You Know What?

... If you didn't get it, you actually don't read my blog.

TROTTing Back

A song of infidelities and the heat of the moment...

Just when I have two thirds of my editing bills for the TROTT system and about 45 pages of rule-intensive material with the Glow setting, I decide that I love the six-sided die too much to give up on it. No divorce will be finalized.

Yes Percentile Dice were always good for a quickie. But with even the tens and digits, for all of it's five-fingered figuring, she just isn't any sort of long term commitment for me. And when the cards came up right, mass Lovecraft copyright dissolution in the general Adventure Gaming market, coupled with me finally writing down my TACK game matrix; I was finally able to break off with my illicit affair with CoC wearing Chaosium's BRP, for risky encounters with strangers late at night. Encounters too scary for most convention goers at that.

And going a step further, I like the way that T&T works the d6. When it comes down to it, I can't quit Ken St Andre. Yes my open-minded wife has pointedly remarked that I am "gay for the man's work." And when it comes to fantasist writing, that guy fills me with a sense of wonder and makes me feel ten plus twenty years younger. Now this literary man-crush has me often angry at him, still his writing takes me places. Besides he does work out and can do one-arm push ups.

But I'll be damned if I give up on the rules conventions that has moved the Earth for me with the 7th edition. Now all those other floozies in Arizona might be writing the ramrod version "deluxe edition" of the game for role-playing swingers on any given Saturday night. While doing so, they are knocking Ken down to size, what with his dashing good ideas and fedora, that makes him look like such an adventurer. But from pillow talk in seedy blogs, the "improvements" are mostly taking things back to 5th Edition-- just with a whole lot of filler material. I am of the opinion that things are only kinky once.

For all my drunken gutter game-designer talk of something called "7th world" or "7 Plus," this is a love child that is never going to be conceived. Quite a few people have mentioned that my T&T games at the tabletop are unlike any other style of the game that they ever played in. And more than a few have come back for more. Apparently a GM who doesn't just throw out pretzels to a beer-guzzling crowd can have her way very narrative and detail-oriented bell rung once in a while. So to still be able to create scenarios in the style of my 7th heaven, I can dote on my estranged, conceived-out-of-wedlock game RuinCrawl for a bit.

Now, the neglected second game system will have to wait for her older brother Spacers, and the bouncing baby girl Glow before getting to eat her any of the new cake. So don't be calling until she is of age.

If you squint just right, that is Kopfy Magnus's grand-daughter Klodia Pulcher.

The Good News About T&T

I don't know what the numbers were for attendance at GenCon this year. Nor did I see any big T&T items over at the Flying Buffalo booth the times I was there, which was mostly to say to Rick Loomis and Steve Crompton. Heck, I haven't even gotten information on our own booth's sales, with only the most outdated sniff of internet sales over the last weekend at GenCon. But what I did see was various game tables with people playing T&T with a gaggle of GMs in Indy 2013.

Ken St Andre's games were getting four people to a full table when I saw them on ... err Friday and then on Saturday I think. I didn't see Sligo's "The Swynhollow Tower" on Thursday but from more than one source I heard that it was crowded and something of a hoot and holler for its players. JerryTel's Baru-Kesh scenarios were a critical rave among their attendees. I was almost worried that I was losing my touch as my first two games, one on Thursday and Friday, had three players each. Then Saturday had a full table and three folks demanded overflow places at _my_ session or nobody else. So my The Blaze of Bronze (sword and sandals) "mini-campaign" for this year number average bumped up.

To move beyond how many people were sitting down at the tables, there is something more important going on here. T&T is getting some play at GenCon, and there as always a few new players as well as the return crowd.

I'll be a little critical of my own games, and not because I am searching for compliments. My performance is getting rote. Next year I have to get some fresh energy and a new angle or two.

Robinhoo Is Here: the Early Bus To Qalidar

I sat down last night to read Peryton's (R. Christina Lea/Robin) pre-release of Qalidar: The Resistance. I can't tell you how much fun I have reading works in their not-too-rough states. Printed pages with early formatting and illustrations included, bound together in an older folder. Even having to read it with glasses because of the ink-saver was on when it printed up doesn't diminish this enjoyment. This was even more the special treat because Pery has been keeping this work close to the chest.

I paid pretty close attention to the rules section because I appreciate how others write up pretty basic concepts when it comes to our hobby. It can be a very boring and rather daunting task, so I wanted to be able to add a comment or two showing that someone besides the hordes of rules-lawyers and munchkins in future sit-down sessions had paid attention at one point in time. It's like a dude cooking for his love interest, happens once in a while.

It was also nice to see that she kept it down to six attributes. Though I try to have a certain amount of symmetry between the main die used in the game and the PC attributes, I have to admit I like six stats in a game.  The number is like the 6-sided die in my mind, a mixture of pre-D&D familiarity and geometrically common.  She uses Strength, Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Perception, and Power. Despite the system being D20, Pery moves away from crazy Gygaxisms that I noticed in the Peryton RPG. Power being both the willpower and the strength of personality (charm) of the character. There is an attribute for Perception, and it isn't based on a stat called Wisdom. Finding a use for that stat has been a sisyphean task for the D&D-heads for almost 50 years. The rationale used for perception rolls being based off a character's wisdom have been as long and convoluted as them trying to think of how Wisdom in the context of a role-playing game is useful in the first place. This little bit of "outside the red box" thinking was nice to see.

The following play mechanics were, as I stated above, D20 based so mostly my eyes glazed over as I pined for the time I could read about creatures and the setting itself. But I was able to follow along with the core concepts. The Robinhoo Knacks are still there as Scooby-snacks for the PeryRPG player. I liked the combat system that doesn't need miniatures. That is unless the GM and players really want them.

