RPG - Adventure Building Process Options. Part1

Hi Folks and Followers.
Firstly apologies, the Triples shows update and photos will be coming along shortly. But things have been pressing for my time. Thus they will be on their way. I promise! I took a lot of photos of the games and day, so there is a fair bit of work in sorting them out.

Right, onto my quick topic for today.
This one is for the RPG-ers in the audience. But also some of the hints and tips are also quite handy to keep in mind when designing narrative type game scenarios.

I came across the following video series. I am not going to link the entire 10 videos. So just look for the rest on you tube.

Now, I think for a seminar, this presentation could have gone a bit smoother, the handing for the mic forward and back is a bit distracting, and the fact its very hard to hear the suggestions from the audience is annoying too.

BUT and its a big but! There are some very handy tips in this series of shorts.
I won't list all the findings here now as time is short. But I will do a follow up to this post with some of my own views and opinions on game designs and adventure building. So for now, just wanted to introduce folks to these videos, made GenCon 2010.

I think you will find them interesting, if a bit long winded, so apologies for that. But stick with it. Some handy info there.

Triples.. an intro..

Well we made to and back from triples safe and sound.
I will be doing a full review, once I get the photos I shot uploaded.
I took a fair few, so will take a little while. One of my other hobbies is rather keeping me mad busy at the moment. So will try and get the photos and write up sorted out.

So, check back soon for the photos and review!

Triples - Just around the corner!

So it is that time of year again!.. Triples Wargames Show in Sheffield, is this coming weekend.
And as usual, I have very few pennies in my gaming piggy bank. Boo hoo! Blasted cars!
But it is usually a pretty good day out, so still looking forward to it!
Some friends are stopping over for the two days this time, but I will be making a one day raid.

It does not do ones financial health much good to linger in the harsher climes of Sheffields gaming token extraction zonefor too long!

So what is on my shopping list.. hmmm..

errrrr..

ummm..

Nadda! Yep, nought! Zilch!

I mean, nothing. Absalutely nothing!

For once I have got to the week before a show and cannot think of what I actually "need" or "want".

So looking at things logically!

1). New Releases? - Hmmm are there any?? Not seen or heard of any and frankly I have too much on the go that is not getting "go-ed" as it shoud now, so no point jumping at something new.

2). Completeing existing projects? - Nope. Well catered for, except someone may be kindly bringing along some SST bits for me. So guess that counts in this catagory.

3). Essentials (paints, brushes etc) - Again, nope. Due to a diabolical lack of painting on my behalf, I think I am pretty well catered for. Which usually just means I have forgotten what it is I will need and thus two days after the show, will discover to my horror as I attempt to paint the one thing I have found motivation to do, only to discover I cannot.. Arrrr!! (Small Irish things, called Murphy, it is all their fault!)

4). Bring and Buy - Hmm this is always pot luck. But as with 2), unless something really tasty and very cheap comes up.. I am actually not planning to do much. I have a few odds and ends I might, just might put on the B+B to get rid of. Which might just increase the piggy bank for spendies.

So it is certainly going to be an interesting day, purchases wise. But thankfully as well as buying stuff, there are usually some really nice looking games to browse, watch and join in on. So i might actually get to give one a go for a change!

Thus I will be spending this evening, attempting to discover what it is I have forgotten and actually ned from the show!.

Finding Players - A gamers nightmare at times..

Hi Folks,
Well I am fairly lucky. I have a large and well attended gaming club near by which I regularly attend.
So playing wargames is not a big problem. However though the club does have the occasional roleplaying game (usually run by me), finding fellow roleplayers to participate in a game is never easy.

Infact, its very difficult at times, especially if you live away from any of the major towns. Well certainly in the UK.

So whilst I am searching for some players for a Pathfinder game I am planning to run at a friends in Crewe, I came across the two following site;
http://nearbygamers.com/

and

http://www.ukroleplayers.com/clubs/

Which at least offer a quick visual reference and search feature for local players.

