A Review of my Gaming in 2020

Posted on December 21, 2020 by First Age

 2020 Gaming Year in Review

It is safe to say that 2020 will live long in the memory, if not for a lot of good reasons. The World has changed and we will take some time to bring ourselves back to where we were. The Covid-19 vaccines that are coming on stream offer a prospect of a more normal future,  but I expect that we won’t get back to 2019 in 2021, though big strides will be made.

It seems trivial providing a gaming review of 2020, with all that is going on, but my gaming year has been good, and definitely a silver lining. For others in the hobby, or indeed with your own interests, I hope they have provided something to keep you going through this tumultuous year.

Games Played

The games I have played this year tell a story..

80 or so games this year

This year has seen the dominance of Fantasy D20 games, particularly Pathfinder 2e, both in some actual play, and dominating my GMing too with a full on Paizo Adventure Path, ‘The Shattered Star’, bringing regular gonzo fun with this great version of D&D. I’m running this on the Lets Role VTT and with Discord for AV. Both have served me well, dealing with the tactical maps and our communication, helping to deliver a smooth game. This is a remarkable return to a full on campaign, with 20 sessions down, and the prospect of the same or more in 2021. 

If you then add in my play of D&D 5e via Dom’s fun Curse of Strahd game, and the discovery of Green Ronin’s superb True20, then D20 fantasy has an almost complete victory. 

True20 could prove to be a continuing quiet hit for me. The change in focus with the removal of Hit Points and the different feel to the Powers system, creates a slightly different flavoured game. I’m probably going to leave it RAW, but have already come up with some minor tweaks that will give it a bit of a spring clean. The Greyhawk ‘West Marches’ style setting has got a lot going for it, and I hope it might continue to thrive. Player interest will dictate.

In a final roll of the d20, I have discovered that the polarising 4th Edition is an excellent version of D&D too, and have gone on a late year Christmas eBay spending spree. Oh dear. There won’t be time to get 4e to the VTT this year, but I’m already building some encounters in the Role VTT, along with Mike Schley’s great Harkenwold map set. I contacted Mike to check about using his maps whilst streaming, and he generously replied, giving his blessing. As such, I expect to see the Reavers of Harkenwold feature, somehow, in 2021.

With all this excitement I haven’t forgotten about 13th Age either, which appears to be 4th edition’s Indie makeover lovechild. In some ways it was the 13th Age RPG that took me on this journey and I have this nagging suspicion that I will return full circle to it before that long.

I’m starting to look increasingly contrary by not picking up the current 5th Edition of D&D. Possibly just too obvious; I’m enjoying the play of it, and I will focus on others for my GMing. 

Other notables include a short campaign of Qin, which I was very glad to play. We had to wrestle the rules to the floor, and made some tactical adjustments to them to get them flowing better. I’m glad to have played it, and I remain enamoured with the game part after our ‘legal adjustments’. I think other players probably wanted to move to some other ruleset towards the end, but I was inspired by Tom’s nicely put together game to perhaps look at it again, perhaps at a convention.

Online and New Endeavours

The necessary transfer to online conventions has ensured that I still get to play with a wider variety of great folk and some fine games. I like the format quite a bit, though hope to mix it up with a physical Furnace in October 2021.

Find me on Anchor FM

I launched a gaming podcast during 2020, inspired by some of the good folk over at the Dungeon Musing Discord. It’s been a lot of fun to pull that together and work out how to technically get the recording and editing to a reasonable position. It’s another string to the bow, and will enjoy putting out episodes in the future. I’m also enjoying a range of Podcasts as company on my lockdown walks round the local woods. Grognard Files, Dungeon Musings, Live from Pellam’s Wasteland, Smart Party, Rollistes, Mud & Blood all feature amongst others.

Acquisitions

The games library has, inevitably, grown during 2020. The games that I have run have been supported with some purchases, scoring some rare True20 rulebooks for a great price. Coriolis and Alien saw some Free League additions; such fine games. Kickstarters continued to flow in. Several years on, more Modiphius Kickstarter content wanders to me lethargically, for Conan and Infinity. Mythic D6 and some PbtA Joshiness round out the year. D&D4e is coming in waves as the year comes to a final end. A new shelf unit may need to be an early 2021 acquisition.

A rapid acquisition for 2021 4e gaming

The Role VTT was another Kickstart this year. The early access shows a lot of promise, accepting it has some way to go. A bit of fog of war and some light token editing and I think I will have much of what I need on there. Role’s interface focuses on the audio visuals, and once people work out how to get on it I have to say it is much more robust than many. It is also pretty much ‘streaming ready’, so I had some fun working out how to do that with OBS, pretending to be a hip twenty something and dragging some lovely gaming buddies onto the Twitch and YouTube silver screen. I’ll stream some more next year. 

