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Not a Resolution, A Mission.

Resolutions or not, here’s your mission in 2011:

Play More. Run More. Share More.

Sounds simple, and it is simple, but just because something is simple does not mean it’s easy.

Play More because playing more makes you happy, and your happiness is important. Own that, make time for it, make it a priority, and engage the people who are a part of your life in this mission. Be honest that it’s about your happiness, and ask them how you can help them with THEIR happiness by finding ways so that they can Play More too.

Run More because the biggest enemy of Play More is inertia, and everyone is looking for the guy to run the game they want to play as the way to beat that inertia. If you’re looking for that guy too and nobody’s stepping up, you’re that guy. And other people will be that guy, too, but you’ve gotta get the ball rolling. Do it.

Share More because our hobby is social, and is only improved by putting more energy into the social side of it. If you love a game, show other people why. Organize an event at your local game store. And importantly, play with people you don’t play with right now.

That last bit, in a lot of ways, has been the lynchpin in my recent revitalization of my own gaming. It might be in yours. It was a big block: I had a lot of time going on where gaming wasn’t happening and, yes, some of it was because I was “busy” (I had to make time for it), and some of it was because I was waiting for that guy to run it (I was that guy), but more than anything I was wanting gaming to happen with the same people that it’s always happened with … and the reality was that within that small circle our schedules were just not working out. Breaking past that sacred-cow barrier in my thinking about my own gaming is what limbered up the rest.

Your situation might be different. You might have a different sacred-cow barrier. Be merciless in identifying that cow and shipping it off to the meat plant. It’s standing between you and your happiness, your deeper satisfaction with your hobby, and through you it’s shaving off just a little of the vitality of your hobby itself. The solution is simple, but that simple solution is going to take a little work. Identify that work. Comment below and tell me what that work will be for you.

Then get off the damn computer and do the damn work.

Your year will look all the brighter for it.

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Quick Taste of Gamma World Round-Up

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Originally published at Deadly Fredly. Please leave any comments there.

So we had A Taste Of Gamma World this weekend at Labyrinth in DC (just off of the East Market metro stop) and I gotta say it turned out swimmingly. 4 tables of 4 players each (16 out of our 18 sign-ups — the two who didn’t make it had unavoidable complications), all of them hoppin’. We framed the whole thing as four teams sent to find the Our Guide, rumored to be stashed in the fabled Mith Son Muse Castle…

The Mith Son Muse questers were split into four teams, each tasked to follow a different color path into the bowels of the ancient ME-TRO. The table I ran was the Green Line team, and I set up three scenes (two of them full on encounters) on their path:

  • The Devil-Cow of Green Bel
  • The Format Ki of Fort Ott
  • The Ultimate Battle Against the Guardians of Mith Son Station

The Ultimate Battle scene was the same for all four teams, so each of us came up with the challenges along the way. Dave took the Red Line, Tom took the Orange (I think), and Bob the Blue (I think). I’m curious to get a recounting of what their points along the way were since I missed out what was going on at my table.

Setting this up was fun. The Devil-Cow encounter was based around the idea of a bunch of mutated farm animals, so there was a Devil Cow, a Hell Pig, a Big Damn Bug, and a Glowing Chicken, all reskins of one form or another. The chicken (a reskinned blood bird) turned out to be the highlight of that one. I challenge anyone to say that reskinning a blood bird as a radioactive chicken isn’t a move for the better — the high comedy of one of our guys, the Empath/Mindbreaker, having a glowing green chicken latching on to his head and trying to peck him to death while radiating his allies was fun while it lasted. (The other members of the party were a Yeti/Gravity Controller, a Plant/Felinoid, and a Plant/Mindbreaker — the level of overlap was more than I expected.)

They recovered the key hanging around the neck of the Devil-Cow, used it to enter Green Bel, and found an ancient train which took them to FORT (t)OTT(en) where a rumored FORMAT KEY could tell them how to find Mith Son Station. The Format Ki was an artificially intelligent InFORMATion KIosk in the middle of Fort Totten Park, which had convinced all of the semi-sentient plantlife in the park that it was their god.  I purposely designed this part of the plot to be “soft” in terms of its time footprint, the sort of thing that could drag out into a bigger deal, or be resolved in a few quick skill rolls. That said, I wanted to make the “skill encounter” reinforce the potential lethality of Gamma World, so I set things up such that if they failed skill rolls, the Format Ki would become displeased and would encourage its herbaceous minions to retaliate. The player’s speaker goofed once, triggering the wrath of the SCREAMING TREES, hitting 3 of the 4 PCs with a little sonic damage that they carried forward into the final encounter. That said, they managed to milk out the maximum information from the Format Ki:  “THE MUSE lies between THE ENIGMATIC TRIANGLE and CHIVEY PENN. To reach THE MUSE, you must continue on the GREEN LINE until you reach FANT PLAZZ. Another train awaits you there bound for VEENAFAX. Board, and you shall reach MITHSON. Beware the guards of MITHSON STATION. They are skilled in the ancient art of ninjaness and have a love for consuming plants.”

