Earthdawn: The Age of Legends

Posted on March 5, 2024 by First Age

I’m a big fan of Nathan Russell’s Freeform Universal RPG rules, especially as found in the draft 2nd edition and found expression in a range of games such as: Neon City Overdrive, Tomorrow City and others. Neat D6 dice pool with positive and negative dice cancelling, built on descriptive tags, with a Forged in the Dark result range on the highest uncancelled positive die. It’s a weathered eye, intuitive appreciation, that may see some actual play at Seven Hills very soon.

When I woke up to the realisation that Earthdawn – The Age of Legend was a light narrative take on this great fantasy game, and based on FU, and that there was a DrivethruRPG GM sale going on, well the confluence of portents summoned me to action and acquisition!

The physical book is on its way, in an intriguiing 8×8 size format. I went Hardback and standard colour as a compromise due to cost, but I think it will work out great.

The PDF comes in a couple of flavours. There is both a book reproduction and also a more traditional sized, no art, optimised version for screen reading. I have coursed through the optimised version and have liked what I have found.
The game has significantly tweaked FU, whilst keeping the lightness of touch. Decomposing the design, with its Karma points, Tiers of power and lists of Talents and spells, left me thinking that I would do as they actually suggest: run the game straight with Nathan’s FU, drawing on the copious lists of cool options as ‘ready for the character sheet’ text.
Pick your race and discipline (yes, of course I want to be a sky raider), unlock your Talent list, tag yourself up with cool phrases and throw yourself in, though not overboard, into the world of Earthdawn.
I kept a wary eye for the extra rules weight that I would have to excise, but it never really emerged. The game is very light on its feet, designed with short campaigns in mind. In actuality, if you are thoughtful about advancement, and reflect on how you might blend in the four ascending ‘Circles of Mastery’ to provide some additional mechanical effect to your hero’s journey, then you have plenty of expansion space for a longer form game, should you so wish.
As someone new to Earthdawn, I felt I got enough to light my way for a deeper exploration. You get a succinct and direct primer as to what Earthdawn is all about. The text is resplendent with categories and tags that themselves say something about the unique setting. A dedicated section on Airships and Riverboats will get you about the place in some style. I liked the guidance on setting up your start environment for play, with a fully fleshed out example.
To fully explore the wonders of Earthdawn, I think you could do with dipping into the sizable corpus of legacy tomes, all of which are listed at the back of the book. I appear to have ‘bundled’ a sizable collection of Earthdawn 4e books, which provide a recent iteration of the more traditional Earthdawn Step system. Perhaps a few of the old PDFs might sidle over to my cavernous cloud vaults for Foundry VTT enthronement?
Ah yes, and I see that there is a 4e Foundry system. Hmm. I do wonder though, if I should just keep with FU, use my own simple custom sheet on Foundry, and sail off into the stormy waters of adventure in The Age of Legend!

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Heroic Fantasy 2nd Edition

Posted on February 25, 2024 by First Age

 After some protracted print proof tennis, the update to Heroic Fantasy, in PDF and softback book, has been published on DrivethruRPG here: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/461381/heroic-fantasy-2nd-edition.

The second edition is resplendent with new art, layout, and expanded with new kin, archetypes, magic and monsters. The game has new rules that use the ‘dice ladder’ throughout. Armour now absorbs damage.

The game provides an all-in-one package to play heroic fantasy games of wild combat, fiendish monsters and powerful magic. It uses simple and accessible rules that blend traditional and indie flavours into an appetising experience.

Find within:

  • Smooth game rules based on The Black Hack, reordered and polished with additional explanation and descriptions
  • Choose from the eight kin, each with their own flavour
  • Choose from ten archetypes, full of special abilities and magic
  • Personalise your characters with signature knowledge and skills to give you an advantage
  • Face the intervention of Fate – rolling equal to your ability creates special narrative intervention
  • Enchant your own items of power. Magic item creation rules
  • Hold against the Hordes of enemies. Rules to manage many adversaries attacking one PC
  • Never forget that the gods still breathe. Follow a god and choose morality
  • Ready for when friend becomes foe. Guidance on PVP action
  • Some new Monsters to supplement the big list
  • A short adventure location: The Sorcerer’s Lair
  • A fast play and accessible roleplaying game, with everything needed for the beginner and more experienced player alike. Long and shorter form play supported.

The book is graced with full colour pages of Paul Tomes‘ fantastic art.

