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Dave, Sean Patrick Fannon, Me and Clint Black
This evening, I’ll be explaining my fantastic weekend at ConCarolinas.
I had to work Friday evening, so was unable to experience the first day. Me and Dave got on our way by 10 the next morning, heading down to Charlotte, NC. It’s about a 6 hour drive, and I was the guy with the car that had good gas milage. Not 30 miles out of town, I got pulled over for speeding by a cop. Never mind I was going with the flow of traffic, he was still going to write me a $120 ticket to soil my spotless driving record. Boo.
We arrived at the con about 4 and contacted E of Geek’s Dream Girl to let her know we were there. She and Dave The Game were in the middle of a Savage Worlds session, and told us they’d meet up with us around 7, so we poked around the booths and dealer room before going and watching the Geek Comedy Tour with 4 very funny guys.
We met up with E and Dave The Game (I’m referring to him as such so as not to confuse him with the other Dave, who I brought along to the Con), as well as the man who had DMed their game, and we all went to dinner. What I didn’t realize is that their DM was Sean Patrick Fannon, who is the RPG Publisher Relations and Marketing guy over at One Bookshelf, which includes Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow. We had a phenomenal discussion about RPGs, the industry and “Wizards Who?”
After that, we tried a game called Posthumous, a Zombie board game by This is a Cow. It’s still in prototype phase, so we got to play on the only board in existence. It was quite entertaining, and once it’s released, you should all go check it out.
After a little Rocky Horror Picture Show, I retired, prepared for the morning’s game.
The following morning (this one) me and Dave (not The Game) went down to the game room. We had signed up the day before for a Savage Worlds Necessary Evil game. The game was a blast. Halfway through, Dave gave me $10 bucks and told me to go to the dealer room and buy a copy of the Explorer’s Edition of the game. I ran over, elated, and picked it up. I certainly wasn’t expecting that, but he told me it was a gift, and I would simply have to run it for him to pay him back.
I played The Sphinx, an evil mentalist. We were a group of villains captured by the Americans in WW2 and now being sent on suicide missions against the Nazis to earn our freedom. My character was a Mechanical Genius, as well as Arrogant, could cast illusions and could read as well as control minds. I chose him because he seemed fairly ineffectual compared to the other characters, and I wanted to push my limits. And that I did.
The game culminated in my character learning all the knowledge of the German Super Soldier program down to the formula through mind reading, killing the only other man who knew about it, and crashing a plane into the Eiffel Tower as I parachuted away. In the end, while all the other villains had to turn themselves back in, I won my freedom by offering the information in my head for my liberty. That whole story is reserved for its own blog, however.
At the end of the session, the GM was giving away one free copy of Necessary Evil, and everyone at the table agreed that it should be given to me. I was flattered, and accepted it, now owning both the Savage Worlds Core Book and Necessary Evil. I basically got a whole campaign for free!
Then, to top it all off, I was told that Clint Black, the writer of Necessary Evil was in the building, and me and Dave went and got his autograph in that book, as well as in Savage Worlds, since he’s listed in the credits. Sean Patrick Fannon was also in the credits of Savage Worlds, so we got his autograph in our books as well.
It was a great weekend, consisting of 12 total hours of driving. But as E told me when I first considered going, “yeah, the bread may suck, but the peanut butter and jelly are fantastic!”
Amen to that, E, amen to that.
I’ve had this idea running through my head for a while now of using songs to inspire adventures. There are some fantastic stories told in songs, and they should be fully used to benefit your game. I’ll be running this as a semi-regular series as I hear songs that would work best for this article series.
We’ll begin with “Eli The Barrow Boy” by The Decemberists. This is a phenomenal song by a phenomenal band. Here’s the lyrics:
Eli, the barrow boy of the old town,
Sells coal and marigolds
And he cries out all down the day
Below the tamaracks he is crying:
“Corn cobs and candle wax for the buying”
All down the day
“Would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread
But she is dead and gone and lying in a pine grove
And I must push my barrow all the day
And I must push my barrow all the day”
Eli, the barrow boy, when they found him
Dressed all in corduroy, he had drowned in
The river down the way
They laid his body down in a church yard
But still when the moon is out with his push cart
He calls down the day
“Would I could afford to buy my love a fine gown
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread
But I am dead and gone and lying in a church ground
And still I push my barrow all the day
Still I push my barrow all the day”
So there it is. Now, how can you implement this into your game?
