Gencon After Action Report Part 1

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Gencon 2021 was going to be a unique experience. Masks all-around, a smaller attendance, an NFL football game next door on Sunday, many regular vendors would not attend, social distancing, all-around questions about what would happen and how it would go. Well, we have the answers to those questions.

The vibe around the con was one I will describe as "not like Gencon" at the same time as "totally Gencon."

Confused?

The lack of massive over-crowded events as I moved about the Indiana Convention Center (ICC), made everything feel different. Not bad. In fact, I compared this year's Gencon to Origins, where I never feel like I'm running around in a panic, have time to talk to people I meet, and don't feel like I'm in a rush to get everything done. It was odd and refreshing all at once. Before drawing any conclusion whether this was good/ bad/ indifferent, let's go over Gencon, touching on the highlights.

Wednesday

The day before Gencon... I was working. My original plan was to start early, finish my day around 1 or 2pm. Pick up Matt. Then pick up Will. Then drive to Indy, getting there around 8pm (because of the +1h time difference). It was a good plan. An easy plan. One that should be easy to implement. This allowed me to avoid the Nashville traffic.

But that's not QUITE what happened.

Turns out, I was added to a group to participate in an interview for a new (and well-needed) resource on the team. The meeting that planned for 14:30. DANGIT.

Well... That's nothing bad... All I had to do was leave Murfreesboro an hour early, join the interview from Will's house (he lives on the north side of Nashville, passed the traffic).

But then I was added to another interview, finishing around 1pm!

The best plans... Why not step out of the interviews, JP? Well I enjoy doing those. They are fun and I like to see if I can read the people well enough. (I like to think I've been pretty good so far).

In short, all went well enough. I realized my old PC was a junker. The interviews went well, I gave my thoughts and am waiting on leadership's final decision. We got stuck in traffic while in Tennessee, but from there, we flew to Indy as we (Will) talked about gaming, work, etc. I used the last 40 miles to talk business. And give my final recommendations to the guys: make sure ppl have fun, a few other notes about the adventure. Answered questions, etc.

Then we were in Indy, dropped Matt, checked in, headed to Dennys, then sleep.

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

FOE Library for Gencon

With time,the FOE catalog grows and grows. This is (part) of what I am taking with me to sell at Gencon. This is the growing number of books I have to carry with me. Soon I will need an SUV to carry this library.

There are 2 Akhamet books, 1 Olympia book, 2 for Saggakar and 1 for Rhym. As I am not pushing much for TOS and Rhym my numbers are smaller. 

And a small overflow of Olympia books...

And with everything gathered for the con... I have more and more stuff to bring all the time. And that is after dropping a lot stuff: extra books, extra banners, extra cardstock, and even many of the GM battle maps!

So there you have it... all I will have to load into my Elantra. Oh and did I mention I was also loading two GMs and their stuff in there???

Oh MY!!!

FOE Gencon Goodies!

This year I gave out special goodies to FOE participants at Gencon! This means hand painted miniatures!

The GMs (Randy, Thor, and Will) each got two. And the table captains for each of the three specials will get one. These minis will be given at (near) random... (Okay I forgot on Friday night but gave them after Sunday's )

Olympia featured on Splinterverse

Splinterverse, a YouTube that goes over and gives overviews and first impressions of products from DriveThruRPG and DM's Guild (among other things). He gave a good overview that really captures many of my ideas when I wrote Olympia.

Check out the feature: Splinterverse on Olympia.

[Released] Olympia Campaign Setting, part 3

So what is unique about it?

I took the races that first appeared in Gostor: Amazons, Olympians (now renamed "Demigods", and split into Demigods and Favored who earned the attention of a deity), Medusans, Nymphs and Titanborn. I edited them to make them more balanced. I took the most standard of each type and placed it in the book. For example, only the maliad nymph appears in the book.

Next, I decided to spend time on clerics. Since I opted out of using many undead, giving clerics turn undead would give a class's main ability becoming useless. So I gave everyone of the Twelve, a domain of their own. These domains heavily change how a priest from Aphrodite plays versus a priest of Athena or Zeus.

There are new feats, backgrounds, spells, and a few pieces of gear.

One of the most interesting element created are for the greaves: legs, foot and arm protection. When you wear them by themselves, there is no bonus. If you wear them with a light amor, you gain a +1 to AC but your armor becomes medium armor. Heavy greaves do the same but bumps your armor to heavy.

Why should I care? Because this creates added variety in look and abilities.

The creatures in the book cover a variety of types: beasts, giants, monstrosities some legendary, other mythic monsters with from a variety of levels. I wanted to make this a good primer but not a full list monster book.

