Getting Back In The Ring

I've put this off for far too long.

If you read that sentence and heard Ian Holm's Bilbo in your head, then we're off to a good start because that's exactly how it sounded when it came to me. I've been away from a couple of things for too long now and it's time to get back to it. What am I talking about? Gamemastering and writing. I believe I've taken steps to help fix that. 

First one's easy: start running more games. As you can see from last week's posts, I've started running a mixed online/in-person D&D game but that's just the beginning. While I love my Ottawa playtesters, I need to whip out a lot more playtests for ScreenPlay and stress test this mofo. Which is why I'm looking into starting up a semi-regular online group to do that very thing. Details are still being worked out and I haven't established anything other than a fist-clenching oath to get it done, so stay tuned. If you're interested already, comment below. 

The next is as critical to Gamemastering and playtesting and so much more: writing. With my career and personal life demanding so much attention lately, my time at the keyboard has suffered for it. That needs to change and I may have something to help fix that. Sure, sure, setting aside time is great and a lofty goal but I need something suitable to my current lifestyle. 

To paraphrase the South Park kids, I learned something this weekend. I'm a morning person (who also likes staying up late but that's a different matter altogether). The sooner I can get to a task, the sooner and better it will be done. Over the weekend, I happened to wake up extra early on Saturday while the missus slept in and spontaneously decided to finally clean up the garage. With nearly three uninterrupted hours as people sipped their morning coffees and stores prepared opening for business, I cleaned and ended up with a better result than originally intended. Get an early start, get better results. Translation: I need to write something as early as possible in the day to get something done. 

My plan (and it's Day Two right now) is to not putz around on any social media until after I've written at least 500 words on a project or personal entry. (Yes, that includes blogging since I can write that much easily in one sitting. I should also note this doesn't include work's social media as I gets paid to tweet for them.) 

Has it worked out so far? It's already the second day and I have an opening legend for High Plains Samurai and a blog post talking about how I'm going to get more writing done. So far, so good. 

The Lost Mine of Phandelver: Adventurers Assemble!

It begins.

Calling on old friends (some of whom I haven't rolled dice with since the early half of 4e) to answer the call for adventure, we set about crafting a party of young and eager adventurers. Yep, we started up our new D&D campaign last night. 

Originally designed as a Skype-only campaign, it quickly became a split between live at the table and Skype (not my preferred Google Hangouts but I never expect people to create accounts for anything and Skype is what they know). Dangnabbit if one of the players insisted on driving to my house every two weeks. While I normally dislike playing with this split, DMing is totally different - they have to stop talking and listen to me. So with one player live on stage and the others reporting from outlets across Ottawa, we rolled characters and killed goblins. 

And it was good. 

We have Ulthgar the dwarf cleric of Moradin, a stern and grizzled acolyte who dreams of rising to the ranks of power within his order. A dwarf of his word, he sees the signs left by the gods and those left by the wicked as guidance in how he will best serve his beliefs. 

Kazzarak is a half-elf barbarian from the frigid lands of Icewind Dale. Quick to step into danger and eager to right wrongs, his path lead him to Neverwinter in search of glory and riches in the dungeons of the Underdark and the battlefields of Faerun. 

Paiden, a human fighter, is the quiet member of the group but don't let his silence challenge your opinion of him. What he lacks in social skills he more than makes up for in a keen eye and quick reflexes, lashing out with his shield to protect those under his watch. 

Finally, we come to Rennik, a lightfoot halfling rogue whose early years spent at sea have now brought him to the shores of Neverwinter looking for work. Ever eager to return to the rolling waves of the ocean, he displays incredible deftness skulking about the forests and cities of the mainland. Perhaps there is more to this fellow than meets the eye.

After assembling their characters (using a mixture of players with the new PHB and those with only the Basic PDF), we went through a very basic introduction of how everyone came to know each other and was hired on by Gundren Rockseeker to deliver simple mining goods to Phandalin. Of course, they fought goblins and did a fine job of it too (only 4 points of damage was taken, thanks to the quick reaction of Paiden sparing Kazzarak the horrors of an arrow in the back). I won't go into any extended details of this prologue but things are already looking very promising. The group is quite eager to get started and I had a chance to go through my initial hiccups with any new system (even if it is something familiar like D&D). In two weeks, shit gets real.

If the news of a new edition of D&D (or you're just finding out that D&D is still alive and well), check out their website. 

Players Handbook Revealed!

I am the Warden!!

