Massacre: Clone Wars 4.19

When you watch episodes like Massacre, you know why people want to play the bad guys in role playing games. When you look at the design on the characters, on the good guy side, you have the jedi. For the most part, they have the cool, "I'm ominous and dark" thanks to their cloaks and hoods. But outside of that? They dress in rather drab colors, don't have a lot of variety to them and well, are boring visually.

Now look at some of the most iconic figures in the Star Wars setting like Darth Vader and Bobba Fett. It's hard to remember that Fett was punked like a tool in his second official appearance when you see exactly how popular his is now compared to what he actually did.

But more then that, this episode provides some interesting guidelines in how exactly an evil campaign can work and it boils down to the 'evil vs evil' camp.

One one side, we have General Grevious. Here's another character with a sharp visual design but another one who suffers the plot effect. He's a super ultra bad ass until he's not needed to be then he gets jobbed like any other mook. But the appeal of watching a cyborg run around with four light sabres is still strong.

Then we have the Night Witches. They make a nice interesting visual contrast with the reds against the background of their dark planet. While none of their designs pop out to me like Grevious does, they are still a good variant on a mystic order, like the jedi.

In terms of conflict, when Grevious and Ventress get to challenge each other, the Game Master could set different goals here.

1. Survive X amount of rounds in order for your back up to arrive. While it sounds 'cheating' and its something done in video games, having a timer to survive against lets the players know that there are tough times coming around here.

2. Steal A Tank. Who doesn't want to steal a tank eh? Once Ventress gets the tank, she's able to push through to the front and punch a hole into the enemy.

3. Engage the Enemy One on One. Now this is pretty much the simple that players normally do anyway but by adding the other two elements in there, you have some quick goals that the players have to meet and follow to survive.

Evil campaigns that pit evil characters against one another are often easier to run because at the end of the day, it's not about watching evil triumphant, it's still about watching evil getting its ass kicked one way or another.

Circle Orboros

Another 'cheat' post where I get to talk about my love of miniatures with my interest in role playing games.

I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons for a long time. I know there are man, many people who started before I did around 85', but I'm just putting out my own reference point here. One of the things I remember when I first started gaming, was how different druids were back then.

I don't want to say that druids have become some green peace hippy thing but it seems to me that a lot of focus on druids being the old religion so to speak, the old ways, the old gods, is left by the doorstop in order to make druids a still useful part of the game. Even in the old Village of Hommlet, the druids were on the way out. The reader could easily get the idea that the only reason that the druids were there at all was because it was an out of the way location that bordered on the wilderness.

And part of the problem with this is that D&D is so enmeshed in making things equal that you'd almost never know that druids are on the way out in the setting proper. They tend to be everywhere adventurers are. The urban druid is actual a thing now.

I think part of this borders from the way the alignment system works. Good and neutral faiths aren't necessarily going to go out of the way to crush the old ways and replace them.

So what does this have to do with the Circle Orboros? These druids are some of the first I've seen where they have a very detailed structure and have their own allies and enemies. Some of which can port over to almost any fantasy setting. Unlike the steam driven side of Warmachine, the druids here rely on monstrous allies, both unique or rare beasts and humanoids who fit that criteria. They train their soldiers off away from the beaten paths.

But they have deep religion on their 'side' too if you will. They are not peaceful. They are not content to tend the woods. They have ties to the ley lines of the world. They see the rise of man, of civilized man as something that must be pushed back and rendered out. But prior to that, they have numerous invaders from other venues and have issues with creatures that blight the very land itself.

This makes them an interesting faction in that they consider their goals noble, they wind up often fighting those who are vile, and they have internal politics where some of the factions are actually noble but are caught up in others intrigues.