Templates to play Heroic Fantasy in Foundry VTT are available from the FAE website.

I’m running the game at Airecon this year, but would like to get a few fantasy adventures underway on Foundry too if at all possible. 

I feel that with this book properly out, I can start to think about the next one. So many options!

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Linux Adventures – A new start

Posted on January 29, 2024 by First Age

Well, I have gone and done it, and switched operating systems on my main PC, moving from Windows 10 to the Fedora 39 Workstation Linux distribution. There is that moment, when you look at the disk partitions, and hover over the ‘remove’ option. Took a deep breath and away went Windows.

Preparation has involved a number of slow forming things. My cheap second hand laptop has had Fedora since it arrived, allowing me to get re-acquainted to the lovely Gnome desktop environment and some of the apps that are a few clicks away. I go back to 1995, when you had to hack config files to get the monitor to display something, so it is safe to say that the desktop Linux world has moved on. It’s a really smooth experience now, with a library of apps that I wouldn’t be without.
I threw some money at the move, doubling my RAM up to 32 Gbs of DDR4 and 1TB of M2 storage. A small investment into the little tower that my son built for me a few years ago. The system should see me right for years ahead.
The switch felt a good option for me, and now I discover the joys and, no doubt, some of the wrinkles and problems.

Data that was not already Cloud based was shoveled onto a portable disk, for a considered return when the new system was up and running. The Fedora Media Writer makes it very easy for you to create a bootable USB drive with the operating system poised within to launch and install. A quick hack of the BioS to enable the correct boot order and there it was. The only tricky piece came when I moved to create a Virtual Machine using Boxes to run Windows 10 inside the Linux distribution itself. When I got a ‘no KVM’ error, some smart googling was needed to find the BIOS setting on the motherbord that enabled virtul machines, lost in the depths of CPU frequencies. I fancied myself an apprentice sorcerer who was delving into blasphemous and dangerous lore, in which I could so easily lose my soul.
So, I now just need some fonts and some patience as I acclimatise, but it feels really good and will prove to be an enduring productive base.
I have, already, had my first gotcha. I play with a tabletop roleplaying game online streaming group, where the GM has very particular display requirements for his Roll20 VTT sessions. For technically inexplicable reasons, he doesn’t seem to be able to get what he wants with Chrome based browsers so we use Firefox. I ran a test of my new Linux system using Firefox and everything looked great, only to find, when we were all online, that no-one else could see my webcam, though I could see everyone else. I had to scuttle off to a back-up option. I’ll keep trying, but that might just be one that I have to let go. I’m hopeful that a Chromium based browser in Foundry is OK…
More to come.
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Gods RPG

Posted on January 13, 2024 by First Age

Arkhane Asylum’s Gods RPG has finally landed, lost in Kickstarter sludge for a number of years (I think). The game has a Quickstart on DrivethruRPG, and will become more generally available in February.

An early, first pass read, looks very promising. It’s a D10 dice pool game with varying difficulties and thresholds for success (called ‘Handicap’ in the translation, which will need a rename, such as ‘Complication’). Trait, Skill and a possible speciality, provide your base pool. Skill provides both a bonus to the pool and a potential re-roll of one or more dice.  You also have some more resources that you can spend, including Nerve (extra dice into a pool, capped by the level of the trait you are using), and Grit (extra re-rolls, similarly capped). The group also have access to somethnig called a ‘Party Pool’ (yeah I have the same image – will rename to Group or Company), which provides bonus dice for shared actions depending on the morale of the group as a whole.

There are other factors, drawing on the core theme of the game, which is the journey that each hero has as they become a trusted chosen of their god. Pools of Humanity and Divinity can be used, Shards of power and Divine Favours from your god.

Combat looks fun, with you picking the difficulty of your attack (depending on your weapon expertise), setting the opponent’s difficulty for defence. Damage is increased by unopposed successes and absorbed by armour. Damage that gets through needs to beat one of three ascending thresholds to deliver one of three types of wound.

NPCs use a simplified structure for fast play.

This mechanical quick look doesn’t touch on the rich sword and sorcery world that the game is set in. The Wildlands look lush and packed with adventure potential.

I have constructed a simple Foundry VTT dice roller for online play. Once again, I’m using the Custom System Builder to create simple functional sheets, that at least work, if nothing like as pretty as a properly developed system.

