Microcon’s Doctor Who RPG Marathon

Yesterday during Micro-con, I ran a Doctor Who marathon, with 4 different “episodes” of Doctor Who taking a group of random time travelers on a voyage through time and space. I was able to run all four parts I had planned, for which I was very happy.

Who were the PCs?

Lady Gwendolyn, an alien posing as an Edwardian Lady, Gilbert-Andre de Bellevue, a Napoleonic infantry officer; Theela, a cave woman; William Belfast, a starship engineer; and Wogo Loogo, an African tribesmen; Doctor Vladimir, a cybernetic doctor from 2030 joined for “Little Blue Box”.

The Fort Next to Nowhere

You are at home, spending a lazy day relaxing. In the background, a grinding, warbling sound breaks the silence. It grows loud enough that it draws you from your idle reverie.

There is a flash of bright light and you find yourself standing at the edge of a wooded area. It is about noon on a nice day.

Before you is a tilled field leading to a crude wood fort. To your left and right people dressed in strange garb, all of them seem as surprised as you to be standing here.

The PCs are transported to Roanoke Island. The PCs encountered Indians and a bizarre gargoyle-like creature. During their investigation, they discovered a strange pump-like device. The device proved to be made of Dalekanium, a metal obviously not normally found on earth. After William tried to hit the gargoyle with the device, the device activated. A bright flash of light emitted, cue credits.

The New Emperor of the Daleks

Four futuristic soldiers huddle together in a trench, their faces dirty and grimy. Their brown uniforms matching the wet dirt and mud that surroundes them. From their inaudible conversation, it is obvious that they are scared, tired, and almost out of ammunition.

Energy beams and explosions echo in the distance. The men crouch as they receive a shower of dirt. The soldiers return fire, shooting at enemies unseen. A fog covers the ravaged lands around the trench.

A blue light appears in the gray haze, then another, then another. Finally the pepper-shaker forms of Daleks come into view. “EXTERMINATE!” They repeat as their beam guns blast away.

The scene cuts and the soldiers are brought into a military tent. “KNEEL! YOU WILL OBEY!” The Daleks push the soldiers to their knees. A human-shaped figure stands, hidden in the shadows.

The PCs appear on a deserted, foggy wasteland where a group of soldiers come running towards them. The PCs follow them to a bunker where they learn that the Daleks are coming. They learn that the war is not going well for the Thaals, and that though they initially thought to have won the war when the Doctor destroyed the Kaled’s dome. The Daleks arrive and the PCs disable one and break the others’ eyestalk before fleeing. Fleeing through the fog, they encounter a group of Napoleonic soldiers who force them to surrender. They are taken to a camp where Daleks and Napoleonic soldiers are together. In a tent, they meet with the Emperor, Napoleon. Napoleon orders them to be “processed”. As the PCs are taken to a machine, they are told that there is a small gap in the machine. Finding their way in, they encounter a young Thaal boy hiding in the machine. The PCs discover that the Thaals have microchips in their necks. Using the device they used earlier to disable the Dalek, they destroy the Emperor’s microchip. The Emperor pulls out a bejeweled sword hilt. The PCs figure out this is a time travel vortex. The Emperor activates it and disappears. A secondary flash makes the PCs disappear.

Snowball

The scene is inside a starship. Red lights flash. An alarm repeats in a monotone tone “Hull breach detected”. Two men run before the camera, run through an airlock and the door closes behind them.

A second later, a pop is heard and the escape pod disappears quickly in the darkness of space. As the alarm continues to repeat mindlessly “Hull breach detected. Hull breach detected. Hull breach detected.”

The PCs appear on a starship. After some research they cannot find any hull breach. They are on IZ-244, a freighter “transporting” a large ball of ice to the moon colony. The ship is effectively a large rocket attached to the ice. The PCs investigate and find that the Captain was spying on his crew. They also see that five of the 8 crew seem to be sleeping in their quarters. Forcing one of the crew quarters open, they find a man dead of unknown cause.

