ENie Awards nominations are out

The ENie awards are being voted on soon, and will be announced at GenCon.  The nominations are worth a look, in my opinion, especially some of the nominations for Best Aid or Accessory, Best Blog, and Best Free Product.

You can find the nominations here.

Space Race 1895 Actual Play

So, I officially started my limited-run Space Race 1895 campaign today. Here are some notes about the game.  As the name would imply, it’s a steampunk game, and I’m using FATE 2nd Edition rules.  It’s at my home, and I have 7 players (!).

The first half of the game session was taken up by character creation, and then there was an initial brief encounter to help get the feel of the game.

The Players

  • John Reiher played his Grandfather, Ben Reiher, a railroad engineer working for the Vanderbilts, who’s along for the ride as a trusted confidante looking out for the family’s interests
  • Laura Mortensen played Shana O’Shea, a tough Pinkerton employee who’s been hired by the Edison Company to safeguard their valuable patented technology and see that the ship makes it to its destination.
  • Kam White played Victoria Tebitt, a well-published science journalist who will be documenting the trip for posterity.
  • Rolfe Bergstrom played Boyo, a rough-and-tumble confidence man from the Bowery who managed to strike it rich and is a minor partner in the venture.
  • Sarah Bergstrom played Terry White, a genius inventor and mad-gadgeteer employed by Edison to keep the ship ship-shape.
  • Cliff Hare played Lt. Smedley Butler, a Naval officer, who is to be the group’s chaperone and protector.
  • Erik Hendrikson played Adam Gee, a dashing devil of derring-do, who’s along primarily for his publicity value.

The Mission

After being commissioned in the American Lunar Expedition Company, the group is to travel to a secret destination where the ship is waiting for launch!   They are to get to the moon and secure the valuable phlogiston deposits there before the other Great Powers can do so, and bring some back home.

The group met at the US Naval Observatory building in Washington City, District of Columbia and were briefed by a an august assemblage of industry captains, military and civilian officials, and noted scientists, and told to get on a train to Kansas City the very next morning, where Lt. Butler would make a secret contact who would inform them of their secret destination.

The set out for an evening of drinking at the posh Willard Hotel, but before they could get there, they were ambushed!  They easily defeated the interlopers.

They were arguing about whether it would be safe to go barhopping in Georgetown, when Lt. Butler and Shana O’Shea noticed that the carriage had stopped.  When Butler poked his head out window, he was fired upon by several assailants who had taken up defensive positions.  It was an ambush!  And their driver had jumped overboard and was running away!

Ben Reiher jumped up topside and took the reins, driving the carriage right towards the attackers, in an attempt to run one or more of them down.  Boyo lept out of the carriage to chase down the escaping driver, Adam Gee lept out and jumped on an attacker, restraining and hog-tying him (in world record regulation time).  The Lieutenant, O’Shea, and Tebitt returned fire from the carriage while White used her MacGuyver like skills to fortify the inside of the carriage, effectively giving it a bit of armor.

When all the smoke settled, the carriage was stuck on a berm, Boyo had completely dominated the driver and physically hauled him back to the carriage, Gee had captured an attacker, and the other four lay dead.

The two survivors were roughly interrogated.

They were all Southern sympathizers, and one of them had a telegram from Ottawa, which seemed to indicate the British Empire had employed them to waylay our heroes!

The surviving would-be hijackers were handed over to the local police, and Lt. Butler decided to change plans… rather than stay at the Willard as planned, they would instead head to the train station immediately and board the next train going in the direction of Kansas City!

And… that’s where we left it for the evening.

Thoughts on the System

I’m using FATE, which is the underlying system used by Spirit of the Century and Dresden Files (although there are some differences, particularly with Dresden Files).

I like the system, but I think I had the players roll the dice a bit much.  In future sessions, I’m going to reduce that a bit, I think.

It was my first FATE combat.  And, frankly, the reason I put the ambush in in the first place was to test combat out a bit, and gauge the power level of the party, so I know what to throw at them in the future.  I hadn’t intended for the fight to be all that challenging, but it was far easier for them than I had anticipated.  This is good to discover early on.

I’m not sure how “mooky” to make the mooks.  In Savage Worlds, for example, the bad guys die as soon as they take a wound.  FATE doesn’t actually have that rule, but I did that anyway, and I think that’s part of what made the combat so easy for the players.  However, if I had used the normal wound progression for them, I don’t think the outcome would have been much different, it just would have taken longer.  So I think giving them better skills would have been in order.  Also, I only made a +1 advantage for their superior position, and I think maybe it should have been a higher bonus.

I simplified character creation somewhat… instead of letting the players build skills phase by phase, I just told them they get one Great(+3), 2 at Good(+2), 3 at Fair(+1), and 4 at Average(0).  This way, they get 10 skills,  one of which is a specialty.  I think it worked out well.  Using FATE’s recommended method would have taken a while with 7 players, and I don’t think would have made the end result any better.

The players took some great Aspects, and I can’t wait to put them in situations where they’re invoked.  Some of my favorites:

  • Corporate Shill
  • Phlogiston of the Sierra Madre
  • 9 Impossible Things Before Breakfast
  • It’s the Amazing Adam Gee!
  • Disturbed Loner
  • Mean Streets of Boston
  • Never Say Die

There was a bit of confusion about Aspects versus Skills in some situations, and I think I was a little wishy-washy about that.  There’s some overlap there.  All in all though, I think the characters are all pretty well defined,  and the party members complement each other well.

Erik pointed out that the adjectives in Spirit of the Century are different, but the progression ladder is essentially the same.   Average in SoTC is (-1) I think, and in vanilla FATE it’s a (+1).