Here’s an example monster, using the NPC Template. The stats are simlified to ‘attack’ and ‘action’ and action using identified specialities. They will be quick to deploy in sizable numbers!

I have some more reading to do, diving into the Wildlands, where the game is set. There are ready to face antagonists, not least from the Empire of Lox, who will stand in your way as you act as a ‘Chosen One’, a unique avatar of one of the old gods, who are seeking to return. I’ll certainly post more as I get up to speed.

I think the fevered development of a practical way to play the game online, using the core of Foundry’s capabilities, reflects an excited rush to get some actual play in. It would be fair to say that I have overdone the VTT preparation, as you could easily play the game with paper sheets, maybe a dice roller, and (preferable for me) webcams. Well, there we are and it is done now, at least to a level that my rudimentary skills in the Custom System Builder module will allow. I’m happy to share the templates with anyone who might find them interesting. You might also improve on them and share back!

More to come as I develop some sessions on Foundry and play the game.

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More Foundry Shenanigans

Posted on January 6, 2024 by First Age

Catapulted into action by wise words, I spent some time yesterday redoubling my efforts to get a workable character sheet onto Foundry VTT. There is a VTT for all online gamers, including ‘just some webcams will do’, and Foundry seems to be one that I have got to know, and pay, with subscriptions for hosting and a Patreon for the LiveKit module developer. In the mould of the big ‘map and token’ VTTs, I prefer it immeasurably to Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds, with the option to dial back its features, should I wish, simply to have great AV, some nice pictures, and fun dice rolls.

Some of my games do not have a system on Foundry, so I muck about with lighter VTTs with different design aesthetics. Role, Alchemy and Quest Portal all have a different vibe and, in theory a quick uptake for actual play. Reality intrudes to tell me that I spend a bit too much time on game setup, whichever one I have elected to use. I am no coder, so the Custom System Builder on Foundry gives me a fighting chance to get something running. Even here, I glaze over at some of the functions available, and am acutely conscious of my limitations, but perseverance has paid off a little.
Here’s a sheet I have now prepared for Heroic Fantasy 2e, the game that is my next book, soon to be released, print proof allowing. It is a game that I have realised that I would like to play more of in 2024.
The main tab

Second of five tabs

I know. drab and functional, but I think it will enable shared interactive play on the platform, and I can throw pretty pictures about to hide the utilitarian sheets. Maybe with this success, I can focus on one VTT for now?

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Bloodwood

Posted on January 2, 2024 by First Age

A few sessions of fantasy gaming on offer. Streamed to YouTube.

Heroic Fantasy 2nd Edition (The Black Hack based)

3-4 sessions
Fortnightly Thursday 14:00 GMT
Session Zero: Thursday, February 8th, 14:00 GMT

Your adventurous company are travelling North to Redstone, protecting Atticus, or more specifically, his trade wagon of goods.

You have already heard strange stories of the village, a place that is falling into ruin due to the aggressively encroaching Bloodwood forest. There are no routes through this dense forest, effectively sealing any further passage.  Lord Vasco, protector of the nearby lands, is missing.

  • A mystery for your company to solve.
  • Dangers to face
  • A village to save

The game will be played on AlchemyRPG VTT and streamed on YouTube (as a bit of a test for me and a showcase). Internet connection, webcams and audio. Characters will be created and everything is provided.

Let me know if you’d like to play?

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A Role VTT Alternative

Posted on December 28, 2023 by First Age

I have a continuing need for a lightweight VTT that enables some custom sheet design, integrated video, and a pleasant interface. Essentially, this is for games I want to run where Foundry VTT does not have a system. I have fiddled around with the Foundry Custom System Builder module, and although I can make something work, the sheets look ugly, and will continue to be so, beyond my CSS skills. This VTT requirement has been ably taken up by Role, but with the loss of webcams and audio I have decided to look elsewhere, at least for now.

If I want an integrated audio visual interface with simple to add custom sheets, then I think there is only one other game in town at the moment, and that looks to be Alchemy VTT. So, for an afternoon, I have been playing with it to see if it could fill the gap. So far, it seems to be a tentative ‘yes’. Here’s me on the webcam bar with the beginnings of a custom game of Heroic Fantasy 2e using the Bloodwood adventure.

