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Judge Dredd, rant, RPG

One of my criticisms of the Genesys RPG is the lack of official modules/adventures/scenarios for players to buy.

I appreciate that FFG made available their scenarios that they used at cons for the Terrinoth and Android books. I also appreciate that the Genesys RPG is a generic system that is intended for players to use to build their own.

But I can’t help feeling that with more support on the pick up and play front from FFG that the system might be more popular. That and cheaper dice.

I’m starting to feel that way with the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 A.D. RPG.

My counting may be out on this but there is now four short scenarios for the Judge Dredd RPG if you sign up for the publishers Patreon. One of those is the scenario the publisher uses at cons.

This is great. Don’t get me wrong. But I think they should be easier to find and promoted better.

I’m not a fan of the publishers website for Judge Dredd or the WOIN system. The design is a bit dated.

Giving them a higher visibility makes the game look better supported than it is. And to be fair I think the support is pretty good for the game.

Not everyone wants or uses Patreon. Wider availability and promotion gives the impression that the game is alive and not going away any time soon.

Yes Judge Dredd has three great campaign books available based on classic story arcs. Plus it has more in the pipeline, plus the rules for Strontium Dog and Rogue Trooper on the horizon.

Considering the appeal of the Judge Dredd licence is not only to gamers but to those outside the hobby. Having the scenarios hidden on Patreon is not helping promote the game.

Not every player wants to create their own adventures. Look how popular the campaign books are for D&D and other systems. Some want to purchase an adventure and run it.

I know there is fan stuff for both on DriveThruRPG, and both systems support and promote fan created content.

But once again not everyone is plugged into that ecosystem. I look on DriveThruRPG and Patreon as something hardcore gamers use. That casual or non gamer moving in probably doesn’t know or care about them. They look on Amazon or their FLGS shelves usually.

I’m not saying give these adventures away for free. Well except the one used at cons. But making them more easily available and easier to find would help the growth of the game.

Genesys RPG Gets A Reprieve

genesys, news, RPG

I’m not sure how well last weeks US trade show for the gaming industry GAMA was attended. But with all that’s going on in the world currently it happened.

For fans of of the Genesys, Star Wars and L5R RPGs by FFG that was a good thing.

Since the New Year those RPGs have had an uncertain future. As we moved in to 2020 the news broke that the RPG team was part of the announced redundancies within FFG. Then the end of February saw rumours leak that FFG would no longer be producing them. That their current commitments of announced products would be met and that’s it.

It looked like this was it. They had run their natural course. They were deceased RPGs. They were no more. Ok I’ll stop trying to turn this into a Python dead parrot sketch.

Then last week Asmodee (the parent company) during the GAMA trade show held a keynote.

Like all things these days there were people in the audience live blogging the keynote.

It would appear that these RPGs are not no longer. That the development of them has been moved to a new studio based in Europe called EDGE Entertainment.

The existing books (and I’m assuming ancillary products of dice, game screen, and adversary cards) will still be printed. That new books will be developed. And that they will work with existing ones. They will not be new editions (ie second editions).

This is pretty good news.

Some Twitter DM/GM Tips

D&D, RPG

Here is the post I was going to write yesterday, but got side tracked instead by a flash of inspiration for my campaign that had to be recorded so it wasn’t lost.

Over the last week or tad longer I saved one or two tips for being a DM/GM from my twitter feed. I know these tips are flagged as being for D&D but they are applicable to any system as far as I see it.

So that those pearls of wisdom from others don’t get lost I’ve put them in this post to share with the world, and make sure I have them in a safe place.

Let’s start with Tip #1…

I do use index cards. But for initiative I use the cards that come with the Essentials Kit. For secret notes I use either post-it notes or more likely the dry erase index cards I have.

I really like the dry erase index cards. I track monster stats on them during combat, can quickly hand one out with a message on, write a players condition on one and give it to a player as a reminder. Plus they are great to also use for the next tip.

