Book Review for Gamers: Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons

I loved this book!  It is a narrative biography of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons.  The cover is an homage to the D&D book Unearthed Arcana and the end-papers feature Gary's hometown of Lake Geneva drawn in blue-inked graph paper in the style of old D&D modules.  Michael Witwer, the author, has taken information on Gary's life and turned it into a story of his rise, fall, and recognition as the father of geek culture.  It is the story of how one man turned his passion of gaming into a cultural phenomena. The author writes the bio as a narrative story.  Conversations are made up based on interviews and historical documents.  This gives the reader the impression of reading a biopic on Gygax.  Witwer includes notes in the back so that nit-pickers can check his sources.  I found the format entertaining and since I have read other books on the subject the information seemed pretty accurate.  Reading this book was a huge nostalgia trip, as I remember reading through my brother's modules back in the 80's and the crazy moral panic that sprung up around D&D. The last few chapters of the book focus on the cultural significance of D&D.  The author does a great job of showing the events in Gary's life and placing his life in the context of American pop culture.  Witwer makes the case that role playing games have had a far wider impact than is generally acknowledged.  He even mentions how the West End Star Wars rpg added to the Star Wars canon.  I recommend this book to all nerds, gamers, and anyone interested in the history of the hobby.

2015 Year in Review

Now that we are starting 2016, it is time to look back at 2015 and go over some of the highlights of the year.

Role Playing Games

I collect an obscene amount of rpgs and finding the time to play all of them can be a challenge.  Due to some life changes gaming time was sparser than usual in 2015.  However, I did try out some games in my collection.  Scarlet Heroes is a fantasy game by Kevin Crawford.  It is designed for a GM and one player.  It uses a modified OSR ruleset and it fully compatible with any OSR game.  I ran the quickstart with a friend.  I recommend this and should plan on running some more sessions for when our full group can't meet.

I also was able to play a cleric in a session of D&D 5th edition.  The session was fun and fast.  We ended up crashing an airship!  I also ran a session of FATE Accelerated in 2015.  I had been itching to try out FATE since backing the Kickstarter.  I like the system and hope to run a FATE sci-fi game this year. The other game I ran was a Star Wars Edge of the Empire game using the quickstart rules.  I reviewed that game in another post.

As to other rpgs, the game I played most in 2015 was Call of Cattulhu.  My daughter loves this game and asks to play it often.  For 2016 I hope to try out Green Ronin's Fantasy AGE system and finish writing a Call of Cthulhu scenario that I started working on.  Hopefully it will be ready by Halloween.

Board and Card Games

I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of board and card games that I played in 2015.  I tried out quite a few games that I have never played before.  Botswana, which is now sold as Wildlife Safari, is a Reiner Knizia game that I found in a used book store.  It is a card game that comes with little plastic animals as game pieces.  If you like light Knizia games I recommend this one.

I was able to try out my copy of the original base set of Dust Tactics, a miniature WWII/mecha/weird science battle game.  The game is expandable but has since undergone two revisions and moved to another company since I received my copy.  If I wanted to add on to my set I would have to invest some serious cash.  Luckily my base set contains enough for hours of mayhem.  The miniatures are awesome and the game has the right balance of tactical play and fast action.

Another game I was able to try out was Nexus Ops.  A friend pulled this out at a Game Day event during the summer.  This game was everything that I enjoy about board games; cool plastic pieces, rolling dice, and attacking people.  Other games of note that I played this year were Dino Hunt Dice, a family-friendly retheme of Zombie Dice, Love Letter: Batman, another retheme, Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion, Cartoon Network Fluxx, and Chaos of Cthulhu.  Right after the holidays I got to try X-Wing Miniatures and Coup (which has a great free iOS app) with my nephews.  These two games are going on my to buy list.

The first game that I played in the New Year was Dragonwood, a fun fantasy-themed card and dice game from Gamewright.  You play adventurer cards as you try to capture monsters.  This one was enjoyed by the whole family.

This year my daughter asked me to teach her to play poker.  Poker has been a family tradition for me. Whenever my grandparents would come to visit we would play poker for hours.  It was nice to pass the tradition on, and hopefully we will have more family poker nights.

Books and Comics

I read a lot of good books and comics, some of which I reviewed on this blog.  My favorite book that I read this year was Wolf in White Van.  Other good books that deserve a shout out are Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer and The Astounding Antagonists by Rafael Chandler.  If you plan on ever running a superhero rpg campaign where the players are villains then I highly recommend reading The Astounding Antagonists.

