Ravnica Allegiance Simic Standard Deck First Draft

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


Last week I wrote a post about cards I was thinking of putting in a new standard deck for the upcoming Standard Showdown season. Which I believe is kicking off this coming weekend.

So it was about time I came up with a first build of the deck. That’s where the decked app comes in handy. It keeps track of the number of cards, mana curve etc.

Before giving you the deck listing, the stats and boring you with talk of it’s tactics, here is my boiler plate disclaimer.

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

Tactics

So the deck wants to ramp, get lots of land out early. To do that I have Llanowar Elves, Open the Gates and Growth Spiral. The more mana I can get out the better for this deck. Or that’s the plan.

There are three cards that love having lots of mana available in the deck. The first is Hydroid Krasis. The bigger I can make that X when casting the better. Not just from being a big thing to swing in with on the battlefield. But the life gain and card draw is half (rounded down) of that value of X.

The other two are mana sinks. Which if I have multiple copies of Wilderness Reclamation are going to be abused a lot in the end step.

The first of these mana sinks is Biogenic Ooze. Before it’s end step ability kicks in, the end step ability of Wilderness Reclamation needs to fire off. For illustration of how this can be abused, let’s assume there are six lands out, two Wilderness Reclamation’s along with a Biogenic Ooze. On this turn I’ve not cast anything. So there is six untapped lands. Start of the end step the Ooze trigger goes on the stack followed by the two reclamation triggers. In response to the first reclamation trigger I tap all six lands. So I now have six mana in the pool. The first trigger resolves untapping the lands. Then in response to the second reclamation trigger I once again tap all the lands and add six more mana to the pool, which is now sitting at twelve mana. The lands untap. I can now decide to tap the lands again, or leave them untapped to cast any counter spell during the opponents turn. For this illustration I’m going to tap the lands again now in response to the Ooze trigger, taking me to eighteen mana in the pool. Still in response to this trigger I now add four 2/2 Ooze tokens to the battlefield. The trigger now resolves making these new tokens 3/3 and puts addition +1/+1 counters on any other oozes on the battlefield.

If the other mana sink Simic Ascendancy is out this little shenanigans above adds five +1/+1 counters plus on to that. Plus a similar abuse of multiple Wilderness Reclamation’s can be done on that instead. Also if I had kept the mana open and not used it on my opponents turn. During their end step I can spend it on Ascendancy’s activated ability.

Both these mana sinks force the opponent to do something about them. If they are left to do their thing as you can see things could potentially get out of hand.

But the key card for me in this deck has to be Wilderness Reclamation. I really love the card. Why decide whether to cast a creature on your turn or hold off and use a counter spell or some other trick on your opponents turn? This let’s you do both. Plus as you can see how it can be used to abuse paid abilities.

The Decked App stats

Ok here is the bit you really want to see the actual cards in the deck. Let me know what you think, or how would you change it?

I’m not sure over the land base for the deck. It may be too slow. I’ll have to see how the Memorials go. Flipping them to basics may help.

Creatures:17

4 Llanowar Elves
2 Hydroid Krasis
3 Wall of Lost Thoughts
2 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
2 Biogenic Ooze
2 Carnage Tyrant

Spells:21

2 Open the Gates
2 Applied Biomancy
2 Blink of an Eye
3 Essence Capture
3 Growth Spiral
2 Simic Ascendancy
3 Thought Collapse
3 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Vivien Reid

Lands:22

2 Breeding Pool
6 Forest
1 Hinterland Harbor
5 Island
1 Memorial to Genius
2 Memorial to Unity
4 Simic Guildgate
1 Woodland Stream

Sideboard:15

1 Hydroid Krasis
1 Steel Leaf Champion
3 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Biogenic Ooze
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Open the Gates
1 Blink of an Eye
1 Essence Capture
1 Simic Ascendancy
2 Slimebind
1 Thought Collapse
1 Wilderness Reclamation

Planning the Campaign

D&D, netrunner, RPG


Welcome to the next post in my series looking into planning campaigns and adventures for a role playing game. In particular I’m getting ready to start planning adventures for a party of adventurers in the Android universe for the FFG Genesys system.

I briefly mentioned in a previous post that FFG don’t publish scenarios/campaigns for their Genesys system outside of the initial taster scenario they put up on their website for each source book.

So if I want to run a one shot or campaign using the Genesys system then it’s all on me to come up with the everything (if I’m not using one of the available source books). This is a big thing for a noob GM like me, who has still to run a session.

Luckily as I’ve already established a lot of the work for me will have been done by FFG when they publish the source book for the Android universe. What is left for me to do is to come up with the campaign.

I keep bandying the term campaign around but what exactly is a campaign? The D&D Dungeon Masters Guide defines a campaign as:

“…When strung together, these adventures form an ongoing campaign. A D&D campaign can include dozens of adventures and last for months or years.”

