RPGaDAY 2023: Favourite con module/one-shot

My favourite convention scenario is one that I’ve wrote myself and ran several times at conventions. I called it The Time Pipe and it’s set in the Mario Bros universe.

I was inspired by some post-apocalyptic images of the Mario Bros.

Post-apocalyptic Mario Bros. art by unknown artist

I kept wondering what caused this to happen. I figure a special pipe was found by Bowser who allowed him to go back in time, hence the Time Pipe. Bowser used it to help his past self to defeat Mario and takeover the Mushroom Kingdom. The Koopa rules it in a dictatorship and Princess Peach was the leader of the resistance.

The scenario setup was the resistance had learned of the existence of the Time Pipe & they had to secure it & prevent Bowser from going back in time. I used Fate Accelerated as the engine & created the following available characters: Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, Princess Daisy, Yoshi, Toad, Toadette, and Birdo. The players would grab whatever character they want and that would be the team.

I had a few ideas of locations and threats ready to bring in. Most of my notes were just an outline which I used as a guide and improved when the group diverged. Each group diverged from the main storyline leading me to have a different story. Even when the group reached the Time Pipe, I let them use it however they wished. I had a group go to Princess Peach’s birthday party to stop her kidnapping by Bowser. I have one game where Princess Daisy tried to use the Time Pipe so her country would rule and this resulted in a conflict between the PCs.

RPGaDAY 2023: Favourite dice

My favourite type of dice are the Fudge or Fate dice.

I love their simplicity in determining the result and when you roll multiple of them (typically 4), you get a nice curve. With the Fudge/Fate dice, you expect your character will perform how well you defined their abilities. If you want to increase the chance of being different from the ability on your character sheet, you have to rely on matters outside of the dice. I like that since it gives more control over choices to the people playing the game.

Additionally, as I prefer cards over dice, they have the Deck of Fate.

Tabletop Gaming on a Budget

Happy New Year! I wish you good health, success and fun in 2018. Let’s start off with RPG Blog Carnival for January 2018 which is presented by Renaissance Gamer and the subject is Tabletop Gaming on a Budget.

Tabletop gaming is one of the cheapest hobbies that I know of. You get hours of entertainment from a small monetary investment. Still, there are times when your budget is tight and you wish to game. I shall explore some of the cheaper options that I know.

First, if you don’t have a game to play and no budget to acquire one, you can still play. There are lots of wonderful free tabletop games out there like Lady Blackbird by John Harper, Lasers & Feelings by John Harper, Love & Justice by Senda Linaugh, Fudge rpg by Steffan O’ Sullivan, and many others. You can also get some good games for Pay What You Want through Evil Hat Productions like Fate Core by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin & Mike Olson, or Fate Accelerated by Clark Valentine, Leonard Balsera, Fred Hicks, Mike Olson & Amanda Valentine. You can also find a variety of other products in the Pay What You Want section on DriveThruRPG. If you wish to venture into the more experimental realm, you can download some draft games from Game Chef and try them out. You can still play a wide variety of games with little to no expense.

So,you’ve found a game and now you wish to expand upon it.. Usually, games should be playable with just the core rules, but maybe you’ve  played it extensively and are looking for more options. Look around online for the game’s community. If it’s your favourite game, there are bound to be many other fans who play this game as well, and they may have created their own shared material which you can bring into your own games. If you wish to do something which the core rules doesn’t easily allow, talk to the community and see if you can figure out a way to make it work. Tabletop gaming is a creative endeavor.

Now, if you still need that extra product for your game, talk with your group about it. See if you can pool your money to purchase it since it will help improve the group’s overall experience. If it’s a physical product then you would have to determine where the product will be kept. I would recommend that whoever needs it at the time gets to keep it and read it. If it’s a digital product then it’s easily shared  amongst your closed group. It’s also a great idea to keep an eye out for deals. DriveThruRPG holds frequent sales of their products, and Bundle of Holding is an excellent website with great deals on rpgs.

Conventions can be another place to purchase games for low prices. Most conventions have a second hand store where folks try to sell their old used games. However, most conventions have an entrance fee which you should take into account before shopping. CanGames, the gaming convention which I help organize, only charges if you wish to sit down and play a game. You can come visit the convention, look around, and even purchase items at the various vendors at no charge. CanGames also has a booth which sells used games that the attendees brought to sell.

