My subconscious mind’s take on OSG

Last night I had a dream that I was recruiting players for a game of Basic Fantasy. In the dream, I was talking to a guy and explaining some of the tropes of “old school games,” in particular the notion of “heroic vs. superheroic.”

“The difference is, ” my dream self said, “that in some games you’re a superhero. In old school games you’ve got a bachelor’s degree and a few self-defense classes at the YMCA.”

I don’t know if dream-me has it or not, but it is fun to think about. I’ve got the kernel of an adventure idea at work in my head. Here’s the premise:

The PC’s find themselves traveling through a war-torn land. A large conquering (but mildly
sympathetic) army has been slowly making their way across the territory driving out the native peoples.

A portion of that army is resting in the city the PC’s are currently visiting. One night at the bar they are approached by a grizzled old veteran with a story to tell.
Not far from the city lies the palace of a minor princeling of the native people. The nobleman was reputedly very wealthy, but fled as the army approached, taking as much of his treasure as he could throw together. In his haste, however, he left some treasure behind. Some was taken by plundering soldiers from the army, but the veteran met a former servant from the palace who claims that even more is hidden away within secret rooms in the palace. The army has been ordered to leave the area to reinforce another brigade elsewhere, but the soldier was hoping that the PC’s might be interested in helping him get to the palace and take what has been left behind, including a rumored gem the size of a hen’s egg. The veteran thinks he can get away the following morning (he is only on supply detail) so the PC’s have overnight to stock up on necessary supplies. If the PC’s agree, he will reveal that he has a map the servant drew for him of the palace which includes some possible locations of the treasure.
Any inquiries about the servant will only be met with a knowing, vicious grin from the veteran and the assurances that the servant won’t be a problem.
The following morning, the PC’s travel to the agreed meeting point, but the veteran never arrives. If the PC’s investigate, they will discover that the veteran has died in his sleep. Now they must figure out how to get a hold of the map in the dead veteran’s belongings, make their way past the sentries watching the city, cross the wilderness, and investigate the half-destroyed palace. The palace itself will be populated with wild animals, scavenging humanoids, and of course traps to protect the treasure. If the PC’s wait until the army leaves, they will find the native people moving back into the area, and the treasure even more difficult to recover.

Old School Gaming

A while back (when I was looking into SYW wargaming) I wrote about my encounters with the notion of “old school wargaming,” what that meant, and how wargaming grognards tended to behave.  I’ve amended that last notion based on some very positive interactions with some old school guys.

Lately, I’ve been browsing the websites of “old school (RPG) gamers,” guys who don’t even like the term “RPG” because it didn’t really come into vogue until the some of “old school games” had already gone the way of the dodo.  What’s an “old school game”?  As far as I can tell, the answer is (arguably) the early editions of D&D (possibly ending before 2nd Ed), Traveller, and Empire of the Petal Throne, with games like Champions out there as sort of auxiliary members.  What makes an RPG “old school” aside from its early release date?  As far as I can tell, a “toolbox” mentality meaning little pre-determined background, a light ruleset, and a low production value (okay, kidding on the last one).

Why am I mentioning this?  Because I’m on vacation (hence the lack of updates) and I’ve been spending my vacation dithering around about D&D 4e.  While I was bonking around the forums over at RPG.net, I began to see references to the old school gaming, and that took me to places that I’d heard mentioned over at the C&C forums at Troll Lord Games: dark, low production forums full of snarling, random creatures much like the dungeon crawl of old.  In all seriousness, what I discovered was essentially three D&D 1e clones: OSRIC, Labyrinth Lords, and Basic Fantasy.  If Castles & Crusades can be considered a 2e clone with some 3e tweaks, then Basic Fantasy is a 1e clone with some 3e tweaks (biggest one: AC goes up when it gets better and there’s some stat bonuses in there).  OSRIC and LL are basically 1e published cheekily under the OGL.

What’s the appeal?  First, they are all free.  Two, they have sentimental value, something that is often ridiculed on RPG.net.  Three, they are about as low-crunch as cream of wheat.  Four, they are really not genre-linked (aside from the whole Tolkein thing, which isn’t insignificant).  But it is the mentality that got me really thinking.  Yesterday I was watching this stage production of African storytelling and there was the who bug-themed character.  I thought to myself, “hey, that’d make an interesting NPC.”  But how to do it?  Why not just have her possess the normal range of spells, but instead have them all with an insect-related “special effect” (ala Champions).  No real rules impact (although you might imagine certain counter-spells being very effective, like gust of wind).  That’s the “toolbox” mentality that I think old school gaming still possesses, that C&C tries to get into with its open SIEGE engine.