It also gives the following advice in the opening of the campaign chapter.

“The world you create is the stage for the adventures you set in it. You don’t have to give more thought to it than that. You can run adventures in an episodic format,with the characters as the only common element, and also weave themes throughout those adventures to build a greater saga of the characters’ achievements in the world.

Planning an entire campaign might seem like a daunting task, but you don’t have to plot out every detail right from the start. You can start with the basics, running a few adventures, and think about larger plotlines you want to explore as the campaign progresses. You’re free to add as much or as little detail a you wish.

The start of a campaign resembles the start of an adventure. You want to jump quickly into the action,how the players that adventure awaits, and grab their attention right away. Give the players enough information to make them want to come back week after week to see how the story plays out.”

A lot of the campaign chapter is about planning the details of the world that the adventurers will be spending their time in. Which is kind of not relevant to this discussion and my current planning. Although once the Android source book is out the majority if not all of that has been dealt with.

With the definition that I have of a campaign what tools can I use from the comic book world to help with the planning of my campaign? I think that I can. If we treat adventures as an issue of a comic book. A campaign can be seen as similar to an ongoing series, miniseries, or maxiseries depending on how long you want the campaign to run for.

The miniseries and maxiseries have a definite end, whilst naturally the ongoing series just keeps going.

With a campaign length in mind I need to look at story arcs.

O’Neil defines a story arc as “...a story that takes several issues to tell.” Which in our context could be rewritten as “a story that takes several adventures to tell.”

How do story arcs map to the length of a campaign?

If the campaign is one of the finite lengths (miniseries and maxiseries) then the story arc would cover the length of the campaign. For instance a miniseries length campaign being the shorter of the two would most likely have just the single story arc. Whilst the longer maxiseries may have multiple story arcs. Naturally the ongoing campaign will have multiple story arcs, potentially interspersed with single one off adventures. Which may or may not be set ups for future story arcs!

When working with story arcs O’Neil gives the following bits of advice:

  • ‘…reintroduce characters and locales if they haven’t appeared for a few issues when doing an arc…” Pretty good advice. Players may have forgotten, not made notes, whatever the reason, if a character/locale hasn’t appeared for a session/adventure or two, a brief description or role play to remind them won’t hurt.
  • A rule from his miniseries section that is relevant to what I’m doing here (planning a story arc for a RPG) is “There must be a major change, development, or reverse in every issue. This is just another version of the ‘keep-the-story-moving’ dictum. Something important must happen in every issue of the series. Each must have at least one turning point or surprise. And in each, the hero must either accomplish or learn something.”
  • “Each issue should end on a reason for the reader to continue buying the series” or in our terms, give your players a reason to keep coming back. O’Neil suggests good old fashioned cliff-hangers (those 1930’s serials were experts at this) or something a bit more subtle.
  • “…incorporate a brief summary of what’s gone before.” A good GM does this at the start of each session naturally. Edmund does it on the Facebook event and at the start of the each session.

The first and least sophisticated is as O’Neil calls it the One-Damn-Thing-After-Another. It’s based on one of those 1930’s serials like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers or King of the Rocketmen to name a handful.

O’Neil actually looks at this in the story structure section, but I think it applies also to the more macro campaign level also. This is just a series of encounters with an antagonist (who will somehow evade capture, or get free for the next encounter). At the macro level we are currently looking at this structure is best suited to the shorter campaign length. As an ongoing campaign it would soon get boring and repetitive.

Then O’Neil introduces The Levitz Paradigm. Which looks great for an ongoing campaign. In the words of the Paul Levitz himself this is…

“a plotting tool I used in the Legion’s heyday to keep track of the many fluid plots and subplots.  The physical ‘device’ is pretty simple, and the theory is one that was rapidly evolving in super hero comics in the ‘80s but which has deep roots in soap opera.”

I’m just going to save my fingers and quote from the man himself off his post. It’s not the most detailed explanation but google and O’Neil can cover the details in more depth for us.

“If the ‘paradigm’ was anything beyond a charting tool, it was a few (sometimes ignored by me, sadly) guidelines:”

“start your secondary plots low and raise them slowly (maybe as a C or D plot before it gets to be a B, much less an A).
every time you visit a plotline, it needs to progress in that visit (if it’s boy meets sheep, one of them should end the scene in an emotional moment, for example).
vary the number of beats before you escalate to an A.

And all of this is, of course, secondary to basic plotting rules like making stakes important to the characters, and flowing plots from the characters themselves.  Or one that I’ve grown fonder of in my recent years of teaching, that what reveals/defines character is choices, particularly choices with costs.”

Within the context of planning a campaign subplots are our means to “set up or introduce the main plot.” So during an adventure an npc may give a bit of information that is relevant later to a future adventure.