Another resource part of a budget that few consider is time. We live busy lives and if your money is tight, there is a chance that you may work several jobs so your time is limited.. So, while you’ve found and enjoy gaming, you don’t have the time to dedicate several hours in a night to play. One option then are play by posts. These games go at a slower pace than live play since the sessions are stretched out over a much longer period of time and players participate at their own rate. In this case, you can just spend a few minutes typing your character’s actions when you have the time, as opposed to playing for several hours straight.

There you have it, a few ideas on places to acquire and ways to play tabletop rpgs for cheap. Where do you acquire your tabletop games for low prices? How do you get the most bang for your buck?

RPGaDay catch-up part 3: Days 10 to 12

Welcome back to my RPGaDay catch-up. With this post, I’ll be caught up on the questions.

This year, RPGaDay is hosted by BrigadeCon.

Day 10: What was the largest in-game surprise you have experienced?

I find this question strangely difficult to answer. As I improvise alot in my games. When I take the GM role, I merely set up situations and see them evolve. I am constantly surprised by what happens next which is in a way a cop-out.

Speaking to Brenda, she helped me remind me of an event that surprised me. For her, she was surprised that Princess Stasi was a succubus. My story is from a RPGA living campaign named Living Jungle.

Living Jungle was an organized play campaign set in Malatra, an isolate jungle environment in the Forgotten Realms setting. You were members of tribes and it had a rich atmosphere. I played Zwanlo of the Simbara tribe, a warrior mystic who was brave. In AD&D 2nd edition terms, I was a human wizard and I charged into combat at level 1.

On one adventure, we had to make a choice between saving the life of Bengoukee, a great and wise shaman who would lead our armies against the enemy or the life of spirit of the lion who would fight the tiger in the mystical realm. Zanlo had come to respect Bengoukee and didn’t wish for him to come to harm and as a member of the Simbara tribe, he worshipped the spirit of the lion. He believed that both should be strong and thus as a faithful servant, he offered his own life as a sacrifice. This felt natural and wasn’t the surprise. What surprised me was others in the party joining me in their offering. I think they thought I had seen a different angle where they might gain much when really, it was just a noble sacrifice that Zwanlo was making. The DM, Scott Delahunt, ruled that our sacrifice would mean that we would love a level which I felt was just. The other players got angry at me for having their characters lose  a level. I found it funny that on my record sheet, there was a negative value of how much xp gained. Scott later told me that if no one else had joined me that Zwanlo would be dead as I expected.

Day 11: Which gamer that you have played with has most affected the way that you play?

I would say my best friend from high school, Miguel Gervais, had the most effect on the way I play. He introduced me to D&D even though I had been playing “Livres dont vous êtes le héros” (Choose your own adventure books) and TMNT & Other Strangeness. Most of my previous experience was learning the game and showing to others. Miguel brought me to a group who had experience to the game. From there we tried a bunch of stuff and experimented with the rules. We weren’t afraid of changing stuff and go silly. I still remember his milk mage for one of our comedy April fools games. He set me on the path to try out stuff and learn from it. I continue to try stuff and learn. I’ve also learned so much since we made so many mistakes over the years.

Day 12: What game is your group most likely to play next? Why?

There’s various ways to interpret this question. Each leads to a different answer. The next time my regular group meets, we will probably play Dungeon World. I suspect we won’t have quorum for a game of Questers United, our D&D 4th edition campaign, and thus they will play the small group which Questers United send to tie up loose ends. I’m experimenting using 2 different systems for the same setting and have them interact.

As an aside, if you are a fan of D&D 4th edition and wish to join a campaign, please contact me. We’ve made modifications mostly from 13th Age. Questers United could use a new member probably from another plane or prime material world. If you wish silly fun and fight dragons, let’s talk.

On August 20th, I will be the Keeper for a Call of Cthulhu 7th edition demo using the A Time of Harvest organized play campaign. While this isn’t my group, it is a game that I’ll be playing next.

Finally, after Questers United campaign ends, I think we would be most likely to play Night’s Black Agents, the Dracula Dossier campaign. I have it and saw it win a bunch of Ennies at Gen Con. My best friend, Christine, finished reading my copy of Dracula Unredacted. I’ve listened to actual play podcasts about it and thus it excites me.

I asked this question to Brenda and she thinks Fate because everyone but her likes it. While I find Fate a fun system, I don’t have the spark of excitement to play it.

