Delta Green First Time

 It happens ever so often, I throw out a willingness to run something specific for a one-shot and a few people respond and it gets off the ground for one, two, or three sessions as the particular plot is played out. Most of the times nothing happens. Time doesn't work or no interest in the game proposed. This time I tried something a wincey different, I offered to run whatever a small group of players wanted to to try out. This got three to four people wanting to play Delta Green. Perfect! 

Delta Green is modern conspiracy horror. Federal Agents leading a double life as secret commandos on the front lines of supernatural conflict. Built on the venerable BRP game system from Chaosium, the game puts a focus on sanity damage and damage to relationship "Bonds". Otherwise it is straight-up monster hunting in the Cthulhu Mythos. 

The group consisted of some gents from Kansas and one from the UK. I used the scenario from the quick-start rules "Last Things Last" for the evenings  action. I opened the adventure at Baughman's apartment. The DG agents (two of them) were sweeping the late Claud Baughman's apartment for any Cthulhu contraband the former "Friendly" may have hidden or retained in his domicile. The conspiracy must be concealed! The other two players, as regular uninitiated civilians, show up at Baughman's for their own reasons and an awkward conversation begins. 

This is a big part of the game, and really any session of Delta Green, coming up with valid, palatable reasons disparate individuals would work together on strange, deadly shit, let alone trust each other. We spent some time going around on this until we were all satisfied the opening made "sense". After that the game went pretty straight forward, they followed the breadcrumbs, uncovered contraband, confronted by new adversaries looking for something at the second site location, and uncovered the true horror that waited for them. 

With bodies being burned and contraband secured the session wrapped up with enough material still open to play another session. Or at least we agreed to play another session. Talk about a possible continuation of a campaign was floated but none of us saw the time nor availability, so talk of a campaign was tabled, for now.

The second session opened right where we last left off. We discussed whether players should get a skill check roll for chance of improvement to skills used last session. We decided not enough time had passed to warrant experience checks. The PCs also discussed their next move, which was nothing more than returning to Capitol City to their Handler and turning over the goods. The trip was immediately interrupted by more villains trying to ram them off the road. They failed Drive rolls so their 1995 Crown Victoria  fishtailed into the guard rail coming to the stop. Their attackers demanded some of the contraband from the footlocker they took from Baughman's cabin. The PCs declined. This prompted the villains, one of them at least, to open up with a military-grade assault rifle and try and kill the lot of them. After much ammo was expended the thug with the machine gun was cut down and the Crown Vic was noticeably shot up. The women in the SUV, the last remaining villain, sped off in her suburban while the PCs debated whether to scope up the body in the road and speed after her, or just speed after her.  They chose the latter. They decided there was nothing to tie them to the dead guy in the road (they are rural West Virginia at this point) so running down the last living mystery assailant was the best play.

This second car chase goes better for the PCs, They come out on top and the woman is critically wounded (they blew her foot off with a shotgun). She just would not come quietly and tried to shoot her way out of her predicament. And cast magic! She had spoken some strange words, spells it appears. Had made one of the agents see nightmarish hallucinations and one of the civilians to shoot their handgun at an agent. As the session wound down we roleplayed the aftermath. The cops, their Federal Handler, the actual SAIC of the FBI offices in Capitol City, was brought in and we had a chance to go over consequences and next actions. I truly enjoyed playing their handler as they hashed out the events at a roadside stop under cover around some wet picnic tables in a morning drizzle. Smokes were smoked, and things supernatural hashed out. We roleplayed the civilians being introduced to the conspiracy and joining the "cause". At least long enough to find out what their prisoner/detainee wanted out of Baughman's stuff and what she intended to do with it. 

All heady stuff, and a successful short-run adventure arc. What did I think? Well, I am well versed in the BRP game system and its many custom games using it, so as the Game Master I didn't have to fuss over rules much. I could spend time on maintaining fidelity with genre being played. Which is good because their is a lot to consider and hand-waving all these plot complications away is very unsatisfying way to play Delta Green. But once the PCs have settled into a good (enough) reason to get in a car with each other, armed with guns, and go out to a cabin in the woods.... well, the session can go for another couple of hours at least without bringing up another set of complications which has to be dealt with in the same manner. I had the usual tension of making sure I shut up often and force the PCs to talk to each other, not me. The more I could keep the conversation on their side of the table with me out of it was an intentional action. Really in a game set in "real-life" settings their is less as a Game Master you have to describe, feed into the Theater of the Mind engine environmentally-wise. Sights, sounds, smells, we all no what a wet highway and damp woods smell like. Which is a plus, because the action is not so much set-piece, site location exploration. It is interacting with people and getting away with what you are trying to do without getting arrested and trashing the character's life.

