Despite being primarily a Game Master during my years gaming, I was never a Storyteller for a Vampire game. One of the things I enjoy the most is playing my homebrewed world, and at this time we were playing AD&D 2^nd edition. If this was the golden age for Vampire and the World of Darnkess, it was not for AD&D. I worked at a FLGS and whenever I talked about my AD&D game with some RPG fans I got this weird condescending look, as if I was still playing child’s games instead of engaging in immersive storytelling. I felt disdain for the game I played. I don’t know what your experience was but I felt a lot of World of Darkness gamers were snobs, their game was better than anyone else’s.

This turned me off somewhat. Still my close friends and acquaintances were not like that; they continued to play my AD&D 2^nd edition game and invited me to a few Vampire games. The one I probably enjoyed the most was a short lived chronicle run by my friend Karlo, who based the game here in Puerto Rico, and I got to play this bloodthirsty Gangrel biker. Great fun!

The other Storyteller I knew that played a regular chronicle was Ray. He was a very popular WoD Storyteller. Everybody wanted to play with him and that was a problem. His sessions had hundreds of players! Ok that’s an exaggeration, it might have been ten or twelve, or at least it seemed that many. And Ray was a great Storyteller, giving each player time in the spotlight, his games allowed people to explore the plotlines that interested them BUT there were just too many people playing. I once spent an entire night with the group and only got to play for about 30 minutes.

The other thing I did not like was plethora of WoD characters. The group had Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, even a Highlander-like character from some supplement I can’t remember. With such a diverse group motivating all this disparate characters, some that hated each other, was a daunting task. I really did not stick around for the chronicle.

Despite all this stumbling blocks I still had the desire to run the game. What was my biggest deterrent? The metaplot! Most of the people I knew who wanted to play were HEAVILY invested in the game, knew all the plots, read all the books. Of course you’ll say “It’s your game, ignore what you want, make it your game!” But this is easier said than done, to many of these people part of the fun WAS the metaplot and jettisoning it a turn off. This is not a problem exclusive to the WoD, it can be just as hard to play with Forgotten Realms hardcore fans who know every NPC ever published.

So I put away my plans for a Vampire game and went on with my gaming life… I got the New World of Darkness books and kept abreast of the changes in the game, I just never ran it.

Then last year they announced the anniversary edition of Vampire the Masquerade and my desire to run a World of Darkness game came back.  The Vampire as a literary and cultural icon intrigues me. I am a fan of Bram Stoker and while I am NOT a fan of Anne Rice (I can hear the cry of heretic and the mob with torches and pitchforks at my doors), I do like the mythology White Wolf established in the Masquerade. While I really liked Werewolf back in the day, Vampire was always a better fit for my style of play, intricate plots with lots of politics and backstabbing. I resisted the urge to get the collector’s edition due to the price, but when the PDF became available I jumped at the opportunity.

I loved it; it was a wave of nostalgia packed into an awesome product. Well worth the price even if it was steep for a PDF (like Michael pointed out in his post about VtM20). I considered finally running a Vampire game, and some of my players like the idea.  But I knew that with just the PDF it would not be feasible to run the game (or at least that was the excuse in my head) so I caved in an ordered the POD version. The full color, two volume one; the books are not yet in my hands, I just got the notification that they shipped, but the gears are already turning.

When I think about it long and hard, our group has a lot of games in the backburner. Our current Mutants & Masterminds Dawn of a New Age campaign, returning to our Pathfinder RPG swashbuckling campaign, an unnamed sci-fi game using Savage Worlds… Add to that Vampire the Masquerade. Yet I conceive of the Vampire game as a short campaign, perhaps eight to twelve sessions long, taking no more than 3 months.

From what I learned in all those WoD games long ago, here is how I will do things:

• The players will only play vampires. This is easy since only the Masquerade has been updated, but there is always the temptation to go and pick a Garou or a Mage. It’s challenging enough to get vampires form different clans working together, so no characters from other books. All characters will be vampires or vampire related characters, ghouls for example.
• The players must have some pre-game connection. They don’t all have to be friends but they must know at least two other characters in the game. Be it friendship, a relationship, a common mentor, the connection can even be one of friendly competition but not animosity or rivalry.
• Keep the group manageable. There are currently seven official players at my table (one misses a lot of games for personal reasons and another one arrives late due to work sometimes) but more often than not there are seven people playing. This may seem like a lot to some of you, but we already do a lot of role-playing and manage time so that everybody feels included so I think the group can manage. I just can’t add another player to the mix. (Or my players will kill me!)
• Jettison the metaplot. With experience and more confidence as a GM I can bring myself to say the heck with it and be done. With time people are not as invested in the books and stories they knew and I believe will embrace (pun intended) my concepts.

Not on that list, since I don’t think it’s a decision that would make or break a campaign, but it’s a personal choice, I will only use the Camarilla. I know many people adore the Sabbat but the secrecy and politicking of the Camarilla seem more interesting to me. I’m not saying the Sabbat will not exist, only that at the beginning all characters are in the Camarilla.

I will also advance the timeline a couple of years into the near future,  making it still recognizable, but getting rid of some real world pre-conceptions ,and giving it just a little cyberpunk/Blade Runner edge without making it sci-fi. Here is my pitch for a future Vampire the Masquerade game:

In 2020 after the last POWs of the Africa Wars had returned home and the celebration of President Yolanda Newman’s inauguration the United States looked with optimism to the new decade. This was not to be… The plague struck in New York and soon panic grew. Fearing a pandemic the city was placed under martial law and quarantined. Other major metropolitan areas were also quarantined but the infection was controlled quickly. Not so in New York. Millions were trapped inside the quarantine zone. Riots erupted, chaos ensued, more and more people died, and then the terrorist struck. A bacteriological weapon, believed to be the original cause of the plague, was released in the city and killed 96% of the people inside the quarantine zone. The city was declared a hazard, condemned and abandoned.

The plague was soon controlled and Mexico and Canada where the only countries with significant outbreaks. The US economy suffered a great setback, but President Newman’s initiative to rebuild the city of Wilmington in Delaware after the bombing of 2017 was a success. Soon the New York Stock Exchange moved to the rechristened Wilmington and the once almost dead city became New Ubar.

What the people don’t know, not even some of its leaders, is that the events leading up to the destruction of New York, the plague and the raise of a new metropolis in the eastern seaboard of the US were all the machinations of the Kindred. Specifically a member of the Camarilla, he created the plague, that did kill many humans, but also decimated many Sabbat gathered in New York through his machinations. The Cainites  have driven back the Garou who fight to save a dying world. The Mages have disappeared, but whether this is the action of their enemies or a sign of impending doom is unclear.

Come to the new city built by the triumphant Camarilla as they plot to impose their rule upon all the children of Caine… But in the bowels of the shinning new city a man stirs, he cannot remember his name, but his return foretells of dark time ahead.

That’s the gist of it; this would be the beginning of a short chronicle. I realize that this is my second post about a possible campaign, one after the other. I won’t bore you with further details, if there is interest in reading more about the planes for the game let me know, I may just follow up with another post.

PS- I fear there is some vitriol in this post, WoD fans as snob, dismissing Anne Rice… None of it is meant to insult everybody, I am not saying EVERY WoD fan is a snob, I just ran into some of them, just like I know hardcore D&D 4^th edition fans… But those have no excuse!

I kid my friends, all in good fun; enjoy the game, whichever one you play!

Related posts:

1. Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition now available at DriveThruRPG
2. Free Stuff Friday: Vampire The Requiem Demo
3. When the World of Darkness died …

The theme this issue is archers and its well served. Let’s see, it opens with the Elven Archer, a race specific class for the Pathfinder RPG. It’s an interesting mix of the ranger and the rogue that fits a traditional fantasy niche. The article has some typos (and you all know I’ve got plenty of those, so I shouldn’t be nitpicking), but I found it interesting and it’s a perfect fit for my long running campaign. The notes on adapting the class for other races, cultures, or even weapons make it useful in other contexts. There is also an article on magic arrows, which again provides what in my mind are some archetypical magic arrows. These two articles seem plucked from my adolescent love for RPGs updated for Pathfinder.

What else is there? Read on to find out…

Other Pathfinder articles include a collection of ooze themed spells and familiars, including the ooze magic school. Four new terrifying low to mid-level creatures that range from the creepy to the terrifying, a fifth level adventure, which begins with some railroading, but this a is a short adventure and due to length I’m willing to overlook it, since the rest is really entertaining. An article on older adventurers, including feats, which makes me reconsider the possibilities of my concept for the old hero and another one on Midgard themed fey hunters, with lots of campaign flavor BUT easily adaptable to any campaign.

But my favorite Pathfinder article (even more than the archery themed ones simply because this one is just so much more useful for me as a GM) was the article on four fully fleshed planar allies, with details on what negotiations with them would entail, personalities. Kudos! The weird article award goes to magical fish one for Pathfinder. You eat the fish and get some magical effect, from removing curses to permanent ability boosts, weird, interesting but weird…

For AGE you have 5 new specializations for the game’s classes. I love to see Kobold Quarterly expand the possibilities of this terrific system.  For D&D 4^th edition there is a bard themed article, new utility powers for gomes, tieflings and minotaurs (a race near and dear to my heart), and an article on nature spirits, dual-statted for Pathfinder. The recent announcement of D&D Next/5^th edition has made me take another look at the rule set, wondering what will be part of the new game. Whatever happens I hope in the future Kobold Quarterly gets to support all the games they already do and the new D&D!

There are systemless advice articles, like Monte Cook’s on the role of the GM. It might not be the most original, but there is some solid advice in there and he did bring up some interesting issues to consider. The mechanic for time sensitive adventure, called haste points, seems interesting, but I would have to test it out, I’m not sure how it will play out. The idea is solid and well presented, but they are something else to track in game and I’m not totally convinced I need that. The regular cartoons are here, funny as usual, I love Stan!’s humor, and I particularly liked D20 Monkey’s this issue, juvenile but funny. Read it, you’ll see. And of course, the closing one page article on the City of Zobeck by the one and only Jeff Grub!

The magazine is 84 pages long, full color, with terrific art, great layout and an appropriate ratio of articles to adds. I’ve said it before, it’s reminiscent of the old Dragon Magazine, but this is not a magazine just for the grognards like me, but for all fans of the major fantasy games out there. You can get the PDF of Kobold Quarterly #20 for $5.99 or the PDF+ Print bundle for $8.99, or better yet subscribe, well worth it in my opinion. Thank you for the makers of Kobold Quarterly for providing a review copy!

