Looking Back and Forward to 2022

Posted on December 19, 2021 by First Age

This is a gaming review and some thoughts on what 2022 might bring for me. For context, I retire at the end of March 2022, so I will have much more time for everything, includng the gaming hobby. We head into the new year with the prospect of more lockdowns, as a new variant of the Covid virus takes hold. I remain hopeful that I will be able to get out to some conventions, even a grand processional of them, but let’s see how the pandemic develops next year.

Games Played in 2021

With the exception of the Furnace convention in October, I think all my sessions have been online, either regulars or online convention one offs. Eighty five sessions, with perhaps one or two in the offing before the year ends. I even have some vague aspiration of running a New Year’s Eve game to see in 2022.

Systems Played in 2021

D&Ds dominate, with most of my play being a 5e Strahd game run by Dom. This is another long form game, indeed much longer than I had expected, and I think it will be the main game that I find myself playing in 2022. Hopefully there will be a conclusion during next year, one way or another! Pathfinder 2e and D&D 4e have both been delightful. If anything, 4e has won my heart as the system I love the most, but they are both such quality high fantasy games. There is a good chance that 4e in particular will continue to run into the New Year.

I have lost none of my enthusiasm this year, the gaming has been a huge bonus for me. My work is quite heavy and drains my energy, so much so that I really had to stop something, and Pathfinder was put on pause for the foreseeable. I was sorry to do that, but it’s clearly the right decision for me; I’ve been so very tired.

Media Empire

As a further creative outlet I have been podcasting and YouTubeing. Enthusiastic game content about the things that are exciting me at that ‘time of recording’ moment. There’s a lot about 4e, so much so that I have started a #4eRennaisance movement, to channel the enthusiasm.

A possible extension would be a streamed series of an online game that I GM. It could happen, with the Role VTT making it especially easy. Maybe.

Gaming from the First Age Podcast

First Age Gaming YouTube Channel

Games for 2022

With retirement coming a quarter of the way in I’m kind of expecting a bumper year of game playing. I can see evening playing being much easier for me, with no pressures in the mornings to concern me, plus I can play outside of timezone with a little more flexibility. An afternoon game about 2pm sounds perfect, which tells me I need to befriend central Russian, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Indian gamers sharpish.
Part of the new routine will be writing, so I hope that some more output will be possible and perhaps a few publications if I can get some help from some chums. I have some ideas…  

Play

The 5e Strahd game I’m playing in will continue for at least part of the year. I have no sense for how long, or when the sandbox will start to unravel into a final confrontation. I’m enjoying playing my charismatic half-elf sorcerer, offering an oratorical extra to the adventuring party. The odd fireball is helping too. Perhaps a complicated romance is on the cards, which should mix up what I anticipate to be one of the campaign endings.

I’d love to be a player in a lot of the things on my shelves. In reality I’d probably play anything with a nice group of people with a good premise an d an opportunity for me to drive some narrative in and out of the formal game time. One lesson is to understand up front the expected game session duration so that I can undersatnd the commitment. No-one is ever locked into a game, but I’d like to be there for it for at least the expected time, accepting that this could change in flight.

If I could wave a magic wand I’d probably wish for a game of The One Ring 2nd Edition, or take me off to the Twilight Imperium with Genesys, when it lands during the year. It looks probable that I’ll be up for more play time once Strahd’s complete. 

Run

I’ve mentioned my D&D 4e campaign set in Nentir Vale in other posts. I hope I get to DM some more of this, as I just want to play this game. People’s real lives will affect the roster at some point, so we will just have to see. If it were up to me we’d keep going through to 30th Level. Much fun, and one to remember fondly.

I expect my other RPG to run next year will be Cepheus Deluxe. It’s the version of Traveller I would have blended myself and produced with style. A digest colour book version will come out in the year. I have messed about with some preparation for creating my own setting to run the game in. Mostly this is looking for effects with particular content creation sites and tools. It actually needs some full on writing before I am ready to go with this, with half an eye to a publication of the Eventide subsector out of the back of it.

