Dane Lovrick

Posted on January 30, 2023 by First Age

I’m delighted to be playing in some Mongoose 2e Traveller. Character generation was a blast as usual for this lifepath system. Here’s my character:

Force Commander Dane Lovrick (Imperial Marine)  (Night Wraiths Black Ops Unit – no formal records of their existence)

7B7786 Marines (5terms) Athletics  (Dexterity) – 2, Electronics (Computers) – 1, Explosives – 1, Gambler – 1, Gunner (Turret) – 1, Gun Combat (Slug) – 2, Heavy Weapons – 0, Leadership – 1, Mechanic – 0, Medic – 1,  Melee (unarmed) – 1, Pilot (Spacecraft) – 1, Science – 0, Stealth – 1,  Tactics (Military) – 1,  Vacc Suit – 0

(I have added two skill levels in anticipation of contacts)

Dane was born to a lower echelon family of industrial workers in the over-populated crime infested hellworld of Albe ( Albe/Sindal (Trojan Reach 2211) ). He always had the smog clouded stars to look at and the prospect of exploring new and better vistas. His application for the Scouts was categorically turned down, crushing his hopes of escape, leaving him afraid that he would be consigned, like his family, to the brutalised environment and monotony of the heavy industry that Albe had to offer, living side by side with the tireless robotic workers that repaid their limited consciousness with the most dangerous of work.
The draft seemed to be his only option, so he eagerly went for it. Fate, rather than ability,  took him to the Marines and the starship troopers. He might get away to see the Sector after all, but through a drop capsule with a gun in his hand, projecting Imperial might as required in this fringe between major polities. Unexpectedly, he was propelled to an early commission, despite his unpreposessing record and his low status. Dane really didn’t fit in the officers’ mess at all, finding himself awkwardly inbetween the recruits and the officers.
His early term was in security detail on Asterix V station. It wasn’t the most exciting of assignments but it proved simple enough, and didn’t involve any drop combat. He found places in the station that he could go that kept his spirits high and preserved a sense of hope and humanity. A foiled robbery on station brought him some good luck. His security detail did the work and he was given future options and connections when he moves on from the Marines. It was a rare positive step at a time when he was continually passed over for advancement. [Anyone contact me through the station?]
With a dead end career beckoning and little warmth in the steel and plasma of his life, it seemed time for him to be dispensed with. The route for this was unexpected. He got promotion to Captain and, finally, Force Commander. His unit? ‘Night Wraiths’ an Imperial  black ops section, given the dirtiest and disclaimable missions. The section was full of hardened veterans with unstable career profiles. They were, however, ruthlessly efficient at what they did and for 8 years Dane Lovrick, call sign ‘Shroud’, undertook dangerous and deadly missions against a variety of targets, few of which were probably deserving. [Bio weapons thanks to the good doctor? Other contact due to the operations]
The killing sickened Dane and, before he lost what vestiges of humanity he had left, he opted for mustering out, having gained a Marine reputation, high rank, and a dark history of operations. Those very few targets that survived are unlikely to forget the ruthless Imperial Marines and their grim,  blank faced, commander.
Now demobilised with some tools of his trade, and a TAS membership in recognition for ‘services to the Imperium’, he’s looking for a simpler life and a chance to explore the stars on his own terms.

Posted in Traveller | Leave a comment

My Dad

Posted on January 28, 2023 by First Age

Superintendent for The Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen

My beautiful Dad died today, in the early hours. It was an honour to be with him in the last hours he was with us. He was the most amazing gentle man, full of compassion and action for those who were less fortunate. Family was at the heart of everything he did. His example has enriched all of us and he will always be my role model and hero.
The picture is of him around the time of my birth as a Superintendent for The Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, up in Scrabster and Oban.
Love you Dad. XX

 

Posted in Family | Leave a comment

The Comae Engine 2300AD

Posted on January 20, 2023 by First Age

 A recent Bundle of Holding reaquainted me with GDW’s 2300AD second edition, a game I enjoyed the heck out of in the late 80s and early 90s. It’s a very complete and enthralling setting, based on the best understood star astrography at the time, out to a 50LY sphere around Sol. An affirmingly factional future, where humankind reaches for the stars, whilst we continue to subvert and kill each other jealously. That feels about right.