So I find all modern games, set in contemporary earth must have strong, interesting NPCs to interact with. Feats and gunfights are cool. But when the players start talking in character with each other, arguing really, the game is playing well. As the GM I found my job was to be mindful of when I should interject and prod some forward action and when best to stay out of it and let the players talk their way into their next actions. Horror is tough. The intro adventure provided in the quick-start rules offers a good set up for players to get right into the complications the game sets up for the PCs. The end horror element is good. It's reveal was built up well and came at the right time in the action. I would have no problem recommending Delta Green for those wanting to play contemporary horror roleplaying!

Steve Taught Me Much of Game Design

News of Steve Perrin’s passing reached the “Press” just now and yeah, I love the game system he pioneered. It clearly built on the success of early Dungeons & Dragons and dropped a D100 skill system on it for action and combat resolution. It seems the dynamics of D&D combat with a passive defense and an armor rating deciding how easily one was hit was dissatisfying to the young Perrin. It was not an unusual criticism. You could say Perrin’s Runequest was just a tightly house-ruled version of the world’s most popular roleplaying game, and you would have a very defensible position.

But the design was more sophisticated than simple house ruling an existing game. Runequest included contested actions where opponents rolled against each other using an appropriate skill and “best” roll wins. This alone added tension and excitement at the table with almost any encounter. But the skill system brought fantasy gaming out of the class and level paradigm and championed the ability to customize your fantasy hero to one’s own liking. Add in the fact armor absorbs damage instead of making one harder to hit and Perrin and Co. had instant converts clamoring for their game.

I was first introduced to Chaosium games when a high school friend showed me his new Stormbringer boxed set. I had devoured Moorcock’s fiction at this time in my gaming life, so was immediately intrigued. Scott (his real name) was someone who loved being a player and not so much a Game Master. I was the opposite in our gaming scene, so Scott would dump new purchases on me because he knew I would devour the game and commence to set up a game session. He never got this game back though. I loved the system and bought in to how it could be used for any game setting you had a mind to play. It in no way broke down with modifications I or anyone else would make to better fit our game’s genre conceit and begged a gamer like myself to look at magic in a different way than Gygax had stamped on the industry.

I never played a session of Runequest, or set foot in Glorantha, but I had walked the streets of Miskatonic U, driven my unmarked police cruiser through the streets of modern LA, pulled off clandestine operations for the Congress of Truth, and fingered black-powder weapons on the Spanish Main. I had seen several competent and well-loved characters go down under a fickle, gruesome critical hit and had put bullets through many an adversary with great satisfaction. For a while I would convert every different game, I had on my shelf into Chaosium’s basic D100 mechanics and bell-curved stat blocks.

Eventually I would come to preferer Willis and Watts take on Stormbringer, the Elric! version released in 1993, but by then I had been exposed to the entirety of Chaosium’s range of games and understood the company’s importance in the TTRPG business. And they had my respect.

I was more of a Ken St. Andre guy than Steve Perrin. I loved his original take on character creation in the Young Kingdoms, but it was Perrin I met at Gencon 2017. He gave me a quick, spirited debate what real roleplaying was before he pulled himself away as I was viciously drunk, but he smiled, I smiled, and we parted with neither being terribly embarrassed.

This game pioneer, like many of the rest, have died early because of poor health. The Standard American Diet and the relatively non-athletic attributes of the hobby have connived to take early game creators from us way before they were done creating. I hope this next generation of players and creators tackle healthy eating and exercise with more enthusiasm than past. There is so much more to be uncovered in this amazing art form and time at it does make a difference. At least in having an informed opinion on the nature and purpose of the sport. The next book is generally better than the last. The more adventures one writes the better they get. And that is all gamers really want. Your best stuff. Thanks Steve, for all the quality game product you gave me to study, play and develop from!

Rom'Myr, a dying earth setting for Magic World

Fantasy Adventures in the dying world of Rom'Myr

An OSR setting using the Magic World role playing game rules

Dying Earth is a subgenre of science fiction, fantasy, or science fantasy which takes place in the far future at either the end of life on Earth, or other Earth-like planets. The End of Time when the laws of the universe themselves fail is also a common trope. Themes of world-weariness, innocence (wounded or otherwise), idealism, entropy, (permanent) exhaustion/depletion of many or all resources (such as soil nutrients), and the hope of renewal tend to predominate.

I started this campaign setting with BFRPG in mind, but I want to have a setting to use with the d100 rules of Magic World so I am in the process of adapting the setting. Here I jigger the Character Creation rules of Magic World to fit my conception. This post will then be followed with a post outlining how the magic system works in the game. When I build up setting details suitable for use by the GM I will post them as well, but I work in fits and starts so don't hold your breath on any of this.

Here is a link for a Magic World form-fillable character sheet for those inclined.

1. Character Creation:

Only human characters may be chosen for race. The available human racial identities are Rom'Myr, and the Fir'Bax.

