Where my current players are there is a chance of running into "colorful" NPC's. One such category ending up on the "Random Encounter" tables I scratched together is Traveling Sorcerer!
I copied some of the random tables from this LotFP product and pasted them into the Last Gasp online generator tool. Just like that I now have, if encountered, a means of creating helpful and caring random strangers for my players to interact with!
Zak posted this questionnaire and here are the answers I came up with;
1.
One article or blog entry that exemplifies the best of the Old School
Renaissance for me: Chris Kubasik's Traveller-out-of-the-box series
of blog posts on his blog Tales to Astound are epic. I
particularly like “The
Expectations of a Traveller Referee at the Start of the Hobby”.
Made me go from “I wonder what Traveller is actually like?” to “I
need to play this game now!” before I finished reading the post. 2.
My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark: What James Raggi wrote
in the Referee Guide of his Grindhouse Edition of LotFP. 3.
Best OSR module/supplement: By far, and much said on this blog, I get
more use out of Vornheim:
the Complete City Kit. Regardless
of system or genre I've been able to use this game book whenever I'm
adjudicating action in an urban location. 4.
My favorite house rule (by someone else): Carousing Table for
experience points. Jeff Reints came up with this? Showed me how to
shoehorn carousing rules into USR Sword & Sorcery. 5.
How I found out about the OSR: Grognardia. 6.
My favorite OSR online resource/toy: No contest; Last
Gasp's Generator. 7.
Best place to talk to other OSR gamers: It has been G+. 8.
Other places I might be found hanging out talking games: MeWe, this
blog, YouTube channel and my Anchor podcast. Links to connect are all
over this blog. 9.
My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough: The rules are
for the players. 10.
My favorite non-OSR RPG: Scott Malthouse's (U)nbelievably
(S)imple (R)oleplaying free system. 11.
Why I like OSR stuff: Original, adult gaming
content I can't get anywhere else. 12.
Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t
named yet: 13.
If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be:
Playing D&D with PornStars. 14.
A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is: USR Sword &Sorcery. 15.
I'm currently running/playing: Clockwork & Cthulhu, my online
Renaissance campaign and I play online in some West Marches styled
B/X games when I can. 16.
I don't care whether you use ascending or descending AC because:
Because I can subtract from 20. 17.
The OSRest picture I could post on short notice:
The first live stream of my long running Clockwork & Cthulhu online game got off the ground with a real live gatecrasher dropping into the Google Hangout right at the end of the session. It was like some viral bot which persistently entered the Hangout with a prerecorded message. I'm guessing there are automated malicious malware which searches YouTube live for streams? I do not have a clue. Anyone who has experience with live streaming their Hangout go ahead and jump to the end to see what I am talking about. I would like to clean this kind of intrusion up.
Fortunately it did not diminish play and fun being had with this current live session. Using the YouTube(beta) studio I was able to set up a channel (Vanishing Tower Press) and figure out how to generate a Google Hangout which was also streamed live as well as be recorded to my YouTube channel. I'm sure many of you have already familiarized yourself with this online tech, but this was my first look at running it myself. Long story short, it was dead simple to open the Hangout through YouTube. I posted the link to my MeWe game group and let the players fall into just like always.
The game did take a roll-call hit this outing with the session three players down. This didn't have anything to do with the great G+ migration disrupting communication channels. Just stuff coming up so players couldn't show. Yes this is a pain in the ass as a game master, but we who show negotiate a handwave solution for the present situation and press on. We have come to know the game as deeply serial. Everyone wants to force a resolution so the session grinds on.
And it went like most sessions have for nigh on three years. There was the early settling in, the shop-talk as we all transition into gamer world. Then came play. With fewer active table players I usually see the "journey" through the game world pick up speed so we saw the environment drastically change over the course of the session for the PC's. More questions, fewer answers and less PC's to absorb the certain damage to come, and then the unusual bot hack which brought the whole session to a quick ending until next time.