Then, a group of pirates get on the ship. The PCs discover the pirates are not too bright, deferring to their captain on most things. The PCs then surprise the pirates as they are trying to stop the engine and search for a blue box (though they initially think it is the TARDIS, the dimensions are incorrect). In the end, they strike a deal with the pirate Captain Illyana after she discovers the crew died from some unknown radiation. They team up to find the box and the PCs find it first. They wait for the captain to open it and within are a bejeweled cybernetic arm and a wand-like device. The wand is of Gallifreyan origin. The pirates take the arm and leave the wand.

Asking one of the pirate to see if they can fix the time travel vortex, a pirate attempts something and he believes will get them home to 1812.

The Little Blue Box

President Obama stands at the podium ready to deliver a speech. “My fellow Americans, today I have signed a bill that will provide free and comprehensive healthcare to everyone. No longer will we be Democrats and Republicans. No longer will we be divided on fundamental issues. From now on, America will once again lead the way into the future. My fellow Americans, I bring you the future.”

The camera pans out and flanking the president are two tall metallic men. One of them says in a monotone voice “Prepare to be upgraded.”

The PCs appear in Colorado Springs. Looking around they see Cybermen walking up and down Academy boulevard. The Cybermen track down the PCs and Dr Vladimir is nearly disintegrated after a close encounter. The PCs then run to escape and meet with a survivalist. They are told that 75% of the US population has been turned to Cybermen since the President put in place his “Obamacare”. They meet with the anti-government rebels at the Citadel mall. During the meeting, they are told that the Cybermen have lock away a very important prisoner within Cheyenne Mountain. The Cybermen again discover the group and the PCs flee, heading south toward what was NORAD command.

Going inside, the PCs follow the odd wand that mysteriously activates. Finally, the PCs defeat two cybermen guarding a prisoner ward. They rescue a snarky redheaded Scotswoman who tells them they must find the Doctor. Following the inevitable “that’s not what the Doctor looks like” scene, they find the doctor with a bowtie (the 11th Doctor). The Doctor then takes all three of the items they collected, creates a device and summons the TARDIS.

He takes everyone back to their time and thanks them.

JP

VICTORY IS MINE!

I just received word from Meghan McLean from Chaosium telling me that I was one of the winners of last year’s Cthulhu Invictus adventure contest. My adventure, Shadow on the Vesuvius was accepted. I’m really excited about this. It will be included into an upcoming monograph with other winners, to be published in the coming future. This is my second victory with Chaosium.

With new projects coming in for NeoExodus, this year is looking pretty good so far. Thank you to the Big-Man-Up-There.

So this has been an odd week... From the lows of not making the top 32 of RPG Superstar, to a lot of new work from LPJ Design and now to win this contest. Good time!

JP

Not a RPG Superstar

Well I didn't make the top 32 of RPG Superstar. I thought my idea was solid, but I guess the others were cooler. So I'll have to come up with something new. That's cool... I have a few things I'd like to do.

I won't say that I'm happy about it, but the other entries look very solid, there is no shame in getting beaten by a better entry. Only the desire to get up and try, try again!

Here is the link to the contest and all the winners RPG Super Star

JP

To Genghis Pfs Volunteers

To all those who volunteered to DM @ Genghis (in particular). You guys are awesome! I mean really. Yesterday, I was in a state of pre-panic especially regarding Saturday night's game slot. From the 2 GMs (the 2 iron men), There are now 8 GMs and another one stepped up to the iron man plate! We should currently be able to seat everyone with regular tickets! Ain't that awesome!

Iron men: Scott Crosson, Jeff Kokx and myself

Which brings me to my next point: Make sure you pre-register to get the games that you want. I know that PFS real estate will be at a premium, especially Friday Evening through Saturday. This is no joke, I would hate to turn anyone away from PFS.

The weirdest/ coolest thing about this? I believe that my publicly-stated goal of running more tables than LFR may come true!

To Scott, Jeff, Todd, Russ, Kerney, Kenton, Matt, Ken, Josh, Dave, Derek, Phil, Ryan, Ted & Bill (and those I'm still waiting to hear from)... Thanks. Thanks A LOT! You guys ROCK! \m/

JP

Six pointers for a new GM

My buddy Mike (of Mario's Warhammer Campaign fame) recently decided to jump into the fire and try his hand at Game mastering. He asked me for some pointers on become an evil GM. Here are the pointers I sent to him.

