Gostor: Olympians for 5th edition released!

I love Greek Mythology. The stories have entertained me since before I first read Clash of the Titans (yes, I read the novelization before I saw the original movie). Fun tales of heroes, misbehaving gods, magic items, and bands of warrior traveling to the ends of the world.

My eldest daughter has been taken with the same stories through some of the plentiful young adult literature that is available these days. She too is taken by the variety and imagination in the stories.

These two loves led me to the creation of this new book. I decided to build this new race. Over the course of creation, I came up with the basis of a race that allowed players to be children of the gods. The more I worked and designed it, the more obvious it became that I really needed to think of them as an umbrella race, that each god had to provide different powers.

For the original product, I opted to provide the children and favored of twelve of the main gods of Olympus (I replaced Hestia with Hades). So you can have a full party of Olympians and all of them be quite different.

So now I am very happy to announce the release of Gostor: Olympians, also available through RPGNow, and soon, through the Open Gaming Store (the current link points to all Gostor Products on OGS).

Creating a special adventure: Terrain and all

Way back when, I submitted a blurb for a half-formed idea to Derek at Conglomeration Gaming HQ. Now you might be wondering "JP, why would you send something you did not really know what to do?"

A-ha! My young padawan, allow me to provide you some insight into the crazy world of writing and organized play management...

I am the lucky owner and leader of a campaign whose main draw is that players get to decide where things go. While I do have some idea on where things are going, I never know too far in advance. But that is not new...

Adrift on the Sea of Fate, the Conglomeration special is... well... special! I had a basic idea/gimmick with a very loose plot idea. Aka: "I would like to have an adventure where the players can pick any of our iconics OR bring their own characters and explore something together." Generic? Then I had a few things I wanted to add to it: monsters, twists, surprises. But nothing that was clear or set in stone.

I kicked the can around, going through a bunch of stories I felt were just too boring or repetitive, things I wrote before and that did not excite me very much. For a special, it has to kick some major butt and be exciting. If I can't be excited about it myself... then how will others like it?

The final clincher came as I was reading an old adventure (inspired by something I read in an old issue of the French magazine "Casus Belli"). Somehow that adventure hit every point I wanted and provided me with a framework. Awesome. So I began to write more ideas and develop the plot.

It should come as no surprise that some of the highlights of the CB adventure were ripped out in favor of other elements (remember my original list?). And the adventure was born, for real.

But it would not be a special without... well something special! Having two girl scouts at home, there were many, and I mean A LOT, of GS cookie boxes in the garage. So I wondered... What could I do with them? 1+1= Awesome! A few hours of gluing, drawing, and painting my right hand (I'm left-handed) and now I had a true special...

I spent this past Sunday writing and filling out all the rooms in the dungeons with combat, traps, and non-combat encounters.

I learned a few things:
- I was able to build this all for less than 5$ (and most of that was a 4$ gray primer can)
- Sharpies do not like primer-soaked paper
- Paint is great on primer-soaked paper
- Painting stuff is fun (yes, I know)

The result is an interesting story, mixed with a massive tower that should provide good (or nightmarish) memories to all those involved.

I am glad to say that I was able to provide something that could be meaningful to all three settings, while providing the political scheming so common in every FOE products.

So there you go... Another FOE special ready to roll out into production.

Oh yes, this one will be played only once (and count)... at Conglomeration this coming weekend in Louisville, KY. Come on by for a full weekend of FOE action. The adventure may see repeat performance, but those will not be counted for plot advancement.

Weekend in Rokugan 2018 AAR

One week following MidSouthCon was Weekend in Rokugan held in St Louis, MO. This event dedicated to the Legend of the Five Rings game system is one that I look forward to more and more. With Arcanicon's demise, I seem to have fewer and fewer playing opportunity to play those systems I like. The classic AEG game is one I appreciate very much. It was the game I met the gang in Dublin.

WiR is the one convention this year I intend to only PLAY something other than D&D and I look forward to it with growing anticipation.

After a fruitful and rather successful morning of coding learning new tricks with C# and .Net Core, it was time to hit the road. The trip itself was uneventful other than an odd jam at the Pilot gas station in Paducah KY where most of the pumps were blocked and people just left their cars there. For extended periods, enough to create traffic. I jumped to the Marathon next door, filled up, used the facilities, and bought me some candy and a coffee to go while the line barely moved.

I got into Chesterfield (the exact location of the event) around 4:30. With the next slot beginning at 7PM, I drove to my hotel (across the Interstate) and was able to set up, plugged in the laptop, and took a short nap before game time.

The first event was really interesting: two cranes, two scorpions, and a phoenix... Four shugenja and a single bushi! We managed to talk our way through this one. The scorpion Intimidated some guys while I was able to use my pretty crane flowery language to convince others.

I think this may have been the first time I played with Ken-W. Played-played that is, as he GM'd Arcanis for me many times in the past. He and I have similar yet very different characters: from the same school but the similarities pretty much end there.

