BARKING ALIEN: Sunday Program

Showing posts with label Sunday Program. Show all posts

Sunday, December 14, 2025

31 Questions For Barking Alien - Phase II - Question 8

For Question #8 the deep seated Kelvin Green hits me with an inquery that can only be answered by telling a very personal story so grab a tissue, hold a loved one, and get ready for this Hallmark Holiday Special.

Unless you're a Vulcan or an Android. Then by all means carry on as usual.

Was there a time when you stopped playing rpgs or "fell out of love" with them? What brought you back?

2004

In 1995, on my third day of work at an Anime and Asian Pop Culture Entertainment store in New York, my boss took me aside to tell me that the young lady who'd just walked in was one of their best customers so far (they'd only been open about three months). Thing was, she REALLY knew her stuff and sometimes she'd ask for things and about things that...frankly they had no idea what she was talking about. He asked me to help her out as I was the biggest Anime fan on staff (yes, of an Anime store). Her name was (and remains) Selina.

I talked to her and tried to help her find what she was looking for. We hit it off right away. She was smart, funny, indeed very knowledgable, and while I wouldn't say this to anyone else at the time, downright adorable. Over the next year she came in regularly and we spoke often, becoming as much friends as customer and retailer. We often joked about meeting outside the store to watch Anime together and compare notes.

Then something changed. One day I was out sick, rare for me, and she asked my co-workers if she could get my home number 'cause she was worried about me. I was so greatful and talking to her actually made me feel better (or at least less depressed and anxious, which used to happen whenever I got sick). Not too long after, on a very hot day, she came into the store with a Ramune (Japanese Soda) and had one for me as well. My co-workers and boss teased her for not 'bringing enough for the whole class'. I remember she blushed, honestly embarrased, and I knew why she'd brought one for me specifically. It was clear we both really liked each other.

About a month later we got together for that Anime watch and it turned into a first date. That turned into 'going steady' and a year after that we were living together. We stayed together for about 10 1/2-11 years, 4 of which we spent married.

At some point pretty early on I convinced her to try RPGs. She already read a lot of Fantasy novels, liked Sci-Fi and Fantasy movies, read X-Men, watched Anime and read Manga. She even wrote Fan Fiction and original short stories. She had all the interests and talents of a great gamer but hadn't gamed. We fixed that, first with classic Traveller, Mage, and Ars Magica, and then eventually AD&D 1E. Yep. I adored her so much I was willing to run D&D. That's love brother.

Our first trip together was GenCon, the one where 3rd Edition made its debut. He attended a few after that between other trips. She had a good job, made much more than me, and things were good for a long while. Until they weren't.

I have no interest or desire to regale you with what went wrong but by 2007 or so we were divorced and didn't talk for a while. It was a good two years or so. Maybe close to three. During those three years, I didn't play any RPGs. I couldn't. Gaming had become something we did together; it was a shared passion. Without her I just couldn't find it in myself to enjoy the hobby and I wasn't feeling especially creative. My muse was gone. Thinking of gaming made me think of her and that just made me sad so...yeah.

After the three-year gap I started feeling like not gaming was doing more to put me in a sour state of mind than gaming without Selina, so I went to my FLGS to see if anyone I knew might be running or playing anything. That was tough too. For 10 years I had shopped at that store with her. The owners have known me since I was 14 and I know their family. Selina became part of that relationship so having to go in and explain why she wasn't with me...ugh.

Anyway, I sat on the sidelines of a game or two and then joined in on one or two and got to know some old friends all over again, plus meet some new ones. Eventually I offered to run Mutants and Masterminds and before I knew it I had a campaign with 9 players showing up on average. Never less than 7 and we maxed out at 11 for one or two sessions. It was here I met my dearly departed friend Dave Cotton and a few of the other guys who would become regulars at my tables for the next decade or so.

Eventually I got a call from Selina, who had opened up a Tutoring Center in Brooklyn specializing in helping ESL kids (English as a Second Language). Most, practically all, were Chinese and the Center was near Brooklyn's Chinatown. She asked me to help teach the kids on weekends using...Tabletop RPGs. She had this idea and when she explained it to me I immediately started spitballing on how we could pull it off. She loved the idea and I ended up working for her for a few years. Unfortunately the Pandemic hit and it was no longer viable to operate the way we had been. Selina moved to an online model but it was difficult for me as working at the Center gave me less time to build my own business. Reluctantly we parted ways once again but stayed in touch.

It's been a while since we've spoken, a few months or so I think, but we're still friends. She is unlike anyone I have ever met, strengths and flaws included, and I feel (hope) we'll always be friends in some capacity. She was my first true love and while I've met some truly wonderful women since, I will likely always see Selina as the one person in the world whose weirdness best matches my own . Maybe there is another. Time will tell.

In the meantime, I am still gaming and I really hope she gets to as well. She was and probably still is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, TRPG players I have ever known and just a truly good person.

Note: I wanted to put a picture of her while she was 'in the act' of gaming here but I couldn't find one where she actually appears to be playing. Most of the pics I have are just her laughing hysterically at the gaming table because, well, my Jersey Group. That pretty much explains everything.

You can see her character Ceren-Dee Windrake here.

Onward...

Barking Alien

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Twice As Thorough Thursdays : THE SECRET LIVES OF GINGERBREAD MEN

So, funny story...

I put this post together last Thursday, September 17th. It was meant to be a companion to the previous post, resulting in two Thorough Thursday entries on a single Thursday. Wow!

Then...I forgot to hit publish. I thought I did, but I guess I didn't.

So embarrassed.

