Dungeons & Dragons 5e: The New Town Of Saltmarsh

The map making continues!  After working on the maps for last weeks 5e session, I decided to step away from using a pdf program to build my maps.  Just a few too many objects on the screen at once was killing the rendering speed!  Instead, I bought a one year subscription to Inkarnate.com and so far I'm loving it!  Here is my new map of the town of Saltmarsh!

Very happy with how the site functions and the end result.  Next is battle maps which are a little more fiddly, but I think part of that is just my OCD kicking it.  I have some other stamps I'm going to pull into Inkarnate and I think the extra options are going to make things a little smoother for now.

And at some point I will be getting back to the minis.  I've dug up a bunch of critters that will work for beasties in Zona Alfa, plus I've got the start of a crew as well.  I still need some more minis to round them out, but I think they will work out nicely once I get the order placed for them.  Until next time...

Workbench: Digital Ghosts In The Zona Alfa Floral Department?!?

Wow have I been crazy busy, at least in my free time.  Our 5e game has transitioned over to Roll20 so I needed to learn the basics of not just playing but DM'ing with their system in last week and a bit.  Add to that my decision to make JPEG maps of some of the locations since I've gone completely off the rails from the written Ghosts of Saltmarsh game and yeah, not a lot of free time.

That said, I'm quite happy with what I was able to cobble together using a pdf program in such a short time.  Here is the first floor of the Sutton estate that my players psycho-pumped.

Unfortunately the 2nd floor and basement didn't look quite as finished as all the details I was adding were really bogging down the program I was using, but I'm still really happy with them overall.  I am looking at getting a Pro subscription to Inkarnate.com so I can do more work for the campaign... and because it just generally is kind of fun.  Crazy, I know, but I'm looking forward to bringing more of this game to life using the digital tools that are out there.

Of course this means that I've had no time for physical painting, but I'm okay with that.  Hobby is hobby after all, and I'm really enjoying running our insane little corner of the world.

This doesn't mean that there hasn't been any hobby though as I've stumbled on some great bits I'm going to use for some terrain pieces.  A week or so ago, I stopped by Hobby Lobby to grab some canvases for my daughter and decided to swing through the floral section just to take a looksee.  I've got a lot of regular terrain, but I was looking for something more alien.  Zona Alfa has recently caught my eye and I've been had some ideas stewing in my brain for some terrain pieces to build.  I wasn't holding out much hope though since this was a craft store so imagine my surprise when I found these little gems!

These two were the first that really jumped out at me.

Thistle pom pom pick

People have done some pretty cool prints for anomalies but since I'm 1) lacking a 3d printer and 2) always looking for the cheap option, these seemed like they might work.  As I explored some more, I had some other options catch my eye so I might just use them as alien plants instead since they would tie in nicely.

The next two were these, with colors inspired by the first ones.

Thistle stem

I can see these being scattered around as ground cover, bizarre little growths that are overrunning our native vegetation.  Or I could group some of these together on a base to create a zone hazard that could be encountered.

Next was this one which just looks bizarre.

Blue green microberry spray

As an added plus, the piece is also really long.  The crazy bubbly stems are over a foot long and there are at least a dozen of them on one plant.  It might be tricky to cut them down without having the bare stems exposed but I'm willing to give it a try to see what I can make.

The final one is a doozy!

Red protea stem

I have already made a carnivorous plant but the center looks pretty floral.  This one looks far more dangerous, almost like some kind of gigantic land anemone.  I can see this fitting in perfectly as a "creature" for Antares.  Some great finds, especially since I really wasn't expecting them.  Now I just need to start making some structures as well so I'll have somewhere to explore.  So many projects, so little time.  Oh well, at least I shouldn't get bored in the next few years as I work my way through all of these!  Until next time...

5e Dungeons & Dragons: This House Is Psycho-Pumped!

Last weekend we "finished" the first part of our Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign.  The caveat on that is the first session, one of the characters (a death cleric of Baphmet) basically kicked in the front door to the haunted house, told the ghosts to get out now, and said that the house was cleansed.  Almost the shortest session ever!