Related posts:

1. What about Kobold Quarterly, specifically the winter issue, number 16? A review…
2. Review: Kobold Quarterly Issue 14
3. Spring is here… Can’t you smell the kobold? The Kobold Quarterly that is!

See, I’ve had a couple of rough weeks and we had to cancel our weekly game twice (sacrilege I know!), so we planned this as a way to catch up, see each other and spend some quality time together. Needless to say at dinner with gamers I had to bring up the topic everyone’s been talking about in recent days D&D Next/5th edition…

I wanted to get their take on the news of the development of a fresh version of Dungeons & Dragons. Here in the blog we recently posted our thoughts, but we are bloggers, keep abreast of news and interact with a different community of gamers than some of the gamers I was sitting with. The reaction was interesting, mostly predictable if you know the group, but telling considering this quote from Monte Cook:

“I’m the lead designer of a project that will likely evolve into a new iteration of the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. It’s meant to be a set of rules that unites all the previous editions, and the players of those editions.  It’s a big project, and we plan on involving all comers to playtest and voice their opinions, because really, what’s the point of designing a game no one wants to play? And who knows better what D&D players want than, well, D&D players.”

(Thanks to EN World for collecting this and other quotes and information on the development in their D&D 5^th edition info page!)

What did they say? Read on…

This is a varied group, running the gamut from their mid-twenties to forties, all longtime role-players and as a whole we’ve all played D&D, some of us more than others, but we all cut our teeth on the game. Some of them have played at my table for nineteen years, and for the longest time all I ran was D&D. Many where there when we switched from AD&D 2^nd edition to 3^rd edition, and later when I dragged them (some kicking and screaming) to D&D 4^th edition, some even ran the game, so we’ve all experienced edition change.

In the midst of a conversation about movies, critical hits and the selection in the buffet I dropped the bomb, “So what do you think about the fact they are developing a new edition of D&D?” My favorite response was, “What?” There was actually someone at the table who had no idea. It’s been days since the announcement, this is not a person who lives under a rock, he uses the internet, but obviously despite WotC’s attempts and all the media coverage this was the first he had heard of it.

The general consensus seemed to be disinterest. One of the most vocal haters of D&D 4^th edition in my group actually threatened to hit me with the book if I “wasted” (that’s what he called it) my money on a new edition. More moderate voices insisted they were happy with the fantasy RPG they have, Pathfinder, and that it would have to be a pretty amazing system to get them to go back to D&D.

When someone pointed out that planning for sessions is an intense experience for a Game Master, I made the faux pas of actually defending 4^th edition and singing its praises, such as ease of prep time for Game Masters, and the GMs around the table insisted they have the same ease of prep with Pathfinder. And while I agree Pathfinder made many strides in these regards, and making it easy when creating NPCs, specifically by providing short cuts and samples of them, I believe there are still some issues with high-level play, but nothing that bothers me. I can navigate this hurdles and I think the other GMs at the table have mastered the system and thus feel very comfortable with the game.

I think this may be the biggest obstacle Wizards of the Coast faces when they try to attract lapse players back to the fold, they feel that when WotC published 4^th edition they were left behind (no pun intended!) and that they have moved on, they have found other games that fit their style. Another of my players never played 4^th edition and did not understand the vitriolic reaction against D&D 4^th edition, but also felt Pathfinder fulfilled her needs for fantasy gaming and has no desire to change systems.

The most surprising reaction came from one of my oldest friends, he works at a FLGS and is the only player at my table who still actively plays D&D 4^th edition (albeit not with us). He said he has NO interest in a new game, that he would continue playing D&D 4^th edition and Pathfinder. He distrusts (I don’t recall his word choice exactly, but this was the impression I got) WotC’s corporate policies and had little hope on what they plan to do, he was also underwhelmed by the design team. He admitted he was excited about 4^th edition, not so this time around.

I remain positively optimistic. I want to see where this goes, look forward to the open play test, which I believe is a step in the right direction, and think the stated design goals are laudable. From this conversation I know there is NO interest among my players to playtest the game. Since writing the last post on the subject I’ve decided I DO want to play the game as part of the playtest and know people who are interested, so I hope I can cajole some members of Puerto Rico Role Players to try this out.

All this is anecdotal; still I wonder how much of this type of attitude is out there… Is it too late? Has the ship sailed? I certainly hope not. I want to see what the next version of D&D is all about, I want the granddaddy of games to thrive, whether I end up playing it or not. So I invite you dear reader to keep an open mind, I really think it’s too early to say what the game will be like. Don’t write it off, if it ends up not being what you want to play, other will. Let’s all be more tolerant of what other people want to play, we are all gamers, no matter under which system we roll our dice! It’s those diceless heathens we need to worry about! I’m joking, no hate mail please…

I apologize in advance if I misinterpreted or misquoted anyone on this post, know that these are my interpretations of the opinions I heard. Thanks Enith, José F, Luis A, Fernan, Luis L, Pierre, Sara, José D and Nilda for a wonderful evening!

PS- Yes, we are going back to out regularly scheduled Tuesday game this week, there is nothing to fear!

Related posts:

1. Dungeonslayers review @ “Here Be Gamers”
2. Ask The Readers: Web comics for gamers?
3. Gamers Help Haiti Product Bundle @ DriveThruRPG

Even though we have held lots of activities we rarely do purely social activities. With the exception of a movie night all other group activities have centered on gaming. You’d figure since the group centers around role-playing games that’s a given, BUT I really appreciate the friendships I’ve made through the group and I want to spend some time with them away from the game… Is that an oxymoron?

We originally had planned to meet in the Old City of San Juan, but we missed one small detail. Yanni (yeah, Yanni at the Acropolis, Yanni) was holding a concert at the San Felipe del Morro Castle so we did a last minute change of venue and settled on The Office Traditional Irish Pub (yes there is one on Puerto Rico). We gathered there last Saturday and had a terrific get together. Great beer was drunk, I met up with old friends, made new ones, someone dressed in a kilt and someone else hustled games of magic for free beers. What can I say, geeks do it better!

Looking back I realize I am grateful for a lot of things this year. The highlights include the growth of Puerto Rico Role Players, my participating here in the blog, going to Gen Con and meeting so many new friends, the people I’ve met through Stargazer’s World and social media. The year also had some difficult times, the health of elderly family members took a turn for the worse, I worked too much and rested too little, suffered for it and found myself not spending time with my loved ones and doing the things I love. But as this year closes I have a new job, the support of my loved ones and I once again have time to do what I love!

So looking back I want to thank everybody who was part of this year in my life. To all those who read my posts, whether we met in person or virtually, thank you. The gaming community is truly a wonderful place. Here is looking forward to the upcoming year. No matter how, or IF, you celebrate the season, happy holidays everybody, thanks for reading!

I’ll finish this post with my affirmation for the upcoming year: Being a Geek is my lifestyle choice… I am proud to be part of the Greater Geek Nation!

Related posts:

1. Confessions of a Gamer: In the Beginning
2. RPG Blogging 101: Let’s start at the beginning
3. Happy Holidays from Stargazer’s World!

Hello,
I’m Mr. Joe Sixpack And Would like to know if you sell Game Table and
what types of the Game Table  do you offer for sale..Also what types
of payment do you accept?Thank you and reply ASAP.
Best regards,

Joe Sixpack

Is this some weird kind of spam? Or is someone confusing the Open Game Table which I contributed to with an actual physical table? I actually answered that question and told Mr. Sixpack that I don’t sell anything. I haven’t heard from him since…

By the way, if you have any serious questions for the Stargazer and his crew, feel free to email us via askthestargazer@stargazersworld.com!

Related posts:

1. Ask The Stargazer: “How should one go about starting an rpg blog?”
2. Best of Stargazer’s World
3. Ask The Stargazer: “What is the one RPG that you have never run, but have always wanted to?”

I have talked about food in games before, but this is a different situation, the master of the Gordopletas© needs to loose weight. And I am not remotely thinking that the junk food I eat once night a week is responsible for my unhealthy eating habits. I need to exercise more, eat more responsibly. But in past experiences, and lets face it many of us have been there, I can pinpoint that I keep my diet for most of the week and then come game night I drink too much soda, eat too much chips and candy.

So I come to you dead reader, how do you do it? What tricks have worked for you? I plan on getting back on the healthy eating wagon and I’d sure like to plan ahead.

Related posts:

1. Ask the Readers: What do you eat at the gaming table?
2. Ask The Readers: Netbook at the gaming table
3. Food & Games

No wonder hardcore fan-folk (and I use the term meaning no disrespect) often take this to the next level when it comes to the things they are passionate about. Be it the TV series they were really invested in and the networked axed, or the endless novel series whose author passed away before completing it. There can be righteous indignation in such occasions.

It’s no different with fans of role-playing games when a game they love is cancelled, or an adventure series they enjoy is left unfinished, but we have the very particular characteristic that what we enjoy is not solely dependant on the actions of others. If a TV series gets the axe, or a novel series is never finished, well there is not much we can do about it. We can petition and protest and that sometimes has a result, but that’s usually not the case. Some people write fan-fiction and present to the world how they think the story would have ended. But we never get to know how the original creator (be is a sole writer or a production company) had planned for the story. We just won’t know…

Enter our hobby. True some people only play pre-published adventures, but even those who do end up modifying or changing the story by the mere act of playing it, even if they use pre-gens and the GM sticks pretty close to what’s written. Our hobby is not passive; we are the weavers of the tales we tell.

So it is no surprise that when a campaign is not finished we get the same feeling of being let down. No let’s call it what it is, the sense of FAILURE when a campaign we began with such gusto just peters out and dies. As I mentioned this line of thought on Twitter last weekend (follow me as there as @Sunglar) @NookHarper listed the reasons this happens.  He correctly said some reasons include players leaving, new games starting, starting games full of enthusiasm but with little or no planning, among others.

And I agree those are among the common causes that campaigns die. Some will say that’s why they don’t play campaigns, that they prefer one shots or short adventures, and I say, more power to you, to each and everyone his or her own. Play what makes you happy! Me? Well I just love campaigns, the possibility of telling a long term story, the nuances developed as characters interact with the world, be it for a hundred sessions, or just ten. If you have never played a campaign I recommend it, it’s a different experience and well worth the work and aggravation (and there will be a little bit of both I assure you!).

