The Other Football

World Cup qualifying match for the USA in Seattle tonight. More later. Beer in hand.
: )

Dragonflight XXXIV

It's a beautiful day to throw one's hat in the ring.

Today's my first day off in a while...the wife got back into town Friday, but then promptly came down with a stomach virus that had her flat-on-her-back all weekend long. Today, she's back to work and D is down at daycare so I finally have a chance to take care of some stuff before heading back to the day job tomorrow.

Mmm...just me, my laptop, and the all-day breakfast at the Baranof. Feels like old times.
: )

My original plan for the day was to spend most of it writing up something that...well, never you mind (it's a subject for another post). Instead, I've been looking into this year's Dragonflight Convention...that's Dragonflight 34 for those of you that don't read Roman numerals. One of the oldest  gaming conventions still up-n-running.

Again, this year I was invited to run a game (based on my doing so in 2010). That's not quite the honor one would imagine: I suspect I'm simply being recycled from the organization's database. No one actually showed up to my gaming table back in 2010 (I was running B/X, if you can believe that) and I don't think there was any particular "buzz" about my books or gaming at the time...that all started happening in the Fall of 2010. Back then I was just one more blogger yelling in the darkness.

Actually, I'm still just that, but now I've made a few friends in the gaming community and some kindly folks have sent me good, hard currency for my scribblings.

Anyway...it's been three years since that last convention, and I'm on the verge of publishing the new book(s) (complete with dice!) and I'm thinking maybe I need to give it another try. You know, running a game at a local convention? I mean, it IS in Bellevue (Seattleites like myself are disinclined to spend time on "the east side" as a general rule), but don't I owe it to my book to do a little self-promotion? At least circulate the name and face even if I'm not actually glad-handing folks?

*sigh* Yeah, probably. Self-marketing is not my forte...but that doesn't mean I shouldn't give it a shot. Even my (usual) half-assed one.

So, I've put down my money and will be attending the convention this year. I'm thinking about signing up to run half-a-dozen games because, A) I can get reimbursed for my ticket by doing so, and B) if the people attending my table are anything like 2010 (i.e. "no one") then there's little chance I'll run the risk of burn-out.

Now, the question is just one of "what do you want to run."

Here's what I'm considering:

• Two (or three) sessions of 5AK (same adventure, different days/time-slots)
• One (or two) sessions of Cry Dark Future (probably using an old Shadowrun adventure like Queen Euphoria and pregens)
• One (or two) sessions of B/X...or maybe not 
• Possibly KWN (my Star Wars-flavored, X-Plorers supplement...in direct competition with Tony Van Liew's Jedi and FFG's latest box set).
• Possibly a little DMI ("Deal Me In"), using supers or post-apoc/mutants.
• Possibly a little Clockwork or Boot Hill action

Unfortunately, I don't know if I'm going to get ANY takers for ANY of these games. I got hold of a copy of the 2012 Dragonflight program, and the vast bulk of games on offer (in the RPG section) were for Pathfinder games run by something called the "Pathfinder Society." Even Savage Worlds didn't hold a candle to these guys. I mean...wow. And ugh.

People really do miss their D&D 3.5, huh?

A friendly (new) face over at Gary's this morning pointed out that the folks that gravitate towards Old School gaming may not be the kind to attend "hard core" gaming conventions, which might account for why you see (for example) more Pathfinder and 4E and Savage Worlds. Of course, there is representation for the Indie/Story Now contingent of northwest gamers...but those might be considered "hard core" of a different stripe. My particular "target audience" might only exist outside a conventional convention.

Ah, well. As I said, I've signed up and paid my money, so I will be attending (and yes, I got permission from the family, first). If I draw blank at my gaming table, it just means I'll get more time as a player...which is plenty fun, too. I don't see Ogre's Story Lounge on the list  as of yet, but he was there last year, and given the opportunity that's where I'd spend the majority of my time. Otherwise, I see Eric Aldrich is running Airship Pirates which would be cool to play (don't ask me to run it!), or perhaps I'll try Mr. Van Liew's unauthorized Star Wars game (though the description requires me to bring a character and after downloading and perusing the rules I find myself at a bit of a loss). I doubt I'll sign up for DCC since...well, I don't like it very much at all.

