team Fortress servers across the intertron. I bought them all the starter D&D sets and my oldest has dabbled at being a DM, but other than board games and a few aborted attempts at D&D 3.0 there has been no RPGing in our household.

So at last, I have finally begun to manage my free time better and I decided that I would return to my DMing ways. Although, I've always kept up on the current editions of Dungeons & Dragons, they only sat on my shelves gathering dust. I vowed this year that all of that would change. Thus, the title of this blog: Ludios Resurrectio - The Resurrected Gamer.

Please join me, as I journey back into the world of pen & paper role playing!