Rom’Myr humans are citizens of the Blue Borderlands, the farthest province east in the realm of The Trackless Empire. Sandwiched between the Cold Heath and the Groaning Mountains on the shores of the Inland Sea. The Rom'Myr of the Blue Borderlands trade for Bolfian Silk from the non-human desert nomads known as the Strangled.

The land of Fir'Bax lies north of the Blue Borderlands. Uncouth barbarians, the elaborately tattooed Fir'Bax scratch a living from the small arable land surrounding the high peaks of the Yani'Hor, the Groaning Mountains. They are extremely xenophobic and war incessantly with the Strangled. This small barbarian kingdom also resent the encroaching Rom'Myrians into their wilderness domain.

Turn to page 20-21 of the Magic World core rule book and follow “A Guide to Creating your Adventurer”. Below are listed (if any) changes to this standard procedure as they occur in the process.

Step 1: Names & Characteristics No changes.

Step 2: Characteristic Rolls No changes.

Step 3: Derived Characteristics No changes. Please note Human Move is 8, not 10. This is a typo in the rule book.

Step 4: Age and Experience Any PC choosing the Shaman occupation rolls 17+5d6 for starting age, otherwise no changes.

Step 5: Magic Adventurers must have POW 16 or higher to be able to use magic. How the magic system works in Rom'Myr is detailed in its own chapter.

Step 6: Culture and Species Only human can be chosen for PC species. All Culture options are available.

Step 7: Skill Category Modifiers No changes.

Step 8: There appears to be no step eight so this is probably a good time to assign your starting Allegiance (page 28-33).

Step 9: Occupation and Skills All Occupation and skills are available and you are free to build your character as you like. Just keep in mind you will be fitting your character into one of seven Character Classes. These seven classes are; Assassin, Barbarian, Druid, Jester, Paladin, Ranger and Thief. The significance of these classes are detailed in their own chapter.

Step 10: Starting Money and Equipment No changes. I recommend you add Thomas Wiegel's a Wretched Catalogue for more equipment choices than what is offered in the Magic World core rule book. Just convert the cost in silver to cost in bronze.

1.1 Character Class Rules:

All the classes are available to any new PC. All but the Assassin, Barbarian and Thief class have the ability to learn and or acquire magic per the included magic rules if they have a POW 16 or greater. Each particular Class may have additional limitations which are outlined below;

All Barbarian PC's must be Fir'Bax. Only the Band and Tribe cultures are available to this Class. Any of the available Occupations listed for these Cultures are available.

Jester PC's should consider themselves more as traveling monk/scholars as opposed to being a kept clown for royalty. The Jester PC may be either human race (Fir'Bax/Rom'Myr). If Fir'Bax is chosen as race only the Band and Tribe cultures are available. Rom'Myr racial identity does not limit choice of Culture. They are limited to the following Occupations: Astrologer, Begger, Crafter (Tribal), Diplomat, Lost/Forgotten, Minor Noble, Nomad, Peasant/Farmer, Physician/Apothecary, Sailor, Scribe, Shaman/Priest/Cultist, Slave (Freed or Escaped), Small Trader, Sorcerer, Thief, Troubadour/Entertainer.

The Druid is a wild shamans roaming the dying lands of Rom'Myr. A Druid must be Fir'Bax. Only the Band and Tribe cultures are available to this Class. Any of the available Occupations listed for these Cultures are available plus Astrologer, and Sorcerer.

The Ranger, civilized cousin to the Druids must be of Rom'Myer descent. Rom'Myr racial identity does not limit choice of Culture. The Ranger is limited to the following Occupations: Bandit, Craftperson, Crafter (Tribal), Fisher, Hunter, Lost/Forgotten, Nomad, Peasant/Farmer, Slave (Freed or Escaped), Small Trader, Tax/Rent Collector.

Assassins are highly trained guild specialists. They owe their skills to an established order or institution. They must be Rom'Myr and must take the State culture. The Occupations available to the Assassin are; Bandit, Hunter, Minor Noble, Paid Assassin, Cultist.

Thieves are your most common of adventuring rogues found within the Blue Borderlands. They can be either Fir'Bax or Rom'Myr. If they choose Fir'Bax they are limited to the Band and Tribal culture. All the Occupations of these cultures are available, except replace Shaman with Thief. Rom'Myrian identity requires the State culture to be chosen. They are limited to the following Occupations: Bandit, Beggar, Craftsperson, Lost/Forgotten, Sailor, Slave (Freed or Escaped), Thief.

A Paladin is a PC who has picked up the sword in defense of some aspect of the lost past. The Paladin can only be a Rom'Myr human and of the State culture. The Occupations available to the Paladin are; Mercenary/Bodyguard, Minor Noble, Slave (Freed or Escaped), Soldier/Guard/Watchman.

