Gaming Goob

What a day.

I won't bore you with those details, but let me bore you with a gaming conversation I had.  To preface this I work in a place that helps people with, let's just call them extreme personalities.  Two of my newbs from my former newb group have found a new game.  The new GM came up me today and said "I got a bone to pick with you."

I know this guy for a while.  And to give you snapshot of his thinking, if he reads one paragraph about a race car he is now the world's best race car driver and mechanic.  "I heard you wouldn't let your players kill any prisoners.  That's wrong." [Goob]

To me arguing about gaming is like arguing religion and politics.  Everyone gets louder, no one listens and at the end no one has changed their mind.  I love having discussions and philosophize about gaming, arguing got no interest. I do not like letting my hobby cross over into my work.  And as far as I was concerned he started pissing in my soup.

"Other party members kept them from killing the prisoners.  And it was one prisoner.  And that's the one they needed to keep alive to get paid.  How's you're game going?" [Me]

"I still don't think you know what you're doing." [Goob]

"Cool.  How many sessions are you into?" [Me]

"Two.  You should have let them kill the prisoners."  [Goob]

"Tell you what, why don't you have them capture someone in your game and let your players hack'm to bits.  Now this is where I am ending this conversation.  I'm working.  And arguing to you about how I GM would be like arguing with a 6 year old about how to drive a car."  [me]

"I've been playing longer than you have.  I was there in the beginning." [Goob]

"Ah, well tell Gary and Dave I said hi." [me]

After that I was able to get him to talk about the adventure he's running.  He is using 2.5 edition.  *shrug*  The adventure itself sounded okay.  But he plays a very confrontational GM.  He's a kinda me vs. you kinda guy.  He laughed about how many times he'd killed them already.  "I want to kill ten of each their characters." [goob]

Later I had an appointment with one of my former newb players that was now in the goob's game.

"So how's the game been going?" [me]

"Not bad.  But he won't let me use my dice you got me."  [newb]

"What?  Why not?"  [me]

"We're only allowed to use his dice."  [newb]

"Okay.  First I've heard of that.  Why?"  [me]

"He said that way no ones gets an advantage rolling different dice.  The dice you gave me might be weighted down."  [newb]

"Apparently he wasn't at our last game when you couldn't hit shit in a pig farm."  [me]

So there you go.  My poor newbs have been gobbled up by a goob GM.  But I still think they are having fun.  I told the goob if he needed help to let me know.  I would still be happy to help out if I could.  Just not during work.

What a day.

Birth of Baby Gamers

Yesterday I spoke to a few of the newb group and it looks like our sessions have come to an end.  With new jobs, surgeries, moves and scheduling I decided to end it.  A couple of the goers, younger guys, were disappointed, but understood.  I told them I would print out a couple copies of the rules for them (probably S&W core or complete I'm not sure) so they can run their own old school game with a group of their friends.  They already have the dice.  I told them all they really need is a set of the rules and some paper and pens. 

Now my duty has changed to Dungeon Master Counselor.  Which I think is pretty cool.  I'm trying to teach them both how to be a good DMs.  One of the first lessons I had to teach them is its not a DM vs. the players game.  Gave them examples of a scene, how a good GM would run it and how a bad one would. 

I'm very curious as to how this will work.  The next step is to see if they keep playing and creating their own adventures.  I'll give them a lesson on how to run one and give them a few free adventures to start with.  I've never been present at the birth of a couple baby gamers.

Night of the Dice

Tonight was the 3rd session of the newb campaign and they all got their dice.  They genuinely loved them.  It was nice to see them get excited about a set of dice.  Mrs. Bearcharge said her's were 'the most perfect'.

So last session they left off with killing a big baddie named Margesh Blackblood.  While they did get the wagons and weapons they failed to bring back the body for the large reward.  A reward which was more than 10x what they got paid for retrieving the weapons.

I used the fantasy billboard to good effect.  They enjoyed this post on the board the most.

