D&D at the Baranof (Part 1)

So it didn't happen the way I thought it would, but I finally had a chance to play D&D last night (Thursday)...with my own brother of all people!

The original plan was to run a game at the Thursday night meeting of the Emerald City Gamefest. Unfortunately, things being what they were this week, I totally half-assed and botched the whole thing. First, I didn't get my game on the schedule until Wednesday night (*sigh* ...computers), then I was running around doing too many things Thursday after work. The end result...I didn't actually get to Wayward till 7:30 or so, and the gamers already had a game going...about 8 people playing Truth & Justice.

They invited me to join 'em but I really didn't feel like it...I'm kind of tired of being the newb that arrives late and has to get filled in on the rules as well as the story. Plus I really didn't want to play T&J or a superhero game anyway. I've been jonesin' for some B/X action for about a month now and well...drinking coffee and getting jittery throwing down hero narrative just didn't appeal.

So I left, and waited outside for my brother.

Yes, AB is back in town...got back from North Carolina about 10 days ago and has been staying with me and the Mrs. (as usual) while searching for a job and a new place to live. Now I've mentioned before that ABles isn't big on the nerdy RPGs anymore (he's a World of Warcraft fan when he can afford the account and the computer...so much more cool), but tonight he was in the mood to play and had asked to tag along to game night. He's been pretty jazzed about the book publishing thang, but tonight he claimed he was simply bored.

I was waiting for him outside because (on the walk over) he had decided he needed to run down to the smoke shop to get chewing tobacco.

When he came up he wanted to know why I wasn't inside.

"It's a no-go," I explained. "They've already started and there're no stragglers waiting for another game; everyone's just playing around one big table."

Well why don't we join 'em? Asks he. If they already have eight or nine people what's one or two more?

"We could join, but I don't feel like playing in a crowd tonight, and I didn't really want to playthat game. Let's just grab a beer from the bar and head home."

Then he proposes that WE play...just one-on-one. Like the old times.

I am taken aback. AB has not played D&D...or any role-playing game...in close to 20 years.

"Ok," I say. "But let's go play somewhere we can drink." And off we go to the Baranof.

The Baranof, or just "Baranof's" as Greenwood folks tend to call it, is just about the sleeziest, oldest dive bar / greasy spoon in the 'hood...possibly in North Seattle. It has managed to outlast many, many eateries, bars, and businesses in the area over the years...including McDonalds! It is beloved by many, possibly due in part to having Seattle's longest happy hour: 6am to around 8ish, if I remember correctly. When my buddy's bar burned down a few years back (also in Greenwood), I took him to Baranof's to drown his sorrows as it was the only bar open that early in the morning and serving stiff drinks. Hey, what are friends for?

ANYway...AB and I went to Baranof's which advertises on the door: "Bad food, warm beer, lousy service." Inside, another sign says "Beware pickpockets and loose women." The restaurant portion of the place was just closing (it was around 8:30), but the waitress told us it was no problem if we wanted to order a drink from the bar and hang out in a booth in the dining room. We got a pitcher and did just that.

AB asked if I had characters already made up. Yes. He wanted to roll up his own character and take along a few "companions." No problem...I provided him with pencil and paper. "How do you do this again?" he asked. I explained we were playing B/X so characters were rolled up the old fashioned way: 3D6 in order. Like a champ, he remembered the proper ability score order.

His character ended up being a fighter with an 18 Strength (after dropping his Intelligence from 13 to 9 and increasing his Prime Req from its initial value of 16). Wisdom and Dex were both 7 and everything else was average. After discarding the names "Meatball" and "Bolognese" (the latter was "too Italian") he decided on just calling his character Meaty. Meaty was 7th level and started the game with a handful of magic items rolled randomly: chain mail +2, shield +2, war hammer +1, and a bag of holding. He wanted to roll his hit points randomly...and I discovered I had not a single eight-sided dice! What?!

Fortunately, Baranof's is right next door to Gary's Games, and the shop hadn't closed. I ran over there with 2 minutes to spare, purchased a few random dice of varying sides (including two D8s) and made it back before AB had finished his pint.