My book writing has been at a very slow pace. Tripod Essence is now with Dom for layout. Hope that can be done before the end of March. Tripod Daramaguhl is next and I hope to get that done with Paul over 2021. Will consider trying a Kickstarter with it. 

Looking Ahead to 2021

I’m expecting that any return to near normal will take some considerable time. A similar pattern to 2020 seems likely and, in any case, I expect to continue with the online games now regardless. Here’s what’s on the stack as I look forward:

  • Pathfinder 2e. Book 2 and 3 of the Shattered Star Adventure Path. There’s a decent chance that we should run through those in the weekly game. PF2e will therefore dominate again with increased numbers.
  • True20 in Greyhawk will be available throughout the year for those who want to go on a quest. So, possibly some more streaming too.
  • D&D4e. A mini campaign of Reavers of Harkenwold. Exactly how I get to fit this in without a Dungeon Muser style focus I really don’t know!
  • Coriolis. I may get back to running some of this for the gang taking us further along the Mercy of the Icons campaign.
  • Curse of Strahd. More glass cannon fun with my sorcerer in Dom’s excellent D&D game.
  • I hope to get either StarForged or Hostile to virtual North Star convention
  • Can I squeeze in some Traveller set in Gateway Sector?
  • I hope to play in @pedr D&D4e Eberon. Exciting!
  • Plus all the surprises as my gaming buddies put together some fun games that I can join in with.
  • I’m enjoying being part of the Role VTT development and seeing where it goes in 2021
  • I’ll be backing the Let’s Role VTT on Kickstarter in January 2021

I can’t speak to the rest of 2021, but I think the gaming year ahead is going to be really very good indeed. Lots of great people and good times. D&D4e too? Blimey!

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Noughty but Nice

Posted on October 31, 2020 by First Age

 I have a reputation as one who chases the shiny, the new hotness, an ever revolving swirl of Kickstarters and spanking new tabletop roleplaying game lovelies. A recent example would be the new Warpstar from Fire Ruby Design. Dom’s provided a great review of this excellent fastplay space opera right over here. 

Of late though, I have been obsessed with abandoned and forgotten games of the 2000s in Omni and True20. Though slightly different games, they are close kin, utilising a single d20, bonus driven to get high numbers. One uses a universal outcome table, the other cleaves closer to the D20 OGL from back in the day. Both are generic systems for play across types of settings.

It’s been interesting gathering resources and thoughts on these systems from the wild Internet. Whereas both  may have some adherrents, they seem to be semi-abandoned by the game playing population. “I had a lot of fun with that game back in the day” whilst swerving around 404 dead Yahoo websites. The search has me pattern matching old memories and their footprint on the Web. Physical copies are hard to come by at decent prices without American shipping.

In a way it is a bit embarrassing to say, “hey, I’m really getting into True20”. People will look at you, furrow their brows and think “yeah done that, moved on”. It’s like turning up to a party that is long finished, only to find the traces of empty bottles and some discarded food packaging. The energy has departed.

I’m not bothered. True20 is currently front and centre of my interest, presenting a nice implementation of the d20 SRD, factoring in powers, modular class and levels and, critically, a damage system that throws out hit points, presents some wound conditions and a ‘not increasing by much’ toughness save to resist incoming damage. This seems to me to completely alter the feel of the game. Whereas characters become harder to hit, they remain vulnerable to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

But a game read and liked isn’t as much fun as a game liked and played. So, I am blending a whole range of things.

  • True20 game system
  • Greyhawk game setting – yes another even more oldie
  • Borrowing from a Westmarch style of play, with a community of players, tempting maps, rumours and scenario possibilities but formation is player led.
  • A wiki to provide some lore history: http://greyhawk.ttrpg.uk
  • Utilise the brand new Role VTT.
Role VTT – just me on it…

I’m loving this combination of crinkly, sagging and virile. The wiki has been great fun to setup and tweak to make it look a bit prettier. It’s nice to have my own hosting again, with a really good company; it just means I can do projects like this whenever I feel like it and have fun.
So, welcome to the abandoned. Maybe roleplaying games are like the gods, in that they gain power from active worship or play? In which case I call on all fellow initiates of the True20 path! Unite and lets play some games together?

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Blade and Spell

Posted on October 9, 2020 by First Age

 In the background I’m writing a new fantasy RPG using the underlying Omni engine, with dollops of ideas from Talislanta 5th, Omega, and the new draft of Godsend Agenda. It’s presently just jottings of ideas and systems to create a blend that I’d like to play and run at my table.