I do like the idea of nicking the subplot use from comic books of using them also to expand the world the characters are in, and make the npc’s more three dimensional by showing snippets of their lives. Which could at a later point turn into a story arc that the players get involved in.

O’Neil asks us to remember “Subplots are plots. They must advance toward a resolution, or at least the illusion of a resolution.”

So now I have some tools for planning a campaign from the comic book world. But could I also learn from the video game industry and how they create games like Skyrim or Zelda Breathe of the Wild? Is there cross over with what I have talked about here? This is an area I need to research. In the meantime the next part in this series will be at the adventure level, and planning an adventure.

FFG Fumble the Keyforge OP Again

keyforge

I’ve never really been that impressed with FFG and their organised play(OP) kits. Or to be fair with FFG the ones I saw from my brief time taking part in my FLGS Android Netrunner events. The make up of the Star Wars: Destiny OP kits was just as disappointing.

But what was I comparing them too? Ok WotC have had a long time to get the whole OP thing sorted and running like a well oiled machine. Although they do have the odd bump now and then in what they do. However being a MtG player this is my main point of reference for how OP should be done.

Unlike MtG OP it’s a bit harder for FFG to come up with the prize support for Keyforge. The unique decks in this situation is more a hinderance than an advantage. The one thing I do find that FFG keep doing is not providing enough prize support in their kits. Stores often having to break open more than one kit for popular events. Plus they charge for their kits.

FFG recently announced their next wave of OP for Keyforge, and revealed finally what the aember shards are to be used for within the Master Vault app that you accumulate from registering decks and taking part in OP.

To start off with there will be a prize wall at some Keyforge events. I’m assuming these will be their own events held at cons and their hq. Plus certain stores will be authorised to have them as well.

The actual initial prizes on the wall are to say the least underwhelming. The only one I’d really want from that wall would be the premium key set. And you’d want two sets to play with for when playing with friends.

The upgraded tokens like those little plastic ones for damage, has always been an issue for me. They will give you five as the prize. I don’t see the point of such a low number. There should be enough to play with. Having to play with a mixture is annoying.

Plus those alt art cardboard tokens, they are at best participation prizes that get handed out for taking part in the event. If they are going to be part of the prize wall, for your aember shards you spend on them, at least you should be getting multiple copies (at least five).

And why? Oh why? Isn’t this glossary card in every Keyforge deck you buy?


Put the turn structure on the other side, and you have the perfect player aid. This could at least have been in the starter set decks. The thing is, it wouldn’t have added anything to the final cost of a deck. Fractions of a penny or for any American readers cent. Look this is what players get in the Welcome decks aimed at beginners from WotC.

WotC give us two cards, with the fourth face used as an advert for a MtG related product. FFG could do the same on the fourth face (if they splashed out and used two cards), advertise the Master Vault maybe. FFG you screwed up here.

What they have been very cunning about is not sharing how much aember shards each prize will require. You can bet that the premium key set won’t be cheap to get. So it looks like they are avoiding any potential uproar until nearer the time.

For me who doesn’t have a LGS that runs Keyforge events I’m screwed. Asmodee UK will respond to any queries about OP kits with stores only, and pointing you to your nearest stores. Apparently they don’t think you know your local area. They also don’t respond when you point out that one store is actually much longer than 40 minutes away (as estimated by Google, but actually over an hour), takes the Friendly out of FLGS, and not a pleasant environment to say the least. Also that response assumes your FLGS is running events and even selling Keyforge. You can be assured I,pointed out my FLGS does neither.

I am not alone in this predicament. So why isn’t there an option to redeem your aember shards through the Master Vault and have your rewards posted to you?

For me FFG still don’t get OP kits, and have a lot of room to improve.

I don’t want to be all negative in this post. FFG should be given some credit for their companion app The Master Vault, and the functionality they are adding to it. It really is starting to become a nice feature of the game. Being able to track your decks casual play stats, OP stats and add notes is a really nice.

I also like their marketing fluff state of the game YouTube videos. There have been two so far. They talk OP, the Master Vault and rules questions. Ideally they would be more regular. And they aren’t completely cringe worthy to watch.

What do you think of the new OP announcement? Happy with it?

Planning a Simic Deck for Standard Showdown

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I bet you are a bit tired with my current fixation with the Android universe, the Genesys RPG system and my untested theories about creating campaigns for a RPG.

The posting of cute attack chihuahua pictures may not be enough for you. Maybe you want a return to discussing MtG or even gaming reports.

So who am I to disappoint. Well ok I give you that, I do disappoint often. But not today, depending on your point of view.

In this post I’m going to look at my plans for my next deck for Standard Showdown and then finish off with a brief reveal of a possible update to the standard mill deck I built.

For this new deck I’m going Simic aka blue/green. So I have access to big stompy creatures, ramp, and the usual annoying blue control shenanigans.

Let’s look at some of the creatures I want to put into the deck.