0- GM as often as you can.

0A- Read adventures, campaign, encounters, from any source. That will fill your mind with alternate ways of handling players and moving encounters along.

1- Relax.

2- Know what you want to do. (Point A and Point B) The path between these two will vary, don't get married to a given solution.

2A - The players will most likely NOT follow the perfect plan you thought they would follow. Now you know.

2B - Work with them. Talk to them, get them involved. Take as many hooks from them as you can to drive the plot towards Point B.

3- Be fair, not nice, but fair.

4- As long as the rules work the same for everyone, it's all good. Don't over focus on them.

5- Its your game. If the campaign setting/ book/ published supplement says otherwise, the book is wrong.

Finally:

6- Relax.

Here is the ultimate evil DM! Love the "instant replay" idea, it will really take down the PCs by a few notches. I didn't think of that but I may start doing that! Thank you John Madden for the tip! Plus if you need help fighting your monsters, summon BRETT FAVRE! He'll sort everything right. Beat the players, beat the monsters and win!

JP

DND Minis are gone

I‘m sure you know by now, but the D&D minis line has been officially discontinued by WotC.

To me, that won’t change anything. I have not bought a single pack of D&D minis (since 2003), all those I owned came from either prize packs or friends giving me stuff. I paint my own minis something I really enjoy doing. So the plastic pre-painted minis were not for me. I knew many friends who really enjoyed them and used them, and frankly it made the game more attractive… Colorful minis look nicer than a dice, a coin, a jelly bean or a Hello Kitty key chain. Don’t laugh, I saw it.

After many, many rather unsuccessful attempts at bringing miniatures to market for D&D, Ral Partha, Chainmail, and other partnership never seemed to work for them. Whereas other companies, such as Reaper Minis, made some very nice minis, they were not being official D&D miniatures. In 2003 they found a format that worked, and it took off like a cannon. The first collectible sets offered both monsters and PCs. The fact that they were collectible – with hidden content added to their attraction. I remember days when we would hold LG weekends at Valhalla's and they would sell out of any minis they had as people bought them by the dozen.

I didn’t buy them, but liked the fact that others did. GMs now had entire collections of representative miniatures. It kept my hobby going and local hobby store owners fed. Somehow I managed to get a few minis myself, through a series of events. I still own most of the dragons I had. Their dragons were well-sculpted and awesome. (See this post on dragons for more thoughts I have about them). The fact that I did not care for the 4e green dragon doesn’t change the fact that I still own one.

When 4e came out, they announced the end of the D&D minis tournament format. Again, I didn’t really care because I didn’t participate in it. Then they canned the format of minis they had. WHAT A MISTAKE! I thought. They re-formatted the line to offer PC boxes (3PC / box) and monster boxes (8 monster / box). While I am not privy to the exact number, I am pretty sure that the numbers were nowhere what they been a few months before.

Why?

As a player, I could look at the box of minis (because they’re of clear plastic) and buy only the box that has the character that fits me best. I don’t have to buy any monster, and even have 2 spare characters I can either trade or make new characters with. Similar to the Reaper model, but with minis with terrible paint jobs… Why would I buy that, when I can buy more minis from the Heroscape set for about the same amount…

Now that I’ve ranted about this…

If there is one thing that WotC has taught me is not to underestimate them. They are the kings of the gimmick and if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. I fully expect them to come up with some new mini deal/ scheme. Anything they can sell with the brand, they do.

Perhaps they are planning on doing something like Paizo did with their iconic characters: license them to a minis company. Wouldn’t be a bad idea... Perhaps even link further with Heroscape? It would make D&D minis available in Wal-Marts and other such big stores. Give the brand more exposure.

Perhaps come up with a new D&D cartoon deal and sell toys based on the cartoon. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as the cartoon from the 1980s, but you never know. It might definitely be a way to re-brand D&D to another generation. With the popularity of The Clone Wars, Fox’s Animation Domination (The Simpsons and Family Guy), South Park and Adult Swim on Cartoon Network… There might be something there.