The history was based on a 1980s strategy game to extrapolate out from Twilight 2000 nuclear tragedy, to see where and how the nations of the world develop. Vive La France! The technology rumbles forward with certain incredible advances but other area are slow, or simply not imagined or projected by the mid 1980s design team. This provides one of those delicious retro SF settings seen through a particular lens.

The particular development to get us out there is Stutterwarp, with high cycle engines that propel ships through micro warp tunneling to very high apparant speeds. FTL whilst not moving.  Starship combat is pin point missile strikes in the cold vacuum of space, refreshingly distinct from a more space operatic game.

The system is a developemnt of the GDW house system, rolling a D10, adding a skill value and trying to beat a difficulty number. Retries are possible with determination and luck. Combat is lethal, with weapons at close range scoring damage that can instant kill if hitting the right locations, almost regardless of personal combat armour. It is, as one might expect, a bit fiddly, but works well enough. I have a few dot matrix printed house rules in the box, from back in the day.

It may have been a wash of warm nostalgia, but I really wanted to pick this game up and run it. Immediate instincts were to run the game Rules As Written (RAW), embracing the foibles, and the decimal combat damage. However, this seems like a neat opportunity to see how seamlessly one could apply The Comae Engine over the top, to give a modern lightweight d100 system to an old GDW clunker. The combo would make a somewhat different game for North Star.

I’ve done some light meshing. 2300AD skills have become Focus for the Comae skill categories. Careers provide the top skills in the tree and all initial skills are Focus additions. This doesn’t conform to the Comae suggestions, but I expect they will work just fine to get you started. I have considered having four Focus Levels that provide 10-40% bonus, further accentuating the more detailed skills, on top of the base provided by Comae. ‘Coolness Under Fire’ becomes a Willpower Focus, with the ten digit providing the Initiative points.

Weapon damage and armour, at least at the personal scale, will depend on how much I emulate the ‘blown away’ nature of 2300. I’ll blend in the simple hit location table of 2300AD and give a damage bonus for ‘Heart’ locations, Lens might provide an add as might ranging. Weapon chatracteristics will be lightly modelled to give a reasonable effect and preserve their differences.Without looking, I may well just leave Vehicle and Starship scale combat as they are, but using Comae for hit resolution in the Conflict.

As with any such meshing, I think it is important to do just enough to make it give the feel of the original game, without slavishly trying to retrofit all mechanical elements. The Comae Engine provides a fresh and modern engine right over the top, assimilating comfortably thanks to not obsessing about detail. There probably is more detail to consider, but with just an hour of tomfoolery Comae 2300AD looks to be a comfortable flyer.

Posted in Games | Leave a comment

Hope Valley Line Fantasy

Posted on January 11, 2023 by First Age

The journey from my local station, Dore and Totley, to Manchester Picaddily, along the Hope Valley line is my favourite train ride. Travelling off-peak and through Peaks is quiet, giving me a table to myself on the newer Northern trains. Here I can write (Fedora on the go) and look up and enjoy the lovely scenery.

It seems that there is plenty of room for more edits on Heroic Fantasy 2e. Although none of the changes are dramatic, it looks as though the game is set for playtest, they all seem to be minor enhancements, either to wording or rule tweaking.

The new version of the game uses an ascending dice ladder more intrinsically throughout the rules. Current edits are finding extra places where it can be used, unifying to a more consistent design. Bonuses here and there are being increased to sharpen the benefits.
I shall be bolstering the text in both the spells and monster section a little more, and finding some additional spells to augment the lists.
Meanwhile I am heading towards Hope, so hope that the game will function well in the playtest. Given recent OGL drama, I am especially happy to be setting the game in Kobold Press’ Midgard. 

Posted in tech, Travelling, Writing | Leave a comment

Sturm und Drang

Posted on January 9, 2023 by First Age

 The adventures of our Nentir Vale heroes, ‘Sturm und Drang’, continue for a while into 2023. One of my players has very kindly commissioned some art, depicting the group in an anime style.

Sturm und Drang

The original image is very high resolution, so just might be a canvas print for my game den. An enduring  memory of our D&D 4e campaign.

Chuffed to bits.

