Lots to say, both good and bad.
New job, better prospects and money, and more local so no commuting.
Back in the RPG saddle both running and playing (Im running Serenity for those that need to know, and gearing up for WHFRP2 playing).
The book was on hold anyhow because Im writing the RPG campaign and I wrote it while commuting on the train. So now that Im not commuting it means less time to write RPGs and my novel. Its not forgotten.
More at 10
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Serenity Episode 1.02
o my second session of Serenity came and went. About half of the original players turned up, plus we had a new player. So first of all the group size was smaller and because of the players, the dynamics of the group were different too. I basically had 4 quiet gamers!
Heres hoping session 3 brings better rewards. My appraisal of the session, was great role-playing from the attended, but a serious lack of preparation on my part fucked the night up for me, and a couple fo the players, so sorry.
From the log of Capn Linlora, Ms
The Christeen V, my Ship, took off into the black, just as planned, but that's the only thing that happened as scheduled. Funny thing was that was the part I expected to go wrong. Still can't blame a woman for betting on a being in a bad place in good times.
Soon as Norm (our opera loving pilot) gave the all-clear, we dropped the seat-belts and got about our duties. Seems Agatha (our resident Shepherd Doctor) took it upon herself to start cleaning my ship. Never thought I'd say how nice disinfectant smells in the morning. Of course no one has any idea whether it is morning or day, unless we are on the clock. This is my first time in charge of a ship and a crew, so I needed to learn fast about what deals make money, and who to trust.
I'll be honest and say I'm not happy with the crew at the moment, seems they all have either too much or too little to do. Trouble is I'm too busy to do anything else. Hopefully that will all change soon. The moment our course for the mining belter colonies was set, Ewen reported that Jal (that womanising mechanic who along with Norm formed my first two crew) wasn't at his engineering post, and to make matters even worse, this new engine was pumping red oil out like a fire hydrant.
Jasper (an unfortunate punk with a penchant for knives), reported that someone had smashed the outer airlock glass. He noticed the damage on a routine tour of the cargo bay.
A sharp judder from the engine room had everyone on alarm and everyone was ordered to the engine room. Everyone excet of course Jal, but jasper it seemed had uncovered a stowaway!
For a man with enough weapons pointed at him to down a small army, the stowaway remained pretty cool. When I challenged him on his sudden appearance, it seemed it had been hiding in the cargo bay for a number of hours. Apparently he came about the job advert. According to him, we were in eager need of a troubleshooter, a gun for hire, and he felt he fitted the bill. He looked more like a trouble-maker than shooter. The young man who called himself Ash, also smoked like a trooper. Oh lord, why do you test me so.
I locked him in one of the defunct shuttles (one of Jal's many unfinished projects) minus his weapons and smokes and called a crew meeting in the mess hall. I had a question that only Jal could answer, and he aint anywhere, despite his bunk unmade, and his gear still lying around. I'm still hoping the kid turns up, not because I want him to fix the ship's engine, Ewen did a decent enough hack job, but because I need to flay the idiot alive for hiring a 3rd unwanted crew member. Do we really need a cook and a doctor? The food tastes the same, and I don't envisage us getting into too many sticky situations. And a shepherd doctor at that!
No one gave me a good reason to keep him, but only Jasper voice a desire to see the man eat a deathly dose of the 'verse. Because I don't rightly trust Jasper, I'll keep this Ash alive.
By the time I'd sorted this mess out, Norm informed me that we were about to be boarded by a bunch of Federal Cops. How they had managed to sneak up on when Norm was at his station I've no idea, but I didn't have long to find my paperwork, let alone get it in order. Seems these two federal goons were looking for a certain Captain Jacques Devlin, who was caught heading Coreward with a bunch of forged Independent Script. Guess that would be my fault, but a deal is a deal.
Norm, apart from practising a little helpful paranoia, called me up onto the flightdeck. Seems this police ship, aint what it appears to be saying. A little New Mexican standoff ensured these guys revealed they were just security goons hired by the Nyotenkyo corporation to keep tabs on who is and who isn't flying in their part of the 'verse. I don't blame em for trying, well not after I cleaned out their ship of the few supplies they had stored, kinda nice of them. There wasn't a lot. Maybe enough for two guys for a couple of weeks.
Norm worked some of his magic on their flight console. I'm not interested in knowing the details, just as long as we aint followed, which I was assured would would happen long after we left.
Things don't always go smooth, next time I hope the take off is the problem, not stowaways, missing engineers and bogus federal cops.
Heres hoping session 3 brings better rewards. My appraisal of the session, was great role-playing from the attended, but a serious lack of preparation on my part fucked the night up for me, and a couple fo the players, so sorry.