That last piece of information, achieved thanks to a DC17 Interaction roll, had my half-vegetal party on edge as they followed the directions and rolled on in aboard a ME-TRO TRAIN at MITH SON STATION. Speaking of the station:

That’s the map I cooked up for the encounter, had copies printed out for each GM. Worked pretty well. The real killer — which ended up being a hazard mainly to the bad guys — was the glowing/interdimensionally charged THIRD RAIL going down the center:

Third Rail – Level 3 Hazard (XP 150)
Detect - Perception DC 15                           Initiative —
Immune attacks
Triggered Actions
Attack (special) • At-Will
Trigger: A creature enters or ends its turn in a square containing the third rail.
Attack (Free Action): Melee 1 (triggering creature); +6 vs. Reflex
Hit: Roll 1d6:
1 = Photonic! 2d6 laser damage and the target is blinded until end of its next turn
2 = Atomic! 2d6 fire damage and ongoing 5 radiation damage (save ends)
3 = Electrical! 2d6 electricity damage and target is dazed until end of its next turn
4 = Psychic! 2d6 psychic damage and target is slowed (save ends)
5 = Hyperkinetic! 2d6 physical damage, target is pushed 5 squares in a random direction
(roll 1d8), and knocked prone
6 = Wormhole! Target winks out of existence until the end of its next turn, when it
reappears in any square to either side of the third rail
Miss: Target is pushed up to 3 squares left or right along the rail.

… but I also filled the encounter with two Hoop Ninjas, a Hoop Battlemaster, and a Hoop Sharpshooter. Further, the train was on the fritz, so every round I randomized which doors were open and which were closed, at one point cutting the PCs off from exiting the train unless they wanted to chance the Third Rail (they did not). The original plan had been to kick the PCs into the Third Rail occasionally, but the rolls did not work out that way. Instead, as an opening move, one of the hoop ninjas on the opposite platform bounced across the tracks and… stepped onto the rail. Got hit with some straight up electrical, but made it into the car and made an attack. But, dazed, it just sort of sat there in a stupor afterwards. That’s when the Battlemaster with a grenade launcher popped in at the opposite end of the car and launched a grenade at the group. Two took cover, but our already-injured Yeti went down hard (he didn’t die, thanks to some very solid death saves, and was back on his feet, barely, a few rounds later). But of course, the dazed ninja was also hit, and blown back out of the train; he landed on the third rail again, which this time inflicted its atomic mode, and the ninja went up in a cloud of fire/radiation damaged smoke. The party made short work of the rest, with the plant guys really showing these plant-eating rabbits who was boss. The food chain is forever broken!

The epilogue involved recovery of a BRO CHURR from the hoops that told how to find Mithson Muse Castle. Armed with this map, the PCs had to make a mad dash across the radioactive wastes of ASHINGTON DEECE to reach the castle. Again, this was a “it’ll hurt ya” skill thing, but even more brisk: PCs got to choose one of three skills to roll, and had to accumulate 3 successes before their hitpoints ran out. Everyone made it, though the Empath/Mindbreaker did so only barely (of the three options for skills he had, all of them sucked). And so they claimed the Our Guide… and now faced the problem of figuring out how to get back home with it. Curtains.

A player at my table had some embarrasingly hyperbolic things to say about my game, so I suppose I acquitted myself well.

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Quick Taste of Gamma World Round-Up

So we had A Taste Of Gamma World this weekend at Labyrinth in DC (just off of the East Market metro stop) and I gotta say it turned out swimmingly. 4 tables of 4 players each (16 out of our 18 sign-ups — the two who didn’t make it had unavoidable complications), all of them hoppin’. We framed the whole thing as four teams sent to find the Our Guide, rumored to be stashed in the fabled Mith Son Muse Castle…

The Mith Son Muse questers were split into four teams, each tasked to follow a different color path into the bowels of the ancient ME-TRO. The table I ran was the Green Line team, and I set up three scenes (two of them full on encounters) on their path:

  • The Devil-Cow of Green Bel
  • The Format Ki of Fort Ott
  • The Ultimate Battle Against the Guardians of Mith Son Station

The Ultimate Battle scene was the same for all four teams, so each of us came up with the challenges along the way. Dave took the Red Line, Tom took the Orange (I think), and Bob the Blue (I think). I’m curious to get a recounting of what their points along the way were since I missed out what was going on at my table.

