21 April 2010: Byron’s visit — food, games, and fun

Friends, I hope that you had a good weekend. Byron V.O., a former member of the Boston-area social/role-playing groups, visited from St. Louis this past weekend. He arrived on Friday, 16 April 2010, and Thomas K.Y. met us for a late dinner at Bertucci’s in Needham, Massachusetts.

Our conversations throughout the weekend focused on work and travel, family and
relationships, history and politics, and of course, genre entertainment and gaming. The next day, Byron and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts for the “Secrets of Tomb 10A” exhibit of ancient Egyptian artifacts, which Janice and I had first seen a month ago. We grabbed lunch at Qdoba before catching a commuter rail train back in time for a Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” teleconferencing session.

Beruk A. and Thomas joined us for burgers at Wild Willy’s, and Dexter V.H. in Brooklyn and Robert A.S. in North Carolina called in at various points in the evening. Their Player Characters reunited in the city of Hesolin in my “Vanished Lands” fantasy campaign setting. The heroes compared notes after their mission to the distant empire of Khemet (New Kingdom Egypt) and began considering strategy for the ongoing war against the dreaded ghost fleet.

We also talked about starting a new adventuring party that would have ties to previous teams, such as the “Dragonslayers” and “Holy Steel.” Fellow Game Master Brian W. stopped by to chat with Byron, a former cohort in the “Seekers of Lore” and “Broken Chains.” The face-to-face group has been playing one-shots and miniseries in a variety of genres and rules systems since we wrapped up a Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition game, and I’m preparing to run my “Vortex” space opera, but our schedule will be disrupted in the coming months because of travel.

After a few hours’ sleep, Byron and I drove out to the Minado sushi buffet in Natick, Mass., for brunch with Thomas and Paul J. While we were disappointed that half of our gang didn’t show up, we had a good meal. Thomas went to screen superhero satire Kick–Ass, while Byron and I saw the remake of Clash of the Titans at the AMC Framingham multiplex.

The sword-and-sandals fantasy movie was fairly entertaining, if not particularly
faithful to Greek mythology or even its predecessor. The computer-generated
monsters paid homage to Ray Harryhausen‘s stop-motion masterpieces, and the
humor and action were well-balanced. I’d give Clash of the Titans, which was rated PG-13 for violence, three stars, a solid B, or a 7 out of 10.

Paul and Thomas came for Janice’s soup and homemade rolls at dinner, and we resumed our “Holy Steel” logistics discussion on Sunday night. Dexter wasn’t able
to log in, but Beruk did. I was disappointed that more of the local group didn’t attend, but it worked out fine. The next day, I drove Byron to Logan Airport after lunch at Acapulco’s Mexican restaurant. Speaking of food (again), I enjoyed lunch today with some co-workers at Bison County on Waltham’s Moody Street.

Coming soon: Catching up on SFTV and the crowded calendar!

8 April 2010: RPG roundup, continued

In the past few months, I’ve blogged about developments in face-to-face role-playing games (RPGs) including “retro-clones” and “rules-lite” RPGs. After some reflection, I realized that although I described the “old-school” movement, I didn’t post many examples of rules-light tabletop RPGs, so here are a few more. I’ve looked at Risus, FUDGE (the basis of FATE), MicroLite 20, Mini-Six, BASH Ultimate Edition, and Chimera. Other systems that are arguably rules-light include True20, Savage Worlds, and the upcoming e20.

In the Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” teleconferencing team, Beruk A.’s Rogue “Milos” helped Byron V.O.’s Paladin “Ibrahim” defend himself in his trial for treason in the court of Pharaoh Ramses II. The heroes turned the tables on their accusers by proving that cultists of Set led by Prince Sethemwie had desecrated the tomb of Unas. After a year of “game time” and three years of real time, it was nice to reach the climax of that quest!

Although my current gaming group has had some scheduling disruptions because of travel, the Boston-area party’s post-Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition period of one-shots and miniseries has continued. Greg D.C. ran his Jenga-based Dread horror game, and after demonstrating FATE 3.0 for his “Spirit of the Caribbean!” pirate scenario, Brian W. successfully used it with his “Fierce Frontier” fantasy setting.

Josh C. expects to run a Werewolf: the Apocalypse supernatural scenario using White Wolf‘s Storyteller: World of Darkness rules, and Beruk A. is preparing a D20 version of
“Rifts.” Josh also hopes to run an Exalted high-fantasy one-shot, and Paul J. has expressed interest in the mythic Scion, which uses a variant of the Storyteller system.

Also in the wake of the D&D4e “Vanished Lands: the Faith-Based Initiative” fantasy campaign, I’ve been looking into other genres and rules systems. In addition to my D20 “Gaslight Grimoire“ steampunk/fantasy and D20 Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Ed. (D20″M&M”2e) superhero scenarios, I plan to eventually return to my “Vortex”
space opera.