2. Orders and Institutions:

Most of the PC Classes are bound to some type of esoteric religion or ageless cult which claim some form of legitimacy through ancient ideas lost to the unimaginable past eons of Rom’Myr. None of these confer any mechanical benefit for the new PC, but is used to embellish this dying earth with some of the player’s ideas. Of course the Game Master can decide to create orders and institutions which do confer mechanical benefits for the PC as they see fit.

There is a wide discrepancy in intent and capability of the organizations of men in the world of Rom'Myr. Whether battle hardened mercenary corp, horrid murder cult, or starving street thugs the one galvanizing feature of orders in Rom'Myr is the expectation of complete obedience.

Fir’Baxian Battle Cults; there is no better inspiration for your own barbarian battle cult than Red Moon Medican Show's Vacant Ritual Assembly Issue #4. Furious Gods (found on pgs 15-18) is a must read! These pages will be drawn on to demonstrate the magic system of the Druid as well as some of the “gifts” a Barbarian may receive from their Battle Cult.

Pagan Religions; below are names to spur the imagination when creating your worlds and player's religious orders.

Tix-ka-tix, The Returner, The Patient One, The Slumbering Pharoh (Petty Godsp.171).

Mespilus, god of medlar trees and their fruit (Petty Gods p.109).

Lubella the Transformative (Petty Gods p.96)

Esoteric Schools suitable for any character class;

Dlarafis, Augazor, Trani, Children of the Sacrificed, Sect of the Son, Chosen Ones of Tranquility, Band of the Studied, Followers of Vranis, Faith of Drysm, Congregation of Kousha.

3. Languages; Dun-Harad is the language of the Trackless Empire. Marude is the language the Fir'Bax speak. Sahrashin is spoken by the dark skinned Ahenti. Torbarel is the language of The Strangled.  The Other Language skill is limited at character creation to these four languages. As the PC's explore the world of Rom'Myr they may come across other languages and PC's may attempt to learn these through the regular rules for Training and Experience (pages 51-53).

4. Combat Skills: The only “House Rule” I like to add to the rules for Combat Skills is in regard to thrown weapons. Instead of committing an additional skill to the particular thrown weapon the PC can assign their Throw skill as their chance to hit with any thrown weapon. This makes putting points into Throw more valuable then having to split points between Throw and an additional Weapon Skill. I take that back, I have an additional house rule; boost the Base % for Crossbows to 35%. No one needs a skill in Crossbow to shoot these weapons at the Base %.

5. Combat: This piece of crunch only applies to PC's. If an attack throw results in a fumble roll a 1d20 on the following Confirm Fumble Roll table. This will either minimize or exaggerate the rolled fumble. Feel free to ignore this step if you don't like this rule.

1 : You really messed up this time! Roll twice on Fumble table.

2 – 10: Roll on Fumble table as normal.

11 – 19: Regular miss.

20: Recover! Reroll to hit.

6. Magic Rules: these will make up the body of the next post!

Savage Satisfaction in Indianapolis

I had made it clear long ago when Colorado made the heavy civil rights move it did in '14 I was not inclined to traverse state lines much anymore. I could see the eminent reason for sober, rational people to want to avoid the straight up scene GenCon50 actually is, or would become and counted myself as one who would not attend.

I had written it off as far as my attendance was concerned months ago. Not that I didn't want to attend a game conference and there was a lot to like about this one. Attendance records broken, more gaming available than ever before, an awful sprawling real dungeon crawl on a timer. It would clearly be an endurance test of monumental undertakings if I was to squeeze all I could out of the affair.

But there just wasn't enough going on weird. The idea of going to GenCon50 hadn't really gotten heavy traction in my head. Not enough to trigger action anyways. I've had my share of bloodless affairs, no matter how hyped thank you. An over-niter to Willow Lake is the better, saner choice. And it wasn't that there wasn't anything I didn't want to see or game at the convention center. I had a stack of LotFP books on my desk hungry for signing and as the roster of writers and artists who were making the journey mounted…. But still, could I take seeing the greasy wheels of commerce and the commodification of everyone's fun right in front of me? Could I leave my mountain fastness for sweaty transit and food deserts? I could shudder.

So this particular trip began mere weeks ago in my parents place back east. A good friend came over and he had gotten his game published. I play tested it like five years ago. In the loving, caring way only people with history have I told him “It's not fun, it sucks.” He thought I was wrong and he had a great game. Lo and behold he was right. He did have a great game in there and through continuous play test and design it was uncovered.

While watching the nerdfamous documentary “The Next Great American Game”; the story of my friends journey to gaming conventions on his quest to get published, we unpacked the Ultra-Pro produced product. “How'd you handle handing over your game to suits,” I inquired. Knowing Randall giving up creative control on his own art would be resisted. I mean he battles over fonts like they are living beings. “I was done, I wanted to see it published.” he said. “I've been working on this thing for ten years and someone bought it. If they want to call it Road Hog they can call it Road Hog. I'm going to run demos and sell it out of the Ultr-Pro booth at Gen Con. You should come.”