Is it even conceivable to run green without Llanowar Elves? With it out early I’m casting bigger stuff ahead of curve. Which is why Steel Leaf Champion is in. Get that dream opening hand, and turn three I’m swinging in for 5 damage.

Hydroid Krasis is a card that can come out early if need be. But ideally this is the late game finisher. Pumping lots of mana into it so it comes in big, plus that when cast trigger tops up life and draws cards.

Wall of Lost Thoughts I like as a cheap blocker, buys some time to get pieces into place. In fact I also like it as an addition to the mono blue mill deck because of it’s etb of getting my opponent to put the top four of their library into their graveyard. And even though this deck isn’t a mill deck, it doesn’t hurt as a benefit. Might give my opponent the wrong idea about the deck.

Zegana, Utopian Speaker I like as a four drop. Especially considering I can Adapt 4 her and make her an 8/8. I only have one of her at the moment. A second and third wouldn’t go amiss.

Carnage Tyrant had to be in this deck. It’s the poster child for green in the current standard. Plus imagine how sick it will be with the odd +1/+1 counter on it.

Open the Gates is part of the ramp suite for the deck. This allows me to go get that key land early on. Plus that all important shuffle of the library.

Blink of an Eye cheap early removal, buys me a turn from a threat. With the ability to kick it and draw a card.

Ok Essence Capture is creatures only. But still a cheap counter spell that also puts a counter on one of my creatures. I like that.

Another piece in the ramp suite is Growth Spiral. Card draw, and being able to put out an extra land on the turn. I love it.

Thought Collapse same cost as the no longer legal Disallow. Sadly it doesn’t counter triggered abilities. But it does mill three cards. So not only a good counter spell for this deck, but also the mill deck.

Now Wilderness Reclamation is the reason why I’ve not gone with more creatures that tap for mana in the deck. I love love this card.

Vivien Reid is another card I like, and I need at least one more copy really for this deck and my golgari deck. Such a great utility card.

Simic Guildgate, comes in tapped. But on a budget I’ll take it. Plus I can fetch it with Open the Gates.

Biogenic Ooze I think has a lot of potential to be a game winner. With a possibility to abuse that activated ability with two or more Wilderness Reclamation’s out in that end step.

Applied Biomancy I like a lot. Bounce and a counter. Yeah I’ll take that. Especially with the next card out.

Simic Ascendancy. Pump up your creatures with its activated ability. Which I’ve already shown could be abused in the end step. But whether I’m abusing it’s activated ability and triggering its other ability. Or just triggering its ability another way. This is an alternative win condition for me.

Slimebind, just great cheap defanging a threat on the board.

Breeding Pool I’d love a playset of. But reality of finances means I will play with two copies.

Saruli Caretaker might make it as a sideboard creature. Nice card.

Shimmer of Possibility. Cheap. Find that card hopefully that you want, without revealing it. Yeah like it.

I didn’t pull any Mass Manipulation but I’m considering a copy in the sideboard.

Sagittar’s Volley, I kind a like. It’s removal against flying, and gets rid of the weenie flyers. Most likely a sideboard card.

The final card Persistent Petitioners not only has me wanting to rebuild the mill deck round this card. But I’m thinking maybe a Commander deck also might be fun.

I still need to work out exact number of copies for cards. Although finances do restrict one or two of the cards. But as first thoughts on the deck go, I’m pretty happy with it. Just need to see how it does in the real world against real decks.

UPDATE: Oops forgot to add in this little gem.

It’s got to be in the sideboard. Somehow!

Loki – master tactician

Uncategorized

I don’t often just do a totally unrelated board gaming post. But from time to time I think it’s worth sharing the odd photo of the two little horrors I share the house with.

Loki is such a loving, caring little fellow. When I shared this on social media moments ago, I claimed he was guarding the remains of a postman. The spoils of war. But in reality and removing my over imagination it’s the remains of a hotdog.

The thing is that little bit of mystery meat will be at the centre of an epic mental tug of war, between Loki and Nico. The slightest sign of weakness and the prize will swap ownership.

A battle of wits that would be similar to the one below a few days ago over the remains of a chew.


That previous battle, Loki broke concentration and lost the chew to Nico.

This time once again he is starting off with the upper hand. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. But can he maintain the focus?

The Paranoia Version Of How To Plan An Adventure

D&D, RPG

In yesterday’s post before going into the dramatic ramblings about the latest D&D session I promised to use the first half looking at how to plan campaigns and adventures. Or more to the point the process I will use that will involve a few sources out side of RPGs that I think are relevant and I can borrow from.

One of the things that got me thinking that these were valid sources of information was the Creating Adventures Quickly chapter in the 2017 update of the classic Paranoia RPG Gamesmasters Handbook. On an aside I think this is definitely a chapter that James Wallis (one of the authors of the update) wrote, after all this is a subject he knows an awful lot about.