As promised, here is your second helping of Thorough Thursdays for today, which I hope will fill you up until my next post.

It's a taste of something strange, and a bit different, designed to add a little spice to your holiday gaming. Normally I would've waited until December to serve this up, but I intend to focus on Science Fiction, and Space Adventure gaming in the last month of the year. Since this dish has a comedy flavor, I figured why not give it to you now while the thought of it is still piping hot in my mind.

Had enough of the food puns yet?

Several lines ago actually.

Ha! Well then, let's dig in...

Our next guest can be seen in a few places all year round, but is really a traditional holiday favorite. Here today with a somewhat non-traditional approach to fun, ladies and gentlemen, and other things please welcome...

The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men

Prior to this post, I have only tagged The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men, the 2004 independent Role Playing Game designed by Annie Rush, and published by Itesser Ink and Wicked Dead Brewing Company, one time before.

That's just wrong.

Not only is it wrong because it's a game I am quite fond of, but also because its become something of a holiday tradition for me at the tutoring center where I teach on Sundays.

Before I get into that however, a little background on the game, its origins, and because they are so damn delicious and fun, Gingerbread Men.

I would like to point out that although I will more often than not refer to them as Gingerbread Men, I am a strong advocate of Gingerbread Women, trans-Gingerbread People, and any other incarnation of sexuality, and/or gender in Gingerbread form.

The Gingerbread Man is believed to date back to 15th century, although they became popular in the 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England is noted as having used Gingerbread figures as decorations at a party. These early Gingerbread people resembled some of her more noteworthy guests, and were later given to those people as gifts.

The existence of this baking phenomenon inspired the fairy tale which is itself known as The Gingerbread Man, or alternatively The Gingerbread Boy, or Gingerbread Runner. It is also possible that this story was simply a modern (for the time) take on a classic folklore theme of talking, runaway food.

There are a number of variations of the story, though the most well known comes from the first time The Gingerbread Man folk tale was put into print. In 1875 it appeared in St. Nicholas Magazine, a popular American children's magazine of the late 19th century. The story has the newly baked bugger run from the oven of a childless old couple, all the while taunting them with its now well known refrain:

"Run, run as fast as you can!

You can't catch me. I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

Originally the words were different, but over time, and numerous reprints and retellings, it has become the famous lines above.

Now, let's look at the game shall we? On the surface, it is a relatively simple D6 dice pool system, easy to learn, and teach to others. It's the premise is what makes it special, as well as the unique, and dare I say charming nature of character creation. Add in some house rules by yours truly, and you've got a game that's fun for the whole family. And then some.

The key element that makes this game special is that, if played by the book (I'll explain what I mean a bit later), characters are generated by making Gingerbread cookies. I crap you not. You bake Gingerbread Men, and Women, and you decorate them in order to create your characters.

The various decorations you put on your cookie determine it's unique abilities, and gimmicks. Gumdrops, M&Ms, Icing, and all other manner of tasty, and colorful add-ons can give your Gingerbread Person powers ranging from Invisibility, to Floating on Water, to Frosting Melting Heat. Many sweets provide weaponry, or equipment, such as the various colors of M&Ms, black licorice for a ladder (or rope in my house rules), or flying around on pretzel rod broomsticks.

I established a different, and greatly expanded, set of guidelines as to what items did what. My original players, a group of students from my Sunday classes at the tutoring center in Brooklyn, demanded a larger, and somewhat more flexible array of items, and confections. For example, in my game the effects of M&Ms are categorized not by their color, but by the type of M&M (Plain/Milk Chocolate, Peanut, Almond, Mint, etc.). Icing and other such decorations provide direct bonuses to defense (like armor), speed, etc.

Combat consists of breaking, mostly in the form of limbs, and your head. While the head is kind of essential (and always the last part to break), limbs can be repaired, and 'healed' to some degree. I expanded on this a bit as well for my game, enabling the sessions to last a bit longer if needed. It's also greatly expanded our collective mythos. Icing, and eggs are a good bandage, but not a permanent fix. Finding batter and re-baking the injured area is the key, but it takes time.

Oh the Humanity!

One of the biggest differences between the games I've run with this RPG so far, and the game as written, is that I haven't used actual Gingerbread Men, as is suggested, and recommended in the rulebook. In all honesty, I would love to have done it that way, even preferred it to be sure! Unfortunately I didn't, and couldn't for very practical reasons.

As I've stated, I've mostly run the game with students at the tutoring center where I work part-time. Without access to a kitchen, kids with possible allergies (although I don't think we actually have any of those), and all that sort of thing, an alternative form of character creation was developed.

Using either paper, or the dry erase board at the tutoring center, we drew out the shape of Gingerbread Men, and Women, colored them in, and then drew on, glued, or otherwise attached the decorations. In our home version of the game, Chocolate Chip Cookies (the crunchy kind) are used as Shields, and Candy Canes serve as a hooked staff, useful as a tool for climbing, or pulling, as well as acting as a weapon when needed. If drawing your Gingerbread People on paper, consider attaching the items with removable double-sided tape, or simple weak tape folded over on itself. This makes the items easily removable if you should lose your Shield, or need to give your Staff to an ally.

Lastly (as I could really go on, and on with another post this size on cool ideas for this game), there is the matter of the 'Secrets'.

Yes, every Gingerbread Person has a secret, and they give the game a bit more depth, even if the secrets are often downright ridiculous. They could be anything.

You're secretly in love with the Angel at the top of the Christmas Tree. You must tell her before she, and the tree are taken down this year.

You panicked last time the Burnt Sugar Cookies attacked. We lost a lot of good Gingers that day. You seek to avenge them, but the Burnt Sugar Cookies scare the bejeebers out of you.