Anyways, I am still waiting on buying 4e, not the least of which because I got burned on the 3-3.X move.  Also, because I am being reminded once more that a good imagination can make a game a lot better than a new rule.

A Different Kind of Game

Once every three months I play in a roleplaying game group whose members are scattered over the Central Ohio area.  While I’ve only played with them a couple of times, they have been gaming together for the better part of twenty years, playing mostly science fiction games: Star Trek, Traveller, and their current game, Morrow Project.

This group is sort of the antithesis of my C&C Campaign, which meets irregularly for small, inter-connected sessions.  The C&C group is also multi-generational, has players of both sexes, and is fairly new at gaming.  The Morrow Project group meets with a fairly regular schedule, and is composed entirely of men about the same age.

The Morrow Project game also focusses a great deal on the tactical.  The two sessions I’ve played in both would constitute “smash and grab” sessions, and a lot of thought went into what kind of gun would be brought along and a discussion of the properties of tear gas grenades.  I’m not knocking this: games like this are sort of the modern-day equivalent of a dungeon crawl, which is a staple in my C&C game.

Anyways, once a year the group gets together for three days of straight gaming, almost a mini-gaming convention into itself called “End of the World” or EOW.  The general rule is that there is one game per day, any genre, self-contained in terms of plot, and using the house rules.  The house rules (called the EOW rules) were developed so that time wouldn’t be spent learning new rulesets for each day; think of it as a homebrewed version of GURPS.  In fact the game has its genetic code taken from Traveller, the old FASA Star Trek rules, and a bit of homemade stuff.  Percentile stats and skills, d10 combat system, and a high degree of lethality.  For example, in combat when  you’re hit you are either “fine” or “stopped” with “stopped” meaning you are dead or unable to fight.  There’s no in-between of being wounded and penalized in combat as a result, etc.  You can either do what you can do, or you can’t.  And “can’t” often means dead.

So, the group asked me if I’d be willing to run a game for EOW.  I’ve got carte blanche in terms of genre, but have to use the EOW system.  This is a big change for me.  I’m used to running short sessions that all link together into a longer story, not one long session of a self-contained story.  I’m also used to being tied genre-wise to a rules system, not inventing my own magic rules or whatever.  I’m interested in that part–my first chance at game design. It’s making sure I have enough game to go the distance that really is giving me pause.  I’m also a little adrift about what to do genre-wise.  These guys like the tactical stuff, but I’m tempted to do something totally different just to switch things up.  I have until October to get this together, so I’ll be posting things here regular about it.

Descent Set: finished!

I’ve been working on this one for a long time, so long that I’ve already begun considering replacing it.  But, before I did that, I need to see this one through. It’s made with molds #201 and #205 from Hirst Arts.  The pieces are based on taskboard, which is rather expensive but cuts easily and appears to resist warping.  It’s also fairly lightweight.

I don’t play Descent, but like Bruce Hirst’s model (using the cavern molds) as a way to have a modular dungeon without walls blocking players’ views or scraping the points off of weapon tips.  I may put some dense craft foam on the bottom as an added protection for the set.

Small Gothic House: finished!

It’s nice to get another one in the “completed” column (you’ll note I’ve added a scorecard on the side just so it can constantly shame me into getting stuff done).

For this house, I decided to add a base to increase stability and make it harder to break. I used a piece of MDF board, added sand texture, and primed it black. Then, rather than do cast plaster floor tiles (which would either raise the windows up 1/4″ or have to be sanded to fit inside the walls), I freehand painted on a stone design. Then I painted the sand brown and tan and glued on the building.

Once the glue had dried, I did a faint watered-down black wash for some weathering, and then added flock.

I really like the way this one came out–certainly a lot better than the earlier one it looked like. Next, however, I need to work on those orcs and finish the Descent set.

Small Gothic House: WIP

I’ve been working on a new terrain piece, one that is similar to another I’ve made, but a little nicer and with a few more options.  Here’s a WIP pic:

I’ll be adding a base and some weathering soon.

Back to the City

When I first started running C&C with my current group, the long story arc centered around a single city and the group’s attempt to thwart a plot endangering that community.  The group would head out of the city and into the surrounding wilderness, exploring ruins and generally sticking their fingers in the bad guys’ bicycle spokes.