I will wait and see. Lucky for me, I have all the minis I need… until I go to my FLGS and buy more…

JP

The Sanguine Covenant 2.0

For the past weeks, I have been working on re-vamping LPJ Design's Sanguine Covenant book for NeoExodus. It was a good book with an interesting take on monotheism in a fantasy setting. Trying to include a world view that encompasses and explains the polytheism in the world. Unlike our world where the mysteries of God are not readily available to all.

Okay, they are and he does, but he does not manifest his power through direct, obviously magical means like we see in Pathfinder / fantasy RPGs. I would be surprised if I could go to my local bishop and ask/pay for a heal to get rid of my asthma and diabetes... Man that would be cool... But he's more mysterious than that, and I like that. GO JESUS!

The original document was written by Owen KC Stephens (whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Neoncon 2011) and Chris McCoy. It was a good document, went into a lot of details and after reading it, I considered myself to be well-versed in what the Covenant and how it operated.

So why update it?

First off, the prestige class, Covenant Daemonslayer that was found within seriously needed some re-vamping. Not because it was bad. Simply because Pathfinder does certain things much, much easier than 3.5 did. I wanted to revamp the class and to make it simple and attractive.

Second, I looked at the feats presented in the book. While good, many feats no longer applied in PFS. So I took it upon myself to review every feat, one at a time. While keeping in mind game balance, I updated some, removed others and wrote new ones.

With most of the number-crunching behind me, I went over the rest of the document with the two following goals. 1- Provide information that could enhance a game and 2- Make this document a complete reference for the Covenant. I did a lot of reformatting and moved things around to give it a more natural flow.

Finally, I have this major pet peeve with these source books. I want adventure ideas. Not full-fleshed out adventures, but ideas, something I can just glance over and gain some inspiration. Like those old GURPS supplements I keep looking at, just for their "adventure seeds". So I added those in.

Satisfied with my work, I reclined on my chair and took a deep breath.

I was happy.

Then I remembered that the Sanguine Covenant had ANOTHER element... There was another prestige class that was not in the original document, but that was out there. The Covenant Purifier. The purifier is the left hand of the church. They are the assassins of the Covenant. So I asked Louis if I should include that class into the new document. A few minutes later, I was reviewing the prestige class to the Sanguine Covenant.

So there you are folks. The sum of a lot of work is mostly done, now its the editing and reviewing that begins. But the bulk of the work is there for us to critique first before it goes out to you!

JP

Doctor Who Marathon Posted

I have just sent the details of the Doctor Who Marathon I plan to run during Microcon III. Here are the names and titles of the episodes

Somewhen in Time Ep 1: The Fort Next to Nowhere

Somewhen in Time Ep 2: The New Emperor of the Daleks

Somewhen in Time Ep 3: Snowball

Somewhen in Time Ep 4: Little Blue Box

The blurb is:

Everything was fine when you heard a grinding noise nearby. A second later you were somewhere else with strange people: a cavewoman, a proper Edwardian lady, a space jock, a tribal warrior and a officer of Napoleon. Finding a way home is just the beginning. Knowledge of the Doctor Who universe is optional. Simple and quick play.

JP

Everything for two bucks!

Over the years, I bought a number of products, some good, some not so good. Earlier this week, I was talking about the cost of RPGs. With Adamant Entertainment pricing all its PDFs for 1.99 (full details and announcement) , I really am of two minds on this topic.

First, I am very happy that for 12$ I can get 6 supplement. That’s the good part. As a consumer, I like the idea very much. But soon, I begin to wonder “why are such products so cheap?” It seems like a desperate attempt to dump low-or-bad quality material out there. I’m not saying Adamant’s stuff is crap (it’s not), but it makes me expect less from what I get… after all I only paid two bucks for it.

As a writer, this annoys me a little. A lot of work goes into writing these supplements, a lot more than it seems. 1.99 seems low to sell certain quantity of work.