Atrial planetary map

I’d happily pull out huge swathes of the library to create some actual play, and the conventions will help to encourage that. As a point in time, there are some games that are grabbing more of my attention as viable session makers:

  • Dramaguhl – a series of one shots in the ancient city for the new Tripod system
  • Carved in Stone – a short campaign in the Dark Age lands of the Picts. Mythras, OpenQuest, Keltia, Tripod, and Cepheus all in the mix as systems.
  • Stonetop – community based hearth fantasy using this lovingly put together PbtA game.
  • Embers of the Imperium – a Genesys space opera set in the Twilight Imperium universe
  • Heavy Gear 4th Ed – Open Beta and off we go to Terra Nova.
  • Forbidden Lands – and offshoot expansions lovingly rendered in Foundry.
  • Hostile – a ready cooked setting for Cepheus Engine and a chance to play grim and industrial SF of the 1980s. I hesitate as the more hope laden Eventide might keep my spirits up better through the current difficult times. Stil, Hostile, looks fantastic. 

VTTs

I’m going to need to decide what I’m doing about VTTs next year. Do I continue to subscribe to Forge hosting for Foundry? It’s really the only way I’d consider using Foundry, but is a cost that I’d need to weigh up along with all the others. If I’m going to get a lot of use out of Foundry then certainly worth it.

The Role VTT is probably the one for me. The platform will continue to develop over the course of the year as they have a money and a team behind them. Role will also become a subscription service next year, so that will provoke some serious decision making.

Lets Role VTT, will also come fully through next year. Although I’ve moved away from it, I backed the development as a thank you for all the good times I’ve enjoyed using it. If I could have decyphered the shett builder it would have got a lot more use in tandem with Discord AV. It’s a back burner option

The ‘Grand Processional’ 

I have no idea if face to face conventions will be a thing from April. At time of writing it isn’t looking that good. I’ve enjoyed the online convention experience, so will do that anyway, and some more Con4eR 4th Edition D&D is likely. I’d like to get out and about if possible.

Conventions in the processional so far: Revelation, Seven Hills, North Star, UK Games Expo, Continuum, Grogmeet, Owlbear & the Wizard’s Staff, Furnace, Dragonmeet.

Writing

Is it a premonition, a protent, that I leave writing to the end? Will creative game writing get the pull up it needs to get some good content created? That’s certainly my intent and, as I’m looking forward, I’ll go with the expectation that some creativity will happen. What’s on the cards?

  • Get Tripod Essence out the door.  Fully written and languishing in layout, this needs some Dom attention really, but if plans don’t align, I’ll just have to get the layout done as best I can. If I continue to be too slow in Publisher I’ll find another way.
  • Dramaguhl City on the Edge of Nowhere – 70% written so far. Get the writing done and work out how to get this complete Tripod game and setting to a book stage. Sharing the joy with Dr Mitch.
  • Eventide – a Cepheus Deluxe setting for some Traveller inspired space opera.
  • Heroes of High Fantasy – writing for self use with possible extension to a publication. Adaptation of Sword of Cepheus to a High Fantasy setting. Will draw on Cepheus Deluxe and the SRD for 5e Spells. Blend in some 4e Powers for extended Talents and we have a simple and sleek fantasy game. I have notes…

I’m stopping there. There are other possibilities, but let’s be honest (with myself), I’d be doing really well if I got any or all of that lot done within the year.

All in all that would be a fantastic gaming year. The retirement will bring more time for many things, including fiction, family, walking and gardens, plus some of the above.  

 

Posted in Cepheus, Conventions, D&D4e, Games, Hinterspace, Publishing, Traveller, VTT, Writing | Leave a comment

A Maturing D&D 4e Campaign in Nentir Vale

Posted on December 5, 2021 by First Age

I’m reflecting on my Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition campaign, that is now 25 sessions in and been running for most of this year. It has been a lot of absorbing fun, and perhaps one of my most successful long form games, providng me an opportunity to really stretch the legs of 4e, a game that I picked up late last year in a bizarre flurry of excited eBay purchases. I’ve spoken about my love of this version of the franchise, even creating a #4eRennaisance movement, for some provocative joy. 

This update is spoiler free for my players and for others who I may introduce to this game in the future.