My favorite new comics series came to an end in 2015.  Gotham by Midnight was the supernatural series that Justice League Dark should have been.  Now that the series is over you can read the collected editions.  Space Riders was a great comics series that blended space opera with psychedelic art.  The print editions keep selling out but you can pick it up digitally.

Those were some highlights of 2015.  May 2016 bring you much gaming with good friends!

Review of Under a Black Sun - A free Star Wars Edge of the Empire Quickstart PDF

Under a Black Sun is a PDF produced by Fantasy Flight Games.  It includes quick-start rules for the Edge of the Empire (EotE) rpg, four pre-generated characters, and an adventure.  The PDF is currently available on the FFG website in hi-res and lo-res formats.  There are also separate PDF files for each of the pre-generated characters from the module, plus two additional characters who are not in the module but are designed for it.

The artwork for Under a Black Sun is amazing and evocative of Star Wars.  The cover features Han Solo and Chewbacca standing against a background picture of Curoscant.  All of the images appear to be pictures that have been re-purposed from the Edge of the Empire core book.  The pictures are full color illustrations of characters and scenes from the Star Wars universe.

The module starts off with a credits page and then goes into an explanation of what type of game Edge of the Empire is.  On the same page there is a description of what materials you will need to run the adventure.  The Edge of the Empire rules system uses special dice, and you will need at least one set or the Star Wars dice app for iOS or Android.  You will also need some tokens.  The module includes a chart that you can use to translate regular polyhedral dice into Edge of the Empire dice.

It is time for a little aside on the Edge of the Empire dice system.  I own a few sets of EotE dice so I had plenty to use for our game.  The dice have symbols on them.  Some symbols represent a positive result and some represent a negative result.  In the game you are rolling a bunch of dice and comparing how many symbols you get.  You create a dice pool out of positive dice that represent your skill and aptitude and negative dice representing the difficulty of the task and hazardous conditions.  After you roll positive and negative symbols cancel each other out and if your roll is net positive you succeed.

Those wacky dice!

The system takes a while to learn and I am not completely sold on it yet.  I can not imagine playing Edge of the Empire with a standard set of polyhedrals and translating them via the chart.  It would feel like using the Rosetta Stone to play an rpg.  However, I applaud FFG for including the dice conversion chart so that the average gamer can try out the system before they sink money into specialized dice.  My recommendation would be to fork over $5 and buy the dice app.  The app will calculate the results of your dice roll for you.  The app also rolls standard polyhedral dice as well as dice for all of FFG's Star Wars games such as X-Wing, Armada, and Imperial Assault.  A set of Star Wars dice costs $14.95 and are only good for FFG's line of Star Wars rpgs, while the $5 dice app will at least let you roll dice for your D&D game.

Back to the book.  After explaing the dice and materials you will  need the module then launches into the rules.  We get an explanation of how the dice work,  Besides the success/failure mechanic, the dice also have advantage and threat symbols.  These symbols do not affect the success of your roll, but if you have more advantage symbols something positive will happen and if you have more threat symbols then something negative will happen.  Advantage symbols can also be spent by the players for in game effects such as critical hits and bonuses.  The GM can spend threats to hinder the players by giving enemies bonuses or making the characters' actions more difficult.  There are a few more cases but that is the basic mechanic of the game.

The rules then describe characters and skills.  Characters have six characteristics and a set of skills.  Each skill is linked to a characteristic.  When a character wants to do something they use their skill and characteristic to build a dice pool.  The module then describes combat.  Combat uses initiative, free actions, maneuvers (move actions in d20 speak), and actions (standard actions in d20 speak).  Range is figured in abstract range bands (i.e. short, medium, long, etc.).  There is a critical hit table and a description of different types of enemies (minions, rivals, and adversaries).  The rules mechanic that I like the most is obligation.  Characters in EotE are supposed to be scoundrels, rogues, and shadowy figures.  Each one has an obligation stat which represents how in debt, whether financially or socially, they are to a person, group, or personal code.  In the module each character can add upgrades to their character at a cost of increasing their obligation score.  The higher a character's obligation score, the higher the chance that their obligation will come into play during the adventure.

