Tag Archives: RPGs

Tsathoggua – Primeval Duraflame Log – Pt 1

Through no fault of my own – I swear these universes build themselves – I suddenly find myself needing to become more acquainted with the Great Old One Tsathoggua as well as figure out some very practical places for it to appear in my Call of Cthulhu game. So in my effort to figure out how to make it appear and influence my game, you get a blog post on how to better use Tsathoggua. (edit: MULTIPLE blog posts…)

According to The HP Lovecraft Wiki’s entry on Tsathoggua, he is one of the most referenced GOO’s in all of Lovecraft, which is crazy for how little he is used in Lovecraft investigation games. Furthermore, while Sath (my shorthand for it, at least for this blog post) is a creation of Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft of course took him and made him his own, and the two versions differ substantially. Finally, in most books Sath is represented as a monstrous toad-like creature who sleeps all the time – not the most horrifying of visages when put against its peers. So no wonder Sath is underutilized, which is all the more reason to figure out how to use him.

My Arkham Call of Cthulhu campaign strings together published scenarios for a group of PCs that run an antique store that was inherited by Rupert Merriweather (of Edge of Darkness fame). In the group’s first scenario – of course, The Haunting – one of the PCs got his hands on The Book of Eibon (TBOE), in which the titular wizard Eibon learns to communicate with Sath and eventually shares spells to do so (as well as summon Formless Spawn, which I’ll come back to).

I am working on a mini-game to make studying Mythos tome more fun, which is not ready to share, but for now know that I’m using it as this PC (a forgery artist named Miles) continually goes back to TBOE and tries to crack its code. TBOE is full of references to Sath and I’ve started to feed in some information, bit by bit, on what that looks like. But honestly, I don’t have a full take on how to make reading about Sath fun and interesting as well as dangerous.

Then, months later in game time, the group is now investigating a series of murders that seem not only related but powered by witchcraft (and probably Mythos magic). In this scenario (which I’ll be vague and spoiler-free for now), the antagonist has made a pact with Sath (via the mentioned murders) and the deity in turn provides all sorts of Mythos magical powers to be used in nefarious ways.

So I have two needs to crack the code on Tsathoggua:

  • What does making a pact with this deity – trading magic powers for ritual sacrifices – specifically look like for both the antagonist (who made the pact) and the PCs investigating her? How is a pact with Sath different from a pact with Nyarlathotep or any other GOO?
  • How does reading TBOE (basically an instruction manual on how to contact and make a pact with Sath) impact the reader? What changes does my PC undergo as he continues to investigate this arcane and very dangerous tome?

But before I do any of this, I need to do some research of my own and figure out who the subterranean madness this Tsathoggua fellow is.

New GOO – Who ‘dis?

One of the main reasons to own the Trail of Cthulhu book (by Ken Hite and Pelgrane Press), whether you have a weathered 1e (like me) or backed the upcoming 2e (also me), is the incredible section on Gods and Titans. Hite, a Mythos scholar if there is one, doesn’t just give static descriptions of GOOs – instead for each GOO he provides a few options of how that GOO may appear in your game that both works thematically and gives you practical advice on how to incorporate into actual investigations.

So when I am challenged to visualize how a GOO might appear in my game, this section is the first place I go. Without repeating the whole entry, after reading and mulling about, I found this entry on Sath most appealing:

Tsathoggua is a protean, formless Great Old One, usually encountered in the shape of a loathsome toad-like lump of black slime. He was the first GOO to seep onto Earth. His spawn are likewise formless, and they are his primary servitors. In some sense, all his spawn are the same being, connected through immaterial pathways of perception and lineage.

This entry has so much to sink my teeth into! It ties together how and where Sath and its servitors may appear (in the cracks of Earth), how they appear (black slime), and how they interact with each other, as well as mortals (connected through immaterial pathways of perception and lineage). This gives me everything I need to frame up both the pact and the PCs’ research (both for the PC reading TBOE and the overall group investigation).

Armed with this, I can now fill in the details on what the pact looks like.

More in Part II…

“It’s a Cold and Wet Sunday” – Calendar and Weather in Investigative Horror

Closed on Sundays

Recently, in both 1920s Call of Cthulhu games I’m running, the players laid forth plans to get out on the town and get some shit done – knock on doors, talk to folks, figure out what was happening. But as they went about their business, they soon found that all the shops were closed and people were unavailable. It was Sunday, and most places are closed on Sunday.

This forced the players to retune their expectations and come at the problem in different ways. In one game, where they wanted to interview a shop owner, they asked if there was an apartment upstairs that might be the residence of the owner. There was indeed a residence, and a successful Luck roll later, they found the shop owner home on a Sunday morning, surprised in her morning robes, but willing to bring them in for tea and a brief visit.

In the other case, the group wanted to find a professor of archaeology at Miskatonic University and ask them some questions. Since there’s no school on Sunday, chances are the whole department is closed and no one available. “We’ll try anyway – see if anyone is working the weekend.”

Another Luck roll and this was a Critical Success – as it happened, they found the department head redoing his bookshelves on a Sunday, and were able to capture his imagination with their recent artifact finds. They engaged with the NPC and got the clues that sent the story off on a whole new direction…

In both cases, what might have originally been seen as a blocker – it’s Sunday so no clues for you! – was actually an opportunity for both the players and me to reframe the scene and solve the problem in a new way. It was less about preventing clues or encounters and more about verisimilitude and presenting the world in a way that feels real.

I love the word “verisimilitude.” First off, six syllables is a lot, and 50% more than my last name, so it’s just a big, neat word. Also, it packs a lot of punch for investigative horror games where the disparity and dichotomy between our “normal” reality and the cosmic horrors we encounter are what gives these stories a lot of punch.