Tip #2…

I don’t currently run theatre of the mind combat. It’s something I want to add to my tool box as a DM/GM. But I think I need a bit more experience and confidence as a DM/GM before I try it. But this is a great tip to tack on to the end of the first tip.

Tip #3…

I need more confidence in my sketching ability before I try this one on the fly during a session.

Tip #4…

This final tip is a two for one that wasn’t originally a tip. It started off as an image on a post about combat (which is well worth the read btw).

Examine the above photo that I “borrowed” from that post.

The first tip I’m taking from it is to use a perspex (plastic) sheet, not glass to hold up broken walk ways and add a second level to a battle map. This works for terrain or as shown above and the next tip drawn maps.

The second tip is to print out you battle maps on paper and cut them out. This will require me to experiment a little to get the size right so that the squares come out as one inch squares. But it’s a cheaper option than using 3D terrain, and quicker than drawing.

Hope you found those tips as useful as I think they will be for me.

Update on planning session 8 #2

D&D, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

Today’s post was going to be some recent tips that Sly Flourish had shared on twitter over the last couple of days and my thoughts on them.

However inspiration hit me whilst I was in bed this morning. And I just had to record those thoughts before I forgot them. So you will have to wait for those tips and my take on them until tomorrow.

I can’t remember what sparked the train of thought off. The iPad was playing a podcast and I was semi conscious at the time. Drifting in and out of various states of sleep. Not quiet asleep but not fully awake.

But it came to me to use diaries scattered around the lost Ironstar mine to fill the players in on the backstory of the Ironstar clan. A standard video game tool in games like Bioshock.

From there my mind made the connection with probably my favourite book of all time Lord of the Rings.

I could use the diary and it’s discovery just like Tolkien had to act as a warning of something bad.

If the players recognise this borrowed scene from the book or movie then this will help ramp up the tension, especially if they think that I’m following the scene exactly.

Which I might then follow suit and have the group attacked. But there will be no balrog.

I get in my inbox on a “regular” basis an email from Johnn Four Playing Tips with usually a pretty interesting GM tip. There was one recently called ‘Back Pocket Encounter Idea: Planar Rifts’. Which basically involves opening planar rifts up for the players to encounter.

And that is the idea I’m going with instead of a balrog or some other big nasty creature from the under dark. While the Ironstar dwarves were alive they opened up a 1 foot square planar rift that bought about their demise.

I think the players will also jump to conclusions when they encounter the planar shift and think they are off to Avernus. Particularly after the conversation we had at the start of the previous session. I’m happy to have that bit of misdirection. More tension.

The one thing I’m concerned about at the moment is the mine big enough? The one I plan to use (see previous session planning post) is something I think could be completed in a single session, two at most depending on duration of the session. I’m leaning now to repurposing the lost mine from the Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign that is included in the Starter Kit.

Right I’ve captured the idea. What do you think?

Monthly Meet up March 2020

Fenland Gamers, game night

With current events as they are we would have been forgiven for cancelling this months meet up.

However it still went ahead. Although our hosts were not exactly rushed off their feet and feeling the impact of said events.

Our little get together was in fact for us rather well intended with seven brave souls turning up.

Jonathan, Nathan, Gavin and I decide to dabble in the stock market while waiting for others to turn up, by playing Oink Games Startups.

Startups has been sitting in my collection for nearly a couple of years now. I bought it at UKGE 2018 if my failing memory recalls correctly. It’s been one I’ve been meaning to play during that time. Often making it into the game bag for a session but never selected. Always the bridesmaid never the bride. Until last night.

Earlier in the day I had attempted to read the rule sheet that’s included in the box. However I found the print too small for my aging eyes. So I turned to the saviour of many the Internet and Google. Which took me to the official Oink Games website and their official how to play video.

The video I thought was rather well produced. Explained the game well. And somehow puzzling lasted just short of twelve minutes. I say puzzling because the rules are not that complicated.

Startups became the second Oink game I’ve played (I have two more in the collection to get to the table).

At it’s heart Startups is a set collection and majority control game.