I have finished various campaigns, some years long. I tend to stick to something until the end. I, like any other human being, am a completist. Logically you might now expect my advice on how to make sure that campaign keeps going, tips on how to reach the finish line. Well no! That’s not what this post is about, on the contrary, I will go ahead and say it. That campaign you are sorry you did not finish, well it might be a good thing it never did.

Before you get offended and think I dismissed your campaign, let me tell you why I say this. Have you always been happy with the way a story ends? Be it novel, television series or movie. I can tell you the finale of LOST was one of the most disappointing TV watching experiences of my life. Oftentimes when we like something a lot, there is no way the end is going to be as good as we thought it would be. True with campaigns the attentive Game Master can tailor and shape the flow of things to meet player lies and expectations and hopefully come to a satisfying conclusion. But I have the nagging feeling that more often than not the ends of campaigns happen after some measure of fatigue has set in and they are either, rushed and feel too premature, or dragged out to long and disappoint. I will admit that, while some campaign closings have been successful, some of my campaigns have suffered from the abovementioned ills.

Maybe the campaign wasn’t that good to begin with. It could have been fun but not as entertaining as the GM thought, we are no perfect after all. But maybe it was really good and it ended for reasons beyond your control. When a campaign is just left unfinished and players keep talking about what could have been, all the possibilities, sometimes its better to leave it like that. Specially if a long time has passed. You will probably never be able to recapture the enthusiasm, the thrill of the original games. Better to live of the memory and what if, than to try to go back and end it…

It’s not easy, but I am trying to come to terms with the idea. I fear George RR Martin will die without finishing A Song of Ice and Fire. I’ve made my peace with it. I’ll read the novels as they come out, I’m along for the ride, if I get to the end that will just be s plus. The same with other media I enjoy.

This line of thought came to me as I ponder the end of the current storyline in my Mutants & Masterminds campaign; which will go into hiatus as its proven popular enough with my players to merit a return to it eventually. We have not played out swashbuckling Pathfinder RPG game since last December and as much fun as we had I know not all the players were equally enthusiastic by the end, and we ended it abruptly because everybody wanted to play supers. For a moment I thought, perhaps its time to let it go…

Well I’ll be a stubborn ass and I think I will disregard my own advice and try to retake it. I have some specific plans to overhaul the game, switch the focus and discuss with players the necessary changes. Well see how that goes… I’ll let you know if I was successful or if it should have remained unfinished business.

Related posts:

1. My take on “unfinished business”
2. The RPG Blog Alliance is now open for business!
3. Letting go of that NPC

Last year a group called “Boolean Union” created an animated film based on said Chick tract. That may actually be old news to some of you. I don’t actually know what reminded me of the existence of said movie, I think someone mentioned it on Twitter or Google+ the other day. Alas I can’t remember who it was. Nevertheless, the animated film based on the Chick tract is fun to watch even though the animation looks very old school. But hey, it fits the source material.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

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2. Under the Dark Sun
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Sometimes I think about what would I have done if I was in charge of the development of D&D. Luckily I am not in that position so I can freely think about what I would like to design and play instead of worrying about what the fans would like to see. Because – you can trust me on this – I love to slaughter sacred cows.

Let me start by a disclaimer: I haven’t been a fan of D&D before third edition and while OD&D in form of the retro clones has a certain charm for me, there are many other games I prefer.

So while I would probably base my “Stargazer Edition” of D&D on OD&D, I would include a lot of the changes from D&D 3rd Edition. Or let me rephrase that. I think I would take D&D 3rd Edition and remove all the meat from the bones so that something as light as OD&D or perhaps Microlite20 remains.

At first I would remove the feats and streamline the skill list. The D&D 3.5 skill list was already a great improvement about the one in it’s predecessor. When I think about it, the way the skill system works in D&D 4th Edition is not so bad. Your skill rank is always half your level plus 5 if it’s one of your “trained” skills.

As the next step I would get rid of attributes but keep the attribute bonuses. In my opinion the attributes in D&D 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 have just been kept for nostalgia’s sake. It worked great in games like Mutants & Masterminds and True20, so why not in my “Stargazer Edition”.

The three Saves and the Base Attack bonuses actually worked well enough, so I’ll keep them around. See, it wasn’t so bad, it almost didn’t hurt.

Ok, let’s start slaughtering some sacred cows now, let’s change the way armor works. I always didn’t like the idea that armor makes you harder to hit instead of reducing the damage your character takes. So let’s fix that. This is actually done quite easily. Each character gets a Defense value which is 10 plus your Dexterity (remember, we replaced the attributes by their bonuses). This is what your opponent needs to roll to actually hit you. Armor worn reduces damage and heavy armor may even reduce your Defense making you easier to hit.

The next sacred cow to be killed are classes. Instead of classes I would prefer the players to be able to pick and choose from various background options. These can grant you access to certain abilities, magic etc. – they are basically your build-your-own-class toolbox. This allows for much more organic characters.

Magic is another touchy subject. I never was a friend of Vancian magic and I didn’t like the way D&D 4th Edition made use of Powers either. I would probably try to design a spell-point based system or follow an even more radical approach.

Back when I was still in school I read many of the Dragonlance novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. In these novels casting magic always drained sometimes even hurt the caster. So why not design a system in which spellcasters use their hitpoints to power spells? Of course this limits the power of magic and might feel out of place in high fantasy settings but I like the idea a lot.

My edition of D&D would probably use feet and yards instead of squares and move away from tactical miniature combat. And instead of including rules for every situation I would prefer to keep things light and encourage GMs to come up with their own solutions.

Last but not least I am actually not sure if levels are even needed. But I might actually keep them around just for nostalgia sake. Yes, even I can be nostalgic.

The result of this thought experiment, the so-called Stargazer Edition of D&D would probably almost be unrecognizable for some, but I believe it would still retain a lot from D&D. I haven’t actually started working on something like that, but it’s one of those ideas that crop up from time to time again.

So what do you think about my ideas. Am I sacrificing too many sacred cows? Am I totally nuts or do you believe I am on the right track?

Disclaimer: No cows (sacred or otherwise) have been harmed during the production of this post.

Related posts:

1. Edition Wars in levels
2. D&D 4th Edition – is it D&D?
3. And I thought D&D 4th Edition cosmology was less complicated than this…

I am not a closet gamer! By that I mean I do not hide my love for role-playing games. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know I regularly post about RPGs and other assorted geek interests. I actively support my local gaming community as much as I can. Heck I blog about it!

People around me know about role-playing. Coworkers and acquaintances know that I play “the game” on Tuesdays and know about the “geek picnics” I get involved in periodically. I talk about RPGs to my non-gaming friends (which there are not many of since most of my friends actively game or have gamed with me at some point in their life) when they ask about it. I am not pushy and try not to force my hobby on the uninterested.

However this past Friday something odd happened to me. I was out with my girlfriend’s sister celebrating her birthday, as the night progressed I had consumed a pitcher of sangria, various screwdrivers, I was chilling to the music when someone asked me, “What is this game you play and you keep writing about on Facebook?”

I was not ready for this question. I held my drink and look flabbergasted for a moment. As I was speechless they proceeded to discuss what they thought the game was. Obviously they had talked about this. They had no idea what the game was; someone thought it was something like Second Life (which admittedly I know little about), some sort of online game where I had an avatar.

I regained my composure and attempted to explain what the role-playing games I played were. I told them it was not a computer game, that it was a social activity where people got together to tell a story. They asked about the maps and miniatures and I told them we did not use them all the time, that we used them only during conflict or situations where the specific location of participants was important. I also explained that the game was somewhat like playing cops and robbers when we were kids and that dice were used solve conflict and avoid discussions like the ones we had when we were kids… “I shoot you!” “No I shot you first!”

They seemed genuinely interested, and thought it was much cooler than they had originally conceived. Someone actually asked me to invite her to the next geeknic, she wants to experience what RPGs are firsthand. I am happy with the outcome. However I know I was not as eloquent as I could have been. Alcohol had something to do, but the unexpectedness of the situation caught me off guard.

So I ask you, when someone asks what a role-playing game is, what do you say? What is your short description, your elevator pitch? Just in case I get caught unaware again…

Related posts:

1. Fighting the good fight…
2. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 3: On to other stuff…
3. My Gen Con plans…

True many of us (well at least in similar age groups and from similar cultures) may share some references we throw around at the table. Like brushing off a terrible critical as “just a flesh wound”, calling a particularly deadly weapon the “holy hand grenade of Antioch” or calling any mysterious chivalrous order the “Knights who say Ni”… Thank you Monty Python, we are in debt to you! But this is not the type of patois I’m thinking about. I’m referring to the words, phrases and concepts that form around a tight knit group of friends over a period of time.

I began to think about this after writing my post on “puerco papers”. This is a concept that I associate with my immediate group of gamers and I know that when I have used it outside that group I have always had to explain what I’m referring to. Daniel (@Highmoon) left a comment on how I was introducing our very own terminology into the greater gaming community, and that got me thinking. I asked around my friends and players for suggestions, and began to compile the words and phrases we have come to use over the years in our groups. Let me share some with you…

An important warning, many of these phrases use a mixture of English and Spanish, lovingly called Spanglish. As I wrote before, I live in a predominately Spanish speaking country and we game in a mix of both languages. This will be evident in the following list; I’ll try to translate them as best as I can.

1. Chiclán: Used when dice are improperly rolled, land unevenly or fall from the table. Usually uttered when a particular roll is not valid.

Where it originates – This is probably the oldest term in the list. To the best of my recollection it was coined by my friend Luis Miranda in our old AD&D 1^st edition games. Luis was among the second group of people I actively gamed with, my friends from school (the first group being my neighbors with whom I gamed for the very first time) and we played for days on end. Some summers we played almost every day. What about the word, what does it mean? Well Google showed me there is a place called El Chiclán in Nuevo León, Mexico, but that’s not what the word means for me. I am not sure if this is the generally accepted term in Puerto Rico, but to me it means a male with just one testicle. What does it have to do with dice? No idea! But it stuck and continues to be used over twenty years later.

2. Chuklin: Used when a roll is ineffectual, no matter the bonus that will be applied to it. For example the player may say, “My first level fighter will use his bow and arrow to shoot the dragon thru the nostril and into the brain for an instant kill.” To which the GM replies, without waiting for the dice to even stop rolling, “Chuklin! You fail…”

I know who came up with this word, or at least from whom I heard it first. My friend Sammy, who I have known for a long time (he used to have a gaming store and sold me my very first RIFTS game books, back when he used to have hair) but did not get to game with until a few years ago. He was infamous for using it at his table when he Game Mastered. I quickly adapted the word, and when we went to Gen Con in 2007 I had a set of D6 made with the word chuklin on all sides. That way you can’t be accused of at least not rolling for it.

