Death Frost (Pulp) Doom: 4th Run

So, the Thursday game gets canceled three hours before it's supposed to run. I stepped up and ran Death Frost Doom, since it's one of the only things I can run with almost zero notice. 

This time, I tried something a little different. I ran it as a pulp 30's style adventure. I used B/X as the basic rules, gave every character a couple of X-in-6 skills. I made one character a "mystic" will simplified spells operating on a spell point system and one character a doctor who could heal a certain number of dice of hp per day. All weapons did a d6 damage, single Saving Throw number, etc. I used the "hit 20" system and encumbrance from Stars Without Number. I guess you could say it was an unholy mishmash of Lamentations, B/X, and SWN. 

It was a TPK, but not for the reasons that usually results in TPKs when I run Death Frost Doom. I don't want to spoil it for those who aren't familiar with the module. The PCs basically took a hit for the good of the world. 

That might be the last time I run DFD. Next time I have to step in for the Thursday group, I will either run Realm of the Technomancer (letting them choose which side of the module they are on) or I'll run the introductory adventure from Xplorers. (With my usual modifications) 

Oh, and Purple Lotus Powder. Dang. 

NWoD Rework: Hunters Revamped (no pun intended)

So, I've talked to a couple gamer pals (and am waiting to hear back on another) about my WoD chronicle framework, and one of them brought up a legit concern:

The Expert, Magician, and Monster type characters are all customizable. The Hunter type, on the other hand, is not... you get the Conviction advantage and that's that. I thought perhaps creating a few subcategories of Hunter might give the interested player some options and not leave Hunter types being fairly cookie-cutter in terms of special ability. Here's my initial breakdown-

*Conviction- As written. These are Hunters who rely on themselves or are driven by something internal: revenge, hatred of the unknown, the desire to protect normal people/Amurrrica/whatever.

*True Faith- Yes, the old school ability from early White Wolf days. This would be Hunters who believe in something greater than themselves and draw on that for strength. It could be God, Allah, maybe even Unbending Science.

*Access to gear merits. These are Hunters who are either weapons geniuses or have enough pull within the PCs organization to request a little something extra. I'm probably ripping off the ideas from the gear merits included in HtV.

I'm not entirely certain what else I could offer Hunters. Magicians have more archetypes to choose from and monsters are pretty much whatever the player and I can agree to. Still, it's a start.

SWN Cryo-Stasis Engaged

I just wanted to mention that my SWN game, which has been running in some form or another since July, is now in cryo-stasis. My two players have a lot going on in their lives, and come fall I won't be able to do Tuesday nights on account of my Master's classes. The campaign was a lot of fun, and I have all the material stowed safely in a folder, so in my mind we're simply in cryo-stasis, ready to be thawed out when our schedules align.

In the meantime, I'll be working on my newWoD game, plus I have a lot of fantasy gaming goodness due on my doorstep in the near future. (S&W Complete Hardback, Monstrosities, and my boatload of miniatures from the Reaper Kickstarter last year) I've also taken on the idea of doing one-shots and things for the Thursday group for when we can't play or normal BTS campaign. (Which seems to be a lot lately, but what can you do?)

The tale of the Hydrin Clans isn't over yet. We'll see what happens to our intrepid space explorers some other day.

WoD Rework Solution

Alright, so awhile ago I wanted to make a stripped down version of WoD that better fits my gaming tastes. JB challenged me to fit it on one page. Try as I might, I couldn't do it.... but the exercise did give me an idea on what I want to do with the game  and system. This is my very preliminary character creation setup, and you have to be basically familiar with the WoD, but here it is:

Character creation: Create a normal person. You had a brush with the supernatural. Now you work for an organization that seeks to stem the influence of non-human creatures over humanity.

Pick a flavor:

Hunter: +1 Stamina or Resolve, and you get the Conviction advantage from Mirrors.

Magician: +1 Intelligence or Charisma, and you can buy magician or shaman traits from Second Sight.

Expert: +1 Wits or Composure, and you get Skill Tricks instead of specialties.

Monster: +1 to any particular stat, and you have three Powers and three Weaknesses. Let's talk about what you are and how the specifics work. You also have a Power source and a way that you have to recharge it. It's probably going to be a bit of a pain. (For vampires, you have Blood and you refill it by feeding on the living, etc.)

Morality is replaced with Sanity (for humans) and Humanity (for monsters) Humans are trying not to be driven mad or jaded into unfeeling monsters by the horrible truths of the WoD, monsters are trying not to become mindless slavering beasts or whatnot.

All characters have Reason, which they can trade for extra crazy powers, a la the Forbidden Lore section of Mirrors.

Combat: New weapon damage/armor rules, initiative rules, defense/dodging, etc.