Posted in D&D4e | Leave a comment

Fedora Linux on the go

Posted on January 7, 2023 by First Age

 A recent profligate purchase has been a light laptop for carrying about on my adventures,  and one that would take Linux really well. I really don’t need this device. I have a very lovely Windows ‘Matebook’ laptop, with a gorgeous screen and impeccable build quality, which I use for some  creative stuff focused around the excellent Affinity suite. I have been enjoying the Fedora Linux experience so much on my Ole Faithful laptop, that I wanted to replicate this when out and about. The Ole Faithful, with an old battery that doesn’t hold much charge, and a malfunctioning screen, is now a backup desktop machine.

I briefly explored the possibility of dual booting Linux and Windows on my Matebook, and that might have been an option, but the Linux compatibility may have had some issues and the storage is not that big on the machine. So, a separate, extra device for the purpose of having Fedora on the go. I could have just bought a hat…

I wanted to manage the cost and so decided to try a second hand of some description. There are a lot of businesses out there selling refurbished or second hand. I spent some considerable time browsing Facebook Marketplace and other dark alleyways, before I stumbled on https://www.technosystems.uk/, a small business out of Lincoln. I was buying on the basis of pictures on their site and their specifications and descriptions.Two laptops were at the top of my list. Ideally either a Lenovo X1 Carbon, or a HP Elitebook. In the end, after a chain of emails went to and fro to clarify the laptop description and a slight modification on price, I landed with this:

  • HP Elitebook 830 G8 13.3″
  • i5 11th Gen
  • Full HD screen, 16:9 aspect, 1920 x 1080
  • RAM 32GB
  • SSD 1TB
  • Grade A laptop
  • About £400

Techno Systems were just fine and did everything I might have asked of them. The laptop looked to be as new, but not in the original box.

Elitebook lording it over the Ole Faithful

I had that slightly nervous moment where I hovered over making this a dual boot, given the large storage capacity, but decided that I should stick to the plan and sand off Winblows and make it a dedicated Fedora laptop. The process of installing was a breeze with all the components detected fine. I mean, I did do some compatibility research, but still, it was gratifying to see everything just work from install. If I could find space to gripe, it would be a general observation that laptop battery life doesn’t seem to last so well on Linux, but that is something I can live with.

Fedora Desktop

Look, I’m retired, so spending time messing about with a perfect desktop just gives me joy, OK? If I need to go on a justificatory round of hand wringing, then the laptop will also provide a mobile digital library, multi-media, and browsing on the train or at whatever venue. I’m likey to stay with Google Suite for my writing, but that might migrate to something native if I can land on something lightweight.

I had wondered about seeing if I could get D&D4e desktop tools running on Linux under WINE, or somesuch. In no uncertain terms I feel that I would then have crossed the nerd streams and ruled the Internet. But no, I am a dual machine guy, so will run them simply where they feel comfortable.

More Fedora adventures as I continue on my journey…
Posted in tech | Leave a comment

The Comae Engine

Posted on January 4, 2023 by First Age

“Comae Engine is a downsized roleplaying game when you need quick mechanics to tell a good story.”

I am a big fan of Clarence Redd’s M-Space, a stylishly developed science fiction tabletop roleplaying game based on the Design Mechanism’s Mythras, which is itself an elegant and refined successor to the Runequest family. Now he’s back with a short and inventive take on the Mythras core once again, but this time it is coalesced into a much tighter engine, honed for conflict resolution with some flexibe and extensible options to give you flavouring, whilst operable as a core for more detailed sub systems as preferred.

Clarence’s preface explains how The Comae Engine arose:

Painfully late in the design process of my first roleplaying game, M-SPACE, I discovered how to play exciting scenarios without resorting to in-game violence. Eager to share my findings, I shoehorned the rules into a short chapter named Extended Conflicts.

Those few pages turned out to be the most important of the book, completely changing how I played d100 games. 

In the years that followed, I kept experimenting with the most fundamental pieces of the rules: conflict resolution and characters. I felt certain they could be taken much further by stripping them to the core and build everything back on top of the Extended Conflicts. 

And after several false starts and failed attempts over the years, Comae Engine has finally taken shape. 

By recasting the d100 RPG fundamentals, I have found that Comae Engine also recasts the actors of the game. With a flexible conflict resolution, allowing for more varied storytelling, players bring out new sides of their characters – and themselves. Aggression is down, creative thinking up. It’s as if roleplaying finally leaves its war-gaming roots behind – all without switching rule systems.