From the log of Capn Linlora, Ms
The Christeen V, my Ship, took off into the black, just as planned, but that's the only thing that happened as scheduled. Funny thing was that was the part I expected to go wrong. Still can't blame a woman for betting on a being in a bad place in good times.
Soon as Norm (our opera loving pilot) gave the all-clear, we dropped the seat-belts and got about our duties. Seems Agatha (our resident Shepherd Doctor) took it upon herself to start cleaning my ship. Never thought I'd say how nice disinfectant smells in the morning. Of course no one has any idea whether it is morning or day, unless we are on the clock. This is my first time in charge of a ship and a crew, so I needed to learn fast about what deals make money, and who to trust.
I'll be honest and say I'm not happy with the crew at the moment, seems they all have either too much or too little to do. Trouble is I'm too busy to do anything else. Hopefully that will all change soon. The moment our course for the mining belter colonies was set, Ewen reported that Jal (that womanising mechanic who along with Norm formed my first two crew) wasn't at his engineering post, and to make matters even worse, this new engine was pumping red oil out like a fire hydrant.
Jasper (an unfortunate punk with a penchant for knives), reported that someone had smashed the outer airlock glass. He noticed the damage on a routine tour of the cargo bay.
A sharp judder from the engine room had everyone on alarm and everyone was ordered to the engine room. Everyone excet of course Jal, but jasper it seemed had uncovered a stowaway!
For a man with enough weapons pointed at him to down a small army, the stowaway remained pretty cool. When I challenged him on his sudden appearance, it seemed it had been hiding in the cargo bay for a number of hours. Apparently he came about the job advert. According to him, we were in eager need of a troubleshooter, a gun for hire, and he felt he fitted the bill. He looked more like a trouble-maker than shooter. The young man who called himself Ash, also smoked like a trooper. Oh lord, why do you test me so.
I locked him in one of the defunct shuttles (one of Jal's many unfinished projects) minus his weapons and smokes and called a crew meeting in the mess hall. I had a question that only Jal could answer, and he aint anywhere, despite his bunk unmade, and his gear still lying around. I'm still hoping the kid turns up, not because I want him to fix the ship's engine, Ewen did a decent enough hack job, but because I need to flay the idiot alive for hiring a 3rd unwanted crew member. Do we really need a cook and a doctor? The food tastes the same, and I don't envisage us getting into too many sticky situations. And a shepherd doctor at that!
No one gave me a good reason to keep him, but only Jasper voice a desire to see the man eat a deathly dose of the 'verse. Because I don't rightly trust Jasper, I'll keep this Ash alive.
By the time I'd sorted this mess out, Norm informed me that we were about to be boarded by a bunch of Federal Cops. How they had managed to sneak up on when Norm was at his station I've no idea, but I didn't have long to find my paperwork, let alone get it in order. Seems these two federal goons were looking for a certain Captain Jacques Devlin, who was caught heading Coreward with a bunch of forged Independent Script. Guess that would be my fault, but a deal is a deal.
Norm, apart from practising a little helpful paranoia, called me up onto the flightdeck. Seems this police ship, aint what it appears to be saying. A little New Mexican standoff ensured these guys revealed they were just security goons hired by the Nyotenkyo corporation to keep tabs on who is and who isn't flying in their part of the 'verse. I don't blame em for trying, well not after I cleaned out their ship of the few supplies they had stored, kinda nice of them. There wasn't a lot. Maybe enough for two guys for a couple of weeks.
Norm worked some of his magic on their flight console. I'm not interested in knowing the details, just as long as we aint followed, which I was assured would would happen long after we left.
Things don't always go smooth, next time I hope the take off is the problem, not stowaways, missing engineers and bogus federal cops.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Serenity Episode 1.01
Writing has halted for now, partly because I need to get more material written up from notes onto my laptop. The other reason for it halting is we had a massive crash at work on our servers meaning I couldn't print anything for a week, and seeing as 90% of my printing of my book is done at work, that has held it up.
Also I am running a RPG game again, Serenity, carrying on from where I left off. I only ran 1 session but it spawned 2 write-ups, which I am giving you the link for here.
http://www.ukroleplayers.com/viewto
One write up is from the Engineer, the other from our resident Shepherd Doctor.
Also I am running a RPG game again, Serenity, carrying on from where I left off. I only ran 1 session but it spawned 2 write-ups, which I am giving you the link for here.
http://www.ukroleplayers.com/viewto
One write up is from the Engineer, the other from our resident Shepherd Doctor.