The word means “the appearance of being true or real” and while that seems pretty straightforward, it’s definitely a tool that can easily be misused or mishandled in these sorts of games. It’s an amazing tool that definitely needs careful use.

I’m not even going to talk about people who use it to justify prejudice (racism, sexism, etc) in their games, saying “XXX people had no rights in that time period, so we’re going to lean into that part of the game.” Blech, no, shut up and go away.

I’m talking more about people who get lost in the details of the period and roleplay the least important part of the games  – like buying bus tickets or presenting a dinner menu. These are neat, yes, and certainly taking a brief moment to set the scene and ground the story in historical appropriate details helps build the atmosphere.

But often writers and GMs get lost in these details and use them as excuses to avoid real stakes or interesting traction in the story. Just in my above example, I could have just said, no the place is closed on Sunday and moved on. But the players pushed back and asked for a way to work around in a manner that felt real. So they themselves leaned into the details and countered the real situation with appropriate details of their own.

This is good, and we want to encourage and reward this behavior. Good players, here is a clue.

But also good GM – I didn’t let the verisimilitude get in the way of the story and instead used the details to create something different than what was expected.

Cold and Tired

The next thing I’m trying to do with this verisimilitude is with the weather, which everyone is discussing but no one is doing anything about. Seriously, I describe the weather all the time, especially when it becomes inclement – rainy or even snowy and cold. One of my groups is currently in London during the month of February, and before that were in NYC in January, so I was constantly describing the cold weather in an effort to bring the scenes alive.

And that’s great, but… then what? So it’s raining and cold and overcast and damp, and we need to carry umbrellas and wear coats and hats… And then? How do these details make acting during these scenes more interesting and real? What tools can we as GMs bring to bear that make the weather more impactful?

I don’t actually know at this moment, but what I am wrestling with is being realistic with PC exhaustion, or “you haven’t slept in 36 hours because you’ve been running and gunning from the police, so you’re too tired to do anything.”  Again, this came up in both of my games, and I wrestled with how to bring realism to the game and still keep it fun.

No one wants to be left out when the group gets together to discuss clues and the mystery and what to do next. I don’t. Those scenes are one of the best parts of the game, and it’s no fun to be told by the GM “you failed your CON roll so you’re asleep in the other room.”

I know that it’s not fun, because I did that in both games and watched the players itch to get back in the scenes. As a follow up then, I had the PCs check their CON, and that potential success could end in a reward of MP or HP, resulting from a good night’s sleep. And then I just picked up the whole scene and brought everyone together for breakfast together. It worked great.

Paying Attention

Verisimilitude is not just a great word – it’s a tool to use to ground players in the realness of our game, and is particularly useful in period games. But it can be overused or misused to put up roadblocks or churn for players who just want to engage with the story.

Paying attention to the day of the week often feels like too much bookkeeping for my tastes, but it allowed me to bring some realism and shift the tones of scenes without much effort. It worked very well and I will definitely use it again.

However, if my investigators spend too much time out in the cold rain and happen to get colds or the flu, I’m not sure needing to spend the weekend in bed will be as fun for them as it is for my storytelling. I need to find a better way to use weather to impact the game.

What are your tips for using verisimilitude to build details and realness in your game?

9 Player DCC with Player Roles

9 Player DCC with Player Roles: Caller, Mapper, Quartermaster, Time-tracker

I recently ran a 5-hour session of Operation Unfathomable with 9 players, and one of the key things that helped everyone at the table – especially me – stay engaged and organized was that I had four players help me run the game. Before the game I identified four sets of information and decisions that I wanted to offboard from me, and then I asked folks ahead of time who could help me. It was easy to setup and once everyone was engaged it worked like a charm.

I’ll describe each of these roles, and will finish by talking through what it means to have responsible players that you can trust.

Caller

Back in the early days of OD&D/AD&D, having a party of 6+ players was the norm. The legends speak of 8, 10, 12 or more players around the table for the early games, and I’ve certainly played in larger games back in the early ‘80s. There just weren’t enough DMs (still a problem today, though not as severe) and getting invited to sit at a game – any game – was a thrill, no matter the party size.

In order to maintain the chaos of decision-making during non-combat turns (the 10 minute long ones, more on that below), one player is designated the Caller. I’m still digging through the AD&D books to find a citation, but the Caller is the player responsible for holding the party’s collective decision making process for the DM. This is the first time I’ve ever run a game with a Caller, and while I only needed it a few times, when I did it was beautiful.

The Caller’s job is to hold the answer to the question “what are you doing now?” for the entire party, gaining consensus (or not) and anointed by the DM as the single point for an answer. My friend Dan is a Sr Director at a large tech company and so he was an easy pick for this role.

I only used him a few times – a key example is when the party emerged from the entry side tunnel (we’re underground) and I asked “do you go left or right?” The group took a good five minutes to discuss, and then slowly waded into a confused back and forth that these large group decisions often go. So then I pointed to Dan and said, “Well?”

He stopped the discussion, made a decision, and checked back in with the group (“everybody okay if we go right?”), got a collective shrug of acceptance, then told me, “we go right.” And that was it.

There is an important psychological moment with agency and decision consensus that the group went through, but it took Dan’s energy and focus to hold the group in that moment, and I didn’t have to do anything. Furthermore, it wasn’t me as the DM holding the decision, it was the party who did it, which also builds a greater sense of buy-in and agency. We didn’t need it often – most of the turns I gave people the opportunity to do their own thing – but when we did, it worked extremely well. I’m all in with the Caller.