It is still a character-class RPG, which I like better than a classless game (Sorry Andre). Maybe it's the role-playing writer in me, but I find working from a pre-molded character type is a nice starting point for me as a role-player.  In alphabetical order there is  the Ascendant, the Fixer, the Karcist,  the Mystic, the Scrapper, and the Sharp. The Scrapper and the Sharp aren't too hard to explain, a "warrior" and a "marksman" familiar to most role-players. The Ascendant is like a cyborg or chemically-enhanced person. The Fixer is something in the order of a gum and hair-clip engineer/inventor. The Karcist is a techno-magus or maybe better put as a quantum-metaphysicist. I am not going to go into the Mystic here, because I think it has to be read to be truly appreciated-- needless to say, I think Pery did a keen job on this one's description.

These types start to get at how Pery is handling the very hard task of doing trans-dimensional settings in role-playing games. Early settings like this one were essentially weapon manuals with some rules for "psionics" and then the author pointed the potential GM towards the doorway to his own imagination. And then the every frequent RPGs based on this or that TV series or movie, which gets dated rather quickly and its merchandise quick dust-collectors awaiting that special buyer on E-Bay.

Though I like to say, loudly and in public as often as I can, where some trademark creatures of my own games have slipped into Pery's games, I am playing. When two fantasist writers get married this sort of germination happens as well as the sharing of germs. A couple of my critter ideas of mine have indeed crept into this work. She has taken the concepts, as well as the paid-for yet unused artwork, and reworked them into something that  works for her work. Ironically, only one that I came up with directly for Qalidar made its way there. And that one was more of a parody of typical Dr. Who villains in the later series than anything else. Still when you see sewer monkeys and variations of Pyramid-heads, my heart swells with pride.

One of the Pics from the original

Finally getting to the setting, I became fascinated by the new Qalidar setting. Now the gorgon sisters play a prominent role as well as the thirteen moon zodiac. These points growing from the Medusa's Path of the Spiral in the original Qalidar write up. Still working my head around the Outside and Stormport, as a GM. The addition of the Synarchy is new, and I am hoping for a few more developments if insidious in their manner and approach. Peryton even went as far to put up an introduction scenario in the back. But she left out my favorite part of the adventure, as part of the playtest group we all shared a much beloved and cherished Aunt Betty.

Well this isn't the finished product. I wonder if a Kickstarter is needed to get Aunt Betty where she belongs?

Wobble: Planets of the Apes

Mahnkee-

Bipedal simians like ourselves but with apes-like features. They come from a universe where furry bipeds evolved into what humans became in our own. They seem to be very comfortable with technology of the 20th - 21st century just like us. They also speak the same languages as we do. The history and nations referenced in conversations with this species though are completely unknown to us. "Racial" tensions arise between the more distinctive forms of them (the Rillas, the Chimps, and the Tangs), but like us they are moving beyond them towards a highly functioning global community.

Wobble: MY Pyramid-Heads

The Pyramid-Heads-

As close as anybody wants to get.

Genetically-engineered warriors that were up for sale as cannon fodder to the highest bidder, or bidders. It was not uncommon for pyramid-heads to wage war upon upon other pyramid-heads for the interests of others. The injustice fell short of their notice. In their make-up coding they are not all that bright. But, like all living things, the survivors did learn. So things changed.

It was this learning that enabled the luckiest and toughest of them to grow wise enough to rebel against their designers and retailers. The leaders of the rebellions seized the cloning machines and the designs for themselves. They also went about making their former makers and buyers as close to being extinct as possible. Genocide is a word so casually thrown about these days, but Pyramid-heads use it with a trans-dimensional meaning that surpasses our usage.

These rebellious leaders would split into different clans, sometimes nations. Most tend to offer their services as mercenary forces. As individuals, pyramid-heads are not noted for their empathy towards others. They have a reputation for brutality if not downright cruelty.

Pyramid-heads were designed for adaptability and working in varying physical environments so there is a long list of area-specific mutations. But as they are cloned they are from one basic design. This has not doomed them as an inter-dimensional species. They seem to be thriving. Though not designed originally for brilliance or genius, nothing but cannon fire is holding them back. Various factions of note have more than capable leaders. More than a few have become marauder pirates of various dimensions, to varying degrees of success.

Stepping Up But Not On the TACK

Well the first game system for TACK is out. Crawlspace 13 was released on the first mostly for the folks planning on playing in horror events at GenCon and Carnage this year. I am trying not to think any more settings at this time for the Action Card system, because I have to get some my dice based games out before GenCon. But Wobble and Powder-Punk may very well end up with their own deck of cards, figuratively folks, one day.

Response has been awesome and I thank everyone buying a copy so far. I might be able to afford a new set of work boots for my day job before GenCon without working OT. Mind you, my uniforms wouldn't be so ratty and threadbare if I weren't paying for Crawlspace 13 all spring already.

There are various bits and pieces coming together that may just lead to a series of horror scenarios in the upcoming year. I have mostly complete notes for "The Monolith's Keeper" and "Cigarette" from the Dark Gathering last May. David Crowell's "Beer Run" should be on the stove. And of course Mike Larsen has had a couple ideas sketched out and waiting since 2010, maybe before. "The New Girl Is Such A Witch" is a Larsen title that comes to mind.

Do me a favor friends, hold me to getting out these scenarios. To speak for myself, this game system is going to be the foundation for some awesome horror tales to come. I am freed of a lot of self-imposed preconceptions of how to write for the horror genre in role-playing. I can change tone with the session, and play to group of repeat players. I am dying to see where the meta-campaign goes.