Each player starts with a starting hand of three cards, and ten coins (worth one point). On a players turn they either draw a card from the deck and putting a coin on each of the cards in the market. Or take a card from the market. The player then has to either place a card in front of them as part of their portfolio or put one in the market.

If a player after playing a card in front of them becomes the player with the majority of that card type they get a matching anti-monopoly token. This token stops the player from taking any cards in the market that match with it. However it also means when taking a card from the deck that the player doesn’t have to put a coin on any cards that match it either.

There is a nice bluffing element to the game with the three cards that a player has in their hand. This is hidden information and the cards count towards final totals at the end of the game. Add in the fact that five cards are removed from the deck at the start of the game. You have this unknown element of not truly knowing how many of each card type there truly is out there on the table, and if you have a majority or not.

With the anti-monopoly tokens and the market place you have a nice tactical bit going on. Knowing that certain cards can’t be taken by certain players. There is a skill of staying on the right side of staying level with whoever has the token so they keep it, and allowing yourself free range of the market place.

I won. However the scores were surprisingly close. This is a nice little filler game. I’ll definitely try and get this back to the table.

By the time we had finished playing Startups, except for one player who messaged saying they would be late, everyone had turned up.

So unsure how long we would have to wait for the final player to arrive, we played New York Slice.

This game has been on my wish list for a while. Luckily Jonathan picked up a second hand copy recently. I’d say he pipped me to it. But in reality my economic circumstances would have hindered my chances of getting it. So I was pretty happy that Jonathan got it.

The packaging (a pizza box!) fits the theme perfectly.

This is a I split you choose game, with a majority control mechanic. A simple game that works so. The splitting of the pizza is such a tough decision to make. Being the splitter you will get the last piece. So it’s trying to split the pizza so that you have something left you can use.

It’s a nice game. I knew I’d like it because I enjoyed playing Piece ‘o Cake that this is a remake of with a pizza theme.

With everyone present we split into two groups.

The group I was in we played a four player game of Spirits of the Forest. My previous play of this was as a two player game with Jonathan. As a two player game it worked really well. But wow it was fun as four players two.

I think next time this hits the table I’ll add in one or two of the mini expansions that came with it.

Our groups final game of the evening was Azul. I still really enjoy this game. I still warn new players I will end the game as quick as possible. It’d be unfair if I didn’t. The two follow up games in the series haven’t tempted me. I don’t get Azul to the table often enough as it is. Maybe if I didn’t have Azul then choosing one of the other two might be an option.

As I write this post it’s hit me that all four of these games are pretty quick to teach. Five minutes at most I’d guess. Games that are easy to pick up, but hide a some hard decision making. Not that difficult to give analysis paralysis or put new players off. But enough to keep more experienced gamers interested.

As usual this was another great evening of gaming and great hosts.

Games Played: Startups, New York Slice, Spirits of the Forest, Azul

Update on planning session 8 #1

D&D, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

While the players negotiate the date for the next session I still need to start planning. The time between now and the next session will just fly by. Before I know it I’ll be staring down the barrel of the next session with very little done.

That’s the benefit of the way of the Lazy DM. You focus on the important things that you need to run a session, whilst keeping the workload to a minimum.

It’s also why I write these planning posts. They are my notes for the next session, and sometimes ideas for future ones. Which I do refer back to while preparing my notes for the next session.

These days often my first task after a session is the post mortem (which I share with the world) followed by an update of my mind map.

Which is then followed by one of these posts capturing early thoughts about the next session.

Having justified these posts (probably for the umpteenth time) I think I should get on with my thought process.

During the players time in Mintarn and their quest for information about the Ironstar mine I kept mentioning that they were getting looks, glances from those around them. I think that was me not ready for them to take on Angrath but to have them fearful that at any moment they could be surprised by him and his pirate crew. (That bit probably could have been in the post mortem.)

The party think they managed to dodge a bullet. They went back to Mintarn and avoided Angrath. Or did they?