Oh, yes, I'm actually that excited about the "return" of D&D that I brought back the classic intro to every blog post. Not that the excitement ever went away, but I've felt out of touch with it these past three years as my interests turned to more independent, modern and assassination-y things. While I enjoyed playing both 3rd and 4th editions for a time (and currently play in a weekly Pathfinder game on Fantasy Grounds), my gradual time-out was a combination of player, DM and publisher exhaustion. I had run my course with them and simply felt the need to move on to other games. Mostly working on my own, mind you. 

Now that D&D has relaunched the brand with a much cleaner and refined edition brought about by a couple of years of excellent marketing and public development - and a whole new attitude towards the game - the new Player's Handbook arrived by way of courier yesterday and I fucking love everything about it so far. To keep things simple and avoid clogging my day (and yours) with a never-ending post about it, here's a simple point-form list of what I love going into my first 5e session tonight. (Just a hint, that's how much I've embraced the new edition - I emailed a bunch of old players from the precious 4e group and strung together a new group.) 

• It truly has undertones of the previous editions. Aside from the heavy influence of 3e mechanics, there are some carry-overs in approach from 4e (mostly with monsters and adventure design) and the complete separation of miniatures feels very AD&D to me. Add to that how the cover and binding of the new PHB has undertones of the original AD&D PHB - red/orange colour scheme with a black bar running down the spine. Maybe it's just me, but it definitely feels like they borrowed elements from all editions in the visual design as well. 
• This edition's core feels incredibly simple to learn and play. While all games have this premise in practise, most of the big ones fall victim to their own gluttony and start to overload it with minute details and conditions. 5e feels simpler. (I say "feels" because I've yet to run anything myself and have only played the early playtest editions, so this is all based on initial read-throughs.) As an older dude with less time on his hands than the glory days, not getting bogged down with specifics, stacks of DCs and exceptions for every little detail is HUGE. This one's perhaps the biggest reason why I'm jumping back into the fray and is part of a promise I made to myself getting back into D&D. Stick with the core material and published adventures. Save my time and energy for the table, not the time required beforehand. Not needing to review 25+ pages of rules content before every game helps. 
• It's familiar yet refreshingly new. As mentioned above, much of the mechanics and character options feel very 3e with some new touches that make a significant different in my opinion. For example, the paladin's Divine Sense ability is nothing extreme or overly powerful but gives the class a whole new outlook and roleplaying opportunity. That's why many of the original class and racial features continue to work in this new edition but with more simplicity. An opportunity attack is just a reaction, everyone gets them and you only get one reaction per round. Done! Little alterations can make all the difference. 

The true test comes tonight (and possibly in two weeks, seeing as tonight is really just character creation with the hopes of starting off the adventure, Lost Mines of Phandelver, from the Starter Set). Will these opinions hold up the Court of Gameplay? Let's find out. 

Let The Judgement Begin!

And so it's time to start up the engine and get this new game out there into the world. On Sunday, I announced the first two phases of Project Phoenix in the 100th post of my regular column on Roleplayers Chronicle. First, there's ScreenPlay, a free supplemental RPG where players take on the role of Writers developing a movie script in co-operation with the Director (AKA the GM). Second comes High Plains Samurai, a mash-up of post-apocalyptic westerns and magic powered by the ScreenPlay engine. You can read all about them straight from the original post. 

That's all the technical talk. For my personal blog, I want to write about the personal challenges of undertaking this project. What crazy crap is going through my mind? What are my worries and beliefs? What are the behind-the-scenes going-ons in the eventual build-up of these games and this system? All of them are the kind of questions I'm looking at posing right here. And the first one is perhaps the most obvious...

What the hell was I thinking?!!

Right now, I'm nervous. It's been a while since I not only had a new game to plug, but maintained any significant presence online. Ever since the start of my new job (ironically as a Social Media Specialist), I've been almost entirely focused on my work's SM presence and not my own. With ScreenPlay (and eventually HPS), I need to get back on the horse and start plugging. Am I confident in my work so far? Definitely. I really like the tone and feel of ScreenPlay and honestly feel very proud of how different it is from Killshot. One thing I wanted to avoid after the Killshot Reloaded Kickstarter failed was failing to develop my game design skills further. I didn't want to limit myself in design styles and there are considerable differences between Killshot and ScreenPlay. With those differences come unique challenges, such as hoping those who appreciated my earlier work will like what they see in my new work.

It's all water under the bridge right now because the 9-page early draft of the rules has been posted for public scrutiny. There's no going back now. The next step is taking those written rules and putting them to practise. The very first ScreenPlay playtest goes down on June 18th with a little dark fantasy script I like to call Ironbound. I'll keep you posted as we get closer to that day. Until then, I have a paper bag to breathe into. 

