While enjoying a beer out with The Wife Saturday night, I received a message from a buddy of mine.   Deb advised me that Ross Payton and his crew over at Role Playing Public Radio were talking about me.  Or at least the subject of my previous two YMH columns concerning the use of social skills against a fellow player’s character.

“Have you checked it out yet?” She asked.  “Ouch… They’re a bit harsh toward the end.”

I hadn’t, so I downloaded it, listening on Sunday while digging out the flower beds.

The RPPR folks took the position that grown-up role players settle matters of disagreement through role playing free of a dice mechanic.  Player vs. player conflicts should be settled through acting out the drama and perhaps meta-game it a bit to resolution.  As you know, I disagree. (continue reading…)

Dour Puritans who fight the forces of supernatural evil with the sheer power of their faith and a vicious scowl are not exactly my cup of tea.  If anything, I am a much bigger fan of beefy barbarians who battle dark wizards and seduce lusty wenches.  So, when given the choice of Robert E. Howard’s characters, I prefer Conan over Solomon Kane.  In fact, I have only read two Solomon Kane stories.

I am, however, a sucker for Savage Worlds and will devour pretty much anything that they produce.  So, when I went to the prize support table after running my game at Fear the Con 3 (yes, you get a prize for running games at Fear the Con.  You regret missing it even more now, don’t you?) my eyes were immediately drawn to the Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane Travelers’ Tales book.

The book is just over 30 pages long and has about the same dimensions as a magazine.  It contains three complete adventure scenarios set in Solomon Kane’s world of supernatural darkness.  The stories echoes tales that are familiar from the real world.  The first involves the Uffington Dragon and the apparent return of the beast that inspired it.  The second is a tale of a Frankenstein style mad scientist.  The final story features Kublai Khan and his secret city of Xanadu.  The book ends with several sample characters that players can use should they not already have Solomon Kane characters or if they want to try a new character. (continue reading…)

Game Master Chris Mais oversees The Escape Into White Man's Planet

I have enjoyed the terrific honor of gaming with Chris Mais at each of the three Fear the Cons.  He played school teacher Peter Badger in my zombie game the first year and reprised  the role in the second year sequel to the game.  Fear the Con 3 saw my first opportunity play in his game.

Chris ran ESCAPE INTO WHITE MAN’S PLANET, a game in the style of the blacksploitation films of the 1970s such as SHAFT, SUPER FLY, and even the more recent BLACK DYNAMITE.  Chris used the Savage Worlds system for his setting’s mechanics.  The pulp nature of Savage Worlds made things flow smoothly and in cinematic fashion.

Shortly before he started, Chris shared that it had been in excess of five years since he last ran a game.  I think I’d have pee’d myself had my first game after such a hiatus been a con game.  Chris ran his game masterfully.

Without a doubt, this was the most irreverent, offensive, and outright hilarious game I have ever played.  Chris rocked this thing hard.  He was blessed by some amazing talent around the table who came to the game with the intent of working towards a great game.  Rarely have a seen so many players focused on EVERYONE’s good time – including the fun of the GM.

Chris tickled us and we tickled him and each other.

My ears hurt from all the laughter. (continue reading…)

Luke Meyer: Crafting Iron Tyranny

Sometimes you just want to play with giant robots blasting each other to smithereens.  That is exactly what I got to do when I was given the rare opportunity to not only play test a new game before it was fully developed, but also to do so with one of its creators.

The game that I’m speaking of is Iron Tyrants and the creator is Luke Myer of the Podge Cast.  Iron Tyrants is a game of tabletop miniatures battles that he has been developing with his partner Adam Pinilla for over a year.

This game has a number of remarkable traits.  The first that it is exceptionally fast paced.  We were able to resolve a four player, eight Tyrant game in just over an hour, a length of time that would be necessary to play just a round or two in a game like Battletech.