Mapper

There was a mix-up at the start when I asked the second Dan to bring a battle mat and he only brought smaller folio-sized combat maps. I had envisioned mapping the tunnels in a large-scale – not necessarily to scale, with one square equaling 20 feet – but putting the large map out in front so everyone could see it. But it all worked out in the end.

Rob heartily volunteered for the role of Mapper, and his job was to draw a map that showed the dungeon with any notes of encounters. This was particularly important because we are only playing once a year, so there needs to be continuity for the group to pick up in 2025. Rob did great.

We agreed on a few key ideas as we started:

  • 20 foot squares
  • There are no cardinal directions (as we’re underground) but for the sake of simplicity, the top of the map is north
  • If Rob needed clarification, he could hold up the map and ask “like this?” and that while I would not correct every single detail, I would make sure he has the overall structure correct.

And that’s how it worked. Like the Caller, we didn’t need it until we needed it. He checked in a few times, but for most of the game he was sitting at the end of the table, creating a map of the dungeon and quite enjoying himself. A few times he helped steer the group back on course, a few times he asked if he had it right, and now there’s a map of what they’ve explored so far. Absolutely easier than what I had in my head when I started.

Quartermaster

Again, I was thinking about getting decisions and tracking off my plate and onto a player’s, I asked Dan2 (not the Caller) to manage the group’s inventory. I did this for three reasons:

  • The campaign starts with the PCs getting a bunch of magic items that I didn’t want to manage myself.
  • I wanted someone to track food and ammunition (more on this below).
  • And there would be treasure and other items the group came across to track.

Moving the consensus building from me to a player was again so helpful. When the party arrived at the start of the dungeon, I gave Dan2 an index card with a list of 10+ magic items, and then he went around the table and figured out who got what. While he did this I continued to prep and think about where the first encounter would be.

Also, I don’t really like tracking individual rations and ammunition, and like to use the One Year Engine’s resource-tracking die mechanic (they didn’t need torches because the dungeon is lit by phosphorescent fungi). Basically, your resource (eg rations) start at a d20 value. Then, whenever you eat (let’s say daily) you roll that resource die, and if you get a 1 or 2, it drops down to the next die in the chain (usually d12 down from d20 but we’re playing DCC and I haven’t decided where the d14 and d16 fit it, lol). Then you repeat until you reach d4, when if you roll a 1/2 you are out of that resource.

We did it for ammunition for the one crossbow in the group (no bows strangely) so it wasn’t used a lot, but Dan2 just rolled a couple times and didn’t get a 1 or 2, so ammunition stayed at the d20. Much easier than tracking individual shots, and really great to have this all managed by someone not me.

Time-tracker

This final piece was the one I wasn’t sure about, and I waffled up until that morning, then just decided to go for it. I’ve not run a large scale dungeon crawl in a while, and 9 players or not, I don’t have a go-to framework for managing the action economy while exploring. After some research and discussions with a friend, I just went simple and built the following rules:

  • It takes 10 minutes to explore a 20’ square and gain the core information.
  • Any other exploring or resting will take another 10 minutes.
  • 60 minutes to an hour, etc.

The key for tracking time is used for:

  • Tracking daily rations usage
  • Tracking spell and other underworld and Chaos effects
  • Understanding overall time spent for in-game context

It was fascinating to discover at the end of five-hours in actual time that we had spent five hours in-game. The ebb and flow of 10 minute exploration rounds versus the few intense encounters centered on the large combat (which only took 30 minutes in game but a whole hour in real time) still ended up with a very similar time-frame.

Glenn gladly took up this role, and he pressed me a couple times to be clear in how much time had passed. The first few times I had to think about it, but we got into a groove and by the end, I was comfortable judging whether or not to tick off another 10 minutes. He created his own tracker on a piece of graph paper, and again, was happy ticking time away with almost no inputs or management from me. So good.

On Players

The key thread through all of these roles is that I had players who easily jumped into their responsibilities with almost no prodding or management by me. These are all good friends of mine, and I’ve known most of them for decades, so there’s a level of trust and communication that already exists. I’m thankful for their help, and I recognize that a less mature table (maybe comprised of strangers at con) may not be as easy and effective as mine was.

One would hope that sitting down with a larger group at a convention, or even at an annual gaming weekend of friends like mine, would naturally bring the engagement needed to pull this off. I could write a whole blog post on managing people’s expectations and what communication skills are needed to pull this off, but that will be for another day.

For now I’ll leave saying that these roles not only helped the party function and gave the players more agency – they made the game more fun for me as the DM. It’s a lot of work managing a dungeon crawl, never mind one with 9 players only run once a year. Getting help in this way significantly improved my enjoyment of the game, took many decisions burdens off my mind, and let me focus on the story and encounter flow.

I heartily recommend these roles for larger groups, and feel like the whole thing is possible with these shared responsibilities. I hope you get a chance to try them some day.

DCC and Operation Unfathomable Session Report – Summer 2024

DCC and Operation Unfathomable

SPOILERS ABOUND!

SPOILERS ABOUND!

SPOILERS ABOUND!

Every summer I get together with a group of long time friends for a gaming weekend. We mostly play board games, but for a few years I was able to run a DCC game with the same PCs.

I started with the Hubris! campaign setting and ran the funnel and L1 scenarios there, and then had a great time playing Fever Swamp. However I really struggled trying to tie the sessions together and then Covid came and ended it anyway.

This year I ran the DCC version of Operation Unfathomable (OU) with a full table of 9 players and it. Was. Awesome.

We had a mix of L1 and L2 PCs plus one player ran a coterie of 0L. But more importantly I had the players help me run the game in a very AD&D way.