The mage found a post where another of his guild was planning on killing the murderers of his family.  The mage failed to convince him.

Another post caught the thief's interest and found out there are some members in the guild are a bit more fanatical and have a religious focus.  His contact told him not to worry about it.  Just to be aware of them and stay clear.  "Fanaticism is bad for business."

And they had an interesting encounter with a dragon, Alexandrous.  He was in human form drinking at the tavern.  They soon found out asking a dragon questions is often very frustrating.  The one piece of information they did find out was the thief would be dead before the end of the week.  He admitted he'd been wrong before, but didn't believe he was this time.

The players were commissioned to deliver the weapons to the military camp.  It was a two day trip.  On there first night camp they encountered one of most horrifying beasts I've ever place on a gaming board.  An undead cow!  It ran out of the woods with an axe already in its head, arrows sticking out of it, bone and muscle showing.  It terrified them.  "How are we going to kill this thing?!"  The side note to this is Rob gave me this miniature, the cow as a joke, and by god I used it.

The players did kill it.  But as the mage and dwarf were check it out the cow's body started hissing then exploded.  They were pepper in bone shards.  (One of the players thought that would make a great band name, Peppered with Bone Shards).  The mage failed his save and contracted Mad Cow Disease.

They returned the weapons the camp.  Mage got healed.  They found out some information about the battle and that there have been several undead things roaming the countryside making trouble for them.  On their return trip they encountered Draco-Lindus.  He told not to listen to Alexandrous.  They had been adventuring together for years and that a strong will and break fate any day.  Draco said he needed to go to the camp, but he could use their help if they would assist in taking out the source of the undead.

In comes BarrowMaze.  The players started to explore the surface mounds.  They had a fight with a few skeletons and managed to get a +1 broad sword before time ran out.

And then there was a lesson to the newbs.  At the end of the night, the one player announced he got a new job and wouldn't be able to play any longer.  The game must go on.  A few were worried that the game would end, but it won't.  Sure it sucks, but we'll continue on.

Developing the Newb Campaign

Recently I’ve been developing the newb campaign. They are in a frontier village. It was formed because of the large silver mine in the area. Over the past year there has been a large migration of adventurers due to the recent discovery of a massive burial ground (BurrowMaze) and the amount of treasure being found. To the south, there is the outskirt of a now dead kingdom that has been reclaimed by the forest over the years. The border is patrolled by guards regularly. It is illegal to enter this area without a writ, provided by the nobility. They want to settle the area, expand the kingdom, but by the right people. This is where I will be using the Kingmaker adventure path.

There also several small lairs of critters about. The party recently wiped out tribe of goblins. There is another tribe of goblins, much larger and a lair of ogres that will come into play later. And there is an intense little temple adventure of my own making a little farther out. So there is a lot for them to choose from.

In the village there will be some good role-playing opportunities, different guilds and races and other organizations with agendas. It is run by a very tolerant baron. He doesn’t get too worked up as long as no one is murdering people in the streets or setting fires to the businesses. Right now this is what I am focusing on. I have the map and the basic descriptions of buildings, but need to a little more detailing for the NPCs.

I am also going to start using a billboard. This is something I’ve always loved to use and something I wrote about long ago. This is always a fun thing of the players to interact with and an excellent place to plant adventure leads. 

This week I will be giving them their own set of dice.  That is if I get them on time.  I ordered them online and I've been tracking their movement every night. 

My Newbs Have Leveled Up

I am stealing a recent blog title from Whisk.  Next Thursday is the third session for the newbs and I am going to have them take the next step in gaming.  I bought them each their own set of dice.  Earlier this week I asked them what their favorite colors were and hinted that it would effect the next game.  A couple of them were worried about their answer.  They thought it was something that would mess up their character.  I didn't correct them.  At the start of our next adventure they will each have a brand spank'n new set of dice.  My newbs have leveled up.