It started off making the following promise that they would present a

“simple system for throwing a small pile of ideas into a coherent narrative that will entertain a bunch of people for three hours as long as there’s pizza.”

Quite a promise. Ok we haven’t got round to pizza at our sessions. But there are lots of sweets, and sometimes due to the start time one or two are finishing off a KFC or McDonalds. But back on track, simple is always good.

“All stories break down into a number of elements. Books have chapters, plays have acts and scenes. That’s all we’re doing here: taking the underlying framework of an adventure – the metastructure – and filling in the blanks. But to fill in blanks you need a blank framework to fill in.”

Ok they hooked me in. Started to relate the planning to something I might be familiar with. For this system all we need is a blank piece of paper, a pen or pencil and our imagination.

The start of this simple system they present is coming up with a theme for the adventure.

“What’s the big idea? What’s the adventure about? Write one line here. Ignore what your English Literature teacher told you: theme doesn’t have to be about big feels and personal growth, it’s just the layer of fertilizer that lets everything else in the story grow.”

This next little bit seems almost brainstorming like.

“Write your theme at the top of the paper. Underneath it, write down the first three things that occur to you as a result.”

Now they move onto the meat of the simple framework.

“You’ve probably heard of the Three Act Structure that is supposed to underlie all movies. We’re going to nick it.”

Oh ok I’ve heard of that structure, and one or two more (which when we start to look at story structure in a later post we will cover). It was this sentence that got me convinced about using external sources to help me with the planning.

“The three acts are: 1. Setup; 2. Confrontation; 3. Resolution. Each act has a job: Act 1 establishes the status quo, gives the central characters a problem or danger … The core of Act 2 is rising tension. Act 3 is discovering what’s really going on, thinking you’ve fixed it, realising you’ve screwed things up completely, really fixing it…

In proper screenwriting something important should happen at the moment Act 1 transitions into Act 2 and the moment 2 becomes 3. These are the Act Breaks. However, we are not writing a screenplay.”

That is a good basic and brief breakdown of the three act structure. There are books aimed at writers that look at this in much more depth. And for shadowing once more a future post, so will we.

So in this simple system they have us do the following.

“Divide your paper into three columns. Number them. At the top of each one write three things that happen in that act, either a key moment (‘find the grubby slippers’), a set-piece (‘big fight with the warbot’), or important information to be discovered (‘learn about Gehenna Incident’).

For an experienced GM that’s enough and the rest can be laid at the door of Make Some Shit Up. The rest of us may need a bit more hand-holding, a bit more detail in the metastucture.”

After that they apply the typical structure of a Paranoia adventure to the three acts. Which is for my purposes of little interest (until I finally decide to run a Paranoia one shot of my own design).

However this seems like a great simple brainstorming system. Applying a framework such as the three acts helps organise those thoughts. But it also could help generate ideas by providing a prompt or focus.

Naturally after this brainstorming/planning there will be more prep involved for us inexperienced GMs. But I’ll save that for a future post, I’m sure we will cover it at a natural point in this series of posts.

Dram the destroyer of goblins

D&D, RPG


In this first part of the post and it will be a running theme for the next few posts, I want to look at planning campaigns and adventures.

I’m not a GM, I don’t have tonnes of experience. But once the Android source book drops for Genesys I want to run a campaign in that universe.

Which as you have seen in some recent posts I’m getting together source material and inspiration to use in creating my own campaign and adventures in that world.

To help me in this mammoth task, I’m calling on not just information from within the field of RPG’s but also from comic book writing. Which in-turn makes use of the cinematic/tv world.

To me there are a few similarities between writing a comic book and a RPG campaign. Both are episodic, and usually have an over arching story that ties everything together. So the tools for one should be usable in the other. And we will see how that goes and if it holds true as I develop my campaign, and adventures.

Below are a few of the sources I will be calling upon for this series, and my journey in creating my campaign.

So now you know the direction this section of the post will be taking over the next few weeks. Although as I write this, it may spin out into it’s own dedicated posts as well. We will see how the mood takes me.

And now the moment you have all been waiting for, the dramatic retelling of the latest adventures of Dram, halfling wizard.

As the blood of the recently departed hobgoblins was pooling on the ground next to the corpses. A discussion was being held by the group as to what to do next.

Dram needed to recharge and recover from the stress and strains of casting all these big spells. But Grull, Ace and the gnome decided that they would compete in some foolish demonstration of strength by trying to throw the remaining three hobgoblin corpses into the pit.

Out of the three taking part, the smart money would have been placed on Grull winning this. What chance would an elf and gnome have against the hulking brute of muscle that was Grull? But what can only be described as a shock result, Ace won. Grull slipped and fumbled trying to toss his corpse (yes that could be a halfling euphemism). The gnome was more of a drag the corpse into the hole. Ace picked his limp hobgoblin corpse up, and threw it through the air and into the hole as if he was throwing a bag of spuds.