Eli was a villager in a nearby town who used to sell trinkets from the pushcart he drug through the town. He told anyone who would listen that he was trying to save his money to buy a beautiful dress for his love who had been dead for years. Most villagers just brush him off as an innocent crazy, until the day they find him drowned the river. Still, on some nights, the villagers hear him wandering the town, pushing his barrow, calling out his wares, still searching for his lost love.
How do the heroes become involved? Perhaps the village asks them to help put Eli to rest, by either finding a marvelous dress to give to his love, or perhaps assuring Eli that his love is waiting for him on the other side. Maybe Eli becomes angry with the heroes, unsure of their motives or lashing out at the heroes. Their only recourse is to lead him to where his love is buried and help assure him it’s time to move on.
If any of you use this for an adventure hook, let me know! I would love to see how it turned out!
I have a few players who began playing RPGs with 4e, which is fine, but for one problem:
They really like power cards.
While this wouldn’t really be an issue, when I’ve tried to introduce them to Star Wars, D20 Modern or 3e, they aren’t interested, because they don’t like that their hero’s only option is to make a basic attack. So what’s one to do? Perhaps we should make some power cards so that players can see all their options spread out in front of them.
Put feats on cards that aid in attacks, Force Powers (in the case of Star Wars) or spells (in the case of D&D) would be great on power cards.
Perhaps even putting all your options with a skill on the card would help as well?
I know that Mutants and Masterminds would be perfect for this. Having your powers on convenient cards would help immensely.
What do you all think? Could this work?
My trip to NYC was incredible.
Highlights included: being in the audience for different morning shows, sitting behind the cameras on the Glenn Beck show and talking to him afterwards, visiting the Statue of Liberty, being given an exclusive tour inside the gates of Ground Zero itself, visiting Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, being in the audience of the Late Show, walking through Times Square to going on tours of both uptown and downtown Manhattan, singing Karaoke in Greenwich Village, being given $2000 seats to the Yankees game, three rows back from the first base line, and eating lunch in Hell’s Kitchen (the patrol-grounds of Daredevil, the Man Without Fear).
It was an incredible trip.
I also realized a great many things about gaming.
1. Make your cities real. I was told by one tour guide that it’s rare to find something in New York City that lasts more than 100 years or so. As he said, “the city is constantly erasing itself”. It’s possible to find things, but more often than not, they are torn down to make room for the ‘new’. In this same way, the skylines of cities in both your fantasy and sci-fi games should change as well. If your group played 3.5 Forgotten Realms, and now have jumped ahead to 4e, 100 years later, many of their old stomping grounds should be gone by now, replaced by new locations. Perhaps new walls have been constructed, better than before. Art styles will have changed, as well as the way things are built.
2. Make your locations real. Walking through New York, I was able to identify lots of locations I’ve read about in fiction. My favorites were the Marvel Comics locations. “Hey look, there’s the Daily Bugle!” or “Hey, that’s Hell’s Kitchen!” or “We’re in Greenwich Village! That’s where Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum is!” or “That’s where Stark Tower would be located!” All of these things contribute to really making the comics now seem more alive than ever before. Looking around Times Square and imagining it destroyed by the Marvel Civil War was chilling, seeing how many people are crammed in there every day. It inspires me to start my own Marvel Comics Superhero game, using NY as the backdrop and being as geographically accurate as possible.
3. Make your people real. I happened to walk past Lauren Graham on Broadway my first day in town. I got to meet Glenn Beck, as well as Dane Cook, and saw Adam Lambert perform live only a few feet away on the CBS Early Show (it should run tomorrow morning). I even met Spider-Man in Battery Park (whose costume was looking worse for wear). The point is, your heroes should be welcome to interact and meet famous characters in the game world. If you’re playing Star Wars, don’t be afraid to have them pass Dash Rendar on the street. Many DMs fear that seeing a canon character would cause the players to want to kill the character to screw with the timeline, but if you’re not playing with a bunch of asses, this wouldn’t be an issue. Their characters wouldn’t know what future events transpire in that character’s life.
In the end, I learned a lot from NYC. Next time you’re in a big city, pay attention to things around you for inspiration for your RPGs.