The 4e spending splurge needed an exonerating expression in a game, so I boldly stepped out into familiar and stranger corners of the Interwebs to advertise a game that anyone was welcome to play. It meant that I would likely have a mixed roster of known and new players and that is how it has worked out. It’s good to step out of your comfort zone, and this has worked out really well, meeting some lovely new (to me) gamers, who are now firmly in my ‘gaming buddy’ group, along with old friends who have been with me on my gaming journey for some time. Online gaming knows no geographic boundaries, so it has been fantastic to have Paul join us from over in Seattle, a great player with a deep knowledge of the game. In some ways it is especially nice to have Pete play, as he has been my lodestone on all things D&D and introduced 4e to me back in the day, at a time when I just couldn’t see its worth. How my gaming thoughts have changed!

4e plays really well. Unencumbered by any edition warring, I have found a great heroic fantasy game that feels like D&D, but with some neat twists. Set in Nentir Vale, the default ‘points of light’ setting for 4e, I have the advantage of a strong library of material from 12+ years ago, all ready to play. I’m mixing, matching and blending, leaning on the lore that’s available and creating some metaplot themes that we can explore if the game continues into next year. I hope so, as I’d like to explore the higher tiers of play in a continuous grand processional style of game, but if not, no worries, it has already delivered maximum gaming fun.

I’ve started, via the ‘Ghost Tower of Inverness’, an adventure about setting up a new point of light in the wilderness, by running through the ‘Reavers of Harkenwold’ mini campaign. The fragility of the ‘points of light’ in this northern land, without the delusion of order from the lost empire of Nerath, are exposed by the incursions of the Iron Circle, a viscious mercenary order of raiders that have their roots far to the south, and now look to extend to the ends of the world. They themselves seem driven by pacts and power from Asmodeus, so there are layers that can be explored as the story unfolds. Cross the Iron Cricle and you stand in the way of the devil lord himself…

This has proved to be a fine introduction to the setting and allowed me to interlace some other themes that might get picked up by ‘Sturm und Drang’, the increasingly notorious name of our heroic company. In some ways I’m playing this slightly as a sandbox. The backdrop will reveal itself in different ways depending on the path the group decide to take. The world is in motion and their choices have already had consequences for others. They can’t be everywhere, and this further accentuates the heroes’ importance, their unique position as influencers of destiny, changers of worlds. 

Most recently, Sturm und Drang have decided to brave the perils of The Witchlight Fens, seduced by stories of ancient treasures and enchanted powers. 

The Witchlight Fens Map

Heading west from Harkenwold they stop in the town of Duponde, which remains tantelisingly unplaced in the Vale setting, but seemed right set on the border of the Fens. A stop over point of light, but also a place down on its heels and in danger, quite literally, of being swallowed by the malign powers that drive the Fens into other darker places. Casual mention of an abandoned manor to the south, and old heirlooms awaiting, immediately set them in that direction. A good opportunity for me to think on my feet and draw together a few threads.  This detour has become a profitable visit to a crypt, meeting a recurring villain, and restoring a deceased noble family from necromantic destitution. The Fens await. Or indeed anywhere else they decide to go.

They’ve just arrived at 5th level, a nice boost with an extra feat, a new Daily power and some more Hit Points to keep them going in the fight. I’m also using a simple reputation mechanic that is slaved to level to see how their exploits precede them as they travel to new places.

The final battle in the crypt – Role VTT

I’d like to start deepening the game, potentially drawing in some PC backstory and keep with the beat of the competing powers that jostle up in this fractured old province.

We seem to be settled on Role VTT. It has great AV and just enough tools to manage a game, without the integration and automation that is so difficult to do with 4e anyway, due to the licensing limitations of the time. Although the platform is continuously developing, the feature set has remained fairly consistent. The only things I’d really want to add is Fog of War and a way of linking a token to a note box to record HP loss and other effects.

The only other major tools I use are Token Tool for creating tokens, and Masterplan for designing combat encounters. Masterplan is a full campaign building tool, so I am using a small percentage of what it can do. Creating combat encounter monsters, that the software outputs to perfectly formatted HTML, gives me a quick resource to creat encounter HTML files that I then print out and have ready to go. I scribble effects and HP loss direct on the paper, taking that away from the automation that some VTTs provide.

Masterplan Encounter Building

Even with my limited use, Masterplan has saved me countless hours of preparation and delivered amazing looking stat blocks at the push of a few buttons.