Although I am less than certain about some of the Alchemy UI decisions, I can get a game up and running, attractively, in a few of hours. The user experience is all integrated in the one place and I think it could be fun. The free version comes with a relatively modest allowance for assets, so the jump to a year’s subscription, for unlimited, could be a few steps away. This decision has been confounded and encouraged by a currently running Humble Bundle, chock full of map assets and a bundled 6 months of Alchemy thrown in for less than £20. Timing, temptation.

I have enough to start loading Bloodwood into Alchemy for some actual play, which will garner me some player opinions. I expect it will play just fine, with my only uncertainty being the robustness of the audio and webcams. We shall just have to see…

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Role VTT loses webcams and audio

Posted on December 23, 2023 by First Age

The Role virtual tabletop was my favourite place to game. The early product vision placed people at the heart of the design through very good video conferencing integration. This really set Role apart and gave it an intriguing USP that set it apart, and drew me in early. I realy loved the way that video was centre, that there were tools for creating your own playsheets, to the extent that I skirted around the paucity of features for maps and tokens. It came at a great time, with the lock downs adding to the need for something, somewhere, comfortable to play, with face to face being so difficult.

The end of year update for Role VTT wasn’t what I was expecting, and possibly wasn’t what the Role team had envisaged either. With development absent for almost half a year, there was growing  concern that the VTT might actually have been abandoned. With some contacts I knew this wasn’t the case, but equally I had little idea what the future might hold.

The Role team have now provided their close of 2023 update. They are to integrate with Owlbear Rodeo 2.1 for maps, which had been anticipated. This will greatly improve the map functionality. However, the update kicked off with the bombshell; their audio visual third party, Twilio, are to drop their communication platform as a service in December 2024. Role have taken the decision to withdraw their sound and video services at the end of this year, I assume to release them from an annual charge. They have also decided to open source the product, leaving some hope that someone might fill the void and integrate new services that deliver at least as much as the exiting Twilio.

One of the co-owners, Elle, has posted on the community Discord:

We tried to take an honest look at how various groups use Role. And while it might sound surprising, we actually found that many rooms play without video at all, and instead use our basic map tools or just use the middle area for imagery. We recognize that some games are very video-centric, but we also want to focus our limited resources on a path that benefits the widest range of play groups. Our hope is that developers within the community will likely make various video plugins that will allow video-centric groups to choose their favorite option for play. Video integration and optimization is time consuming, and we don’t want that to block people’s ability to create with Role. We’ll have many more details on Open Source early next year. In the meantime, we hope you’ll use Discord or other video chat tools to augment your games.

I’m a little surprised by this, though I’m not going to argue the data. I wish the Role team every success and hope their move to open source helps to springboard more rapid development of the platform. I have reflected since the announcement, to the conclusion that it is time for me to move on from Role. I will continue to watch and support, but for now I think my gaming will be found elsewhere.

This took me back to my other gaming play space, Foundry VTT, to see if I could create my own sheets there. The Custom System Builder module gives me some options, though the outputs will be functional and utilitarian.

Beginning of an Action Tales! sheet

Ah well, it has been a great journey. I am not very quietly hopeful that my sojourn away from Role will be short lived, and that the 2024 developments will entice me back soon.

A cursory look at the VTT landscape took me to the Icelandic Quest Portal. This feels early stages in places, but already has simple fog of war in its rudimentary map and token system. The AI assistant and art is likely to put off a large swathe of people, but I find myself drawn to this as a possible light supplement to Foundry, much as Role has been. Scene creation and sound look good, with a custom sheet builder that has broader dice functions than Role, if not as yet integrated with the sheet values themselves. 

Quest Portal

Webcams have yet to be added to the platform, so I would still be left with a gap that I’d need to fill with something like Discord or Jitsi. 

Ah well, the work on building a custom sheet in Foundry was a nice distraction for the day, and made it feel like I was doing something to shake off my disappointment with Role. Foundry will continue to be a key VTT, for those games that have systems on that platform. I may even get to the point where I can offer my own Foundry custom sheets, if I stick at it.

Bah humbug, and Merry Xmas!

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A Summary of 2023 Gaming

Posted on December 18, 2023 by First Age

Well, another good year of gaming, and the stats don’t lie. Let’s start with actual play and look at the story told by the numbers.

In terms of volume, there are a few standout games. For all that it might be my forever game, I might not have anticipated that Traveller would course ahead with 21 sessions in the year. With some augmentation from pick up games, including my own Cepheus Deluxe offerings, my play in an excellent online streaming game of Mongoose 2nd ed and ‘The Borderland Run’ takes Traveller to the top of the pile. What a delight this game has been, with me running a traumatised ex black ops marine, and running the trade spreadsheet as a side hustle. A number of the facets of the game are being explored in parallel for some multi-dimensional enjoyment.