They did ultimately explore a good portion of the house, but it has been a wild and crazy ride.  The party is made of the aforementioned dragonborn death cleric, a tabaxi swashbuckler, and a kenku rogue/wizard, and they are amazing!  The dynamic of the group is all over the place but we're having so much fun with it that it is great.  I never know what they are going to do, but I'm finding that I'm really enjoying that.  I don't have a lot of experience but so far this campaign has had the least amount of preparation that I've ever done.  I do have a number of pages I've written up about my version of Saltmarsh, including it's history (you can find a post about that here) but the actual sessions are so free flowing that I'm having a blast running it.

Between this and a busy weekend around the house cleaning and moving things, I haven't had much time for painting but it's all good.  For now we have two living rooms, so you can't knock that!

Behold the furniture that we are "storing" for our daughter.  Might as well make use of it while it's here!

I did manage to get back to the workbench last night and knocked out a Heroclix repaint (I'm toying with making her Bunny Winters for a Fear and Faith: Kooky Teenage Monster Hunter game).  Very basic paint job, but it's a very basic figure so that works out well.  (I did take a picture to put up here but don't like the angle.  I'll probably throw it up in a later post though once I get some more of Clix painted.)

Next I'll be returning to my Core Space minis.  I still those last two members of Jace's crew to finish off, and I really need to place that order for Zed's.  I'm having fun painting the Core Space minis and want to make sure I have more on hand so I can keep working on them.  And if that wasn't enough, I've got some ideas brewing for Zona Alfa terrain and miniatures but one thing at a time... at least that's the theory.  Until next time...

Random Workbench Update: Well Would You Look At That...

Over the weekend I managed to get two of the three shelves installed, with the location for the holes marked for the last one.  I'm really happy with how it's looking and it is definitely helping to open up my work space.

The next step is going to be... three more shelves!  Originally I'd planned on putting three 6' shelves over my painting space, but instead I opted for three 3' shelves along a wall next to it instead.  That particular wall has a window in the middle of it so I'm going to put three 4' shelves on that other side of the window.  Overall more real estate for placing things and I think it is going to look nicer than the original plan as well.

That wasn't all I managed to get accomplished over the weekend though.  I also made another mini for one of our companions in the long running 5e Out of the Abyss campaign we are still playing.  Yep, you read that right.  I made this mini.  Introducing Globby!

Globby with my old gnome character Kremermesh Mommanpople for scale

Globby (aka Glabbagool) is a sentient gelatinous cube that we encountered, and we befriended him... her... it... by telling it stories.  We thought he had gone off to explore the wide world of the Underdark but he happened to show up in Gracklstugh.

Globby is made from some clear plastic sheets cut into 2" x 2" squares and then hot glued together.  To give him the oozy look, I went over him with more hot glue, pulling the gun down to the base to give it the appropriate drippy look.  And what's even cooler?

Not the clearest picture but you get the idea...

That's right!  He glows in the dark!  Completely unnecessary but when I saw the glow in the dark glue sticks, I just had to do it!

As for what's next... I haven't decided yet.  I need to get the last shelf up, then I want to dive back into my pile of unpainted minis to see what speaks to me next.  Plus I'm thinking about seal some of my older minis that are going up onto the shelf just for good measure, in which case I might have to set up the light box and take some pictures of them.  Until next time...

5e Dungeons and Dragons: The History of Saltmarsh

I'd planned on working on my minis this week but life didn't play out that way.  Later this week I'll be getting some shelves so I can clear up my painting space which will be amazing!  Until then, I've been keeping myself busy prepping for a modified Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign.  U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh was one of the first adventures I ever played and I get to try my hand at running it soon.  For those of you not familiar with them, Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a 5e campaign built around the original U series of adventures from the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

Overall, I like how they fleshed some of the background with the new campaign but there were things that I wanted different, hence my own spin on the history of Saltmarsh...