Being able to replay the session back was waaay cool. Super obvious how it can sharpen my recollection of what just happened. Running a session I can miss some of the witty play coming from my players. So yeah I get to appreciate the social aspects of the game in playback I do miss to a degree as a game referee. Probably the most immediate and useful GM'img teaching tool going too. I was never good enough in sports to make tape and watch game film like the varsity players so I don't have much experience with learning from watching yourself play but the value is unmistakable. I'm not sure what the overall impact to play will be, but review did give me a chance to confirm suspicions and validate some actual play methods I try and stay conscious of. Getting to see the actual walk of the lot of talking we all do around here, it's good to see it work.
Adding a video library to the campaign along with the written is pretty exciting. Never has there been the ability to manufacture the actual play experience for spectators on such an accessible scale. Now all those papers, notes and scribbled maps are adorned with the sound of voices and images of people playing.
The
demise of G+. Couldn't come at a better time. I was starting to
wonder why I was continuing to go there. I felt like there was too
many posts and circles and groups to effectively curate. If I didn't
use G+ as my online game platform I probably would have just stuck
with my blog's blog roll to stay up on cool content.
With
the migration to MeWe of many G+'ers I kinda get to rebuild my online
gaming architecture. Not by much, but with any type of move I get a
chance to look through my stuff and ask “What do I really need?”
First off I need a group for my current online game. Here MeWe falls
short because there is no integrated video conference app built into
the site. G+ broke up the seamless way I could go from announcing a
game, getting players and then forming a group complete with event
listings and then simple click for all participants to jump in on
game day. But I could still type in group contacts and send out
invites to the online Hangouts session. With MeWe I can have the
group organization but I will be needing to lead everyone over to the
Hangout. The good which has come about with the forced reorganization
is I've made a hard look at YouTube. To look at the recording and
live streaming capabilities. The public consumption of viewing others
playing table top roleplaying, well I have a long running game and me
and my players don't mind people lurking.
Seeing
what is possible. This is what I got the most from G+. What I can do
with free access to online tools and the audience online to interact
with. My game was nonexistent and once I was hooked up on G+ I was
reading blogs with elevated gaming information, writing my own game
blog and playing actual games. Then was the exposure to incredible
adult material I would never get from game companies.
Original, visceral and presented in useful and beautiful formats.
Plenty for free and the really good stuff was worth the price. Made
me want to make my own stuff. The G+ gamers showed the way here too.
POD, One Book Shelf, layout software, making PDF's. I get to make
game books I want to have on my shelf. And if anyone else is
interested they can spend coffee money and have them too!
I
was way wrong in thinking G+ would be around for a long time. But
hell with it. The good look and lesson I got sure showed it is all
about the people in the game community. We have met, more come
everyday, and the blogs backstop all the valuable material so
exposure and innovation will continue.
I
will be detaching from G+. No reason not to just post on my blog and
group scrum live with the gang on MeWe for now. As long as I have a
viable means of creating a video table for players to sit around I
don't think my online experience will be diminished at all. Maybe
this will cut down on distractions so I can finish the latest three
or four gaming books I agonize over.
All
in all this shows the durability of the blogs. This is a good thing.
Now I got a game I gotta get ready for. See you all real soon.
My
close read and implementation of The Blood of Heroes: Second
Edition continues on its first
early steps and I'm jumping to Chapter 6: Character
Interaction.
Interrogation,
Intimidation and Persuasion are character interactions you can
resolve with a “Dice
Action”. The AV/EV* and
OV/RV* for a PC are already known. The Infl/Aura and Infl/Spirit of
the NPC is determined by the Gamemaster. When the GM does this,
either on the fly or prepped ahead of time, they are essentially
setting a difficulty target number which needs to be hit. When the
Players and the GM wish to roll for results to decide the outcome of these three types
of character interactions they are resolved the same way everything else is in the game; with the Action Table and the Results
Table.
What
about the other way around? What happens if a villain or any other
NPC tries to use Character Interaction against one of the Players?
Myself I try not to force the PC to do anything. Other gamers are
more comfortable making the PC briefly restricted by puppet strings,
and do it well. I philosophically try and tie my hands so it is the
PC's themselves deciding whether the villain is bluffing or should
they cut and run from a dangerous and uncertain situation. These
rules for BoH kinda go half way. The PC can be bound to failed
opposed and resistance rolls, but they can also spend Hero Points to
ignore the effects.