After the Holiday, one cookie is covered in a glaze, and can no longer be eaten. It has the honor of adorning the tree as a decoration the following year. You must be that cookie! No matter what...

So this is just a taste (HA!) of the awesome that is The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men. I have a session of it planned for this coming December, and a second one with another group possible around the same time. If anyone is interested (or if it's so much fun I can't help myself) I'll post play reports afterward.

Check it out for yourself, and if you have kids, consider letting them in on the action.

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Barking Alien

Monday, August 31, 2015

RPGaDay Challenge 2015 - Day 31

The big finish.

Easy.

About three years ago (or was it four...could it have been four? Wow), my ex-wife came up with a really unusual idea for the tutoring center she was running.

On weekends, after the conclusion of regular classes, the students would work on their creative writing, problem solving, and language skills by playing a Role-Playing Game. Basically, incorporating RPGs into a fun after class event in which the kids didn't know they were still learning, but they were.

To make this work, she needed someone with, as Liam Neeson once said, 'a particular set of skills'. They needed to be good with children, not afraid, or embarrassed to stand up in front of a large group of them, understand RPGs, write well, and who she knew well, and could trust (it was still a business after all).

She called me, and I accepted.

That was a while ago now, and although we no longer do the RPG program there, I am still a regular member of the Sunday teaching staff, occasionally coming in a few Saturdays as well. During the Summer months, I run my own Sunday creative writing class all by my lonesome.

What started as a pay-to-GM-for-kids gig, has turned in a teaching/tutoring job. Better yet, I get to work with, and trade ideas with one of the most intelligent, kind, talented, and truly special people I have ever known, my ex-wife.

I've also gotten to know some truly fantastic kids, watched them grow up, and seen them achieve so much. One young man went from barely speaking English to getting into a high school program for robotics in just three years!

Just last weekend, I helped teach two of my students to swim. One needs to past a swimming test to get into Brooklyn Tech High School, the other is overcoming a genuine fear of the water.

Role-Playing Games gave me this opportunity, and I can't thank them enough. The real thanks goes to my ex-wife though, who also loves RPGs, loves her kids, and being a teacher, and who had faith in me that I could make this work.

Man, what a good feeling to end the challenge on.

See you soon everybody!

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Barking Alien

Monday, September 29, 2014

The Golden Age of Pulp...Is About 10

With a new school year comes a new session of the Sunday program at the tutoring center where I teach. This semester, so far, Sundays are pretty light, with only four students signed up and attending regularly.

Saturdays are much busier, and I have been covering for a teacher who is on vacation. So, yeah, worked seven days a week for two weeks, plus working this week at the regular job. Saturday, Oct. 4th will be my first day off since Sept. 13th.

Be that as it may, I love it and the kids are awesome.

As part of what I do at the center, I run an RPG session each week, connected to a writing lesson and/or creative writing assignment. With both the game and the lessons, we try to encourage the students to think and be creative, as well as practice their writing skills.

Many of these kids are in ESL classes (English as a Second Language), and either have difficulty with English because they moved to the USA fairly recently, or because English isn't regularly spoken by their family at home.

For this 'semester', I started with two girls, each in 4th grade, and a boy in 2nd. Another girl has now joined them, also in 4th grade.

I initially had this idea I thought was amazing, combining a modified version of the game Psi-Run with creative writing, learning how to search for clues and information in text, and other elements that would have been both really helpful to the students, and incredibly fun. Unfortunately, with so few kids, the basic premise of project (each student learning about his or her character from questions created/asked by the other students) wasn't going to live up to its full potential. I decided to shelve the concept for now, and do something else.

I asked the original three students what they wanted to play. One girl said Fantasy, the boy said Superheroes, and the other girl didn't care as long as it had fighting and action.

I asked them when it should take place. The answer was discussed between them and they voted for the present, modern day. I asked where it should take place. I got 'the Ocean', 'the Sky', a 'Far Away Land'.

Pouring all these ingredients into my mental blender, I came up with an oddly Pulp Era-like supers game. Basically, HEROES meets Indiana Jones, or something akin to the game I mentioned not long ago called Double Cross. The only difference was the feel was much more 'Dime Store Novel' then I intended once we started playing.

What we ended up with is called, 'The Crime-Fighters' (named by one of the girls and winning the unanimous vote). The Crime-Fighters (we learn in Episode #3) are a team of international secret agents fighting against evil, and using either special skills, high tech gadgets or superhuman abilities.

Our first session found the team fighting a bunch of pirates who had stolen a priceless treasure, recently excavated from the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. The treasure was lost hundreds of years ago when a storm sank the boat carrying it.

Defeating the criminals, they loaded the treasure onto the team jet (a small craft owned by one of the PCs), and headed back to Washington, D.C. to hand the treasure over to a museum. Low and behold, it would not be so easy, as the pirates were working for a mysterious fellow known only as 'The Boss Man', who immediately gave chase in his own plane (a massive, modified B-52 Bomber looking flying fortress). The pirate ship was originally supposed to meet the plane anyway to transfer the stolen treasure.

The heroes had a head start but the enemy plane used 'turbo boost' style rockets to catch up. Eventually, one of the players (the boy), handed the controls of his plane over to a teammate so he could fly over to the enemy plane with his special suit...

Oh yeah, The Crime-Fighters are:

'Lucky', a girl with the power to give herself and others Good Luck or Bad Luck. It is sometimes hard to believe this young lady is only in the 4th grade. She came up with the idea that if she raises her right hand (or touches someone with it) it's Good Luck but her left hand is Bad Luck. At one point, she hands the controls of the plane to the 'Fighting Girl' who said she didn't know how to pilot the craft. Without missing a beat or giving any other signal, the player put her right hand on her friend's shoulder and said, "Well, Good Luck flying the plane." Brilliant.