One controversial entry - actually twelve - one for each of the main Twelve gods. Yes, I provided stats for the gods!

There may be times when you get to fight them. However, defeating them banishes them to Olympus where they are ridiculed by the others gods. I debated about giving them a "sliding stat block" where they would have a CR 4, 8, 12, and 20 version so the gods "level" with the PCs. They are gods.

As the PCs grow in power, they will face different deities. I did put Eris, goddess of Discord, in there as a Challenge Rating 6 adversary, giving you a variety of level challenges.

Do what you want, make it fun, make it epic, create a new legend! That's why I wanted to do when I started this.

Part 1 | Part 2

You can get your copy of the book today directly from DriveThruRPG: Olympia Campaign Setting.

[Released] Olympia Campaign Setting, part 2

Design Choices

One thing I learned with LPJ is that you never do the same thing twice. Always give it a different

Regardless, I began to put down more and more ideas. As I added elements, writing one

Here are some of the unique design choices I set up for myself.
- The gods have no alignment. They act as they wish without regard for morality. They act based on their personalities.
- Few undead. After Akhamet, which is a land filled with undead, there would be few of them here. Sure, basic ones like skeletons and zombies are fair game.
- No Blood War. The gods are above everything and they command both celestials and fiends.
- The gods are present but not always there. The gods have to be involved in adventure, but I don't want them to appear for every little things
- Nothing is permanent. Again, as a reaction to Akhamet where things change very little over time. Here things have a short life span. People, kingdoms, gods, etc, all change over time.
- Mortals have agency. Mortal are the puppets of the gods, but they control their actions and destinies.
- Not a history lesson. This is an RPG. With magic. History is the inspiration, and we move on from there into something awesome.

So a lot of history melding together. Maybe reading those books of Greek history pay off.

Part 1 | Part 3

You can get your copy of the book today directly from DriveThruRPG: Olympia Campaign Setting.

[Released] Olympia Campaign Setting, part 1

How long has it been? How long since I first began talking about writing a book for D&D based on Greek Mythology? I will say 2018, when I started showing Akhamet to the people at Conglomeration in Louisville KY (sigh I'll miss that con).

At the time, I began writing some basic ideas. I'll be honest and say that I dropped the ideas I had. Why? They sucked! They were little more than a rehashing of historical events without anything magical. It bored me. I looked at the document every few months, only to be reminded how much I hated it.

Inspiration came to me while watching a random TV show, I think it was Dr Pimple Popper. Yeah. Nasty.

So I came up with the idea of a series of power wells that would serve as focus power points. I leave up to you how I made that connection...

Now I had something unique: power nexus. So from here, I needed to come up with adversaries. Some would seek to destroy the nexuses, some would seek to corrupt or control them. I spoke with friends about this, and the concepts refined into something more and more interesting.

Over the course of 2020, I returned to this book. While working on Ravenloft material (Real Housewives of Ravenloft and Curse of Strahd II) and the Akhamet Player's Guide. Yes I know, maybe I should focus, but I follow the flow of inspiration...

Part 2 | Part 3

You can get your copy of the book today directly from DriveThruRPG: Olympia Campaign Setting.

FOE and Organized Play Part 2

Continued from Part 1 where I stated the many reason why it does not really makes sense for FOE to support and run an Organized Play (OP).

Well as you guessed, the answer to "Should FOE give up on OP?" My answer is Yes.

And No.

...

Okay, FOE will not run an OP like Wizards or Paizo. I don't have the manpower for that (and I want to focus on other things) or frankly the interest. I wrote for and ran OP campaigns for a decade and a half (2003-18). I say 2018 because from the time I published Akhamet, I already pulled back on the OP elements to focus on adventures and playing. I want to provide a fun product to showcase my settings, and the base game, though I'm pretty sure my settings are not what converted many people to a game (looking at you, Chad-N). Still I believe my products provide a fun experience and something different than "basic D&D."

So why keep up the OP?

I like OP campaigns. I played in some good and some weak ones. In some big and some small ones. In some for well-known and some obscure ones. I like the idea of building my own story and playing with a variety of people, not "just" my regular group.

So as I thought about this and discussed with people, I received different feedback and decided that rather than an endlessly ongoing campaign, I would try to create a mini-campaign where players would get rewarded for playing more FOE games at the con. Driving traffic to my tables yes, but also creating a demand for my games and a (more) unique experiece.