The offline Character Builder is there to help with the preparation of our PCs, if the the players want to. I use it extensively for my oneshots, and I’d use it as my source for any PC that I might ever get to play. The Builder combines a comprehensive series of compendium for PC build options with an ability to track PC progress and output to PDF. My own process is somewhat convoluted, where I output the PDF character sheet to ONeNote, which converts the pages to images, and then I add to a shareable Google Doc. All round it gives a great output and a series of character power cards which, if I was playing, I’d be tempted to print out on card and have as my deck of amazing things!

Some online resources and brilliant fan collation of lore, round out my most used resources outside of the PDFs and books that I have. I’m still collecting, but at a modest pace and only if I can find the books at a good price or they come through as POD and I want to jump on them. I have more than I need already.    

I don’t know if any of the above has conveyed my delight at finding such a terrific game, and getting to play it with such terrific people? My gaming mind is turning to next year, my retirement year, and the gaming that I hope to play. In amongst the other plans I hope that Sturm und Drang might feature as we explore ever more epic stories. 

(And, quietly, I have this hope that I too might be able to play in a 4e series as a player – but for that, we’ll just have to see…)

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Playing D&D 4th Edition at Con4eR 2

Posted on November 14, 2021 by First Age

And so ends another Con4eR, an online 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons convention, and what fun it was. Apart from anything else, this was only the second time in recent memory that I’ve actually got to play this marvellous game. My responsibilities as a DM keep me connected to the game, but not some of the nice depths to character generation and play. 

Attendance was quite low this time around, so I will need to think about timing and levels of interest for a possible number of new dates next year. In the background the Con4eR  Discord has increased by about 25 members since announcing the Con4eR 2 dates, and has now reached the heady heights of 60 members. This is more than I expected when setting off, and more people are joining every day. I take from this a continuing and vibrant interest in actually getting to play 4th Edition as the Discord isn’t really there for anything else other than to support getting the actual play online convention up and running. Interesting to see what we get next year.

It was a particular thrill to run a game set in Kallahn, the old fantasy world that I drew in a flurry of hex paper and crayons back when I was probably no more than twenty, nearly forty years ago. It’s a gaming world that has seen life in play through Chivalry & Sorcery 2nd Edition, GURPS 3rd Ed, various iterations of the Basic Role Playing engine, and FUDGE. That’s a list of games that you don’t see mentioned together very often these days and, in fact, you might have to look some of them up. So, to run a game set in Kallahn again, this time using 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, felt really good. It was nice to display just a taste of Kallahn, a world that has found new cartographic expression through Wonderdraft, a mapping software tool that has turned my old crayon hex grids into sumptuous, near poster  quality expression.

I run a game set near the Dragonspire Mountains and a rare pass to the north that has been blocked, preventing trade and communication to the fortress city of Menelcar. The player characters were commissioned by the King of Thrail to investigate and clear the pass, so that merchants and messages could run through the mountains once again. I had too much fun running an assassination attempt in an inn, which ate a lot of game with rich roleplaying and a cinematic fight. It’s a scenario I will use again.

I was fortunate to play In a game run by Paul, a very experienced DM, who deftly demonstrated what a metric tonne of online commentary will tell you is impossible with 4e. We played off grid using ‘theatre of the mind’, and played through about six exciting combat challenges, as we tried to save people at the ‘Fall of Fallcrest’. I had a really great time! It turns out that 4th Edition is flexible and capable of operating either on attractive map grids, or in your head, along with just about any other version of D&D; who knew?

This time around I got to play a Barbarian, with a bit of cathartic ‘Rage’ going on, expressed through the customary very cool powers.  I must say I really like the class and will be going back to it. Perhaps the 5th Edition badge of the Barbarian being a simple class for simple folk, could put you off? I found the 4th Edition Barbarian to be a resilient striker able to hold their own in the line against quite formidable foes .

A range of Javan’s destructive powers

One of the things that I learnt this time was that some care needs to be taken in creating characters that make good sense. I think because I use the character builder software, I naturally get all the power options, all the time! It’s easy just to click on cool stuff, without considering how the blend of powers combine to make them effective for your character. The combination of Classes, Feats and Powers can create ‘character routes’ that ideally need to be observed to give you a rounded character that makes sense. My Barbarian had some mistakes as part of the build, which meant that I couldn’t use my Rage Feature. As I worked through, I realised that a lack of this feature meant that I couldn’t use some of the aspects of the other Powers taht I had selected from the Builder sweety shop. This has proved quite instructive, and reinforces the old adage that you often learn by doing, and for me, by playing.