3. Gimme, Gimme, fried chicken: Used when a player suffers a particularly spectacular, preferably gory, end.

This refers to the avariel PC of my friend Pierre (who will appear in this list again) who was obliterated when he failed two saves while wearing a Helm of Brilliance in an old AD&D 2^nd edition game. I wrote about it in the blog before, on a post about character deaths, so I will not rehash the story. Needless to say, when someone dies a horrible death someone has to use the phrase.

4. ¡El obelisco! (The obelisk): Typically a reference to a non-existent plot point or misinterpreted clue.

This one also goes out to my friend Pierre. I run pretty complex campaigns. I’ve been accused of having flowcharts to keep track of plots (guilty!) and players needing them to keep track of them (at least one tried). Pierre is a dear friend and great player but he sometimes gets lost on the plot. One night while arguing the finer points of a difficult situation in the game he asked, “But where’s the obelisk?” Players and GM alike gave him befuddled looks. There was no obelisk, none had even been mentioned. So whenever someone just doesn’t get a plot or gets confused about what’s happening, we ask them if they know where the obelisk is.

5. Camallo: Any mount or beast of burden available to the characters

Camallo is a mix of two words “caballo”, horse, and “camello” camel. The PCs were about to embark on a overland trip into the desert and I asked them if they wanted to get camallos. That’s a common problem for me, I speak too fast and in my excitement I mix up some words. Strangely this one stuck! Now every time they are going to buy some ridding animals someone has to mention the option of getting a camallo.

6. Anchorcha: Synonym for “antorcha” (torch)

This one was just a mistake, another example of speaking too quickly. It also stuck and I get reminded of it often.

7. Thoulian!: Uttered when a character falls for an easy rouse.

This one needs a little context. Thoulians are nomadic tribesmen in one region of my campaign world. My friend Piwie was playing a character from these tribes and the party was fleeing over the rooftops from enemies giving them chase. They split up and as Piwie’s character was making his escape and his pursuers could not find him one of them shouted out “Thoulian!” Piwie heard it and had his character stop and look back to see who was calling. Needless to say his pursuers pushed their advantage. Now Thoulian is code word for when a character is easily tricked or bamboozled.

8. Tempus be praised: Spontaneous praise to the god of war of Faerun whenever a drink or other liquid is spilled at the table.

My friend Emilio always spilled his drink at the table. Well his or anyone else’s. It was almost tradition to have your character sheet, or GM notes, baptized by Emilio. For a while he played a cleric of Tempus and whenever he would cause one of his accidents we’d say “Tempus be praised!” He moved away and no longer plays with us but his memory lives on whenever someone spills a soda.

9. “Fuerza magnífica” (Magnificent Strength): Used to refer to an extraordinary power or ability.

This is also of my doing. We were playing a Heroes Unlimited campaign and my friend Pierre was playing a character with super strength, I think it’s called enhanced strength in the game if memory serves. We had visitors that night, our friends Ray and Colo were watching while we played;  in the middle of the session the boat the players were traveling on was sinking. I meant to ask Pierre if he was using his super strength to keep the boat afloat but for the love of me could not utter the words. So I asked him, “¿Vas a usar tu fuerza magnífica?” (Are you using your magnificent strength?) He looked at me with a look of complete confusion (he was probably wondering where the obelisk was) and I just remember Ray laughing his ass off! And thus was “fuerza magnífica” born.

10. “Mono Calcricho” (Calcrichian Monkey!?): Any strange dangerous creature you cannot identify.

This one is all Lao! My friend Lao was the first person I heard using the term, it’s most useful when the players ask the GM, “What is that monster?” The GM rolls or determines they have NO idea what it is so the GM replies, “It’s a Mono Calchicho!” Shorthand really, plain and simple…

Those are just a few example of role-player’s cant around my table. I hope I remember all these stories correctly. It’s been some time. If not those involved are welcome to refresh my memory.

Now what I’d like to know is what special words or phrases you use with your gaming group. Feel free to leave a comment…

Related posts:

1. Player Advice: Make your character come alive!
2. Powerless player
3. What kind of player are you?

Well the fates be dammed! I intend to finish this thing even if it’s the last thing I do. (If Michael sees the readership number plummeting and you see my name stricken from the authors list you’ll know what did me in!) I’ve covered RPGs, other games, “stuff” (t-shirts, artists, authors, et al) but this last post is about the most important reason I went to  Gen Con. What was it? Read on…

Friends! I wanted to go to Gen Con to spend time with my friends. Role playing games have been a great way to make friends. My longest lasting and dearest friendship have been forged around a table, rolling dice and telling adventures, and making it to the biggest gaming convention meant seeing friends old and new, as well as forging new friendships.

You’d be surprised to know how many Boricuas where at Gen Con this year. Besides your truly there were people playing card games, miniature games, some that I knew and didn’t get to see (its strange to believe that you can know people and not see them during the WHOLE convention, it is that crazy) some that I knew but had no idea they were there until we ran into them at a nearby food court. Then there were the people I knew were going to be there and I had plans to see. Like they say in pageant shows, in no particular order, they were…

Daniel Perez (@Highmon): Talk about making friends through gaming! I met Daniel back when I worked at Metro Comics (the local FLGS and comic shop), he worked at another store (the first proper FLGS locally and owned by a good friend) and we forged our friendship back then, Talking about games, and sharing some personal experiences I don’t think should be discussed here. (I’ll take bribes on PayPal!) When he moved to the states we lost touch, I knew about him though common friends, but we did not speak for years. Then during Gen Con 2007 we ran into each other the very last day! Thankfully we’ve kept in contact since. He’s a good friend and has been instrumental in a lot of things I have done in recent years relating to gaming. He was pivotal to the creation of Puerto Rico Role Players, motivated me to get involved with the group and continues supporting us even if he’s not here in the island. I’ve told the story before, so suffice it to say he’s half the reason I began blogging (the other being Mr. Stargazer himself).

When I arrived at Indianapolis Wednesday night he was one of the first people I called. And despite it being late, and him being tired, he walked over to my hotel and went to have late (really late) dinner with me at The Ram. We met a couple of more times, including a late night toast before I came back. It’s always good to see Daniel, and I only hope we get to do this again real soon.

Rouka, Jesús, Chino and Cass: Then there were some newer friends I’ve made through Puerto Rico Role Players. I may have known them for a shorter time than Daniel (I think they are too young to have been hanging out when we were!) but they are great friends who adopted me into their group, kept me company and kept this old foggy gamer safe from the lures of overspending! Jesús and Rouka were kind enough to join Daniel and me for dinner at The Ram when I came in and the next day with Chino and Cass all five of us returned for lunch in the same venue.

I may sound like an old fart but it warm my heart to see this younger generation of gamers picking up the mantle. I love the gusto with which they embrace gaming and LAPRing and all aspects of our hobby. They are an integral part of the success of Puerto Rico Role Players and going to Gen Con with them was among the highlights of my trip. We ate together, wandered the exhibit hall, I did not get to LAPR with them but their love for it is contagious and they have made me consider actually doing it, when some years ago I would not have thought of it. I would love to go to Gen Con with all of them again and this time around I’ll do the Nero thing.

PJ (@luniticus): Another good friend who’s far away. PJ is one of those people I knew through a lot of other people (a one degree of separation kind of thing) but when I finally meet him in person immediately liked the guy! I’ve had the pleasure sitting at the table as a fellow player and have him play when I’ve GMed. His daughter is also one of the bravest, smartest young ladies I have met!

While he was also among those I called as soon as I got to Indy, we could not meet for dinner that first evening but we made up for it later on the weekend. He gave me the grand tour of the minis gaming room, which I had managed to miss enthralled by all things RPG. I also got to meet his friends from Virginia who had made the trek with him to the con; and one of them had been discharged from the hospital and come straight to Gen Con, that is dedication my friend! Big shout out to the World’s Best Comics crew (click on that link to check out their Facebook page).

Yamir and Gaby: I read an article on the newspaper the other day that said that social media was just a waste of time (no wonder a newspaper is saying this) and that most people only do stupid mindless things while logged in to places like Facebook. Well I beg to differ! Though social media, including Twitter and now Google+ I’ve met so many wonderful people, forged new REAL friendships, case and point Yamir. If I remember my details correctly (and the involved parties are welcome to correct me) Daniel, who he met on the Green Ronin forums, told Yamir about Puerto Rico Role Players where we got in contact. He eventually visited one time during one of our game nights and shortly after we invited him to join us.

Yamir is a terrific player, always ready to give constructive criticism, and an even better friend. Sadly he moved away and is no longer gaming with us, and I really miss him. He has a wonderful girlfriend, well that’s not exactly right; she WAS his girlfriend when we met. Gaby and Yamir were set to get married the weekend of Gen Con. They called me to invite me to the wedding and I said I had plans to go to Gen Con. They wanted to come too but had forgotten about the date. Gaby agreed to CHANGE the wedding date, moving it to the weekend before, just so they could take the road trip and come to Gen Con as part of their Honeymoon. Yes Gaby is one of the best wives EVER!

They are an amazing couple. We spent time catching up which we really needed to do. As an aside, we did go to Harry and Izzy’s where we had an AMAZING steak dinner and I enjoyed their St. Elmo’s Shrimp Cocktail. Well let’s just say it’s one of the most delicious and hot foods I have ever tasted it. I cried, but they were tears of joy! But, back to the point of this post…

Gen Con was not just about existing friends, I wanted to meet many of the new acquaintances I’ve made online through the blog and on Twitter. Let’s say I was less successful on this area. They were just too many I wanted to see. But I did manage to run into a few of you…

David A. Miller (@LodestoneDavid): I met David in Twitter and he is a friend of Daniel (do you see the pattern here). One of my goals at Gen Con was to play some Savage Worlds and David generously offered to run a game. I mentioned the game on my very first post from Gen Con. Just to reiterate, the adventure was awesome, reinforced my desire to run a Savage Worlds campaign and helped me get a better grasp for the rules in action. Besides Scott who I met at the table, and who happened to be a great guy, Yamir, PJ and I were the other players; When Scott had to leave due to the game running late, Gaby joined in and ran his character for the final two parts of the adventure. Again thank you for your time and the game David, meeting you was another big highlight of the con. We originally had another person who was going to join us, however he ran a little late, when he finally arrived I made the acquaintance of…

Chris Helton (@dorkland): Chris is one of those people I knew about before I knew him. I had read his Dorkland! blog and enjoyed his take on gaming and other subject matter that interests him. We met at David’s Savage Worlds game and although he did not stay till the end we did talk and eventually ran into each other (I think) two days later. He joined us for dinner and we got to spend some time talking and philosophizing. We wondered how we had connected on Twitter where we had interacted before the con and although we had theories, we could not pinpoint it.