When looking at druids in a standard Dungeons and Dragons game, how do they fit in the overall setting? Why do they fit? Ask if these druids are really necessary and make them earn their keep. If you're running a campaign on the borders of civilization, its much easier to rationalize why druids and their standing stones and sacrificial stones would be up and about but when adventuring primarily in a city based dwelling, why are they there? Other 'wilderness' based classes aren't necessarily religion based so the barbarian may be uncouth wherever he goes, but he's still a warrior. A ranger may not feel comfortable around the civilized world, but depending on how you look at the ranger, as original done, someone who gives up the comforts of civilization to safeguard civilization or a tree hugger who couldn't cut it as a druid, their city life may be a natural fit.

The Circle Orboros provides a lot of thought not only in how such an old faith might worship, but what allies it might have and since its free of the tech, is easily ported to most fantasy based campaigns.

Retribution of Scyrah

As I've mentioned in the past, I'm a bit of a miniature painter as well as a traditional role playing fool. One of the games I own a lot of figures for but don't play is Warmachine. I've owned several sets since it first came out at Gen Con many many moons ago. Some of them I still haven't painted. When I'm not playing a game I'm not as pressed to paint something for it as I would be if I knew I was going to be using it in an actual campaign.

What does that have to do with anything? In terms of gaming, its easy to get bogged down into a standard. Elves are always aloof mysterious masters of arcane magics better off forgotten for one. While there are many of those elements present in the Ios force known as the Retribution of Scyrah, they are also some of the most technologically advanced people in the setting.

In some aspects, this makes sense to me. Progression is usually based on a timeline. Elves are most often some of the oldest races in a setting. Too often it's an elf sitting in a tree picking his teeth like some hill folk with a sense of serenity about him. Warmachine takes the Iosian people in a different path. They have power. They have technology. They have advancements undreamed of by men. Their war machines are slick and sleek and things of wonder to behold. they are not lunkers and stumblers spewing forth black smoke and steam onto the battlefield.

By making this contrast but keeping other elements, such as having a small population, being fairly isolated from the mainland, and other bits, the authors are able to take the standard with the fantastic and make the Retribution of Scyrah something different.

When making your races in your setting, look at see what the Halflings in Eberron are like, peak around at the Skaven in Warhammer, noisy about at the Tyranids in Warhammer 40K. There might be something worth stealing for your own campaign.

Dungeons and Dragons Next: How will minis fit?

http://52minis.blogspot.com/ is another blog I'm a part of.

I love miniatures. I know they're not for everyone but here are some things I would like to see.

1. No core races that are rare or very rare. Yeah, I'm looking at the Dragonborn here. The only way to get a 'common' one, was to buy the resculpt in the visible packages that was overpriced compared to what had come previously. Why WoTC decided to make a brand new core race and not have a ton of figures out for it right away I'll never know. If there were sculpting problems, get better sculptors. They're out there. I don't need to post to dozens of sites to prove it. What's worse was at the same time we were still getting dwarves and elves that absolutely no one needed.

2. Adventure Support: Call me crazy but having a miniature of some of the big bads come out a year or later after the adventure has been out doesn't strike me as good marketing. Having an adventure come out that has immediate support with miniatures on the other hand? Especially if they are well done and can be used in other venues? Win.

3. Dreamblade. What the hell? Miniatures of a similar size but with prize money that blew anything the D&D miniatures were hosting out of the water? Well, we all know how that ended but man, talk about trying to have your cake and eat it too. If you're going to make another miniature game, make sure it either doesn't compete with your other one, or make sure that it it extremely useful to the other miniature game and doesn't require people to clip the miniatures off these massive oversized bases.

4. The China problem. Some people hate the idea of anything being made in China due to the various human rights issues. Some people look at current events and see that American workers appear to be more productive, that there are real savings to be had on transportation costs and that the lead time is cut down by months thanks to that improved transportation time. Might be time to you know, start making things in the US again as labor costs on the overseas markets increase. Be a good PR move as well.

5. Bags of miniatures. There has been a Zombie game out for years that allows you to buy a bag of zombies. They have a few other bits as well. These zombies are cheap. Well, relatively cheap. Why WoTC hasn't been able to make something like this is once again, beyond me.

Anyway, that's some things I'd like to see as there has been some talk of miniatures coming out 'soon'.