The party are basically camping on a beach at the moment.

So my thinking is, and I think this fits in with the ‘create a strong start’ of having a handful of pirates crash out of the undergrowth and attack the breakfasting party.

After the encounter from the beach they will notice a much larger boat near theirs. They won’t be able to get to their boat in time and make an escape. They will have to go in land.

For this over land travel and the search for the lost Ironstar mine I plan to run it based on the group challenge that was used in the D&D Beyond encounter of the Week: Detour Past Dragonspear. I will make it clear to the party that they will find the mine whether they fail or succeed. However how well they do on the challenge will determine what shape the party get there in and what happens when they find the mine.

The map I am going to use for the lost mine is from the Essentials Dragon of Icespire Peak adventure. I like the Dwarven Excavation scenario a lot for this. It looks the perfect length for our sessions. It’s designed for level 2 characters. So the threat level will have to be upped a little.

I also like the idea of using the Circle of Thunder or Dragon Barrow scenarios as potentially something the party could stumble upon to and from the lost mine. Although these would make great mini islands for the party to discover also.

So that’s my thinking at the moment. Obviously more to follow.

When last we left our heroes… #7

D&D, post mortem, RPG

Having successfully delivered the tribute to the Red Rage and a lengthy discussion about what to do next.

The party settled on hunting down a mysterious dwarven mine on the north side of the Mintarn island. Leaving Valdor heading towards the Whale Bone Islands as captive to some red robed wizards.

An unfruitful search of the northern Mintarn coastline meant the party were no closer to finding the mysterious dwarven mine.

They sailed back to Mintarn looking for information about the mysterious symbol that was on a scrap of paper that Kaibon (a dwarf wizard) had in his possession and clues to the mines location.

This excursion to Mintarn had an extra threat due to Angrath having been seen in the city.

Managing to avoid detection by Angrath or any of his agents the party managed to resupply and dig for information. Sadly the later did not prove fruitful.

Full stocked the party sailed off towards the northern side of the island once more.

We left the party of the west coast of Mintarn, making camp on a beach feasting on and preserving a giant swordfish that Khemed had caught.

Post Mortem

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.

If the last session was all combat this one was the complete opposite. There was no combat encounter at all this session.

It was also a session where I had to make it up as events unfolded.

But first here are my hand written prep notes.

Where I had planned for the party to take one of the hooks presented to them during the first encounter of the session. They surprised me in deciding to do something I hadn’t expected!

I had discounted the Lost Ironstar Mine hook. Nothing had happened with it in the early sessions. Then Jonas hadn’t done anything with it when he and Jeff had joined the group.

During the groups discussion on what they would do having delivered the tribute I had expected them to pick one of the hooks seeded to them. It was completely unexpected when Jonas bought up the Lost Ironstar Mine.

Naturally it’s safe to assume from the above I had nothing planned for this. It would mean a lot of making it up as I went along, going with the flow. But I was confident that I could handle the session and whatever cropped up.

I think that’s the strength of the Lazy DM advice, and having a DM folder that not only has session and campaign notes in. But also (on the advice of Jim Murphy) dungeon maps used and unused that I’ve collected along the way. Plus with the Lazy DM Workbook also kept with my DM folder I had ten locations that could be used at a drop of the hat if needed. One of those locations was a dwarven mine.

Having that sort of stuff to hand did give me that feeling that if they located the mine and went in I had something I could use.

I felt that the players may have felt I was stonewalling them from finding the lost mine. There was no trace of it from the sea, no coastal paths, landing areas linked to it. When the party went to Mintarn they were unable to get any information about the mine from the local dwarf community. Why did the dwarves not know anything about it? I had the dwarfs on Mintarn as blacksmiths, they weren’t miners. They got the raw materials they needed from trading. It’s a port after all. The money for them was in making weapons for the mercenaries that the city was known for providing.

Besides the Ironstar Dwarves were not native to Mintarn but from the mainland. Plus it was a secret. So I felt that the Ironstar dwarves when on Mintarn would have hidden their identity, even from other clans when they came in contact with them.