'Fighting Girl' is a modern day Hua Mulan, apparently replacing her aging father who was a member of the Crime-Fighters but retired. She has no supernatural or superhuman powers but is an extremely skilled fighter. She is a master of numerous martial arts techniques, an expert archer, and an incredible swordswoman (Swords are her main weapon). She also carries various grenades (flash, smoke, etc.), and a grapnel gun (made for her by the male member of the group).

Referred to as 'The Pilot' and 'The Flying Hero', the male member of the team is an inventor with a host of nifty gadgets. Largely inspired by the Falcon from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Flying Hero wears a winged suit that lets him fly and turn invisible (though he can still be heard, smelled, etc.). He wears goggles that enable him to see himself when he's invisible (Very clever on this kids part), see in the dark (as night vision goggles), and shoot lasers from the sides (the beams are not very powerful but he can weld things, burn you, cut ropes, etc.).

Coolest thing? He gave a spare pair of his googles (sans lasers) to each of his fellow Crime-Fighters so they too can see him when he's invisible. Teamwork! I was so proud and impressed by that idea.

Their assignment for next week is to come up with actual names for their characters, and give a little background as to where they are from and why they are members of the Crime-Fighters.

After getting over to the enemy craft (eventually accompanied by Lucky, who travels over by grapnel gun line), the Pilot manages to get into a fight with a few of 'The Boss Man's specially gifted henchmen. So far, the team has fought a super strong man with tough (although not invulnerable) skin, a samurai girl who is also very good with a sword, a man who can disappear and reappear in a puff of black smoke (a mystic), and a teenager who is either a cyborg or a robot.

'The Boss Man', originally seated in the front area, ran to the back of the plane, and locked the cabin door behind him after sending the cyborg/robot kid out to engage the PCs.

The team was aided in the last episode by a new member, another female character who can shape change into a variety of frightening monsters. She can not duplicate people and her size is limited to roughly the same as her true form but she has the most overtly noticeable supernatural ability in the group. The rest of the group is saying it's likely magic. I am curious to see what the player says in the writing assignment.

We've had three sessions so far, and yet, there are a lot more details I could tell you about. The kids are awesome and they're having a ball with this. It's so odd how the genre is feeling very Pulp as I mentioned, even though these kids are way too young to have any clue what Pulp even is. Not unlike that time I ran Superheroes with the older kids and it felt very Silver Age even though none of them read comics, let alone ones from the 70s.

Anyway, going to stop here and get back to other projects. A lot going on lately.

Talk to you soon.

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Barking Alien

Thursday, August 14, 2014

RPGaDay Challenge - Day 14

Day 14- Best Convention Purchase

Hmmm. This is a tough one. I've had some really good purchases over the years.

Some of my Japanese TRPGs were purchased at conventions. I was able to buy a number of items I had missed to complete my collections of FASA Star Trek and West End Games Star Wars at GenCon and a few more local conventions.

I was able to get my LUG Star Trek TNG - RPG signed (By Patrick Stewart!), as well as my Mutants & Masterminds First Edition (by Steve Kenson).

I bought my copy of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition at GenCon with my ex-wife. Our first vacation together (we were living together, but not yet married at the time).

Hmmm. So tough. So many good products. So many memories.

Wait.

Got It.

SKETCH!

Oh my lord, have mercy, how I love this game!

Sketch! is a work of sheer and infinite genius created by two guys named Seth Johnson and Brian Schomburg. I met one of them. I forget which (Sorry guys, it's been a while). I picked it up at GenCon 2000, which I attended with my then wife.

I walked by the table of Corsair Publishing, and noticed a bunch of drawings on the booth 'wall'. The drawings were mostly done in crayon or magic markers and reminded me of when you were a kid and went to those restaurants where you could draw on the paper placemats.

One of the two creators asked me, "Hey, do you want to play a game?" I asked what kind, and he said it was an RPG where you create your character by drawing it. As my eyes popped out, my wife-at-the-time laughed and said she was going to go check something else out and would be back later. We always got each other that way.

I sat down at a table inside the booth, as the creator and soon to be GM rustled up one more player. As it turned out, he, the game's designer, was in for a surprise. He had pulled in two ringers.

One of the first things he said was, "You don't have to be an artist or anything to play Sketch! You just need a cool idea and a way to show that idea on paper." He himself has a simple, heroic female body shape on his character sheet, colored in patriotic stars and stripes of red, white and blue, with a black & white, newspaper photo of an old lady's face. The photo was taped or glued in place. The only non-visual clue to this character's origin and powers was her name...General Grandma!*

General Grandma - Modern Reboot

The idea of the game is that you draw your character, and than hand it over to the person next to you, who then passes it to the next person, etc., until it comes back to you. Each person, upon receiving the character sheet, rates the character's abilities on a scale of 1 to 10. The attributes are pretty basic, consisting of Speed, Muscle, Power, Gear, Mind and Toughness.

Other than the illustration, all the others players have to go on is your character's name. This is the only non-visual clue you can give about your character to try and influence their decision on how awesome your character is.

Using only D6s, the game is extremely rules-lite. It's basically stat + 2D6 vs. either a difficulty number or an opponents roll of the same. Highest roll wins.

After rating the characters, it was an all or nothing, knock down, drag out brawl, to see who would claim the title of 'Sketch World's Mightest Warrior', a kind of pro-wrestling, TV show for out of work, or struggling, heroes, villains and powered creatures from across the universe.