Virtue and Vice: You customize your own, and you aren't stuck with the Seven Deadlies/Seven Heavenlies.

We're keeping the old experience system. Sorry, hipsters.

Despite the rules lite nature and the focus on what you do as a supernatural, you need to make a character who was a person before they were exposed to the supernatural.

Oh, and I'm stealing the Twilight/Gloom idea from the "Night Watch" series of books/films. Magicians and Monsters can enter it naturally. Hunters and Experts have to use special devices or some kind of Zen training or something. We'll work out the exact details later.

There you have it. I can always add more detail later, but I think I'm just eager to hit the ground running. It doesn't fit on one page (since you have to add all the WoD rules and power descriptions), but the specifications for character creation do.

Things I'm toying with:
-Adding Psychics a la Second Sight.
-Making Forbidden Lore users into their own "class"

Thoughts?

S&W Goodies

I'm currently waiting on hardback copies of S&W Complete and Monstrosities. I am bummed that I missed the recent sale, but I'll live. 

I'm also waiting for my Reaper minis crate from backing the Kickstarter last fall. 

I have all the ingrdients for an awesome fantasy campaign. 

...except for the campaign part. 

Something about Swords & Wizardry always causes my brain to bubble with possibilities. I think it's the fact that the game presents many optioins and never closes the door on anything. Of course, B/X and their ilk never closed the door on anything, but I don't know... there's some kind of intrinsic appeal to the way S&W presents itself. Different games, even iterations of the same rules, have a different flavor and "feel" to me. It's hard to explain, but AD&D looks different in my head than B/X or S&W. 

In theory, I'll have time to start a new campaign, seeing as how the school year is over in just three weeks. (ohholygod) In practice, though.... probably not. I'm taking the first two classes for my Master's in June and in July I have two separate confereces to attend, two gaming conventions, and a camping trip with the missus.

Where there's a will, there's a way. I'll find some way to put these gaming goods to work, even if I have to wait until August. (For the week I'll have to myself before staff must report back) 

. 

Candyland a La Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess

Our Thursday night BTS GM couldn't make it this week, so I stepped in and ran Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess. (I'm going to be running it at a convention this summer, so I used this opportunity to play test it.) We had a party of four characters and three henchmen, with a final casualty tally of two henchmen, two PCs. Given the source material, I ran the game a wee bit less seriously than I normally do. I might spring Death Frost Doom on them next time the GM is unavailable.

My spoiler-free thoughts on Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess:

-It's gonzo. Like, seriously gonzo. If you don't like that kind of thing, it would be easy to turn this into a horrible bloodbath of grimdarkness, but I think you'd be losing some of the charm. Don't get me wrong: there's some grim stuff in this module, but it is soaked in black humor.

-My favorite part of the module is actually the "prelude" to the main event. There are some seriously interesting encounters in the Dark Forest.

-Unless I missed something, one of the antagonists is detailed but actually not placed anywhere in the module. He has a write-up and a stat block, but I never figured out where he was supposed to be. This wasn't really that difficult to fix, but it just seemed to me an odd omission. (Unless I just missed it somehow)

-In an era where people have mangled the use of the word "literally," Zzarchov (I forgot to mention he is the author, not Raggi) keeps the meaning of the word intact. Kudos to you, sir.

-The spell Rainbow Bolt is almost unsurvivable for the level spread this adventure was written for. Then again, given that it's a Lamentations adventure, this is to be expected. Just take heed that one of the bad guys has a "if this hits you, you die" spell. The other new spells are delightful and twisted.

-This adventure is a railroad. The PCs basically travel along a straight path to the adventure's conclusion. There isn't a lot that lets them go off the map. It's good for one shots and convention games. I will say that the linearity of this adventure makes perfect sense within its context. A sandbox purist, however, could easily drop this as a jacked up little sidequest located in any forest hex on the map, and the fairy world could easily be expanded if one were so inclined. It should also be noted that the PCs have several options on how to resolve the situation.

-A semi-spoilery note: (you've been warned) My PCs found a way to prevent the Maypole Dance, and it was damn clever, I daresay.

-The PDF is four bucks. If you don't like it, it isn't a huge loss.

I look forward to running this again during convention season. I might shift some things around, but this is a pretty solid module that you can have ready to run in probably twenty minutes.

Rainbows, Fairy Dust, and... Away Teams, maybe.

I have submitted a request to run "Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess" at a convention I will be attending this summer. I already have some delightful ideas for pregen characters.

I am also considering running Starships & Spacemen 2e, but we'll see. I have to come up with a good idea first. I suppose I can pretty much rip off any idea from classic Trek or TNG and modify it.

Oh. Just got an idea, right now. Yes......