History of Saltmarsh

Roughly a hundred years ago, during the reign of King Veryl Rudge, Keoland waged war along its northern border as the King sought to expand his territory.  Not all agreed with this aggressive expansion and some of the coastal families moved further south.  Finding fertile fishing grounds beyond the Dread Wood, they founded the towns of Seaton and Saltmarsh along the northern coast of the Bay of Javan.

Seaton quickly established trade connections with some of the more organized factions of the Sea Princes and developed into a trading hub, while Saltmarsh became known for its bountiful fishing along the mouth of the Gleaming River.  Both towns grew and prospered in their own way, but It was not long until they fell under the greedy eyes of some of the Sea Princes.

As part of their trading, Seaton was able to arrange for some protection from the Sea Princes but Saltmarsh did not enjoy such luxury.  The initial raids were small, but once word spread of the vulnerability of the town compared to Seaton, it was not long until they became the target of one of the most ruthless Princes, Prince Dugir of Scourgehold.  It began as a blockade of the town, but once the forces of Dugir saw that Keoland was quick to ignore their southern holdings, the true pillaging began.

These were dark days for Saltmarsh and the constant raids quickly took their toll.  The town would have become a mere footnote in history if not for the actions of two of the major fishing families in the region, the Primmwaters and the Owelands.  Together they ran the blockade of Saltmarsh and then began striking back at the forces of Dugir himself.  Calling themselves the Kingfishers, they drove the pirates out of Saltmarsh and broke the blockade.  The final blow came when Amarion Primmwater and Rupert Oweland led an attack against one of the lieutenants of Dugir, Arem the Doomcrier, killing him and sinking the flagship of the blockading fleet.

After their victory, Primmwater and Oweland were divided about what should happen to the Kingfishers.  Oweland favored disbanding the group and petitioning the Crown to provide more support while Primmwater wanted to transition them to into a private town guard, focused on protecting the town of Saltmarsh without the help of the Crown.  In the end, the two compromised.  Oweland reached out to the regional commander in Seaton and stepped away from the Kingfishers while Primmwater took command of the group until Keoland was able to provide what he felt was sufficient protection.

Since then, the Primmwater and Oweland families became well established and have been instrumental in Saltmarsh growing into the town that it is today.  While the Oweland family continued to focus on fishing, the Primmwaters expanded into trade and sent ships along the west coast of the Azure Sea.  Both families have prospered over the generations since, expanding their fleets and influence within the town and the region, and both have remained a guiding force for the growth of Saltmarsh.

Though other mercantile families have sought to expand into Saltmarsh, it was not until within the past ten years that the town council decided to allow it.  The Solmor family, an established merchant family from Seaton, quickly established themselves locally and the head of the local family, Petra Solmor, was invited to join the council as well.  Working together, Saltmarsh has continued to grow under the guidance of the three families.  Today, the council is composed of Eda Oweland, Garin Primmwater, and Anders Solmor.

Eda is the granddaughter of Rupert Oweland, and her family owns or contracts most of the fishing ships operating out of Saltmarsh.  She works together with the Fishmongers Guild to establish competitive rates for their goods.  The Guild also maintains a large smokehouse, letting them expand their markets farther, and they are said to be working on creating magical methods of preserving fresh fish as well.

Garin is the grandson of Amarion Primmwater, and while his family still maintains a small interest in fishing, he has largely shifted his focus to transporting goods in the region.  Though Saltmarsh is mainly known for its fishing trade, it is a closer port to Restenford and Burle to the north, and it is less regulated than Seaton.  In addition to his family’s legal activities, it is commonly known that the Kingfishers were never disbanded and have become a well-established smuggling ring operating in the Bay of Javan and beyond.

Anders is the son of the recently deceased Petra Solmor.  Just over a year ago, Petra developed a mysterious wasting illness and soon passed away.  Rather than send another family member to handle trade in Saltmarsh, it was decided that Anders should take control of the Solmor interests in town.  Raised and educated in Seaton, he has a different outlook on things than Eda and Garin are accustomed to, but he does have useful insights that still make him an asset to the council.