I had an awesome time with Chris and wished we could have spent more time talking. He may not be a Babylon5 fan (as per our conversation over Twitter of my obsessive love of the series), but no one is perfect (I kid you Chris) but I do wish we’ll get to do something together in the near future and keep in touch. Thanks for all the insight and the good times!

There were other more casual and shorter meetings during the con. I ran into Phil Vecchione (@DNAphil) on a corridor while on the way to dinner with Chris, Yamir, Gaby, Jesús, Rouka and PJ and instantly recognized him. Phil in an awesome dude with a contagious positive attitude, he was with Patrick Benson (@sinisterforces) who I met briefly there but who I also look forward to keeping in contact with. Both write for Gnome Stew so be sure to check them out there as well.

I also recognized Newbie DM (@newbiedm) on the floor and got to see him again during the aforementioned late night toast with Daniel Perez. On my first retrospective post I mentioned Gareth Michael Skarka, but I neglected to mention that he had received the recognition of being named an honorary Boricua by Daniel and me. I know he will have great success with his upcoming Far West project. Make sure you visit and support the kickstarter project, it closes very soon. I get a feeling this will be BIG and this is a chance to be there from the very beginning.

It’s easy to make friend at Gen Con, even before getting there! I met the creators of the new RPG Genesys on the flight and at the airport when I arrived in Indianapolis. The system and the premise looks promising and intriguing, and I hope to get more information on it and hopefully interview the creators (once real life stops beating me senseless) so I can share what I learn with all our readers.

Looking back there were LOTS of people I missed seeing at Gen Con. The people from #rpgchat in Twitter, Mad Brew of Mad Brew Labs, and MANY others I have had the honor of meeting in Stargazer’s World. If I meet you during Gen Con and forgot to mention it I’m sorry, this post has rambled on for far too long. Just know that the best thing about Gen Con was seeing old friend and making new ones.

If you’ve been to Gen Con you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t gone to Gen Con yet, don’t put it off. It is even better than I, or any other blogger or reporter, makes it sound. It is truly the best four days in gaming. Gen Con 2012 will be held august 12^th to the 16^th, mark you calendars and start planning, I hope to see you there!

Related posts:

1. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 3: On to other stuff…
2. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 1: Role Playing Games
3. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 2: Other games and minis too!

The Off World Designs booth had the official Gen Con t-shirt for sale so I stopped there and got two for friends (including the esteemed creator of this blog to whom I am yet to ship his shirt, shame on me!) and while there I picked up their Boba Fettish t-shirt for a friend. While I love their designs, and just browse their webpage to see some great ideas, in my circles they are probably the best known geek shirts purveyors, so I get to see their shirts on friends… I wanted something different!

That’s when I discovered TSHIRTBORDELLO! I must admit I had never seen their shirts and I loved them immediately. For me it was not a matter of deciding what to get, but sadly realizing I didn’t have money to get one of everything. I found their shirts to be witty, funny, irreverent and terrific! The picture at the beginning of the post is me wearing one of their shirts, Zombie eat flesh. I got two others, their Soylent Green one and their Miskatonic University tee (go pods!) because you can’t go wrong with Cthulhu. The staff at the booth were nice and friendly, gave me some of their terrific posters and as I was paying I saw they had a Bates Motel keychain, snatched myself one of those and its currently holding all my keys together. After having worn them and washing them I can vouch for the quality of the t-shirts.

There was another t-shirt booth I was looking for specifically, one I had visited on my previous visit to Gen Con and I knew they had shirts I wanted. The thing is I did not remember their name. I just knew they had some of my favorite t-shirts of all time, two I still kept around, even if I did no longer wear them out in public. And these are four year old t-shirts, so we are talking excellent quality products. Imagine my excitement when I found them. Now I know they are sighco.com and I can replenish my dark themed t-shirt supplies whenever I want!

What did I get form them, well I got two shirts I had before, their Evil Lager one, and my current favorite t-shirt Sin like you mean it! And in keeping with the alcoholic beverage theme and my love for the undead I also picked up their Zombie Vodka shirt. Their shirts are irreverent, probably offensive to some folk, and I love the look people give me when I wear one of their shirts. They were also incredibly friendly and helpful. Kudos to them and much continued success, they will be getting some more of my money soon!

And what else was there to do at Gen Con? Well I’m glad you asked! The artists’ area was full of talented folk, painters, writers; I just wish I had places to display some of the art I saw there. (I doubt my GF would appreciate me hanging the chainmail bikini clad babe art in the living room). I still got some stuff, like signed copies of Larry Elmore’s art that adorned the D&D Basic, Expert, Companion and Master boxed sets. I also got a DVD copy of the Night of the Living Dead Reanimated with a print by one of the contributors. He also did paintings of you as a zombie, I wanted one, but again I doubt the girl-friend would be ok with putting that on display!

I also met Ed Greenwood! He of the famous beard, creator of the Forgotten Realms, and occasional but of my lame jokes here in the blog… (Just see the image on this post. Lame I know!) I got a signed copy of Elminster Must Die and got my picture taken with the man. He is friendly, affable, much taller than I expected, and a good sport after I told him I occasionally poke fun at him here in the blog.

I also got my picture taken with Sean K. Reynolds, one of my favorite designers for D&D 3^rd edition and currently for Pathfinder. If you’ll allow a digression here for a moment, my geek shyness was not as bad as it was the last time around (as I mentioned on this post) but I was still star struck with many of these folk. I think the term used by my friends was “giddy as a school girl”. Ok back to the post…

On and there in the middle of the con I had a furniture related nerdgasm! Geek Chick makes beautiful and functional furniture for the discriminating geek, and having lots of money helps too. They had some incredible pieces, some with interactive screens, which warmed my greedy little geek heart. Alas I don’t have tens of thousands of dollars for the one I longed for, The Sultan! But I can still dream…

There was fighting with foam weapons, which I knew little about last time I was at Gen Con, but could appreciate better this time around as I now know people who play it. I delivered a gift from a friend here in Puerto Rico to the fine folk at Forged Foam, who had some gorgeous pieces there! I saw armor, clothes for cosplay, props, lots of steampunk themed stuff. And then there were LAPRs…

I participated in True Dungeon the last time I was at Gen Con, but this time I did not get tickets ahead of time and I was not looking forward to running thought it with strangers so I passed. Still I hear it was a lot of fun. Some of my friend (big shout out to Rouka, Jesús, Chino and Cass) participated in Nero LARP Live Adventure Games. I had no previous knowledge of this organization, but it seemed like fun and they certainly seen to have enjoyed it!

There were lots of other things at the con as well… Webcomics (the Looking for Group guys were hilarious and incredibly friendly even if I did not spend a penny at their booth), terrain building materials, maps (the Gale Force Nine had some terrific stuff), new social media sites for gamers, like Infrno (I just activated the account I created in Gen Con while writing this post), I got some gifts at The Warstore (an online store I have purchased form before, and I recommend them) and of course dice! What self respecting gaming geek can resist the lure of dice? I got some dice at Q-Workshop, they have some gorgeous pieces, even if they can often be hard to read. But so pretty to look at!

I was impressed by the amount of children and family friendly activities there. It makes sense; games come in all shapes, sizes, ages and family configurations. When I have children I would LOVE to bring them to Gen Con. Someday…

Oh and before I forget this guy was at Gen Con. Funny… Enjoy

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4I8TRaG1Ss

Related posts:

1. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 4!
2. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 1: Role Playing Games
3. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 2: Other games and minis too!

First I got home to a work week of unforeseen dimensions, then the con-crud hit! The combination kept me down for two days. Then last night when I finally sat down to write my laptop crashed, and apparently my smart phone followed in a sign of support. I had about half of my pictures and a smattering of videos on the smart phone. I restored the laptop and solved that problem, the smart phone proved another matter. I lost pictures and videos, never to be recovered. So if I took your picture at Gen Con and you never see it, I apologize.

But you didn’t come here for the sob stories; you came here to read about games, specifically role-playing games which are the main topic of this blog. You’ve probably read about some  of the big news which I’ll link to in case you only read this gaming blog (and we can’t fault you for your impeccable taste!). Margaret Weiss Productions announced their deal to produce a Marvel superheroes RPG. Sounds like a well planned project, and while I am not currently on the market for a new supers game (more on this later) I will take a look.

Fantasy Flight Games actually announced they have the Star Wars license for board games, card games and role-playing games just before Gen Con. They were running demos of their card game and X-Wing games at Gen Con both seemed interesting and I spent some time looking at people play. However I am mainly a role-player, while I dabble in the occasional board game, I would rather spend my time role playing. Will I buy a new Star Wars game? My knee jerk reaction is no, I have D6, and Saga, but the Warhammer 40K RPGs have tempted me, I’m just not that big of a 40K fan. Star Wars is another matter. I just might…

Wizards of the Coast had their Neverwinter campaign, D&D Encounters and a contest both at Gen Con and for those playing in encounters. The promo video looks really cool, and some of my friend interested in D&D 4^th edition seem stoked about it. Since I don’t play 4^th edition and I never played any of the Neverwinter computer games I was not terribly interested. I feel little bad that I can’t bring you more news about this but there is plenty of reports out there and while I was covering the convention for the blog I did want to focus in things that would be of interest to me. I hope there is some commonality with our reader. So what did I go for?

There were a few things I knew I was getting. Savage Worlds Deluxe was big on my list! I posted about the book and the pre-order, which I took advantage of and picked up at Gen Con, along with the Action and Adventure Decks. I had downloaded the PDF version that came with the bundle and printed it out, so I had “seen” the book before actually getting it, but even that did not take away from the sheer joy of holding the book in my hands. It is a beautiful thing, gorgeous to look at and sturdy. I ended up getting the official bennies as well as I am decided to run this game.