Things I am very happy with buying for 2$ are small elements (such as a race or a class) that to plug into a current project or campaign, short adventures, even a series of feats/ abilities. Another category of items include old versions of books and books that are about to be reviewed. That way I know I am getting an older document.

Things I would not be willing to buy for that price include complete, high-quality campaign settings, elaborate campaigns and major sourcebook. The price I would be willing to pay for them varies greatly, but I think that a cap around 10$ gives the product value and gives it a level of assurance. I mean with Paizo’s Pathfinder RPG for 10$... If you price something beyond that, it better rock my world!

All that said, I hope it works for them, but it tints my view of their stuff negatively…

JP

More Thoughts on Fantasy Warfare

I recently red a post by the GM Oracle (http://www.gmoracle.com/?p=619). In his post, he comments how mass combat is unrealistic a fantasy setting. His point is "proven" by an example of a single wizard with a wand of fireball. In many ways, he is right. A single fireball (or 50 in a wand) will decimate a unit of simple commoner.

In a med-fan setting, adventurers rarely tend to stick around one place for very long. After a battle or two, they drift off seeking treasure and - as their name implies - adventure.

Instead of thinking in terms of a human army (with clerics and wizards), first, let's think of an orc horde. The vast majority of its numbers is composed of disorganized individually dangerous creatures.

Why do I disagree?

1- Communications

Communication is key to any battle plan. When running small-scale action, it is easy to use magical means to coordinate. However, when the numbers grow, such cohesion and means of communications become confusing at best. Imagine 10, 20 or more people each talking, or relaying information at the same time.

Communication is not just knowing how engaged troops fare, but also where the reserve are, when and where to commit them, knowing about the enemy's movements. If a general cannot see where his troops are, it is impossible to provide support when and where needed.

Good examples of this includes Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz where he maneuvered his army while his Russian opponent was hampered by the fog, and assumed Napoleon would not risk battle because of it.

2- Limited Magical Means

It is false or simplistic to assume that only one side has access to magical means. Both sides would be likely to have destructive, scrying and dispelling magics. The rules in D&D and Pathfinder make such means of roughly equal level. Requiring a minimum of 5th level for the most common large-scale destructive magics (fireball), thus making it uncommon.

Next, people with limited, valuable resources (such as spell casting) rarely seek to expend those frivolously (like PCs do). Wasting fireballs on a mob of commoners is not something I would generally wish to do.

3- Target Priority

Same as modern artillery firing blindly at an enemy is not ideal. WWI showed us, massive barrage achieve only limited success unless backed up with an infantry assault (read about the creeping barrage tactics and the fall offensive of 1918).

YES, as a wizard, I can just throw my fireballs at whatever moves, leaving me with much less to fight against real tougher opponent (remember that wizard on the other side I mentioned earlier?).

4- Modern Military Tactics

GM Oracle's post mentions that fantasy warfare would be very similar to modern warfare. Good quality modern armies (such as the US) have one thing in common: they are a volunteer, professional military force. This means they are highly-trained, well-equipped and well-disciplined. Very similar to adventurers.

When gathering his military forces, a fantasy lord would call upon a few groups of well-trained warriors (such adventurers, knight-retainers and religious orders), but most of his forces would consist of local militia and commoner with little to no training, equipment and discipline.Thus the "mob" or "big block" formation makes the most sense.

Those elite groups would use tactics that would be more in line with modern warfare, yes, absolutely. But the poor little farm boy who leaves his farm to serve his lord with his club or pitchfork...

5- Intelligence

Knowing the enemy and his resources is crucial, even in fantasy warfare. The presence of high level spell casters in a city is something that is known. The presence of someone who can drop a mountain from the sky rarely goes unnoticed. People talk. Casters scry. Spies listen and observe.

Anyone quickly notices adventurers coming to town and selling for 1,000s of gp's worth of gear and loot. Merchants and people talk. They do so without malice, its just common sense. Since those merchants would have an influx of magic items for sale, they would spread tales designed to attract customers.

This forces an attacking commander to do something about those very dangerous individuals: assassins, distractions, bribery or even plain old magic. Nothing prevents an attacker from using many of those methods. PCs and high-level adventurers form wild cards that must be dealt with.

