DragonQuest Characters

Posted on October 11, 2023 by First Age

 

A quick update on DragonQuest Characters. They are mostly done for now. I’ve used a simple pro-rate method to give them starting Ranks in two professions, profession skills and adventurer skills. There’s some more fluff text to add, but they are pretty much good to go.

Download the characters (PDF) here.

I usually make character stands for my convention games. That way you get a nice evocative image and the characters’ names printed out and available for the other players to use. It’s usually a quick Pintrest grab for my own use and plonk them into Affinity Publisher. Some white A4 card and a slightly labouring inkjet printer later and I have them good to go.

I don’t know if I will get takers at Grogmeet, but the process of discovering this game has been great fun and I am sure I will get it to the table somewhere and somehow in the future. These five will also be loaded into Role VT for online play.

Also glad to have my two spiral bound copies of DragonQuest information: The 2.19 open rules and the DragonQuest skills document.

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Furnace Convention XVIII

Posted on October 9, 2023 by First Age

Our 18th Furnace(!!) was another fun gathering of 65 gamers or so, all together for a packed weekend of top RPGs. As ever the GMs had offered a great variety of inventive games and worlds for us all to explore. The weekend went really well!

Without wishing to dwell, behind the scenes there has been a change at the Garrison, which has resulted in much poorer communication than we are used to. The experience of this in the run up to the convention, and thinking of our 2024 events, had left me with just a shade of uncertainty about how the weekend would go.

Of course, once there, some of the experienced staff were available to help smooth the way and so all
was well. I spent time in the gaps, bagging up rubbish and gathering glasses and returning to the bar as a help to the hard working staff. I could see how appreciative they were and it is those sorts of things that help cement the great reputation we already have with the venue. I reflected, as the glasses chinked on the tray, that this is exactly what my Dad would have done. He was always looking to help staff with what they were doing, in various restaurants and other hospitality. It is strange how these sorts of things suddenly bring him back to me so vividly.

Our attendees often comment on the smooth organisation and it must be said that, to a degree, the convention now ‘runs on rails’, but only because of Dom and Elaine. Furnace is a fully prescheduled convention, with preferences used as much as possible to fit people to the games that interest them. The process is vulnerable to GM drop out, which happens a little and most years, but our attendees are a lovely bunch and we always get there in the end around the edges of a solid programme. Registration, badges, raffle, comms, and other incidentals are picked up by Dom, while I do site liaison, finance and some focus for greeting, and whatever’s left. (Intro speech here.)

Although the event is a blur of games, we have generous meal breaks and usually some late night bar time. This one was no exception, all adding some convivial socialising in amongst the between, and in game, chat. Thanks to everyone that got me a drink, I don’t think I managed to reciprocate for everyone, so next time!

Patriot Games and All Rolled Up are great additions to our event. Michael and Paul helped us out respectively. I think we all missed Fil this year and are thinking of her and really looking forward to seeing her again next year.

My games seemed to go down well, and I enjoyed the two that I played:

GM – Dragonbane – The Village of the Day Before. My second outing for this adventure and it is a cracker. Suffice to say that there was much mirth with the mayhem, as the game advertises, and the core mystery was solved. I love this deceptive game. Easy to let it pass as a beginners’ game, one that’s too light, or traditional for the more discerning gamer. There are depths to the intuitive design, a quiet power to its simplicity, and consistent delight from those trying it.

During the convention, Free League announced the pre-order for the Bestiary (with cardboard standees) and the hardback rulebook with new adventure. When I got home I dived in and I think the Bestiary confirms that this game is going to see a lot of play.

Player – Sanction – The Red Drop. Paul Baldowski ably ran his fresh and successfully Kickstarted roleplaying game. What riotous fun as we leaned in, perhaps a little too wholeheartedly, to the premise that we were MI5 rejects, too crap to hold down a real position in the intelligence community, and pushed into an underfunded and poorly regarded ‘agency’ for much lower grade tasks. I’m glad to report that we did not disappoint, as we seemed incapable of engaging with a scenario that may have had some depths, if only we had the wherewithal to find them. My character had the personality notes ‘arsehole’, ‘frustrated’ and played what I was given. In the last hour, as our floundering failure became inevitable, I started to jot down names for the comedy TV series that we could commission. The list included:

  • The Spy who Died in the Cold
  • Spy Hard
  • The Least Wanted Men
  • Spy Another Way
  • Monkey Tennis
  • The Spy Who Failed Me
  • Quantum of Failure
  • Blunderball (from Tim Gray)

Good times.