The rules are also exceptionally simple and intuitive.  We only needed Luke to walk us through a round or two of combat before we had all of the core concepts down and were essentially able to run the game without his aid.  As simple as they were, however, the rules were neither boring nor limiting.  Like many RPGs and CCGs these days it is a game of exceptions.  The core rules are simple but each Tyrant has certain abilities that allow them to break these simple rules. (continue reading…)

Twitter's @ThistledownJohn and Fear The Boot's Chad at World Wide Wing Night

Chad's Cigars 101 at World Wide Wing Night

Click through for more pics from FtC3 (continue reading…)

Ross Payton of Role Playing Public Radio

At Fear the Con last week, I had the good fortune to play in Ross Payton’s Age of Masks Wild Talents game.  Age of Masks is a setting not unlike that of Watchmen.  It is a grim  and gritty modern era world where those wearing the cape of the superhero are anything but heroic.  Remember Miller’s Dark Knight Returns?  Then you can imagine the world Payton painted for us.

The game employs the Wild Talents system. It’s a nifty, streamlined system that were it not for it’s dice mechanic, I’d like rather a lot.

Here’s an excerpt from a great review of the game over on RPG.net:

The heart of Wild Talents is the One Role Engine. It does what it says on the tin: it tells you everything you need about an action based on a single roll. It’s a die pool game, wherein you take your statistics (Body, Coordination, Command, etc.), add them to your skills (Swordplay, Chemistry, Brawling, etc.), and roll the resultig number as a pool of ten-sided dice. Unlike similar die pool games, you’re not looking to beat a target number–you’re looking for dice that show the same result. The number of matching numerals is the “width,” and the actual numeral is the “height.” For instance, if you roll a five-die pool and get 3, 8, 3, 3, and 2, then you’ve got a 3×3 result: three instances (width) of the number three (hight). You can never roll more than 10 dice, because you’re guaranteed success if you do, and that’s just not cool. (continue reading…)

The blogger studies.

Recently, I had the great fortune of attending Fear The Con for the third time in a row.  I’ve been told that GenCon is like going to a class reunion where everyone is like you.  Well, my graduating class was only 48 people, so I suspect Fear The Con is much more like my actual class reunion.  You know everyone (by appearance if not name) and everyone knows you.  Each year, I get to know a few more people a little bit better and I look forward to it as much to catch up with them as to sit down and game for 24 hours in a two day period.

This year I had the opportunity to play several excellent games, a couple good games and one decent game.  Over the course of the weekend I was able to play four new systems that I was interested in, including the much anticipated Iron Tyrants, created by Luke Meyer and Adam Pinilla from The Podge Cast.

I also ran a game for the second year in a row.  This game was a homebrew “system” I created based on the lives of the Klokateers, the numerous faceless individuals who work to support the greatest band in the history of ever, Dethklok.  I put quotation marks around “system” because I hardly think that a four stat system using one die merits the term and because of the abysmal way in which it ended up failing me. (continue reading…)

From left to right: Aron, Tim, Jonathan, and Wayne. Not featured is Paul who was too full of fail to be present.

Four out of five hosts agree, Fear the Con 3 in St. Louis rocked!

For the first time, the four of us met face-to-face.  Tim, Wayne, and Jonathan are just as great guys as you’d think they are.  Truly, excellent fellows to call friends.

Paul was sorely missed, but I think we’ll get him to the next one.

Something that surprised me at the con was how much Funnybook love was shared.  Many people pulled me aside telling me how much they enjoyed the show.  I talked comics with lots and lots of new friends.  I cannot begin to tell you how amazing it was!

First game huge success. I played in a Weird War II, a setting for Savage Worlds. I’ve been very curious about this one and have wondered if I should pick it up.

Totally sold on it.

We played Russian partisans monkey wrenching the Nazi war engine marching across Beloruss (Sp?).

Slicing the throats of Nazi sniper’s, I settled on my battlecry: “I accept your surrender.”

Our lieutenant forgot to call in the artillery. Note his shirt below, which cracked me up.

Outstanding game.

I’m off to Ross Payton’s Age of Masks.

it’s all about to start. Giddy. Giddy, I am.

The room is set up and dig that sexy prize support!