Setting this up was fun. The Devil-Cow encounter was based around the idea of a bunch of mutated farm animals, so there was a Devil Cow, a Hell Pig, a Big Damn Bug, and a Glowing Chicken, all reskins of one form or another. The chicken (a reskinned blood bird) turned out to be the highlight of that one. I challenge anyone to say that reskinning a blood bird as a radioactive chicken isn’t a move for the better — the high comedy of one of our guys, the Empath/Mindbreaker, having a glowing green chicken latching on to his head and trying to peck him to death while radiating his allies was fun while it lasted. (The other members of the party were a Yeti/Gravity Controller, a Plant/Felinoid, and a Plant/Mindbreaker — the level of overlap was more than I expected.)

They recovered the key hanging around the neck of the Devil-Cow, used it to enter Green Bel, and found an ancient train which took them to FORT (t)OTT(en) where a rumored FORMAT KEY could tell them how to find Mith Son Station. The Format Ki was an artificially intelligent InFORMATion KIosk in the middle of Fort Totten Park, which had convinced all of the semi-sentient plantlife in the park that it was their god.  I purposely designed this part of the plot to be “soft” in terms of its time footprint, the sort of thing that could drag out into a bigger deal, or be resolved in a few quick skill rolls. That said, I wanted to make the “skill encounter” reinforce the potential lethality of Gamma World, so I set things up such that if they failed skill rolls, the Format Ki would become displeased and would encourage its herbaceous minions to retaliate. The player’s speaker goofed once, triggering the wrath of the SCREAMING TREES, hitting 3 of the 4 PCs with a little sonic damage that they carried forward into the final encounter. That said, they managed to milk out the maximum information from the Format Ki:  “THE MUSE lies between THE ENIGMATIC TRIANGLE and CHIVEY PENN. To reach THE MUSE, you must continue on the GREEN LINE until you reach FANT PLAZZ. Another train awaits you there bound for VEENAFAX. Board, and you shall reach MITHSON. Beware the guards of MITHSON STATION. They are skilled in the ancient art of ninjaness and have a love for consuming plants.”

That last piece of information, achieved thanks to a DC17 Interaction roll, had my half-vegetal party on edge as they followed the directions and rolled on in aboard a ME-TRO TRAIN at MITH SON STATION. Speaking of the station:

That’s the map I cooked up for the encounter, had copies printed out for each GM. Worked pretty well. The real killer — which ended up being a hazard mainly to the bad guys — was the glowing/interdimensionally charged THIRD RAIL going down the center:

Third Rail – Level 3 Hazard (XP 150)
Detect - Perception DC 15                           Initiative —
Immune attacks
Triggered Actions
Attack (special) • At-Will
Trigger: A creature enters or ends its turn in a square containing the third rail.
Attack (Free Action): Melee 1 (triggering creature); +6 vs. Reflex
Hit: Roll 1d6:
1 = Photonic! 2d6 laser damage and the target is blinded until end of its next turn
2 = Atomic! 2d6 fire damage and ongoing 5 radiation damage (save ends)
3 = Electrical! 2d6 electricity damage and target is dazed until end of its next turn
4 = Psychic! 2d6 psychic damage and target is slowed (save ends)
5 = Hyperkinetic! 2d6 physical damage, target is pushed 5 squares in a random direction
(roll 1d8), and knocked prone
6 = Wormhole! Target winks out of existence until the end of its next turn, when it
reappears in any square to either side of the third rail
Miss: Target is pushed up to 3 squares left or right along the rail.

… but I also filled the encounter with two Hoop Ninjas, a Hoop Battlemaster, and a Hoop Sharpshooter. Further, the train was on the fritz, so every round I randomized which doors were open and which were closed, at one point cutting the PCs off from exiting the train unless they wanted to chance the Third Rail (they did not). The original plan had been to kick the PCs into the Third Rail occasionally, but the rolls did not work out that way. Instead, as an opening move, one of the hoop ninjas on the opposite platform bounced across the tracks and… stepped onto the rail. Got hit with some straight up electrical, but made it into the car and made an attack. But, dazed, it just sort of sat there in a stupor afterwards. That’s when the Battlemaster with a grenade launcher popped in at the opposite end of the car and launched a grenade at the group. Two took cover, but our already-injured Yeti went down hard (he didn’t die, thanks to some very solid death saves, and was back on his feet, barely, a few rounds later). But of course, the dazed ninja was also hit, and blown back out of the train; he landed on the third rail again, which this time inflicted its atomic mode, and the ninja went up in a cloud of fire/radiation damaged smoke. The party made short work of the rest, with the plant guys really showing these plant-eating rabbits who was boss. The food chain is forever broken!

