Ups and Downs

Let's see...

Mindy decided that she's not going to run RIFTS after all.

My wife has decided she is not interested in Pathfinder because she wants to spend more time on her writing. This also puts the final nail in the coffin of my Savage Worlds steampunk ghostbusters game.

Our Sunday group lost one of the new guys, and Josh will be leaving us again because of the fickle and cruel schedule of his job.

Just when I was thinking "fuck it, time to sell my books and get a MMORPG subscription", Allias decides to try his hand at running games, and he's starting with Deadlands.

We ran one of the Savage Worlds "One Sheet" adventures tonight with about half of the Sunday group. I thought Allias did pretty dang well for his first time out. He's a little rough around the edges, but he handled a curve-ball we threw at him like a pro, and I think he will do just fine. He's planning to run in Mindy's game slot, though I'm not sure if he's planning to do a campaign or a series of one shots. I'm in, regardless.

Last summer, I did a rough but useable conversion of Shadowrun to Stars Without Number. (The posts are up on this blog, but I never did get around to consolidating them.) I am now working on a conversion of RIFTS to AD&D 1st/2nd edition. It is... time consuming, to say the least. While I posted my SR-to-SWN conversion, I'm afraid I won't be able to post my RIFTS-to-AD&D conversion, because I'm pretty sure I'll get a C&S letter dropped on me in no time.
I'm converting the game because I really, really love the setting of RIFTS, but the rules are ass. I'm also trying to scale the power level of the game down to something a little less insane, while still keeping (most) of the iconic classes and concepts intact. So far, I find that the combat classes map nicely to AD&D counterparts: Merc Soldier to fighter, Headhunter to ranger, Cyber-Knight to paladin, Juicer to barbarian (3rd edition raging barbarian, but still) and Crazy to monk...although the Juicer seems capable of being sort of a barbarian/monk hybrid.
My plan is to have a workable draft of the game ready by summertime, so I can run that Dinosaur Swamp game I've been periodically threatening my Sunday group with.

I'm still struggling lately with just how difficult it is to get some people in a room together at an agreed upon time so that we can game. I'm also really disappointed that I can't seem to get a game together with the people who live under the same goddamn roof as me.


Oh, two other silver linings:
1. Lord Gwydion finally finished his retro-clone of TSR's semi-forgotten DragonFist game, and

2. Shane Hensley of Pinnacle has stated that Hell on Earth reloaded is in some stage of layout, and should (finally) be out this year. Of course, many game companies have uttered these famous words of dubious veracity, but I'm holding out hope in my black, withered heart.

The Sunday game this week is Mike's viking epic. Having broken the Jotun force around Shadowdell, we have the opportunity to take the fight to them and lay siege to the Jotun fortress. Should be very exciting and far from an easy task.

An Unexpected Fellow Gamer

Today I discovered that yet another member of the math department at my building is a gamer. His preferred system is Cyberpunk 2020.

You know, I know almost enough gaming teachers to have an all-teacher game. I mentioned the idea to a (non-gaming, but familiar) colleague.

"Eesh, why do you think that would be fun?" quipped she.

And yet, I find the idea strangely appealing...

I was also messaged by a member of my fondly-remembered AD&D game from 2009-2010. She desires to roll the dice once more, now that her offspring no longer requires her constant care.

This is very fortuitous after having my fire rekindled by Saturday's pickup game.

I Run the Citadel of Evil

Yesterday I went to a game day hosted by one of the local cons in the months preceding their big fall convention. I was excited to play All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but the dude who was supposed to run it didn't show. Irritating.
However, I had my bag with me, in within that bag I always keep the two B/X D&D books, some paper, and a module. Last night I had Stuart Robinson's "pocket module" in my bag and decided to do a pickup game. It was a blast, and I have some good "jumping off" ideas based on some flavor and world details I inserted on the fly.
We didn't quite finish, but most of the players are planning to attend another little gaming con next month, so we have tentative plans to finish it off then. (We ran out of time just as they were storming the cult's shrine to the sinister Slime Lord)

I found myself willing to let the players add little flavor details to the game. The simplicity of B/X begs to be tinkered with. Some of the younger players were asking to be things like "spellswords" and "blood mages." I said sure, why not. It really didn't have much of an effect on the game mechanically, but being able to say "yeah, I'm a blood mage" seemed to make the game more enjoyable for some of the players. I did give him a minor special ability at one point in the game because it seemed thematically appropriate to his background, and he never asked to use it again. The players had a lot of fun and so did I. I might build off of some of the flavor ideas I had for my next B/X campaign setting. The success of the session really left me wanting to get some B/X going in the foreseeable future.

I'm going to have to check and see if Mr. Robinson has some other pocket modules up. Citadel of Evil really came in handy for a fun pickup game.

I'm gearing up to leave for my Sunday game in about ten minutes. We had several people cancel at the last minute and there will be some random stranger there today that nobody really knows, which dampens my enthusiasm considerably. I've tried to contact the DM, but I'm not sure he got my message about how many empty seats we are going to have today. I might slip something into my bag just in case he doesn't want to run with a skeleton crew. (Mike's campaign is pretty challenging and it's tough to roll without a full crew, let alone a half-crew...) We'll see how it goes.

RIFTS Session 1

RIFTS today.

...I don't know. I wasn't feeling it. I watched, more than participated, in the session. Part of it was that my spells weren't picked out (I rolled up an elf ley line walker) and it took me awhile to comb through the might Book of Magic.