My friend is a clever bastard and the fascinating movie production was a nice touch. I was being expertly sold. I had just been trained as a booth monkey before I knew it. Over my mom's homemade Moroccan stew and fresh decaf he had me watch the game's story. There was one last hurtle though; how does it play? I'm not going to sell my ass on the convention floor for just any piece of Ameritrash. It better work. After a two player session and five player play with family it was obvious this wasn't the same game I demoed years ago. This was a real, complete game people could play and have fun with. I booked my ticket that night, the idea of GenCon50 just found traction.

Wednesday morning started out bright and crisp at eight with hot coffee and planned hike up Twin Sisters in RMNP. My flight didn't leave till just after midnight so ample time for another scramble up the high rockies and a bit of solitude. Collect my thoughts before the steep plunge. I had managed to purchase an event badge as well as schedule a game of Champions and Cyberpunk2020 and my ENnie tickets. The rest of the time was to push Road Hog, get my LotFP swag signed and otherwise let the con wash over me and see what it had to offer. I also needed to plan how I could introduce Randall Hoyt, my game designing friend, to James Edward Raggi IV, King of the North. See a month or two ago James posted interest in looking at graphic design/layout talent. Solid talent. The kind that could hit deadlines. No matter how my long association with Randall has colored my thinking he artistically is f#$ing amazing, a polished graphic design professional, into games, and has the only board game documentary I know of featuring actual description of body horror. When I first saw Raggi's post I knew I had his man. But would Randall be interested? Had his board game journey left irreparable scars; the cold corporate shoulders and the eventual shallow money trench of 6% royalties hardened his heart that there was nothing redeeming in this industry? That there was no art to be found in this joyous activity? Ahh fuss and bother. No use worrying about what is beyond one's control. Once he affirmed his interest in new, private design work I had informed consent all around. Just make the introduction, give the reason why I think it is a strong move for both of them and wash my hands of it. Its a part I can play in the revolution and now my adventure is more than hack 'n slash. Now it has intrigue! I did follow some modicum of standard business practice. No use pitching when no one is buying. I fired G+ missive to James if talent was still being looked at. When pursuing mad dreams I thought it best to tamp down the fact I'm fan-boy unhinged as long as possible.

Midnight came and nothing was left but to find platform 9-3/4. By five am I expected to be at Randall's hotel with mere minutes to shower. The enormity of my task, endurance-wise was now starting to fall in place. First off I made a real bad calculation on time. Indianapolis is East Coast time, not Central. Ultra-Pro in their ultimate wisdom had bivouacked their new hot game designer in the Red Roof Inn South forty minutes by the #14 bus from the convention center. My back of the envelope Jack Kerouac calculations had me on eight hours total sleep over a period of four days! Good thing I brought Purel. When the coffee starts to become ineffective the harsh sanitizing gel on open wounds can shock one alert. 

My Champions game was first up at 8am on the second floor of the JW. I arrived in Indy a sleep-deprived panicked man babbling incoherently about the “operation”. It had clearly risen to operational status as there were significant separate objectives to the campaign which all needed achieving if the adventure was to be counted a success. I was given a hand packed lunch as my good friend ushered my shattered soul on the morning bus. I had enough wits about me to include my LotFP books for signing and I raised logistical questions as they came to me. Randall confidently brushed them aside. “What we need to do is go straight to the JW and get you to your game. When you're done come find me at the Ultra-Pro booth.”

The packed lunch got me through the 28 hour mark and the Champions session folded up with the GM offering his own licensed Hero adventure supplements to us. It confirmed that, though I have a huge soft spot for the game, I would not use it to run supers games now. Combat takes too much time to complete RAW and there is sooo much more to role play in a supers campaign than boss fights. Champions crowds some of these opportunities out with the time needed for combat in real time. By now it was clear I couldn't do my 8pm game of Cyberpunk. I was running on fumes. I needed food and sleep before then. I was even concerned for my utility in the Ultra-Pro booth in the afternoon stretch. Tick tock, tick tock.

I took a seat at booth 709 right when another game of Road Hog was getting started. The enthusiasm of the players buoyed my spirits and I happily gamed several hours away while people snatched up copies at a regular pace. Zak S. listed brownie points convention goers could earn for super cool prizes so I started working on what I could while I played. I wore my LotFP tee over my Zak S. Red King/Flesh Golem tee so I could snap some photos. Randall's documentary “The Next Great American Game” from Grandfather Films established his nerdfamous creds so I felt my brownie point tally was off to a hot start. Earlier I had zeroed in the closest convenience store for the Cherry Dr. Pepper and sugar/caffeinated beverages so I had those points literally in the bag.