GM – Genesys – Ashes of Power. I was really glad to get Genesys out for a run round in this space opera set in the Twilight Imperium universe. There was some investigation, some blaster blamming, and fun interplay. The Genesys dice roller app provided newbie dice support and the game blazed an amusing trail for a few hours.

Player – 2D20 – Ghosts of Tsushima. Pete Atkinson has built his own custom game from the 2D20 SRD and delivered a fun and action packed mediaeval Japan classic. A really fun game. We are playing a lot of 2D20 at the moment and confess that there was some side enjoyment just seeing how Pete had woven his own take on the toolkit. The game worked well, with extended contests used along with montage to speed significant action into a manageable convention slot. Inspiring adaptation which I hope to play again.

GM – Genesys – Orphaned Star. Another outing for the Keleresspecial operations team and another mystery on a remote planet with a past. Unexpected diversions on the way to the mission site created an in-game time delay that ripped up a core encounter and got me to flex two sentences into an hour’s play. Players seemed to enjoy the space opera and delivered it all in good time for people to get away to various homes near and far.

Genesys hadn’t seen any play for a few years, so I was a bit rusty, but it soon came back. For all the abstraction and symbols on the dice, the game itself is very easy to run and gets you buzzing about the Advantages and Threats generated by the dice. I’ll be running some more, and a possible plan was forming for Seven Hills in April.

My thanks to everyone for a great weekend. Top games from very good GMs, ace company with the customary friendly vibes. Those pre-convention shades were banished very early. Our philosophy is that organisers are attendees too, allowing us to run games and enjoy play. We did just that.

I’ll sort out dates for next year and let everyone know.

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Pro Rating DragonQuest Characters

Posted on September 26, 2023 by First Age

Perhaps one of my more specialist blog posts! I’m planning some convention DragonQuest, and wanted a method to uplift starter characters to a higher degree of competance, edging into the ‘adventurer level’.

Initially I looked at generating a pool of Experience Points to spend, based on a number of successfully completed adventures at the ‘mercenary level’, and then buying Skill Ranks and Characteristics at the book cost. Whereas this would work, acknowledging the huge leg up starting Mages get with their College of Magic Rank 0 startup, I just felt that this was way too much faff for me. Nervously, I recognise that ’embracing too much faff’ is exactly the mentality for being a DragonQuest GM.

My core rule reference is DragonQuest Version 2.19; Last revised 20th July 2003. This is the DragonQuest Open Source Document (DQOS) based on the 2e rules.

After some chat with the DragonQuest community (yes, there is one) on Facebook, and on the basis of “[2.1] The rules are intended to guide, not restrict, the GM”, I am going to use the following as my ‘quick’ character generation

[4.4] The effects of an optional characteristic must be determined by the GM.

I am using the suggested Physical Beauty, though it is likely to be renamed ‘Presence’ (PR) for broader application. As per [5.5], this will be generated by a random roll of 4D5+3.

I had wonderd about including Charisma and Intelligence characteristics, but instead will use Presence and an application of Willpower, along with some of the extended Profession Skills noted below.

Follow character generation as per the book up to and including [8.4]

Replace [8.5] with: 

Mages

1 x Weapon Skill at R1
4 x Adventurer Skills at R1
1 x Profession Skill at R2 (or two at R1)
1 x College of Magic as per rules.
4 x General or Ritual spells at R4
1 x Specialist Spell at R2
Perception base = 10

FP +2

Everyone else

4 x Weapon skills at R4
3 x Adventurer Skills at R4
2 x Profession Skills at R4
Perception base = 10
FP +2

2 x Characteristics +1

Notes on Skills

Languages

Speak and Read/Write Common plus Kin (if applies) at R8

One other language of choice, Speak and Read Write at R3

Adventurer Skills (These may be added to as the game develops)

DragonQuest have two types of skills. Everyone has Adventurer Skills, and I give everyone Rank 0 in all of them. My adventurer skill list is as per below, with the starting % formula for each:
 

Climbing (3xMD)+(5xRank)
Carousing ((2xPB)+WP)+(5xRank)
Riding (WP+AG)/2 + (8xRank)
Stealth  (3xAG)+(5xRank)

Swimming ((2xAG)+MD)+(5xRank)

These might be added to, if actual play suggests a gap. 