However, there is some question about what rules set to use. After being inspired by games such as Star Frontiers, I created homebrew rules that I used from high school through grad school. In the mid-1990s, I successfully converted to Steve Jackson Games’ Generic Universal Role-Playing System (GURPS) 3rd Ed. Space, but since then, I’ve been favorably impressed by various D20 games, including one version of Traveller (“T20”) and Star Wars: Saga Edition.

However, Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast (WotC) unit, which also publishes D&D4e, recently announced that it was dropping its license for the Star Wars RPG. That’s too bad, but the books and online community for George Lucas’ franchise are sufficient for long-term campaigns.

WotC also said that it plans to release a new version of the Gamma World postapocalyptic setting using D&D4e, but I’ve been exploring other systems, such as Savage Worlds, Eclipse Phase, and FATE 3.0. Savage Worlds is a pulp RPG with a lot of support, and Eclipse Phase is a good example of the recent “transhumanist” strain in “hard” science fiction.

Starblazer Adventures (“SBA“) and Diaspora both use FATE, an up-and-coming system. SBA is based on 1980s British speculative fiction comics and is from Cubicle 7, which is also publishing Adventures in Time and Space and The One Ring, the latest Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings RPG adaptations, respectively.

Brian and Paul are proponents of FATE, which will also be the basis for the Dresden Files RPG and Icons, a superhero game and potential rival to D20″M&M”2e. Diaspora is a transhumanist RPG that’s a bit more portable than SBA, and after comparing them, we might combine the former‘s hard-SF concepts with the latter’s pulp style.

Ultimately, whatever rules are selected should serve the player group and my “Vortex” stories. Of course, if you ask eight role-players their opinions, you’ll get 10 responses. I’ll post more about the my plans and other genre entertainment soon.

6 April 2010: Warmer weekends

College chums David I.S. and Dexter V.H. didn’t visit the Boston area two weeks ago as each had hoped to at one point. In addition, I didn’t have time to run Shard for Sara F. & Josh C.’s group near Rhode Island, and although I didn’t get to the Pax East gaming convention or I-Con genre entertainment show, I’ve been busy enough lately.

At work, I’ve been juggling the usual editing with my first virtual trade show, testing a new invoicing and calendaring system, and looking ahead to conferences. I was lucky that the heavy rains didn’t affect my commute too much.

On Saturday, 26 March 2010, Janice and I drove to Hartford, Connecticut, for the Sugarloaf Craft Festival. As usual, we bought more food than art, and we had a hearty
lunch at a Cracker Barrel. I also browsed through the comic books and role-playing games at That’s Entertainment and Borders Books in Worcester, Massachusetts.

On Thursday, April 1, we went to the Route 128 station to pick up Amtrak tickets, but all the trains between Boston and New York had been canceled because of flooding in
Rhode Island. Interstate 95 was also obstructed. We got back in my car, turned around, and drove down to Virginia to see my family, fighting both Boston and
Washington, D.C.’s rush-hour traffic and getting rear-ended at a stoplight in New Jersey on the way. Still, we made decent time.

Janice and I stayed with my brother Peter, who recently acquired a Nintendo Wii. Although his wife Kelly had to work the next day, we enjoyed the sunny weather with nieces Ava and Lili. We browsed the shops and ate lunch at Madigan’s Waterfront in the historic town of Occoquan. On Saturday, we went to the Reston Zoo, which Janice and I had never been to before, even when we lived in the area a decade ago. We had lunch at Uno’s in Reston Town Center.

That night, Janice and I went to Corbin A.Y.’s cookout and informal reunion of alumni from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Corb and his wife Andria (whose birthday was Sunday) were gracious hosts as always, and their daughter Maia was calm and cute. I enjoyed catching up with Ben P.S., Steve A.L. and his son Nathaniel, John Z.G., Dana B., and Steve M.R., even though several spouses and children were unable to attend. We chatted about work, politics, relationships, genre entertainment, and of course, gaming.

My parents joined us for mass on Easter Sunday (Janice went to a nearby Lutheran church rather than the crowded Catholic service). Kelly’s mother Maureen arrived in
time for the Easter egg hunt and Peter’s grilled steaks. We played with our nieces and fought with Nerf N-Force Marauder swords before reluctantly heading home.

Unfortunately, traffic was even worse at the end of the holiday weekend than it had been driving south, taking us nearly eight hours to traverse a distance normally
covered in five. Most of the volume was in Maryland and southern New Jersey. We
stopped overnight at the recently remodeled Courtyard by Marriott in Tarrytown,
New York. The remainder of Janice’s and my trip went smoothly, and we stopped
for lunch at the Olive Garden in Natick, Mass., before dealing with errands at
home. I’m still catching up on work and e-mail, but I plan to blog more soon.

8 March 2010: Art and food

Friends, I hope that you had a good weekend. Janice and I enjoyed the early spring warm spell by taking the commuter rail into Boston on Saturday, 6 March 2010. We went to the Museum of Fine Arts, specifically for the exhibits on the tomb of the Djehutynakhts, a prominent ancient Egyptian family, and Toulouse-Lautrec’s Paris.

