Ghengiscon 2025 Preflight

 Leaving soon from the Western Slope to descend on Denver, CO and Ghengiscon 2025, Colorado's oldest and longest running game convention. Snow in the forecast so, even though it is an interstate highway I travel, I do have my standard kit in the truck; winter boots, hat, gloves, and a blanket tucked under the back seat. Nothing sucks like 4 hours of stopped traffic due to some "incident". This can range from anything like deep snow, white out conditions, avalanche, 8 car pile-ups, and my favorite - flaming semis. I've seen them all. 

I should get into town around 3pm, check in, and wander the convention hall for a new set of dice to purchase. 7pm is Rock Hard 1977. Billed as a board game, you attempt to rise from obscurity into a mega rock star. Never heard of it, never seen it, but going to play it - hard! Then at 11pm is the after hours party with all the sponsors and vendors. I wish I had a good pitch all figured out besides pointing an executive to my drivethru page. Sure would like to pick up a freelance writing project while I'm there. I'm not drinking so that will be a plus, and I am a bit of an extrovert so I will at least be able to gather names and what these people actually do. 

Start Playing New Listings

 I have two new campaigns  available on startplaying.games; B/X Dungeons & Dragons Rom'Myr, a  Dying Earth and Gamma World 2e Metal Earth!

I am old-school after all. Gamma World was the first ttrpg I purchased with my own money. Basic Dungeons & Dragons was the first ttrpg I ever had, a Christmas present from my parents. They had seen me since 1976 bringing home other people's books so I could learn to play the game. They were a little concerned of my fast friendship with kids much older than me, but I was hooked. I was not to be denied! 

It was a heady brew as the 70s came to a close. Besides ttrpgs, there were all the science fiction and fantasy paperbacks I was devouring by the hour, and a raft of Savage Sword of Conan and Heavy Metal magazine underneath my mattress. Not to mention the starting collection of Star Wars action figures!

So, like a newborn chic, these two gaming properties define much of how I view, and play, roleplaying games.   

VTT and the Original Dark Magic

I have been hosting games on startplaying.games  for month now, and it has cemented my opinion on using VTT to run a TTRPG online. "Using VTT to run a TTRPG online". I mean this literally. If you commit to using a VTT for your game, the VTT is in charge. You are only going to be doing things in the game which translate to the digital screen. I imagine for some players they only know how to play VTT game and not really know how to play TTRPGs. I never had these tools when I was caught up in the hobbies first days. What we did have, like today, was robust discussions on how to play these games, what these games actually were, and whether or not other mediums have a place in these games. I don't recall important discussions around the use or not of DM/GM screens like there is today, but I loved them as a Dungeon Master, Gamma Master, Star Master, etc. One, they usually came with a decent adventure inside, and would have great art. But they were invaluable because they saved me time looking up, and re-looking up rules and modifiers. Mostly the modifiers. I do remember the screen was up on the table or laying flat, depending on my current needs. 

What I did not have to do was micro-manage tokens, scenes, graphics, lists, character sheets which crunch the numbers for you, tell you what you can and can't do, and the set up of all this takes time. And it is technical. I like ttrpgs because it takes me away from the technical, the managed, and (relatively) controlled aspects of my life. And everyone turns off their camera so they will have the necessary band-width to hang. This is what sunk the whole prospect for me. Call me strange, but I believe this is the greatest gift ttrpgs offer which many games cannot even touch; players invested in their group, dedicated to trying to have their best game possible. This means talking, like a lot. 

Obviously I am in the minority. Not providing an interactive tabletop software program is seen as a negative, a deal-breaker for many players, regardless how promising the campaign. The good news is this market is well served. On my side of the table I see room for an interactive game between the players. Roleplaying comes alive with face-to-face interaction. What player does not enjoy the twists and fits of facial expressions from a flabbergasted, stunned GM by your cockamamie action topped with a critical success roll!?!

