G’wood has a new place for gamers to gather

Things may be turning around here for face to face gaming opportunities...

Many tabletop gamers have dreamed of opening up a store catering to their hobby, but in the Roaring Fork Valley, they’ve never seemed to stick. Since the demise of Mark’s Toys and Pets, locals have been generally had to travel to Grand Junction or Denver to buy role-playing dice or participate in a card tournament.

They don’t have to now.

Since February, word has slowly spread about the Jester’s Court in the basement of the Tamarack building at 10th and Grand in Glenwood Springs. The store is open only limited hours three days a week, but it is gaining a following.

Sean Wagner travels from Grand Junction to run the shop from 2-7 p.m. Tuesdays, 2-9 p.m. Fridays, and 2-7 p.m. Saturdays. He sees a lot of potential in the area.

“There’s a lot to be tapped around here,” he observed. “There’s plenty of gamers.”

Sean and his wife, Trudi, operate a larger store in Grand Junction and two in Wyoming. They’re starting small with the Glenwood store, but have the experience and business savvy to help it grow.

Right now, they’re catering mostly to devotees of the card game Magic: The Gathering, which, oversimplified, is a battle of complex rules among wizards whose powers are determined by the cards.

“Magic’s king,” Wagner explained. “It carries any game store and makes everything else possible.”

“Everything else” includes all sorts of “unplugged” tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons as well as a host of board games including Settlers of Catan and Diplomacy. You won’t find Monopoly or Halo among their selection. You might be able to convince them to order Risk, but you’d be better off asking for a specific Magic card.

The games themselves are only half the point.

“We provide something other places don’t: a place to play,” said Wagner. “We build gaming community in our stores. It’s a special thing. Everyone comes together in a game shop.”

The Jester’s Court hosts Magic: The Gathering tournaments on Friday nights, which usually attract 10 to 15 enthusiasts. Most, but by no means all, participants are in their teens or 20s.

Will Kribs, a 17-year-old Roaring Fork High School grad, stops by the shop almost every day it’s open.

“I can meet new people here,” he explained. He had a handful of people to play Magic and D&D with at school, but the Jester’s Court attracts people from all over the Roaring Fork and Eagle Valleys.

Tylor Kantas is another constant presence. Now 25, he grew up in the Valley.

“We had small groups in school to play,” he recalled, “but a lot of us went different directions and we lost the community.”

Kantas, who participates in Magic tournaments in Grand Junction and is even planning an outing to an event in Salt Lake City, found out about the shop through a friend. He now helps the Wagners out on a volunteer basis, and is such a fixture many customers mistake him for an employee. He’s just happy to be a part of the budding community.

“It’s all about fun,” he said. “Everybody comes in and gets to be their real selves.”

As the community grows, so does the potential for other events like Dungeons and Dragons-style tabletop role-playing or Warhammer competitions. If so, the business will likely outgrow its cramped underground abode, but for now, you can stop by 1001 Grand Avenue, Suite 002.

Last RPG Purchase was Basic Fantasy from Lulu

Since TSR's Basic Dungeons & Dragons with the Erol Otus cover in the magenta colored box was my first rpg purchase way back in 1981, it seems fitting my last purchase was the wonderful retro clone Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game.

With all the free material of quality available online, including Basic Fantasy in PDF format, I've forced myself to be real frugal with actual cash expenditure on rpg books. But Basic Fantasy did it right for me. A free PDF led to a Lulu purchase of the perfect bound, publish on demand copy of the game. The cost of the book was, like ridiculously low, and with a shipping discount being offered it was a no brainer.

The game gave me the house ruled tweaks I wish I had thought of while retaining all the flavor of the great game I first came to love.

I have further modified my Basic Fantasy with the best aspects I find from LotFP (also available for free in PDF format), and all those folks making cool character sheets, free adventures, Game Master aids, etc. just make this product one of the best rpg deals going.