EDIT – I have switched to using the DragonQuest skills document, a huge compendium of 65 skills, as well as other suggested DragonQuest additions, by Christopher Dargan & Others. 

Find it here: http://www.dragonquest.org/files/index-dqrules-skills.html

Profession Skills

The other type of skill is like a profession. These are more costly to gain and improve because they grant a whole series of abilities as you ascend in Rank. You rarely roll specifically on the profession itself, but rather on the sub abilities that they provide. I am to be including the following profession skills from Worldly Endeavour 2.0 house rules:

Acrobat, Administrator *, Architect/Builder *, Armorer, Arms Master, Artist *, Berserker, Bowyer/Fletcher, Cartographer, Chevalier, Climb, Devotee, Gambler *, Homemaker *,  Hunter and Fisherman, Martial Artist, Miner and Prospector. Orator *, Planter *, Sailor,  Scholar *, Teamster *, Tradesman *, Weaponsmith.

EDIT – see above for the link to the skills document I am now using.

The house rules suggest that Ranks in those professions with a * do not count towards Tier progression.

Start with armour and weapons with which you have Rank. Start with 200 Silver modified by status in [8.1] and [8.3].

Were I to be running an ongoing series of adventures with these characters, then I would need to consider the assumptions in the core game. It could be that I just switch back to XP awards and develop from this base. I might also be generous with Training Times and Healing Durations. It’s fine to have characters out of action for weeks of in-game time if you play a seasonal game, or embrace the game’s assumption that you will be running up to six characters simultaneously. I may well do neither.
Gosh, I actually think I have managed to out nerd myself!
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DragonQuest: The Fifth Book – Worldly Endeavour

Posted on September 14, 2023 by First Age

Having recently jumped into DragonQuest, I am testing its edges and expanding the game where it expects and encourages. With no practical experience of the game, I’m running on instinct and the GMing Rank 4 ability: Table Sense. To be clear, this isn’t about changing the rules, they will played as written, but looking at the periphary and the gaps that the game itself acknowledges. 

With much of the game now found in freely available PDFs, but hard to find in print, I have stumbled upon the definitive trove of lore at the DragonQuest Players Association.  Tucked away is the unofficial fifth book of DragonQuest, Worldly Endeavour. They are Stephen Clark’s house rules, and well done, largely expanding the few skills in the core game. His website has gone, but the rules live on.

Linked with this is an expansion of professions, including a small number in bold that might appeal to adventurers. Today, they all do, but this is old school focus, so the others, though available to all, are designed to flesh out everyone else in the game world. Hello Aristocrat, Innkeeper and oh so many more, all fleshed out with tiered abilities.

There’s more with Devotional & Deities, to bring the holiness in amongst the colleges of magic, with ‘White Magic’ introduced here.

An extended list of livestock and retainers, with barely a distance between them, and more about birthrights and thoughts on starting character skills. There’s even a half-elf in here.

Perhaps most hilariously is the concluding 6.5, Sex in DQ, a series of “ideas for adding sex to a DQ adventure or campaign for heterosexual interaction between consenting adults.” You have an optional Libido characteristic, Seducer and Lover skills and the Barmaid profession. Oh dear, oh dear. 💋

Despite this, the main expansion of skills and professions look to be very useful, with many of the ideas finding their way into my own game.

I’m daft really.

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A rumble through SPI’s DragonQuest – play like it’s 1981!

Posted on September 13, 2023 by First Age

As happens every time a Grogmeet emerges, I scurry off to bury myself in a game from ‘back in the day’.
Today, I have taken a joyful canter through the densely enumerated DragonQuest (2e), to look in some depth at a game that passed me by at the time, but continues with the enthusiasm of a cadre of dedicated players. 

“Fantasy roleplaying, as a way to spend one’s leisure time, has come of age in the last five years. Since the days when a small group of devoted die-hards first uncovered an enjoyable fantasy roleplaying game, the idea has attracted an ever-growing body of people whose divergent tastes demand innovative and original new works. Thus, enter DragonQuest.

Three general themes guided the design and development of DragonQuest and make this game different, and an improvement on other roleplaying games 

Thus, enter Dragonquest… I love to read games from back in the day, time capsules of early enthusiasm, confidence, and even heady arrogance. Who would then have thought of the voluminous divergence of today, or that this game would have such a limited published life? When you are in the midst of the text, all those future realities fall away; you are right there with the writers, in your leg warmers and flouncy shirt,  as they put down the all encompassing RPG of the eternal future.