I both ran and played on Role VTT. It does most of what I want and is cementing itself as the VTT for me.

I’m going to set up some more dates for 2022. The convention calendar is actually quite packed, and I’d like to avoid dates where there are wonderful small-scale conventions in the UK. I really love the play experience that 4e gives you. I’m so looking forward to some more online 4e play.

Posted in Conventions, D&D4e, VTT | Leave a comment

Ssarosk Infiltrator (TL12)

Posted on October 31, 2021 by First Age

Thinking about games next year and hoping to be able to get a Cepheus Deluxe game going in a homebrew setting. This morning I had a play with the starship design sequence in the game, which feels like a simplified version of the main Cepheus SRD, reflecting the lighter touch of the Deluxe game. 

The Ssarosk are the main antagonists in my Hinterspace setting. Here is a small military grade starship that pushes their TL12 enevelope. The vessel packs a double heavy torpedo launcher punch as well as some point defence and plasma beam scorchio. Torpedoes are larger military-grade guided weapons. They pack an enormous punch, but are vulnerable to spoofing and point defense, like normal missiles. Against light-armoured civilian starships, the torpedoes inflict ‘Internal’ hit damage and 3D hits at that.

In addition to a core crew, the ship has a squad of Ssarosk shock troops and a ship boat style dropship plus two harrying fighters. 

I’m not altogether sure I have covered all the right bases with the design,  but I like what I have come up with, and would serve as a significant threat across the trailing sub-sectors. My next challeneg is to come up with deck plans and an exterior image, which I think may be beyond me. If it goes into a book I may need to commissin some help.

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Con4eR 2 Prep

Posted on October 24, 2021 by First Age

 I organise an occasional 4th Editon D&D online convention and our next outing is coming soon. Time for some prep!

Danger In Highfort Pass

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Drawing Mainworlds

Posted on October 17, 2021 by First Age

 From December I plan to start creating a detailed subsector for Cepheus Deluxe games next year. Every system in the subsector will have some detail. At present I expect that to include the mainworld UWP stats, an Isodecahedron map of the mainworld, with accompanying several hundered words of decriptive text, system orbits detail, and a short adventure tag line. All this will be in two pages, giving 60-70 pages just of world information.

I think I am very close to nailing the map side of the mainworld.

A barren test world.

This uses an online fractal generator to create the image, and then layered on top of a standard Traveller Isodecahedron in Affinity Photo. Once the base image is available, as above, I just need to decide how much I edit it further with world details drawn from the description. If nothing else the map give s anice visual and could find use in a game. 

More planning on the 2 page format to come…

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A Long Form Pause

Posted on October 17, 2021 by First Age

A synchronicity of play has brought both my long running campaigns to a brief reflective pause. 

Pathfinder 2e is more than 40 sessions in, and we are enjoying Adevnture Path blending, exploring exciting sessions of play whilst delving into the considerable player facing depths offered by the system itself. The game provides a rich hokum of fantasy fun, with a deep array of options built around about 40 pages of actual rules.

We are bringing in some new PCs to give the players an opportunity to try out some new ability trees of thematic play. The established PCs at Level 8 or 9, are sorting out their estate in Isger, whilst new heroes arrive to continue with some elven gate business. “I’m having this atrium knocked through, and a fresco of our victory agaist the ‘Shards of Sin’ immortalised over there, overlooking the estate gardens…”

I’m excited to see what chaarcters they come up with and, when they return from the next lengthy segment, they will be of equivalent level to the established characters, taking us into a troupe play mode for possible adventures beyond. I’m wanting to get the game from 9th up to at least mid teens at some point so that I can stretch out the playability question into the high tiers. I continue to think that the game scales extremely well.

Foundry, with Forge hosting is amazing. The Pathfinder 2e implementation on there is as rich as the game itself. The fact that you can buy a Paizo PDF and get it imported as a series of game assets for Foundry is icing on the cake. Combne this with Pathbuilder2 Android app for character generation (with ALL the options) and that the outputs can also be loaded into Foundry, well it’s everything I could hope for. The VTT system automates just enough to give a great game exerience. 