Otherwise
character interaction should be handled like any well done rpg does,
with the Players doing stuff and the GM adjudicating results until
the need for dice feels warranted.
This
is a short chapter. Quick to digest. There are suitable descriptions
of the three character interactions including additional chrome;
Interaction Maneuvers. These can be taken or left as the GM sees fit
without breaking the mechanic. Next I'll take a read through Chapter
7 Gadgets and after I will tell
you my thoughts.
*AV=Acting Value, OV=Opposed Value, EV=Effect Value and RV=Resistance Value from the BoH rulebook.
Which is kinda one and the same. Pulsar games purchased the rights
to create a Supers RPG using Mayfair’s DC Heroes MEGS (Mayfair Exponential Game
System) mechanics, minus the DC licensed properties. Which is perfect for those
like myself who like to create their own game world with original characters as
opposed to premade setting with established characters. The final form this
system took is The Blood of Heroes:
Special Edition and is well known for the dreadful quality of the art, dated
layout and awful NPC write ups for the limited setting Pulsar inserted into the
book.
I’ve been taking looks at BoH for several years when my
interest returns to Supers roleplaying. Reading reviews of DC Heroes, and MEGS
in general, the system gets solid props and very little criticism. The only
reason I hadn’t taken a deep dive into the game is because I didn’t push myself
past the two-chart method of resolving action in the game, the core mechanic if
you would. Swallowing another character creation system for a Supers game
prevented me from giving it a solid go as well. Maybe I can make Champions finally work for me? I had most of the
best books of the system. But in my heart of hearts I knew I would never return
to this game for my dream Supers campaign, so running out of alternatives a serious
read of BoH was now at hand. First I reread the intro with Anarchy Man getting
into a fist fight with Clint and learned how to use the resolution charts. Not
bad, pretty straight forward. Okay, so basic resolution doesn’t bother me and I’m
not going to worry right now how this game handles superspeed. Making a verdict
on how the game scales everything on
the same exponential numbering will take some exposure to before I know whether
it works for me. I am intrigued, this is the part of the system which gets most
of the praise. A normal person has attributes of “2”. An attribute of 3 is
twice as good, and a 4 is twice as good as a 3!. Time, distance, weight, even
wealth, is all tied to this scale. For example a time of “0” is 4 seconds. Time
1 is 8 seconds, Time 2 is 16 seconds and time 3 is 32 seconds. Weight starts at
a base 0=50lbs. Weight of 1 is 100lbs., 2 200lbs., 3 is 400lbs. See exponential
progression. This allows the game to scale seamlessly ever upwards without
breaking the game. Champions handles wildly different power scales well, but Chaosium’s
Superworld not so much. Here the MEGS system goes as high on the power scale as
you want with no distortion. The final test will be how I think of superspeed
and initiative work out. Some have criticized the MEGS mechanics of BoH not
handling low-powered characters very well, but I’m not seeing this. So everyman
has a Strength and Dex of 2, but any experienced game master knows the color of
your NPC’s is not so much in the stats but in their personality and skills. My
first character I built with the system uses their recommended base of 450
points and as a low-powered superhero I was able to create the super I want and
build in all the personality, color, powers and motivation I envision. Once I
crunched through character generation I felt I was looking at a fast moving game
which also eliminates all the tactical crunch I find hanging onto Champions. I
can see running this game online without battle maps and minis.
This will also aid in world building. I don’t think statting
out villians and gadgets will be as time consuming as found in Champions. No, I
think this system will allow me to put forth effort in the hard part of Supers
gaming, having a campaign world worthy of interesting game play. This is the
number one reason why I love playing old school. The OSR has taught me not to
depend on the system to make my game work. It takes a game worthy of playing in
to be good. The system is more of an afterthought. Use the system which helps
you run, not tells you how to run. Classic Traveller is a great example of this
OSR principle of game design. The source material is my best world building
reference, not the rulebook. In the game of supers this means comic books! Find
the stories I like and build that. Certainly the BoH MEGS mechanics will handle
anything I can dream up!