The three themes were:

  • Classless – without the restrictions of a certain other game. The game leans into a more RQish openness with players able to choose pretty much everything from weapons, skills and magic, with inbuilt limitations from the implied setting
  • A kind of verisimilitude by using creatures of our own legend and myth. Probably overstated, but the list is big enough from which extrapolation can build out any classic adversary. 
  • Flexible rules that you can add to without breaking the game. That seems right, not least because the rules are some thing of a patchwork that can be similarly patched without affecting existing similar rules. There is no ‘Charisma’ or ‘persuasion’ style ability, but a big reaction table (Rule 132), with a lot of hand wavium for modifiers to the reaction roll. I’d like to add a Characteristic for that, and the game is comfortable for me to do so.

The game is 40 years old, and it shows its age. There are many softer assumptions that wouldn’t fly today, but I’m not judging the game for being of its time. Here’s one on gender.

“[6.1] A player may always choose the gender of his character.

A character must be either male or female. Every race described in this section comprises only those two sexes. A character may only be hermaphroditic or asexual if his player receives special permission from the GM.

Each player should choose the sex of the character. It is recommended each character be the same sex as the player. Roleplaying a character whose entire gestalt is alien to the player is hard enough without a change of sex. If the player wishes a character of the opposite sex, the GM should warn him (or her) of the difficulties, and judge that player’s characterization as closely as anyone else’s.

The Physical Strength of a female character is decreased by two, but her Manual Dexterity and Fatigue are increased by one.

A character’s gender may be changed only through deep magic, or by a deity.“

There are other assumptions on play style and session length that probably don’t fit so well today, but make me want to run an all day game at home as if I were a student or retired. Wait…

There’s a very C&S ‘birthright and aspects’ section that plays into future skill checks and reactions which looks quite nice, though I’m not sure if there is much payback for remembering to apply the effects in play. You can be a shape changer, giant or an orc along with the other more usual heritages. 

The game is purely a d10 based percentile resolution system for arracks, spellcasting and skill checks. Skills are a grouping of abilities that feel like ‘professions’ and only focus on ‘adventuring’, though even then with gaps that I think can be plugged with the Characteristic check rules. Healer encompasses a spiritual power as much as practical arts. Damage is a d10 with modifiers, as is a melee parry/reaction evasion. You’re encouraged to use a set of playing cards if you don’t have some d10 to hand.

Melee combat is played out tactically on a hex grid, to pick up ‘facing’ which provide chunky modifiers on to hit rolls. There are a number of small edge cases and procedures that need learning, but it looks highly playable and reasonably straightforward. Armour absorbs and damage can come off fatigue or endurance depending on the attack roll. There’s a deadly grevious wounds table as well to keep your character out of the action for weeks whilst recuperating. That’s OK though, as everyone likes to have up to six characters on the go, though you are advised to only play one at any one time, and interactions between your stable should be kept to a minimum.

Magic is well described with many arcane schools, in which you must become an adept to learn the talents, spells and rituals. This hones your choices and provides an in-game speciialisation. Magic backfire is certainly a thing, you are playing with fire.

Downtime is riven through the game. Either training for new ranks in abilities, or spells, or recuperating from injuries, all the while spending upkeep. Before long you will have blown your money and will need to get back out there, refreshed and slightly upgraded to face more terror and treasures.

Here’s the guidance on experience point rewards:

[160.1] The GM should make one set of Experience Point awards for every five hours of effective play during one session. The players are effectively playing their characters when the characters are attempting to complete a mission (i.e., discounting time spent by players in eating or arguing, or time spent by players on inconsequential activities).

The five hour measure of time is intended as a flexible guideline. If the GM runs an especially long play session, he will probably want to reward the players for their patience and sustained acting of their respective character parts. The totals listed in rule 160.2 are also intended as guides for awards given during an unfinished adventure.

Stop messing about and focus on being in character, you’re on the clock with five hour blocks.

I can’t help liking the game, as much as a curiosity of its time. There are borrowed innovations that set it apart from D&D, whilst the very few design gaps can be plugged with the encouraged additions a GM might wish to make. I’m probably beyond the point of no return to get this one to the table.

Would anyone play?