As I try to learn to better run Savage Worlds that was one of the games I wanted to play during Gen Con and thanks to my good friend David I did. I mentioned it on my previous Gen Con post, we played what was supposed to be a short game for over four hours and I got to experience firsthand how the game flows. I have a debt with David for showing me the way, thank you sir!

I got some other Savage Worlds books while in Indianapolis. From what I read of Suzerain it is a supplement to play deity-like characters using the Savage Worlds system. It gave me and Amber (the books, not the game) vibe and I couldn’t resist. Another book I was not looking for but discovered at Gen Con was The Day After Ragnarok. I had read about it but was not interested until someone talked to me about it, I held the book in my hands and I could not put it down. It’s a delicious blend of pulp and post apocalyptic goodness in the middle of the 20^th century that fired my imagination.

I also got another book by Ragnarok’s author Kenneth Hite, Cthulhu 101. While not strictly a role-playing game, who can say no to Cthulhu? Certainly not me! I got both books while on my way to the Green Ronin booth, as it seemed they were sharing the space. I was there to get some Mutants & Mastermind goodness. The system powers my weekly game and I wanted a copy of the 3^rd edition rules of the game, the new DC Adventures Heroes & Villains Vol. 1 book and the GM Kit. Getting to meet Steve Kenson (who I interviewed for the blog when ICONS came out) and having him sign the book was just the cherry on the sundae. I just love this system; it has become my favorite superhero game and the reason why I said earlier I am not really looking for a new game of this genre.

My other must get book was Ultimate Combat by Paizo. It is a terrific book, with a new class that uses the firearms rules in the book, the Samurai and Ninja as well as options for all combat classes, a truckload of feats and even some spells. The book continues the tradition of great books for Pathfinder and it fuels the fire of my desire to go back to playing Pathfinder. Getting the PDF copy of the book for just $5 was just a bonus. I think the PDF copies at $10 are priced just right point and being able to pick it up for half the price was a big win.

Pelgrane Press had Ashen Stars and the Esoterrorists, both using the Gumshoe system. Michael had told me so much about Ashen Star that I snatched it up and have not been disappointed. It is a beautiful book and the system is so elegant. The big surprise was Esoterrorist, I had read about it and was intrigued but I like it so much I have put down Ashen Star and I’m currently devouring this dark modern game, I highly recommend it! To me it’s not so much about the conceit behind Gumshoe and making investigation adventures easy, but simply such an entertaining read.

The Cubicle 7 booth was busy, busy, busy! They had The One Ring, and I got to meet Gareth Michael Skarka there. He is a terrific guy and I’m sorry I did not get to spend more time talking to him. They had a lot of the Adamant books there, I got what I want form them already, the already have my money, and I am glad they do.

I got some other goodies for my games, like the products of Dark Platypus Studios, including their magna maps, effect markers, pillars, clings, initiative tracker… Well let’s just say my biggest purchase at the con was from them! I got another customizable GM screen from another vendor, I already own two, but they had magnetic receptive inserts and I can do so much with them, not necessarily use them in the traditional screen function. The last thing I got was Gaming Paper’s Mega Dungeon and accompanying adventure. Amidst all the post con reading I have NOT gotten to the adventure but the map is MASSIVE and it just tickled my geek fancy!

There were plenty of other things I saw, demoed and almost purchased, but as it was I returned with over 50 pounds (about 23kg to you metric folk) in extra weight in my luggage (which I suspect made the airline very happy) so I could not get everything. So let me tell you about the other games. Amaranthine by Machine Age Productions seemed intriguing, a game of immortals and social interaction, right up my alley. As far as my players go, well not so much… Still the production quality was terrific and it was hard for me to put it down.

The idea of Dungeon Decks, sets of cards to create old school type adventures intrigued me. They are a cool way to generate ideas and get your creative juices flowing. WEGS Old Skool seemed like a tribute to old school gaming but integrating elements like cards into the game to make it more accessible for newer games. It looked simple and fun and I almost got it. This is one I am sorry I did not go back to the booth to get. I may yet order this.

The booth for tiltfactor was play testing a zombies in the office game which seemed promising if a little rough around the edges. Their Pox board game caught my eye specifically because they have lessons plans to use it in the classroom. But these are not strictly role-playing games and I am going off topic here. I hope to tackle other types of games and other goodies I found at Gen con on my next post…

See you then!

Related posts:

1. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 2: Other games and minis too!
2. Time to Speak Out with my Geek Out… Role-Playing Games in my case!
3. Five Great Blogs About Role-Playing Games @ GeekDad

I also plan to cover Gen Con for the blog. The how is still taking form. I’ll be taking lots of pictures and talking to whoever will indulge me, to know what fun things publishers big and small are planning and unveiling at the con. In this day and age there is so much information and coverage (like the fine folk at This Just in from Gen Con) that I don’t aspire to bring you every bit of news, just what I think will be of interest to our readers. I hope to post in some form from Gen Con, let’s see if the Exhibit Hall and random games don’t kill me…

What’s my plan? Well it’s fluid… At first I began filling up a log schedule and after a while I realized I would be running from one place to the other with little time to just ENJOY being there. So I scrapped it and decided to play it by ear. Here is the (very) rough outline:

• I should be leaving Puerto Rico Wednesday afternoon and arriving at Indianapolis late Wednesday night.
• I’ll be staying at the Crowne Plaza at Union Station where I will most likely crash for the night, unless there are any nearby convenience stores where I can stock up on some snacks (really have no idea how far they may be or the hours they keep)
• Thursday morning I plan to get up REALLY early and get my press badge and then it’s on to the (drum roll please)…
• EXHIBIT HALL! Cave of treasures, den of temptation, and bane of my bank account… I expect to spend the majority of the day there, meeting with some friends, visiting the creators I’ve read about so much and yet have never met. I also hope to meet some of our readers in the floor. (Here is a handy map, thanks Mad Brew Labs for sharing)
• Thursday night I play a game with some friends and hopefully write a post about the day for the blog (unless I just keep playing thought the night!)
• Friday I would like to get a chance to talk to more people, go to some seminars and hopefully play a pickup game here and there.
• Then Friday night I become conflicted! I want to go eat with other Puerto Ricans at the con, but there are the ENnies and Knights of the Dinner Table Live Reading! All on the same night. Decision, decisions… (and of course try to blog, let’s see if I keep this promise)
• Saturday I want to get chance to pick up a couple of gifts, game some more and maybe, just maybe if I manage to pull something together actually run a game. Not sure about this yet.
• Then Sunday its breakfast, a walk around and then off to the airport. I should be back home in the early evening, tired and happy.

There are some things I’m looking forward, like getting my Savage Worlds Deluxe copy, trying to get a copy of Ultimate Combat, getting a copy of e20, even if it’s an electronic one. I am even bringing some gifts a friend sent to some of his friends who will be exhibitors. I also plan to bring some rum and a coffee for a Puerto Rican who misses his Yaucono. I also plan to meet the #RPGchat crew at one of their planned meet ups. Good times ahead…

If you are going to Gen Con I’d love to meet you and chat. You can find me in Twitter as @Sunglar, on Facebook as sunglar@hotmail.com, Google+ as sunglar@gmail.com. Be sure to reach out if you feel like taking for a bit and saying hi! If all goes to according to plan I’ll be there very soon…

The biggest hurdles to my plan so far? Well they start at home! I had a video camera for the convention and found out last night the battery is not working properly so I am scrambling to get a replacement. If I manage to you may see some video, if not, well it’s all going be still pictures. Second, well its nature! A tropical storm, that may or may not become a hurricane, is on its way to Puerto Rico. Who knows what could happen… I just hope it doesn’t play havoc with plane schedules and I manage to arrive in Indianapolis as planned. See you there!

PS – If you see the gamer on the pictures at Gen Con, be sure to throw him a bone!

Related posts:

1. My GenCon plans
2. My Plans for NaGa DeMon
3. Gaming-related plans for 2010

Imagine this… “The table is abuzz with excitement. The players are about to make a pivotal decisions that could change the game. They are throwing ideas back and forth and suddenly someone notices the note quietly being passed by one of their own to the nemesis behind the screen… FOUL cry the other players. A puerco paper has been unleashed on the game!”

Call it what you may, secret communication between the players and the Game Master can be a contentious issue. At our table we call them puerco papers, puerco literally means pig, and well paper you get. So it’s meant as a disparaging, and somewhat tongue in cheek, remark on the player writing the note. I don’t exactly recall exactly how the term came about, but I seem to remember my friend Sammy coining it at his table and cross pollinating to ours through mutual players, even before Sammy played with us. It’s part of the unique lexicon, like “Tempus be praised”, “anchorchas” or “chiclán”, that develops among a gaming group.

Players are not the sole perpetrators of puerco papers, Game Masters often find the need to pass along secret information to a player or players, by either passing a note or pulling them aside from the table for a few moments. So it can be either a puerco paper or a puerco meeting, even a puerco session if the GM meets with a group of players outside of the regular gaming session. With current technology the communication can happen via text message, in or outside a session, e-mails, social media, you name it. In my experience players are more forgiving when the GM does it, but when a player passes a long a note it can be the seed of discord and distrust.

I believe the puerco paper (in almost all its variations and I’ll get back to this caveat in a moment) can enhance a game. I really believe that players can get unnecessarily suspicious of a fellow player having secret communications with a Game Master. If we are creating truly complex adventures and characters with depth, then it is normal to expected that different characters will have different motivations, and sometimes those become important. Communicating those to the GM can be important and the player may not feel comfortable talking about it in front of his fellow players.

I’ll be the devil’s advocate here argue against my own point. You could say that players should be able to keep player knowledge and character knowledge separate, and whatever one player says to the GM will be treated accordingly. The argument may be made that to keep suspicions to a minimum there is no place for such shenanigans at the table. Some people may even say that’s not the kind of game we want to play. We want a simple game with none of these secrets and plans, nothing too complex. That last argument I can understand. It’s not my style of playing, but I understand it.

I really believe that secret communication can enhance a game.  It allows players to have their own agendas, secret plans and in many ways ads depth to the character. Likewise it allows a GM to share information specific to certain characters, even knowledge they may only poses, and it’s up to the player to decide whether to share it with the others. Some warning, make sure the information you share is not pivotal to the game, there is no surer way to bring an adventure to a halt than a player not getting it and then sharing the wrong information. Use it to share information that can enhance what they already know, things a certain character can add to the discussion, but not the key element to the plot.