A GM's Day Tribute

It's GM's Day, a time for those of us seriously dedicated to roleplaying games and the craft of GMing (whether you appreciate the work of another or strive to become the ideal model of gamemastering) take the time to give a shout out of thanks and snatch up some sweet stuff from our wish lists. As a publisher, I could simply take the time and push my own products through DriveThru's massive sale but it seemed lacking of the day's intent.

Then it hit me. I don't think I've ever taken the time to publicly thank the other GMs who amuse, entertain and enlighten. So wrong and I'd like to take this time to fix it. These are the select duo who have always impressed me with their hard work and dedication, inspiring me to make my own skills better. I'm not confident enough to say I've been successful, but my heart's in the right place and that's good enough for me right now.

The first is perhaps the most passionate GM I've ever known and one-half of an inseparable pair (despite the two living in different countries). I've known Derek for over 25 years (ouch) and while we're not in contact any more, I'm not sure there's anyone else I've ever met who invested so much of his soul into his games. He has an infectious enthusiasm to every one of them and prides himself on getting new players to take up the dice. Derek is also a builder; carpentry runs in this man's blood and he's used it to create some truly impressive displays over the years. While I've never been handy enough to consider some of the goodies he's made over the years, it's one story in particular that remains locked in my mind.

We're going way back to high school for this one, back to the days of Dark Sun. While we normally played in his parents' basement, we came over for a midday game (I'm thinking we skipped school because there was no one else home) and gathered around the dining room table for a change of pace. There was a map laid out on the table and we were knee deep in the adventure (not entirely sure which one we were playing as I've never been good at remembering that part) when one of the players discovered a secret passage.

"Grab the other end of the table," Derek said and the two pulled it open as you would to add an insert. Secured underneath the table was a secret underground layer to the map, resting in secret for hours while we played unsuspecting of the awesomeness he had waiting for us. All miniatures and furnishings were firmly in place, waiting to be unlocked. And if you know Derek, you know he's completely unable to keep a secret without having a giant grin on his face. That sense of awe he created by catching us off-guard is something I want to produce in every game I run.

Next, we have the second half of the Dynamic Duo: Dave. Also someone I've known since elementary school, Dave's thing in high school was running Ravenloft and he was very good at it. Not just because there were more miniatures than you could shake a stick at (for which he probably had a stick-waving miniature we never had a chance to see), maps aplenty, and every supplement/adventure published under the sun, it was how his version of Ravenloft became our One True Campaign. PCs died and others lived, but not without scars, stories, and a heavy dose of fear. What I remember most about those long nights of Ravenloft was not how my character was scared but how I genuinely felt that our characters were screwed. In a good way.  

What Dave also taught me was that roleplaying games were stories told to an audience smaller than an off-Broadway production of a phone conversation but 1,000 times better. We all wanted to create our own winding campaigns because of his and each of us dabbled in all of the many settings TSR released in their heyday: Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun (as mentioned above), Planescape, even Birthright. None of them ever compared to Dave's Ravenloft campaign. Playing those games was not about the individual session; it was about the campaign, something I miss terribly as an adult trying to get a single story arch told in 6 sessions, let alone an evolving campaign running three years and 15 levels. He taught us to respect our enemies because they had no respect for us and he played all his monsters this way. Mortality was our greatest nemesis and the only way we would learn to respect it was to confront it.

Both of them showed how fun it was to run a game and while it's been years since I've seen them, let alone sat down with them for a game, there's little time gone by when I haven't sat in the GM's chair and hoped I could invoke that same feeling into my players.

So to Dave and Derek, out there in the world prepping their next game, I say thanks for killing so many of my characters and keeping me wanting more. Happy GM's Day, guys. 

Conflicting Morality

I am the Warden!!

There's an interesting combination of films releasing this weekend and they're a prime example of how morality is not only subjective, but adaptable. Zero Dark Thirty, the complete account of Bin Laden's assassination (with details provided by the CIA) and Gangster Squad, a fictional story of cops bringing their own brand of justice to the mob in the 1940s. On the surface, they're two completely different films, yet their standpoint on morality creates an interesting social conflict.