The epilogue involved recovery of a BRO CHURR from the hoops that told how to find Mithson Muse Castle. Armed with this map, the PCs had to make a mad dash across the radioactive wastes of ASHINGTON DEECE to reach the castle. Again, this was a “it’ll hurt ya” skill thing, but even more brisk: PCs got to choose one of three skills to roll, and had to accumulate 3 successes before their hitpoints ran out. Everyone made it, though the Empath/Mindbreaker did so only barely (of the three options for skills he had, all of them sucked). And so they claimed the Our Guide… and now faced the problem of figuring out how to get back home with it. Curtains.

A player at my table had some embarrasingly hyperbolic things to say about my game, so I suppose I acquitted myself well.

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Gamma World: Vehicle House Rules Rough Draft

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Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

So, vehicles. They exist in Gamma World, but they’re poorly supported. Here’s a very rough sketch of how I might handle them in mine, if it came up:

- Vehicles have hit points (a given) and sometimes a resistance to physical damage. Size the hitpoints about how you might a monster of a level on par with the PCs current level. Resistances should be minor, and might convey onto the occupants (but not stack). Occupants of vehicles will in general have basic cover. A “bloodied” vehicle will need minor repairs after the encounter in order to function again. A vehicle reduced to zero hit points will immediately cease functioning and, if in motion at the time, crash. It may be totaled (reduced to negative bloodied value) or it may simply need major repairs to function again.

- Vehicles have a size, similar in intention and implementation to monster sizes, but might be narrower than they are wide. Size should refer to its longest dimension, so a 3-square-long (15′) vehicle would be Huge, etc.

- Vehicles act as mobile platforms that one or more creatures can occupy. They’re treated as difficult terrain in terms of moving onto them from the surrounding area, but movement inside in general should be treated as unimpeded (unless there are a lot of obstacles — seats, cargo, etc).

- Vehicles have a speed.

- One time this speed is considered “cruising”; two times this speed is “racing”.

- For a minor action on part of the driver, Speed can be temporarily boosted by a successful skill roll (Mechanics?) against a moderate target, adding two squares to the base speed of the vehicle for that round. Failing this roll reduces the base speed by two squares. (The increase/reduction reverses if the driver is trying to wrestle with the controls of an out-of-control speeding vehicle.)

- For a move action on the part of the driver, the driver can:
+ Increase the current speed from “stopped” to “cruising”
+ Increase the current speed from “cruising” to “racing”
+ Decrease the current speed from “cruising” to “stopped”
+ Decrease the current speed from “racing” to “cruising”
+ Turn the vehicle up to 90 degrees. (45 degrees — going from a perpendicular to diagonal direction or vice-versa — is also possible)
+ Make a (Mechanics?) roll to turn the vehicle more than 90 degrees. This is Moderate if the vehicle is currently cruising, Hard if the vehicle is currently racing.
+ Make a (Mechanics?) roll to take the vehicle from racing to stopped or vice-versa. Moderate difficulty.
+ If either roll is failed when attempted, the vehicle gains the Out Of Control condition (see below).

- Vehicles move a number of squares equal to their current speed at the end of the driver’s turn (or, if there’s no driver, at the end of the round).

- Crashes should be rated as doing damage as is level-appropriate for a low medium or high limited damage expression, with low/medium/high determined based on speed. Occupants that are not restrained will be pushed from the vehicle in a random (1d8 determines) direction equal to half the vehicle’s speed immediately prior to the crash. The vehicle takes damage from the crash as well.

OUT OF CONTROL (Condition)
- The vehicle can’t go slower than cruising
- All driver actions require a (Mechanics?) roll to succeed. Actions which would already require a roll are made at -2.
- If the driver makes a (Mechanics?) roll to control the vehicle, roll a d20. On a 10 or better, the vehicle loses the Out of Control condition.
- If the driver fails a (Mechanics?) roll to control the vehicle, roll 1d6:
1: The vehicle turns 45 degrees to the left
2: The vehicle turns 90 degrees to the left
3: The vehicle turns 45 degrees to the right
4: The vehicle turns 90 degrees to the right
5: The vehicle speed increases to racing if it isn’t already. If it is, the vehicle crashes.
6: The vehicle crashes.

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Gamma World: Vehicle House Rules Rough Draft

So, vehicles. They exist in Gamma World, but they’re poorly supported. Here’s a very rough sketch of how I might handle them in mine, if it came up:

- Vehicles have hit points (a given) and sometimes a resistance to physical damage. Size the hitpoints about how you might a monster of a level on par with the PCs current level. Resistances should be minor, and might convey onto the occupants (but not stack). Occupants of vehicles will in general have basic cover. A “bloodied” vehicle will need minor repairs after the encounter in order to function again. A vehicle reduced to zero hit points will immediately cease functioning and, if in motion at the time, crash. It may be totaled (reduced to negative bloodied value) or it may simply need major repairs to function again.