If I had more readers in the Seattle area, I'd be tempted to do a poll and see what people are interested in playing, but since most of you are from the east coast and Europe I suppose I'll just have to sign up for things I'd like to play. However, I am open to suggestions (feel free to submit in the comments section of this post).

Maybe I'll run my re-vamped Dungeon! in the board game section. Hmmm...now there's an idea!

Nice Review of TCBXA

M Blackburn did a nice review of The Complete B/X Adventurer over at his blog. By "nice," I mean "more than fair." He actually wrote the piece back in April, but I've just been too busy to mention it (or even comment on the post!) until just now. Heck, I'm still too busy...I need to get to work!

If you haven't purchased a copy and want some insight into what another buyer thought about it, check it out. I've still got books to sell!
; )

For those who don't know what I'm talking about.

DUNGEON! Card List

As promised (in the comments section of yesterday's post), here's the card list for my Dungeon! revamp:

Hit It Here

This card list does not include spell cards, of which there are 36 (enough that each spell-casting character can carry a full complement). I suppose for the sake of completeness, I should list them, too. Okay:

Clairvoyance - 6
Fire Ball - 9
Hold-Charm - 6
Lightning - 9
Teleportation - 6

Okie-doke...that will probably be an end to my blogging about the Dungeon! board game for the foreseeable future. I thank you all for your indulgence in this regard...sometimes one just gets a bee in the proverbial bonnet and needs to work on things completely unrelated to the main objective. Which is, of course, to craft fantastic RPGs for fun and profit!

We'll return to that main enterprise in short order.
; )

Your "New" DUNGEON!

This will be a quick post as I've got to get to lunch...I am starvin' like Marvin.

Here are the files for my revamped DUNGEON! board game...remember me talking about this last month? Okay, so I've got it together (just finished the rules document, which was the delay in posting this).

You can download the cards here.

You can download the rules here.

You will need your own board and pawns, of course (I was able to acquire a matching set of the correct colors from a Queen Anne game shop, but would like to have painted minis one of these days).


A few notes on assembly:

For me, I printed the cards, cut them into appropriate "color sections" and then glued 'em to a construction paper back using glue stick and the appropriate color. I then ran them through a cheap, cold-press laminator and cut them out with a pair of scissors. They turned out surprisingly well (I'm not all that "crafty") but this is more of a "what you can do" thing...you can certainly get away a simple cardstock (or heavy paper) back and no lamination.

ALSO, since I'm lazy and used the same back for both monsters and treasure (and didn't want to pay money/wait three weeks for a custom rubber stamp to do the markings), I distinguished the "encounters" from "treasures" on the same level by putting a silver "star sticker" on the back of each treasure card (you can use "gold stars" if you like...they're available in packs of hundreds from the local drugstore). I put these stars on before lamination, just BTW.


A few notes on copyright infringement:

This revamp is not intended for commercial sale but for personal use...period. I created this because my two-year old appears to have eaten half of my old cards and I'm less-than-satisfied with WotC's re-print. As such, DO NOT SELL THIS! If you want to print it up for your personal use...well, that's why I'm making it available. I freely borrowed images off the internet for use in the cards, and was happy to use terms like "Hobbit" and "Balrog" because this is a non-comercial, arts-and-crafts project. Don't be an ass trying to peddle this on eBay or something. Thanks!

Even better...feel free to use this as a template to make YOUR OWN version of Dungeon!


A few notes on play-testing:

Both the "Basic" and "Expert" rules have each been play-tested exactly one time. I always found the hero to be the easy victory, and such was the same in the current version of the basic set. In the expert game, the guy playing the hobbit came out on top...but he had a lot of lucky draws (and the other players spent a lot of time in cages). I can't thus vouch for the over-all "game balance" of this...but it sure looks fun!