Of the eight pre-gens, we decided he would have four joining his party: two would be under his control and two under the DM's. He was allowed to know their names and classes when selecting party members, and nothing else. He chose a halfling and a cleric (which he would control) as well as a dwarf and magic-user, which would be left in the control of the DM (the four pre-gens left behind? A fighter, an elf, a thief, and a second magic-user). It was an interesting selection for sure.

So ready, we began his adventure:

B1:In Search of the Unknown.

[to be continued]

News & Sundries

Hooked up with the Emerald City Gamefest crew tonight down at the Wayward Coffee House. It was a fun, if light, session of role-playing. A couple posts back someone asked me why I hate on Steve Jackson's Toon RPG. There are multiple reasons, including the fact that I stopped enjoying "loony-toons" around the age of 6. But a LOT of the reason has to do with me not being a huge fan of light role-playing (not that I want "ultra-crunchy;" just something in between).

Actually, I think it may have to do with the whole 'toon thing. That really makes me irritable.

Anyway, I'm almost always down to learn a new game, light or not, and tonight it was Risus. Our setting was that we were all in a teenage "goth" band and out Ford LTD broke down near a "haunted mansion" where hilarity and mysteries would be solved. Kind of a Josie and the Pussycats meets Scooby-Doo. Except we had a dancing ferret (don't ask).

The worst part about gaming at a coffee shop at night is that it's a COFFEE SHOP. When the sun goes down, I generally want beer, not more caffeine. Ah, well...as I said, it was fun, and next week I'll have my beer BEFORE the game.

Regarding the book, printing, etc.: Got a call from the printer today. Their machine is still F'd. Rather than wait for it to be fixed, they decided to just send the printed paper to another "bindry company." The thing should be ready for pick-up by tomorrow morning.

All right...I REALLY need to hit the hay. Blog at y'all later!

: )

Dreaming Up the New Project

By the time most of you folks read this (assuming its Thursday night) I shall hopefully be in the middle of gaming with some newfound compatriots at the local coffee shop. We’ll see how well these "convention contacts" work out…I’ve got a little nervous anticipation just thinking about it.

However, at the time I’m writing this, it is still Thursday morning (I won’t have a chance to post it till after work), and my brain is zooming around quite a bit this morning so I figured I’d better get my thoughts down on paper.

D&D…that’s what I’m thinking of right now, specifically my next writing project. I have two in mind, neither one of which is finishing that adventure module dammit (I don’t know why I keep procrastinating on that. Oh, wait…the maps, right). Anyway, two other products have suggested themselves to me, neither one of which would be nearly as ambitious in scope as the B/X Companion, and both of which would make heavy use of blog topics to date. Since both would be slim tomes, I was thinking I might combine them into one big one…I know gamers just LOVE to throw money at a hefty book!

The first possible project is one I’ve talked about a loooong-ass while ago: recreating (or re-interpreting) The Compleat Adventurer for B/X play. I’ve already written up a couple-three of the classes: the Beastmaster, the Bounty Hunter, and the Witch Hunter. In going over these today (something I haven’t done in several moons), I still find that I am satisfied with how they turned out, and would be happy to publish them…along with similar class write-ups…in a book.

Would people pay money for my musings on classes? Maybe not a lot…especially as more than a bit of it is available free through perusal of this blog. But there are probably people that wouldn’t mind having all these “optional extras” in one handy-dandy tome. Kind of an “Unearthed Arcana” for B/X.

Besides, it was too long ago I had blog readers clamoring for some sort of compilation. And for the most part, I’m proud of my work.

Don’t think such a thing would be limited to…or a simple re-telling of…the classes in TCA. For one thing, I don’t think they’re all necessary. One of the great things about B/X is the structure of their classes. Classes are just that: “classifications” of adventurer. And most things can fall under the purview of one of the Big Four: cleric, fighter, magi-user, and thief.