It also assumes that those around the PCs and other important NPCs haven't fallen prey to the means mentioned above. While it is often true that a PC could take command of the army, morale is likely to drop cohesion may not be the same. Why take out the impossible god-like adventurer when you can take down his few aides.

PCs can rarely be everywhere at once and an attacker would try to take advantage of that. Feints, counter-feints and all kinds of stratagems would still be used. Opponents would know that. Add to that illusion magic that would enhance those stratagems.

6- Castles and fortifications

Castles and fortifications protect little from a flying wizard/dragon, it does protect one from bandit and more "conventional" attackers. Adding machicolations and other defenses would help. At least delay such an attacker.

Elements that would change would include more elaborate underground structures to protect from airborne attackers and those underground structures would need additional defenses to keep enemies away. Do I hear "dungeon"?

Castles also make a great statement to the local populace that you are here to stay and defend against invaders (as they did in England after the Normand Conquest).

Plus... if we're very honest... They are really cool to think, design and research...

What we agree on

I think the biggest point we both agree on is that fantasy warfare cannot be modeled exclusively on medieval warfare, even though it takes a lot from it. Camps and bases would be more spread-out to avoid decimation by fireballs.

Personally, I see med-fan battlefields as blocks of lowly troops in the centers with elite forces and splinter "modern" groups fighting on the wings, seeking to gain an advantage. The result is a hybrid of both methods. Thus the basic elements of medieval warfare such as supplies, communications, logistics, organizations and the stratagems are all there, but use of magic makes such stratagems more complex, and in the end interesting.

In the end, I guess that it is simplistic to merely assume that common medieval tactics should be discarded simply because of the presence of magic. As usual, the answer is more complex.

JP

NeoExodus Adventure First Draft

For the past few posts, I have been telling you about my involvement on a writing project for LPJ Design. Well, finally, my first draft is complete! I worked like a mad man to complete the “manuscript” and now it is done. From here on, it’s editing, cleaning up, strengthening, tightening and making better.

For those who plan on writing and publishing material, the most important and hardest part is completing this first draft. After that you can change, tweak and re-arrange to your heart’s content. Unfortunately too many would-be authors get so focused on minutiae and pre-editing work that they never finish anything. Sit, write and get that first draft completed. Moving text around is easier than coming up with it in the first place.

Now you ask: what have I been working on? An adventure, of course! I hope that it will be the first of many adventures that will be part of the NeoExodus line.

Sneak peeks and details you ask? The current working title is “Origin of Man”. But that may change - it has already changed once since I started working on it last month. It targets a solid group of 4 or 5th level characters using the Pathfinder RPG.

When I started talking with Louis about NeoExodus, I was telling him that NeoExodus is an awesome line. Great, flavorful races; a unique history; many, many great groups and secret societies, the thing it lacks is adventures that showcased them. It’s one thing to come up with a creature. I find that creatures presented to me in the course of an encounter then the reason for the creature’s existence provide meaning. It’s no long just a series of stats and a monster. It’s something for my PC to defeat. A way to be a hero!

As I was writing the adventure, I pointed out to Louis a number of points that concerned me as a writer. Thing I understood as a concept, but that I did not really know how to present to the GM/ players. I guess that’s one of the big differences between a setting writer (Louis) and an adventure writer (me) that we approach certain ideas and concepts differently.

If you didn’t know, Louis and his team are working hard to update the setting from 3.5 to Pathfinder. He posted his release schedule on his blog. A lot of things in there and an exciting time really. I hope he enjoys what I do and gives me more work. I think he already assigned more things for me to do… I just need to know what!

That’s it for me!

JP

Major Updates and News

This blog entry is a major update about what I have been doing these past weeks. So much is going on that my head is spinning. I’ll not give the detail of my job, where I have a lot to do (also). Let me focus on Gaming.

The Holidays
Let me start by wishing all of you a Merry Xmas and my best seasons wishes!