Stopped for a meal of junk food, then off to sleep.

The morning game, I sat with Ken again! This time we were three Asahina-trained cranes shugenjas! (along with a crab, a mantis and a scorpion). This one was more challenging for our party and ended up having a lot more action, including an somewhat epic battle at the end. Where I spent my time trying to limit the amount of damage our group took against a very tough opponent. It was fun.

As we finished with almost two hours to spare, I drove to Smashburger. I really enjoy they burgers and had a mammoth made for lunch. No fries, no drink, only the burger. While in that little mall, I saw a Games Workshop store. Now I do not think I entered a GW store since the early days of my stay in Louisville, where the GW was around the corner from our house.

To his credit, the guy there was really good and friendly and just pushy enough not to be annoying and to want me to come by his store to learn more. "Lucky" for me, I don't live in the area. One of the things we discussed is that I dislike the sculpting of their miniatures with the many pieces of flair all over them and how they do not encourage me to convert such models. After all, cutting a 2$ is a no-brainer, but when a mini costs you 5 or more dollars, you'd better be DANG sure you can succeed in what you plan to do...

Got back in time for a fun afternoon with more shugenja madness. Three shugenja, one unicorn courtier, one monk and a phoenix bushi. When combat started, the poor enemies were splattered. The Ide and I aced the talking parts and the monk did all the monk stuff.

I took another nap before the final slot of the event. The 1-hour refreshed me and I was ready to go for the whole evening. It was the court larp event. Now I must say that I do not particularly enjoy those events. Most of the time, I figure my character is too weak to be consulted.

This time around, however, they did something I really enjoyed: in addition to the court plot, there was a plot running through the adventure where we felt something was wrong. With the help of Jeffrey-M (whose Isawa shugenja is a frequent companion of mine), we used the divination skill to help us along and discover many things. I spoke with the Emerald Champion and kept him and my clan abreast of everything I discovered and received a cool reward for it: his notice.

This side-plot to me, was the highlight of the event. It gave me a reason to approach some of the NPCs and interact with them, but also made us shugenja have to focus and discover something about what happened that made me feel like a shugenja, like a priest. Big kudos to the admin team on that, it made my weekend.

The rest of the larp went pretty much as expected: I participated in some events: Origami and Performing but did not win. I had fun and that was most important.

Home to snore.

My weekend in St Louis would not be complete without sitting down for what is becoming a tradition: breakfast at Gingham's in St Charles with Philip and Rachel, who this year were joined by Wesley. We talked gaming for hours. It was awesome. The food was awesome and I did not have to eat again until I got home some five hours later.

Yes, I plan to attend WiR again next year. Yes, I will play more Heroes of Rokugan at Gencon. I can't wait.

MidsouthCon 2018 AAR

The weekend started on Friday. I left work early, using the opportunity to get some work done on the car (a much-needed tune-up). Then I waited for ActionMan's return from school to leave.

Three o'clock and we loaded the car with gaming material we had already prepared and stacked by the door. Then on the road to Memphis, TN! West on I-840, then I-40 and finally I-240 brought us to the Hyatt in Germantown. It was 6pm and both of us were hungry. On a whim, I opted to stop at the Hyatt, get signed up and make use of the con suite (which is well-stocked and conveniently located).

ActionMan and I munched before we mustered ourselves at a table of "Hammer and Anvil", adventure for the Adventure League. I played with the folks of FORGE in Memphis before and I have a high opinion of them: the quality of their GMs and their players. Our GM Daniel did not disappoint and our wacky band of adventurers made it way through. A lot of fun. The game over, we hoped in the car, checked into our hotel and slept.

That's where I discovered things about the Boy...
- He is a blanket hog
- He rolls to the middle of the bed
- He flails

After a rather exhausting night, we had a quick breakfast and went to set up. I must say that I really love having someone to help setting up. ActionMan is really excited and energized about playing some Saggakar, with his anuka fighter, Zombie-Slinger.

I ran the two adventures from Gencon: The Sorrowful Lady for the morning slot. It is a strange fantasy adventure where the forest comes alive yet has the dark touch that Tyrants of Saggakar is known for. We had a really fun group. Including Addison-M who really liked the setting, more later. Every time I run that adventure, I am reminded how crazy it is and the odd madness of it makes it worth so much more... It works. It really works as something different and run, which is one of the things I always wanted to do with my adventures: make them different in their own way. It is close to Jen's House of Mirrors as a fun adventure. Classic in its own right.

Coming back from getting lunch (Panda Express), we stopped at the foam sword fighting in the meadow. Needless to say, ActionMan really loved getting into it. After fifteen or so minutes of fighting with me and with other kids, he came back and provided me with some pointers on how to fight with a sword... "Never go full offense or full defense if you want to win." My son.

For the afternoon, we took part in the multi-table epic adventure Drums of the Dead a really challenging and fun adventure that has a lot of different elements for characters to shine. I have really been enjoying AL epics because of the challenge and the odd elements that happens in them. So never "really" know what will happen and there are twists and turns during the game. Not just combat means other aspects of your character can be used.