With the hole now full with hobgoblin corpses, the three competitors decided they’d set the pile of bodies on fire. With the aid of Nick and a fire bolt spell they finally got the burning pile of hobgoblin flesh they wanted.

Dram wasn’t impressed. This was wasting time and attracting attention. They really needed to be moving on and finding a safe place to rest.

They left the carnage behind them and faded into the forest. Hoping to avoid any more trouble that might be on the path they were following.

Finally the group made camp roughly a mile south of the ambush in a clearing. It was going to be a long, cold night. They couldn’t risk a fire. Wrapped in his fur and blanket, Dram drifted off into an uncomfortable slumber.

Dawn broke, breaking the darkness of an uneventful night.

The things I have to do, thought Dram as he chewed his cold breakfast of jerky.

After breaking camp they approached a castle. A castle that looked like it had seen better times, and was now in much need of some repair.

Ace went off scouting the perimeter of the castle looking for entrances, and see if he could spot anyone inside.

After a few minutes Ace returned and retold what he had saw and heard. There was a man and women arguing inside. Plus he had found a couple of entrances.

In hush tones the group discussed how they were going to get inside.

Eventually after much indecision they started to stealthily edge their way round through the trees to an iron door. Sadly Nick and the gnome were what can only be described as clumsy and loud. A travelling troupe of entertainers could have been more discrete.

While observing the iron door, and once again trying to formulate a plan. Ace crept up to check the door out. He heard voices the other side. That blood thirsty gnome wanted to rush in the front door and fight whatever came out.

Suddenly the iron door opened a fraction. Something peeked out. Closed the door, and the noise of bolts falling into place could be heard.

Through the front doors it was then.

Nick turned into horse and trotted up through the front doors of the castle, whilst the rest of the party from the cover of the trees watched on. Dram used his staff to cast Mage Armour.

Two goblins appeared and tried to capture Nick. I suppose fresh meat is in short supply in these parts. Horse is good as any to a goblin, thought Dram.

During the goblins failed attempts to capture Nick they spot Dram. Luckily Grull and Ace were quick off the mark. Ace kills one with an arrow, while Grull dashes forward and throws his javelin into the other killing it.

Using Grull as cover Dram ran up and stood behind Grull. But as he stood there he caught a shadow moving to his left. Dram cast magic missile at it. The shadow disappeared.

Ace and Grull enter the castle where Nick is. As the rest of the party join them, Ace is listening at a door. He hears voices the other side.

After much mumbling amongst themselves a plan is formulated to lure the occupants of the room out and ambush them.

Grull, Ace and Dram hide in a small side room, while the others went to hide in a similar room the opposite of the hallway. Except the gnome. He decided he was going to hide nearer the door. But he didn’t. The gnome set off a trap that collapsed the roof where he was, blocking that section of the hallway off.

Luckily for the gnome he managed to drag himself out from under the rubble before a goblin rushes out of the room they’d heard the voices in. Grull, Ace and Dram go unnoticed as it rushed passed them. Sadly the second goblin was not as lucky, as Grull kills it instantly with his axe, and then rushes into the vacated room. The luck of the first goblin didn’t last as Ace put an arrow in it’s back, killing it.

Dram followed after Grull into the room. Inside Grull was staring down a goblin. Dram tried unsuccessfully to cast a charm spell on it. But Grull was doing a pretty good job of intimidating it. So Dram worked his way down a passage way behind them and peaked round a corner.

In a hall that was obviously used for meals, were about six more goblins as far as Dram could count in the brief moment he had. Unfortunately one of the goblins noticed him. Dram cast darkness on them. And went back to Grull to warn him.

In a half hearted effort Grull managed to dislodge some of the passage roof, creating only a partial blockage.

Out of the darkness and over the top of the rubble a goblin appears and swings at Dram. But the goblin misses. It was the only chance it would get. In response Dram kills it with a magic missile, and uses a final one to bring the rest of the roof down. This time the passage was fully blocked with a small gap at the top.

Grull runs out of the room to go help the others, leaving Dram in the room with the goblin. This was enough to give the goblin a little bit of courage, and fancy it’s chances with Dram. The goblin throws its scimitar at Dram but misses.

Ace rushes in and grabs the goblin by the throat before Dram can react. Dangling by it’s throat Ace starts to interrogate the goblin.

During this interrogation Grull enters the room, and expresses his disappointment in the goblin to the goblin.

In the meantime Dram formulated a cunning plan. He got Grull to lift him up so,he could see through the gap at the top of the blockage. Dram then cast burning hands. Flames shot from his finger tips into the darkness of the hall. They could hear screams from the room. Dram repeated the spell. It was followed by more screams, then silence.

Grull was impressed by this magic. And started formulating plans about using in future encounters.

After extracting some information from the goblin, apparently there is an owl bear in the castle. Ace killed it.

