I am so excited to be attending the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle this year! I have never been to a gaming convention before and I am looking forward to this epic adventure! I hope to come back with inspiration for new posts and maybe even a write up of my experiences at PAX.

I will be traveling to Seattle with my fiancé for this event. PAX is from September 3rd – 5th. We are both excited to see as many games and talks as possible. We are both interested in checking out what Wizards of the Coast has going on for Dungeons & Dragons related events. I am hoping to find a Green Ronin booth and maybe talk with someone about the new DC Adventures RPG.

My fiancé and I will be treating this trip like a vacation for us. After PAX I will be spending a week in Washington State visiting family before returning to Juneau Alaska. I am not planning on doing much writing while I am on vacation, but please feel free to follow me on twitter (@nicap) as I am sure I will be posting updates and pictures from PAX.

2 people like this post.

Unlike

For some reason Fudge, the roleplaying game by Steffan O’Sullivan back in the nineties, is something like the unloved uncle to the popular FATE system. A lot of gamers have heard about FATE, especially after Evil Hat released the Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, which uses the latest version of the FATE rules, but only a few people have an idea what Fudge is. Recently I got the “Fudge 10th Anniversary” hardcover book and I am totally loving it. So I decided to give my readers a few reasons why they should check out Fudge, too.

1. It’s free
   The 1995 version of Fudge is available as free PDF download on the Grey Ghost Press website. And there’s even a System Reference Document in the RTF format because Fudge has been released under the Open Game License a few years back. So, it’s not only free to download, you can even create your own Fudge stuff under a relatively open license!
2. It’s a toolbox
   Fudge is not a simple game but a roleplaying game toolbox. Attributes and skills are not pre-set and the GM can choose from a lot of options to tweak the game to perfectly suit his style. The game comes even with several alternative combat systems to choose from. Especially the hardcover version comes with more optional rules you ever could use in a lifetime. It’s a GM’s dream!
3. It’s multi-genre
   If you wish you could play games in pretty much every genre with Fudge. The “10th anniversary” book contains examples for Fudge in the Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Wuxia and SF genres. Adapting it to a genre basically means to pick and choose which skills, gifts and talents are eligible for the campaign.
4. It’s very easy to learn
   While Fudge can be as complex as you wish it to be, it can also be one of the easiest games to teach to new players. Attributes and skills are ranked with descriptive adjectives like Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Fair, Good, etc. and the dice mechanic is very easy. Some people might not like that you need custom dice to play Fudge, but even that’s not true. If you don’t have any Fudge dice, you can easily use one of the alternative dice mechanics or play totally diceless!
5. It promotes roleplaying
   Yes, it’s true, Fudge is a roleplayer’s roleplaying game. The way Fudge works it encourages a narrative play style. Fudge point mechanic allows players to take over some narrative control over the story. And since the system is pretty rules-lite, the rules rarely get in the way of the roleplaying.

Although I love Fudge very much, there are some drawbacks. Alas the organization of the book is not as good as it could be, which makes things a bit hard to follow when you read it for the first time. But once you got it, it’s pretty easy to teach to your players. The toolbox nature of Fudge also means that the GM has more work than in most games. But if you can look beyond this, you’ll probably love Fudge as much as I do.

4 people like this post.

Unlike

I recently announced that I was writing a Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition adventure. Progress on this project has been steady. Anytime I have a free block of time to myself I am working on it. I have already learned a lot and am excited to learn more as I continue working on this project.

I thought It would be interesting to talk a little bit about where my motivation for such a project is coming from and what keeps me working on it. The short answer is that I need a creative outlet. I have Dungeons & Dragons night with my friends and I have my personal blog, but I still feel like I have a void to fill. That is why I started writing my own adventure.

Growing up I had music. At an early age I picked up playing the drums and through my life I have been the drummer for a hand full of local bands in Washington State. That was a huge outlet for me and something I enjoyed very much. When I made the move with my fiancé to Juneau Alaska I tried for 4 years to get a band together. Eventually I I gave up on trying to put a band together in Juneau.

I guess that is where Dungeons & Dragons came into play. It helped fill in the void of needing to do something creative and fun. As time has gone on I have gotten better at planning adventures for my group and needing less prep time to do it. So now I have been left with another void to fill with something creative.

Reading books like The 4 Hour Work Week and blogs like Wil Wheaton’s, I have been inspired to create something with my creative energy. Something I hope other people will enjoy. That something is a Dungeons & Dragons 4 Edition Adventure. Wish me luck!

4 people like this post.

Unlike

To celebrate yesterdays’ release of the PDF version of “Time of High Adventure” by Crafty Games, we give away one copy of the Fantasy Craft 2nd printing PDF today! As with all our PDF giveaways in the past, you need to have an account at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow in order to participate. But this should be a minor hurdle, if you ask me.