My Newbs Are Growing Up

Last night the newbs grew up a little.  They impressed me.  A simple chain of events started the game.  First the recap of last adventure.  Some of the players were thinking this was an episodal game, where everything got reset at the beginning of the next session.  After the short explanation this was a continuous  game that what they did in the last session will effect what happens in the next and the next.

So they returned the acolyte to the temple thus earning the right to be healed there.  Brother Owen, head of the temple, handed of all people, the thief the reward.  At first he wanted to keep it all.  After a brief discussion on how to split it everyone went away satisfied.  The thief got to keep the 'change' left over from the split.

The thief went to sell his goods and met up with a member of the Brotherhood, my world's thieves guild.  At the beginning of the discussion the player wanted nothing to do with Trent, the Brotherhood recruiter.  But as they spoke some more the Trent explained how difficult it would be to sell anything in town if he didn't join.  Plus he'd have access to some of the information gathered and not least of all have no worries of other thieves taking from them.

The thief sold some things off and later regretted not trading for the stuffed badger because the mage that he wanted to identify his ring really wanted it.  There was a promiscious encounter with the elf mage and a mercenary.  At the tavern there was a gathering of adventurers.  After some talk they discovered a new source of treasure was being hauled up from the depths of a giagantic tomb.  Later on the bartender told them about a merchant looking for some help.

I dangled both these leads out in front of them.  What do they do, the smart thing.  They dig for more information.  After agreeing to join the Brotherhood, I player Trent as a very convinceing NPC who is only looking out for their own best interest, he told them they were not ready for the Barrowmaze.  Sure they might hit it big, but more don't come out than do.

So they met with the merchant.  Two of his wagons were stolen.  He wants them back.  And he was high as hell.  As the party deliberated on whether to take the job he smeared coins all over his table to make a point.  They accepted. 

This is where I used my one-page dungeon Where is Margesh Blackblood.  He has four hideouts.  But again the party did the smart thing and deducted out of all his hideout the wagons could only be kept safely in his manor outside of town.  With some clever role playing and strategy they formed a good plan of attack. 

But that is when the bad rolls began.  They fought with Blackblood for a while until in the end a string of good rolls brought him down.  End of session.

One of the players said, "I can't believe we played for two hours without getting into a fight.  We just talked." 

Hoping the Newbs Find Their Own Carrots

Newbie group is tonight.  Everyone is coming.  The guy who plays the thief saw me this morning and said he'd been thinking about what he wanted to do for over a week.  I gave the players the assignment this time around to think of names of their character like I mentioned in an earlier post.  This time around I don't want to call them dwarf, mage, thief. 

Last time around it was minimal role playing.  A little in the beginning and then into the dungeon crawl.  This time around it will be more of an urban session.  This is where they will get to exercise their rping chops.  When they return from the dungeon they will learn about the town they are in and selling, haggling, resupplying, finding information about the next great adventure and I am sure what it means to break the law. 

I haven't developed a structure for this adventure.  Maybe a lose flow chart of things that will happen.

1. Return to town.
2. Collect Reward and get healed.
3. Sell of loot and probably resupply.
4. Have a few vague rumors to tickle their ears.
5. Have them interact with certain group, such as an encounter with the thieves guild, mage guild, merchant guild.  Just to give them the sense there is a depth to this place.  
6. Then I will have a certain merchant ask them to assist him.  His wagons were taken by some bad people and he would like his wagons back.  

This is just a general flow of the night.  It might completely change on a whim.  I am going to have the players drive this session.  I want to see what they want to do and explore.  I have carrots if they need them to get them started, but I hope they find the carrots on their own. 

Game Plans Hampered by Sickness

Usually I don't do posts on non related gaming posts so I'll loop around and duct tape this at the end to some sort of gaming relevance.  Maybe not.  I've been sick all week and this weekend its gotten worse.  Don't mean to complain, but it is really getting on my nerves right now.  Next week my Monday night group gets restarted after a two week hiatus and then the second session for my newbie group is on Tuesday night.  I'm trying to work a bit on stuff and can't because the pressure behind my eyes is getting to the point where I think they may pop out at any time.  At some point I'm not sure I would care if it stopped the pressure.