Dram joined the others in the hall way. Scattered on the floor were the bodies of some hobgoblins. It looked like the others had been having their own fun. Why hadn’t they waited for him? Now his companions were looting the dead. Such scavengers,

With all that casting of spells, Dram was in much need of a rest. Would the others agree?

And we leave our adventurers there until the next instalment.

Getting in the mood for the Android Universe

netrunner, RPG

By now I think I’ve established that I’m a fan of the Android universe, and cyberpunk in general.

This post is nothing but notes for myself to remind me of films and tv shows that are in the cyberpunk genre, or touch relevant themes, that I want to rewatch.

One or two of the movies will have been I’m sure a major influence on the Android Universe.

I’m not claiming these are the best examples of the genre, they are ones I’ve seen (apart from Alita Battle Angel – which isn’t out yet, but I love the manga and really looking forward to this) and enjoyed.

There is even a troll poster amongst them, because I meant to put the original in not the remake.

Which movies would you recommend to add to this list?

Android Story Ideas Part 1

RPG

During the past week I joined a Facebook group for running Genesys Android Universe Games.

I was hoping that there might be illicit copies of the two part scenario that FFG ran at GenCon and Pax Unplugged showcasing the Android Universe and the upcoming source book.

Alas I was disappointed.

If I have one complaint about the Genesys system, particularly once they have released a source book is the lack of scenarios.

I understand why there are none for the actually Genesys Core Rulebook. After all it’s a generic rule set. The intention is that using the generic rules you go off and build worlds and run your campaigns in those.

However when they release source books for Terrinoth (their fantasy setting) or the upcoming Android Universe (their cyberpunk setting) they put out a “taster” scenario on the website as a pdf (I’m making the assumption FFG will put up the two part scenario they have been using), and that’s it.

It almost seems like bare minimal support for the systems compared to the likes of WotC and D&D.

Are FFG caught in a chicken and egg situation? More people would use the system if there were more readily available campaigns/scenarios. But FFG need more people playing before they produce more campaigns/scenarios. A vicious circle.

I’m not even going to mention about GM screens, or range of miniatures. Ok the Terrinoth one is easier to do, re-use D&D/fantasy stuff or use models from Descent. But Android? It’s much harder to find cyberpunk miniatures. However there are some out there.

Anyway back to the Facebook group I joined. I came across the following post:


Genius and so obvious!

So I decided to look at the other none lcg Android games to see if their premise would potentially make a good setting for a scenario/campaign in the Android Universe.

The most potential in my opinion out of the remaining games was…

Android the Board Game

“In the futuristic city of New Angeles, five detectives are investigating a vital murder case. They are:

• Caprice Nisei, Psychic Clone

• Floyd 2X3A7C, Doubting Bioroid

• Louis Blaine, Corrupt Cop

• Rachel Beckmann, Estranged Bounty Hunter

• Raymond Flint, Troubled P.I.

In Android, three to five players each take on the role of one of these detectives, and are given two weeks to solve the case. They investigate the murder by traveling around the map and following up leads to discover evidence that they can use to convict the suspect who they believe is guilty. In addition, they attempt to uncover the conspiracy behind the murder and deal with problems that spring up in their personal lives.”

This gives you a party structure for the campaign (I probably wouldn’t use the characters, just the roles), plus if you have a copy of the game, or can get one there are cards etc within the game that can be used for ideas for the victim, suspects etc.

Mainframe

The abstract game Mainframe is all about hacking/running during a particular event in the Android universe. The implications were explored in the card game in the Flash Point cycle.

“For twenty-three seconds, the world’s largest bank and backer of the world’s most important currency goes dark. Trillions of credits are lost, stolen, or simply erased. Each corp blames the others. Economies, industries, lives collapse. And that’s just the beginning.”

Until the source book becomes available, with I’m assuming it’s enhanced hacking/running rules, I’m not sure how viable a scenario of a group of runners hacking a server is. So the twenty-three seconds event may or may not be a viable setting.

However the Flash Point cycle could make a great back drop to a campaign. I’d like the flavour sheets from the data packs for this to help flesh it out. But also the FFG webpages for the data cycle could help out on this front.

New Angeles

This is too high level. “New Angeles is a political game in which four to six players assume the roles of the megacorporations of the Android universe. The players cut deals and forge temporary alliances to gain leverage and financial superiority over their corporate rivals, all while trying to maintain order and profitability in their home city of New Angeles.”

I think the only take away from this game is you could have the players part of a corporate team going on missions to protect and advance their employers.

One thing all these games have in their rule books is a nice introductory bit of flavour text that can be read to the party at the start of the scenario/campaign to help set the scene.

In the second part of this post I’ll look at the Netrunner cycles and deluxe expansions.