The module has a one page description of Coruscant, followed by the adventure.  The plot involves the characters being hired to track down a bounty hunter.  I won't go too in depth into the actual adventure to avoid spoilers.  What I will do is cover some highlights and things that I liked about the adventure.  It starts the players off right in the middle of an action scene.  The adventure has an opening, middle, and climax.  The GM has various options to add during the adventure.  The adventure is not linear and the characters have a good degree of freedom as to how to pursue their goal.  The GM is given multiple optional encounters to include.   There are specific examples for the GM as to how to have the characters' obligation come into play at certain points.  There is a good mix of combat, social, and skill based encounters.  This adventure is a great way to try out the EotE system for free.  At the least this adventure could be reworked by a GM and used with another system.  At face value it gives players and GMs an opportunity to see the EotE system in action and play through an authentic Star Wars adventure.

Pros: With the inclusion of the dice conversion chart this module is truly a free way to try out the EotE system.  The adventure is well written and the production values and art are phenomenal.  The quick-start includes all the rules you need minus character creation and advancement.  The module oozes Star Wars flavor and the modular nature is a plus.  A hard working GM could possible squeeze one or two more sessions out of this adventure.

Cons:  The dice system used in the game has a learning curve.  I felt like it slowed the game down.  I also felt like it didn't live up to its full potential.  My players never rolled enough advantages to score a critical hit with their weapons, and the advantage/threat mechanic felt like a burden.  The characters provided in the adventure are a good mix, but it is vital that the splicer (hacker) character be included among the party.

Final Thoughts:  This is a great free product from FFG.  It is a near complete taste of the EoftE rules.  Despite our mixed reaction to the system my group had fun with the adventure.  If you are curious about FFGs new line of Star Wars rpgs then this is definitely worth downloading.  FFG also sells a beginner box for EotE for $29.99.  While that set includes a set of dice, it is still more of an investment that downloading Under a Black Sun.  If our are a Star Wars fan or even a sci-fi gamer then there is something here for you.

You can download Under a Black Sun and character sheets here.

Holiday Geek Gifts for $25 and Under Guide for 2015

The winter holidays are coming up and one of the joys of the season is giving gifts to the people we care about.  I wanted to share a few gift ideas that are appropriate for geeks and gamers.  I have tried to only include items that I have personal experience with, and to limit the list to items that cost no more that $25 (not including tax or possible shipping fees).  As always, I encourage you to shop at your local game store whenever possible.  If they don't have an item in stock ask if they can order it. Whether you need a gift for a GM, friend, yourself, holiday party host, or secret Santa recipient, this list will have some ideas for you.  All prices given are MSRP.

Role Playing Games - Need a gift for a table top rpg player?  Many rpg core books will usually run around $40-$60.  However, there are some quality inexpensive products out there.

FATE Accelerated Edition - FATE Accelerated by Evil Hat Productions is a great way to experience the FATE rpg.  The book sells for $5.  At that price you can get one for everybody in your group.  The rules are great for players who like action and narrative-style gaming, and they are flexible enough to handle multiple genres.  You will need FATE dice to play, but normal six-siders will also work.

Savage Worlds Deluxe: Explorer' s Edition - Savage Worlds by Pinnacle Entertainment Group is a generic system that focuses on action.  I played in a game where Jem and the Holograms were undercover CIA operatives giving a concert in Cold War Russia.  The paperback rule book is $9.95.  The only other thing needed to run the game is polyhedral dice, a deck of cards, tokens.  Rules for miniatures are included but optional.

Burning Wheel Gold - Buying for a connoisseur?  Burning Wheel Gold is a narrative rpg that uses a d6 dice pool.  This is the system that powers the Mouse Guard and Torchbearer rpg.  Burning Wheel is designed for epic, dramatic fantasy.  The physical hardcover book is gorgeous.  Price: $25.

Palladium RPGs - I know Palladium has some critics out there.  I agree that their rules are a bit dated, but their concepts are fun.  I recommend Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles rpg.  The softcover core book costs $16.95.  Another good choice is After the Bomb, where you get to play mutant animals in a post-nuclear war world.  Just to be clear, After the Bomb has rules for creating turtles who are mutants and are also ninja.  Price for the core book, $24.95.