- Vehicles have a size, similar in intention and implementation to monster sizes, but might be narrower than they are wide. Size should refer to its longest dimension, so a 3-square-long (15′) vehicle would be Huge, etc.

- Vehicles act as mobile platforms that one or more creatures can occupy. They’re treated as difficult terrain in terms of moving onto them from the surrounding area, but movement inside in general should be treated as unimpeded (unless there are a lot of obstacles — seats, cargo, etc).

- Vehicles have a speed.

- One time this speed is considered “cruising”; two times this speed is “racing”.

- For a minor action on part of the driver, Speed can be temporarily boosted by a successful skill roll (Mechanics?) against a moderate target, adding two squares to the base speed of the vehicle for that round. Failing this roll reduces the base speed by two squares. (The increase/reduction reverses if the driver is trying to wrestle with the controls of an out-of-control speeding vehicle.)

- For a move action on the part of the driver, the driver can:
+ Increase the current speed from “stopped” to “cruising”
+ Increase the current speed from “cruising” to “racing”
+ Decrease the current speed from “cruising” to “stopped”
+ Decrease the current speed from “racing” to “cruising”
+ Turn the vehicle up to 90 degrees. (45 degrees — going from a perpendicular to diagonal direction or vice-versa — is also possible)
+ Make a (Mechanics?) roll to turn the vehicle more than 90 degrees. This is Moderate if the vehicle is currently cruising, Hard if the vehicle is currently racing.
+ Make a (Mechanics?) roll to take the vehicle from racing to stopped or vice-versa. Moderate difficulty.
+ If either roll is failed when attempted, the vehicle gains the Out Of Control condition (see below).

- Vehicles move a number of squares equal to their current speed at the end of the driver’s turn (or, if there’s no driver, at the end of the round).

- Crashes should be rated as doing damage as is level-appropriate for a low medium or high limited damage expression, with low/medium/high determined based on speed. Occupants that are not restrained will be pushed from the vehicle in a random (1d8 determines) direction equal to half the vehicle’s speed immediately prior to the crash. The vehicle takes damage from the crash as well.

OUT OF CONTROL (Condition)
- The vehicle can’t go slower than cruising
- All driver actions require a (Mechanics?) roll to succeed. Actions which would already require a roll are made at -2.
- If the driver makes a (Mechanics?) roll to control the vehicle, roll a d20. On a 10 or better, the vehicle loses the Out of Control condition.
- If the driver fails a (Mechanics?) roll to control the vehicle, roll 1d6:
1: The vehicle turns 45 degrees to the left
2: The vehicle turns 90 degrees to the left
3: The vehicle turns 45 degrees to the right
4: The vehicle turns 90 degrees to the right
5: The vehicle speed increases to racing if it isn’t already. If it is, the vehicle crashes.
6: The vehicle crashes.

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DC Gamers: A Taste of Gamma World

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Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

Dave Chalker, Tom Cadorette, and I, together with the newly-opened Labyrinth game store in downtown Washington, DC invite you to join us for “A Taste of Gamma World!“

This four-hour event, sponsored by Critical-Hits.com, will take place on Saturday, December 18th, from 2pm to 6pm, at Labyrinth in downtown Washington, DC (it’s metro-accessible!).

In the Gamma World RPG, you’ll get the chance to experience mutated strangeness, post-apocalyptic adventure, and almost certain death. Whether you’re new to RPGs in general, or Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, or an old hand at it all, everyone is welcome. We’ll quickly teach what you need to play, and then take everyone on a wild ride through a strange-yet-familiar landscape. We’ll do randomized character creation at the start of the session, a key part of Gamma World’s appeal, and after the session’s end at 6pm, we’ll adjourn to grab some nearby eats and find out who met the bizarrest end (friend or foe).

As a holiday bonus, table fees will be waved by the fine folks at Labyrinth — all you’ll need to do to get in on the action is let us know you’re coming. Seats will go fast, so make sure you contact us as soon as you can at atasteof@critical-hits.com to request yours. When you do, please let us know what your level of familiarity with 4th Edition D&D is, so we can match folks with similar levels of playing experience (or get enough mentors at each table!).

We hope to see you at Labyrinth on December 18th, for A Taste of Gamma World!

EDIT: Note! For the first hour that this post was up, the email address was misspelled. If your message to us has bounced, that’s why. It’s now correct as shown above.

EDIT #2: Half the seats are gone as of 1:30pm on Thursday — 7 slots remain!

EDIT #3: All 15 slots are full — so we’re expanding the event to have an additional 5 slots (and one more GM). If you’re interested, now is the time to speak up!