Here’s a list of D&D “classes” you will NOT see in any book of mine:

Assassin: anyone can kill, with or without poison. If you want an assassin with thief abilities, you’re playing a thief who murders for money.
Barbarian: any fighter can be an illiterate barbarian. If you want to make him as buff as Conan, make sure he has a high strength, dexterity, and constitution. Conan wears armor, but you don’t have to.
Buccaneer: there’s already a B/X monster for this; likewise with the bandit, merchant, and noble.
Cavalier: any fighter can wear heavy armor and ride a horse. Write up your own Code of Honor. There’s no need for any “ability score inflation” or extra bonuses. What is this…Rifts?
Knight: see Cavalier.
Ninja: see Thief.
Paladin: my feelings on this class have been covered extensively. See Cleric.
Rogue: See Thief.
Sage: this is an NPC hireling in B/X.
Spy: another NPC hireling.
Templar/Temple Knight: see Paladin.
Warrior: see Fighter.

Personally, I doubt I would ever write-up a “Gygaxian Druid” as a B/X class…these are fairly specific to Gygax’s game world and bear little resemblance to historic druids. As it is, I do have a druid “monster” in my B/X companion, and I prefer the “druid of the grove” archetype to the “adventuring druid” any day of the week. B/X isn’t World of Warcraft!

The original Compleat Adventurer had only 13 new classes. Right now, I can only think of 9 or 10 that fail to fit into one of the standard archetypes. Hmm…maybe I should say “fails to fit into the standard archetype well;” after all, one could certainly use a cleric as a witch-hunter, or a fighter or thief as a bounty hunter. But people that buy the book want to pay for SOMEthing; the following classes are ones that I think would be fun to write-up and would add something “extra” to the average B/X game:

Acrobat
Beastmaster
Bounty Hunter
Duelist/Swordsman
Gladiator
Harlequin
Martial Artist/Monk
Ranger/Scout/Woodsman
Witch-Hunter

Much as I love the jack-of-all-trades Bard, I don’t think I would include it. Depending on the type of literary reference you’re using, I can see many different character classes working just fine as a minstrel: Fighter (Fflewddur Flamm), Magic-User (Vainamoinen), Elf (various Nordic folk tales)…even Dwarves (Tolkien)! All they need is a musical instrument (call it 50gp).

Since it’s obvious I’ll have some room to make up, I was also considering adding some of the spell-casting classes from The Compleat Spell-Caster to the book. As with the “adventurer” classes, I don’t want to simply re-tread the spell-casting archetypes already in B/X (i.e. clerics and magic-users), but would want real, new “magical stuffs.” This one is so much harder, not because it would be difficult to create new spells (I actually think THAT would be a ton of fun!), but because it’s so difficult to create separate schools of magic, when magic is so well-defined by the game system.

B/X magic IS well-defined. It is Vancian, living stuff that wraps itself around the mind of the spell-caster until it can be released into the world. Magic-users implant these “spell creatures” through the study of books, clerics have them implanted by their deity (through prayer and meditation). What other ways could spell-casters have magic stuffed into their brains? Eating fairy food? Reading rune-carved standing stones? Bargaining with demons and spirits?

The main reason (I would think) that most people come up with new spell-caster types is because they want a new spell list (or alternate list). People play druids in D&D because they think it would be cool to call lightning, animate plants, turn into birds or bears, and (in later editions) have an animal companion. Most are not thinking about what it means to be a druid from a historic or even game setting perspective. Not wearing metal armor is something they have to “put up with” in order to get the cool powers, as is the limited availability of high levels (in old AD&D anyway).

I’m not about that. At least, I’m not JUST about new spell lists and cool powers. New classes (in my mind) should provide different styles of play. The bounty hunter PLAYS DIFFERENT from a normal fighter or thief. At least, if you want to make use of his special abilities. I don’t want my illusionist to be “just another magic-user.”

That being said, here are the spell-casters I’m thinking of including in the book:

Demonologist/Necromancer/Warlock
Illusionist
Mystic
Witch

These are not set in stone, but they are my current considerations. Yes, the Harlequin and Witch-Hunter are technically “spell casters” but their abilities are so minor, they don’t rate their own spell lists. These guys (and gals) do.