One player served as Caller, another as Mapper, then one each for Time Tracker and Quartermaster. It was so much fun to have all the assistance at the table and just be able to have everything tracked without my effort. (I will do another blog post on this shortly.)

Crazy thing is that it took us five hours in real time to play five hours in game time. We didn’t get very far into the dungeon but now we are well into it. And we can pick up right where we left off…

Session Record – Episode 1 – Summer 2024

We had 4 L2, 4 L1, and 4 L0 PCs, so 12 PCs for 9 players in all.

Prologue – We read the player introduction and then I brought the party to the 1000’ ladder to begin their descent. We then went around the table and each player introduced their PC (or PCs for one player) and then they got to either ask a question or roll on the rumor chart. Most rolled on the chart, but a couple asked questions, specifically around visions and the chaos. I tried to give as many clues as possible, including showing the cleric Ned a vision of Shaggath-Ka lying injured in his cave (and I showed him the picture).

We also had a great moment when the Chaos Cleric tried to contact his deity for help, but rolled a 1, and ended up interacting with Ned’s Law deity instead. Laughs ensued.

Room 1 – The players then arrived at the first cave from the climb and set about getting organized. I asked the Quartermaster to hand out the magic items, and then asked the Caller to organize the marching order. I wasn’t super concerned about the exact order, just more looking for who was in the front, middle, and rear.

The Mapper immediately realized that the player map is wrong and great gnashing of player teeth followed. With inventory managed, mapping ready, but without searching the first room, they set off into the dungeon. We weren’t sure this was actually going to happen.

Room 2 – They fell right into proper paranoid dungeon crawlers and spent a lot of time moving through the pill bug husks, but of course the mind bats attacked! They were actually hard to hit, but the mind bats rolled poorly and did no damage. Eventually the party was able to kill them with no damage to themselves. It was good to get some dice rolled and have everyone figure out how to work together a bit.

Hell’s Back Road & Room 3a – The party moves into the large tunnel and spent some time interacting with the giant skeleton. They eventually cast a spell and drove off the flying prawns and were a little disappointed to find nothing of value on the giant, but they spent the time and collected the 200 gp worth of miscellaneous coin and headed “east.”

About 120’ Later – Despite GMing for almost 45 years, I don’t have a lot of experience with “proper” dungeon crawling, with time tracking, random encounters, etc (at least not as an adult), so to alleviate the pressure I rolled up just a few encounters to help me focus ahead of time. I’m all for letting the dice do the talking but I need something to sink my teeth into until I’m comfortable with the dungeon itself.

The first encounter I rolled up, which ended up being the centerpiece encounter for the whole session, was a combination of Merchant Riding Glutton-Newt and Bewildered Martian Ape. I had given all the warnings to the players that – a) not every encounter is combat-focused, and b) there is no balance and some encounters are very dangerous. Great example for both of these.

They hid out and waited until the newt-riding merchant and his guardian had passed, then came out to raise a hand in peace. The merchant stopped and they spent a long moment beginning negotiations for possible potion purchase. They had literally just collected 200 gp in loose coin and were glad to make a trade.

However, suddenly this terrible and furious sound came barreling down the hallway and everyone turned to find this giant four-armed white ape barreling down toward the group. We cleared the middle of the table, set up minis, and rolled initiative.

There were a lot of great moments that I won’t be able to describe in detail, but I’ll cover a few key actions:

  • In the first round, the Merchant’s Guardian fumbled and ended up hurting the newt!
  • Both wizards cast Spider Climb and got up onto the walls – and since one of the 0L had identified as “wizard’s apprentice” their player asked if they could try to mimic the other wizards and try the same spell. I said yes but with a d16 – they still rolled 14 total and everyone cheered as the apprentice got their first whiff of magic.
  • Everyone lined up to take swings at the Ape, and it was taking and giving some damage, but then Rob said, “I thought you said it had four arms – why is it only attacking once?” Of course everyone booed at Rob but I thanked him and discovered that yes, the Ape had 4d20 action dice, not just 1d20 as I’d been rolling. I didn’t retcon all the of the attacks, but suddenly the panicked Ape became much more dangerous. (Good learning moment for me and honestly if I had been swinging that much damage up front many PCs would have died. I’m fine with how it went.)
  • Ned the cleric used his healing powers successfully on the glutton-newt, and that was key in later negotiations. Nice move, Ned.
  • The group finally got organized enough to kill the Ape. Everyone worried about what it was running from. (Nothing but they didn’t know that.)

Once combat was over, negotiations began once again, and this time, between the guardian fumbling and Ned’s healing powers, the players had a lot of leverage. After some back and forth, the PCs were able to get 5 potions basically for the price of 3. It seemed fair.

Fungal Bloom + Beetle Ghosts – They spent a long time navigating these relatively harmless encounters and were weirded out by ghost beetles watching a be(etle)-heading.

Lava Demi-Gods – The party had just passed the fungal blooms when they heard the lava beings Hrrk & Krrgh coming toward them. They pulled into a full retreat back to a side passage and were able to escape any damage with some deft hiding. They saw the encounter for what it was and acted appropriately, I thought.

Detritus – After the party passed the third pile of Dungeon Detritus, and I asked for the third time if they wanted to examine it, they decided, “Well, the DM keeps asking us about it so we might as well look into it.” They spent the time and found some fire beetle bombs. They reluctantly thanked me.

Bottomless Pit – Turns out, after some nice die rolling, Reggie the Rag (L2 Thief) can read Ancient Beetle, so he was able to figure out what all the signs surrounding this deep black pit were about. They threw in some coin and carried on. They all agreed, better safe than sorry.