I ran a 12 session Conan 2d20 mini-campaign, which took some considerable prep time as I wanted it to look and feel good for the players on Foundry. The game reinforced a few things. Foundry, with a decent game system available, is excellent, presenting a lot of information attractively and managing the gameplay well. The LiveKit module delivers a high quality AV experience directly into the VTT, and though I pay extra for this through the module developer’s Patreon, I think it is worth it. Running Foundry through Forge hosting makes the technical issues with self hosting go away. My regular group really enjoy 2D20. The Conan iteration is a little heavier than the Star Trek Adventures (Plus) versions, but delivers a great sword and sorcery game. The Shadow of the sorcerer campaign is full of good things, smashed by a crushing railroad. I loosened things up where I could, but it is presented in a linear format,a s so many campaigns are.

If I could have predicted a strong contender for 2023, it would have been Dragonbane. As a new entrant, Free League’s take on the Swedish Drakkar Och Demoner BRP-alike fantasy was always going to make some sort of impact on me. I still have some creaking simulationist bones in me, so a few too many skills, a touch of whiff, lots of accessible play, always a bit of danger but not enough to frustrate heroics, and a yard arm of design flourishes, makes this a sure fire winner at my table. And may I say what fun tables they have been! All my actual play groups from family to conventions, and now into mini campaigns, have expressed delight in the game. A touch simple for some, but just right for me.

My D&D 4e campaign is over, but my love of this super heroic fantasy game still burns brightly. I will always look back at that one with some joy, not least for meeting some lovely people and forging something together. I’ll reflect a little on 2024 below, but I’d be happy to see some more 4e grace the table, probably in Foundry, where the system there has come on such a lot. A 1-10 level mini campaign set out in the ravaged Forgotten Realms? That would be nice.

Heroic Fantasy (2e) was my playtest of the revised version of my Black Hack game. Continuing to lean into the first edition of the core game, I have expanded and developed a light D&D troped experience to the point where a new book has to be produced. I am close to publishing it, but looks like it will slip into 2024. Trying to get the colours in the POD to look as good as Paul Tome’s illustrations look on the screen. I’m in proof copy tennis.

Dom is now running Achtung! Cthulhu 2D20 on Role. Dom runs a great game, and the combo of this iteration of 2D20 and my favourite Role VTT make for a sweet combine. It’s a tight campaign concept of play, so will enjoy some more in 2024 and then we will switch to yet another fab game from one of the roster of capable GMs that make up our group.

It is safe to say that this has been a rich year for convention gaming. A mighty spread of fine games, with lovely people, in exotic locations, from Prussia to Leamington Spa. Dragonmeet was an unexpected extra in an already packed year. I’m half heartedly attempting to curtail my conventions in 2024, but with me organising AireCon RPGs and pushing forward with my favourite format, Longcon, I expect I will be away a fair amount next year. It’s what I do.

As Basildon’s finest would tell us, it is good to ‘Get the Balance Right’. and with an anticipated 97 games in the year, I have GM’d 40 of them, ensuring I have left lots of game time for play. I mean, everyone is a player, and equally responsible for the fun, but I think my GMing keeps fresh by a lot of play and experiencing others running the game. I’m expecting a 50/50ish split again in 2024 and probably about 100 sessions in the year.

The split between face to face and VTT play tells something of a story too:

Convention face to face play takes up just over a third of my gaming. My play of streamed games, and Dom’s Strahd gives Roll20 a lead on the VTT numbers. I won’t be running any games on that platform as I have strong preferences to use my other two, but I anticipate that I’ll be playing on there a lot in 2024. Role is always a strong contender for a prefered online platform. I await, with a touch of anxiety, the Role team’s end of year message on the plans for 2024. The developers have largely walked away from the platform in the autumn and winter of this year. I really hope to see some more development in 2024.

Looking at the numbers, I’m not really sure I can justify what I am spending on Foundry. The LiveKit AV module and Forge Hosting combine to a reasonably significant £10 a month, where I could, at least in theory, self host and use the built in WebRTC at an effective zero cost. Foundry brings me great joy. It is a delight to run a game there. It is powerful, flexible and solid. Simply speaking, I can’t let it go, despite the support cost, though with my street battling towards some sort of high speed fibre installation, I may make some experimental moves towards attempting a home hosted ‘always up’ server, to see if I can get a similar experience without the hosting cost. Stuff it, I love it, pay the money Graham.