                                         

 




Dungeon World and Monster of the Week - Dungeon World (Sage Kobold Productions) and Monster of the Week (Evil Hat Productions) are published by different companies but are based on the same game engine.  Both use the Apocalypse World rules system.  Dungeon World is a fantasy game while Monster of the Week is for Buffy the Vampire Slayer/X-files style monster-hunting games.  Both are narritive systems and both books cost $25.  Note: Evil Hat Productions will give a PDF for their games when you buy it from a brick and mortar store,

                                              

 



RPG Accessories - What about the gamer who has a bunch of books already?  How about some accessories?

GM Screen - I used to think that GM screens were unnecessary.  Then I bought the Pathfiner GM Screen and I used it every time I ran a game, even when running online.  GM screens are full of useful charts and are great gifts for GMs.  The current D&D screen is $14.95 and most other screens run from $15-$20.

The Noteboard - The Noteboard is a fold-up dry-erase board.  It is blank on one side and has a square grid and hexes and the other side.  It fits into a black bag that can also fit a marker, dice, and a mini.  It is perfect as a portable battlemat.  You can order one direct from the maker for $13.50 (which includes shipping).

                             

Meeple Miniatures - Smoking Salamander, makers of the rpg Tiny Dungeon ran a kickstarter for Fantasy Adventure Meeples.  I backed it and I now have the cutest party of meeples ever,  These character meeples are shaped like your average board game meeple, but they are painted to look like D&D characters.  The nice thing about meeples is that they are sturdier than your average mini.  A set of adventures will run you $14 from Meeplesource.com (shipping not included).

Gamescience Dice - Gamescience dice are unusual, great dice.  I recommend watching Lou Zocchi's video for more information.  These dice will stick out in any collection.  They have precision edges and are made of quality plastic.  They also make some unusual dice, such as d7s.  Please note that some of the dice that they sell are not inked.  A set of seven polyhedrals will cost $13, but I definitely recommend that you browse around the site as they have some cool stuff. Their dice can be ordered off of the Gamescience website.

These are a few ideas for gamers.  Have any suggestions of your own?  Happy holidays, and remember that friendship is one of the best gifts that you can give.

Kickstarter Shout Out - North Wars: The Martian Conquest

I am always on the lookout for a good alien invasion rpg.  There is currently a FATE-based one on Kickstarter.  It covers an alien invasion scenario, although it is a little unorthodox.  The game is called North Wars - The Martian Conquest.  The game is loosely based on the movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.  The artwork for the game looks insane.  They will have yetis as player characters, Santa as a wizard, and an invading Martian army that looks like it could give the Justice League a run for their money.

You can pledge for a PDF for as little as $1 and you can pledge for the printed book and PDF for as little as $6 plus shipping.  It is being done as pay-what-you-want so you can always add more to your pledge.  Check it out for some holiday themed awesomeness.

North Wars Kickstarter

Review of The Armory's 30 Sided Dice Gaming Tables

I found this gem at a used book store.  The Armory's 30 Sided Dice Gaming Tables is an interesting artifact from the early days of fantasy role-playing.  The copyright date is 1982.  The cover advertises this book as a supplement that is suitable to be used with "Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Runequest, Chivalry & Sorcery, Tunnels & Trolls, and other fantasy role-playing systems."  That is a nice selection of old school rpgs, and it is interesting to note that all of these systems are still available.  Another clue to the product's age is that the words "patent pending" appear next to the image of the 30 sided die on the cover.

The cover, complete with price tag.  I only paid $2.50.

The book is 40 pages and stable bound.  The inside front cover has an about the author section and an awesome drawing of a dragon on top of a hoard of treasure.  Page one is an introduction where the author shills the idea of using a d30 in your game.  There are also two ads for the company's dice. We then get a table of contents on page two and and instructions for reading a 30 sided die on page three. At this point I should explain that the die pictured in the book is numbered differently than other 30 sided dice that I have seen.  The d30 in the book has 30 faces.  10 of those faces are labeled -0 to -9, ten faces are labeled 0 to 9, and ten faces are labeled +0 to +9.  Negative numbers are the integers 1-10, regular numbers are 11-20, and positive integers are 21-30.  The author gives a handy chart summarizing this information.  My research found that a revised version of this book was released soon after that feature the tradition d30  which was numbered 1-30.  I found this old d30 an interesting historical oddity.  It reminded me of older d20s that had 0-9 engraved twice on their faces, where one set of numbers would be inked in a different color and would represent 11-20.  There are also instructions on how to use the d30 to create a number from 1 to 300.  This part tied my brain in knots upon the first reading but eventually I figured it out.