I played Do-Inuraijin, a vaguely dog-like robot that sort of resembled a Pokemon or Digimon character. He was a dark blue and light blue mechanoid with glowing yellow markings and eyes. I illustrated him surrounded by electricity. He had sharp teeth, claws, and an armored body.

The other player the GM managed to bring in was, it turned out, a toy designer and illustrator for Kenner, who had worked on the designs for numerous Star Wars figures and other toys. His illustration was amazing, blowing both mine and General Grandma out of the water. Named CyQuilBoar, the character was a humanoid boar with porcupine quills and cybernetics. Of course it was.

CyQuilBoar and Do-Inuraijin both attacked General Grandma early on in the match, and it wasn't long before the arthritic avatar of America was beaten. Next, the remaining contenders faced off, with CyQuilBoar landing a few solid blows against the bolt blasting bow-wow, Do-Inuraijin.

Finally, CyQuilBoar grabbed Do-Inuraijin in a bear hug, from which I proceeded to shock the daylights out of him, pointing out my character constantly encircled by lightning. See, you only have the powers you appear to have in the picture, uuunless you manage to convince the rest of the group otherwise.

CyQuilBoar was finished off by an additional electrical discharge and Do-Inuraijin was the winner! Woot!

I have since run this game numerous times, most notably for my friends in New Jersey, and the students in Sunday tutoring class. I have never gotten to use it for an ongoing campaign, but I would love to try. The book has some really solid ideas for long term play, describing a humorous version of the world seen in Alan Moore's TOP TEN comic book series.

Elements of this game inspired ideas that went into my Muppets RPG.

Great game, great read, a lot of fun, very happy to have purchased it.**

Hmmm. I should run it again soon...

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Barking Alien

*During the game everyone was talking trash to each other. Amid the banter, we gleaned some of General Grandma's background. Apparently, she was retired, a widower with two children and three grandchildren. She was doing the wrestling thing because she was bored, and to earn a little extra money to 'get the Grandkids something nice this Christmas'. She was most active during World War II as a Golden Age superheroine named Captain Mom.

**I bought two copies. One in 2000, and one in 2002 when I thought I'd lost my original one.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Five By Five

I had a very interesting weekend.

(By the way, Happy Independence Day USA! Um...belated ^ ^; )

Sunday I taught the first classes of my summer program at the tutoring center in Brooklyn where I work on weekends. In addition to reading and writing, my morning class of second to fourth grade students created characters for Faery's Tale Deluxe. Hopefully I will tell you more about that in the near future.

Saturday my group and I played the second session of our new Champions Superhero campaign, Champions: REBIRTH. Not all of those in the first session were able to make it, although my friend Hans did, which was awesome. We also added a new player, which, well, I'll address my feelings on that in an upcoming post.

Looks like I already have some great material for my next few blog entries.

On Friday, July 4th, I went to New Jersey (yes, on purpose!), in order to run a game for some ol' friends, including my ex-wife. The game?

Basic D&D, using the free PDF of Wizard of the Coast's 5th Edition rules set.

In honor of it being the fifth edition, I'm going to break down my thoughts into five, small sections. Here goes:

Disclaimer: This is not exactly a review. This is a combination of first impressions, how play went, and the opinions I, and the other players, had after the game session was over. Your mileage my vary. Widely.

Wait...before I begin, rant coming...

I have to say, I am really glad I do not consider myself part of the D&D fan community.

In the handful of days since the PDF has been available...

There is already a controversy over some of the people who were involved. I'm not going to speak on the subject, as I have not really come face-to-face with the negative nature of those people. Why not? How did I avoid it? One has always been nice to me, even when we've disagreed (which is often), and the other, well, is a D&D person. I don't go to the blogs of too many strictly D&D people. Old Schoolers even less so.

I was treated like a newb on Google+ for asking exactly where on Wizards of the Coast's site you would go to download the basic rules (I asked 'where', and was mostly answered with when. Attention D&Ders: It has come to my attention that you were not informed of this as children, but time and place is NOT the same thing. They are in fact, two DIFFERENT things. You're welcome. Glad I could help).

When I asked for the opinions of those fans of older D&D games, who also liked what they'd read in 5E, how I could best use new elements that they found interesting, I was given the most generic answers possible. Stuff like, "The rules are a tool. You have a new hammer, with a handle, head, and claw that are a little different than the one before. The hammer design might excite you a little, might not, but what you're making with the hammer better light your fire." Gee thanks. If only I were an adult, Human being with over thirty-seven years of gaming experience I would've known that. Wait...yeah.

I can only surmise that much like DC Comics has absolutely no clue what makes their characters and universe cool, a large number of D&D fans don't know why they like D&D. It was first, so they do. I've always thought that was the case. Now I know for sure.

Zak Smith himself responded with, "I think that's a bad way to go in--you're basically asking for preconceptions. Just read the rules and do what you're gonna do." Yes Zak, that is EXACTLY what I am asking for! If I were going to 'do what I'm gonna do', I'd not bother with 5E at all. I'd just as soon go play Champions, Star Trek, Star Wars, Traveller, Teenagers from Outer Space, InSpectres, Mekton, Faery's Tale Deluxe, my Galaxy Quest game, my Muppets RPG...you get the picture. Thing is, I promised some gaming friends I like gaming with that I'd run the new 5E rules that were recently released. Not being a D&D fan, I thought (foolishly it seems) that those who ARE fans might give me some ideas for what to do with some gamers who share their preference for the beast.

Honestly though, Zak's advice was the best I received.