When that story arc was done, it was a major event, and the storyline changed gears to a small mini-arc followed by this “find the twelve relics” thing I have going on now.  The shift to an even larger storyline (finding twelve artifacts, rather than exploring three different ruins) has begun to bog down as the plots get to be too similar to each other.  The PC’s identify the next relic, travel to whereever it is, kill whatever is guarding it, and get the relic.  The Spear of Autumn Casting has some roleplaying to it because of the PC’s nemeses appeared as the villain, but that’s about it.

The “quest” campaign structure also really lacks the ability for the GM to introduce reoccurring NPC’s.  Instead you have “NPC of the week,” like an episode of Pokemon.  All I needed was the half-orc constantly hitting on the town priest, sheriff, or Nurse Joy and I’d be set.  I could tell that the more roleplaying-oriented players were getting less interested, and frankly I was getting less interested.

So, I decided to retool.  It wasn’t hard, since I’m leading the group around by the nose right now–I just led to them a nice big city with loads of mysteries and places to explore and, oh yes, a captive tarrasque right in the middle of town.  You can read about it here at my sister site to this one.  I am hoping this layout provides with the best of both worlds.  There’s enough interesting things in the city for the roleplayers to get interested in, while the hack-and-slash players can go gadding about the giant castle filled with beasties galore.  Moreover, I’m not even going to both mapping the entire castle.  Instead, I’m going to organize it in “pods,” little multi-encounter enclaves that will constitute a single “adventure” (perhaps over several sessions) with them roughly interconnecting in some way.  The players have never been that map-oriented, since I use the modular Hirst Arts dungeons, so they won’t even notice if the pods don’t always mesh together logically.

Grimfeast (the city, for those who didn’t click the link) has a lot of the same themes as Peluria, the former city-state from earlier in the campaign.  Both are sort of oblivious to the danger around them.  Both had undercurrents of corruption in the leadership of the community (in Peluria, these were not as well explored as I would’ve liked, but they were there).  Hopefully I’ll get more into them this time.

I’m also hoping that this’ll refresh what has been a somewhat unfruitful imagination within me about this campaign.  I’ve been struggling sometimes to come up with things, and settling more often than not for boring old orc-and-ogre dungeon crawls.  Stay tuned to see what happens.

Basements & Boogeymen

Having your craft table in the same room as the children’s playroom will of course create the occasionally spillover from one to the other.  I’ve been known to swipe legos to make mold frames, and occasionally my plastic D&D miniatures have been incorporated into action figures, etc.

But recently my two kids asked if I’d run a game of Castles & Crusades with them, and I (perhaps foolishly) agreed.  I’ve done it three times now–each time following a pretty formulaic routine.  There’s no real “plot,” the two PC’s, both fighters, are trying to find something in a dungeon for a friendly NPC in return for a reward.  I don’t bother with stats, just give the kids a target number to hit, and an AC to avoid being hit.  Each has 10 hit points.  There’s an NPC cleric along to cast cure light wounds as needed.  Essentially I’m running a 3D version of DragonFable using miniatures, which is good fun. 

As you can see in the photo, I use a pretty simple layout.  This is actually an earlier modular dungeon I made a few years ago (the second of three that I have made).  I also use a dice-rolling tower to keep the dice under control.  Plus it makes a fun racket. 

Second Orc Unit

I managed to complete my second unit of five orc boyz, shown here with their brothers in the first unit.  Now I only have two units and the warband leader to go.  I’ll need to pick up the pace if I’m going to be done by June 1.

If you aren’t familiar with his site, you should check out Phil Olley’s War Cabinet.  His latest “Broadside” has a great essay on keeping on track with painting a wargaming army.  I’m not sure what my favorite game is, although it is probably Warhammer since it is the only one I play regularly.  It has lots of food for thought, though.

I also picked up a copy of Wargaming: An Introduction by Neil Thomas at a used book store.  This little gem has several very simple rulesets for wargaming in five different historical periods.  Probably not of interest for the guy who likes lots of details, but good stuff for those of us who don’t want to plod through hundreds of pages of rules (or talk friends into doing the same).

The Dollhouse

 

Years ago, I bought this dollhouse kit at a church garage sale, hoping to build it for my daughter.  I got hung up on the window frames, and it sat partially made for years.  Now my wife and I are tackling the project again and I’ll post pics as progress goes.

I’m also switching the layout to Monotone, which puts the posts photo in the blog header.  I haven’t quite worked all the kinks out of how Monotone operates, and I miss the sidebars, but since most people come here for the pictures anyways I didn’t think it would matter.

Edit:  I switched back out of Monotone.  For one, I found it a little buggy.  Second, I missed having the pages available for viewing.  Third, casual visitors can’t view multiple entries on a single page, which seems discouraging.