The rest of the book is made up of charts.  The first is a critical hit table that covers body locations. The next few tables cover lists of gems, jewelry, and their worth.  Then we get height and weight tables for humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and hobbits (yes, the term hobbit is used).  These charts are meant for male characters, and the author includes conversions for rolling for female characters by subtracting a certain amount of pounds or inches.  Apparently female adventurers where dainty back in the 80s.  

On page 23 we get the one and only table used for rolling a number between 1-300.  Oddly this table only has 150 entries.  The table is a language table and includes entries as esoteric as horse, pseudo-dragon, and yeti.  The author points out that the table can be used as an encounter table or a reincarnation table, as he has used it in his campaign.  My favorite table is next, which is mundane experience.  I will be using this table in my next game so that characters can roll up backgrounds such as tanner and gemologist.  There is a weapons table, slaves table, tables for animal skins and their value, a table listing 30 ancient civilizations, ancient ships, diseases, poisons and their severity, animal trainer tables, spell effects, and magic items.  The book ends with a bibliography, index, and price listing for the Armory's various products.  The back cover has an ad and price list for 30 sided dice (available plain or inked) and an ad for pens to ink your dice.

The book is filled with artwork by Greg Barrett.  The majority of the illustrations are of fantasy miniatures that include the company and product code of the mini (such as Ral Partha #02-102 Sea Elves).  The rest of the pictures are of dice, treasure chests, and other stuff.  The pictures of the miniatures are a cool touch.  They seem to call out and say, "Use me in your game."

Bibliography along with a picture of barbarian miniatures

30 Sided Dice Gaming Tables is an interesting piece of rpg history.  It was obviously written to help the Armory sell their d30s.  If you owned the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide then you already had more random tables than you could handle.  The author tries to sell you on the idea that increasing your choices is a good thing for your campaign, i.e. 30 options is better than 20.  The charts are conveniently laid out at one per page and this book would be easy to use at the gaming table.  In my opinion the book's main value is that is is an example of the hobbyist nature of early rpg culture.  The pictures of miniatures and ads for dice-inking pens look back to the days when playing D&D meant assembling a hodgepodge of materials from various sources.  The author's tone throughout the book says, "I made my own d30 tables, and so can you."

I am glad to have this book in my collection for the nostalgia factor.  There are a few tables that I would use in a game.  I wouldn't go searching this book out unless you are the curator of the 30 sided dice museum, but if you see a copy it might be fun to grab to open the window onto the fantasy rpg scene of yesteryear.

  

Zine Review: Tales from the Game Tavern #1

Tales from the Game Tavern is a zine put out by P.E. Pace, aka the Grand DM,  Issue one is 28 pages and features an orange and black cover with some nice silhouette artwork featuring two fantasy adventurers going trick-or-treating.  The issue features system neutral articles for OSR style fantasy rpgs.  Disclaimer, the Grand DM sent me a free copy as part of a give-away on his blog.  Many thanks, Grand DM!

Tales from the Game Tavern includes seven articles and a copy of the Open Gaming License.  The first article is a variation on the flesh golem.  The second article, my personal favorite, covers cursed armor.  There is a nice selection of pieces that provide protection but also carry some troublesome malediction that will keep your players busy.  They are perfect for the munchkin in your party.

The third article is a table for providing haunting encounters for taverns.  The fourth article is an adventure.  I was surprised to see that this adventure included an outdoor hex map as well as a mini-dungeon map.  The adventure has depth beyond being a hack-and-slash crawl (although it could be run as one if you wish) and it has the right dose of whimsy.  

The fifth article contains tables for alien abductions.  The author wrote the tables for a fantasy setting but the results would fit in perfectly for Call of Cthulhu or any other horror game scenario.  The next article discusses a scenario for running a zombie outbreak in a fantasy setting.  The final article contains a recipe for "Game Tavern Goulash",  The OGL closes out the zine.

This zine is an enjoyable read.  The Halloween theme is present throughout the issue.  I see myself using something from every article in my game.  The art is a mix of public domain images and drawn pictures that look medieval and spooky.  Tales from the Game Tavern is fun to read and ready to use at the game table.  I would recommend this as the perfect treat to pass out to the adventuring parties that knock on your door.

You can order your own copy at ultanya.com.