Also make sure you give equal time to all players. Some will love the puerco paper and write endless notes, and some will hate them and not participate.  Don’t force this in a player who doesn’t want to do it. Rein in a player going too far; keep the flow of information manageable. You don’t want to be running two games in one session due to all the notes. Make sure you can manage all the extra information before encouraging this practice.

I use e-mail and other means of communication through social media to do some secret communication with players, but I try to do most in session. I can pull a player aside and talk with them briefly for these same purposes and I often do, but I try to keep it to a minimum and do it quickly. A puerco meeting should not interrupt the flow of the gaming session. I draw the line at puerco sessions; I don’t like the idea of playing with some players and not with others. It just creates a sense of being left out, of cheating them out of possible experience, and generates a general sense of dissatisfaction.

Overall I think that secret communication among players and the Game Master can greatly enhance a game.  Like Michael said in a recent post, it all comes down to trust. If you build trust among the group, let them see you will handle all information fairly and not play favorites, then adding these tools to your gaming options can greatly enhance the game and add nuance to character development.

Those are my two cents, you may agree or disagree. Looking forward to what you think…

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2. The time I almost quit gaming!
3. Electronic Tools for Gaming – The iPhone

My current Dawn of a New Age campaign has become the favorite supers game I have run. Before that it used to be a Heroes Unlimited games that we played for a few months. I don’t recall exactly how long that other game ran (this was in 1992) but I think this one has surpassed it. Last night we played our 30^th session, over seven and a half months of weekly games. I think the success is based on many factors. First and foremost a group of players interested and committed in the game.

Secondly preparation and I’m not talking about the weekly kind, but campaign prep. I did a survey to gather information on just what the players were interested and not interested in to use as a guide when preparing the campaign and possible adventures. Discussed their characters, went over expectations, so we all started knowing what to expect.

But you know what they say about best laid plans. As it is inevitable the plan has needed revisions. Players have changed characters, despite discussing expectations they were varied and sometimes contradictory and trying to mesh them all has not always been successful. Overall I think we have stuck to it and every so often there is something of interest to everyone. As will al role playing games not every session an highlight all the different plots for every character but there should be something for everyone to do.

There have been complications, not everyone understands the Mutants & Masterminds 3^rd edition system. Some players like the crunch, others are lost in the options, but as a group we all pitch in and make it work. I as a GM have found the system flexible enough to allow me to improvise and guesstimate when necessary and varied enough to meet my needs when I need more detailed write ups.

As with everything different opinions on just what a “superhero” game IS, is perhaps the biggest hurdle. Some people think supers are only four-color bigger than life adventures; others prefer grittier more down to earth types of adventures. We try to meet at a happy medium most of the time, but its and ongoing struggle. I ask my players what they thought of the game every session. I have said it before, you need to steel yourself to get the good and the bad and take it in, digest it and use the comments to improve the game.

Overall what have I learned to make running a superhero game easier?

1. Establish expectations, what will the campaign’s tone and style be like and help characters create characters accordingly.
2. Listen to your players, they will drop plenty of ideas about where the game may go or what they expect of it just by what they say or suggest.
3. Be willing to revise, what you might have thought would be the ideal tone or style may slowly evolve as play progresses, embrace it, discuss it with the players and adapt accordingly.
4. Pick a system you all feel comfortable with. Endless rule arguments may take the fun away and ruin the game.

Have I applied them all? Most to a certain degree… I think number 4 may be the biggest point of contention, but we are learning and adapting. As always communication is king. Talk to your players and listen to what they have to say. After all this is a game you ALL should enjoy. Looking at that list this is advice I have gone over before and that will apply to any game, just that it may be particularly important for a successful supers game.

Will this game become my mainstay campaign? I don’t think so… As much as I love supers, my first and true love is fantasy and I can’t resist her siren call forever! I am itching to return to our Pathfinder game, this may be some months away but I am eventually running it again. Then there is the sci-fi game I keep mulling about in different posts. But I have loved this supers game and I want to publicly thank my players for sticking to it though the good and the bad.

Do you have any other advice for running a superhero game? I’d sure like to know…

Related posts:

1. Character advancement the hard way
2. It’s hard to be a reviewer
3. Superhero Campaign Questionnaire (and about the Virtual Book Club…)

So little by little I have balanced my use of Twitter and Facebook. These days most updates I do on Twitter and they appear on Facebook. Oftentimes I will post in English in Twitter, where the majority of my followers are English speakers, and do my occasional update in Spanish in Facebook, where I have a LOT of Spanish speaking friends.

One thing I had NEVER done was participate in a large scale real time discussion with lots of other people. I get hashtags; I had just never tried it. Some time ago I had seen the #RPGchat discussions and lurked, fascinated by all the ideas floating about. So last week I saw they were discussing Gen Con this week and decided to join in. I used my iPhone with the Twitter app and was able to follow and participate so easily.

The people participating in the discussion where friendly, helpful and so much fun and I won a prize they were giving away! It was the most fun I’ve had in Twitter. Shout out to all the fine folk there, it was a pleasure to meet you. I will definitely be joining them again.

I did embrace Google+ early one so worry not I’m keeping up to day.

Just in case, if you are interested, in Facebook you can find me as sunglar@hotmail.com, in Google+ as sunglar@gmail.com (you can see a pattern emerging here) and in Twitter as @Sunglar. I’d love to get to know you all better!

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Don’t worry everybody is alright. My lull in posting had nothing to do with getting hurt, it’s all work and real life responsibilities keeping me away, but vacations are approaching and I hope to make up during that time. But I know you are not here to read about my life, you are here to know what happened at the geeknic? Well let me tell you…

One of the wonders of living in a tropical island is the weather. It’s usually beautiful and sunny year round, BUT every so often we get torrential rain (and don’t get me started about hurricanes) that was the case last weekend. It rained all weekend, but when Sunday rolled along, despite some drizzle, it seemed like the sun was coming out, so I made my way to the park where the geeknic was going to be held and met up with my fellow early birds. We set up and then the rain came… We began moving stuff to a dry place and there was when the first mishap occurred.

A friend slipped and suffered a concussion. He lost consciousness and we had to call for an ambulance. I followed in my car to make sure he was alright. Thankfully he was, but as I was leaving the hospital I got a call from those still at the park, the rain was not abating and the place was flooding. So I started calling people, telling them the geeknic was cancelled, posting it online, trying to drive back to the park, and I drove straight into a flooded street. I had cars behind me so I drove through, and when I was about to leave the flood, the car stalled and died…

Needless to say this was NOT the best of days. I look in my rearview mirror and I see a small car stuck with water up to middle of the car door. So my Good Samaritan mode kicks in. I exit my car, wade through the water that was up to my knees, yell to the driver to shift the car into neutral and pushed him out of the water. What happened next really baffled me… With the car out of the water the guy manages to turn it on, waves thanks and drives away. Needless to say I vas peeved.

Right there and then I thought this was pretty much the worst day, and then my friends proved me wrong. They first started calling to see how they could help me, some tried to make it to me but the flooding was too bad. Eventually someone got to me, pushed my car to the side, stayed with me, and when he was pushing my SUV to the nearest gas station, the car came to live! Back at the park the rest of the group picked things up, ate the Gordopleta^© I hadprepared (and which I did not get to taste by the way!) and made sure everybody knew that activity was cancelled.

The geekcnic might have been a bust, but everything that happened reinforced my idea that role-playing games are a great way to make friends. I look around and some of my closest, best friends I met through gaming, and many of my older friends I gamed with, so it is something we have in common. So if your friends are the family you choose, then my family is made up of gamers! The person who slipped and fell is safe and sound, my car is fine, and everybody else was fine, if only a little wetter. I hear a lot of people say that they game with acquaintances, and while that may be true, give people a chance, get to know them, true lasting friendships are forged around the table.

I want to thank all my friends, old and new, in Puerto Rico Role Players. A special thanks to PJ (he’s posted here in the blog as @luniticus), Julianna, Jesús, Edwin, Misael, Misael Jr., Luis A., José Fernando, Pierre, Fernan, Luis L., Carlos, and particularly to Jaime and his wife Carmen. Jaime pushed my car, helped me through all the day’s hardships and stuck with me until the end.

So dear reader, forgive me if I wondered off into personal anecdotes, but the best thing about my games are my friends, and every now and then you need to tell them. Back to posts about gaming… thanks for reading.

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For over a year a group of RPG fans from Puerto Rico has been gathering to share our love of gaming, food and camaraderie in different places across the island. The group was formed over two years ago and after forging an electronic community and doing some demos at local conventions we finally decided to hold a social activity to get to know each other better. We settled on getting together on a park or other public place and someone suggested the idea of calling it a geeknic. He actually got the idea from geeknic.org, everybody loved the idea and we ran with it.

So far we’ve held five successful geeknics and we just keep growing! The geeknics are typically what we call “fiesta del sorullo plus” which roughly translates to a bring what you’ll eat and drink and a little extra to share! This upcoming 6^th geeknic, which in keeping with previous naming conventions we have called the Undiscovered Geeknic, will not be the exception. I’m preparing my famous (and artery clogging) Gordopleta© (my very own version of Tripleta) for participants, but usually it goes pretty fast so if you want a taste you better get there early.

There are games already planned, some Dark Heresy, some Pathfinder, and even a mysterious game the GM is being tight lipped about. Usually someone brings along a board game, Three Dragon Ante and Munchkin have been pretty popular, some people just sit back and share game stories, not that gamers do that. So we’ll have something for everybody.

I realize that probably most of our readers in Puerto Rico are also members of Puerto Rico Role Players, but on the odd chance you are from the island and did not know about us, are visiting this upcoming weekend, or have friends, families or acquaintances in Puerto Rico who may be interested in learning more about RPGs, playing a game or just hanging out with fellow geeks, pass it on. We’ll be meeting at the Luis Muñoz Rivera Park, Sunday July 3^rd from 9 AM to 6 PM. Be there for the greatest geeknic on earth!

I hope if nothing, this inspires to get together with a couple of friends and share your love of gaming with others. Thanks to the folk at geeknic.org for such a wonderful idea. Here is the link for the event in Facebook… Thanks for reading and have a great day!

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1. Geeknic II: The Revenge!
2. Dying Earth is back with a vengeance!
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We all gathered together and travelled from sunny Puerto Rico to that mysterious land called Indiana. I loved going, it was fun, exciting and I spent far too much money! Since we went as a large group we spent most of our time together, I played little and had very little interaction with other convention goers. Amazingly for a gaming convention I only played a couple of encounters at the Wizards of the Coast room and some demos at booths, but that was it. My fellow travelers played some CCGs but that’s not my thing so I roamed the Exhibitors Hall and took a LOT of pictures.