 The Comae Engine provides a light framework for conflict resolution, with enough meat for a satisfying game, and one with plenty of legs for long term play. In HeroQuest and Tripod vein, action can also focus in on multi-roll ‘Extended Conflicts’ that have time increments sympathetic to the type of conflict. A firefight might drop down to 5-10 second intervals, a grand societal conspiracy might take a week at a time.

Characters have nine broad d100% skills, which can optionally be further detailed with Focus, providing  a +20% top up if the conflict action uses it. Each skill is given three suggested Foci, with three available for intial characters. You are encouraged to you create your own, themed to the type of game and setting you want to play. I like how the Willpower skill Foci provide emotional drives for defining how a character acts in play.

Beyond skills we have Tags. These are advantages that a character has accrued through life. Again, using the 12 suggested Tags, you are encouraged to reskin or invent whole new ones to fit the game you are playing.

An experienced eye to Mythras ensures a rock solid underpinning to the game, with opposed rolls (highest success on d100 wins), Luck points, difficulty bonus//penalties gives you plenty of levers to support whatever conflicts you are ecxploring in your game. And on that, characters have four resource pools, that are expended depending on the type of conflict you are playing out. I quote the game text that describes the four pools:

  • BODY for combat, stealth or physical challenges.
  • INT for intellectual challenges like puzzles, finding hidden objects and doing research. 
  • POW for luck-based situations, willpower and magic.
  • CHA for social interactions. 

When a pool is down to zero your character is out of the conflict, and what that means is up to the GM and players. Pushing on beyond zero is possible with penalties and yet more serious consequences. These consequences are negotiated and depends on the type of game that you are playing.

As an additional layer you can apply ‘Lenses’ which are a bit like Fate Accelerated approaches. Are you ‘Aggressive’, or ‘Cautious’ etc, each of which modifies your skill and comes with a consequence. They can be applied to all sorts of skill rolls and can also be switched mid conflict to refelect changes in narrative and the way you describe what you are doing.

NPCs, which are grouped into Common, Skilled and Master types, are given some tightly described love with a ‘Code Block Generator’. These give quickly generated key words for personality, social disposition, motivation, and a recent event. Everything is pared down, highly functional to play and succinctly explained. Such is the way throughout the 44 pages or so of content.

I really like The Comae Engine. It appeals on a lot of fronts. It’s short and honed for maximum effect for minimum crunch. Simple, familiar and loved d100 resolution. Focus on conflict and not combat. Flexible approach to contests, what they are, which pool is at stake, how long they take, narrated consequences. Highly configurable to whatever game you want to play, introducing your own Focus and Tags will direct play in genre defining ways. It lightly accounts for things like weapons and tools, but you can branch and extend in areas if you want that level of detail; nothing will break. Want detailed starships? How about some lengthy spell lists? Fine, bolt them in!

The PDF Beta is about £2 at DrivethuRPG. More development will come, but it feels very complete. The game feels fresh, light on its feet, yet comfortably encompassing any game needs you might have for your adventures. 

Go and buy it.

Posted in Games | Leave a comment

Fedora Workstation 37

Posted on January 2, 2023 by First Age

 The post title sounds a bit like a quirky industrial SF movie, but no, it’s only about my desktop geekiness. I’ve recovered an old Clevo PC Specialist laptop, once my mainstay, with a borked screen and a severely ailing battery. I had considered getting the screen fixed, and that would have been more affordable than the Acer customer service end of my lovely 713 Spin Chromebook, but in the end decided not to do it. Instead, I started to research putting a Linux distro on my old faithful and turn it into a makeshift desktop for some technical geek fun times.

I go right back with Linux, messing about with Red Hat Linux 5 in the late 90s, at a time when Internet Explorer was as dominant as anything and Microsoft held the monopoly, or so it seemed. At that time, it was a struggle just to get Linux to dislay anything on my monitor, and only after a lot of config coding did I get anything up and running. Since then, I have been back to Linux, every now and again, to see where the desktop has got to. With thought to my first foray, it seemed kind of just right to be returning with the Fedora distribution, a downstream version of the commercial Red Hat. This bucks my trend of Debian based distros, and most notably the very popular Ubuntu.