The Last Mythal by Richard Baker

So over here Amazon has the Last Mythal omnibus edition in Kindle format for $9.99. It's not as great as 99 cents or $1.99 but it is exactly the type of behavior I want to see Wizards of the Coast taking so I'm supporting it by buying it again, even though I have the original trilogy in the box set.

By offering the books individually, it allows the user to 'sample' the series. I've seen some initiatives where the first book is either free or at a greatly reduced price. The thing with Wizards of the Coast though, and I'm not saying this for one hundred percent truth, is that they generally do not offer their ebooks in collected editions.

By offering their collected editions in ebooks at an affordable price, if they at least have an author you like, such as Richard Baker or Mel Odom or Richard Lee Bryers, you can get some great deals. But only if they continue to offer these types of collection.

If you want to see this type of behavior continue, make a purchase and then let WotC know that you purchased it because the price and format was right.

Elric The Balance Lost by Roberson-Biagini-Downer

FIrst off, let me talk about two things I don't like in the marketing of this book. The first is the dreaded "Michael Moorcock's" bit here. I love Michael's work and owe a huge nod of thanks to White Wolf when they reprinted a ton of his work many years ago. Having said that, this is NOT written by Michale Moorock but is just kind of noting that you know, Elric is Michael Moorcock's character. Don't want to put the actual author on the cover or anything you know because who the hell is that guy?

The other thing is the 'Afterword by Neil Gaiman." Uh... no. That is not an afterword. That is a lie. That bit by Neil is from a book published in 2008 and reprinted here talking about how awesome Michael Moorcock is.

I get the need for marketing but people aren't blatantly stupid and that marketing is. It's just bad and pisses people off.

On the other hand, the company Boom made a free issue for free comic book day so that's not all bad.

But what about this trade draws inspiration? For one, the book collects the covers of the series and they are awesome. Some great talent here. Art is not always an inspiration for me, but when it strikes, it can motivation me in ways that text alone cannot. It's one of the reasons I'm always puzzled by people who would rather have RPGs with minimal design and no art in exchange for a lower price. I live visual candy. It's one of the reasons I still watch those Walking With X series. (Just finished the Walking With Monsters, only three episodes but hey, giant scorpions with two sets of claws!).

Another thing I thought interesting though, was that as more characters are introduced and some die, the idea that the 'Eternal Champion' doesn't always win, and that whole worlds if not universes are destroyed thanks to these failures, that if the players fail to do something in your own campaign, you should allow that failure to stand. I've seen some Dungeon Master's who are so concerned with their setting that they won't allow anything big to happen to it that derail's their 'story'.

While I can understand that thinking process and lord knows, when I was much younger, was probably in that boat myself as I tended to use the same campaign setting with the events of previous campaigns evident upon it, as I get older and game less constantly in one campaign, I'm more willing to see where things go. To see what happens when characters fail.

Such options for failure are also great when running a one shot that's high powered. If the player's are given individuals who have rune drinking swords, can summon demon gods, and have alliances with higher powersl eft and right, allowing them to fail and letting them know that such failure will cause the end, can put some extra motivation on the players.

This volume of the Balance Lost is well illustrated if somewhat slow going and I'm curious to see where it winds up. If the e-versions came in a collected edition or were less expensive, I might go that route but as long as I can get the trades for cheaper than buying the individual issues and I continue to churn through my own collection to make space... well, those e-versions will just have to wait.

No Quarter: A Roake Hesit by John Wick

I have not read any pure fiction from John Wick. I have read a lot of his gaming material though and it rarely fails to entertain or provide value for those funds. No Quarter reads a little like a Sin City novella at a premium price.

When I say premium, I mean for myself in comparison to other products of a similar nature. For example, those who've been reading my blog note that I often point out free ebooks, Amazon's little monthly $3.99 or less list and of course, the various books that go on sale on a daily basis, as well as other bits. Even throwing those out though, this isn't a full novel, but a novella. The PDF weights in a 82 well spaced pages. But electronic editions are tricky. I read mine on my Toshiba Thrive as an e-book on the Aldiko software and it was a little over fifty pages.