Sunday, October 8, 2006
RuneQuest I Mongoose
Just managed to get hold of the new RuneQuest PDF from Mongoose, and the first thing that struck me was how empty the book was. Oh and the OGL license was a bit OTT. Its like Mongoose have hired WOTC lawyers and given the license to be mean.
Im a traditionalist, and believe RuneQuest is Glorantha. So we shall wait and see if this new RQ is any good.
Im a traditionalist, and believe RuneQuest is Glorantha. So we shall wait and see if this new RQ is any good.
Friday, June 2, 2006
Lords of Midnight
I have acquired a copy of ICE's Fire and Ice Elemental supplement, which details the elemental powers of, fire and ice, obviously! But combined with Frostbite I have all the information I need to push on with Lords of Midnight, the Role-Playing Game.
The only trouble now is Im unsure in which direction to take the game. As noted in an earlier blog, should it be simple and uncomplicated or detailed and interesting?
Rolemaster
D20
or simple generic system
Either way, the game will require a strong magical content which is accepted as normal, rather than special. E.g. everyone knows of Ice-Fear and how it weakens the hearts of heroes. There is no doubt in everyone's mind of the danger even the most brave of heroes to enter Doomdark's realms. I have a system in mind that enables a hero to store energy with which to overcome/defeat/control the amount of ice-fear he is facing.
The only trouble now is Im unsure in which direction to take the game. As noted in an earlier blog, should it be simple and uncomplicated or detailed and interesting?
Rolemaster
D20
or simple generic system
Either way, the game will require a strong magical content which is accepted as normal, rather than special. E.g. everyone knows of Ice-Fear and how it weakens the hearts of heroes. There is no doubt in everyone's mind of the danger even the most brave of heroes to enter Doomdark's realms. I have a system in mind that enables a hero to store energy with which to overcome/defeat/control the amount of ice-fear he is facing.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Death of a Gaming Group?
Those of you who have been paying attention will know I have two blogs. This one serves as my writing and life blog, containing information on my family and writing. In my other blog it really serves as my ranting and raving page about well my rants and things that annoy me. But mainly it acts as devil's advocate to RPGpundits rants. I dont agree with everything he says but he still is worth reading.
So when I have to talk about my next subject, Im a little unsure where it should be, a gaming rant or life issue.
I gave up gaming while my wife is giving birth in June to daughter no.2. Before I said bye to the group, I tried really hard to recruit as many new players as possible to keep the group alive during my absense. On the day I said cheerio there was 9 of us, including me. I got an email from one of the players saying they are down to 3 regulars, but they have a problem staying on target for gaming every week.
There could be a multitude of reasons why the group has died, and I am aware of several minor ones. But I will blow my own trumpet and say the reason the group stays and games together is because of me.
My games, my adventures, my stories, my games running ability, my skills at controlling a group and ensuring they are having as much fun as possible while rolling as few dice as possible. Im proud of my group, but this recent development has made me realise Im surperbly proud of my skills as hosting a game. Creating a sandbox for the players to explore, but in the full knowledge that the world in which they play in is consistent, universal, fair and responsive to their input.
I feel sorry for the others in our group who have run games and failed. But you are not me. You cant read the group, you cant read when players are being bored. Im sorry, but I promise I will return.
So when I have to talk about my next subject, Im a little unsure where it should be, a gaming rant or life issue.
I gave up gaming while my wife is giving birth in June to daughter no.2. Before I said bye to the group, I tried really hard to recruit as many new players as possible to keep the group alive during my absense. On the day I said cheerio there was 9 of us, including me. I got an email from one of the players saying they are down to 3 regulars, but they have a problem staying on target for gaming every week.
There could be a multitude of reasons why the group has died, and I am aware of several minor ones. But I will blow my own trumpet and say the reason the group stays and games together is because of me.
My games, my adventures, my stories, my games running ability, my skills at controlling a group and ensuring they are having as much fun as possible while rolling as few dice as possible. Im proud of my group, but this recent development has made me realise Im surperbly proud of my skills as hosting a game. Creating a sandbox for the players to explore, but in the full knowledge that the world in which they play in is consistent, universal, fair and responsive to their input.
I feel sorry for the others in our group who have run games and failed. But you are not me. You cant read the group, you cant read when players are being bored. Im sorry, but I promise I will return.
Monday, April 17, 2006
2 Role-Playing Game Projects
Just a quick update to tell you about 2 gaming projects that have been on the writing back-burner for longer than I can remember.
They are both role-playing games
1) Dune - a role-playing game based on Frank Herbert's wonderful books.