I am glad I gave 5E a go, and I had fun thanks to the players involved, but trying to get real assistance and a genuine 'sense of community' from the D&D community at large is a no go. I won't bother in the future. It's like trying to get a straight, and truthful answer out of a politician. Forget about it. It'll just harsh your mellow.

Now, on to the actual post...

Take Five

When I first read through the Basic Rules for 5E (and this was the first I'd ever seen of it), I was a little disappointed.

I had not been part of the playtest, and had no real interest in most of the posts about interviews with the creators, rules reveals, or the like. I would love to say my expectations were low, but some recent conversations with Charles Atkins of the blog Dyvers, had gotten me a little excited. He made it sound really cool. Plus, Zak was involved, and I thought, 'Well, Zak has cool ideas so, maybe this will be good.'

It's not that it wasn't. It just wasn't exciting. It was nothing really special. Nothing stood out. Nothing grabbed me. I felt like I was reading a blog post of some one's campaign who had thrown some indie stuff into their D&D game. OK. That's all though. Only OK.

Number Five Is Alive

After trying (unsuccessfully - see above) to get some help and some ideas percolating, I put together a really simple story idea I've used before for other D&D and similar games. I created a couple of monsters, and rolled up an NPC to balance out the party. I was going to have three players, and I already knew they wanted to play a Halfling Fighter, a Dwarf Cleric, and a Human Rogue. I made an Elf Wizard, and the party was good to go.

Character creation, while quicker than some of the previous editions, still took much longer than I expected.

As I mentioned, one of the players was my ex-wife. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't just dislike D&D, I would hate it with a passion. She likes it, and she has a way of making me like it while we're playing together in the same game.

This was no different. She took to the new rules pretty quickly, and liked several of the new mechanics. She especially like the Inspiration related character elements. I like that part too, though I have seen its like many, many times before.

She made the game come to life really, as her excitement over there being a new edition made me excited to be running it.

Five For Fighting

Two things I do like about the new edition is that it isn't all about fighting, but when the fighting does start, it moves pretty smoothly, and quickly. Now granted, this is the basic rules at their most basic. Very likely, additional rules and options in the Player's Handbook will slow down the easy breezy feel of the basic rule set quite a bit, but still, this is a vast improvement over the grinding, 'button-mashing' feeling of 4E, and 3E+'s gluttony of feats.

The Fifth Element

I have to say that my favorite thing about Fifth Edition is that it isn't Fourth Edition. I am not sure I can say that I can identify it's particular, unique flavor as of yet, but it does not feel as MMO-video gamey as it's predecessor. At the same time, it does have a few features that my MMORPG obsessed buddy found both familiar and interesting. I find that refreshing. Maybe, without trying so hard to appeal to both the table top and laptop gaming, WotC will be able to actually accomplish that feat.

Give Me Five

I am glad I downloaded the basic rules, and it was fun to play. Not Champions fun, or Mutants & Masterminds fun, or even Marvel Heroic fun, but fun. If I had to play D&D, or else my eyes with be poked out with red-hot chopsticks, I would prefer to play this.

I am highly unlikely to purchase the game, but I think my ex-wife definitely will. It is possible at least one of the other two players will as well.

Good work Wizards of the Coast.

I was hoping for something a little different but what you have works.

Kudos.

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Barking Alien

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Three Ravens

My brain is a bit of a mess of late.

I have a lot on my mind, both life-wise, game-wise and the one place they cross and it is making other things I want to do difficult to concentrate on.

For the purposes of this post and you readers out there, I am basically chasing three ravens...

***

I am continuing to progress with my StoryTeller RPG, which is going through a few changes here and there. Overall it is essentially the same game that first came to me like a bolt from the blue, but as the shock from said bolt wears off, I am seeing ways of grounding myself a little more and realizing that the games does need more work than I first thought.

***

My second 'holy grail' of late (pun intended) is to finalize work on my upcoming Pendragon campaign before play starts at the end of the month.

For reasons both person and creative I seem to be having trouble reading through the entirety of the rulebook or even the key portions without getting tired or distracted. I am not sure if the material is too dryly written (because honestly I don't think it is) or if I still haven't gotten used to reading PDFs on a screen for extended periods but man, I just can't seem to get through the text in a timely fashion.

As I get older I find I have less and less patience for reading rules. This started sometime ago. When I was 16.

Anyway, I will get through it I know I will as I am really looking forward to this campaign. We have some PCs worked out already and, true to form for my guys, they aren't classical or traditional Arthurian characters but they are damn interesting. More about them in an upcoming post.

***

Lastly, but certainly not least, I am working on a new game to run with the kids at the study center I work at in Brooklyn. The students are older now and no longer newbies to gaming so I want to do something a little more challenging. In addition , we've done Fantasy, Superheroes and even a little Comedic Horror but so far, very little Science Fiction.

So my idea for this semester, beginning this coming weekend, is to run a deep space exploration mission where the PCs, working for either an interstellar government or a megacorporation, travel through the universe encountering alien species, discovering lost civilizations and cataloging unknown worlds.

Now, are we looking at Star Trek? Maaaybe.

These kids are largely unfamiliar with the overall concept of Star Trek, which may prove to be awesome (and perfect for proving my 'You-Don't-Need-To-Know-Trek-To-Play-Trek').

Other options include doing it a bit more tongue-in-cheek and going with my homebrew Galaxy Quest, a bit more serious and have a realistic approach to space travel and investigation with InSpace (InSpectres variant) or even Traveller.

I'd love to hear peoples ideas and opinions on this. What simple, fast paced and relatively mechanically lite Sci-Fi game would work best for 1-2 hour session increments, with 6-8 players, ages 11-14?