As it happens, in similar vein, my 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons game has also reached a pause point at 21 sessions. The heroes have recently completed The Reavers of Harkenwold and have emerged victorious, proclaimed as The Defenders of Harkenwold, with their reputation spreading to all parts of the Vale.

It’s been a fun and exciting game. We have taken a view to continue using Role VTT as it works for us, though not especially using the integrated character sheets. Generally good cameras and sound, and integrated shared dice rolling and some chat.

I’m trying to stay light on my feet with the follow-ups on this one and see how the Discord chat streams  develop (both IC and OoC). Whilst keeping options open I’ve also been prepping some detailed encounters, confident that they will get used in some kind of way.

With Con4eR, my 4e pop-up online convention happening for a second time in a few weeks, I want to take stock and start to plan for the bonanza that is next retirement year! High on my list is a return to Traveller through a setting of my own making, Eventide, and played through the Cepheus Deluxe rules. I’m excited about that, and expect it will take expression in a published sub-sector book, Foundry VTT game and at conventions. 

Taking a step back though, I’m not sure I would have expected to have been running a couple of ‘full on’ D&Ds for more than 60 sessions over the past 18 months. Crazy talk. But here we are. I’ve talked before about the long form play that the structure of D&D encourages. I’m on that train and it’s a great ride with amazing views. At the same time I’m also playing in a 5e Strahd game, so it is gaming central.

It’s good to look back sometimes, and my gaming has been great, even if expressed through a couple of systems that I would never have imagined. And now, onwards!

Posted in Cepheus, D&D4e, Games, Pathfinder, VTT | Leave a comment

Furnace XVI In Person

Posted on October 11, 2021 by First Age

 Furnace Convention has returned to the Garrison Hotel for a weekend of games, my goodness it was great to be back! We decided to hold the convention fully in the physical as a starter to our return to what we had known before. Our Covid precautions were all in place and, thanks to the national digital infrastructure put in place (hoorah for NHS Digital!), it was super easy for people to confirm their vaccination status, and recent test. We had only a couple of tests required on the day, and that was just through some easy errors.

On discussion with Newt, some online gaming was also made available at the same time, as Furnace Online, and it was so nice to see the reports of the games that took place over the weekend. Although we don’t plan to offer a hybrid style experience over our convention weekends next year, I am a big advocate for pop-up online conventions, and plan to create and attend many, both this and next year.

We are now hopeful that we can move forwards with Revelation and North Star at the Garrison Hotel next year. It was really good to support them, just as they support us. The venue were deighted to see us, with a range of new faces, some different lighting, a new posh menu for their new restaurant, but most everything familar otherwise.

After some setup I got to catch up with Andy Sangar in the bar, it had been too long. A sizeable group circled round a table and we chatted away on games and good thngs with me enjoying the nice hand pull pale ale that the Garrison had put on for us. It felt like we were fully back.

Patriot Games were there to support us, and great to catch up with Jim. Safe to say that Covid and the enforced move to a dfficult part of town centre has made it quite tough for his business. Out of nowhere (Liverpool), Michael of Emmanuel’s Collective also came along with dice and dce bags and t-shirts. Thanks!

Never have the Garrison’s vegetarian sausage! Rarely have I eaten anything more horrible. That was the only false step on a really enjoyable first day. I played in a great game of Agon, The Isle of Nimos, run by Pete Atkinson with a great crew of Greek heroes. My first time out with this version of the game, and a really tightly designed game, with a lot going on just when you need it. Fantastic start to face toface gaming and the buzz of it was great.

A football match, brought in the Wednesday fans, but I hardly saw them as I did the Morrisons meal deal thing as usual and settled into The Dungeon with some convivial chat with Jag on gaming conventions for next year.