I have been undertaking some support to Mindjammer Press as Sarah returns to writing and publishing. I will continue to provide support next year as we start to see the delayed Kickstarters head to realisation. I hope I will continue to be useful.

Another great year of retired gaming, including new finds from the gaming archives. Many more to come.

Looking Ahead to 2024

So, what am I looking forward to in 2024?

Writing

I’ll start with publishing Heroic Fantasy 2e, hopefully in January. It’s a nice book for quick play D&D with some ‘dice ladder’ design for scaling damage, healing and recoveries. The game has developed well and I hope to see some sales of it to help pay for Paul Tome’s lovely full page colour art. Running a Role VTT streamed actual play of Bloodwood, might combine with this publishing.

2024 might be the year that I return to TRIPOD, and restart work on Dramaguhl: City on the edge of Nowhere. There are a lot of words already banked, and quite a few of them are good ones. The game and setting have delivered memorable and fun convention sessions, and I really should do more.

A late 2023 excitement was the belated discovery of Nathan Russell’s Freeform Universal (2e) narrative game engine. A light, trait based, D6 dice pool game? Moi? Although treading similar territory to my own beloved TRIPOD, I got a real tingle time when reading the generic rules and look forward to using the engine during 2024. I place this note under the ‘writing’ heading, as I have sketched out ‘A Company of Heroes’ as a fantasy game using FU2e as the base. I can’t publish this as Nathan still has the underlying rules in Beta, but creating a laid out POD booklet to give to my players would be such a fun project. 

GMing

Keeping convention play to the next section, the games that I currently anticipate, or at least aspire to running next year are:

  • Dragonbane Trudvang – Wildheart (Foundry)
  • The One Ring 2e – The Lone Lands (Foundry)
  • Heroic Fantasy (2e) – Bloodwood (Role)
  • Freeform Universal on Role – still working ‘A Company of Heroes’ out, but see below in Conventions and 2024 Games.
  • Symbaroum (all of it) (Foundry)
  • Mongoose Traveller – Ancients Trilogy (Foundry)

I’m going to need to pare that down!

Having put in a fair amount of reproducable Trudvang goodness in Foundry, I wonder if I might offer a lot of the Trudvang back catalogue of adventures over the year and beyond? Make it a sort of base gaming home for online play? Possible.

Playing

With unknown convention variety a certainty, I can look forward to a few games that I know now that I will be playing. Others will follow as the opportunities arise from so many top GMs.

  • The One Ring 2e – Ingolf’s Lone Lands campaign
  • Mongoose Traveller 2e – Dungeon Muser’s Borderlands Run campaign. (Please say it will keep running and running)
  • Achtung! Cthulhu 2D20 – Dom’s The Shadows of Atlantis
  • Alternity – Dungeon Muser game on Roll20
  • D&D 4e weekend online convention (possibly with a GM slot as well)

 

Conventions

I will be part of teams that organise Revelation, AireCon, North Star, LongCon, AireCon NW, and of course, Furnace. I have no further capacity, and in truth, I know that I am spending a bit too much of my time on this. My Garrison brace have experienced managers in Elaine and Dom, so my input is tempered and measured. Things can go wrong, and in a number of instances they did this year. That’s where I earn my value. I need to step away from something. Maybe.

I particularly hope LongCon works out. I love the format, and if we get just enough people to pay for the room and tea and coffee then I am happy.

How do I manage my attendances at so many fine conventions? Owlbear and Grogmeet are shoe ins and can’t wait. I’m down for Seven Hills. Kraken in Germany is wonderful, but requires sharing a room, which I honestly don’t want to do due to my noisy snoring. I can sleep anywhere, so maybe a popup tent? Do I do Continuum at Cranfield? I’m usually already AirBnB booked for UK Games Expo, but haven’t done so this year. Perhaps that’s me recognising I have to let something go? A Friday day trip for some fun shopping and schmoozing is a possible, so could organise a car load from Sheffield if there is appetite. Dragonmeet again? Maybe, if a lovely family in Luton are once again happy for me to stay a couple of nights.