For my Holidays, I plan on spending time with my daughters and hopefully get them involved in a game or two. Don’t tell my wife, but I would sure love to have two beautiful gamer girls tagging along with me. I am lucky enough to have 2 weeks off this year (again). Good times. I’ll need to play a game of 40k at least… Plus I will be running two game days during that time (see later). Should be a lot of fun!

Arcanis
This coming Sunday (the 19th) will be our Not-Quite-Living Arcanis game day. I plan to run a VERY old (read: 3.0) adventure for the party. The adventure, Blood Reign of Nishanpur was written prior to the start of the Living Arcanis campaign. It’s a great story but one that is antiquated for our party (as we have already played a lot of later adventures in Nishanpur).

I am not sure what is happening with the new Arcanis campaign. As far as public events goes, it’s dead – at least here in Denver. I’m not in the know about what is happening so it is very possible that private games are still happening, but from the outside looking in… Doesn’t seem much is happening. What I find most sad is that I doubt I will get the chance to play any at Genghis Con Denver in February as I expect to be extremely busy with Pathfinder Society (More on Genghis Later).

I don’t want to say anything bad as the game itself is still in flux. That’s why I never posted my review of the game system, because it’s not final and reviewing a play-test document… It might be unfair, so I’ll wait for the final product before really saying anything. In short there is one element that drives me ABSOLUTELY nuts about it. But the storyline… well, it’s from PCI, so it’s top-notch!

Pathfinder Society Day: Dec 27th
I have been working with the folks at Enchanted Grounds in Highlands Ranch (Shout-out to Dave & Jeff) to organize two events during the holidays. The first is a Pathfinder Society Day on the 27th (still a few seats left). During the day, we will be running the new Pathfinder Module The Godsmouth Heresy and parts 1 and 2 of the Echoes of the Everwar and during the evening, Dave runs his usual stuff. So potentially 3 slots in one day! Good times to be had by all!

I am taking the "floating" position in this in that I do not assign myself to any table until the day of the event itself. That way I can jump in and help wherever I am needed. That is the position I like to have as it gives me a lot of freedom and I don’t have to worry about incomplete tables or a missing DM. Plus being the holidays and December in Colorado, the weather can come into play.

Still I expect that day to be full of excitement. Good ol’fashion holiday gaming!

Non Organized Play Day: Dec 29th
Back when I started looking at my Xmas Holidays, a thought came to me. There are many games I like to play, such as Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu, GDW’s Space 1889, and more recently Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. After my recent Doctor Who gorge-o-thon (all the 9th through 11th Doctors in one weekend plus a few week nights), I felt inspired. Very much so. It was awesome. Actually ever since, I have been trying to get my son to play the Dalek and walk around going EX TER MI NATE!. But he doesn’t get it. Not yet.

So back to the topic at hand, I thought that it would be fun to have a day where we would play something that would NOT be Organized Play. Where I could pull out my CoC and my Doctor Who and even play something else also. It would be very cool to see something of the sorts. So I offered to coordinate a non-OP day. I am still working on what I want to run. I think I’ll put together a Doctor Who: AiTaS adventure and maybe dust off an old CoC module. Just for good measure.

Hummm… Call of Cthulhu…

Micro con
Shannon is taking over the running of Microcon again this year (thank you Shannon). Good thing, since I don’t think I would’ve had the time to really commit to it. So on Jan 29th, there will be more of the madness that is Microcon. For those who don’t know, Microcon offers 2h adventures. Microcon gives just enough to whet your appetite, and hopefully join a campaign or join an existing group. \

The first year, I ran a Basic Zombie Apocalypse adventure. Last year I have a Cthulhu/Pirates crossover. This year, I decided to offer some Dr Who. My idea is wacky and interesting all at once. I call it The Doctor Who Marathon. Every slot I run a new episode. So I need to come up with more interesting premises. I have two good ones already (I think) AND I have Pre-generated PCs that each have something interesting. I may post them here or on my website before or after the event. Those pre-gens would be the same as those I would run on December 29th’s non-OP Day.

Speaking of the Doctor Who RPG, I have been looking at the game, but am still undecided on whether I should fork over the 60$ for it (likely I won’t, not with so many Pathfinder Goodies coming out). It’s a game I wouldn’t mind snatching at an auction.