I wasn't going to get any fresher so it was time to get my favorite LotFP goods signed by the creators. It was time to see these wonderful creatives which gave me back role playing. Booth 2904 was a blaze of activity. People were listening and buying. Zak S. led the charge and easily swept up curious RPG'ers into looking at LotFP's books. Once looking, once holding these indie gems clever, sophisticated, fun loving gamers grasped Raggi's weird horror aesthetic with clarity and cash. It was truly moving.

I swept the booth crew of creators for my treasured celebrity signatures. Raggi, Zak, Patrick Stuart. I got to meet Jacob Hurst and listen to his wonderful pitch on his books. My budget was consciously constrained so Qelong was my “this is such a deal” buy and I had to make a decision between the badass LotFP tee or the Rules & Magic book. I went with the book. The only person I didn't see at the booth was Jez Gordon. But this was okay because I still hadn't purchased a silver sharpie. LotFP goods have many pages in black.

Closing up the Ultra-Pro booth just before 6 I couldn't believe I had made it so far. I was at the 36 hour mark and feeling every inch of it. Randall was assuring me I didn't fumble the last demo. He had stepped out for a smoke break just as two buddies from Iowa approached the table. They wanted to get one more game in before the Exhibitor's Hall shut down for the night. Words, I don't have my words! I thought to myself. Human speech at this point was a struggle. Whether Randall's sentiments were true or not I took satisfaction each one of the Iowans walked off with a purchased and signed copy of Road Hog first edition. I ascented to all my friend's suggestions on what we were now going to do. Somewhere I knew food and bed was at the end of the schedule so I was all on board. We shot b reel and monologue for promotional video as we meandered the vast convention hall. “I would have never found my game this morning, never made the bus if it wasn't for you.” I acknowledged. Randall nodded and said it was all because he had been here before. I was benefiting from his earlier explorations and he knew right where to go. We wrapped up shooting which all would eventually be posted on Grandfather Film's site touting the success of Road Hog and caught the 14 back out of town. Tick tock, tick tock.

Andy Ashcraft is a game designer from Los Angeles. He has a passion for supers role playing and has a pivotal role in the current success of Road Hog. While his work on Road Hog is well documented in the film what may not be apparent is how awesome and genuine of a person he is. I got to experience this first hand when he swung around to the Ultra-Pro booth to congratulate Randall on the success of Road Hog. He also has an opening in his Friday morning game “The Hero Instant”, his homebrew supers role playing game so I now have a four hour session first thing. Coffee and commute again to the convention hall. Splitting duties between face to face gaming and Road Hog demos, I'm excited.

But today is going to be tougher than yesterday. There is no way I can return to the hotel before the Ennie awards ceremony tonight. I'm committed to being a witness to gaming history unfolding over the next twelve hours at GenCon50. It is one of the important missions being pursued on this fast moving, messy operation. I would not see 146 Red Roof Inn South till Saturday. Stick deodorant will be the staff I lean on today. And water, lots of water. And gum. I have another packed lunch and I know where the cracks, the tension is going to come from between Randall and myself. I go a mile a minute with Randall, always have, and I never appreciate how he takes care of many details which need caring for. He always, and rightly so, takes it as selfish indifference on my part. Not that I don't thank him regularly for hosting me and hooking me up. Somehow it never is enough. Our personal, cultivated dysfunction will manifest I'm sure along these lines. Thankfully I have the mission. I can harden my heart to the work which needs to be done today and possibly avoid a messy emotional scene between us.

Charlotte Stokely surely bought me time before the brief restorative powers of sleep I captured leaked out of me and help me calm down before the Ennie award ceremony started. Patrick Stuart mentioned here Ms. Stokely has a Charisma 18. While indisputably correct, let me add my experience. Charlotte is disarming. I was pretty sure she was one of the D&D players as seen on “I Hit it with My Axe”. I managed to say as much. “Stokely,” she answered affirming she was indeed a regular player. “So what's your story?” she asked. Mercifully what follows is not caught on the Ennies 2017 live stream. I had managed to sit myself down next to Chris H. in the front row of the ceremony hall. He was the only person, outside of Zak, who I had gamed with on G+ who I met at the con. Any semblance of reigning in my raving fanboy enthusiasm is clearly dispelled by the video. There were sooo many accomplished artists who accepted my wide eyed adulation over the last 48 hours graciously. It got so bad I began hoarding napkins in my pockets so I could wipe off any spray I inadvertently let off.

But Stokely, yeah she had taken a seat in the front row. Zak had come past and just declared LotFP deserves a table up front with Chaosium and whoever else was up there. Fair point I thought. Don't sleep on the revolution, don't sleep on these girls and guys who make up the DIY OSR. They don't miss an opportunity to argue the merits of their work. “What's the difference in sales between a gold and silver ennie?” I asked Chris H. “Ask Raggi, he'd know.” and he was right. James would know. But I sure wasn't going to ask him. I had cashed my face to face time with the King of the North twenty minutes ago. Randall agreed to come over to Union Station Hall and meet James. His time was limited tonight and he wanted to catch the 14 before local transit closed for the night. “I'll take an Uber.” I assured him. It was a lie. I had arrived on the field of battle and I was not going to relinquish it until victory or death was achieved! The JW third floor lobby was what I had targeted for bed already. I'd hear about the hours I'd keep later. “Make sure you're quiet when you come in. You can be a talker.” Tick tock, tick tock.