In addition to the council itself, there are also two prominent townsfolk who act as advisors.  Eliander Fiske is the Captain of the town guard and a decorated veteran of the Royal Army.  With the safety of Saltmarsh as his main concern, he keeps an eye open for any trouble that might be stirring up in the region.  Eliander also still has strong ties to the Royal military and has been able to have a small contingent of marines stationed in town in case of emergency.  Trained as soldiers and sailors, these fighting men can be assigned to trade ships if the Sea Princes start to become aggressive again.

The final advisor is Jemis Copperlocks, head of the Copperlocks mine located to the east of Saltmarsh.  Though some of the locals complain that she has no business with the council, the Crown feels otherwise which is why she attached by a royal decree.  Even so, she typically sits as a bystander if the town business does not interfere with her operation.

In addition to this, I'm also fleshing out various locations around town and expanding the initial adventure in the haunted house.  I'm the first to admit that this might be a bit much but I'm trying to make sure I have a solid picture of the setting so I can convey it to the players.  I have some thoughts for an overarching plot for the campaign which departs from the one laid out in Ghosts, but that all depends on what the players want.  Heck, they might just hop on a boat and sail away for all I know but at least this gives a solid foundation to build on.  Until next time...

Workbench: I Had Such Big Plans...

Maybe not big plans but I was at least going to finally get my table set up and play some Antares... then I left my miniatures in Maine.  D'oh!  Makes gaming difficult when you don't have the minis. 

Instead I took some time to brainstorm more for a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign.  Not quite sure when this will start as we are still trying to get out of Gracklstugh in Out of the Abyss but at some point, in theory, we will actually make it out of that city.  We might leave it a burning ruin with a rampaging dragon but as long as we are out of the city...

Then I realized that I did actually have something here to paint, my M7 transport for my Concord troops.  I want to do some more detail work on it but at least at this point it has the basic paint scheme on it.

Basing still in progress but you get the idea

Beyond that, I did also receive another shipment of Wrath of Kings minis.  Miniature Market recently ran a warehouse sale so I snatched up some more units that were too cheap to pass up.

These are all from the Rising Conflicts expansion which I was originally going to avoid.  The stuff from the main rulebook has all been errata'd but the newer stuff... not sure how balanced it is.  Since CMON basically stopped supporting the game after the new units were released, it's not something that I see them taking the time to work on.  That said, I really have enjoyed the games that I've played and like the idea of having more unit types available.  And besides, one of those is a unit of flying pigs so... yeah, had to have it.  I need to start assembling and basing those so I can try them out, but first there will be Antares.  A friend of mine is still interested in a demo so I want to push around some minis to put together some good demo lists.  Until next time...

Dungeons and Dragons: Our Traveling Companions

Over the course of our Out of the Abyss 5e campaign we have amassed a number of traveling companions.  Most of the time these characters are just hovering in the background but even so I wanted to have minis to represent them.  Saying that you're traveling with this big group and actually being able to see them are two very different things.  Some of these I painted but a majority are prepaints from the various D&D lines.  Either way, I really like the minis that I was able to find so let's meet our "friends", shall we?

Prince Derendil

A refined and sophisticated fellow, Prince Derendil is an elven prince that was cursed, turning him into a Quaggoth.  As long as he remains in the Underdark the curse will continue but if he can return to the surface... in theory the curse will be broken?  Maybe?  None of us are really buying this at this time but the few times he's been involved in a fight he just decimated people so we're happy to keep him around for now.

This cuddly fellow is a Quaggoth miniature from the Rage of Demons line.  I had considered adding the collar that his character portrait shows but he really has been a minor character for us so I decided to just leave him as is.

Jimjar

A gambler through and through, Jimjar is a deep gnome that has been trying to get us to make a bet with him since the first time we talked to him.  So far he has been one of the less troublesome companions that we broke out with us... though he might have died recently... except he's still with us...  Yeah, I'm sure it'll be fine.

Jimjar was one of the tricky minis to find as there just didn't seem to be any good deep gnome sculpts.  Ultimately I decided to go with the gnome trickster from the Blood War line.  Sure his skin is the wrong color but other than that he fits the bill so I'm good with him as is for now.