I’ll be off in New York City for the next couple of weeks, so we won’t be posting much here! Just wanted to let all of you know! Thanks.
Mark, the Dice Monkey
Carrion Crawler Chili Colorado
Ingredients
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a crockpot on high for 6-8 hours. The longer the better. Serve over rice.
The other day I was sitting at the dining room table with an old friend of mine. She is a lovely woman. We initally met as co-workers years ago. I have never mentioned to her any of my gaming hobbies.
As we were talking I mentioned the blog that my husband and I write together… specifically all about Dicemonkey. She looked a little intrigued so I decided to show it to her.
I was honestly a little hesitant. She is a chaplain and doesn’t seem to play any game more involved than Yahtzee. But as I was showing her I began to explain a little of the RPG concept… still wary and still not using any of the phrases like D&D.
Questions started pouring out: How do you play? What is an RPG? How do you make a character?
I couldn’t believe it. She was interested!!! Truly interested!!! I offered to show her a little more about it and that if she was still interested I would even be willing to run a short and easy adventure.
That afternoon wasn’t really accomodating to learning to play but I am hoping that before we leave that I may have the chance to show her just how cool it really is to be a gamer.
I think we often don’t share our love of gaming with select people because we are afraid of their judgements. But sometimes we can be so pleasantly surprised and if we open up a little more I think we can be happy to welcome more people to the gaming family.
What about you? Do you have any stories of having unexpected people becoming interested in RPGs?
In my ongoing mission to like Star Trek more and more, I’ve found quite a few good resources around the webbernets for the RPGs.
Wholesale Gaming is selling all of the books that Decipher came out with for only $35 bucks. A fantastic deal I will have to jump on.
Patrick Goodman has created a support site for the Star Trek Decipher RPG, including rules for playing androids and holograms.
There’s a fan-made Forum devoted to multiple types of Star Trek RPGs, and they look pretty busy. I’m definitely going to be checking them out frequently.
And finally, but definitely not least, there’s the Marvellous Mechanical Miniature Maker, a site that allows you to make Star Trek crewmembers from any era. Mind you, it does require Internet Explorer (trust me, it doesn’t work with Firefox or Safari), so you may have to suffer and use that to make your character. It’s a very nifty little program. In fact, I made this Vulcan crewmember from the Nemesis era!
I’m a very easily amused guy. I liked both “Daredevil” and “Electra”. I got a kick out of “Spiderman 3″, and have even been known to watch “Phantom Menace” with delight. Hell, I was mildly amused by “Catwoman”.
Why is this?
Well, simply put, I like to be entertained. The movie doesn’t have to be phenomenally written or have the best special effects. I’m able to overlook flaws in things so as to enjoy them more. I can ignore Jar Jar if it means I get to watch Senator Palpatine steadily work his political power in the senate, finally turning the Republic against his hated enemies.
Why do I bring this up?
Because I haven’t met a roleplaying game I didn’t like. Any game I’ve seen I desperately want to play in and immediately begin thinking about what type of character I’d play, or how I’d run it.
The way I see it, it’s not about the mechanics, it’s about creating a story. A lot of people complain about 4e being “just about combat”. Sure, the rules only focus on combat, but when I play, we have maybe one encounter per session. There’s nothing keeping you from playing like you have in every single other RPG you’ve played before.
The mechanics of the game are there to help guide you, but ultimately, it’s you who make a game what it is.
Everybody’s been writing about it and I thought I would take a crack at it as well.
RPG Blog II asked readers: What is your Appendix N?
For those of you who don’t want to click away, he basically asks, “what inspires your campaigns, play stiles and writings?” In Appendix N in AD&D 1e, Gary Gygax (“Long may he roll 20’s!”) listed the different things that inspired him in making his campaigns.
Here now, is mine:
David Eddings (The Belgariad, Mallorean, Redemption of Althalus), Dragonlance (The original few series), Neil Gaiman (Coraline, Good Omens, American Gods), Star Wars (Pretty much anything), H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu), Brian Jacques (Redwall), Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), J.R.R. Tolkien (Hobbit, Lord of the Rings), C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia, Screwtape Letters), Ursula K. LeGuin (Earthsea), George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones), Dan Abnett’s 40k books, Christopher Moore (Lamb, Stupidest Angel, A Dirty Job).
That’s not all, of course, just what I could think of. What about you? What’s your Appendix N?