The Monday night crew just cleared out a big boss.  It is leading up to the second stage of the campaign.  If I can manage to play on Monday the party is about to learn something game changing.  I'm interested to see what they will do with it.  If they do what i think they'll do then I will have a lot of work to do, but that's okay by me.  I've already got maps drawn.

Monday they finished the initial adventure successfully although the party is pretty well beat up and their cleric is unconscious.  Part of the reason they went on this adventure was to earn the privilege to be healed at the local temple.  It's a week's walk to the next temple and Brother Owen knows he has a bit of a monopoly in the area so strutting into the temple with a sack full of coins is not enough.  In my campaign world, gods do not heal someone who serves them no purpose. 

The thief initially got mouthy with the cleric, but backed off on the insistence of his fellow party members.  There will be a lot of role-playing in the next session.  They will learn how the town works and making one person mad my have repercussions in other areas.  Should be interesting. 

Okay, back on the couch.  I'm watching a documentary on the mothman. 

No, You Can't be the Cow

Okay, so the newbie game was last Wednesday.  Out of the six of them, one had played once, five had heard of the game and as I said in a previous post, two of them had four, 20-sided dice.  I had a very newbie group.

I created the characters ahead of time and went over what some of the stats meant.  I gave them a very stripped down version.  The spell caster got spell cards so before we started I had the magic-users select two of them.  Also, I did a quick lesson on what dice were which.  This seemed to be the biggest challenge for players.  The 4-sided became 'the pyramid', 6-sider 'the cube', 8-sider 'the diamond', 10-side 'the top', 12-sider 'the baseball' and the 20-sider 'the big die'. 

Before we started the real game I ran them through a sample combat.  I find doing this helps a ton.  They were excited to see the battle board and the miniatures.  The one girl who was playing the elven magic-user wanted to be the cow miniature that Rob had jokingly put in the box.  "Can I be the cow?  Wouldn't it be cool if I was an elven cow who cast spells?"  For a moment I did think that would be pretty cool, but said no.  Let's learn the basics of the game before we run a gonzo version.

The initial attack, the players were greeted with an astounding number of critical failures.  The thief attempted to hide in a bush and instead got stuck in it.  The archer tried to archer and dropped her bow twice.  The mage tried to throw darts and hit a teammate instead and then the thief tried to throw a dagger and it flew into the woods never to be found again.  So the combat went about normal.  They thought their characters sucked, but I reminded them it was bad luck.  What they did learn was the power of a Sleep spell.  When the goblins took a nap the players cheered then the dwarf character said, "Why didn't we do that in the beginning?"


The adventure I ran them through was the one I created for Started Adventures.  They handled a group of maskers well, avoiding trouble.  The thief found a dead body in the forest and kept the minor loot he found himself (bonus xp).  When they reached the dungeon the players showed a good knowledge of tactics.  Covering entrances, having the thief check for traps and so on. 

One quick note on the thief, I stole an idea from Skyrim and all Elder Scroll Games (I've been stealing a lot lately) and thieves now have to buy a number of lockpicks.  If they fail over 20% the pick breaks.  This gives a sense of urgency in a way.  If a thief breaks a few right off that start he may want to conserve the picks for a more interesting score.  I made the picks a finite resource. 

The elven mage charmed one of the goblins they encountered and had a good rp moment.  Then the big battle with the goblins followed.  Again, they showed a lot of good sense.  The guy who played the dwarf used iron spikes to keep the door shut so they would only have to fight them from one way.  As a DM I was stoked to see them really embrace the things they could do in game.  Again it was the mage with the sleep spell that saved the day.  After he jumped into the fray he was immediately cut down by the leader, but the cleric was on the spot and was quick to save him. 