Looking afresh at what was out there, I noted Fedora’s push for the new technologies, such as Wayland, LFS or Pipewire. So it is pushing and front running, cutting edge whilst stable, and continuously refreshed. I wanted a completely vanilla Gnome 3 desktop at its core, and sure I have tweaked somewhat, but under my control. YouTube is always your friend, guiding me on the tweaks and tips to get Fedora more aligned to my needs. There is something of an excitement factor to using Fedora, which may in part be the return, but I sense it also relates to the experience on the desktop and the way that Fedora updates. I have started using DNF, which with a config change or three looks to be a powerful update tool in the terminal.

There is a zealous fervor to Linux distro allegiance, so I will qualify the above with a note that there are rich and tailored distros for everyone, in many hues, GUIs and package update systems. You just need to find the one that is right for you. I think I may have found mine.  

The impetus for all this was my son’s Steam Deck storage upgrade. Cam had finished the hardware upgrade, a relative breeze given the consoles modability and good design. I was tasked with downloading a new Steam OS ISO and producing a bootable USB for loading. Dipping the toe back in, it all feels much easier than the last time I did it. I used the Rufus app on my windows laptop and after a few clicks the USB was good for loading. With that underway, I contemplated getting a Linux distro primed. A quick test of Bhodi Linux, just so that I could play with E17 Enlightenment out of the box, had me all prepped for a clean install of Fedora on the ole mainstay.

Gnome Fedora with some apps loaded (including Role)

Blimey! Discord, Spotify, OBS, Chrome, and Audacity were all quickly loaded and ready to use. I was feeing quickly at home in a much more desirable dwelling. Task, app and workspace switching were all silky and fluid. I sensed that my laptop was really gratefu for some more use and using such good software. Thewebcam plugged in and worked. WiFi connected, though I’ve gone wired for now. Bluetooth not recognised, so have got a cheap dongle heading my way by celestial dragon. So enamoured by the project, I have invested in a cheap DDR3 8GB Ram module to double the memory I have onboard.

I no longer have the Feanor fire towards Morgsoft that perviously burned my desire for freedom from the Gate’s hegemony. For many a year I have been using Windows extensively as a base for productivity applications that are so feature rich and easy to use. Virtual Machines allowing, if I could have Affinity suite on Linux, then I’d be pretty close to kissing Windows a fond farewell. The pragmatist in me recognises the affordable utility of Windows and the applications I use for layout. I’ll look afresh at Gimp, but think that using Scribus may set me back in getting a book completed. We’ll see.

I’m now considering a refurbished Lenovo X1 Carbon, or some such, so that I can carry my Fedora about with me!

At some point I’ll have to switch back to my Windows tower, but not for now. Ahh, the simple pleasures…

Posted in tech | Leave a comment

The Family Dragonbane Game

Posted on December 26, 2022 by First Age

 The Dragonbane RPG Beta has been updated and so I have also updated the Quickstart pregens of the new version. This is a game in development and it is fun to play it as it morphs into its final form. In a couple of days I get to run some more of this gem of a game with my grown up ‘kids’. Here’s the setup…

We are going to have such fun with this game. I’ll report on actual play after the game.

Here’s an example of the current character sheet:

My blog theme has been temporarily changed to see if the RSS feed comes back to life. Let’s see!

Posted in Games | Leave a comment

My Gaming Year in 2022

Posted on December 25, 2022 by First Age

 I trust you have had a good year, and also a good year of RPG gaming? At an end of year reflective mood, I thought I’d give my 2022 RPG year in review, with the highs and the highers. As background it is worth noting that I retired (early) at the end of March. I think I’m one of the people that the government is trying to get back nto the workplace so that I can be economically more useful. My pension income is taxed, so I suppose that’s something, but by now, nine months on, I’ve become accustomed to the low money, stress light personal time. This change to a hopefully lengthy Act III has also enabled some more carefree RPG gaming, which was certainly part of the plan.

We all have kept a spreadsheet log of our gaming year? Right?

With this in mind, I have had a bumper year of games, both in terms of session count and high quality fun experiences. With only an occasional misstep, the headline count is a record  115 sessions in the year, spread over grand campaign arcs and bursts of convention play. It’s unlikely I could have sustained such a volume whilst working and home life combined, but seems now to be an achievable and sustainable number.