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DC Gamers: A Taste of Gamma World

Dave Chalker, Tom Cadorette, and I, together with the newly-opened Labyrinth game store in downtown Washington, DC invite you to join us for “A Taste of Gamma World!“

This four-hour event, sponsored by Critical-Hits.com, will take place on Saturday, December 18th, from 2pm to 6pm, at Labyrinth in downtown Washington, DC (it’s metro-accessible!).

In the Gamma World RPG, you’ll get the chance to experience mutated strangeness, post-apocalyptic adventure, and almost certain death. Whether you’re new to RPGs in general, or Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, or an old hand at it all, everyone is welcome. We’ll quickly teach what you need to play, and then take everyone on a wild ride through a strange-yet-familiar landscape. We’ll do randomized character creation at the start of the session, a key part of Gamma World’s appeal, and after the session’s end at 6pm, we’ll adjourn to grab some nearby eats and find out who met the bizarrest end (friend or foe).

As a holiday bonus, table fees will be waved by the fine folks at Labyrinth — all you’ll need to do to get in on the action is let us know you’re coming. Seats will go fast, so make sure you contact us as soon as you can at atasteof@critical-hits.com to request yours. When you do, please let us know what your level of familiarity with 4th Edition D&D is, so we can match folks with similar levels of playing experience (or get enough mentors at each table!).

We hope to see you at Labyrinth on December 18th, for A Taste of Gamma World!

EDIT: Note! For the first hour that this post was up, the email address was misspelled. If your message to us has bounced, that’s why. It’s now correct as shown above.

EDIT #2: Half the seats are gone as of 1:30pm on Thursday — 7 slots remain!

EDIT #3: All 15 slots are full — so we’re expanding the event to have an additional 5 slots (and one more GM). If you’re interested, now is the time to speak up!

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A Look at Labyrinth

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Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

I got the chance to head down to Labyrinth DC today. It’s a new game store in the DC area, friendly to RPGs but not stocking deep or wide on them just yet (we’ll have to show interest and follow-through with purchases to improve that!), and I wanted a chance to talk with the store owner, Kat. Turns out she’s great, very positive and very motivated to come to know her community and how best to serve them. So definitely take the time to talk to her if you drop by and let her know what would bring you back to the store and spending money there. It’s located in the Capitol Hill area, just one block’s walk from the East Market metro stop, so the rent is high — this store will definitely need some focused community support in order to take off. More on that in a bit.

The store has a few key things going for it which may set it apart from other stores:

  • It’s a super attractive, very open-feeling space despite having a long narrow floorplan with a slight bend in the middle (see the photos below).
  • The front window lets in a lot of light to the front part of the store — and the back of the store ALSO has a big window that lets in daylight to the back half. As a result it’s one of the few game stores that’s managed to pull off the abundant natural light feel, which I think is a huge win for atmosphere. (Endgame in Oakland, CA is the big example of this in my mind.)
  • It has a very family-friendly vibe going. The owner actively encourages folks to bring their kids and let them run around and explore the store.
  • Location: while the parking isn’t great, the fact that this is a very metro-accessible game store smack in the middle of the DC area means that we may now have a convenient, central location to have the occasional mini-con. The store could seat 4 tables of 6 easily as is, with the option to shuffle some shelving around and get another couple tables if need be. Plus, there’s good (if Capitol Hill priced) variety in the nearby walkable food options.

I’m interested in seeing if we can get a few events happening at the store. Taking a cue from the Endgame/Go Play SF Bay “A Taste Of…” events, Tom Cadorette and I may be looking soon into organizing a few “A Taste Of… [fill in an RPG here]” events in the coming months. On the short-list of early candidates, I think, would be Gamma World, Leverage, and Fiasco. In the somewhat longer-term view, we might look at doing a multi-slot all-day thing ala “FateCon” or “HatCon” or what have you, but for right now looking at doing a single-slot, 2pm-6pm thing on a weekend “taste of” events to get our feet under us is likely the right call.

Anyway, enough of my rambling — I’m still processing my visit to the shop and thinking about possibilities — and on to a view of some of the pics I shot while there.

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A Look at Labyrinth

I got the chance to head down to Labyrinth DC today. It’s a new game store in the DC area, friendly to RPGs but not stocking deep or wide on them just yet (we’ll have to show interest and follow-through with purchases to improve that!), and I wanted a chance to talk with the store owner, Kat. Turns out she’s great, very positive and very motivated to come to know her community and how best to serve them. So definitely take the time to talk to her if you drop by and let her know what would bring you back to the store and spending money there. It’s located in the Capitol Hill area, just one block’s walk from the East Market metro stop, so the rent is high — this store will definitely need some focused community support in order to take off. More on that in a bit.