Ront

Seeming to be your generic "smash first, talk later" orc, Ront has the distinction of also being a coward.  While running away from an earlier combat, he was captured by the Drow and sent to the lovely day spa that is Valkenveld.

Since Ront was just a generic orc warrior, I decided to go with the orc sergeant miniature from the Aberrations line.  There were several other choices that were pretty good but this one particularly caught my eye.

Shuushar

A pacifistic fishman, Shuushar was one of the hardest minis to pick out.  There aren't many kuo-toa sculpts out there and most of the are armed.  After quite a bit of digging I stumbled across this sculpt and knew right away that it fit perfectly.

While he is listed as a kuo-toa whip in the Night Below line, this mini looks far more priestly which is perfect in this case.  Very happy with this figure and I'm glad that I stumbled across it.  He was a noncombatant the whole time he was with us but our DM did such a good job with him and his Spongebob style voice that I just had to add him to the group.

 Eldeth Feldrun

A shield dwarf scout from Gauntlgrym, Eldeth was the first of the companions to approach us when we reach the "luxury resort" of Valkenveld.  Of course the DM actually said that she was a dwarven shield maiden, not a shield dwarf, so I instantly thought of her as some kind of defensive fighter.  I headed over to the Reaper site and quickly found the perfect figure for her.

This is Freja Fangbreaker sculpted by Werner Klocke.  This mini perfectly captured what I thought a shield maiden would look like plus I was thinking about using her as a replacement character if Jaaren died so I wanted to make sure it was a figure that I liked.

Buppido

A mad derro who is convinced that he is a god and that we should all worship him... man, does he just get under my skin.  In fact I wanted to kill him since we first ran into him because he is just that annoying.  So why did I buy a figure for him?  Because he became our DM's favorite character and it was only right that he be represented as well.

Drawing from Reaper again, this is the derro mage by Derek Shubert.  I honestly have no idea if Buppido has any magical abilities at all but the pose and overall feel are perfect.

Those familiar with the campaign might notice that there are several characters missing.  We managed to loose a few on our travels so I haven't picked up figures for them yet.  Two of them never even made it out of Valkenveld (Topsy and Turvy) so I probably won't worry about them but Sarith Kzekarit was as close to a friend that one can be with a drow.

Sarith and Jaaren quickly reached an understanding that we all needed each other if we were going to survive and he was key in getting us to the Neverlight Grove.  Unfortunately we realized on the way there that something was possessing him in some way and in the end I felt it was only right to end his suffering.  Our DM still talks about how awesome it was for us to say prayers over his funeral pyre so someday I'll probably add him to the group as well.

Breathing Some Life Into Bone Hill

Over the summer our friends headed north to their camp which put our current Dungeons and Dragons 5e campaign on hold.  Rather than just letting everything hang in the balance while we waited for an opportunity to get together with them again, I decided to offer to run them through a game by themselves and they jumped at the opportunity.  I started thinking about what to run and quickly decided to pull out an oldie but a goodie, the Secret of Bone Hill.  Unfortunately it wasn't quite as good as I remembered.

Before I get a tirade of hate from old school gamers, let me explain.  L1 packs a lot of information in there.  In fact it is really more of a setting book than a module so it really is jam packed which is both good and bad.  Lots of ideas to incorporate into a game but the detail is almost too much.  Most of the townfolk are written up down to how much copper they have but how useful is this really?  I'm pretty sure that the party won't be ransacking the entire town so I don't need quite this much detail.  There are also some of the names.  Well actually most of them.  I'm sure they were very appropriate for the era that it was released but today... let's just say that they didn't age all that well.

All that said, it still has given me a great framework to build my adventure on and we are really having fun with it.  We even had an entire session go by with no combat! How crazy is that?!  Of course we also tried out the carousing rules and between the two of them they managed to win enough money that they became local legends.  And of course this was right after they said that they wanted to stay out of the public eye.  It's going to be interesting to see just how that plays out.

I have also been writing up the adventure as we've gone along, expanding on the original text with my own ideas and updating it to 5e rules.  Some of this has been a challenge but overall I've really been having fun with it and so has the family which is the whole idea.  I've also been recording the whole thing so maybe I'll actually post it here at some point as well.  We'll have to see how it all pans out.  Until next time...