Unfortunately, each of these is problematic for different reasons.

Necromancers are “evil” pure and simple; anyone who deals with demons and seeks immortality through turning themselves undead is a Very Bad Person. In B/X terms, the person is CHAOTIC, being extremely selfish and self-centered in their actions. Yet, none of the classes in B/X have alignment restrictions…and I do NOT want to start! But is there any way to create a Lawful demonologist?

Witches, on the other hand, can easily be of any alignment: Glenda or the Harry Potter chicks are examples of non-evil Hags, and Baba Yaga might even be considered Neutral in some circumstances. The problem with witches is how to treat them: are they nature worshippers (like clerics/druids) who derive their magic from on high? Are they potion brewers and spell crafters (as in, formula writers) like modern day Hermeticists? How to treat them…perhaps as some sort of cleric/m-u hybrid?

I think Mystics are probably the easiest guys to write-up…they’ll be something of a cross between the Compleat Spell-Caster version and the Rifts Mystic OCC (possibly with a little oriental monk thrown in). The trick with them is making them interesting enough to play, without bulking the class down in a bunch of extraneous “special powers.” I think these guys will draw magic from their own “inner resources” (like meditation) or possibly “reading the Akashic records.” They will have the smallest spell list of any of the classes.

And the Illusionist? Well, I’ve blogged about the Illusionist before. I really do think this can be a good class for an adventurer: spells are useful and different, alignment is un-restricted, nothing ties them down. The only question is: how do you make them different from magic-users BESIDES their spell list. I don’t want them to just be a magic-user with a different spell book.

Maybe I need to take a page from pulp and look at all those Eastern mesmerists of fiction (the Shadow, Fu Man Chu, etc.), as well as the Howardian pulp illusionists and be-dazzlers. I really think they need magic that comes from something other than a spell book…any character limited to spells of 7th level should NOT need to carry around a spell book (especially if they can’t go armed and armored). Arabian Night stuff is more what I’m thinking about.

Hmm…maybe illusionists will be more like mystics after all. Like architects in the film Inception, they will create labyrinthian structures in their own minds every morning, locking away a portion of their own “disbelief” in order to create the reality-warping structures that will blow peoples’ minds.

Hmm…that sounds pretty good.
: )

My First Gaming Convention - Day 3

Today was the third and final day of the Dragonflight XXXI convention. I had nothing scheduled to run today, and before Friday was not even sure I would bother attending. After all I wasn't sure I was going to even enjoy myself...which of course I did.

And Saturday night, I was even feeling a might angsty about the whole role-playing thing. I had called my buddy, Kris, that night to tell him some of the hinky feelings I was starting to get (on which I will elaborate in a future post)...not vibes given off by the con or the con-goers themselves, but negative feelings I was starting to have in reaction to some of the things I was seeing. Though it wasn't enough to deter me from going back after the fun I'd had. In fact, today I even showed up early (around 11:00).

All right, all right, I'll spare you the suspense: today was the best day yet.

Really. Perhaps not as many different subjects of blog posts came to mind, but that might be because I was too busy enjoying myself. After learning of the live auction that would be going on from nine to noon, I really wanted to get down there early, though I promised myself I would not buy anything. And I didn't, but oh man...they had this un-painted 1979 Ral Partha miniature set: an anatomically correct balrog with four nubile slave girls that I could've have for $10!...but I was light on cash today anyway and they weren't taking cards, so I was able to keep my vow. Oh...and the stack of 1st edition AD&D modules that were going as one lot got sold before I made it to the auction, which is the only serious temptation I saw.