The store has a few key things going for it which may set it apart from other stores:

  • It’s a super attractive, very open-feeling space despite having a long narrow floorplan with a slight bend in the middle (see the photos below).
  • The front window lets in a lot of light to the front part of the store — and the back of the store ALSO has a big window that lets in daylight to the back half. As a result it’s one of the few game stores that’s managed to pull off the abundant natural light feel, which I think is a huge win for atmosphere. (Endgame in Oakland, CA is the big example of this in my mind.)
  • It has a very family-friendly vibe going. The owner actively encourages folks to bring their kids and let them run around and explore the store.
  • Location: while the parking isn’t great, the fact that this is a very metro-accessible game store smack in the middle of the DC area means that we may now have a convenient, central location to have the occasional mini-con. The store could seat 4 tables of 6 easily as is, with the option to shuffle some shelving around and get another couple tables if need be. Plus, there’s good (if Capitol Hill priced) variety in the nearby walkable food options.

I’m interested in seeing if we can get a few events happening at the store. Taking a cue from the Endgame/Go Play SF Bay “A Taste Of…” events, Tom Cadorette and I may be looking soon into organizing a few “A Taste Of… [fill in an RPG here]” events in the coming months. On the short-list of early candidates, I think, would be Gamma World, Leverage, and Fiasco. In the somewhat longer-term view, we might look at doing a multi-slot all-day thing ala “FateCon” or “HatCon” or what have you, but for right now looking at doing a single-slot, 2pm-6pm thing on a weekend “taste of” events to get our feet under us is likely the right call.

Anyway, enough of my rambling — I’m still processing my visit to the shop and thinking about possibilities — and on to a view of some of the pics I shot while there.

The Storefront

Store owner Kat explains Settlers of Catan to a customer

Front area of the store

The middle bit, at the "bend"

Back of the store, showing the window and the play space, with bonus Tom

The RPG shelf. As noted, not stocked wide or deep -- yet -- but if we can demonstrate demand for the product, Kat is definitely interested in supporting that!

Hal Mangold, Tom Cadorette, Kristin I-Forget-Her-Last-Name (@celeloriel), and Adam Jury

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Bandwidth II

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Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

Links for reference in this post:

So, Daniel recently reposted his thoughts in response to my Bandwidth idea from December last year, and it’s gotten some interest stirred up on Twitter and his blog. Daniel’s 5×5 notion is solid, but it also cleaves close to the kind of design he prefers: interesting word-game mechanics which build towards the collaborative creation of a story. My angle is usually much more inhabit-a-character oriented and as such Dan’s designs — while good! — aren’t always in the pocket for me in terms of the designs I personally want to play. [1]

As a designer, I’m more interested in creating interesting dynamics of choice and tension through the numerical operation of the game mechanics, and THEN fitting theme and story to that. Bandwidth comes from the other direction, however, by saying “here’s some general themestuff and a setting concept” and then looking for system pieces that fit that. So as I back-of-the-brain tinker with this concept, I discard a lot of stuff that doesn’t fit the mechanical motifs that I find interesting. It’s a process of finding the Venn overlap between my system preferences and the setting conceit. At present, here’s what’s left after that vigorous flensing.

So here are words and phrases from the theme (radio broadcast superpowers) which I find interesting and which I think can be tied into system:

  • 5×5 – Strength and Clarity
  • Distortion
  • Static/Interference

Here’s how I’d systemize these concepts for something interesting-to-me.

Tuners (or Receivers), the folks who gain powers by listening to the right signals, list the various signals they can pick up on their character sheets. They’ll rate these in terms of maximums — how much signal power they can handle (Strength) and how clear of a signal they can manage to achieve (Clarity) with their natural equipment. Strength will correspond to the magnitude of the effect the power can have, while clarity will correspond to how finely controlled that power can be utilized. Maybe the system will value clarity more than strength, if there’s a point-buy gig going on here, making it cost, say, 3 points per point of clarity but only 2 points per point of strength. [2]

Six sided dice, maybe as few as two (and definitely no fewer) get rolled when resolving an action. The goal is to get two numbers, each equal to or less than the strength & clarity numbers the character has for that signal, hopefully exactly equal so the character performs at peak ability. (Stay with me here.)

The player rolls the d6es and allocates two numbers from the results, one to strength, one to clarity. The more clarity (beneath or at your maximum), the more control you can exercise over the effect, the more delicate, the more complex. The more strength (beneath or at your maximum), the more power output you can achieve, covering a wider area, a more potent hit, etc.