Another fun moment was when the elven mage, who wants to be a cow some day, told the cleric "Get up close and spray him in the eyes with your mace."  I had to take a short DM time out while a laughed. 

Although I had to cut some of the dungeon out they completed their objective with no time to spare.  After the game they were jazzed and talked a mile a minute.  All of them wanted to know what we were playing next.  The morning after the two girls who played said they stayed up all night on a 'gaming buzz'.  Said they couldn't stop talking about it. 

I plan on running it once a month, maybe twice a month.  I'm pleased with the way things turned out.  I look forward to the next game. 

Newbie Character Build

Last night me and the wife had a snow night where we stayed in and listened to some old CDs (featuring Meatloaf, Stevie Nicks, Eagles and even managed to tolerate a little Purple Rain from Prince).  She was in the kitchen making bagels while I hand wrote the characters.  I was planning on using a character sheet, but forgotten how much I dislike them.  None of them seemed to have what I wanted.  A bit like the three bears, this one has to little, this one has too much.  And some are to confusing for someone who is new.

A few things I won't be worrying about and left off.

• Encumbrance.  This never played much in our games either unless we found a large, gold statue then we would have to explain how we would transport it.  And that will be my approach. 
• Weapon Proficiencies.  I considered using them, but tossed them in the end. 
• Spell Components.  This was always something we hand waved.  I don't want the mages worrying about inventory.
• Alignment.  It is just unneeded in my game.  For clerics they will just need to emulate aspects of their god.  
• Race Level or Class Limitations.  Never liked them.  Not going to use them.  
• Eating.  I will do a VERY basic check of food consumed and needed.  I won't go into much detail other than, 'mark off an iron ration'.  

And here are a few things I've altered or changed.

• Cleric Spells.  As in my current campaign, clerics do not have to choose their spells ahead of time.  As long as they have a slot available they can cast.
• Spell Bonus for Magic-Users.  For high intelligence I am giving the magic-users bonus spells.  I want the two players who have chosen to run magic-users to have a bit of flexibility. 
• Simplify the Move and Ranges.  AD&D has a bunch of different measurements so I made them all a number with no feet or inches.  It's just 4 or 5.  On the battle map it will be easier for them just to count the hexes or squares.
• Simplified the Spells.  Since I only have one Players Handbook, I wrote a short description of the spells they could use on the back of the character sheet.  

What I am going to do next is develop a background for each character.  I want each one to have their own distinct feel and angle.  There are two magic-users in the party, one a human male another elven female.  With the human, he has a secret desire to explore all types of magic.  I've given him a necromantic spell that is illegal to have.  So it will be up to the player to decide when and if to use it.

Role playing is always a large part of my campaign.  So when the thief in the party starts off with no money, but posses a ring he lifted and has to find a place to fence it. He and the others will encounter the power of organizations, the bonuses and the penalties of belonging and not belonging.

Below is a sample of the characters I made last night.  The a fore mentioned human mage with an interest in necromantic spells.

Newbie Game All Set

Okay, enough about the sucking.  I've got a date, time and place for my newbie group.  Next Wednesday at 5pm and the very cool thing is my place of work has a nice conference room and are allowing me to use it.  In fact they are excited about me running a game.

Right now I think there are six players which is about all I want to run.  Especially new players.  I've decided to use AD&D for the system as that is what I am running with my Monday night group.  I really considered running Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules or Labyrinth Lords Advanced.  Hell, I still may change my mind.

I mentioned before, I will be creating the characters ahead of time.  I've asked each player what race and class they want to be so making them up as I watch Chopped with Ivy.  I'll do a paragraph or two background for each.

Expectations for the game?  For me I'm unsure what to expect.  Whether this will become a semi-weekly game or one-shot or whatever.  I would like to set it up as a mini-campaign.  If it looks like it works out then I plan on using Pathfinder's Kingmaker Adventure Path as a template.  There are a lot of elements I really like, especially the earlier adventures. 