Still, I love auctions (much to my wife's chagrin)...they bring out my competitive spirit something fierce...I want to win!...and it was fun to watch the collectors and the hoary old grognards and the dealers all compete with each other. Having a little knowledge of how Gary's buys and prices used games, I could see the vendors' minds working as they judged whether or not they could recover their money and net a profit...on eBay or on-line. Most of the stuff went for bargain basement prices. One lucky chap bought a bin of board games that got bid up to $70, I'm almost sure because of the 3rd edition Blood Bowl set that was included with it (I was tempted to bid myself). I snuck a peak in the box when he was perusing it and it turns out he got a score, as there were minis from not just the set but also several boxed teams (I saw undead and skaven) as well as multiple "big guy miniatures" (at least one ogre and a troll), all primed and un-painted. That's over $100 to a BB collector (like myself) right there...plus the other board games in the box.

Anyhoo, that was great fun but after realizing my resolve was strong enough to resist temptation (and thus I was just being gleefully masochistic hanging around) I decided to move down into the gaming depths.

Before I did, though, I found a whole ballroom of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K that I had completely missed prior. At the time, most appeared to be packing it up, but I spent several long minutes admiring the love and care the players had put into their armies for the convention. If I'd known about THAT, I may have been tempted to bring my own minis down...ah, well...

Today, I also brought the new digital camera and took a few (blurry) photos which I may post to the blog in the coming days. I loved the giant battlescapes and wargaming set-ups, the Circus Maximus chariot track someone had lovingly constructed, the huge ocean map that featured hundreds of miniature sailing ships in some sort of armada on armada action...

And then I got down to the nitty-gritty: gaming.

I went straight to the shadowy corner where the freakish role-players had been sequestered from the rest of the Con and went to the sign-in sheets to see what was being gamed and what was open for sign-ups. I was actually anticipating trying to get into a Savage Worlds games to see what all the freaking fuss was about. Yesterday it appeared that SW had sucked more than half the non-RPGA role-playing attendance into some huge-ass game, and while it hadn't looked very interesting to me, it might be worth learning about. I know next-to-nothing about Savage Worlds.

But there was no SW going on and nothing else really that interested my attention, save the "Story Lounge" running indie-games which had been on the agenda for every time slot of every day so far. This time I looked a little closer at the sign-up sheet and saw that Story Lounge was being presented by Emerald City Gamefest, those nice folks from Greenwood with whom I'd played PDQ on Saturday. I decided to give this a shot.

And promptly spent the next 20-30 minutes looking in vain for their table/room. Apparently, I thought, one must pass some sort of mandatory IQ test if you want to play indie games at the convention...those arrogant bastards!

Finally, I realized that the maps posted to the walls were not only NOT to scale, but were completely inaccurate. The Story Lounge was in one of the board rooms down a DIFFERENT shadowy hallway from the other RPG tables. Sequestered from the sequestered.

Well, at least I didn't have to go play in the parking garage like the LARP people.

Having finally found the board room that was the "Story Lounge" (a very nice, private room with a long wooden table and plush office chairs...a real lounge, completely unlike any of the other RPG tables), I was able to observe the end of some crazy-ass RPG about insane people fighting their own dementia and inner demons (or something). It was the type of weirdness one might expect.

After they finished, the two players went back to working the convention (they were Con volunteers) and I and two new people settled in to play Spirit of the Century...a game I HAVE heard a lot about, but have neither owned nor played. It's one of those games where availability of money and availability of product have yet to coincide for Yours Truly. Needless to say, I was stoked and the game was a blast...the best time yet.

I'll write up a full game report review later.

While the guy running the indie demos was not a member of the EC Gamefest, it does turn out that he lives in Greenwood as well AND lives about 2 blocks from me (!!) AND he's unemployed...which means he's available for gaming on Fridays. Sweet.

He gave me his email address...he seemed very normal.

Finally, one of the other players in the game, a nice young lady from a different indie-type gaming group told me that her group runs a game at the same Greenwood coffee shop as ECG every other Saturday...why the hell have I not met any of these people before?! However, the name of her group (she's from the Capitol Hill neighborhood) completely slips my memory at this time.

Still, that's plenty of contacts made for this weekend. And they all seemed like very nice, very happy people.

As for me...well, I went home after that. I do hope to see these folks again, if only to get my game on. It's funny that I seem to live smack-dab in the middle of some sort of Seattle Gaming Mecca...completely un-wittingly. These are not youngsters, nor are they aging grognards, but rather folks about my own age, give-or-take a decade. I suppose I've just had my head buried in the sand...or buried in the blog, perhaps.