Three games have dominated my 2022 schedule, and all of them are of the D&D persuasion. The D&D 4th Edition (29)  campaign has run throughout the year and continued to delight, with occasional Con4eR online play thrown in. I’ve waxed lyrical about this version of the dragon game on my YouTube Channel. The Heroic Tier will be fully explored in this campaign, with us heading towards a finale during the early part of 2023.

The Curse of Strahd campaign (25 this year), ably run by Dom, is something like three years of play in, and has sprawled into one of those mega campaigns that I very rarely get to play. The character arcs have been interesting and the adventures have built to a dramatic conclusion, which we are about to play in early January. The game has been very good, and though I have not found the 5th Edition to stand up especially well compared to others in the broader family, it has provided a solid enough framework for play. I’m looking forward to the denoument and the space to start up new adventures in other realms. Nathan is also running a short series of adventures, which will run into January 2023. I shall have fun in and around Neverwinter too.

Finally, Pete has been running occasional Pathfinder 2e (15), a ‘D&D family’ game that I always hugely enjoy. A flexible, balanced and powerful version of the big game that has a modular approach with a lot of optional extensions. The core game sings along smoothly. I like how this particular game has a simple setup, allowing us to focus on some tactical map adventure in what looks to be the opening scenes to an old fashioned megadungeon. Much ribald chat, good friends, and good old uncomplicated fun.

(A quick D&D aside that I got to play some Castles & Crusades set in Dark Sun on the Dungeon Musings YouTube channel. It’s a cleverly put together and enjoyable early D&D style game with slick modern mechanics. I’d happily play much more.)

I wonder if the D&Ds will dominate my play space so much next year? We’ll come to 2023 planning in a moment, but I think they will fade after the first couple of months, with only the Pathfinder continuing. Other games will take their stead, and wonder if these will provide similar long term campaign play.

It has been a year of considerable gaming highlights, branching out into new places. A resolute desire to get Trudvang Chronicles off the shelf for some actual play, paid off with some convention play, which for all my nervous front loaded talk of over complex combat system options still delivered some good fun at the table. Some players were even scurrying off to see if they could find copies. Sadly the print availability for this now ‘IP sold’ game will languish in dusty stock cupboards and second hand market. I think the PDFs will only be found in the digital equivalent. My collection isn’t complete, but I think I have the PDFs before Riotminds rushed off to other things.

This loss has brought further happiness. The underlying system for Trudvang is the much respected Drakar Och Demoner, a Swedish developed game since 1982, based originally on Chaosium’s Magic World. It thus has much of the BRP ancestry along with much development over many versions since. The rights to this passed to Free League, who have now successfully (of course, it’s them) Kickstarted a new version of the game with an English translation. This is my most exciting system development of the year. A lightweight high fantasy game that has all that I like of BRP simplicity, with lavishly infused Free League design gives you a really fun play experience. This is probably the Draka Och Demoner version that plays easier at conventions, whilst having plenty about it for long term play. At time of writing I have run two sessions, both of which went down well, and will be running a family follow-up in a couple of days. The family game was riotous fun, and I am busting to play again. This game is going to get so much play in 2023! 

Cepheus Deluxe has also featured this year. This is now my Traveller base, and one I plan to run more of in 2023. Lightened and honed it does everything I could want for a 2d6 system space opera. An unexpected and highly affordable big hit that eclipses Mongoose Traveller 2e, as much as I love what Mongoose is doing with the IP. A recent Bundle of Holding has netted me a displacement tonne of their recent titles on PDF. So much that there will be a lifetime of play with it. Traveller, in any guise, will have to work hard though, as my SF gaming already has strong competitors that have muscled to the top of the priority stack.

Another game has brought me multifarious delights: Blackbirds. I am a bit of a Dungeon Muser groupie, participating on his Discord server and watching some of his YouTube streamed content. He is one of the most proficient and prolific GMs out there, somehow also holding down a high power career too. I have been added to the roster of players, with an open invitation to join in to streamed games as there is availability. Kevin has kindly sent me a physical copy of the huge core rulebook and I’m playing some sessions in his ‘Blackbirds of Yule’ Christmas holiday event. The CST timezone presents my GMT some challenging 2am starts, but it is truly worth it. The game is a dark fantasy, riven with hope. A setting wheer the gods are slain by Oligarchs, whose current apeothis to usurping dominance is blighting war wracked land yet further. As the final three Fates were slain, shards of Fate splintered across the world embedding in those that would rise up to bring hope and change: the Blackbirds. Zweihander powered, with lots of elements from systems that I like, delivers a very good fantasy game, dripping with atmosphere and adventurous play potential.