Let me know.

More to come.

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Barking Alien

Friday, March 29, 2013

The Heroic Age...Of Around 11 - Part II

Continuing my majestic monologue of manic matters in the mighty Marvel manner...

In the Marvel Heroic session I ran months ago for the RECESS Game Event, I seem to recall no more than two 6-sided die, one 8-sided and one 10-sided being added to the Doom Pool in the entire four hour session with six players at the table.

When I ran the game at the study center last Sunday (March 24th), in the first few moves (only Wolverine, Human Torch and Scarlet Witch had actually taken actions), I already had two 8's and a 10 (not including the two 6's the standard Doom Pool always starts with). By the time Thor went...and than Thor rolled...

I was honestly caught in a paradoxical state of extreme sadness and chocolate-milk-out-of-my-nose laughter.

Scarlet Witches attempt to transform the molten, hotter than hot earth beneath Hulk's feet into stone and trap him failed. The Scarlet Witch's Player also rolled a 1 (an opportunity for me). I tweaked the rules just slightly and gave her not one but two Plot Points. It was a great idea and a good effort but if the Hulk avoided it than she negated the Complication (the ground was now solid stone, not lava-like).

Invisible Woman was up next and did the smartest and simplest thing she could think of. The Player had Sue create a force field wall with her and Wanda (the Scarlet Witch that is) on one side and Hulk on the other. Invisible Woman than gave the next move to Thor.

Editor's Note:

In Marvel Heroic, the Watcher/GM chooses who goes first and than that person chooses who goes next. The last person to go chooses the next person to go and so on and so forth until all the participants, NPC heroes, allies and enemies, have taken an action.

This means if you don't let the bad guys go in between the moves of yourself and your friends, then at the end they all get to go. This is not cool. I mean, it's cool for the Watcher but not for your fellow supers.

At first, this was a bit tricky for the kids to grasp but they eventually got the idea. Also, since they are middle school kids, they were being careful to pick people to go next who would actually help them (friends) and not those who would ignore them and simply attack the Hulk ('cause they have cooties or whatever kids think these days).

Now Thor...poor Thor. Sue's Player chose Thor because they had seen the Thor and Avengers movies and knew a little mythology and figured, if anyone of them could halt the advance of the Hulk, it's had to be Thor.

"’Cross the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard,
Where the booming heavens roar,
You’ll behold in breathless wonder,
The God of Thunder, Mighty Thor!"

Versus

"Doc Bruce Banner,
Belted by gamma rays,
Turned into the Hulk.

Ain’t he unglamo-rays!

Wreckin’ the town
With the power of a bull,

Ain’t no monster clown
Who is as lovable.

As ever-lovin’ Hulk! HULK! HULK!"

Thor certainly wins on theme song lyrics and better hair but the Norns did not look fondly on the Son of Odin that fateful day. The Player decided that the God of Thunder would hurl great Mjolnir at the Hulk and rolled...dismally. Three 1s. One of which was on a 12-sided die. I gave the fellow three Plot Points and than discarded one die from the Doom Pool to have Hulk retaliate on his Defensive Action.

As the Hammer misses Hulk and turns in the air to fly back to Thor, Hulk grabs it and uses it to carry himself to the Asgardian. One Player balked that, "Hulk can't lift the Hammer, he isn't worthy!". I applauded him for paying attention to the mythos but Hulk wasn't lifting it or wielding it in any way. Mjolnir was heading home to Thor's hand and Hulk just hitched a ride. Hulk proceeds to punch Thor (Well, not so much punch as be drawn to him via the Hammer with his big, green fist forward) and my roll was...devastating. Seriously. Hulk knocked Thor from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.

Falling back to Terra Firma (Thor was in the air when he threw Mjolnir and when Hulk struck him), we found the class was running out of time. We decided as a group to give Hulk his move and he (I as Watcher as Hulk) made an Area Attack. Clamping both hands together, Hulk hit the ground with earthquake inducing force. I added the D12 from the Doom Pool to really leave an impression. Unfortunately I was outsmarted...by Reed Richards.

Spending a Plot Point on his Defensive Action, Mr. Fantastic calls for all the earthbound supers (that is, anyone who can't fly) to jump back through the Transportation Portal that brought them all to New Mexico. With a little help from Captain America (who also spent a Plot Point to grab The Thing), the flyers took to the air while Wolverine and Spidey made a mad dash and leapt back through the Kirby Krackle clouded gate to the Baxter Building.

Right before we ended, Richards came up with an interesting plan. "If we postulate that the Hulk is being driven to this higher rate of madness by some imbalance, illness or outside force, we need not defeat the Hulk to stop him. We simply need to calm him down and perhaps he can fight it himself."

Mr. Fantastic plans on devising a sedative-like elixir, to be delivered by Captain America, to get the Hulk back to the normal level of rampaging green giant we all know and love.

Be here in thirty, for a story we could only call...

"RELAX, DON"T DO IT!"

Stay strong True Believers!

Barking Alien

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Heroic Age...Of Around 11 - Part I

My computer is very near workable.

Just in time too, as I intend on doing something pretty cool and definitely fun for April's A-to-Z Challenge this year. A little more about that in the next post.

There are still a few kinks to work out but I should have them taken care of relatively soon. Besides, what is life without a few kinks? I have a good number of kinks myself. Hmmm. That did not come out quite as I intended.

Moving on...

A quick though regretfully belated Happy Birthday shout out to two fine gentlemen who are big heroes of mine - Happy Birthday William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy!