What game are you excited to play next? Is it an old game, something you saw at Gen Con or announced recently?

RPGaDay: Most recent RPG purchase

On August 5th, the RPGaDay topic is the Most recent RPG purchase. I’m going to separate this into two categories: physical and digital. For physical product, I got The Enlightened Man by Brian Engard. For digital product, I got the Fantasy Frontier Bundle through the Bundle of Holding website.

I bought The Enlightened Man on Free RPG Day at my FLGS, Fandom II. I always buy a product on Free RPG Day to support it and also I know that stores purchase the products given freely and thus it would be rude to go to the store and just grab free stuff. The Enlightened Man is a setting for Spark rpg by Jason Pitre and Fate Core by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Ryan Macklin and Mike Olson. The book was published by Genesis of Legend, a local Ottawa company owned by Jason Pitre. I picked it up as I enjoy superheroes and the Renaissance period which this setting mixes together. Honestly, I haven’t had the time to read it yet. It is a small book though.

For the Fantasy Frontier bundle, it includes the following games: Against the Dark Yogi by Thorin Tabor, Indian fantasy rpg; Castles & Chemo by John J. Gillick, D&D 4th and Pathfinder compatible fantasy adventures set around cancer; City of Clocks by James Knevitt, system neutral industrial fantasy setting; Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra by C.A. Suleiman, Steve Kenson, and Ari Marmell, D&D 3rd compatible adventure set in ancient Egypt inspired setting; Ehdrigohr by Allen Turner, Fate Core setting in indigenous cultures inspired setting; Parsantium: City at the Crossroads by Richard Green, Pathfinder Byzantium inspired fantasy setting; Spears of the Dawn by Kevin Crawford, an African inspired fantasy setting using the Stars Without Number system; Spellbound Kingdoms by Frank Brunner, a Renaissance inspired fantasy rpg; Yggdrasill by Kristoff Valla, Neko, Florent, and Sarah Newton, a Norse inspired fantasy rpg. All of these I haven’t read yet either. I like Bundle of Holding for the wonderful rpg deals and they raise some funds for various charities. I grab bundles which interest me. I bought the Fantasy Frontier bundle because of its worldly nature rather than the Medieval Western setting which most D&D settings are. The world is full of fascinating culture and we should show it in our games.

RPGaDay: Forthcoming game you’re most looking forward to.

The game designer, Dave Chapman, holds the RPG a Day event this August. Every day, a rpg related topic posted each day. For August 1st, the topic is the forthcoming game which I’m most looking forward to.

My gut tells me such game is TimeWatch by Kevin Kulp, a time travel game using the Gumshoe engine designed by Robin D. Laws. I trust my gut. 🙂 I backed this game over a year ago on Kickstarter. I playtested it before and after the kickstarter. It is the first Gumshoe game which I played. The only other Gumshoe game which I played recently is Trail of Cthulhu by Kenneth Hite.

In TimeWatch, you play agents of the TimeWatch organisation who enforce temporal continuity. There are rogue agents, aliens from other timelines and other time travellers who wish to establish their own history. The agents go into the past, unravel what key element changed and then work to fix it so there are no changes to history.

When we playtested it, we played as time tourists. Folks who go to a different historical period to witness events. Of course, to add a story, there’s always an event where antagonists will attempt to change history. The tourists uncover strange events, they investigate and then decide how to resolve the issue. We also played a scenario where they brought passengers to the past as a historical tour and the passengers got into trouble which might lead to changes to history.

We playtested the Lovecraftian Timewatch variant by Chris Lackey. In it, your character sends their mind to the past to inhabit a character involved in the event. Creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos are trying to change history. You must uncover and stop the threat without losing your mind or bringing the attention of the hounds of Tindalos. This worked and resulted in doing some minor historical research in one of the suggested scenarios.

I had fun playtesting and look forward to get the book.

As a side note, I’m excited with the Sentinels of the Multiverse rpg, designed by Cam Banks, Phillippe-Antoine Ménard and Dave Chalker. They were part of the team for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying design team which I had fun play and wish to play again (more than one-shots). From what I hear, it is a mix of Cortex Plus, Apocalypse World and Fate Core which are great games. Sentinels of the Multiverse is a great cooperative card game.