Having no combat in the session was an odd feeling.

I was very hands off in this session when it came to the big discussion on what to do, and other group discussions. It didn’t mean I wasn’t listening, making mental notes, taking a pulse of what the group was thinking and had remembered. It was a useful thing to do.

Not happy with my role playing. It’s still pretty weak. The opening encounter particularly was poor.

I tried something new with this sessions start. We didn’t pick up immediately where we left off. But jumped forward a few hours to the delivery of the tribute. I think this worked well. I didn’t see a need for having to go through the whole travel bit.

Before we started the session I asked the players about how they felt about going to Avernus at some point during the campaign. It was a bit of a red herring. I wanted to gauged whether players would be happy with the subject matter, and all that would entail. If you remember I plan to use the diabolical contracts with one of the players. And I needed to know before progressing that twist if that was acceptable to all the players.

At the end of the session we discussed the duration of a session. Was everyone happy to keep it to two hours or would they like longer? The outcome of this brief discussion was we would move to a three hour session.

It thought both of the above was important to discuss with the group. I knew that certain subjects were off the table when Jonathan was playing. But now he had left I needed to know how the group felt about stuff I wanted to introduce.

Overall the session ended up being a social encounter focussed session and resupplying. Not entirely happy for it from my side of things. But hopefully the players enjoyed the change of pace.

Update on planning session 7 #4

D&D, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

It’s that time in the run up to the session that I visit the library to print out the bits I need for the session. I dread this bit because it’s so painful using the library computers. They are sooooo slow.

Luckily I only had two or three campaign related things to print. Plus some one shot adventures for the Judge Dredd RPG, along with a couple of pages that help with traits and descriptions (that is also useful for the WOIN system), plus using a d10 instead of the d6 dice pool. Yep I’m getting a Judge Dredd (/Strontium Dog) GM folder ready. Just on the off chance I get to run a session or two. I also printed off the pages from the Genesys FAQ that give the new power level values for the adversaries from all three previously published books.

I am trying to keep the amount of printing to a minimum (due to being economically challenged). So like the previous session my session notes are hand written.

The cost is one side of being a DM/GM nobody really discusses. Printing costs, miniatures, tiles, handouts, etc all add up. Yes you can go digital. But that doesn’t work for me! Yeah I know a geek like me saying that is shocking. Instead of the dudes on a map (whether that’s tiles or a battle map of some kind) could be replaced with theatre of the mind combat. From my limited experience the dudes on a map has been more helpful and easier for the newer players to D&D in the group. It is also easier for me a DM/GM too.

I suppose the expense has been higher as a new DM/GM that doesn’t have a collection of resources to use. And that a lot of the stuff I have now is reusable.

One thing I printed out was a table I “borrowed” from a resource some-one did online for a fishing mini game for D&D. I wasn’t interested in the mini game. I’m happy with whoever wants to fish while at sea to just do a foraging action, and make a roll for it. But the hard bit was deciding what fish they caught. I’m not a fishing person. The nice thing is that the table they created works for sea and freshwater.

The two dungeon maps I printed out have saved me time creating my own. Once or even if used this session they can go into the back of the DM folder with other maps I have printed as an instant adventure resource if needed. All I’ve had to do is populate the dungeons.

Tomorrow is the big day. Getting excited now.

A mini look at Epic Card Game Digitial

Uncategorized

I’m totally enjoying my games of Epic Card Game digital against my friends. And that includes my losing streak of having never won against one of them.

Our format of choice is Dark Draft. Which I’ve said many times I think that this is my favourite format for the game. Unlike a regular draft, you have an idea what cards your opponent has but you don’t know exactly. Mainly because you know what four cards they were given but you don’t know which two they kept and which two were discarded. I like that mystery.

Sometimes though due to the nature of the game type, luck of the draw, etc. More time is spent drafting than actually playing.

Once it was an option to purchase (you only pay for cosmetic stuff like this and to enter official events/tournaments) using my credits I hit on my avatar for the game that won’t change.