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Roleplaying in the Ashes of an Empire

Posted on August 25, 2023 by First Age

Twilight Imperium Embers of the Imperium

A Genesys RPG Space Opera Campaign Setting

This sourcebook delivers a galaxy spanning space opera for Genesys, taken from the strategic board game. In 290 attractively laid out pages, a GM is given all the building blocks to create heroic action across the stars, pitching the player characters as members of the Galatic Council’s ‘Keleres’, a mix of troubleshooters, negotiators, and enforcers for balance and survival in a setting that is rife with old factions vying for power and even the vacant Imperial throne.

This book is extremely good, perhaps one of the best that I have read in a long time. I have no knowledge of the board game it is based on, or the expanded lore that is already out in the aether. It’s all new to me. What I think I like most, is that despite the scale, everything is BIG, it is sectioned in a very bite sized and consumable way. The 30,000+ years of galactic history is outlined in one sidebar, and then expanded in appropriate sections as needed.

After a pithy ten page introduction we are straight into the heart of the book with a Character Creation Chapter 1 that comes in at just under 100 pages. Selecting an impactful ‘Background’ that immediately gives you some roleplay juice, the book provides fifteen play species, each summarised in a page with everything you need. This is space opera, so despite the wonderful variety of form and function, every species recognisably behaves in a way that we can relate and play.

And there is significant variety! How about the serpentine mind reading Druaa? The incorporeal Creuss, a formless wispy glow of fluctuating blue energy? Perhaps one from the trading clans of the lionesque Hacan? The approachable to play, but militaristic and arrogant, Letnev, very much human-like but with a thread of alienness riven through them? I could go on, but safe to say you’ll start with fascinating species that default links to one of the factions, but has room to be their own sentient with their own allegiences and drives.

The book comes with nine careers providing a breadth of starting options, with advice on creating your own. Note that a third party publisher has already published a really nice supplement that gives you some more, along with others that provide new worlds to explore and starships to take you there. You have enough here to get you building a multi-talented Keleres team.

Beyond careers, you have Motivation, Allegiance and Agenda, to connect your characterto the setting and drive personal goals that can conflict, in a good way, with the objectives of your adventures. Nineteen factions, each a couple of pages, are outlined to round out this character chapter. There is plenty here to give you great thematic characters, with scope for a lot of variety and expansion at your table.

Chapter 2 & 3 are for Equipment & Gear and Vehicles respectively. They’ve packed a lot into this 55 pages, with space even for some setting rich artifacts. If I’m want to peruse astrocartography charts then I’d love to have a ‘Circlet of the Void’, a gift of technology from the lost great empire of Lazax. A strength of the setting is to roll with ‘Looks Different, Handles the Same. A narrative skin over the descriptive text can make a Sol based mass drive an Arborec photosynthesis engine. Ini the end the numbers are the same, how you get there is a glstening chrome of inventive description.

The setting is our galaxy. Traversing this in starships is covered neatly in one page, interpretting  the FTL speeds and ranges in a way that gives you enough without being exacting. The wormhole network opens up sections of the galaxy, and provides huge tactical advantages to those factions that can control them.

Chapter 4 digs into the setting in more detail with a scattering of the key systems. ONce again this is all very approachable, condensed into one page, with an image of the main system, key descriptive text and a ‘Keleres Alert!’ breakout with adventure seeds. There’s a lot of adventure on this book.

The final third of the book is a lot of scenario enriching fun. Packed with mysteries and encroaching dangers, populated by a dangerous roster of adversaries. When I got to The Game Master chapter, I was intrigued to see how they would use the page count. I think it is top drawer, and immensely useful. Space operatice tropes are highlighted, along with some practicalities on pay and equipment, then leading into benchmarking personal agendas depending on the length of the game you are running. From there it is hyper practical adventure building with example hooks, escalations, and climaxes. Some synthi-fleshed out encounters round out this remarkable setting book. I’m not wanting to face a Jol-Nar I-24e Automated Anti-Infantry Turret (Nemesis) any time soon!

This book manages to draw the Twilight Imperium Galaxy to you in an approachable and playable form, despite the scale and scope of the setting. I wonder if I will do justice to the wonder of this, but perhaps only long enough for me to throw in a Nekro Virus Attack during a safe starship voyage, leading to the discovery of a stranded Hacan Caravan Fleet that needs assistance down on the nearby barren world of Shale, where the Keleres chort uncover…

We’re off and away!