Dresden Files rpg: Wardens in Ottawa

On the first Saturday of every month, Fandom II, the local gaming store, holds a rpg demo. Christopher Rothwell is the GM for those demos. For October, the game is Dresden Files.

Dresden Files rpg is based on the popular urban fantasy books by Jim Butcher. The series is about Harry Dresden, Chicago’s first (and only) wizard P.I. The rpg permits you to play as the characters of the series but its strength is making your own city and characters. The rpg uses the Fate system which permits character centric stories powered through its aspects mechanics. I enjoy the Fate system ever since I read and ran Spirit of the Century.

For the demo, Christopher set the game in Ottawa, our home city, and gave us pre-generated characters. To simplify matters even further, we had all the same character. Our high concept was New White Council Warden and our trouble was In over my head! Our skills, stunts, powers, rote spells and focus items were the same. The level of customization that we had were in the 5 other aspects. We were 8 players and determining those 5 aspects permitted to customize 8 different characters. There was Jonathan, the wizard with ADD. On another spectrum we had Andrew, the nervous wizard who preferred to observe and wait before acting. Arianna, the former military officer was our only female character and she enjoyed killing stuff with fire. D-Mac was our Jamaican Canadian wizard. I made Marcel Trépanier, a French-Canadian hockey nut (Go Habs! Go!). Jenkins was a wizard from a long line of butlers. He mentioned about the Butler Council of wizards but we figure it was destroyed in the Butlerian Jihad. I forget the name of the 2 other characters but one was focused wizard who enjoyed puns and the other worked well with others. I think it is a strength of the character creation system where five key phrases determined by the player can provide so much distinction between characters.

Our story started in Major’s Hill Park where a bunch of ghouls were arranging Ottawa University students in a pentagram. As it was raining, D-Mac summoned a localized typhoon over the ghouls and students. It was a wonderful start to the adventure and showed the creative nature of casting spells. The spell became more powerful than he expected which winded him. The group mixed between handling the ghouls, saving the students and figuring out what was going on. Due to the amount of sheer amount of water, I decided to freeze it in order to make an ice rink under the ghouls’ feet and under the students. I channeled my aspect of “Always time for hockey!” to give me sufficient boosts to get all the ice. Andrew gave me a free tag of the ghouls’ aspect “sickly” that he learned through assessment. In hindsight, I could have made the ice rink an obstacle with a threshold to beat to leave the area instead of a scene aspect to tag. After the ghouls left the ice rink, I summoned a powerful wind to slide the students away from the ghouls. My aspect of “He shoots! He scores!” helped in this situation. We managed to defeat the ghouls, save the students and learned that this was part of the pre-zombie walk zombie walk (P-Zwzw?). We called the authorities to take care of the students even though some folks were concerned of alerting the cops.

We did a montage of investigating our clues where symbols were left around the city to store necromantic energy in order to be tapped for later. We modified the symbols by making them store healing energy instead. At the last location near the hostel, there was a van from the pre-zombie walk zombie walk. We stopped the van but the driver ran out and escaped from us. We cast a tracking spell on the van which lead us to an old home past Stitsville. One of the wizards used the sight and saw there were no wards nor thresholds which made us grow suspicious of what happened. D-Mac and Andrew got into an argument about going in now or waiting for later. Jenkins used that opportunity to take out some pizza to speak to local fairies about who was in the house. We learned that only a necromancer lived in the house and no one else was seen by the faeries. That was enough for Arianna and she arranged it to burn the whole house down as she had the aspect “Kill it with fire!” The necromancer did manage to get out of his house but he was so burned up that our Warden’s Sword quickly cut him up in a blow.

This was a fun and short game of Dresden Files. Christopher is a great GM who does a good job mixing descriptive horror with humour. For the demo, he started us with 4 Fate points rather than the 1 Fate point our sheet had. It gave some extra fuel to pull some awesome stunts and reduced the need for compels. I ran Spirit of the Century several times and Dresden Files twice. I find compels are hard to accomplish until you’ve become used to the characters. Christopher asked the players to point out if one of their aspects should be compelled. As this was a demo and we had several players who didn’t know the game, there were some confusion about compels. The player of Andrew tried to apply his aspect of “Wait, watch & learn” as a compel but all his descriptions had no negative aspect or ways to increase the conflict & tension. I think it was a good call for Christopher to start us off with those 4 Fate points.

I would enjoy playing in a campaign of Dresden Files rpg. I’d love to see character and story development.