Malifaux Kickstarter: Time To Start Playing With Your Own Fate

Yep, its time for another Kickstarter!

About a week ago Wyrd Miniatures launched their latest Kickstarter endeavor, giving all of us the opportunity to take a step further into the world of Malifaux.  Slated to come out in September next year, Through The Breach lets players become part of the story of Malifaux as they try to survive and control their fate in that nightmare realm.

Using a card mechanic that sounds similar to the core mechanic of their miniature game, Through The Breach will let players cheat fate as they try to rewrite their own story and shape their destiny.

Already over 500% funded with more than a month still to go, this game sounds like its going to be a lot of fun and I've already put in my pledge to back it.  In addition to the receiving a copies of the Players and Fate Masters Guides, there are a number of nice little perks to go along with this one including male and female multi-part plastic minis to let you customize your character for Through The Breach or the Malifaux skrimish game.

If you enjoy the Malifaux skirmish game or even just the dark world that Wyrd has created just beyond our own, then you should definitely check this game out.  Until next time...

Bringing Some Of Your Own Noise To The Audio

We recently started role playing again here in Snowman's Land, but this time we added in our Munchkin to the mix so she can see just what the big deal is about these roleplaying games.  So far she is having fun with it and some of the role playing things that she comes up with just blow me out of the water!

For example, in the first session the adventurers were ambushed by a group of goblins and wolves.  No sooner had the battle ended than the Munchkin's character walks over to one of the dead wolves and starts pulling out all of its teeth.  Not just the canines mind you but all of them so she could make a necklace using the small teeth as beads to space out the larger ones.  The rest of us looked at each other for a second, then Spacer summed it up by saying "Well that's kinda creepy but alrighty then."

Even so, its a pretty awesome bit of roleplaying and I'm loving how she's keeping me on my toes with some of the curve balls she throws my way.  I also love the fact that now both my wife and my daughter are not just taking part in my hobby but having fun with it as well, which all leads into bringing your own noise to the audio.

Since this is the Munchkin's first game (and only my second time running an adventure...) I really wanted to do an audio recording of it but the question was how?  I'd seen things like the Zoom H2 but money was tight and I needed something fast.  After a quick search on Amazon I happened to stumble across the perfect solution for my problem; the Go Mic by Samson.

Personally I'm loving this little microphone and I'm really glad that I picked it up.  I just set in the omnidirectional mode and it does a great job picking up the entire group loud and clear.  It's also plug and play so I can just hook it up the laptop, switch over the microphone feed in Audacity to the Samson, hit record, and just forget about it.  No worrying about running out of memory or power since its hooked up to the laptop, and we've kept the same set up around the table so I don't even need to mess around with the recording levels in Audacity.

The other great thing about it is that its only $40 from Amazon with free shipping if you're not in a rush!  It just doesn't get much better than that, so if you're looking for an inexpensive mic that will still give you a quality recording I definitely recommend giving this one a try.  Until next time...

Players? Oh, you mean my guinea pigs!

Howdy folks! Yet again I have procrastinated my post up to the wire, but it's all good as long as it's posted in time. This week we're going to talk more about some of the new experimental methods I am using in my Pathfinder game with the Snowman, and will be briefly introducing a new ongoing subject in the SpacerGal postings. So without further ado, here we go!

Director's Cut: It's... breathing!

Let's get this out of the way first. I really enjoy online gaming. More specifically, the free to play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game side of things. F2PMMORPG... Even the acronym is a handful. But anyways, my love of the genre has led me to want to try and sort of simulate an open world style game for my players, basically leaving them in charge. Is it hilarious to let the kids babysit themselves? You bet it is. Can it be remarkably more mess than you anticipated? Sure can, but in this mess is where some of the best players will truly shine. But before we get to the PC, let's take a look at the GM side of this endeavor.