Room 3b – They found the scarred remains of black oozes, tested them, determined they were dangerous, and so just moved around them.

60’ Later – At this point, we’d been playing for about 5 hours, both in real-time and in-game, and a couple people had to take care of stuff, so I needed to find a good place to finish up. I looked through the encounters – I didn’t have time for another combat – and so thought Cave Lightning would be fun and distinct enough to end on until 2025.

So I set the scene, the smell of ozone, and here comes the lighting – everyone make a Reflex check… then I look down to see it’s a DC 2. Ugh, so look, “just don’t roll a 1.” Everyone rolls, I check around the table and see just thumbs up. No 1s…

Except Dan AKA Ned the L1 Cleric AKA Dan the Caller, sitting right across from me, is staring down at the 1 in front of him. “You told me not to roll a 1 so I rolled a 1.” I laugh. “Well, okay – roll again for saving throw…” He rolls… a 1. Okay then. I rolled 17 damage which is way more than he has as L1 Cleric.

So the Cave Lighting (Erol the Wizard says, “Why the hell is cave lighting a thing?”) comes and goes, everyone sounds off, except there, where Ned was just a minute ago, is just a pair of smoking boots.

<End session>

6 Inspirations for your Alien RPG

I recently picked up five Aliens graphic novels as I’m a bit hungry for  inspiration for my game. I thought I’d post little quick reviews and recommendations here to guide purchase. The key here is that, as far as the rpg is concerned, these are all pulling from the same canon (six movies), and show a broad set of interpretations of those materials. Mild spoilers here but I’ve tried to stay away from major plot points. I’ve linked all books in the text itself:

Alien 3 by William Gibson

With all the recent uptick in Alien interest, the powers that be went back to the unused William Gibson screenplay for Alien 3 and turned it into a graphic novel and audio play. I remember reading the screenplay itself in the late 90s in the nascent days of the internet and being unimpressed, and I think the feeling is still there. Now, Alien 3 (the actual David Fincher directed movie) is a total train wreck, but the new cut at least pulls it together into something that makes some sort of sense. But for all that Fincher’s 3 does wrong, at least it focuses on Ripley, who is the key protagonist for the series. This makes Gibson’s choice to Anyway, this is still a MUST READ for rpg influence if only because it paints a picture of the UPP and how they might interact with UA forces, as well as WY science vessels. I’ve heard good things about the radio drama of this as well, but for me the graphic novel was easily consumable in an evening, and I was very glad to have that now as a touchstone. Grade A: Highly Recommend

Dead Orbit by James Stokoe

The Heavy Metal vibe in this collection is heavy here and it sucked me right in. The story itself is not that original, but it does put a new spin on the Space Trucker, so anyone planning to run a Trucker game this is a must-read. The art is totally bonkers with a heavy Moebius vibe but also a Dave Gibbons level of detail. I give the story a B+ but the art is A++++. This one is also a MUST READ if you are looking for some new angles on your Aliens game. Grade A: Highly Recommend

Resistance by Brian Wood & Robert Carey

This collection picks up Amanda Ripley’s story after the Isolation video game (which has officially been removed from canon apparently), and is the first part of a two-parter by Wood. I stopped reading comics because I really became attached to a certain style of drawing and I don’t like many overall, but Carey’s art is phenomenal. And Wood carves out a nice little corner of the Aliens universe with this story that involves WY and synths and more bonkers experiments. The story here is pretty clever and could form a whole backbone for any kind Aliens campaign. This one was probably the best of all my reads. So good on so many levels. Grade A+: Must Read

Rescue by Brian Wood & Kieran McKeown

This story is the surprise part two to Resistance, and picks up Ripley’s story for one more go. I am not enamored by McKeown’s art but it’s not bad, just very normal. The story is also not quite as original as Resistance, but since it’s the same characters, there is a strong feeling of continuity. It shows again how WY influence is broad and corrupt, and expands the universe well enough. It’s okay and is not a must read, except that, now that you know you want to read it, don’t you? If you’re going to . Grade B: Solid Copy

Dust to Dust by Gabriel Hardman & Rain Beredo

I am super touchy about using children as protagonists because apparently they’re so hard to do that no one can really do them justice (except Miyazaki, bless him). This story is okay and sheds some dark light on WY’s corruption; it gives some cool flavor to the universe and could even be a cool convention one-shot. But I don’t really like the art, and I don’t like how the 12 year old main character is incapable of actually taking care of himself for most of the story. I would not recommend picking this up unless you’re trying to get everything. Grade C: Only for completists

Sentient by Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta

This collection came recommended after I bought all the others by the monster that is the Amazon AI, which is funny because it’s a story about AIs and their capabilities. No spoilers here, in order to preserve the surprises, but while there are no aliens, there are definitely powerful AIs that are central to the plot. This black and white comic is well written and even more beautifully illustrated. The story is dark and scary with only humans and AIs, which is the perfect inspiration for your Alien rpg. Grade A: Must Read!

On Providing Choice to the PCs

I started my 5th Edition D&D campaign last week and am very excited for it. It’s been a while (well, two years) since I started a new campaign, but, more importantly, I’ve invited a bunch of close friends to join me weekly on Roll20, with shorter hours (more on this later), which will make it very easy to keep going on a regular basis. With a consistent gaming schedule, I find I can focus my efforts on prepping and running the game instead of worrying about whether enough players will show.

But for me, running a campaign isn’t just about gaming. It’s about taking an opportunity to flex my storytelling muscles at the same time I’m having fun in a game. I can’t help but use the opportunity for running a game to find the story components and engage with those as much as possible. And it’s even more important in a game like D&D, where the story elements aren’t as pronounced as, say, in a Dungeon World, Fiasco, or FATE game (which are more rooted in story out of the gate).