The core of the Omni system is largely intact, it’s very recognisably part of the Talislanta lineage, with a preservation of the ‘Effect Based’ magic system with the numerous Modes and Traditions coming across with only a surface editing for legibility and consistency. I’ve made a change to the way Attack magic works, but otherwise it’s untouched as I love it.

Dice are likely to move to the Godsend Agenda system from 1d20 to 2d10, with doubles kept and rolled again, unless 00, which is always a zero result. It ups the average slightly and always gives a character a chance to go off the charts and be awesome.

The action economy is quite important to get right. There is the mildest of Pathfinder 2 influence here, but otherwise it is ‘you can do three things’, encouraging movement and action. Another minor change is to recognise that all ‘attacks’ in the game are in fact simultaneous exchanges between two opponents. The character with the initiative gets to decide if they want to initiate the exchange, ‘attacks’ and has control of the dice roll and the likelihood of winning and inflicting damage. On a ‘Failure’ result for the exchange initiator they have to take half damage from their opponent and a Mishap result inflicts full damage to the initiator. As initiative moves from one protagonist to another, each gets to move or decide to initiate an exchange. Stamina and the expenditure of Hero Points may also play a part. 

An exchange reflects a number of blows and attempts to parry. As per Talislanta 5th, you can choose to attack multiple opponents with a cumulative -5 to your skill rating per additional opponent, or flurry multiple blows at an individual, giving the potential for more damage. This can be partially offset by expending ‘Stamina’ a new secondary attribute for characters, or by spending a Hero Point for an additional free action at no penalty. Defending multiple opponents simply uses your core skill as a ‘Degree of Difficulty’ to the attacking opponent, though I think you could dial this down by applying a penalty to defending multiple foes. We have actions and resources interplaying here, and I think playtest will help to hone and balance the numbers to get a system where tactical choices matter, but play is fast. I’m also going for the ‘you can take three to four good hits before going down’ rule, Critical hits excepting.

There are, already, some nuances to the exchange system. You can choose not to actively oppose in an exchange, because you are trying to preserve your actions, or think you can ‘take the hit’. I’m as yet undecided how to default the applicable ‘Degree of Difficulty’ for that and for other unopposed rolls.

Here are some secondary attribute tracks that I’m messing about with.
Health Ancestry Base + CON
Recover Health  at a rate of 1+CON (minimum of 1) every day of full rest.
When at half Health your character is Bloodied and all physical actions are at -1.
When at a quarter Health your character is Wounded and all physical actions are at -3.
When at zero Health or less your character is Dying and cannot undertake any actions. Every 1+CON rounds make a Death Save with a penalty = to negative Health Points 
Resolve Ancestry Base + WIL
Recover Resolve at a rate of 1+WIL (minimum of 1) every day of full rest.
When at half Resolve your character is Wavering and all Mental actions are at -1.
When at a quarter Resolve your character is Faltering and all Mental actions are at -3.
When at zero Resolve or less your character is Broken and cannot undertake any actions. Every 1+WIL rounds make a Madness Save with a penalty = to negative Resolve Points 
Stamina Ancestry Base + CON
Recover Stamina at a rate of 1+CON (minimum of 1) every 10 minutes of full rest.
When at half Stamina your character is Fatigued and all physical actions are at -1.
When at a quarter Stamina your character is Exhausted and all physical actions are at -3.
When at zero Stamina the character is Collapsed and can take no action. The character must rest for 8 hours to recover to half original Stamina.

Anyway, I’m messing about with this at a game for Furnace convention this weekend, and running Tripod too, which means it’s a full on playtest masquerading as games weekend!

Hope nothing breaks…

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Scheherazade

Posted on September 20, 2020 by First Age

 I ran Scheherazade, the One Thousand and One Nights RPG at The Owlbear and Wizard’s Staff #OBaWS3 online convention last night. Much fun was had with a great team of players who threw themselves into the magical setting with great gusto.

With thanks to https://twitter.com/OldScouserRPing for capturing a moment in time in the session.

The system is a clever and simple d6 dice pool, with a fate die to nuance, and sixes that trigger equipment keywords. Some light complexities are packed into the game design and, as a system, it has a lot of utility beyond my slightly Disney take on ancient Persia.

The startup was complicated as half the players had either not signed up to the lets-role.com VTT or had struggled to do so, requiring us to play with dice rolls half on the VTT and half on Discord. I tried to front load all this by getting character selections sorted in advance of the session, but we got there in the end. In part, due to this, I also overran, which I really don’t like to do. There is probably about 3 online sessions worth of adventure there and though I knowingly streamlined, it proved a bit too much for the sub three hours I had left after the setup shenanigans.