Akos
More than a few have been asking me about Akos, and whether I would run some of it at one of the above-mentioned event. Well, I’m not. I am currently waiting on my publisher for news on a number of announcements. I expect great things, but I am waiting right now. I have the setting, the mods, and a basic rulebook ready to out. After the feedback from Neoncon, I literally cannot wait to move forward with this product.

LPJ Design
As many of you know, Louis and I have been talking a lot recently about a number of things. I am working on a writing project with him. That’s another thing I am extremely excited about. It’s something that to me is both very different and very familiar. He and I have a definite synergy and I hope to announce good stuff coming down the pipe. Ever since I started to talk to him, I mean I like his style and his approach to the business. Yes, he is a curmudgeon and somewhat of a sourpuss. But HEY! If you are reading thing blog on even a marginally regular basis, you would know that I too am one of THOSE people.

Someone initially pointed me to his blog as a great source of material. I have to say… Louis puts out a lot of good stuff. Some I doubt or could argue about, mostly having to deal with game balance, but most of it is fun and could easily be added to an existing campaign, more on that in a later post.

Genghis Con
The biggest gaming of the year in the Denver CO area, Genghis Con Denver returns this year. Once more, I will be marshalling the PFS troops and events. We have a sweet program with a lot of good and interesting events to play. As I stated early, I would like to play some Shattered Empires, Doctor Who, Cthulhu, but I doubt that will happen. I will be doing Pathfinder most of the weekend and running the Venture Captain special. (Most slots would be my guess). Oh well, I volunteered for it.

I am very happy that once again Enchanted Grounds will be sponsoring the Pathfinder Society events. That does help a lot. Because of all the other projects I’m working on right now, I will begin to ask GMs only following the Holidays, setup Slot-Zeroes and fill out my schedule. I am looking forward to that event also.

RPG Superstar
This year I WILL take part in Paizo’s annual contest. I thought of a magic item that I think many of my characters would like to get. It’s something that is low-level, simple, small and most of all usable by almost every character. Now I need to actually GO and finish writing it.

Good luck to all participants!

JP

Becoming Venture-Captain

Although a few days old already (okay, I'm delinquent), I have made a guest blog post on Louis Porter's Blog. The article can be found here:

Becoming a Venture Captain for Pathfinder Society by JP Chapleau

Enjoy!

JP

Commissions

Over the past two months, I have been doing a number of commission work for friends.

October Works

This was made for Sarah who gave me the miniature as a challenge.

November Works

This was made for Collin to use as his shadow companion.

This was made for Kenton to use as his sorceress cohort.

Blood Bowl on the PC

It was early in the 90s when I bought a second hand copy of Blood Bowl from Le Valet d’Coeur in Montreal. I paid 5 or 10$ for it, but the box had everything I needed, including additional minis. It’s been more than 15 years and I still love the game. I was very excited when I hear there was a European company that created an on-line version of the game. My major concern was that, like many of Games Workshop’s computer version of their game was that they would be similar to the game, but still very different, much like the previous Blood Bowl game (which I still own).

So I spent some time wondering about whether I should get it. And I finally did.

The reason I wrote this post is because I saw the game for sale at my local Walmart. I felt all giddy just seeing it there. It is a GREAT game. Though I am not familiar with the latest version of the game (but I was proficient enough to catch on), it’s still the Blood Bowl I fell in love. You can easily play against the computer just like you would on a table-top, which was my main concern. The graphics are fine, the game is fast enough. Some teams are very challenging to defend against.

I won’t go over all the features of the game (I haven’t tried the Real-Time Version). But it’s really great. I have been playing my Orkland Rayderz in a number of competitions and my Passing offense is still ranked at the top. I love playing Orks in Blood bowl. You can really build a team the way you like.

I have been thinking about painting up my Blood Bowl minis just because of that game.

If you don’t have it, RUN to get it! Seriously! There are Elves, Goblins, Humans and Dwarves waiting for you to maim them!

WAAAARGH!