Its funny how many times I have heard of gamers, suddenly discovering that just down the road were fellow gamers, who have been there for years, but never knew.

So I thought I would share these for my UK based readers, incase they were of interest. The nearbygamers.com also covers further afield too for my US cousins or those even further afield.

So hoep they prove useful.

DM-ing - The challenges and Problems

If you are a roleplayer you will likley know what I am waffling about today. If you are not, then you might not.

I have been table top roleplaying for well, since I was 11. On and off, but there has hardly been a year that has passed where I have not played in one game or another.

I guess I probably fall into that catagory of less than twenty percent of gamers. Those that enjoy both playing a character or being the dungeon master or DM.

I was watching the following video (its a three part series);

The experiences that the chaps are having over in the USA, is well, global I think for most players. But I have to say, I don't agree with some of the statements about being a GM.

Infact I am the master of being un-preppared when I am GM or DMing.. which ever term you wish to use.

I will have to write a guide to "winging it"!

I have generated entire campaigns, purely starting with a place. A group of players some random weather and story elements, and then letting the players lead the way. Seriously.. often the best ideas come from your players. Just listen and build upon their ideas. As they discuss their views, their plans, their actions. You can easily borrow/build upon or change something to fit.

Work loosely and don't over plan. The players will always do something different to that which you expect. So roll with it!

There is no need to worry or to stress if you are not sure what to throw at the players or where the adventure will go now, because your story just broke, as the NPC was killed by the players and not rescued.

The art of being a DM is to entertain your players. Make it interesting, fun and challenging. I work on the story in my head, and the ideas. Simple plot ideas, to start with and then use the thoughts and view of the characters and the players controlling those characters to expand upon them till whalla.. the game rolls on with the players often not realising.

Yes do plan, to make hand outs etc, they are all fun and help. But don't stress over them or worry about having to meet some mystical standard and certainly never worry over the rules. It is why we have rule books and if it comes to it.. its your world, your rules go!

I think I will do some more articles on the art of being a DM as I see it.

Alive.. yes.. just!

Hi Folks and avid fans.
Apologies for the lack of updates these last few weeks. I have been rather tied up with some very important stuff, in the form of an election. Thank fully that is over and now I can get back to enjoying my hobby.

So, whats on the project list for the future.. errr kind of what was on it at the start of the year is my honest answer.

My SST projects has stalled, and though I made some early progress on the Zombies, they to have not got any further along either. So for now, it will be a push to catch up with my zombies and get the rest of the horde painted.

I have been looking at options for rule sets and frankly so far, there are some ok ones. Like AR:SE out there, but I think I will probably come up my own set, as though some of the options out there are fun, none of them on its own quite hits the mark for me. So that will be a fun challenge..

I have also just started looking at pathfinder. Having had a break in roleplaying table top games for a while, I am now keen to get back to it. And not liking version 4 of Dungeons and Dragons, and from the sounds of it, version 5 which has just been announced, is likley to follow in the simulation of a PC game type approach to playing. I have decided to try Pathfinder.

As someone who has not following Pathfinders growth from its early days. Navigating the Paizo website and working out what the difference between a "adventure path" and a "chronicle" can be a bit confusing at first.

So, I will do a review of what I know and have discovered about the game as I go on and run my own game in it. So far I have one player for it and so will be hunting for a couple of other roleplayers to participate in it. Something which will be a challenge, as I still have not settled on a venue.

Well Triples Show in Sheffield is now only a couple of weeks away. I have very little money, and so it will be more a look see, than a shopping trip this time around. But frankly, I am not too concerned, as I keep glancing at my lead mountain, waiting for it to avalanche and thinking, I have too much crap already.

So, I am actually going to be restrained. Only going for the one day. Probably the saturday, may be the sunday. Still under discussion.