James Edward Raggi IV was as affable as when I first met him at his LotFP booth, booth 2904, on Thursday. He appeared comfortable and confident in the well earned support of the talented writers, artists and production folk who surrounded him this weekend. LotFP was up for multiple awards again and the stakes couldn't have been higher. Veins of the Earth was a big project for LotFP and one they had to do. Patrick Stuart and Zak S. had shown they were not slowing down with high level game art so everyone, including the publishing house, needed to be prepared. Not that they alone were going to bury editors and publishers with appetite satiating adventure content gamers were ready to throw money at. No, they only represented the vanguard of many more behind them and the industry better suit up to meet the demand going both ways. Of stampeding fans for more and more creative content on one side and more and more artists offering up high level content which needs to be released. “This is the guy I was talking about...” I introduced Randall and James and I made my pitch there on the Ennie floor. “He sounds expensive.” grins James. “You do it for the love.” Randall rejoins. Corny as the line is Randall has his Ultra-Pro royalties contract to inform him of the nature of standard industry rates. Short and sweet. The light banter continued after the pitch as I hoped, nothing left but the follow up, the obligatory review of work, some contact information. “And you'll have to talk to Zak and Patrick. They are the ones most interested in graphic design and information technology” James says. Bampf, sales jujitsu. Just when I thought I had another mission wrapped up, done reasonably well without too much embarrassment to myself or others and I'm back at square one. I don't have time to set up another meet and greet. I can't scramble and put something together last minute without being a pushy bad bore. Not anything with any memorable or useful impact. If I had even achieved that up to this point! Rookie mistake threatened to unwind the operation in the end game. Tick tock, tick tock.

I was tearing my face a little. Randall bounced to his friends and corporate backers. He had no reason to think anything amiss. He networks and solicits work with the best of them in his field. There is so much networking going on during GenCon this was just one of many connections he would run through this week. I would get one chance, maybe, at the D&Dw/PornStars after party to close the loop opened up by Raggi which I now wanted to close. This would look all ham handed (cause it was) and no bets I could stay on my feet another 3 hours. Pitching on the floor was done. It was time now for the celebrants and LotFP's dogfight attack on top prizes. So I started tallying my brownie points. You can see when Zak comes in and generates the whole “Sean  Patrick Fallon” airport meltdown's genesis on the live feed.

As a Dungeon Master and role player there is one question I always have an answer for, trained to have an answer for and it is simply “What's your story?” Which one? I have so many! I think when Ms. Stokely asked me my favorite question I made some kind of gasping, wheezing noise. I was down to my last gulps of water in my bottle. But somehow I found my breath and plunged into a story. It was the only story I wanted to tell anyways and it was why I was sitting here in the front row at the Ennies. I must have done well because when my story touched on USR Sword & Sorcery and my own game design she asked if she could see it. Gasping and wheezing noises again. When the color returned to my eyes and I could verify the walls of Hogwarts still stood I pulled my copies of USR Sword & Sorcery and Horrors Material & Magic Malignant out from my pack. And I started to explain it and why I made it and how awesome the G+ community was in helping me get it done. “Are you going to let me touch it?” Next to any entry of zombie in any rpg monster guide you could place the look on my face just then. Pale, no colourless. I was discussing my game with one of my gaming culture's long time heroes and this queen of cool had given me three outs to save myself from the total nerf-fan-paralysis I was succumbing to and I was frozen up like a dead thing. I unclutched my books as she gently removed them from my hands and skimmed the rules. Oh I wasn't done embarrassing myself yet. I start something I finish it. Charlotte commented on the character sheet in the back. She approved of making a good sized section for adventure notes. “No its a character sheet.” I blurted out. I took her meaning different. I couldn't hear. I made another quick assumption on what someone was saying and I was wrong. Of course Ms. Stokely knows it is a character sheet, she's Ms. f$^ng Stokely! So her and the delightful Ella Darling signed USR Sword & Sorcery making my personal copy of the game the most heavy metal sword and sorcery game in existence!

I managed to chill out and start counting brownie points, soak in the moment. Up to this point I had run/played numerous games of Road Hog and and helped sell out the convention stock by the bell on Friday (They underestimated my game, Randall said to me.) with the crowds appetite far from satiated. I had gamed seven hours of supers as a player for the first time ever. All my books got signed, Jez Gordon and Ken Hite finished me off at the ennies. I wouldn't believe I relaxed through all that if I hadn't sat right in front of one of the ennies live stream cameras and can watch it anytime I want. Tick tock, tick tock.