I’ve managed a good round of face to face conventions this year, in a conscious push to get back out there after the pandemic times. My initiation to Owlbear and the Wizard’s Staff and Grogmeet were wonderful opportunities to meet up with many of the gaming family and have a good old natter and do what we do. I hope I can find my way back to both in 2023. Garrison conventions continue to re-establish themselves as we assess attendance numbers. They look to be back and we shall continue to run them. I want to call out Remi’s Bladerunner game at Furnace. We had a great time with a top group of players. Remi ran a great game!

Continuum was my first ever convention, back in the day. That it runs in the University halls where I lived as a child only adds to the reminiscent joy of the event. I managed to run three games, two of which were my own Tripod system. The Friday night one was a riot of at least 8(?) players due to a scheduling confusion. It was such incredible fun. So much laughter and rocking roleplay. Tripod’s light and flexible mechanics effortlerssly supported the session and gave a platform for the characters to demonstrate their worth. Old Continuum friends, young players, an eclectic blend that brewed magic for an evening. It has been etched in the annals of my most memorable games ever. I am smiling as I type.

There are many play highlights. Somehow I always manage to put out a fun Infinity 2d20 game, despite the weight of the crunchy system. It might say more about the excellent players I was lucky to attract, but nevertheless, that monster heavyweight has such a mass of cool ideas, factional setting and action thumping mechanics that the gravity pulls in great play into its singularity. More to come…

I’ve managed to get a couple of short RPG books published under my new ‘First Age Entertainment’ banner. A Cepheus Deluxe adventure persuaded me that I could use Affinity Publisher with sufficient basic expertise to publish a print product on DrivethruRPG. Tripod, ‘TRaits In Pools Of Dice’, my small narrative roleplaying game was also published, simplifying and improving on my ten years old Wordplay. Thanks for Dom for persevering with the layout for that book. I have finished the first draft of a second edition of my Heroic Fantasy, a Black Hack based high fantasy game. I like the changes and hope to get the game out after some playtesting in early 2023. This one I plan to have available both on DrivethruRPG and as part of the Playrole Creators Programme.

It was a particular Continuum delight to be greeted by Mark Galeotti with a very early copy of Gran Mecccanismo, his clockpunk fantasy in Renaissance Italy. So gratifying to see the Tripod engine being picked up and honed for a separate creative work. I will miss Continuum next year, but hold out some hope that I’ll get a game of it run by the author at some point.

Online play will continue to be the means by which I play. There will be as much face to face play as I can manage. Perhaps a regular Dragonbane game running at Patriot Games, or at a pub in Crookes? I will have conventions and a playtest series too. Family gatherings will continue to explore the Dragonbane adventure series. When it comes to online, I use Role and Foundry (hosted on Forge). I would like to get all my games onto Role. I think  this will depend on the development path they take and how they prioritise. In practice this is going to take a couple more years. This would be a conscious decision to emphasise audio visual connections, light tools and minimal to no system integration. A lighter expectation on what the VTT should be doing, but leveraging the play environment and tools that Role offers. I will keep a weather eye on others as they develop

I have already blogged about my plans for 2023. On further reflection, and In summary,I think Dragonbane, Infinity 2d20, Coriolis, Trudvang, and concluding D&D4e will all get me GMing. The Mythras based Comae Engine might stretch me to experimentally explore through play. Conan 2d20 was my only campaign misfire, due to some scheduling difficulties. It happens. The campaign is still all loaded in Foundry VTT, so maybe it will get an outing. I think Dragonbane and Coriolis will, in particular, see a lot of my GMing and play.

I shall play Pathfinder 2e, possibly the 13th Age playtest, a few of Nathan’s 5e and a couple of concluding Strahd 5e sessions. With perhaps some Con4eR D&D4e, that is likely to be where my D&D subsides for 2023. I hope to join some other games from my close gaming family. It is conceivable that I am sucked into some OneD&D play at some point, but I already have a lot on!

It’s going to be a great year ahead, diverted down unexpected otherworldly pathways full of magic and adventure. All the best to you as we head into a 2023 that will be full of friendship and wonder!

Posted in Games, Publishing, VTT, Writing | Leave a comment