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More Hjältarnas Tid Actual Play

Posted on July 5, 2023 by First Age

Not quite a once and done then! It was nice to get Hjältarnas tid out to the table once more at TavernCon. The game ran very smoothly, demonstrating most of the key concepts, or at least as many as I could manage in a one shot.

The open and closed rolls worked really well, as did the dice swapping using the Traits and Relationships. In fact Opening and Closing the rolls looks like a useful core lever for difficulty, brought on via a range of in-game circumstances.

I’d like to run the game some more. I think I need to tighten up the translations of spell descriptions and magical traditions as I’d like to add my own for both for my home brew world that I’m playing in.

Here’s a slightly after the fact screenshot of the game room on Role VTT.

The game runs really well in Role VTT. I like how robust the characters are with Guard as an extra track to absorb damage. The Talents were put to good use in the game too.

Skill Deepening

I may need to think about what I do with ‘Skill Deepening’ (Specialisations). Due to the way that I translated the game, the understanding of certain sections are coming later in play. The layout of the PDF has certain tables represented as embeded images, so they are mostly skipped with a Google Docs Translate. Skill Deepening is an option for when you have at least 50% in a skill. Using Enhancement Points you can choose one or more ‘specialisations’ of the skill. I’ve now translated all the specialisations, which has also made me reconsider some of the base skill names. I’m still vasilating on ‘Perception’ or ‘Search’.

Skill

Specialisation

Bardic Lore

Story, Poetry, Sing

Craft

Pottery, Cookery, Sewing, Armoursmithing, Carpentry, Gunsmith

Dexterity

Disarm Traps, Sleight of Hand, Open Locks

Eloquence

Seduction, Negotiate, Deception, Bribe or Persuade

Endurance

Cold, Running, Hiking, Heat

Gaming

Board games, Card games, Dice

Healing Art

First Aid, Care for the injured, Care for the sick

Hide

Disappear, Camouflage, Sneak, Shadow

Hunt

Ambush, Track, Survival

Law and Custom

Negotiate, Customs in a particular area

Leadership

Encourage, Lead warriors

Lore

Astonomy, Dracology, Geography, Herladry, History, Legends

Manoeuvre

Balance, Jump, Climb, Swim

Pathfinder

Mountains, Coast, Forest, Plains, Desert

Perception

Search a person, Search a building, Search in nature

Play Instrument

A particular instrument

Ride

Animal husbandry, Animal training, Drive cart, Ride a type of mount

Seafaring

Navigation, Steer ship

Scout

Spy, Smell, Listen

Status

Reputation, Impress

Strength

Arm wrestling, Throw, Lift, Carry

Trade

Bargain, Value item

Warcraft

Provisioning, Strategy, Tactics

Weather knowledge

Mountains, Coast, Forest, Plains, Desert, Open Sea

Willpower

Courage, Concentration, Self Control

Specialities have three possible effects. Which effect applies depends on the circumstances.
  • You get to use the skill to achieve the result. This applies to situations where specific cutting edge knowledge is required and training to achieve the goal at all, and where the general skill is not enough to be able to do what you want.
  • Having the right speciaility grants an Open 2 roll.
  • You can avoid having to make a roll. This applies to situations without much risk, where you have plenty of time, but you still need expert knowledge.
I don’t have anywhere to acknowledge them on Role or on the physical character sheet. They’re a nice extra layer to the game, without complicating the core skill list.
Will the game get some more play? I hope so, as I enjoy the game more every time I play it. There remains the wiff factor of starting adventurer skills at 15%. You could fix that by making the base 22%, or having different base skill starting percentages as per BRP.
I’m still tweaking. I like the idea of an outstanding success on an improvement roll giving  you a best of 2d6 increase for example. This is all just froth on the surface of a really nice evolution of the game I loved so much back in the 80s.
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2023 – Half Way There Games Tally

Posted on July 3, 2023 by First Age

Can it be July?! As I try not to look at the Free League games sale on their store, I have opportunity to reflect on where I have got to with 2023 games. With both the D&D campaigns ending during the first part of the year, the numbers are looking a little different this time around.

Scores as at the 3rd July

I’ve slipped TavernCon into the first half of the year, which isn’t entirely accurate, bolstering the numbers by a couple after a slow start in early 2023. Some scheduling problems and then an intergenum as games ended and then others started, stalled the flow a little, but 47 is a good number of sessions, and a good platform for me to average two a week by the end of the year.