In the afternoon I got to run a game of Degenesis for the first time and there is a lot about it I like. I won’t underestimate the amount of time I took during the week getting myself ready for this game. Dipping into the lore, ensuring I was conversant with the new system and getting the supportive bling together. The more I prepared the more I liked the game. It has deep and difficult campaign written all over it. A convention slot for something so deep and crunchy? Well, I accept a little bit daft, but I really wanted to get it to the table and hoped that prep and enthusiasm would carry me through. I appear to gravitate to slightly more crunchy systems, encased in a big complex setting. The game went well and enjoyed very much by 3 out of 5 as an enticing taster, of the players, but I think too overwhelming for the other two players.

My evening was playing in Dom’s Through Sunken Land, a fun Black Hack / OSR hybrid with a Playbook style PC build that created backstory, other protagonists, connections and setting as we played out an investigation in the Great City. This was a  slightly riotous and comedic game that hit lots of high notes. Nice to game shoulder to shoulder with some old friends, new people, and before then faceless but lovely twitterati. The game bounced between infectious jokes, ribald play and driven to a conclusion with verve and gusto. I like the game, but would probably prefer just the Black Hack mechanics, without the OSR D&D spliced on.

A wedding on the Saturday night ensured some noisy partying, which I found delightful to hear. People, enjoying themselves. The young lady in the room next to mine was certainly enjoying whatever she was doing a great deal. I hope they were all safe, in all meanings of the word. 

On the Sunday morning I had some space to just sit in the main room and do some light Cepheus worldbuilding, listening to the burble of games happening all around me. It was marvellous.

The afternoon saw a shake-up due to GM drop outs, so I ended up running TRIPOD in the city of Dramaguhl for six, but the game handled it in its stride. I had a bit too much fun with all the characters and the roleplay, and I keep forgetting how much I like my own game system! A good game to finish, and I made sure that it concluded in good time to allow people to get off to their homes.

I’ve taken today off as an extra treat to come down a little and reflect on the weekend. It was a return to convivial and personable gaming. I thin our precautions were everything we could provide and I hope it proves to have been safe for everyone. Our attendees had a great time over the weekend, with many fine games and much hobby chat. More please!

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Character Premise

Posted on September 26, 2021 by First Age

 Player characters with a premise are easier to play as distinct and deeper personas, with a story to tell in the game you are playing.

A premise is a prior set of statements from which a plot develops and has meaning. The creation of a premise for each character helps to focus their action in the stories you will tell together in the game you are playing. A premise need only be very short. A three page backstory can simply lose you in the weeds and never get your character’s narrative drivers expressed in actual play. At the end of the day, the play’s the thing. Having these motivations and internal dialogues out and in play, or simmering just beneath the surface, elevates the game you are playing to something more impactful and personal to the characters who are living through it.

Influences

Many roleplaying games have provided frameworks in which to construct premise, so this is nothing new. The simple method below was inspired by a couple of excellent blog posts by Ian O’Rourke of Fandomlife (https://www.fandomlife.net), who in turn took inspiration from Ron Edwards’ influential Sorcerer RPG, How To Write A Damned Good Novel by James L Frey, and Donald Miller’s Marketing book on ‘Building a Story Brand’. An eclectic and insightful concoction.

Here is a simple way to quickly construct a character premise. It can be applied to any roleplaying game, with the option of you adding mechanical game rewards for playing out the premise as befits the particular game you apply it to. Of course, the real reward is some more character story brought out in play.

I wanted to explore a method for the Cepheus Deluxe science fiction roleplaying game, building out ‘Stage 5: Finalize The Character’. As such the text below will briefly reference some game context, but the method is clear and shines through.

Create Your Character Premise

Character Premise is defined through three dimensions:

External: What is the player character’s core goal? What are they trying to achieve?

Internal: Why is this important to the character, what internal uncertainty might this surface?

Philosophical: What question does this premise ask of the character, the setting and the game story? 

Expressing all of them gives you a 3D premise and a more powerful story to tell. Look through the Career and Life Events collected during their career service, and check in with the Refree on the setting backdrop and the overall thrust of where the game is going. A ‘Session Zero’ is a great time to establish character premise collaboratively with your group.

Each character premise is created to be shared around the table. All players will know the characters’ premise and will be able to encourage bringing them out in play. Increasingly, as player characters become entwined in the shared narrative of the game, various levels of premise, most obviously ‘the External’, will be known between the player characters, providing in-character opportunities to bring them to the fore in play.