A nice session, enjoyed by all, with the cutest of game engines in a setting full of magic and delight. I shall do more.

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Time with Dad

Posted on August 31, 2020 by First Age

 It’s been a real priviledge to spend some dedicated time with my Dad. Nearly 88, he’s doing really well, and still has his warm charm and gentle humour that makes people around him laugh and smile. Special moments to be treasured.

Here we are all masked up exploring Bristol’s Aeronautic Museum, a place that we have both been to seperately, but now together.

We got to spend some time with my sister Ruth, and Ross too, as we visitied Clevedon and their beautiful victorian pier.

Long journeys back to Leeds together today. We still have lots of Jelly Babies and Pastels left, so all good. 😆 

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Gaming Bonanza

Posted on August 2, 2020 by First Age

It’s all going on and it is all good.

The lock-down gaming bonanza continues with a whole host of things happening at about the same time. The volume of games continues to astound me, and I’m tame compared to some of my yet harder core gaming buddies.
Being in the midst of Gencon online has boosted my play by another three games, with the regular campaigns continuing thick and fast.
I’ve launched a Discord server to talk about the Omni system, one of my favourites. Come along and join in if you like? Here’s a  limited use link to get in on the action: https://discord.gg/G5QJVWF
As another string to my bow, I’ve started a podcast to keep me talking, called ‘Gaming From the First Age’. I’m now three episodes in and enjoying the monologues and reflections. Half an hour tops, upbeat burbling about what I’m enjoying in tabletop RPGs. I’m using Anchor as the place to create it, and leave it to syndicate to a lot of the big platforms. Have a listen here: https://anchor.fm/first-age
Gencon Online, The Owlbear and the Wizards Staff and Furnace are all on the horizon. At OBaWS I’m running Scheherazade: The Thousand and One Nights RPG, an absolute whimsical delight of classic Arabian adventure using a player facing simple D6 dice pool engine. I’m enjoying preparing the game in Lets-role.com VTT, doing the bare minimum of dice automation and putting up some images and music ready for the game
With the Pathfinder forging forward and the Coriolis spluttering on slightly, I’m starting to plan for a Thursday regular game. I have a few options, including Artesia, more Pathfinder, or a freewheeling game of Omni, which all appeal. I’ve found a campaign art book and light framework – ‘Keys to the Kingdom‘ by Chris Walton. It looks like a great place to do some open gaming.
Do I go Omni, or bring out some more Pathfinder 2e, now augmented by the Advanced Players Guide? Or, indeed, do I simply apply Tripod, which is with Dom for layout?
Options, creativity and excitement abound at the moment. Good stuff.
Posted in Conventions, Games, Omni, Pathfinder, Publishing | Leave a comment

Omni – rediscovering a classic

Posted on July 4, 2020 by First Age

The short TRIPOD Essence book is done. Dom is sorting out layout by discovering the capabilities of Affinity Publisher and getting us to a neat little 6×9 book on Drivethru that has pretty much the same aesthetic as the original Wordplay game. That’s exciting!

This has got me thinking about systems and my perennial and pointless quest for the perfect system for me. It doesn’t exist, at least not for all things, but there are many good ones out there. Whilst doing a Drivethru and disk archive trawl I stumbled upon an old favourite that I only managed to get to the table in a minor way. This game is the Omni system that powered a range of Morrigan Press titles, most notably Atlantis: The Second Age and Talislanta.

I had kind of forgotten that I was head over heels in love with Omni and have spent a good chunk of the afternoon rediscovering my enthusiasm for this simple and flexible generic system, reminding myself why I am so very enamoured with it. So much so that me and Tom ran a little homage website for the system back in the day.

The system is a simple 1d20 roll high mechanic, where you add bonuses for attribute, skill and circumstantials and remove the ‘degree of difficulty’, which could be an opponents ability or a set difficulty for a task. Roll the 1d20 and apply the final modifier against a standard and consistent table of results, which allow for fumbles, failure, partial success, success and critical results. Flexible, point buy, character generation, with characteristics, skills, talents, ancestries, callings all in the mix. Jerry D. Grayson’s development of the system in the newer edition of the game adds some well conceived ideas on top, including hero points, renown, indulgences and other sword and sorcery goodness. Jerry’s lifepath character generation really fleshes out the heroes and embeds them in the antideluvian world.
You only need the 1d20 in play. Weapon damage is based on a set amount modified by the quality of your success.
The magic system is freeform, but built around a fantastic core that lets you build effects up from scratch. In fact everything builds around some common core principles, giving the game a really solid feel.
The system has been used to power a number of other genres, including steampunk and ancient Greece space opera. It is very flexible and I’m pretty sure it sits alongside your Cypher and Savage Worlds niche of multi genre action games.
With an Artesia game beckoning for later in the year, I really shouldn’t be diverted, but it is Omni, my old favourite, back to show that it hasn’t lost any of its lustre. At least for me, when I ran the game it foundered slightly on my ‘Thursday group rocks’ as the system didn’t ignite one or two of the group. In a way I can see why. It goes about its business in a no nonesense, workman like way. Perhaps even ‘bland’ and simplisticly. Maybe that’s partly why I like it. It underpins and enables without showing off too much.
I shall yet dally some more. Sunday beckons and a chance to tinker. Perhaps I have found my long desired game engine for Tekumel?
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Gods – another beautiful French RPG