Under construction is an ‘A Company of Heroes’ (FU2e) convention kit. A pointless GM screen from Loke provides some nice pictures of hills or city, A5 perspex menu holders for character sheets and display, and some custom poker chips for Drama Points. I have salvaged an old Samsung 10.5″ Tab 2 (Android 4?) to display images. I’ll look at tactical standees and maps as well, but they will be optional additions. Everything flatpacks into a small messenger bag for portability. Just need to decide on some adventures…

I’m PbtA floundering at the moment. I need to come up with something to support the Revelation schedule.

I will probably not be able to resist some more DragonQuest at Grogmeet. Just saying…

New Games

What’s coming out in 2024 that excites me? Well, here are the one’s that immediately come to mind:

  • Talislanta Ultimate Edition
  • Gods roleplaying game (French sword and sorcery D10 dice pool and sumptuous art) – might be on its way after a few years waiting.
  • Tribes in the Dark (FitD Tribe 8)
  • Chronicles of the Future Earth (Cosmic Fate)
  • Stonetop (PbtA Hearth Fantasy)
  • Heavy Gear 4th Edition (new Silhouette) – strongly tempered by the beta, which was riddled with typos, poor phrasing and badly explained.
  • Windheim – Horn of the Dawn (Dragonbane)
  • Moria – (ToR2e)
  • Shadow of the Weird Wizard
  • Tomorrow City (FU2e Diesel Punk)
  • Wrath of the Ancients and Fifth Frontier War (Mongoose Traveller)
  • Sword and Barrow (Artesia 2e)

Some of those are anticipated Kickstarters or pre-orders, so the investment is already down. And, I am not counting other ‘must have’ extensions to other existing lines. Could I push to a hardcover 2e of SPI’s DragonQuest next year? What a metric ton of wonder! 

It’s possible that I manage to organise a paid GMing gig in 2024. I had a go this year, learned a lot about the process, but got no takers for my particular offering. I’m not sure how committed I am to the idea, but I can always have another go.

With the family Dragonbane and a couple of streamed Starfinders to look forward to, I think that’s a gaming wrap for 2023. I can only hope that 2024 delivers anything like as much gaming fun as this year. I am lucky to have made connection with so many fantastic gamers: established homies, streaming wonders, convention lovelies and ever new connections. We’ll carry each other along for many years to come.

Huzzah!

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A Company of Heroes

Posted on December 5, 2023 by First Age

Whilst running Dragonbane at conventions, and for a delightful home group on Foundry VTT, I’m side hustling a few other game ideas that I’d like to do something with. In particular, I am busting to give Freeform Universal 2e a try. The light d6 dice pool game has a lovely looking combination of ideas to ceate a highly approachable and adaptable system to a plethora of possible places and adventures. Find the game here: https://www.perilplanet.com/freeform-universal/.

I’m calling the game ‘A Company of Heroes’, a classic fantasy game with a light narrative rules framework. I shall probably create a wee booklet to cover the game rules and make it available to players, wherever I get to run it.

To facilitate, I have a Role VTT sheet up and running 

Freeform Universal in Role VTT

There are so many games! At the other end of the spectrum I have recently nose dived into the depths of Avalon Hill’s 1983 Powers & Perils. Much as that one has a lot of nice features, the complexities of it, though surmountable, are enough of a hurdle to prevent me doing more with it. I suspect that was the issue with the game back in the day. It’s one that I may return to when I have some space, though that is already occupied by SPI’s DragonQuest.

A Company of Heroes is more likely to get some play, and its simplicity might also allow it to be a low stress back-up game to keep in the bag.

I’ve worked from a character sheet design, to include the elements of FU2e that I want in the game. There aren’t an especially bewildering array of options, but worth establishing what the game will look like. The sheet to the right is formatted as A5, which I thought might fit inside an A5 menu holder, with an illustration and key concepts on the group facing side. I’ve had my eye on the A5 form factor for a while thanks to my gaming friend Remi, who always presents a lovely looking table. The illustration is just an elipse graphics holder in Affinity Publisher, designed to take any VTT token art to give the sheet some pictorial flair.

As you may gather, a character is made up of  a series of ‘tags’, words or short phrases that describe different aspects of the character. If they apply they add to your action dice pool. In many ways this game reminds me of my own Tripod system, but I’m very happy to give this one a good try.

My foray into paid GMing went nowhere, which I haven’t taken personally. It might be interesting to try again with this, to see if I can get some play in.

More on this to come…

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