My usual hunger for wargames shows has diminished a little of late. Not solely due to less money to spend, but mainly due to less "new" or novel innovations in the periods I like. I don't know if it is just a passing phase or if I am suffering from "show burn out" or some such. Or my expectations are just too high.

Having seen a few more traders cease trading lately, it appears the recession here is sadly biting. I know my own spending capacity has gone way down. But at the same time I have also got the stage where I have that many projects yet to finish, there really isn't the room or motivation to move into anything completely new.

Given that many white metal 28mm figures have shot up in price over the years, I am rather glad I spent out on those I have when I did over the past few years. And I suspect I am not alone in having a sizable collection of unpainted metal sitting, biding its time, before being mercilessly thrown upon the painting table!

So, the incentive to buy more lead is no where near as strong as it used to be. Especially given that many figures are now double the price of four or so years ago. I know metal prices have been the major cause as well as world wide inflation and the economics, but it does not change the fact, they are no longer cheap.

I guess it is the times we live in alas.

So all things doom and gloom to one side. I have a big pile of the victory force zombies still to paint. And so they are now my next target! I want to get at least half of them done by the end of May!

Then at least I can plan a game with them. :)

Club Gaming Weekend 14th & 15th of April 2012

Last year in addition to running Gauntlet, our clubs annual tournament and gaming show. We ran a gaming weekend in the same venue we use for Gauntlet. The Wings Social Club Dining Hall.
We hold our regular club nights down stairs in the dance room.

So this year, we chose to hold another in April. Over the 14th and 15th. I spent the friday afternoon hauling my boxes of Dwarven Forge out and then loading it into the car. In the evening a small group of us gathered at the club to lug the tables from our storage room up stairs to the hall and dig out some of our club scenery for the games.

Having got the tables setup, I carried in my dwarven forge boxes and we left after getting Security to lock up. And it was time to head home, via the super market for tea and coffee etc for the weekend and a take away for my dinner. (Tea, coffee is free over the weekend to attendees, covered by entrance fee).

So up bright and early saturday and down to the social club to open up. Setup the kettle and get that on. (One has to get their priorities right, you know).

Then it was a case of starting to setup for our game. Colin was running a game of Warrior Heroes, using my DF pieces to represent what was intended as a two level realm belonging to some dwarves that our party were trying to find. But instead it was filled or at least the first level was, with goblins, ogres and some blackmoon orcs.

So sometime around 11am we were ready to go and our group some 8 strong, all controlling their chosen hero characters from the campaign, began.

So here are a few shots from saturdays games and then some from sunday.

I will do a seperate write up of the warrior heroes game.

The initial layout for the Warrior Heroes Game.

Part of the general layout of tables.

Waiting for the rest of our players to arrive for the Warrior Heroes game.

Len and Peter, kick off their game of Dystopian Wars

The initial British deployment.

Slightly blured sorry, but Pete has done a nice paint job.

Warrior Heroes.. will do a seperate write up.

Ogres 1, Elf 0

The saturday FOW game in flow.

The game that never got played.. Will was without an opponent, so the game got postponed till sunday, and slightly reorganised.

Simon, very happy about something.

Len tries desperately to hold off the British from getting through to St Laurance bay estury.

Considering we had 8 players in our WHAA game, it went smoothly.

FOW carnage.. the germans crushing the allies.

Looks like carnage about to ensue.

Allied air power fails to win the day.

Else where, games of Flames of War, Dystopian Wars and board games were being played.
As unfortunately not everyone could make both days, Colin was tempted away to play a game on Warhammer Fantasy on the sunday, and I planned a game of Blade Storm with Jon.

So having cleared away and tied up, headed home on saturday night for another take out.

And back again sunday morning with fresh milk and supplies. Yes we have free tea and coffee at our gaming weekends. We only charge a £1 a day.. and infact, due to me getting stuck into a game, I forgot to collect the pounds on sunday, but saturday had covered our costs so that was ok.