Part of my ability to do this successfully comes from the fact that I am wildly scatterbrained and have about thirteen different possible story ideas flying around in my head at any given time. To get started, I sit down and lay all those snakes out straight and figure out how to fit them into my setting without breaking the feel of the campaign, usually by plopping a PNPC, or Prime NPC into the story. Then I have to concoct how not to kill my players on what could be a very high level challenge by either scaling the threat back to a more appropriate danger or taking the quest and placing it in the "High level stuff I hope players play long enough to reach" part of my GM binder. The last step is hands-down the trickiest, especially as other stories in the world progress. How do I make my players choose to take these paths?

In order to give players control while still holding the carrot-on-a-stick, I place what I call Adventure Hooks into the world, just waiting for an interested nibble to trigger some kind of event or NPC interaction that will lead into a full-blown story. Often these involve some kind of crowd gathered around something, or a flyer being handed out advertising something of exceptional interest. If it's an adventure hook within an adventure, there are usually a few ways to find it, whether that be finding an item that someone will take interest in or simply poking and prodding an NPC until he or she gives in and decides to take you on the next big journey. But what if a journey takes longer than anticipated? What happens to those other hooks? Well, some of them may still be around, but because Leviathos is a living, persistent world, some hooks can literally be completely missed, never to be seen again. Unless the game resets of course...

Space-Age Roleplay: Welcome to Cyber-space

Many podcasts and die-hard P&P roleplayers naysay the potential of roleplaying in MMORPG environments, saying it can't be done, there's not enough control, there's not enough customization to do what they want, et cetera. To all of you out there who have said or thought this, I say are you out of your mind? Did you even try to roleplay in an online game? If so, which one, and how long did you spend in your attempt? Did you make sure you chose an RP server? Did you log on during prime hours? Did you make sure you were open, approachable, or available for RP interaction? Are you familiar with the lore and flavor of the game in which you attempted to RP?... And the list goes on for quite some time more. But anyways, I'm here to say it can be done. And not just in a "Well that was an alright experience" kind of way, but rather in a "Some of my best RP experiences have been in MMORPG" way. That's right. When approached with the proper mindset and with the proper tools in hand, it can be both a fun and rewarding pass time for all players involved, without the need of a GM. This isn't to say it doesn't have it's fault, no no no. Far from it actually. There are glaring weaknesses to RP in a GM-less computer world, but these weaknesses can be mitigated by players willing to try. That list of questions should be asked of one's self before diving in, and we will be touching on the subject more in weeks to come.

Final Transmission

Space-Age Roleplay will be an ongoing topic of mine, covering the right and wrong ways to approach MMORPG as sources for RPG outlets, some of the general do's and don'ts of roleplaying in these settings, and some of the best ways to get roleplaying going with a community or even random people out there on the interwebs. I do hope our readers will enjoy a new perspective on the subject, as well as gleaning advice and tips to enjoy their own MMO roleplaying. Of course, more kid games are on the way, one in particular I know most of you have had some interaction with in some form or another, but it requires pictures and my camera is on the fritz. So until next time, this is SpacerGal, signing off. Ya'll come back now, y'hear?

Busting Out Of The Box: Taking A Look At Gamma World 4e

Hello everyone and welcome to an opening edition of the Dispatch!

For this one we are going in a totally new direction as we bust open the box on a recent purchase I made. Hang on tight because things are about to get a little random!

Mutant Bastards Galore!
Unboxing the Gamma World RPG

Long, long ago in a state about three thousand miles away, I borrowed an RPG rulebook from a friend of my brother. The whole thing was crazy and bizarre with radiation and mutations everywhere! What game was it? A first edition copy of Gamma World by TSR Hobbies. I never did run or play a game of it but it always struck me as kind of cool in a very Flash Gordon kind of way.

Flash forward to the present.

It's been years since I've done any role playing but its something that I really want to get back to and I've finally found some people to not only game with but also do some RP as well! The big difference is that this time I decided that I'm not just going to play but also try my hand at running some games as well. The real question is what would I run?

One of the great things about listening to a ton of actual play sessions like I do is its almost like have a demo of a game. You can really get a feel for how a game works mechanically very quickly. Does it bog down in combat or flow nicely? Are the challenges in the game smooth or cumbersome?