Gamma
World: TSR's Basic Dungeons & Dragons was the game which
introduced me into ttrpg's but it was Gamma World which really opened
up the endless fun to be had with the role playing format. While D&D
channeled my love for Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Gamma World
allowed me to play out my passion for comic books. Kamandi and TheWarlord specifically. There was a certain freedom in world building
and character creation which I could not embrace with D&D. Not
that there was anything wrong with D&D, I just felt, as a kid,
Gamma World asking more imagination from me than a game concerned
with High Fantasy.
Champions:
I love, love the role play
potential built into comic books and Champions got my attention with
the promise of custom character builds for your superhero, and by
extension, your supers game world. Issues of Marvel with Dr. Doom and
Iron Man battling it out in King Arthur's court and the ubiquitous
future science fantasy woven in most comics of the day made it
apparent in a supers role playing game I could fold
in any genre trope into the campaign. The stacks, racks and boxes of
used comics throughout comic book stores told me I would never be
short of adventure material for my game. The breakdown with Champions
came with the self same tools for custom builds prohibited breezy
world building. As a Game Master I made the mistake of using the
crunchy game mechanics as the method for game prep. I bogged down and
just couldn't do it anymore. But Champions holds the number two spot
because I did run it more than any other superhero game. And nailing down an important Game Master realization; the mechanics are for the PC's, not the GM!
Stormbringer/Elric!:
Blood and souls for my lord Arioch. Not only did this game introduce me to pulp fantasy beyond
Conan, it turned me on to another way to break from the level/class
scriptures of Dungeons & Dragons. The
ability to build a fantasy character as I see fit was
liberating.
Why
can't a PC
wield a sword,
wear power armor,
fire a gun and use magic? My favorite stories and comics all have
these polyglot type of
characters. Why
are my games restricting me? Obviously they are not. I was just too
hidebound, narrow in my thinking and only as good at gaming as I was
going to be. I find indie
games and their popularity similar to the popularity of paint by
numbers. Create a Van Gogh, in the comfort of your own comfort zone!
Just follow these easy step by step instructions. Yeah this is fun to
do, but this isn't art. This is not a challenge. But
Chaosium's d100 system met my young person's
ability half way and gave me a system which justified
my belief the depth of role play was
real. Any
failings in the game where not a result of system, but within myself.
Made me believe that if I didn't want a bad game just don't suck.
Renaissance:
A smart polish on Chaosium's
venerable d100 system Cakebread & Walton's black powder era game
does all the right things for those who want to tap into this
historical time period for fantastic gaming. Rules for Alchemy
and Witchcraft add the right amount of fantastical for adept players
and game masters to hit any high note they want. Humorous and
cinematic, realistic and gritty grimdark and grotty. Renaissance will
do it. It is my current
number two favorite role playing game of all time because it is what
I am running right now. At two and a half years the system has not
only satisfied myself, it has kept the same group of online players
invested since the first opening adventure!
USR
Sword & Sorcery: Yes
my favorite role playing game of all time is
the one I built from the ground up using Scott Malthouse's
(U)nbelievably (S)imple (R)oleplaying game mechanics. USR is a simple
set of resolution mechanics balance against a PC having few
attributes while at the same time offering an extremely player
facing, flexible way for character customization. I
used this generic role playing system to try out a deliberate
approach to a game I though Gary Gygax and D&D first challenged
and thrilled me to apprehend. Pulp fantasy; Howard, Moorcock, Carter,
etc. was source material which I always envision when I daydream
about role playing games. Why not just rely on these stories and
tropes when running a game? Shouldn't I just let the rules and
mechanics lie in the background waiting to be used when required?
This may be rote for better gamers than me, but I had always relied
on game mechanics to deliver
the package, and this is exactly contrary to what original role
playing games promised. USR gave me an opportunity to approach the
art fresh with young expectations and seasoned eyes. The result was
USR Sword & Sorcery and it was sufficient to run, after being out
of gaming for 25 years, a swingy, blood soaked pulp fantasy campaign
with a dedicated group of strangers on line for three years. Mission
accomplished.