I searched and thought what I could do, and think I came up with a clever idea: a "reward" sheet that is valid for the con only. Take Gencon, FOE offers a total of 6 unique adventures, 2 Akhamet and 4 Olympia. I came up with the following restrictions.
- Must be simple
- Must not be paperwork heavy
- The rewards must be adventure and setting agnostics
- The rewards must be worth it at whatever levels (so I don't have to "just" write intro material)
- Very simple and intuitive

I played with the idea and settled on the following: A promo "card" (in a postcard format) that would double as a reward card for the campaign. So I came up with this basic design. I may very well change or tweak things before the con but this would replace a full-on OP campaign. A player would get the card, and regardless which character, level, setting (Akhamet, Olympia, Rhym, or Saggakar) he plays in, he applies the rewards to his character.

This means I can offer games of any level, from 1 to 20 with limited disturbance to the game. The biggest changes are the addition of 5 HP or potions.

What do you think? Comments? Anything I should add? Remove?

(There are a few extra surprises I added already )

FOE and Organized Play Part 1

It's been a while since I posted here about gaming. I have been in a cave writing, tweaking, writing, editing, tweaking, writing, editing, tweaking, writing, editing, tweaking, writing, editing, tweaking, writing, editing, tweaking, writing, and editing the upcoming Olympia.

One of the many things I have been thinking about was to find a way to encourage players from playing more FOE games. Now clearly one great solution is to run an organized play(OP).

For those who do not know what OP is, it is a way to play the game where a company offers adventures and common creation guidelines. Then a player gets to play a character across many events, with different GMs, different players, and in different venues. For those who don't know, go look at Wizard's Adventure League or Paizo's Pathfinder Society.

For a while, I ran Legacies as a smaller version of them and had a great time doing it but with time, the amount of energy I had to put into it versus the return was not worth it. I can't run enough to make this really worth it. Unlike other publishers, I am not happy with just the sales (I am not unhappy with just the sales either, to be honest).

So should I abandon the idea?

Well yes.

OP campaigns require many volunteers: GMs, writers, and event organizers to name but a few. I am lucky enough to have some great friends who help out and both do and have done awesome. I always love hearing them make my stuff sound and feel amazing.

I am busy. I have a wife and three children: two teens and a 12 year old, a day job, and only one life to live. While gaming is a HUGE part of my life, I also have many other interests that take what little time I have available. When I have leisure time, I would prefer to play games than to spend working at making sure the campaign has what it needs. It is a surprising amount of work.

So should I give up on OP?

Continued tomorrow on Part 2

[Kinda Book Report] Xmen and Micronauts 1-4

Last year, while doing my Xmas shopping, I went to my local second hand comic store and found the full series of Xmen and Micronauts. A 1983 4-issue limited series and I got all 4 in one go.

For those who do not know: the Micronauts are superheroes who live in the microverse (remember that weird location in the Marvel Movies when Antman travelsback in time?) Yeah... Like that. That's fine. There is a full universe - the Microverse - to explore. The MCs know about the bigger world and the visited it a few times.

The MC come out as very flat and cardboard. They get drowned in the amount of characters present and none of them do much to resolve what is going on. Now, the main MC villain does get a lot more focus but in the end, he too is little more than the standard villain who is ruthless and wants to take over the world. Blah.

Of the X-men, Ariel (later Shadowcat) gets more focus because of a mind-transferal. The others... are also drowned in the cast, giving them little to do. How many people are there? Oh yes, I forgot there was the New Mutants too. So we end up with three groups of superheroes in a limited series.

Truth be told, there is little to be told about this. It is very much a filler series using the X-Men to plug and introduce the Micronauts. And in that, it fails. Everyone comes out flat and boring and the best past of it is the nostalgia of it.

So a massive crowd of characters with no one that stands out. A run-of-the-mill story with a single surprise who I'll admit was interesting but drowned in the cast and uninspiring dialogue.

I can give it a 2/5. Skip this if you can. You will learn nothing from this series, nothing important happens. You discover nothing about this massive cast of 15 characters who all fight for space on the page. Sad really.

Curse of Strahd II reached Silver Best-Seller

I am happy to report that two FOE products reached Silver Best-Seller level!

Curse of Strahd II: Griffon Hill Manor is a loose sequel to the Curse of Strahd. It is a retelling and reimagining of the original Ravenloft 2. Simplifying many elements of the original to provide a way for a GM to be able to actually focus on what is going on.

To pull off successfully will challenge most GMs but the rewards are great when the PCs understand what is REALLY happening, that this is not "just" another vampire story.

This book came together very quickly but then I spent months just touching, tweaking, and rewriting. The ending itself went through at least eight rewrites. This one is the most exciting one, putting the PCs in the center of things. Unlike the original where you were just along for the ride without anything to do, or possibility of acting upon what they want to do.