***

Last Sunday I started a new game with the kids at the study center in Brooklyn where I teach. The new game comes with a new lesson focus involving writing and story structure. The key this time is working on those elements that will be important in essay writing, a major part of the upcoming state wide tests.

What game did I decide to use to make my point?

Marvel Heroic! That's right Marvel Zombies, your favorite ol' diehard DC fanboy went over to the dark side once again, this time full force and ran a game featuring the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Spider-man and a couple of X-Men for good measure.

While the roster of heroes we used closely resemble the modern incarnation of the Avengers (complete with Thing, Mr. Fantastic and Spider-man as members), I couldn't help but see them in their 80's outfits in my mind's eye. It's partly that that's when I was a really big Marvel fan (though I love DC too) and partly the way the kid's play Superheroes.

For the first session the story was fairly simple.

The heroes are hanging out at the Baxter Building (home of the Fantastic Four) or the Avengers Mansion (HQ of the mighty Avengers). Spider-man was visiting the FF while Wolverine and Storm were paying a visit to the Avengers at the time.

The full roster was Captain America, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Storm, The Thing, Thor and Wolverine.

All the male characters were played by males. All the female characters were played by females. The youngest player was in 4th grade. The oldest player is in 6th grade (should be 7th but the boy only moved here from China a year ago).

The plot, sorry, Event, began when the heroes all received a call from Nick Fury of SHIELD. Something terrible was happening just outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Something big. Something...

green.

Yes indeedy-do comic book crusaders, the one and only (well, relatively) incredible Hulk was on a rampage once more and SHIELD needed help taking him down. It is important to note that the players received a number of subtle clues that this was not the Hulk's normal wanton destruction but that he seemed even madder and crazier than usual. On the Rampage-O-Meter, with a scale from 1 to 10, Hulk had his HULK SMASH dial cranked up to 12. He only partially recognized heroes he had fought or teamed with before and didn't really use any thinking or tactics (Specialties). It was just "GRRRRAAAA!", lunge, tear-to-shreds.

As Mister Fantastic, Captain America and several other heroes set up a sort of base camp/defensive line near the opening of Mr. F's Transportation Portal (he teleported the teams to New Mexico by tracking Hulk's gamma radiation signature), several other team members went to look for Hulk's exact position, obscured as it was by smoke, flames and screaming civilians.

The players and PCs of Mister Fantastic and Iron Man quickly picked up on the Hulk's abnormal level of rage...you know, even for the Hulk.

Iron Man's sensors pinpointed the Hulk and he radioed back to the rest of the group.

The first to attempt to take down the green goliath was the man who's the best there is at what he does and what he does isn't nice...Wolverine! Unfortunately, Wolvie's roll stank and Hulk easily avoided the blow. Next up was the Human Torch, who got into the system pretty quickly and used his Fire Mastery to set up a Complication. Instead of blasting the Hulk with flames, he heated the dirt and sand beneath Hulk's feet, causing Hulk to begin sinking into molten ground.

The Scarlet Witch attempted to follow up that move with a Transmutation Hex. Her idea was to transform the lava like earth into solid granite or marble and trap the Hulk's feet. No dice. That is, she too rolled pretty poorly.

Actually, there were very few good rolls this past Sunday on the part of the kids. I would've slaughtered their team if it hadn't been for one really bad roll on my part toward the end of the session.

More on that after this ad for Hostess Fruit Pies and X-Ray Specs!

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Barking Alien

Thursday, January 3, 2013

An Old Dog's Tricks

I have decided that for January of 2013 I would start the year off with something different. Inspired by Noisms and both encouraged and challenged by some of the comments to my previous post on the subject, I am going to be doing a series of 'Gamemaster Advice' posts entitled 'Old Dogs Tricks'.

Now, before I begin this first post in the series I want to put forth two very important claims that hardly matter at all.

First, my Gaming Geek Cred:

I've been playing RPGs for 35 years, largely as a Gamemaster. I have run practically every RPG published (and some that weren't) prior to 1995. From 1995 to present I have still GMed and/or played a huge number and wide variety of RPGs. In recent years, having created a number of games of my own design or modified existing ones to my own specific tastes, I tend to play my favorites more often than trying new ones. As time and funds and accessibilty allow, I do still enjoy playing games I've never played before.

I was the RPG buyer for the Forbidden Planet stores in the New York City for 3 years and worked at The Compleat Strategist in NYC for 2. I have done demo games at conventions and game stores for Wizards of the Coast, Last Unicorn Games, West End Games and a number of independant game companies. I have GMed at NerdNYC's RECESS Game Day Event about 5 or 6 times already. I have professional gaming credits in West End Games' Star Wars D6 books and Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek RPG. I currently use RPG principles to teach 2nd to 6th grade students in Brooklyn how to improve their reading, writing, notetaking and speaking skills.

Second, none of that matters.

I do not know you. I do not know your players, what they like and what they don't. The vast majority of you enjoy Dungeons & Dragons in some form. I don't like that game. I am no one to tell anyone what to do or how to do it when it comes to something so personal as gaming.

Except...

Where these two factors cross is experience. In my personal experience, in the gaming circles I have been a part of, I am constantly asked back to run games for players I have campaigned with in the past. There have been several campaigns I've run in which players have crossed two or three states to get to the games. People nearly always leave my gaming table asking when we are running the next session.

If the above, and only the above, is not happening for you, than maybe, just maybe, there is a chance that I may have some tips that can help.

Wish us both (all) luck...

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Barking Alien

On a related note, ERIC! at Chronicles of Ganth is also on the Gamemaster Advice bandwagon. although his approach is somewhat different than I expected its definitely woth a look see. Check it!