So, what do you have to do to get your hands on a copy of Fantasy Craft? That’s extremely easy this time. Just leave a comment under this post. That’s all. I will randomly pick a winner tomorrow at noon GMT+2 (German time). It would be nice if you write about why you’re interested in Fantasy Craft in the first place.

P.S.: To avoid possible confusion, please note that the prize for the giveaway contest is Fantasy Craft, not Time of High Adventure!

9 people like this post.

Unlike

As in the last months we can provide our readers with a 20% discount coupon code for DriveThruRPG. The coupon code is good from now till October 5th and can be used with purchases from the following publishers:

• Cubicle 7
• Dream Pod 9
• Fabled Environments
• Fat Dragon Games
• Goodman Games
• Erisian Entertainment
• Generic Universe Publishing
• Holistic Designs
• Kallisti Press
• Louis Porter Jr. Design
• OtherWorld Creations
• Palladium Books
• Rogue Games
• RPG Objects
• Savage Mojo

The code is HotAugustGames2010! Enjoy!

And while you’re there, why don’t you get Warrior, Rogue & Mage and the supplement From the Imperial Forges as well? They are both free and if you like rules-light fantasy games you’re in for a treat!

5 people like this post.

Unlike

Recent events in my life have me thinking about pets. Be they familiars, animal companions or summoned animals, whatever way your system of choice calls them, why do we feel the urge to have pets in our games? I can see why… The joy and happiness they bring into our real lives is one we want to recreate in the game as well. Or maybe we are just looking for a way to inflict more damage during combat. It’s a toss up, I’ll admit it.

Looking back I don’t think I’ve ever run a game where there was not at least one animal, either a pet, familiar, or simply a beloved steed or pack animal. In AD&D 1^st edition at one point my players all decided to get pets, I remember the ranger with his pet iguana the most. In AD&D 2^nd edition I had a player who loved wolves and always wanted his characters to have a trained wolf no matter which character he played. In D&D 3^rd edition where the rules for the animal companions and familiars were codified with grater detail, characters enjoyed the mechanical benefits of said companions in the game. I fondly recall the Dwarf Druid with his wolf animal companion and all the command words he made up. It was an integral part of his role playing.

Animals in my campaigns have also met with some terrible fates. There is a running joke among my players that no horse survives long in my table. Although I’ve broken the tradition, for the longest time horses died like flies in my games. One time players spent a whole session acquiring horses with special qualities, named them, equipped them, only to tie them to a tree outside the dungeon and go in! Needless to say when they came back there was no sign of the horses.

Currently in our Pathfinder game a player created a Summoner from the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Players Guide. This class has a special companion called an Eidolon and the player has gone into great detail about the creature, its personality, making sure it is an integral part of just who his character is, a detail I am not soon to forget.

Of course, for every memorable animal in a campaign, there have been familiars that seem to be forgotten until needed, like Vaarsuvius’ familiar in the Order of the Stick. They are there, in the periphery, and only come into play when the player or game master remembers them. Systems that mechanize the rules for animals as allies for players add an incentive for the player to handle and remember the rules for their pets. In the instances of memorable animals in my campaigns the players have been critical in making sure the animal just doesn’t fade into obscurity.

But as a Game Master it is also my responsibility to maintain a sense of realism, to present to the players a believable world that contains all elements, including their pets. Here are some tips to help you achieve this:

• I keep NPC lists to make sure I don’t forget anyone. Especially lists of recurring NPCs or NPCs that travel with the group. Always make sure to write down the name, species and a short description of pets there as well, that way when you review the NPCs for the next session you don’t forget them.
• If you don’t like to keep lists of NPCs, I’m pretty sure you at least keep notes about the player characters. If so make sure you write the name of the pet along with the name of the character that way you’ll associate one with the other, eventually the pairing will become second nature.
• If you are more visual, consider giving the player a visual cue that will remind you of the animal. A picture he or she needs to keep close, a plush version of the animal or even a toy. That way you’ll both be constantly reminded of the pet.
• Make sure you include the animal in your descriptions, cement its existence in the player’s minds. Describe the smell, the behavior, real animals are easy to portray if you watch Animal Planet or after a quick search online. Fantastic animals are even better, you can make up details such as diet and behaviors, making it seem real! Remember an animal needs care; be sure to mention to the player the time spent doing this. Try to include the animal in at least one description during every game.

These are all simple solutions that when used can make that animal accompanying your player’s character that much more real. I hope they are useful and help keep those poor animals from vanishing into thin air!

PS – This last bit is purely personal so feel free to skip it and move on to the next post, I assure you it will be more interesting that this!

Allow me to take a moment to dedicate this post to Akira, my faithful animal companion for 17 years. She recently failed her saving throw and is no longer with me. I’ll miss her immensely, but it was her time. She left me with two other pets, Lula the dog and Morphy the cat, which also miss her. She can’t be replaced but she’ll always be remembered!

PS 2 – In case you didn’t get it, the title for the post and accompanying image, come from that unforgettable movie classic Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

4 people like this post.

Unlike