So if I’m taking the effort to learn and explore storytelling in my 5th edition game, there’s no better place to start than at the beginning. And having just begun my game, I want to identify all the places I can get the team working on these elements, and it starts with PC introductions. But it’s not enough just to make the PCs’ various histories important to the game’s present — you need to make it matter with choice. Choice is one of the fundamental aspects of storytelling in that it fundamentally creates characters — when characters make a choice, they show their true colors and instincts. And the harder the choice, the more interesting the story. Does Luke join Darth? Does Frodo keep the Ring? Does Neo take the red or blue pill? Without choice, story is nothing.

For the first session, I came up with a list of choices for each PC (one each) to make that will inform their own personalities and loyalties. Each choice had something to do with the old world versus the new world. In the campaign introduction, the group has been recruited by Lord Silverhand of Waterdeep, but the PCs also have their own factions and other personal allegiances — will they turn their back on their old world connections or move forward into their new futures? Will they accept their new responsibilities blindly or do they second guess why they’ve been hired? How will they approach this new mission in light of their personal backgrounds? These are all interesting choices that give color to characters.

The best games and campaigns are rooted in choice. One of the most classic RPG campaigns of all time — Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu — opens by giving the PCs multiple choices on how to approach the game with a large handful of clues and information. Out of the gate the PCs have agency to determine their own direction in the game and I believe this set of choices (which ultimately follows the group throughout the game) helps cement the campaign as one of the all-time greats.

As a game master, it’s your job to set the tone of your game — the earlier, the better. Yes, we’re playing out of the box 5th edition D&D, but we’re also playing in my game, and I like stories, the bigger, the better. I don’t want to just crawl through the dungeons or wilderness and not give opportunity to let the story be about the characters and their choices. Just giving the PCs these introductory choices — just one quick choice along with one scene bringing them into the world — set the tone and gave each player something to latch onto. I think it was a good start.

I’m interested in all the ways we can actively bring storytelling elements into our RPGs. What other ways can we allow players and PCs to make choices?

And… We’re Back

In brief, we have turned the corner passed all the craziness (well, most of it anyway), and am back into full creative mode. Two things of note:

  1. The PDF for my Call of Cthulhu scenario Sun Spots is now available on DrivethruRPG here. We’re working feverishly on the physical copies of the books and props.
  2. I am writing a novel for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for those in the know). The idea is to write 50k in one month, and while I’m off to a slow start, progress is being made. I’m trying to post to both Facebook and Twitter on my progress, so you can follow there. The book I’m working on is called The Tunnel, and has been gestating for a long, long time. It’s exciting to finally be working on it.

Otherwise, per my efforts with The Tunnel and Sun Spots, I’m making a more concerted effort to keep this place updated not only with my efforts, but add some value by demonstrating the process of my attempts at self-publishing both RPGs and novels. So expect a lot more around that soon.

Onward!

Running 30 Minute Fiasco for Middle Schoolers… With No Prep

“I want you to teach my class how to tell a story,” came the original request from my wife, an eighth grade teacher.

My first thought was: “Let’s send them all down to Robert McKee’s Story Seminar for a weekend. That’ll learn ’em.” But no, that’s not what she was talking about.

“I want you to use one of your game systems and help them understand how a story is formed. Can you do that?” Well, yes, of course I can. I can teach them about story and characters, about goals and conflict, about how gaming and writing are similar in that the most important part is the journey, not some destination- “You can have 30 minutes.”

Ah. Well then we’re playing Fiasco.

Fiacso, if you don’t know, is a collaborative role-playing game where a group of 3-5 players builds characters in a setting, then gives those characters certain ill-advised desires. Play begins with the PCs building their plans but usually poor impulse control gets in the way. These plans get built up over one act, then come tumbling down over another act, as the poor impulse control leads to worse and worse decisions until the bottom falls out. It’s a game that’s modeled after Coen Brother movies like Blood Simple and Fargo, but can be put in just about any setting where ambition and greed intersect (I have written a Fiasco playset for The Man in the High Castle — more on that in a later post).

To me, the best part of the Fiasco game comes from the setup, where the group builds out four categories of information to use during the game: Needs, Relationships, Objects and Locations. Because it’s a collaborative game, everyone builds these together, which does an amazing job of giving everyone stake in the game; the Needs and Relationships build out the foundation for the story, giving the characters immediate agency and action; building out these factors fresh every game allows amazing portability and replayability; and designing the setting like this is just plain fun.

I explained Fiasco to my wife, how all of these elements come together to provide a fun experience that actually does a pretty amazing job of teaching the fundamentals of story-telling. You learn how to create interesting characters and settings, then give those characters conflicting desires and goals — conflict brings drama. And drama is just life with all the dull bits cut out, to quote Alfred Hitchcock. Drama is interesting. Drama gets us coming back for more.

She nodded to all of that and wanted me to wrap all of those core ideas into a snappy 30 minute presentation. I explained how I could run a setup with the class, then take them through a couple scenes to give them a grasp on how “easy” it is to pull these elements together, once you know how it works. Great, great, she said, just do all of that.

And so that’s what I did back in December, when I showed up with just a smile and a love for stories and games to share.

Teaching kids Poor Impulse Control

The class of 26 13-14 year-olds was mostly eager and attentive. I got one of them to play scribe and then explained what we were going to do: the game would be set at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (a nearby coastal amusement park); I would get different parts of the class to figure out the different elements of the story we were going to tell (Objects, Relationships, Locations and Needs); then I’d call up four volunteers to role-play the game with some help from the crowd.