If you can’t allocate a number that’s less than or equal to your target strength, that creates distortion, like what happens when you try to play something too loud through speakers that can’t handle it. In the game, distortion is a measure of unintended side-effects — extra bits of power that spew out the sides of your ability, increasing the level of (unintended/undesired) property damage and bystander casualty for example, or changing the nature of your power (it doesn’t sound the same!) in this instance.

If you can’t allocate a number that’s less than or equal your target clarity, that creates static; static builds up over time and (perhaps) reduces the number of dice you can subsequently roll, until you get a chance to squelch it. In play this may feel a bit like hit points: if you can’t roll at least 2 dice because of the static penalties you’ve accumulated, you aren’t receiving any signals. You’re jammed.

Even when generating static or distortion, generally your character successfully does something — assume that your power operates at its max level in something you can’t allocate, it just has some nasty side-effects, so long as you’re not allocating a 6. If you can only allocate a six to something, that should be a significant screw-up.

Let’s talk a few scenarios.

I’m playing a Human Torch type dude, someone who can dial in a lot of pyrokinetic power (Strength 4) and is at least middling good at mastering it (Clarity 3). Let’s say the default number of dice I might be rolling at the moment is 4 d6es (the number rolled needs to be examined but the idea isn’t far enough along yet to be sure of the ideal quantity).

Case 1: I roll 6, 5, 4, 2. I need to allocate that 2 to my Clarity, and that 4 to my Strength, to get close to ideal: I don’t have my ideal level of finesse with how I use the power this time around, but I am able to dish it out at my maximum power level (4). So maybe this is a quick-from-the-hip burst of flame tossed at my target: it burns what it should burn, but it’s not as selective or well-targeted as it could be [3]. Or maybe I could decide I’m willing to take a burst of static in order to get the higher clarity result, allocate the 4 to my Clarity (it’s over my 3, so I get a 3 clarity result) and the 2 to my Strength (I didn’t need that much power in order to pull off the effect I’m going for).

Case 2: I roll 6, 5, 5, 3. I go for 3 clarity, and 5 strength, over my 4, which gets me some distortion. Bam! I fry the target, but (distortion) I fry it a little too good and a fire begins to spread. Or maybe instead (distortion) I throw my flames at the target but it comes out as more light than heat — I overload its optic sensors, but I don’t do lasting structural damage.

Case 3: I roll 6, 5, 5, 4. I can’t allocate any proper number to my clarity, but the 4 hits the target for my strength, so I put that there (I don’t want any distortion). This does mean I end up with one or more points of static (do I have to allocate a 5, and subtract my 3 clarity rating, to take 2 static? or do I just call this a burst of static and make a single tick mark?), which will reduce my subsequent die pool. But I get a clarity 3 effect and maximum power, and grit my teeth through the painful static.

Case 4: After taking some static I end up rolling only 2 dice. I get a 6, 3, and now the pain really sets in. First off, I have to allocate a 6, and if it’s clarity then there’s a complete lack of control, a true miss; if it’s strength, then I simply have no juice, a straight up fizzle. Where I put the six matters more than color, though. If it’s strength, then I’m looking at distortion, pure distortion as my power runs away with itself and does something really unintended. If it’s clarity, then I take static again, which would take my die pool down to 1 die — removing me from the fight as I get jammed. It’s likely I’ll choose the distortion, but what if my Aunt Mae is in the crowd?

So that’s the rough draft start of the direction I’d take the idea into system. It likely has some deep flaws to it, but it’s a start, and the dice allocation and shrinking pool elements mean I get the effects I’m looking for in a design: tension as the pool shrinks due to static [4], and interesting choices as the player decides how to allocate his numbers.

—-

[1] Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s something interesting in the word-game ideas that Dan has, but I also find myself squinting a bit when a sentence like “I kill you” is easier to build than “I kill your dog”. Yes, I’m oversimplifying his ideas here, but hopefully you get my point. [back]

[2] So, the Hulk’s superstrength signal might be high strength, low clarity — not a lot of control but a hell of a lot of power. Dazzler’s lightshow ability might be low strength, high clarity — a lot of finesse in using the power, but not a ton of punch. Magneto would be a classic 5×5 guy, tons of power and a lot of deliberate versatility in its use. [back]

[3] I’m imagining the existence of tables for both Strength and Clarity that give examples of what a use at levels 1 through 5 of each might look like. Today, I’m handwaving it a bit. Bear with me. [back]

[4] “Interference” is probably a term I’d use to describe static that’s inflicted upon you by others. Maybe that points at a “contested roll” situation where the strengths and clarities generated are compared to one another as you try your Superstrength signal against my Forcefield one. Other axises may exist on the character sheet as well for each signal, such as a Bandwidth rating that suggests how broadly your power can be applied — Telekinesis being potentially much broader than Heat Vision, thus being a greater bandwidth power. That kind of thing. [back]

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