When we left we all said “We are coming back!” And we meant it, but real life happens and putting together a trip where all of us can coordinate our schedules becomes harder and harder. Then I began writing for the blog, and last year when Michael said he was going I wanted to go to Gen Con and meet the Stargazer (i.e. Mr. Rock Star). Sadly work and other situations kept me from going, 2010 was not the year for me.

By the end of Gen Con 2010, seeing all the fun Michael had, I was convinced I just HAD to go this year. I had hoped Michael could make it back, but sadly it looks like I will be the sole representative of Stargazer’s World  at the convention this year (unless some of the other regular contributors is going, in which case I apologize for the mistake). The crew that went to Gen Con in 2007 tried to get together and go again this year but plans fell through. Still friends from Puerto Rico Role Players were going, and other friends living in the states as well, so I knew that if I went I would have people to hang with.

Knowing this I pre-registered and eventually got around to buy some airfare. A friend who was getting married that weekend actually changed the date of his wedding and will be traveling to Gen Con (Yamir you rock!) so everything was set. Then the complications started. I took on more responsibilities at work, new project started coming up and I began to question whether I would actually make it. In this uncertainty I put off getting a hotel reservation while things sorted themselves out.

Two weeks ago it looked like I would have to cancel and accept I would NOT be going to Gen Con Indy. But I negotiated, bartered, cajoled and I finally this week got the confirmation that I could take those days off. First thing I did was go online searching for a room. I knew it could be difficult to get a good room nearby this late in the game but I was willing to spend some money for the right place. Amazingly I managed to get a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Downtown at Union Station that from what I read is right next to the convention center!

So I’m all set, pre-registered, airfare and hotel. I’ll be arriving Wednesday August 3^rd at night and leave Sunday the 7^th at noon. What would I do different this time around? First what I don’t want to do.

1. Not buy so much! I am not complaining, last time around I had the disposable income to get pretty much whatever I wanted, but there is stuff I got back them I still have not used. I want to spend less time in the exhibitor’s hall.

What else… Ok on to the things I WANT to do!

1. Play more! This time I want to try and join some game (if I’m not too late and someone will have me) and maybe even Gm a game myself. I have a hotel room to myself so I can host and I would like to put it to good use.
2. Meet up with my friends from Puerto Rico and rock Gen Con Boricua style… I am trying to get in contact with all the fellow Puerto Rico gamers going so we can plan something. I’m looking forward to seeing Daniel, who will be working with This Just In From Gen Con. Last time we ran unto each other the LAST day of the con. I hope to correct that mistake this time around.
3. Meet some of the virtual friends I’ve made through the blog. Writing here I’ve met some amazing people, writers, publishers and readers who I keep in contact with here, in Facebook and Twitter. So I look forward to meet you! If you are interested drop me a line here, on Twitter (@Sunglar) or via email sunglat@hotmail.com, I’d love to talk in person.
4. Report for the blog. I’d like to use the time I’ll have in Gen Con to report on what’s going on, interview writers and publishers, and generally share my experience at the convention with our readers, like Michael did last year.

So it looks I have a full plate and it’s a pretty ambitions list. If I get to do a little bit of each I’ll be happy. Anything I’m missing, anything you would like to suggest? I’d sure want to know. So for now all I can say is see you at Gen Con!

PS – Here is a link to a video of Tavin Pumarejo, el Hígado de Ganso, a singer of “typical” Puerto Rican music. I used the cover of one of his old LPs for the last image in this post.

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3. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 4!

And seriously, he doesn’t know who The Doctor is? What kind of a nerd is he?

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I have heard variations of the idea, but it basically boils down to the concept that an able (and what THIS constitutes can be a whole other subject open to discussion) GM can make any system entertaining. In effect a good game master can turn a turd into a gem! I have been guilty of saying this myself, often without giving it much though. If we think about it, this is not completely true. There are some systems that are really not salvageable. Be it because they way the rules are written (the intent or the actual use of language) makes them incomprehensible, or the mechanics are so confusing or nonsensical, that no one can really play the game. And I’m not discounting attempts at humor or parody in RPG form, which may not be meant as actual games at all, and can be fun.

Thankfully I think these examples are few and far between and are mostly games someone clobbered together on their own and then inflicted on the rest of us via the wonders of the internet. The majority of published games, be they physical books or in digital form, published for profit or as free games, maintain a minimum of quality that makes them playable and enjoyable to at least some gamers. And I this is the point really, what may be a great game for me, could be a terrible game for you. What makes a great game is so subjective… I think as a community there may be some consensus on certain games, but just visit any old message board or blog and read the heated discussion on editions, game versions and their merits. To quote the late Human Torch (He is still dead right?): “Flame on!”

So once we’ve established that what constitutes a subpar game is subjective, let me approach this from my perspective. I have been a proponent of the GM makes the game idea before, so I’ve decided to put it to the test. I want to pick one of those games I swore I would not play and try to run an enjoyable adventure using them. Why am I being a masochist you ask? Well it’s not so much being masochist, but proving to myself if I can make this work. If what I’ve repeated often enough is just a platitude or something I can do.

So once I have set my mind on this experience all I have to do is find the system to do it. I stood in front of my game collection for a while. I’ve played a lot of games in my life, and read many more. While I have gotten rid of a few, most are still there on the shelf. My first thought was The Babylon Project; the first RPG based on the TV series Babylon 5. I have not actually played the game, but upon first reading it I disliked it so much I put away the RPG based on my FAVORITE TV series and never used it (and I had purchased two copies). But thinking about it, this would not be a good fit for the experiment since B5 would bring with it a whole other set of expectations, most of my players are as passionate about the series as I am, and that might hinder the experiment.

Then I thought of World of Synnibarr, but sadly I got rid of that game. You must be asking, what possessed me to part with that gem? Shortsightedness I guess, but alas it’s not available.  So I may have to settle for the next best thing, RIFTS!

Ok before you cry foul, I did say this represented MY personal taste. I am sure there are plenty of RIFTS fans out there who enjoy the game and continue to play it. Good for you… I played them all, starting with Robotech as a teen and young adult, but along the way realized the system was needlessly complex, and not in a good way, for me and my group. I stopped playing RIFTS and Palladium games long ago. Despite all controversy and the things you read on the net, when I briefly met Kevin Siembieda at Gen Con 07 he seemed like a nice enough guy, and I wish him continued success with whatever endeavor he undertakes.

RIFTS is a game we stopped playing long ago and which most of us agrees is not what we expect form a game. So this might be the perfect rule system to try and prove my point. I plan on running a RIFTS adventure with my players, without telling them and see if they enjoy it…

I know there are flaws to my plan, maybe RIFTS has too much baggage, or they will figure it our t right away and simply throw their hands up, or worst of all I am conceited enough to think I am a good enough GM to pull this off! This is just in the planning stages but I will keep you informed.

So in a way this is the turd into a gem challenge… (No disrespect to any specific game!) Who’s with me? Who’s willing to choose what they think of as a subpar game and try to run a great adventure with it? Who thinks I’m delusional, that there is no such thing as a great GM making a bad game good?

PS – While writing this post I discovered the website of Raven c.s. McCracken, creator of the World of Synnibarr, in his bio he pokes a little bit of fun at his creation! Enjoy…

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I figured I had a pretty diverse set of miniatures from these two games. True the Battle Masters minis had unit bases with various miniatures grouped together, but I solved this by getting some foam board, cutting out bases and inserting the miniature on the base. I packed them on some craft supplies boxes and I was set. I told myself I needed no more minis.

See, I had friends who owned a LOT of minis. I had played some Battletech and Epic but always with their miniatures, and I had seen the obsession with these little then lead, and later pewter, figurines. I had flirted with the idea of painting them, actually ordering a set of dwarves and skavens and trying my hand at painting them… Let’s just say the results were less than flattering. Unpainted miniatures looked so, unattractive that I was uninterested in them, so I figured that with no natural talent I was immune to the lure of miniatures.

So for the first couple of months I was happy with my box of HeroQuest minis and the game proceeded along nicely. It took me a while to get used to the miniatures at the table but I came to embrace them. Then WizKids started making the pre-painted Mage Knight miniatures and I told myself “I can get a couple of those sets and supplement my minis collection”. And so I started down a slippery slope…

Then Wizards of the Coast put out the D&D miniatures, little plastic pre-painted representations of the heroes and monsters of my favorite game. I tried to be casual about it, told myself “I am only getting a box to see them and that’s that”. Back home I stared at them in awe, they had removed my main obstacle for collecting miniatures, I did not have to paint them. I could take them out of the box and use them. I was hooked.

For some timer I would buy cases of every set they put out, and get all the special miniatures they put out, and then came the Star Wars minis game, and the Star Wars Starship Battles.  You get the idea, I was addicted. I had been bitten by the Plastic Crack bug. My friend José was the first one who told me about the term and it was true. I craved these plastic miniatures; I had to have them all!

Eventually I realized I had enough, and not enough place to store them, so I became more selective, getting only the occasional booster and some individual minis in the secondary market. I still got the dragons, the AT-AT, the recent Beholders set and of course, Orcus! But slowly, little by little, I got away from my addiction and for a very long time I kept away from plastic crack.

And then I recently fell off the wagon. José, the very same friend who introduced me to the plastic crack term, got back into Warhammer 40K and started telling me about some great deals on Rackham miniatures on eBay. I had always like the miniatures, and they had made some nice plastic pre-painted one, I just had to look. Soon after I was buying a set and watching a couple more, I was off the wagon and craving my plastic miniatures!

So imagine my rejoicing when I heard about the upcoming Pathfinder miniatures by WizKids. I’m really looking forward to this set. It feels like I’m coming full circle. I want to get me some of those miniatures, and there is a couple of other Rackham sets I’m keeping my eyes on.

What’s your experience with minis? Do you use them? Do you paint them?

PS – And just in case you don’t get the reference in the title, here is the video where it comes from:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytJpZguSy2U

PS2 – (Shameless plug) If you live in Puerto Rico, or will be here soon, on June 4^th the Puerto Rico Role Players group will be hosting a miniature painting day where we will share tips and ideas on how to get the most of your minis. We’d love to see you there!

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3. My Orcus & Me!

Enjoy!

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