So, sundays games.. consisted of Warhammer fantasy, more board games, more flames of war with folks from our neighbour club in chester, the RGMB, comeing over, and playing a very big game of Flames of War with severl of our guys involved too. Looked a right old carnage fest.

Will who had laid out his Black Powder games yesterday, discovered he was without an oponent on the saturday, so Jon and I decided rather than have a game of blade storm we would give Black Powder a go. 1700s or so, dainish/belgium game. I had to stop a carvan reaching a town.

Was quite good fun. Not a rule set or period I had played before, but was enjoyable and quite quick flowing once we had the basics down. So cheers Will, it was a good and interesting game.

So here are some photos from the sunday.

Daves Force on Force game, from road to Bahgdad book.

Great setup.

US Armour rolls forward.

Just before it all goes wrong..

Suicide car bombers and all sort lay in wait for the poor US troops.

Cans of rice pudding, make great over pass buttress pieces.

Sundays large Flames of War game.

My sunday game of Black Powder.. I had to stop a caravan reaching the town.

My cavalry after their initial charge was repulsed.. but one group reached the caravan and held it in place.

On the right flank I tried to get across the river. My cavalry made it, but my infantry got bogged down and kept being dissordered.

My oponents view, down onto the caravan as my troops and cavalry just about hold on and keep it locked in place for another turn.

On the right flank, my cavalry sweep up the but his cannon take a heavy toll.

My general lends his support to the left flank to rally troops.

My cannon kept up steady fire, but did not achieve much. Long range is not good.

In the end, we agreed a partial victory. My troops were at the caravan, and delayed it. Some of my units were across the bridge and the right flank my infantry were finally across the river and progressing. It would have been fun to play on, but time was pressing.

Sorry i could not put more detail about the FOW game on sunday. If one of the guys does a write up I will link to it.

My write up of the Warrior Heroes Game will follow shortly with more pics.

So a weekend well spent and thoroughly enjoyed. Relaxed good natured gaming. You cannot beat it!

A big thanks to everyone who helped put the gear away at the end of play on sunday. It was greatly appreicated. Speical thanks to Steve White who helped me lug my DF sets back to the car. I really need a trolly!

A teaser..

Hi Folks,
I was hoping to get around to writing up a full account of what happened at our Clubs gaming weekend, but alas I didn't get the time today.

So here is a teaser..

and

and

I will try and get a proper write up done shortly.. but suffice to say, it was a great weekend. Ate too much snack food and drank too much coffee, but was well worth it. Two days of playing games.

Now I just need to plan and organise the next one..

A club night. Some random bits..

So, managed to snap a few shots off at the club night last week.
Nothing excitng, sorry, but a few photos of what was being played.
It always surprises me, the variety of games our club plays.

I am fairly sure, that if you can pick a gaming system, then someone at the club either has it in their collection or plays regularly.

So here a few shots of some of the games that were going on.

 I thought had taken more photos of my game. But can only find one on the camera. Sorry.

 Wills black powder or hail ceasar game. Cannot recall qhich.

 Will, and Pete. Will trying to get his romans into a fight.

 Lens , actually managing to win a game of Dystopian wars. He likes the system alot.

 Dystopian naval system does seem to be getting a good following at the club.

 Steve Oates, was running a skirmish /rgp game, with I think the old AD&D skirmish rules.

 Ian watching on, as Martin and Denise slog it out using Flames of War.

Colin and Dave, playing a test game of chain reaction sci-fi rules.  

Colin ever so slightly pleased he has made his roll!

 A game of war and conquest. Not a rule set I know.

 Warhammer fantasy, still well played and still Colin seems to remain the man to beat, though in this case, PeterD and Little-si were slogging it out.

 Undead on beasts I think. It was just the colours that got me.

Not sure why this photo did not come out clearly.. but was a nice unit of skeli's.



Anyhow I ran a quick game of RoE (rules of enagement) moderns, my addaption for using the WW2 rule set for modern gaming. Still working on the tweaks, but it was fun. See the first photo.