Which reminds me...I did absolutely no self-promotion at the convention. Whether this was due to bashfulness or distraction...well, who knows. However, while I had my B/X Companion on display at the table when I was hoping to run a game (Friday and Saturday) I did no hawking of my goods while playing...hell, I didn't even mention I'd recently completed work on a game book. And, no, I did not mention I have been blogging for fifteen months and over 600 posts, either. What am I...some kind of narcissist?

; )

Mmmm...anyway, it's getting close to midnight and I'm well enough to go back to work tomorrow which means I need to be hitting the hay. I'll write more later this week...well, probably tomorrow. So stay tuned.

My First Gaming Convention - Day 2

Today was Saturday and Day 2 of Dragonflight XXXI here in the Pacific Northwest. And for the second day this week, I made it over to Bellevue despite the horrendous traffic. Saturday afternoon freeway driving is pretty bad in the summertime anyway, but in 90+ degree weather? Hoo-boy!

Today, I was signed up to run Mr. Raggi's Death-Frost-Doom (using B/X or "Redbook" as it appears to be known in these parts...I also had Labyrinth Lord on prominent display at my table). My time-slot was the 2pm-6:30; Saturday afternoon and prime time. After yesterday's strikeout, I was pretty excited!

I spent the morning working up suitable pre-gens (thanks to B/X this only takes about 40 minutes to get eight) as well as printing up the DFD pdf. Oh, yeah...and running to the store to buy more printer paper halfway through the job (dammit). Still had a chance to read through the whole thing, make mental notes of important stuff and got to the place early, unlike yesterday.

And again, no one signed up.

I mean...wow. I am batting exactly .000 in my last three attempts to get a game going. So much for the "fear of running games for strangers;" either I must appear to be pretty scary myself, of B/X D&D is completely passe! Or something!

Actually...there appears to be a lot more going on than that, but that's all for a separate post. As with yesterday, I got enough material for another half-dozen posts or so, which I will hopefully get to over the next week or so while decompressing from the weekend.

I would also like to say that, again, I had a total blast at the Con! I'm heading back tomorrow straight after breakfast, hopefully in time for the auction going on between 9 and noon.

Why was today so great? Well:

- Even though (again) no one showed up at my table, I got invited to join another game that was short a player or two. I ended up playing an indie game called PDQ that I've never even heard of, let alone played or owned (and I've got several indies on my shelves). It was crazy and funny and fun mainly due to the GM and the chosen setting (it's a rules-light game). And it deserves its own post.

- Made some great contacts. The folks playing PDQ are part of outfit called the Emerald City Gamefest who not only play a regular weekly game and are open to new players, but they're in my neighborhood! Not just my neighborhood, but they game at the same coffee shop I frequent every Friday and from which I often blog! Not only that, they run their games on Thursday nights...the night I've been looking to find a regular game (since Fridays are my day off) since...um, last December? Wow...I told you folks, Greenwood is God's Country. Too cool.

- In browsing the vendor booths, I made not one but TWO great scores. Some folks from Spiffandswag.com brought their boxes of used games out of the basement, and I was able to big up two things I've been wanting for awhile. 2nd edition Star Wars (from WEG), and a complete boxed set of Twilight 2000! Hoo-boy! Now I can go back to the American Eagle booth and clean out all those mint-condition T2000 modules at 50% off. What a deal!

- In other vendor news, chatted with Tim over at Gary's and found out about the auction (I had been unaware there was such a thing going on), and am excited to get in on that!

That's a lot of good stuff going on considering everything else. The "everything else" isn't just people not showing up to my game...it's my perception of the state of the role-playing hobby itself. Man O Man...what the hell is going on with gaming?

But THAT is totally a different blog topic for another day. It's after midnight now, and my eyes are having a difficult time staying open. I think I'll thumb through my Twilight 2000 a little before turning in...I've got one last busy day ahead of me!

G'night, folks.

: )