S&S in the World of Xoth

My USR Sword & Sorcery campaign soldiers on and I now have enough game material cobbled together to post them here. Since many of the tools I used are not my own this post serves to recognize the authors of the material I use for my

Campaign Resources;

U.S.R (Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying) is Scott Malthouse's rules lite game mechanics. It is what my game rules are based on. I have just taken Scott's text and hacked it to my tastes.

Character Background's have been lifted from the Elric! rulebook from Chaosium. Same for the basic equipment table.

Campaign Background is from this guy Thulsa who created his own Sword & Sorcery setting he calls the world of Xoth.

Ben Ball's Random Sword & Sorcery Adventure Generator for use with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea is something I also rely on to populate the land with adventure seeds.

The USR character record sheet is by Charlie Warren of The Semi-retired Gamer blog.

USR 2.0 Review

Scott Malthouse's (U)nbelievably (S)imple (R)oleplaying game has just had an update, and as someone who uses the system here are my thoughts on version 2.0.

No fuss, no muss. No hand holding either. But that is the approach I look for in a rules lite universal rpg. I find Scott's USR rules achieve the goal of a unified mechanic which resolves all character interactions and encounters. The two components in which a rpg cannot do without; character creation and encounter resolution, are presented in a total of eight pages of this twenty one page free PDF. Players will be able to get their game on fast with USR, as long as the Game Master is up to it.

The introduction gives Scott's reasons for the revision. One being more advice for new players starting out with roleplaying games. I would have thrown into the introduction something stating USR is best run by experienced Game Masters who have a firm idea of what type of game they want to run. New GM's may be overwhelmed by the need to not only carry along new PC's into an exciting narrative, but also being able to ground the adventure in a sufficiently immersive campaign world. New players will then benefit from both a simple rule set which won't confuse them, and an old hand who knows how to show an rpg'er a good time!

Character creation is the same simple process which should have generate a fully realized PC in ten minutes or less. Especially if the GM has useful campaign information for the players to use.

How To Play is the simple core mechanics of the game. In two pages you have all you need to adjudicate any situation in the course of the game. If you are experienced with Savage Worlds you might find USR a dumbed down version of this game system. Then again, players who have been using any of Chaosiums various manifestations of its Basic Role Playing system will easliy know how to exploit the rules to deliver similiar results. 

While every rpg has detailed rules for combat, here the one page combat rules nicely highlight that combat rules in USR are nothing more than an example of how to adapt the core game with your own additional "chrome", house rules, grafted on rule hacks, etc. Once you have grasped this concept you become capable of resolving everything in the game you need to.

In my own sword and sorcery game I'm still blowing back and forth on all the choices I've made in how I run combat. I've ditched turn order and have made combat simultaneous. I'm still seeking the best method to resolve ranged combat. Applying critical hits and fumbles is still up in the air. Hit locations, and the application of armor... Fortunately my players have been amicable to my on going trial and error play testing of the combat rules as the campaign goes. So far. As long as it is in the service on how to best deliver the flavor of pulp fantasy blood and steel then perhaps I will in the long run be forgive.

I still find it odd Scott's choice to apply weapon bonuses only to the attacker, but with even rules on how order of attack is established omitted, your one page of combat rules are the absolute bare minimum in guidance while still working all the way through. Once again, this an example of why I recommend USR for the experienced Game Master. You are going to have to be comfortable coming up for rulings on the fly for range, cover, multiple attackers, fighting with two weapons, etc. The usual random chaos of unpredictable mayhem which players get up into will keep you on your toes so a good set of prepared spot rules for anticipated combat maneuvers is highly recommended.

An Example of Play and Setting Packages are a nice touch to give the bootstrapping GM an idea on how Scott envisions his game rules being used. 

Two optional rules finish the rules; Narrative Points, and Character Advancement. I don't use Narrative Points in my game, but I do use Character Advancement rules. As with every other aspect of the game, the application of experience for Character Advancement will need close supervision and rulings from the GM who takes fidelity of his campaign world seriously. 

I highly recommend USR for the GM eager to craft from whole cloth the campaign settings of his desires.