The big controversy regarding Zero Dark Thirty is the interrogation scene and it's causing such a stir in American political circles, there's an upcoming congressional hearing to determine how much information was provided to the filmmakers and whether or not the CIA offered up a red herring to promote their view on the effectiveness of torture. Going solely off The Daily Show, mind you, the emphasis of the debacle appears to be the merits of torture in counterterrorism and intelligence operations. The truth about first world countries using torture to gain access to essential information can be almost as divisive as abortion and gun control, all of which comes down to the people's belief in being "better" than your enemies.

Yet Gangster Squad is specifically about good cops breaking the law to enforce it by shooting up unarmed gangsters and probably all sorts of vicious beatings. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a scene where someone's being viciously interrogated. In a sense, it takes the dilemma of Zero Dark Thirty and says "Yeah, so what?" while beating the shit out of a guy strapped to a chair.

C'est irony, no?

What If... WotC Brought Back 3e?

I am the Warden!!

Playing with my D&D group yesterday (and doing so in person for once... always a nice touch), we were having a blast. I have to admit, though I'm not entirely sure why, this latest incarnation has me excited about D&D again. While every new playtest draft features tweaks and revisions hinting at any number of possibilities, it feels familiar and refreshingly different at the same time. I'm still in love with the advantage/disadvantage mechanic.

Then a thought occurred to me: what if Wizards of the Coast decided to go back to D&D 3rd edition? My first follow-up question wonders if it was even a consideration during those initial meetings to discuss the possibility of a new edition, but let's assume all those involved in making that call took a look at the situation and felt the best recourse was to return to what brought them so much glory in the previous decade. What if D&D and Pathfinder literally went head to head?

It's a trick question when you think about it. The idea of WotC actually re-launching 3e could create far more consequences and bad PR than anything as many would see it as "giving up" and "caving in." So there would have to be something about this effort to make it a revised edition while staying damn close to the original design of 3e. In a sense, it would be the same as Pathfinder: stick with the basics and tweak the classes, races, and such with your own personal touches. Would WotC reprint the previous rulebooks or redesign them with some minor revisions? If they were to reprint, it would likely be the whole 3.5 mess all over again and based on the fact that they seem to have learned from past mistakes (hence the whole reason for D&D Next), let's assume they simply turn back to supporting 3e again without new rulebooks or supplements for simplicity's sake.

Online Roleplaying Sucks!

I am the Warden!!

Read the title again and prepare yourself for a bitch fest. I hate playing my RPGs online. Hate, despise, loathe, dread, rue, and curse all at the same time. And when I say my RPGs, I mean my regular weekly games where I am but one player in a party.

For close to two years, I've been stuck with using Skype as my only means of continuing the quests in my D&D, Pathfinder, and monthly independent games. That's right, the accident. And while I'm physically and (mostly) mentally able to make the trip to Ottawa, my driveway does not have a car to park and neither do I have one to make the commute to Ottawa. So I use Skype, but it's just not the same as sitting at the table as part of a group.

Traumatic events in your life give you a lot of moments to reflect and can eventually teach you a lot about who you truly are and what gives your life meaning. While I already knew how much I loved playing and running these games, I had no idea how valuable they were as my social outlet. Everything I avoid and deny in everyday life - hanging out in large crowds, meeting strangers - is easily corrected when RPGs are involved. I won't even wait in a line of more than 5 people because I think it's too crowded, but happily walk into any convention with hundreds, if not thousands, of people. In the past two years, I've learned the value of these games to my well-being and so have my doctors and therapists who prescribed RPGs to assist with my recovery. I shit you not.

Attending these games is the problem and so I must resort to the Internet to fill the gap.

Announcement: The Ottawa Tabletop Game Designers

I am the Warden!!

This is the Ottawa Tabletop Game Designers!!

Last week, a couple of other game designers were talking about a local comic book shop opening up a table for people like us to introduce and promote our games when the idea of "banding together" on a social site like Google+ was thrown out. The idea has now become a reality and over the weekend, the Ottawa Tabletop Game Designers page was launched.

While it's just starting up and features are on the light-to-nonexistent side right now, my plan is to feature many of the numerous aspiring and successful tabletop game designers in the Ottawa area as well as local artists, editors, and other freelancers plying their trade. Plus highlight stores and conventions where you can find these games as a kind of cross-promotion effort. With all the recent growth in gaming development and culture in Ottawa over the last couple of years, I've been surprised with the number of designers and publishers and would love to see this area become recognized for tabletop game production in the same way Montreal has become synonymous with video games.

So if you live in Ottawa or the surrounding valley, be sure to check out the page and follow away. Once we have an initial membership up and running, I'm looking to set up a Twitter feed and work on setting up contact with various retailers and conventions in the area.