Ravnica Allegiance Prerelease

Game day, magic, MtG

Prerelease day starts just like any other. Wake up. Let loose the attack chihuahuas on the world. Who show their usual contempt and utter disregard for the world by emptying their bladders on the scattered remains of long departed post and waste disposal persons. Bath. Coffee and choc chip brioche, while watching tv. The mornings visual entertainment was the second season of The Punisher on Netflix.

At an appropriate stopping point in the current episode, pause, dig out my clothes and get dressed.

Count out fifteen of each land type. Find forty sleeves plus some spares. Although, either or both of these steps often get forgotten. Only later to be remembered once at The Hobbit Hole. But today I’m lucid and remember both.

Pack a small bag with dice, battery extender and cables, plus the remembered lands and sleeves. Put in a small bottle of hand sanitiser. Stuff cheese and onion sarnies into hoodie pocket. Select play mat to use for the day. I decide on the following one.

Then hit the road.

I remember to pick the cat litter for mum’s cat up on the way out of Wisbech. I don’t have to worry about finishing in time to buy it now. I mentally give myself a pat on the back for that. It removes a source of stress and distraction while playing later on.

The drive from Wisbech to Chatteris is uneventful. I arrive in good time. I see friends already there and say hello. Money exchanges hand between myself and the store.

While waiting I mingle and chat with my friends.

So far the morning leading up to the Prerelease is as perfect as I could want.

In the dying minutes before the official start the prerelease kit for each guild are handed out. Naturally I had already said I was having Simic.

11am we are given the go ahead to open our prerelease kits and start building our forty card decks based on the cards inside.

I like sealed events like this and the Magic League. They are great levellers for new and old players. It’s all about the luck of opening the pack, and your ability to build a deck.

My promo in the kit was Zegana, Utopian Speaker.

Looking at my cards I decide to stick with my guild and build a Simic deck for the tournament.

Round 1 – Thomas S (Rakdos or Gruul)

Despite the final result of this match up, the games were pretty close. My undoing in the second game was Mirror March. My opponent had a run of six heads before I conceded. That was six copies of the creature he’d just played (can’t remember which, it was a 2/2 or 2/3 something like that power wise). I had no way stopping that much damage swinging in and killing me.

Result: Loss 2-0

Round 2 – H (Rakdos)

This was an easy win. My opponent was a young girl newish to MtG, more intent on interacting with her none playing friend who was there, and a boy they had invited to the shop, who was turning up any second while we were playing.

It didn’t help that she kept a starting hand with high cost cards in our first game that she was unable to cast. The second game wasn’t much better for her with the added distraction already discussed.

Her deck needed work I thought. So I left her getting help from the on duty store expert, who also happened to be running the Prerelease.

Result: Win 2-0

Round 3 – Nathan Hall (not sure of guild)

This round started off well with me doing my thing and getting the win. Second game Nathan pulled it back and had a reasonably comfortable win. The deciding game I went into feeling confident. Nathan had gone down to five cards. I was going first. But still despite me having that early card advantage, I ended up losing.

Result: Loss 2-1

Round 4 – N (Azorius)

The final round saw me against the elder sister of the young girl I had beaten in round. two.

I took the first game comfortably, and lost the second game. In our decider it was in the end an easy win. Although I was made to work for it.

You could see the difference between the two sisters. This one was more into playing MtG. A lot more focused.

You won’t see this too often but I kind of felt a little guilty about my two victories. I must have been feeling ill or something.

Result: Win 2-1

Overall record 2-2

During the final round everyone was given two participation booster packs from Ravnica Allegiance.

Final position 13th out of 24

Naturally I’m not going to list all the cards from six booster packs here. It makes sense only to share with you the deck that I built.

The other nice thing about sealed events like this that I didn’t mention earlier, is that you play cards you probably wouldn’t in a constructed format.

The star card for me was wilderness reclamation. Being able to untap your lands at the end of your turn is massive. Especially with blue counter spells in your hand. I think the games I won were the ones that was out early.

I liked the Adapt mechanic. Being able to beef up a creature is nice. Plus there are cards that interact, or do something if you have creatures out with +1/+1 counters on. The only drawback for me is that you can only use Adapt once on a creature.

So here is my Simic deck that I built.

Creatures:12

1 Saruli Caretaker
2 Faerie Duelist
1 Growth-Chamber Guardian
1 Aeromunculus
2 Coral Commando
1 Gatebreaker Ram
1 Steeple Creeper
1 Sylvan Brushstrider
1 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
1 Scuttlegator

Spells:15

1 Incubation // Incongruity
1 Open the Gates
1 Stony Strength
1 Applied Biomancy
1 Essence Capture
1 Growth Spiral
2 Quench
1 Slimebind
1 Sagittars’ Volley
2 Simic Locket
1 Thought Collapse
1 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Biogenic Upgrade

Lands:13

5 Forest
1 Gateway Plaza
5 Island
2 Simic Guildgate