Gamer’s Garage Sale, July 10th, 2010!

Games Galore!

On July 10th, the Emerald City Gamefest will hold a Gamers Garage Sale at theYardsale3 Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore. Role playing games, board games, card games, all will be on sale from 10AM to 5PM! The proceeds from this sale will go to pay for this year’s Emerald City Gamefest in November!

Open Gaming!


Try before you buy! Or bring a game and your friends and play a game or two! We’ll have table space set aside so that you and your friends can stop on by and play a couple of games during the garage sale!

Participate in the Sale!

There are three ways that you can participate in the yard sale

  • Stop by and browse!
  • Bring your games by and we will sell them for you! *
  • Donate your unloved and unwanted gaming items to the Gamefest!

*Just bring whatever you want to sell by or contact us to pick your lot up.  List the price you are willing to accept for each item and we will sell it for you and split the profits, 50/50.  Any unsold items will be returned to you.

When: July 10th, 2009
Where: Episcopal Church of the Redeemer
6211 NE 182nd Street
Kenmore, WA, 98028
Phone: (425) 486-3777
Time: 10am – 5pm
Email: Kedamono@yahoo.com

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An Odd Call

Introduction

Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) is a game based around one of the truly classic pulp settings, a hollow Earth inhabited by dinosaurs and lost civilizations. Exile Games has a short teaser/ introduction to the game in an example of play on their website.

As such examples go, it does a very nice job of giving a little flavor of the setting and showing how combat and some combat options work. In the example a Great White Hunter character decides to go off alone to track down and kill a T Rex. He tracks the T Rex but fails to gain surprise. The hunter then makes a Called Shot trying to at least stun the animal so that he can get a second shot in before it tears him apart, but he rolls just a little too low. So the T Rex rushes him and mangles him into unconsciousness. However, in this example certain things seemed a bit off. Off enough to warrant a closer look at how good a call Called Shot is in HEX.

Read more »

Trick Question

Like many games, Savage Worlds tries to provide some choice during combat by having a number of combat maneuvers that work slightly differently than a regular attack. Some of these are relatively straight forward. For example, Double Tap increases the to-hit and damage of a gun attack at the cost of using up more ammo. However, since most games of Savage Worlds do not actually keep track of ammo, there is pretty much no reason not to use this maneuver at all times. Some maneuvers are less obviously useful, for example Trick.

Tricks represent those stunts we’ve all seen in movies where someone tries to distract their opponent by calling out “Look behind you!” or throwing sand in their eyes. Comparing the effectiveness of Tricks versus a regular attack turns out to be a very difficult problem. It depends on the characteristic used for the trick, the characteristic used for defense, the combat skill that would be used otherwise, the target’s defense against an attack, the damage of the attack, the target’s toughness, the target’s spirit, heck, under certain circumstances initiative affects the utility of a trick. Given this, there is no absolute answer to how useful Tricks are in Savage Worlds. However, this article will try to present a rough estimate. Read more »

Trick Question: Supplemental Table

The table shows the average number of wounds done by two attacks with the indicated attack skill and a base damage of 2d6+1 against defenders with the given defense and toughness.  Read more »

Game Summary: New Blood- Issue 6

New Blood

Issue 6

Violence Solves Everything

With Don and the Bronze Umbrella in costume, the locals mostly clear out of the bar when the heroes walk in. The Huntress is outside watching for gang members.

Down the street, Whale-Watcher is enjoying her entrée.

The Huntress sees the entire gang coming down the street. Some go to the front of the bar, others to the back where she is hiding. Just as the Weasel orders spaghetti, one of the gang members throws open the front door, yells “It looks like you Corlione’s have started playing dress up too!”, and hurls a Molotov cocktail into the bar.

Read more »

Game Summary: New Blood- Issue 5

New Blood

Issue 5

More New Blood

Veronica and Caroline sit on a bench talking. Veronica tells Caroline that the police will be coming soon. Caroline says that the police are jerks and will probably blame her for all of this.

Outside the Huntress has Morko let her out of the SUV. Morko actually has an appointment for his day job and goes off to take care of that. The Bronze Umbrella pulls up on his bronze motorcycle, but has no idea what is going on. Don Manuel recovers from the fear effect and goes to talk to the SWAT commander. Given that the police are not supposed to be consorting with heroes and that Don is not exactly in tune with the mindset of American law enforcement, the SWAT commander ignores him.

Read more »

Game Summary: New Blood- Issue 4

New Blood

Issue 4

Berserk Button

Whale-Watcher and the Trouser Weasel approach the mall but are stopped by the police. While Whale-Watcher tries to convince them that they are heroes and should be let in, the Weasel recalls a clothing display inside from his job as a secret shopper and teleports into some leather pants. A mannequin appears in the Weasel’s pants outside by Whale-Watcher, who is not amused.

Needing a vehicle to get the mall, Morko walks into the street and terrifies a poor man driving an SUV. He careens off of the road and barely avoids hitting a tree. As the driver runs off, Morko takes the car and has the other heroes pile in. Morko sets off for the kid’s house to pick up Don Manuel.

Read more »

Game Summary: New Blood- Issue 3

New Blood

Issue 3

Casing the Joint

After regrouping to share what Veronica found, the group splits up. Most people go home. Veronica heads back to the lab and the Dung Beetle goes to his booth at the garden show.

Morko, also known as the Boogieman, has recently set up shop as a psychologist in Harbor City. At night he scares wicked people, in theory to try to cure them of their wickedness. He notices that some weird things have been going on and that Whale-Watcher is involved. It takes little time to find out her real name as she doesn’t try to hide it, and he looks up her address in the phone book.

Read more »