Originally I was looking at bringing 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars to the table just because of how smooth the system seems (very straight forward mechanics and nicely interactive RP elements) when I heard about Dungeons and Dragons Gamma World. I was really intrigued at this idea though when I heard about the collectible card aspect of the game I was pretty disappointed. I had planned to just completely pass on the game until I listened to some actual plays that made me change my mind.

Basically it seems like the new Gamma World is a streamlined version of the 4e ruleset. Reduce the total number of skills, speed up the combat, and the system really seems to run much more smoothly then Dungeons and Dragons 4e.

Don't get me wrong. I am not one of the myriad of 4e haters out there. Personally, I have heard enough good games of 4e to recognize the fact that it is not a bad system if it is run correctly. One of the main problems that I've noticed in listening to games is the fact that it can get overly crunchy and really bog down at higher levels as you have to break out the accounting paper to keep track of the hundreds of hit points that are being dealt with.

The new Gamma World avoids that problem by putting its lethal nature on the table right away. With virtually no healing available in this post apocalyptic setting, if you get shot with a gun a couple of times then you're going to wind up dead, no two ways about it.

Another common complaint is that it is not a role playing game but a roll playing game. While it's true that combat is where the 4e mechanics really excel, I still think that there are possibilities for role playing that you can explore if you look for them. Of course I might wind up eating crow soon as I plan on running this game later this month for my friends but only time will tell for sure. Until then, let's take a quick look at just what you get in the box.

Rulebook: One digest sized rulebook with full color throughout. Nice looking and the layout isn't bad either but it can be a little hard to find things sometimes. For example, some of the critters listed in the book have special movement rules but those are not described in the movement section. Instead, those are detailed at the beginning of the creature section.

Counters: 96 counters to represent the players and monsters plus another 12 oversized counters for large monsters. These are really well done and are comparable to the quality you'd find in most of the better boardgames out there.

Alpha mutation and Omega tech cards: 80 cards representing various random mutations and technology that you'll find as you explore Gamma Terra. In stark contrast to the counters these cards are what I'd expect to find in your run of the mill mass market boardgame. I would definitely recommend getting some card protectors these as you'll be shuffling them fairly regularly.

One booster pack of cards: One pack of eight new alpha and omega cards. Yeah, this is the collectible part. There are a total of 120 new cards in this set and while you don't need to collect them at all, they can add a little something to the game. Personally I'm not sure how I feel out these. Given the lack luster quality of the cards and the very steep price of the boosters, I think I might pass on these for now.

Poster maps: Two double sided maps of various locations from the beginning adventure. These are fairly typical poster maps but the artwork is pretty nice on them.

Eight character sheets: Four pages with a character sheet on each side. Now calling these "character sheets" is actually pretty generous. These basically summarize each step in character creation and give you a small space to put in the information from that step. There are much better sheets out there on the web but these are at least a starting point if you really have to get to the table without taking a few minutes to do a quick search on the net for something better.

And that's it! All and all, not too bad for the price though the vastly varying quality of some of the components is kind of odd. Full color glossy rulebook, very nicely finished counters, low quality cards, and bare minimum character sheets. Maybe they were trying a little too hard to capture the completely random nature of the game with this bit of game design. Note to Wizards; quality throughout is not a bad thing!

As I mentioned, I'm hoping to get this one to the table later this month so I'll be sure to do a follow up once we have actually gotten in some game time. The game does come with a full beginning adventure but its designed for five characters which is more than I'm looking at having right now so I've got some stuff I'm working on of my own creation. But more on that later...

The Parting Shot...

And that's the new Gamma World in a nutshell! It will definitely be interesting to not only get this game to the table but just get back into roleplaying at all. I can see fun and exciting things in the future... mwah ha ha ha ha!!! As always, if you have any comments, complaints, questions, you can either leave them right here on the blog or you can email me at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. And I'm on Facebook as well (just like 90% of the population...) so click the link and like the Dispatch! Do it. Do it now!!! Until next time...