That evening, I joined Thomas K.Y. and some of his friends for some anime and dinner at Khushboo Indian Restaurant. The food was good, but service was slow. Speaking of cuisine, on Sunday, Janice and I attended a cooking class/demonstration at Chiara Bistro in Dedham/Westwood, Massachusetts. The menu, which included leek and “sunchoke” soup, Coq au Vin, crème caramel, and coconut macaroons, was expertly prepared and introduced by Chef Steve LaCount, also the proprietor.

Janice and I had a humbler but still good early dinner at Wild Willy’s Burgers back in Needham. I missed most of the latest Academy Awards, but since I hadn’t seen many of the films nominated for Oscars, I would have been watching more for the celebrities than
their works.

Between a slightly longer commute to my employer’s modern new offices in Newton, some late-night karaoke from our next-door neighbors, and the Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” teleconferencing team and other role-playing games (I may be running the D20 “Gaslight Grimoire” steampunk/fantasy for the face-to-face group soon), I’ve fallen behind again in sleep, reading, and writing, but I’ll try to post more later this week.

4 March 2010: Doctor Who RPG review

Friends, I’ve taken a closer look at the new Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space role-playing game (RPG). Rising publisher Cubicle 7‘s version is a good entry point for people into the hobby, and as I noted earlier, the production values are on par with other recent reference books. The boxed set includes softcover books with numerous photos of the David Tennant incarnation, plus some card-punched counters and other handouts.

The new “Who” RPG isn’t as granular in terms of rules as its predecessors, but it does a decent job of modeling the storytelling style of the recent
television reboot. FASA’s 1980s take worked better for Star Trek (which has its own history of adaptations), and the Time Lord game of the 1990s
caught the long-running franchise at a low point. Characters are created with the typical array of attributes, traits/flaws, and skills, resembling a
streamlined version of D20 or the point-buy system of GURPS.

The authors address the issue of anyone playing the good Gallifreyan or any Time Lord being more powerful than the typical human or alien by providing lots of alternatives and briefly discussing scale and balance with Story Points. This is similar to the problem of having Jedi in various Star Wars games or a Slayer in the “Buffy/Angel” universe. I could easily see a team with a UNIT member, a Time Agent, a few lucky (or unlucky) civilians, and no Doctor. I was pleased to see writeups of the Doctor and a few companions.

Unlike in many other RPGs, combat isn’t the point of Doctor Who, and
the face-to-face game rightly points out that fun, exploration, and team problem-solving are the primary challenges here. Although I haven’t yet played Adventures in Time and Space, I was inspired by the tone it tries to replicate.

The booklets could have used a better table of contents or index, and I
did miss some of the extensive setting and character-development material of previous editions (although, to be fair, Game Masters are pointed to the aforementioned reference books, which I have). For a $60 boxed set, this game did feel a bit incomplete, but books on aliens and organizations are coming.

Experienced gamers may want a more rules-heavy and customizable system, such as GURPS 4e Time Travel and Infinite Worlds, Temporality or Torg, or D20 Chronomancy. Thanks to my experiences with Steve M.R., Jim J.D’B., and Tim M.B. co-running GURPS 3e “Voyagers II: Adventures in the Dimensional Corps,” I know that a creative group can adapt nearly any set of characters and worlds to time/dimension-hopping!

Bottom line: If you liked the David Tennant portrayal of the Doctor, are
a casual tabletop gamer, or want to introduce people to role-playing, this is a good place to start. If you’re a hardcore “Whovian,” science-fiction gamer, or worldbuilding Game Master, you’ll probably want additional material.

I’m reposting this review to my blogs, since I’ve been writing
about other RPGs (and the “retro-clone” and “rules-light” movements) lately. I’ll also try to let you know my impressions of Starblazer Adventures soon, although it’s a hefty tome! Happy gaming, -Gene

>>Boston-area one-shots and miniseries of early 2010:

>>Already played:

-Greg D.C.: InSpectres (rules-light horror/humor scenario)
-Paul J.: D20 Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Ed.: “League of Vaguely
Interesting People — the Four” (superhero comedy)
-Brian W.: FATE 3.0: “Spirit of the Caribbean!” (swashbuckling pirates)
-Gene D.: D20 “Gaslight Grimoire” (steampunk/fantasy)
-Brian W.: Savage Worlds: Hellfrost (Nordic fantasy)

>>Coming soon:

-Greg D.C.: Dread (horror using Jenga)?
-Paul J.: Pathfinder: “Crossroads of Eternity” crossover with Gene D.’s “Vanished Lands” (fantasy)?
-Beruk A.: D20 “Rifts” (multidimensional homebrew)
-Beruk A.: Dragon Age (MMO-based fantasy)
-Brian W.: Spirit of the Century (pulp 1920s)?
-Brian W.: Dirty Secrets (G.M.-less noir storyteller)
-Brian W.: Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at the Utmost North (“rules-lite” mythic)
-Gene D.: D20 Mutants & Masterminds 2e: “S.J.I.: Chrome City” (comic
book superheroes)
-Gene D.: “Vortex” (space opera using D20 Star Wars: Saga Edition,
Starblazer Adventures/Diaspora, or GURPS 4e Lite/Space)