While I am not professionally a teacher, I have found myself in a teaching role frequently in my life. I was a technical writer for years, which is teaching via written manuals. These days I’m a software consultant that is often teaching both concepts and specific technical details. And I like to both play and run games, and am often in situations where I am the only one who knows how to play games. These situations require at least a fundamental understanding of both explaining and teaching. I think I do a pretty okay job of it.

After covering the core concepts and getting the class to collaborate on the details for the game, we jumped in to the actual role-playing part. I brought up two boys and two girls and gave each set one of the needs. We really only had time for six scenes, so we would be just doing a quick setup before I threw in a twist of some kind and then we’d have two more scenes. We talked about how desire unmet is the core to any interesting story and that two of our characters had some sort of unmet need. Hey look, there are the needs right on the board.

It didn’t take much to get through the scenes. One of the boys was trying to ask one of the girls out, and boy howdy do I not miss adolescence. True to his character, he could not figure out what to say in the moment, and so we roleplayed his anxiety and indecision as it happened. Frustration and a little embarrassment added to the tension as we moved onto the next scene.

We had another two scenes, where we brought the characters together by playing off the other needs, and used the locations and items to center the story on the same items that were introduced at the beginning. Everyone was ready for the climax, and we soon came to the end scene, where one question loomed large — could the boy summon the courage to ask out the girl?

There was a beat, a moment where it was unclear. But then yes! He took a deep breath and asked if she would go to the dance with him! The class thundered with applause and a sheepish grin came over the boy. Object of desire achieved!

I sent the kids back to their desks and explained what had happened, how the boy’s embarrassment and anxiety had created distance from his goals, how that distance had created tension, how that tension had created interest in the story. We talked about how some of the story elements might have come together differently if we could go back and alter them; if we were writing fiction, we could add and subtract elements until the story was just right.

But most importantly I talked about how these elements, and the game of Fiasco, help bootstrap us into building a coherent and interesting story, and that they can be used both in and out of a game context. If, as a writer, you can understand how the concept of unmet desire is fundamental to story (and humans, really), then you understand what goes into building good drama and interesting characters. With that, my 30 minutes were done.

And that’s how you run a 30 minute Fiasco game for middle schoolers with zero prep. It works for a reason.

My First Published Call of Cthulhu Scenario

Back in 2007 (nearly 10 years ago, mind you), I promised myself I was going to work as hard as I could until I finally (Finally!) published a Call of Cthulhu scenario. I made two distinct efforts to make this happen: one, I responded to an ad from Keith “Doc” Herber to write a large scenario for his Outer Gods book; second, I responded to a request for materials written for an upcoming companion to the classic Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign for Call of Cthulhu. And while I wrote and wrote and wrote over the next couple years, producing at least 50k words for those two project, neither was ever published.

Well, as you know, Sun Spots will finally see the light of day (pun ultimately intended, after a few minutes of thinking about it) next year after my Kickstarter last October. And the latest posts from SixtyStone on the Masks Companion say that its actual publication is eminent. But still, neither of those has been published. So, as of the end of November 2016, I still had not seen my name associated with a Call of Cthulhu publication.

Oh yes, there was He Who Laughs Last, something of which I’m very proud of, and I do not diminish in the least. But it is still not a Call of Cthulhu scenario. However, back

wrath

Here are the grapes – and here’s the Wrath!

in the summer of 2014, I was first asked to pitch a Call of Cthulhu scenario to Golden Goblin Press for their upcoming Tales of the Caribbean book. So I pitched, then wrote and playtested, and finally rewrote and handed-off a scenario about evil under a volcano, all under the guidance of Oscar and Lisa, who kicked my ass to write the best possible scenario.

And so, finally, nearly 10 years after I made up my mind, I finally have published my first Call of Cthulhu scenario. And it’s out before both the Masks Companion and Sun Spots.

What’s more, it came out under the guidance of Oscar Rios, who has dozens of published CoC scenarios to his name. Many of the people I’m working with now are in the same boat, with plenty of published gaming materials to their names. The last couple years have been amazing as I’ve worked with more and more of these people, and become friendly and friends with some of them. Even across continents and oceans, I’m building relationships with a small circle of very talented, imaginative, and really sorta crazy people. It’s really been fantastic.

I was first published in the Oregon State University Daily Barometer sometime in 1990/1. My first story (a 300 word piece about some committee’s decision) was a brutal, drag-out affair that took me hours to write. I had never done anything like it and I was so thankful that my second piece took half the time to produce twice as much. After college, I wrote for other newspapers, and as an intern wrote for ComputerLife magazine (RIP). So being published is nothing new.

But this piece is something else, and I wanted to pause and reflect on my journey. I’m very proud of the work I did for the Masks Companion, and clearly am excited to help Sun Spots finally get published. But Wrath of the Sulfurer will always be my first, and I thank all the readers and gamers who supported the project. I can’t wait to write some more.

15 Kickstarted RPGs I need to Play — Part 2

When last we spoke, I was rambling on about a bunch of great RPGs from Kickstarter that I was dying to sink my teeth into. But that list didn’t even touch on the horror/Cthulhu genre, which is near and dear to my heart, and has really been for years my go-to RPG genre. (I have been finally branching out though, really.)

Obviously Cthulhu Kickstarters are important to me, and I back and track them fairly regularly. But for all that we, as the collective Cthulhu-minded RPG industry, have done, we continue to raise the bar on ourselves for both quantity and quality. I have all these books on my shelves, except those yet to ship, and I could really be running RPGs twice a week from here until I die, and still not keep up. Inevitably, just as I think “Well, that’s it, my shelves have no more space,” someone very cool gets on Kickstarter with an amazing project that I at least must back in PDF form.