I recently made some notes on Elaine Cunningham's novellas featuring the elf Honor and the new setting she's working on with clock work and alchemy. Those novellas were $1.99. Here John's charging $5.00 even for a book that while it comes in either epub or PDF, is too short, in my opinion, to justify that price. The good news is that this isn't some book on a shelf. John can mess with the pricing or keep it exactly where it is if the sales meet his forecast and needs.

But how's the work itself? John uses a little bit of unique language to give the setting some feeling. This is important and can be overplayed if used too much. I've sat in games of Planescape where the GM was overdoing it with almost every word part of the setting speak. I've also seen some people use elements from say, Gary Gygax's Canting Crew to sprinkle their language with 'thug life style phrases.

John's description of the setting itself through the character's eyes is good in providing the reader with how things work in the city and how the characters should work in it. Magic is a known thing and is purchasable and can be used as a 'get out of jail' free card, but that's not something unusual in this type of story where some one knows someone who can do something or has some tech toy that the reader couldn't be expected to know ahead of time.

Now I'll be getting into spoilers in terms. If you don't want any spoilers, read no further. I'll be discussing what I think a Game Master might want to take away from the book and, like my rambling on Breaking Bad, it concerns the characters in the book and how Game Masters can take the characters in this book as cues.

In my blathering of the novel, Prince of Thorns, I mentioned how you treat the NPC's can have an impact on how the setting is perceived. One of those methods is making the setting dangerous. In this case, the main character is the only survivor of a job that has gone wrong. His partners are all dead. By the time the novel ends, his new partners are also already dead. This is a fairly good indicator that life is cheap and that people will come and go. Now the novel is too short and ends before we can see if there are any long term effects of the main character going through two crews so rapidly, but as you plot and pilot the world with characters for the players to interact with, don't get too attached to them.

If there is a reason for those characters to die, and this can range from the players being given a warning by another character in the setting, to that character not being prepared to take on the challenges they did, to that character getting killed because the player screwed up, then let those characters die.

NPC death can have a lot of consequences but in all ways, shapes, and forms, NPCs are very easily replaced and sometimes, it allows the GM to push the NPCs in a different direction. If other people GM anything like I do, when a new source book comes out, you might get that gamer ADD and want to use it right away. A shake up of NPC deaths' may allow you to showcase some of that material. For example, if you get a new source book on a Viking style land but the players are pretty comfortable where they're at, imagine if the village/town/etc... they're at comes under raid from some of these vikings who retreat back to their home. In their wake the vikings leave a lot of dead people and capture a lot of slaves. If the players are of the heroic sort, they'll probably go after those vikings and bam, you're rolling on the random encounter table for far north adventurers.

But GMs also make characters. If you get a book on rogues and it has all sorts of options and other interesting tweaks for rogue characters, you can have the current thieves guild crushed by some new upstarts. Of course this only becomes an issue if the players are allied with or know of the thieves guild. Perhaps they've used some of the thieves guild men for information, trading ill gotten wealth or other minor services like escort service through a maze like neighborhood. Using such tactics serves to put the players on alert.



In this short story, Roake has an ally who does everything on the up and up. Fair trade in magic and other bits is this individuals game and if you don't have the funds for it, you're not getting anything. If you do have the funds and more, you'll get treated well and more importantly, fairly. This type of character is often valued by all sides because no matter who you are, if you do right by such a character, they'll do right by you.

Outside of the character types, there are a lot of nods to the noir genre here. The characters are continually finding themselves thrust into new situations caused by other characters deciding to take things into their own hands. These double crosses happen frequently enough that it can be part of the genre and is another reason why having a 'steady' ally or patron or merchant to buy from can be so important.
No Quarter sets the stage for a fantasy Sin City and I'll be curious to see if the novellas will be collected, put into some type of RPG format or are going to only exist as a fiction line on ye old Drivethrurpg and RPGnow .