I love the pack alpha art. It fits me as leader of my own “wolf pack”.

The other thing I’m currently spending my hard earned Kickstarter credits on are the foil versions of cards when they become available.

I like how foils work in Epic and Star Realms. For the concept works better digitally than in a physical version. Although they are pretty cool in real life.

I actually like how the actual game looks during play. Granted it doesn’t have those flash animations of the likes of MtG:Arena and Hearthstone. But you don’t miss them or need them. Unlike the two mentioned competitors this is completely free to play. And the bit I like a lot, just like Star Realms, when playing against friends you get 48 hours between turns. It means playing can fit in around what you are doing in the real world, and allow you to play with friends in different time zones.

Granted games take longer to play this way. But that’s a price I’m willing to play. Plus you can play in real time if you wish. It’s nice to have the choice.

This is definitely my preferred way of playing the game. It means I get to play it for starters. That’s always a good start.

You can find me on Epic and Star Realms as Whitespider.

What annoys me about Imperial Settlers

rant

After a day off writing for this blog. Which we all know was a welcome break for both parties, you the reader and me. I’m back looking at one thing about Imperil Settlers and 51st State that annoys me.

But first for the record I really do enjoy both games. It’s allowed to not love everything about a game. This post is about the one thing I don’t love about these two games.

What bought this all on? The imminent arrival of last years expansion for Imperial Settlers, Amazons. I finally got round to getting it. After all it was the only expansion that I didn’t own. There are a couple of promos I think I’m missing but they are less important (I bet that has surprised one or two out there).

It’s the expansions for Imperial Settlers that are the source of this annoyance.

Amazons is the third ‘big’ box expansion for Imperial Settlers. Like the other two it adds a new faction and mechanic to the game. There are also three ‘small’ box expansions that focus on adding a new mechanic.

When it comes to playing the game you have to decide what expansions to play with.

In the rules for the expansion they give you two options.

The first is what they call Open Play.

This allows you to “mix any Common and Faction cards from any expansions with the corresponding cards from the Imperial Settlers base game. Have fun, but remember that a deck constructed this way may not ensure balanced play.”

That last sentence is the important bit. You may not see a single card from an expansion, or get the card you need. Which is why I’m least likely to use this option unless it’s for a single expansion.

The other way is what Portal call Standard Play.

“This is the only format allowed in tournaments.

Common cards come only from the base game. To build your Faction deck, you may mix the Faction cards from the Imperial Settlers base game with the Faction cards from exactly 1 expansion.”

51st State has a similar thing with it’s expansions in that you can only chose one expansion and you shuffle those cards into the common deck. It has no equivalent to Open Play.

What I find frustrating is that you have to decide which expansion and mechanic you are going to play.

So if you want to play one of the ‘small’ box expansions you are limited to the base game factions. If a player wants to play one of the ‘big’ box factions then you are limited to the cards from that expansion.

The problem as I see it is that with a new faction there is a new mechanic, and cards for the other factions to make use of the new mechanic. Then if you want to also play with one of the mechanics from a ‘small’ box expansion you are obviously breaking the Standard Play rule of using just one expansion.

If the other players have to choose between the two is there an imbalance that favours the new faction?

I also think that deck building for new players is an additional thing for them to learn. Something that might put them off and find hard.

Unless you do the deck building before hand (additional time and making decisions in advance on what to play) time for players to deck build needs to be factored into the overall play time. The game also stops becoming something you can just grab off the shelf and play. Which the base game allows you to do.

The limitation to one expansion and mechanic is something that frustrates in both 51st State and Imperial Settlers. On one hand I like the focus and making sure you get to play that new mechanic. On the other having to chose one over the other, and having to play multiple times to try them all, is frustrating. Back to back games in a single session is a rarity (unless it’s one of the filler micro games). As is between sessions. It could be months and years between plays (the draw back of big collections and too many games to play).

So that’s the side of the game that frustrates me.