2) Lords of Midnight -a role-playing game based on Mike Singleton's epic computer wargame, role-playing game series that was released on the 8bit computers in the 1980's.
Why?
Well Dune because I feel the internet efforts to date have been poor, and not deserving of the awesome majesty of the epic series, and the Last Unicorn Games' version appeared literally minutes before D20 in the guise of DND3.0 arrived. It showed promise. It also has the honour of probably the most consistently sought after RPG book on Ebay. Ive even seen incorrectly bound copies of the book (the first 16 pages bound in unside down) selling for over £100.
And Lords of Midnight simply because it has never been attempted before, and ranks, I believe, with the epic J R R Tolkien and Terry Brooks' Sword of Shanara series. It was an incredibly involving game set in an Ice Wasteland, where elves, dwarves and trolls fought each other for the control of the landscape. Lords with armies at their fingertips hid behind old ancient castles. While armies of Midnight fought on the ice wastes, 4 lone heroes set out to defeat Doomdark and his army.
So Far?
Dune has been fleshed out using a simple variant of the Guardians of Order system, MIND, BODY, SOUL, but before this and all the way through the design concept, I have introduced a unique character bidding concept, which I am loathe to talk about to anyone at the moment but has wide-reaching implications for metagaming for Dune. It fits the genre perfectly and enables epic political games to be run by a group of players jointly with a series of Judges/Games Masters. I am a huge fan of the Dune boardgame, and I wanted to incorporate as many elements of that game too, and as such my idea, I think, works. All I need is someone to help me write it and develop it.
Lords of Midnight originally started out as a Rolemaster campaign, but I felt that the game would be lost under the complexity of Rolemaster's rules. The reason I went for RM was a) it was my system of choice when I first started writing LOM, and b) it had a fairly comprehensive spell list of Fire and Ice magics. So having said no to RM, I stripped the game back down and turned it almost into a Fighting Fantasy game, but instead of STRENGTH and STAMINA, I chose ICE FEAR and STAMINA. These are ideas I want to resurrect, but in the meantime I have used the D20 SRD as my basis for the system, while writing more on the background and setting. If you are interested in co-writing either or both projects, or taking one or both of the projects over or just want to discuss it, then please let me know. I would hate to have what I have written so far go to waste. Both projects I am excited about.
They are both role-playing games
1) Dune - a role-playing game based on Frank Herbert's wonderful books.
2) Lords of Midnight -a role-playing game based on Mike Singleton's epic computer wargame, role-playing game series that was released on the 8bit computers in the 1980's.
Why?
Well Dune because I feel the internet efforts to date have been poor, and not deserving of the awesome majesty of the epic series, and the Last Unicorn Games' version appeared literally minutes before D20 in the guise of DND3.0 arrived. It showed promise. It also has the honour of probably the most consistently sought after RPG book on Ebay. Ive even seen incorrectly bound copies of the book (the first 16 pages bound in unside down) selling for over £100.
And Lords of Midnight simply because it has never been attempted before, and ranks, I believe, with the epic J R R Tolkien and Terry Brooks' Sword of Shanara series. It was an incredibly involving game set in an Ice Wasteland, where elves, dwarves and trolls fought each other for the control of the landscape. Lords with armies at their fingertips hid behind old ancient castles. While armies of Midnight fought on the ice wastes, 4 lone heroes set out to defeat Doomdark and his army.
So Far?
Dune has been fleshed out using a simple variant of the Guardians of Order system, MIND, BODY, SOUL, but before this and all the way through the design concept, I have introduced a unique character bidding concept, which I am loathe to talk about to anyone at the moment but has wide-reaching implications for metagaming for Dune. It fits the genre perfectly and enables epic political games to be run by a group of players jointly with a series of Judges/Games Masters. I am a huge fan of the Dune boardgame, and I wanted to incorporate as many elements of that game too, and as such my idea, I think, works. All I need is someone to help me write it and develop it.
Lords of Midnight originally started out as a Rolemaster campaign, but I felt that the game would be lost under the complexity of Rolemaster's rules. The reason I went for RM was a) it was my system of choice when I first started writing LOM, and b) it had a fairly comprehensive spell list of Fire and Ice magics. So having said no to RM, I stripped the game back down and turned it almost into a Fighting Fantasy game, but instead of STRENGTH and STAMINA, I chose ICE FEAR and STAMINA. These are ideas I want to resurrect, but in the meantime I have used the D20 SRD as my basis for the system, while writing more on the background and setting. If you are interested in co-writing either or both projects, or taking one or both of the projects over or just want to discuss it, then please let me know. I would hate to have what I have written so far go to waste. Both projects I am excited about.
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