The VTT feels like a video game to me. Probably because, like ttrpgs, in the seventies consul and arcade video games were in their infancy. And contrary to popular opinion, most gamers knew ttrpgs were what they had been looking for all this time, but just didn't know it. The game, the concept of the game was dead simple and easily understood. I do remember as a wee child being bored with Monopoly, Clue, Candyland (makes a great drinking game though), Stratego, and Risk. I had been exposed to tactical wargames before I was double digits, and if was going to move counters around the board they better be able to blow hell out of the countryside. But before all this, I only had paperback fiction delivering the imaginative excitement I craved. When Arneson and Gygax put the chocolate with the peanut butter what I needed had been just born. I cannot be the only one the first time someone told you about this game Dungeons & Dragons you got it. The lightbulb didn't just turn on, it exploded. I didn't have any of these game books and boxed sets until '81. What I did have was enticing rumors of this game, what it looked like, where you could find it and who was playing it near you. These trails, these breadcrumbs were everything like a classic Call of Cthulhu game. I was searching secrets many did not know. Picture a seven-year old hanging around the roller skating rink investigating the whereabouts of some person I never met who might know a little something about DnD. 

Trying to get a game group together is much like dating, for me. And can feel as awkward as asking someone on a date, hoping not to get rejected. And many, like me, got over these hang-ups quickly because we were driven to get into this game. Eventually getting the Moldvay Basic set in 1981 was like receiving ancient, magical tomes of wonder. It was easy to see a DM was nothing short of a wizard conjuring magic out of thin air. Almost. You did need pencil, dice, paper, and other people. Who could get along and carry a satisfying narrative with them as they explored the unknown, in game and adventure. That was appealing to me. I did not have any cash, and limited means of earning some. My friends like me who could not afford the game books, this was nice. There was no barrier to entry. 

I lose all this with a VTT. 

Savage Sword, the BRP version of Adventures in Xoth

I should have been on this years ago, but I was determined to write from the ground up my version of a
human-centric sword and sorcery game, which we all know resulted in Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery. Now, twelve years later, and I am once again a serious fan of Chaosium's BRP game system! In the last decade I have thoroughly explored the game systems of Dungeons and Dragons and lots of the OSR retro-clones, Classic Traveller, Space Opera, Clockwork & Cthulhu, Champions, DC Heroes, Cyberpunk 2020, MS&PI's. Some of these systems I had played with before, some it was my first time running the system. And others... I just plain forget all the games I've done a deep dive into since 2012.

There are so many rich rewards I have gained from all this, and the one I am talking about tonight is how much the BRP system suits me. A truly great universal game system it is. You can pick up any of their different types of games and play them all with a brief refresher on the buffs, and options being used which make the games, while using the same system, all having their own unique aspects. Rule tweaks, optional rules, powers, abilities, skills- under it all is just a d100 roll for success mechanic. Combat rules in each different game (Call of Cthulhu and its immense list of specific genre-takes, Runequest, Pendragon, Magic World, Superworld, hundreds of fan-made systems for a specific purpose...

This is all to say, I feel BRP is the best system to run human-centric, pulp-fantasy sword and sorcery tales. If written "right". I am in the process of writing up the rules for Savage Sword, Fantastic Pulp-Fantasy Adventures in a Primordial World. And this world is the tremendous campaign setting Xoth, a creation of Morten Bretan. 

I will be importing all the things I have learned about game systems, tables, random charts and use the coherence of Chaosium's BRP to put it all together. Character Creation is as streamlined as I could make it, skill resolution and task resolution are a snap. Combat system, including simultaneous hand-to-hand combat, is the chariot of this ride. Yes, I love pulp sword & sorcery because of the limb-lopping and corpse-strewn trails of gore! And the combat system has to reflect this. One of the easiest tweaks is to reserve Critical Hits and Critical Successes for PCs only. NPCs... sure they can fumble, but the average gate guard is not going to be the cur slicing your head off. Important NPCs, the important villain will get all the combat bells and whistles, but there are going to be mook rules. 

You know how Stormbringer resolved this design "question"? They gave Elric an 880% skill level with his hell-sword. Basically it allows this top-tier warrior 9 attacks a combat turn! Now, I am not one for bloated skill levels, but it works because it is BRP, and because it is sword and sorcery in the worlds of Michael Moorcock where the heroes reach god-like proportions. I will be tackling this design question differently, just like every other iteration of the BRP system does.