As ever, conventions provide an injection of quantity, quality and variety. Traveller is the standout game for the first half, with my most regularly played game being one offered by the Dungeon Muser on his YouTube channel. Go Canada! Some of my own Cepheus Deluxe is lobbed into that slice. I’m hopeful, even with a busy holiday season ahead, that the Conan 2D20 will mushroom out to 15 sessions or so. Hjältarnas Tid has had a couple of outings and, perhaps against logic, is one that I hope becomes a regular at my table on Role VTT. The more I play it, the more I like it, so perhaps my 1980s BRP kick has found a new revitalising expression? I will need some more translations of spells and magic traditions to get me fully rounded for a longer form game.

The second half will be fab. I have high hopes of playing some more games on the Dungeon Muser’s channel and, with a fair wind, I will set up a new game to GM from late July. The front runner is Cypher’s Diamond Throne, running in Foundry VTT. This might be me having a go at going ‘pro’… I’m also likely to enjoy playing some games with my Wednesday online mates, and I’ll play whatever is offered. Some Dragonbane with the family and at Patriot Games are both likely.

There are few regrets. It’s a shame that Thursdays seem to have imploded. Such is the way of things though, and other things will bloom around the people who were involved. I regret not pushing through with Infinity, stymied due to scheduling difficulties. I think we had the makings of a good game there, and it was really nice to play with the group.

The systems may have changed this year, but the enjoyment is a constant. Thanks to all that have joined me on the journey, and have joined the conventions and played some games.

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Shadow of the Sorcerer – Session #2

Posted on June 1, 2023 by First Age

With a Session 0/1 under our belts, and some intriguing characters needing adventure, our Conan 2D20 RPG mini-campaign got properly underway last night. Our heroes, of appropriately loose character, are off to steal a jewel artefact from the house of a noted scholar in Argos. Their patron, the outstandingly wealthy merchant Publio, doesn’t want any embarrassing complications with the city authorities. It’s a simple in, grab and out job, though of course they are never that simple.

Tom’s awesome widescreen monitor
I was looking forward to getting some proper use out of Foundry VTT on Forge hosting and using the LiveKit extension for audio video feeds. Foundry is a much more complex VTT than Role, designed as a heavyweight map and token style interface in the Roll20 and Fantsy Grounds mould. I find running games on it highly intuitive and straightforward, able to leverage a lot of the features without much cognitive load, leaving me to enjoy the interplay and fun.
In a way, the same can be said for the Conan 2D20 system. It’s a medium crunch take on the system, with plenty going on as players call out their awesome Talents, and we juggle witht he up-front meta currencies. And yet the game flows very well and certainly lots of fun in play.
Ransacking…

With Dom, Paul, Alex and Tom engaging throughout, we had a fun first full session of play. The characters are gelling and forming some great teamwork, the mechanics are enhancing play, generating successes, failures and complications that spark new avenues and dialogue.

The picture to the right captures the moment the company find the study in the scholar’s house, and close to the moment we had to wrap up until next time.
It’s great that the group have managed ot stay together after the epic Curse of Strahd 5e campaign, and I’m lucky to have such great roleplayers, making the game so good.
I’m determined to keep the game to a tight timetable, availability allowing, so that we can enjoy, but then move onto our next game. We all seem to like 2D20 a great deal! I’ll post some more as this short campaign continues, though they won’t be full after action reports, to keep them spoiler light. 
Fun gaming times!
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It’s a beautiful bridge and it is going to be there…

Posted on May 26, 2023 by First Age

Sometimes you have to dig deep, grit your teeth, clutch tightly to the inside of the turret, and trust your comrades to left and right as you hold the line against the bellowing thrashes of monstrous Internet trolls. Sometimes you look for a friendly charge from your flanks to help ease the pressure, but it rarely comes.

Regardless as to how clear, positive and constructive you might be, however much you appeal to a sense of support as progress is finally being made, the trolls, armed with a vicious and uncaring sense of entitlement, will rain poorly aimed blows upon you, twist your words, and ask for the unreasonable.

Ah well, that’s TTRPG publishing for you.

By coincidence, I think, I’m reading Jim Fallon’s The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain. Perhaps, somewhere in the dulled function in certain parts of the frontal and temporal lobes, I will gain some insights, if not respite.

Oddball : “Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?”

Sorry folks, a dark one. I won’t be able to pull myself out of the line for a while, so will just need to find some strategies to keep going. Writing this has helped a bit. 

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