The ennies after party for those on the right side of history was on the seventeenth floor of the Midtown Marriot. It was packed with wall to wall fans, industry heavy weights, jovial foreigners and one of the cleanest party vibes I had felt in a while. +Satine Phoenix was amazing and took my congratulations on her gaming projects as graceful as you would expect. All was well in the land of Oz and the munchkins dance on the corpse of the conquered! There was no chance a flame this hot would burn long so I turned from the crowd of party goers to buttonhole Zak. I asked for thirty seconds of Zak's time instead of 2 minutes before and this change of tactic worked. This was it. This was worse than the tongue paralyzed game demo yesterday. I was at the end of my rope and at the end of my mad adventure quest. His right hand started counting off one two three four five one two three four five. I'm seriously getting thirty seconds! I blather through, the pitch delivered. I may have gone past thirty. Zak cut me off around the right time saying “Sold, you sold it!” It was over. The kid in the Captain America shirt telling the room to rock on was worth all the money spent to get here itself. The raging after after party in the Marriot lobby was almost anticlimactic if it wasn't for its brute force awesomeness. +Ken Baumann polymorphed in front of me out of a fourteen year old boy. As genuine, smart and as inciteful a person as you would want to meet. +Mike Evans was justly thumping his chest for his ENie victory. My attempts at photographing the happenings experienced strange anomalies so I later tossed the shots as unusable, as somehow wrong. The geometry was never quite right.  Only a selfie with Jez Gordon survived the arcane energy which wrapped us all. Tick tock, tick tock.

I woke up on a couch in the JW around 8:30 Saturday morning to the bustle of hotel staff and early morning gamers. One was sitting on the end of the couch I crashed on. +Dennis Sutherland was going to play his first ever face to face game of D&D with a real live DM and other players and everything and he couldn't wait. “What edition you going to play?” I asked. “Fifth Edition.” He fired back beaming. “Good version of the game. I've looked at it. Really slick. You're going to have a great time.” “Yeah I can't wait.” He said for the third time.

“You don't have a home game?”

No, no one in my town games. I tried but they would rather play video games.”

“Have you tried online? Getting into a game online?”

“No, no I haven't.”

“Can you play Sunday mornings twice a week?”

“Well yeah, sure.” With Dennis' eager interest I had him lined out on G+ and part of my community for my regular game. I gave him the link to the free PDF rules and we parted with the assurance he had a seat at my virtual table anytime. All the while I unpacked what my phone had to tell me of last night. It was still early for my second round of “The Hero Instant”, but I still shouldn't have been feeling as crushed as I did. It was because I crossed another mission off my list for Operation GenCon50. It didn't take long when I was packing for the trip to land on what game I was going to bring to GenCon. If given a chance to run a game at the convention it was going to be my game; USR Sword & Sorcery. Fortuitous choice as not only is my rule book now blessed by actual Valkyries it was the only thing I could possibly run at 2 am when I came across three teenagers still up and goofing. They had cards and game boards strewn on the table and furniture. “You guys want to game? Conan flavored rules lite rpg?” I don't know how I sold it, but cocktail napkins in hand I had a mutilated sailor, merchant who had angered a king and a city guard plumbing the depths of the intro adventure included with the game while the night turned to day. They were just at the point when the plucky adventures, blades wet with cultist gore, debated stealing some valuables and fleeing or delving deeper when the wisest of the group cried “Its five in the morning we're going to bed.” Tick tock, tick tock.

Andy's second session of “The Hero Instant” went off without a hitch and I gutted through a three hour game with two other fine role players. Amber was fascinating. She had something. She said what it was in a rapid fire breathless voice. She had Andy explain the nuts and bolts of her pregenerated character by the numbers. Once she grasped all the numbers she was able to breath life into Animus, the ice shifting animal spirit and her strange way of relating melted away. Bill was a software developer I think and he could game the shit out of his pregen. I was lucky to get to use my same character again and we rocked it. Andy is a great Game Master and I thank my girlfriend's granola and Randall's fresh seedless grapes in my pack to give me the fuel to keep up with all the action. The Hero Instant had quick character generation and was able to pull all the super hero styled action I could want. Not running the game I wasn't sure how the initiative system was working, but I did like that the PC's do all the rolling. If attacking you rolled to hit. If you are being attacked you roll your defense to see if you are missed. Smart trick offloading all the rolling on the players. Another GenCon50 mission had now been achieved. Close friendships formed around a three hour game session played to the best of everyone's ability. 

I stumbled back to the Ultra-Pro booth trying to grasp it wasn't morning anymore. My flight didn't leave till 6 the next morning, but I still had to make it to the hotel and put myself together before then. Sleep, while desired would be hard to have. I knew I would be electrified by recent events and my mind would bubble and boil till I flat out shut down.