Feel free to contact me with any questions.
: )

Rule Zero

I've had more than a couple questions pop up in the comments section of the blog regarding the "custom dice" that will be included with the print version of 5AK. I probably should have been more explicit about this earlier, so as not to get things "too hyped up." These aren't anything super-fancy with dragons or swords or skulls...just simple six-sided dice with the "1" pip replaced with a single word:

ZERO

Snake-Eyes in 5AK

This is the initial mock-up image from Chessex. The actual dice have the word written horizontally, not diagonally.

See? Nothing all that gaga, but still pretty cool. The game doesn't need custom dice...and until Thursday never used them during the play-tests...but they're nice to have as it's easy to otherwise forget Rule Zero and count the ones, especially for us long-time gamers.

Oh, wait...I haven't explained Rule Zero? Hmm, yeah, about that...here's the game text on the subject (from Volume 1, copyright 2013):

No matter the number of dice rolled, ANY ROLL OF “1” ON A DIE IS COUNTED AS ZERO. This is a very important difference from other games you may have played. Any D6 that comes up as a “1” should simply be removed from the roll, as if the player had rolled 1 less die. In other words, the result of a D6 roll will always be a 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. When rolling a D3 the result will always be a 0, 1, 2, 2, 3, or 3. 

If all dice rolled come out as 1s (i.e. “zeroes”) then the entire roll is considered a ZERO regardless of any bonuses or adjustments that might have been made to the roll. This is called “zeroing out.” For example, when making an attack roll, a player adds her attack adjustment to her attack roll of 2D6. If the player rolls two 1s, the roll is considered a 0; the player is not allowed to add her attack adjustment because she has “zeroed out” and thus failed in her attack. 

Sometimes the rules will call for a player to roll a “D66.” In this case, the player rolls two D6 dice to generate a two-digit number, with the first die counting as the 10s and the second die counting as the 1s. For example, a roll of 3 and a roll of 5 would be counted as a roll of “35.” When rolling D66, die rolls of 1 are still counted as 0, so the number generated will be from 00 to 66.

Rule Zero is ALWAYS in effect. A roll of 1, never counts as “1.” If you’ve purchased a print version of this game, it should include dice with a “zero” side where the 1 would normally be found; this is to remind you of Rule Zero.

[that last sentence was only added after I had actually placed the order with Chessex]

The Rule Zero mechanic allows a lot of interesting system effects from a design point of view, not the least of which is giving me some extra numbers to play with (for example, on a normal 2D6 roll you have an eleven number range...2 through 12... but with Rule Zero you have a twelve number spread, including zero). It emphasizes the built-in consistency (in my rules) of high rolls = good and low rolls = bad. It doesn't skew probabilities downward when it comes to "high" dice rolls (for example, adding Rule Zero does not diminish the chance of rolling an 8+ on 2D6, not the chance of rolling a 14+ on 3D6), and it provides a means of automatic failure (like D20's "natural 1") that is self-evident..."Oh, yeah...I rolled a zero." 

Also, since the main roll in 5AK is the 2D6, the chance of that auto-fail is generally LESS than that of D20 (1 in 36 as opposed to 1 in 20...2.7% compared to 5%). A little less random clownishness, in other words. 

Anyway...more on 5AK and design stuff later. Hopefully, I've satisfied the curiosity of folks that were wondering. 

: )

[oh, BTW, I am well aware of the whole "Rule Zero" definition generally used in RPG design circles and MY rule was indeed conceived as a deliberate stab in the face of that particular monstrosity. But I'll have to explain my opinion on that at a later date...right now, I've got a bunch of stuff to do and not much time to do it in!]