The GM has instituted some house rules:
1. There is no MDC...everything is SDC. I'm guessing the numbers on a few attacks and weapons might have to be adjusted, but we'll play that by ear.

2. The initiative works something like older edition Shadowrun, where you roll some d6, act on that number, and then subtract 10 to find out when you go again until you hit zero. The number of dice you roll is based on how many attacks per melee you would've had according to the rules as written. Combat actually seems to move a little faster, with everyone only attacking between one and three times.

3. Critical hits don't do double damage, they require a roll on a custom critical hit table. The roll of a 1 sends you to a critical fumble table.

I'm a little concerned that combat against heavy armor opponents will take longer, since you now have to chew through their armor, then personal SDC, then hit points, whereas in the Rules-As-Written, they are toast the next shot after you finish their MDC. This is combined with the fact that everyone now attacks only 1-3 times, instead of 6-7. We'll have to see. I actually wasn't focused enough to really see how fast combat unfolded.

Our campaign began with a CS prison break; a ragtag band of d-bees, "traitors", and other undesirables were trying to bust their way out. The session got bogged down as our first attempt failed miserably and then we had to sit and wait for the GM to roll the effects of indoctrination on two of the PCs who started the riot. I, as a player, kind of ran out of steam. Maybe I will be more into it next time.

Next week, we continue the viking saga of Mike's game. After our triumphant defense of the orc siege against seemingly insurmountable odds, we make plans to hire some Roman mercenaries and take the fight to the enemy.


Game on, amigos.

Word Verification Gives Me Something Back

The new, extra-irritating word verification "feature" of this here blogging service does have a silver lining: the words eetio lltens has given me Etio Elltens, the name of an NPC or my next character.


That is all.

RIFTS this weekend...

Mindy is starting up a new RIFTS game this weekend, giving our wayward Stars Without Number campaign a much-needed rest.

I made two RIFTS characters this weekend, and, because I was bored, two characters for Heroes Unlimited. Here are my three main gripes with character creation:


1. The skill system easily adds and extra thirty minutes or more to the character creation process, and leaves your character with a billion skills that he is never going to gooddamn use.
2. Munchkiny stat inflation brought about by physical skills. You get stronger, tougher, and faster by lifting weights, boxing, and training in gymnastics... you do not, however, get smarter for studying Advanced Math or Chemistry. You do not become more charismatic by practicing public speaking.
3. IQ affords the only possible addition to your skills. Yes, a high IQ will make you better at scientific stuff, but at piloting? Bartering? Meanwhile, the stats that should help you be a better pilot or trader (PP and MA, respectively) do not help at all.
4. Math: Basic.... really? I also managed to create a character who is better at Advanced Math than he is at Basic Math. See also the myriad other skills that should really not be skills. (Speak Native Language?)
5. Keeping track of all the little bonuses is aggravating. (Skill bonuses, combat, bonuses, and save bonuses)

Now, I've seen two interesting solutions to the skill system. The first was something I ran across at The RPG Site, which essentially used the skill categories as the skills. (So, rather than having a billion Technical skills, your character would just have a skill called Technical) The solution reminds me somewhat of the WEG/d6 approach to skills. My gripe with this solution is that a lot of the skill categories could be seen as somewhat redundant or poorly named. The category of Technical skills, for instance, covers a wiiiiiiide variety of things in Palladium, from Jury-Rig to Lore: Demons & Monsters. Do we want all our occult scholars to be able to pull a MacGuyver? Do we want all our Gemologists to also be History and Philosophy experts? Also, since when was philosophy a "technical" field? This is more a fault of the skill system than the proposed solution. I actually dig this solution; it would just require a reshuffling of skill categories.
...which would sort of necessitate a rewrite of all the game's hundreds of character classes, since a big part of the class write-ups is the skill bonus list.

Eeek. I find it endlessly frustrating that this game has such an interesting setting and such crap rules.

I think the best advice I was ever given about RIFTS is to treat it like an after-market mod of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Someday I might have to listen to that advice...

Brick!

My Pathfinder minis arrived today, nearly five days ahead of schedule.
(A brief aside... my experiences with El Cheapo shipping lately have been marvelous)

Here's the list: (the short version: no repeats!)

-Succubus
-Orc Brute
-Orc Warrior
-Wolf
-Goblin Warrior
-Goblin Hero
-Werewolf
-Medusa
-Human Ranger
-Dire Rat
-Venomous Snake
-Watch Guard
-Watch Officer
-Mummy
-Dwarf Fighter
-Gnome Fighter
-Specter
-Ogre
-Troll
-Giant Caveweaver Spider

This is a haul I'm pretty pleased with, aside from the total lack of spellcasters. (Though I have other spellcaster figures) It buffed up my common monster reserves. I'm thinking about maybe buying one more, though I'm certainly not depraved (or wealthy) enough to buy a case of them... ;)

The figures are pretty high quality for being plastic. I also like that, Caveweaver aside, the figures are generic enough to be used in about any fantasy game. (And really, the caveweaver is just fine if you need a Goddamn Big Ass Spider)

The lack of repeats offsets my default position of ire with regards to randomly packaged minis. Hats off, Paizo... I might not be the world's #1 d20 fan, but you're a pretty damn good game company.

Holy shit, that was almost a review... I need to go self-flagellate.