I'll see how it works out.  In the drama department we already had a small flare up before things got started.  One of them refused to play because someone they no longer spoke to was already signed up.  I explained to her that I wasn't going to refuse anyone.  That if she wanted in the game she was more than welcome, but I wouldn't be kicking out someone else so she could.  Ah, young stupid love.

I went through my dice last night and found I have six complete sets of dice with a bunch of spares, but they won't be using my original set or my Game Science dice.  I will chop off their little newbie hands if they do.  Just wanted to check my dice stash in case they need some.

All right.  I am out for the night.  I heard Trey is selling a print version of his Weird Adventures so I am going to stand in line.  It's going to be a midnight release so I don't want to get stuck being a group of goobers dressed up like the Sinister Sorcerers or Barrow Men.  I wouldn't be so bad, but they think not showering gives it more authenticity.  Oh wait, I can get it on RPGNow and forgo the line.  Done!

Sucking is a Relative Term

Yesterday the Rhetorical Gamer blog referenced my Just Above Suck in a post called I Don't Wanna Suck!  (loved the title) I can appreciate the sentiment not to suck, especially if your expectation is to be a world changing hero.  But I think she (I am only assuming the poster is female because she mentioned writing a romantic fantasy rpg, so I am just playing the odds) doesn't understand how an old school type game world works.  Rob over at Bat in the Attic referenced my blog yesterday as well, but from the angle I am taking today.

Suck is a relative term.  And my explanation to my newbie players was not to crush their spirits, but I let them know this will be an old school hex crawl.  As I explained to one of the guys who is excited to play, "This is a hex crawl, I don't level out the encounters so they are balanced.  If you try to go hero on a red dragon while you are 1st level, grab 4d6 roll and leave out the lowest number six times and tell me what you want your new character to be."  So against high level opponents you will suck.  But against a goblin you have a great chance.  You won't suck.  It's all relative.

As I said in my comment in her post, I know the players will have fun.  I have had tons of fun while I sucked during a game.  My players will have just as much fun killing a group of drunken goblins as they would storming the gates of Mordor and pissing on the tower Sauron.

Just Above Suck

Yesterday I had to have a little chat with my newbs. They were expressing what kind of characters they would like to play. Of course the two girls wanted to play elves. On said, "I want to be an archer, like Legolas from Lord of the Rings. The other wanted to be a elf mage Gandalf character. And one of the guys said he wanted to be a badass dwarf named Clive who could cleave monsters in half. I nodded and listened to their suggestions. Then put my one hand out and told them "This is suck." I put my other hand just above it. "This is just above suck. This where you start."

Newbies to the Hex Crawl

In a week or so I plan to initiate a handful of people into the world of the hex crawl.  Some of them have a little experience with RPGs, but very limited.  Most of their experience is with card games. 

On average the players are 15 to 20 years younger than me which makes me feel fucking old.  But, it should be interesting if my GMing techniques can translate to the initiates.  One of the problems I've run into with younger players is they are terrified to make a mistake.  When given an open world to explore they get paralyzed with all the choices. 

Here's my plan.  And like all things I say and do are subject to change at a whim.

In the first session I will have a batch of premade characters and the players can choice one.  I considered having them roll up their first characters, but since there will be five to six players, only one rulebook and the probability of me needing to explain a lot of things, I decided to give them characters so we can get to the game.  If not the first session would be consumed with character creation and I really want to get them used to the dice and system. 

That leads me to what system I will use.  I am planning on using Swords & Wizardry.  I am leaning toward the core rules, but may decide on the complete rules. 

The first session will be me teaching them which dice are which.  Explaining the various things on their character sheets and then a brief practice adventure so they can get used to the game itself.  Prop wise I will be using a vinyl battle map and token figures (since I have no real miniatures).  I want to keep it simple for the first session so they can focus on learning the game and not on the do-dads. 

The adventure I'll be running is the one I made for Starter Adventures.  I need to playtest it anyway.  So this will be a fantastic opportunity to do it.