It is currently available on DM's Guild

[Kinda Book Review] Superman Vol. 2: Trials of the super son

Continuing the series from "Rebirth" I started with Volume 1. This one, I happened upon during a later trip to the FLCS.

So this title continues the story of Lois, Clark, and Jonathan as they live in the small town of Hamilton. Here, Lois takes a job at the local newspaper. However, the big story here is the Robin (Damian Wayne) vs Superboy as the two clash with each other, while their fathers watch them resolve their differences.

Overall, this is a pretty laid back comic, with some action scenes and good writing. The characters are good and the interaction between them is interesting. There is one scene where the "Smiths" go to the carnival. Clark promises Lois he won't do any Superman stuff, but he catches a group of thieves and arrests them. The funny part is when they all go on the roller coaster, with the two attendants talking about how Superman just came and stopped the thieves, but do so in a gradual way. Their faces are awesome. Clark gets smaller and smaller in his pants while Lois looks more and more like a manga character who gets more and more annoyed. Jon in the middle keeps going "Up," "Up," "Up," as the coaster moves up. And as the the coaster begins to go down, Clark and Jon as really into it but Lois screams at Clark. Fun stuff any married man will understand.

Not much to write home about otherwise.

At the end, we meet a Superman/ Frankenstein's monster mish mash that looked pretty interesting. However, we do not learn much about his origins here.

I will rate this a 3/5. Not as exciting as others but nothing overly bad either. Very middle of the road.

[Kinda Book Review] Alan Furst: A Hero of France

Taking a step away from comics, I picked this book up I received a while ago. So historical fiction/ semi-bio picks. Ever since my first visit to Paris in 1988, I have been interested in more.

But on to the book!

The story presents us "Matthieu" who leads a Resistance cell. He is athletic, intelligent, calm, prepared, and a great lover. In short, he has no flaws. Most of the characters in this story other than two of his allies are that type of character: cardboard, predictable, and without flaw. No, "caring about friends" is NOT a flaw.

Even the German captain who comes from Hamburg to track him down has all the right thing: he's not a nazi, patriot, good family man, not cruel, efficient, and competent. However, there is no confrontation between him and Matthieu.

I really wanted to like this, but the characters are fake and too good to be relatable.

So I will settle for a 2/5. This book is well researched and presents a number of interesting tidbits of information but in the end, only helps our hero be better.

[Kinda Book Review] Justice League Vol. 7

Continuing the series from "Rebirth" I started with Volume 5 and Volume 6.

The previous volume left us a number of threads: the fan and Batman leaving, being the big two.

So for the Fan, the plot ends up with the League capturing him. Then out of the blue, Deathstroke appears and shoots him in the head, robbing the League of the choice about what to do about someone who knows the secrets of the entire League: secret identities, weaknesses, etc. Now getting to this is not super-surprise but I would have liked to see the League come to a decision about him. Instead, they are arguing about where to go. The issues are plentiful and this is an easy cop-out.

Everything in this book feels like an easy cop-out. There are difficult choice to be made, but the League makes none of them. They skirt the issue, talk it out, but never come up with any plan to fix anything. Now to be fair, they recognize that many of the problems are not easy, but would've liked to see them try and settle things. Wonder Woman goes and plays with the children but the other do very little. I do not expect to fix societal problems, but at least provide some ways they can work. If you worry about displaced people, move them. YOU HAVE TWO GREEN LANTERNS! At least provide short-term relief. Dig a ditch. Something. No, they don't they just keep the two warring factions apart.

Still, unlike the dumb presentation of those topics in (puke) Deathstroke at least here, the League presents both sides of the problem and recognizes these issues as complex without a single easy to identify cause. I'll give them props for that.

So in the end, despite its many failings, I'll give it a weak 3/5. Not great, just "okay"

[Kinda Book Review] Justice League Vol. 6

Continuing the series from "Rebirth" I started with Volume 5, I was curious to see what would come after the "Justice League Kids" plot.

In short, not much.

The title of the trade stems from an operation that goes south and a nun is killed with Wonder Woman's sword. Okay, strong start. But that story fizzles out from there and just become "background" as they deal with other, mundane, and eventually less interesting plots. There is no big trials, with anything to mention.

The League discovers that someone they call "The Fan" who is a big supporter of the League, in a stalker-sort of way got a lot of information from the Watchtower and knows a lot about the league. This plot will continue into the next volume. Also, Batman gives up the leadership of the League to Cyborg.

I like the are but this is a not overly exciting book and really sets up what comes next more than anything happening here. It was "okay" so I will give it a weak 3/5. The art is great and there is a clear feeling of something happening.