An Example

Traven Harp is a recently retired Scout, who had been providing vital courier services out in the trailing sectors of Hinterspace, an area that is now under threat from the incursions of the reptilian Ssurask aggressors. Trevan gained Survey Duty (what lost alien secrets did he find?), Exemplary Service (what secret mission did he undertake?), and Cybersurgery (what tech is now housed in his body?) events during his three term career.

Trevan’s premise:

External: Use my skills to aid the polities of Eventide that I call home

Internal: I always give to others, but why do I hide from myself?

Philosophical: Can our worlds be preserved when others have fallen long ago?

At the end of a play session, each player that wishes may highlight an example of how they have played to their character’s premise.  Strong playing to the character premise adds a second XP reward. This could be checked at the end of every session, or at a cadence agreed by the group.

If you are enjoying long form play then all dimensions of Premise can change over time. What new questions challenge and infuse characters as they move through their story experiences, what new fiction bubbles up?

I may return to this post from time to time as thoughts strike me as I apply this and through feedback from others.

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Eventide

Posted on September 19, 2021 by First Age

 I’m having some innocent fun with Traveller setting building, just as a thought exercise and to squeeze some creative juices. This was precipitated by the acquisition of the new Cepheus Deluxe, a really wonderful version of Traveller. I talk about it here:

Set 1000 years in our future, the game focuses on the Trailing sectors of Hinterspace, largely ignored by the introspective Empire of Stars (EOS) as they are far and away from their stagnated playground and their subservient provinces. Occasionally the Noble Houses will send their Envoys out into the deep, but otherwise these fringes of space can level up on their own.

I’ve started by looking at sector structure on the Orion Arm. This provides a simple overview of astrography and provides a context in which to zoom in. I’m aiming for one sector, and starting within one subsector, which will probably be enough for all play anyway.

Each box is a standard Traveller Sector

The alien threat is a new and active incursion, driving Spinward and into the Hinterspace sectors. EOS has started to take an interest and looking for the ‘outwilders’ to resolve the situation for them, or die trying. Mostly EOS is firming up their borders and resisting any spinward pressure into their hallowed space.

Next we zoom in with enough detail to enable some Travellermap.com possibilities. I’ve picked out the Cyronsure Sector as the place I will do gaming.

Subsector names and those of surrounding sectors

Still zooming in, I get to the subsector level and Eventide itself. I’m using this generator:

https://zhodani.space/stuff/generators/random-subsector-generator/

It generates SEC formatted outputs that can find their way into the Travellermap.com for poster and booklet outputs. A first pass of a random subsector data produces a nice map on the generator site.

A pre-edit Eventide subsector

The next stage is to hand edit the text file that created this map. I can double check the random names and tweak to my satisfaction. Hinterspace has fragmented polities, so I will check the allegience data and create a small number of powers ready for the next stage.

The subsector generator doesn’t output any extended stellar data. This isn’t strictly necessary for mapping, but when I drop down to individual system level I will want to map out in-system details, which will be strongly influenced by the stellar data. This leads to a confession. I can’t find my original Traveller LBBs, and most specifically Book 6 Scouts. This was always my go-to Traveller extended system resource. I’m hoping that they are all in the far recesses of the overladen store cupboard, but wherever they are, they need to be out and available. I don’t own T5(.1), but do have MegaTraveller which, when you plug in the errata document, gives a nice system for generating star types and world orbits.
I’ll need to make a call on which resource I use. Book6 PDF is in my Drivethru basket right now, so I might just grab it electronically anyway. For now I can move on, adding star types to the SEC formatted text files after the fact. I have tested the text and they do port into Travellermap, including appended stellar data, so I am all good to proceed.
In some ways all of the above is just foundational. The real fun starts soon when I get to unpack the UWPs, look for connections and start to get into some gameable details that will get a group of player characters busy!
I’d like to get some base outputs for some gaming. A Sector map is a given, in robust material as a centrepoint to a table. A subsector focus and some forming world data and polity information to enrich game play and get some stories told.
Who are the invading alien species? Why are they now encoroaching on human space? Will Cyronsure, close to the frontline get overrun? Will EOS stop their factional infighting and do something?
I’m looking forward to dropping into the next level of detail and see what stories will emerge. Who knows, I might actually get a convention game or two out of all this effort! 😅
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