My stack of digital RPG books is nearing the size of my physical books, and as I would rather back an RPG for a PDF than not back it at all, I don’t see this stopping anytime soon. So the evidence is right in front of us that our industry is growing in both quality and quantity. Sites like DTRPG.com and Kickstarter have accelerated the growth of the industry and removed the barriers between idea and publication. Despite claims otherwise, I think the hobby is thriving — it’s just going through massive shifts in how its audience interacts. Look at how Monte Cook is trying to break down how people interact outside of the table, shifting the paradigm (or at least attempting to) is one more step in moving from old to new. And the numbers back this claim up — RPGs grew in 2013 at 67%! And that was before 5th edition D&D came along.

So despite any claims otherwise, the industry is doing great, and once again the proof is in the pudding. So here’s my list of Cthulhu Kickstarters that I really, truly must find some time to play:

  • Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man — This was one of the first projects I backed: a Call of Cthulhu Dreamlands campaign by Dennis Detwiller? Sign me up. And while it unfortunately hit a serious case of scope creep that delayed its delivery date well past the December 2012 deadline, the finished product is a great looking product that stands up to its potential. Funny thing about how the industry changes — this project launched 4.5 years ago and funded at just about the same amount that Sun Spots did (~$15k). The way the market has changed, Arc Dream would probably double that amount today, certainly. So this book holds the illustrious title of Kickstarter RPG Sitting Unplayed on my Shelf Longest.
  • Shadows of Atlantis for Acthung Cthulhu! — At one moment, suddenly came two WWII Call of Cthulhu games on Kickstarter: Achtung Cthulhu! and World War Cthulhu. For a while I didn’t understand the difference, but after some research it’s easier to delineate: AC! is the pulpy brother to the darker, brooding WWC. AC! drops PCs right into the war against zombies and Nazis and dark magic, with an overt pulp look and feel to the whole campaign. This was another of my early backed projects, and they rolled out a whole product line over the course of the subsequent years. Now I have this large Shadows of Atlantis campaign sitting on my shelves, waiting to be run. I love the idea of lost civilizations and this campaign has received great reviews for its content.
  • World War Cthulhu: Cold War — On the other end of the WWII spectrum, WWC is about working for a secret British government organization to fight the Mythos before the Allies lose WWII. And while I didn’t pick up the original WWC books (because I still have AC! to run), I couldn’t resist the porting of WWC to the Cold War as a full boxed set campaign setting. Guh — can’t resist. This project has only delivered the core PDF so far, and we’re still waiting for the whole boxed set to be delivered. Agents of Cthulhu in 1970s Berlin? Sign me up.
  • Horror on the Orient Express 2nd ed. — AKA The Kickstarter That Almost Ruined Chaosium. Really, I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time: release a deluxe reprint of the most coveted of CoC campaigns. Except the campaign was overrun by its own success and nearly failed in delivering its product, only to be saved in the 11th hour by Chaosium’s new management. Whew. That was close. And the new campaign, while full of amazing content, still has some inconsistent plotting and holy smokes the books look like they’re straight from 1995. But still, it would be so fun to run this game. I still have the original that I’ve never run. I better get a chance to run the second.
  • Delta Green RPG — Remember back in 2012, when Arc Dream ran the KS for SotSoHM (see above) and I said they would do so much more if they ran now? Well, Delta Green is them doing exactly that. Like $362k exactly that. This campaign, with its new rules and campaigns and scenarios and art, is the perfect example of how to understand your audience and run a KS campaign just for them. Mostly, though, it’s an opportunity for Arc Dream/Pagan to free themselves from the bounds of Chaosium and run their own show, and it’s about goddam time. Really, this project and game system is less about a new set of rules and more about letting the DG guys do their own thing. Just the raw amount of PDFs is enough to back the thing, and that includes a 1960s Gumshoe version of DG written by Ken Hite. Like I said: these guys know their audience. The first books and screens are out and word is good. Can’t wait for the rest of the materials to be released.
  • The Things We Leave Behind — Stygian Fox is just getting rolling, with a handful of their own Kickstarters to show. TTWLB was released recently to very positive reviews, and I would love to run any and all of these modern day scenarios. Modern horror is so much more tangible and takes a clever mind to pull off well. These scenarios look to put grave and dark twists for the players to unravel, and sanity will surely be challenged. Looks good.
  • Tales of the Crescent City — The stack of Golden Goblin Press books on my shelf continues to grow. Oscar and crew are hitting stride and somehow able to create unique gamebooks that all fill a needed niche. TotCC sets the PCs to New Orleans, which is a great place to investigate (as one of the many settings of HPL’s original Call of Cthulhu) with its dark and mysterious history. So one more great books of adventure that I have yet to run.
  • Tales of the Caribbean — As a contributor to this final entry, I am surely looking to read and run this book, set in the Caribbean islands. But here’s the thing about this scenario book that makes me want to run games from it more than any other on the list: I have a first hand experience on how the book was edited, and knowing that every scenario was held to a level of quality like mine was means that the book truly rises above. The whole thing has got to be great. Seriously.

In closing, I’ve been thinking about this post and all my unplayed games for a while. I really don’t know what to do about it, especially since I am not really playing ANY of it right now (and 2017 isn’t going to get better, trust me). But I could see myself getting a group together down the road a bit and picking one of these to run on a consistent basis, maybe getting through a few of the scenario books. Of course, by then, there will be plenty of new materials to stack on top of my list. If nothing else, it’s a good problem to have.