Posted on June 23, 2020 by First Age
On the basis of the free Kickstarter I have decided to jump in early and pre-order the Gods roleplaying game. This sumpteously illustrated RPG is a full on dark sword and sorcery affair, with the players acting as heroes that proclaim by their deeds the resurgence of the old forgotten old gods.
I am a Chosen One.
Set in the vast sprawling Wildlands, the hroes ill forge a new future for the lands around them.
The game system is a simple d10 dice pool of the World of Darkness variety. A difficulty is set and the pool is built from attributes, skills, specialities, equipment and other factors. Dice that equal or beat the difficulty are successes. Skills also allow limited rerolls of certain dice if the player wishes. Damage is based on a set number plus the successes of a strike that gets through defences. Armour absorbs. Wounds are at three levels with a threshold that the damage must beat to decide which type of wound it will be. Simple and easy to apply. There are some mechanics for groups functioning togetehr to give bonuses, which look like fun. I like it.
There are also shards of the gods which can be weilded by heroes for mystical effect. I’ll run the quickstarter and see how we go. It should be played on Lets-Role to get the full Gallic experience!
More on this game to come…
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Set a course for online conventions. Hit it!

Posted on June 1, 2020 by First Age
My esteemed convention co-organiser, Dom, has already summarised the development and delivery of North Star in his recent blog post here: https://delta-pavonis.blogspot.com/2020/05/north-star-online-2020-last-best-hope.html
A few observations from me to round off North Star and plan ahead for Furnace and, perhaps, others…
I was really glad to see such good feedback from our attendees. Lovely to see that you all had a good time when you were with us. All the games I participated in were engaging and great fun. Everything from a simple Google Meet through to Lets Role and Roll20 served very well indeed.
The convention was pulled together in a few weeks, building on the existing anticipation of a real life ‘meet-up’. That’s a remarkable achievement in itself. Some of the back stage work can be refined for further conventions but the structure and tools are there for more to come.
It was a good move to disperse control to GMs to organise their own tables within the slots they had allocated. This devolved the effort to bring the players to the virtual tables and allowed for a multiplicity of login options to get to the games.
The tech out there is now really good. There were some audio missteps from Discord and one I saw reported from Google Meet, so having a back-up option to switch to is a good idea for GMs. Have it ready if the planned communications let you down. You can’t do anything about a player or two who is struggling with a wet string connection or other issues, but on the whole people connected and played just fine.
Guy’s idea for us to see if The Mitchener Arms could be open on the Saturday night was a nice idea, and we could look at that again. Thanks to Dr Mitch in his landlord guise. I have one or two other ideas for some supoorting pieces to add to any future events we might put on.
I got to work out how Open Broadcast Studio (OBS) worked and had most of the right kit to use it for a virtual video welcome. It was fun to play with the tech and there will be more opportunities to use it down track.
Furnace will happen on October 10th/11th. I will consult and listen, and ultimately make a call on whether we are physically meeting or online. Asking me today, I expect that we will be online. Between myself, Dom and Elaine, we’ll consider the best game organisation options for Furnace.
There’s a lot going on at the moment. We are all working our way through the lockdown in our own particular way in our own circumstances. It was good to spend some time gaming together and look forward to bringing more later in the year.
Stay Safe, Play Games, Have Fun.
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Cameron builds me a new PC

Posted on May 15, 2020 by First Age

Thanks to my Cam for being the technical expert over the past few days as we have discussed a new PC> Cam specified the components and checked them through with me. I ordered and he built it, demonstrating considerable knowledge and skill.

It’s a Ryzen 3 processor, with onboard Vega 8, 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD, all housed in a nice little Coolermaster case. Hopefully just right for me, with some mappage, some VTT play and maybe some Twitch streaming.
Cheers Cam! x

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