Our table was solid, with the four basic: heavy tank, healer, wizard, and me. I played Local Boy Mik, who is a drunken redneck walking around with a jug of moonshine. He is based on a mix of Cletus from The Simpsons with Tickle from Moonshiners, and so many other bad stereotypes of southern people (Deliverance anyone?). He is hilarious in his over-the-topness which makes everyone chuckles constantly, with his "have a shot o'shine" that serves as a somatic component to every one of his spells. Plus, as a Local Boy, he has family everywhere! (He is a Folk Hero). ActionMan played Sir Patrik, the dependable half-orc paladin. He really was one of the MVPs of our table by beating up on stuff that tried to beat us to a pulp.

Flush with victory, we returned to the other room where I ran House Cleaning, an adventure very different from the previous one. At the same time more political and more combat-intensive, it make for a fun evening. With that, Zombie-Slinger has out-leveled the band and would be level 6.

The morning I planned to run a Rhym adventure. Joining ActionMan was a family of three. The sails were hoisted and Black Sails was played. There were many distractions but we had a blast. Black Sails is the perfect Sunday morning adventure: simple in concept, with deceptive undercurrents.

Plus, Pirates. I mean. Yarrr.

 

On the way back home, ActionMan asked me when I would write and run "Tier 2" Saggakar adventures so he can play more Zombie-Slinger. He is getting to enjoy that character quite a lot. He was tired but very much excited about the con and looks forward to the next one he is attending: Conglomeration in Louisville at the end of the month.

As for me, MidSouthCon is easily my favorite con in Tennessee. It has a pool of great players, great GMs, and everything is close by: the con suite, the vendor hall, the art hall, pro-row (to get stuff signed and the like), and even food location (though you need a car for that one). It really sets its own standard and hits all of my buttons for what makes a good con. I strongly recommend it to everyone and to other con organizers. The team is responsive and I got emails the day of every event I was running (I knew of them, but I thought that was cool). Their sign-up board are clearly visible and accessible by being in the hall on folding walls. The con suite is always loaded with food and convenient (you can run to get food between your own round of initiative).

It brings in people from far and wide: I played with folks from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee (Memphis, Chattanooga, and Nashville), and a few guys from Arkansas. This melting pot of people brings to the table many different gaming style that makes games fun and every table its own mini-event. Not unlike Gencon or Origins (though on a MUCH smaller scale).

I mention Addison earlier, we are working on a few things together. I won't provide you with details right now, but there will be some

 

Yes, I plan to attend MidSouthCon again next year and bring more material from the FOEniverse...

I'm coming back next year! Not just me, but ActionMan wants to come back as well!

[Old-Pro Tips] Explain it all vs Say nothing

I have been and played with many GMs. Some good, some bad, some okay, but they all fit into one of these two categories: The Explain-it-All and the Say-Nothing. These types are not static as GMs go from one extreme to the other...

I found it really hard to find a middle ground between these two extremes. Let's examine both before we try to rationalize.

Explain it All

Someone who is Explain-It-All, cannot stop himself from telling you all the wonderful thing an adventure contains. All the intricacies the players missed, read into, skimmed, ignored, or decided against. When the adventure is over and you step away from the game table, you know everything there is about it.

People who do that are often excited and enamored with the adventure that they want to showcase it all, make sure the players understand its awesomeness.

Say Nothing

The Say-Nothing is the GM who at the end of the adventure closes the book, smiles and says "see you next time". He is a bank vault about what you missed or ignored in his work.

What you experienced is all there is.

The Say-Nothing GM can also be very excited about the adventure, but his excitement lies in the surprise of the follow-up. That time when he slaps you with "that NPC you completely forgot about who now seeks revenge..."

Who am I?

Adventure writers and GMs are an odd bunch. Differently odd. Opposite odd in many ways. Adventure writers have to be Explain It All while GMs should be Say Nothing. Why? Because their goals are different.

The writer HAS to put everything in his product so the GM can make correct rulings and understand what is going on and focusing only on the absolute essentials. That is one of the reason that playing with the author is so great: because you learn all the secrets behind the adventure, some of the secret bolts the "random" GM has little way of knowing.

As a GM (of other people's stuff), I lean towards the Say-Nothing type, letting the game be the source of record. However as an author, I want to get people excited about all the possible secret links they did not experience in the adventure.

Which is best?

That is the big question. I do not think there is anything wrong with either of these styles or approach. What type of game I play - and run - impacts my personal taste both as a player and as a GM.

As I play a lot of organized play games, I like knowing what elements our table missed as the GM is rarely in charge of what comes next and important plot elements may be needed to understand what is happening next. So, Explain-it-All. Now I no longer run organized play from others, so this one for me is only on the player side.

In the few home games I play, I prefer the Say-Nothing approach so the GM can pick and choose threads he will expand upon going forward.