Right On, Chessex

Sorry...it's been feeling a lot like summer around these parts, even though it's only now (as of about an hour ago) June 1st. I've been watching a lot of baseball lately. And drinking a lot of beer...often together. My toddler (he's two) is also into baseball and we've been playing a lot outside. The kid is a surprisingly decent athlete. His throws nearly as far as me (I don't throw very well), if not quite as accurately, and he has demonstrated an ability to hit an underhand pitch from about ten feet. And he switch hits. He kept trying to bat left (and missing) but he'd hit 60-75% of the time (or better) when I'd ask him to switch to the other side. Then today he was batting left again, but managing to hit two out of every three or four.

I really don't know where he gets his genetics from. Right now, his favorite thing in the world appears to be lawn mowers, and I know that's not from me.

Last weekend (Memorial Day) I had four days off (through Tuesday). We spent about half that time down at the Seattle Center at the 42nd annual Folklife Festival (forty-something anyway). It was a blast but I got a damn parking ticket because...well, no one cares about that sob story, but it was damn irritating (only the second such ticket I've gotten in my life...I hate throwing money away like that). But otherwise, the weekend was a blast. My wife got back in town Sunday morning, and even though it poured rain all Monday, we spent the whole day lazy and having family fun and Tuesday was also great, 'cause my wife took the day off, too, and we went out and saw Iron Man 3 while D. was with the nanny. And to cap it off, when we got home my CUSTOM DICE had finally arrived from Chessex...the dice I'd ordered three weeks prior and which I intend to package with 5AK when it is finally released (hopefully) in the next couple weeks. I was so excited to open the box that I was willing to put off opening the box till after we'd gone out to dinner.

[you have to understand that I am a person who absolutely HATES "delayed gratification;" I don't like to wait for anything, and being forced to wait or being hamstrung in my freedom of impulse is the quickest thing to make me grumpy. It's a character flaw with which I constantly struggle, often losing because I'm not paying close enough attention. So for me to NOT rip the top off a box that I'd been waiting three weeks to arrive via mail order should tell you how excited I was...just KNOWING that the box had arrived...finally!...and that it was waiting patiently for me was enough to "carry me through" without needing to immediately satisfy my impulse. I was in a minor state of bliss]

So then when we got home and I DID cut open the box, you might be able to glean a little bit of my consternation when I found the contents of the box did not match my order.

Specifically, I got the wrong color. There will be two pair of dice enclosed with each copy of 5AK (at least, that's my intention at this point) and each pair will be a different color. Chessex sent me two bags full of dice, with the correct engravings and, presumably, quantities (I haven't bothered to count 'em yet), but the color of one set was wrong. Not only that, but it was a little too "matchy-matchy" with the color of the other set, which makes it really tough to distinguish between them (one of the reasons for doing two different colors in the first place). ARGH!!!

Not the right color, dude.

Welp, I called Chessex the next morning (EST) and they were very apologetic and professional and agreed to manufacture and mail me the correct order immediately, and I am extremely pleased to report that as of today, they've made good on my order: a box arrived in the mail with the correct dice in the correct color with (presumably) the correct quantity. And they did it with no extra charge, nor did they require me to ship the defective set back.

I am extremely pleased.

In fact, the whole mistake turns out to have been fortuitous. First off, it gave me a chance to see how Chessex operates when it comes to this type of order snafu (extremely customer friendly, as it turns out), which definitely gives me peace of mind for further dealings with their company. I know now I can trust them to fill future orders and not to screw me (accidents do happen after all, but how one deals with that accident shows character)...I hope I'm as responsive to my customers.

[if I haven't been, I apologize and will strive to do better in the future]

Secondly, I now have a large set of custom dice on hand that I can give out as freebies to my play-testers since I don't plan on packaging them with the final printed book(s). We used them Thursday night (Greg, Will, Kayce, and Zach showed up and each got a full set) and they really were fantastic...I'm really glad I decided to include them with the game (even though normal D6s work, there's a lot less confusion with these). So that's cool.

Okay, that's enough blathering for the moment. The wife's leaving town again tomorrow for a few days which means that I'll have a little more free time for writing (even though I'll have less energy for doing the same)...I've got some more stuff to post (including the download for my custom Dungeon! cards) but I'll get to that tomorrow.

Ciao for now!
: )