For this month’s blog carnival Mad Brew Labs has posed the question “Challenge: Growing the Hobby”. Since I started playing in 1980, the hobby has grown exponentially and shows no sign of stopping. Sure, in the general population interest flares up, wanes, and fares again but the sheer number of people who play RPGs has grown considerably since its beginning. Do we really need it to grow more?

I think that before we can really answer the question of how to grow our hobby, we need to define exactly what hobby it is that we’re trying to grow. It’s RPGs, of course. But what, exactly, are RPGs? Tabletop games using traditional rules systems such as D&D, GURPS, Storyteller, Savage Worlds, etc. are obviously RPGs. But tabletop games have grown away from the table or were never there to start with. Are LARPs (live-action roleplaying games) RPGs? I think most of us would answer “yes”, simply because they’re usually based on a tabletop system.

But that being the case then, do the How to Host a Murder games that were popular in the late ’80′s also RPGs? I tend not classify them as RPGs for the simple matter that they involved reading lines from a set script. But what about the murder mystery trains and interactive theatres? How about re-enactment and re-creation such as the Society for Creative Anacronisms and black-powder rendezvous? What makes them different from LARPS?

Moving back to tabletop (in a way), we come to Play by Mail, Play by Email, and Play by Post games. Are they also RPGs? I think most of us would, again, say “yes” because they’re still playing something we recognize as an RPG. But that, then, leads us to open the big can of worms … MMOs. Are MMOs a type of RPG?

My point here isn’t to spark debate about what is or isn’t an RPG. My point is that the hobby may already be more mainstream and wide-spread than we frequently think.

Articles Zemanta thinks may be related

• Oh Hey, It’s Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer’s 3rd Birthday! from Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer (philgamer.wordpress.com)
• Growing the Hobby from Mad Brew Labs (madbrewlabs.com)
• Growing the Hobby? from Whitehall ParaIndustries (whitehall-paraindustries.blogspot.com)
• Let’s Make A List: Cool Things People Are Doing In The RPG Hobby (rpgblog2.com)

Growing the Hobby is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

In addition to the world setting I’m creating, I’m looking at producing a line of products to help GMs run better and more immersive games. To that end, I’ve created a short survey asking for your input. Please help me out by taking a moment to give me your ideas. I’ll post the results here next week.

Click here to take survey

What Do You Need Help With? is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

As you’ve all noticed by now, my writing has been rather sporadic recently. It’s not because I’ve run out of ideas or developed a sudden allergy to blogging. No, the reason I’ve been rather absent is because my fiance Jay and I just bought a house and (being a foreclosure), it’s taking a lot of work to make it livable. Since I work from home, this will also be the new office of rpgGM.com.

We’re currently in the middle of ripping out all of the carpet and priming the entire house for repainting. Luckily, most of the work that needs to be done is cosmetic and we saved enough on the purchase price of the house itself that we’ll be able to hire someone to install the bamboo floors we’ve picked out. But meanwhile, there’s a lot of “sweat equity” to be put into it.

I’ve got a couple of “before” pictures — photos of the place before we began work. You can see one of them above; I’ll be posting more on my martial arts blog On My Own Two Feet.

Notable Absence is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Please bear with me as I finish upgrading the theme for this site. I had technical difficulties installing the new theme and upgrading to the most recent version of WordPress (which for several reasons on my end, most of which come down to RTFM).

I’ll be finishing the set-up on the new theme over the course of the next few days. Everything’s there and you should be able to access it without difficulty. It just doesn’t look pretty yet.

Thanks for your patience.

Upgrading Issues is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

This month, Evil Machinations celebrated it’s first anniversary. On top of that, this is my 100th post. Because of all that, I want to say thank you to everyone who’s made this blog a success.  Without my readers, there would be no Evil Machinations .

Below is a count-down of your top ten favorite posts and pages on this blog since it began in April 2009:

10. An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 1
9. X Marks the Spot: 11 Map Making Tutorials
8. Building Better NPCs III: Character Webs
7. Handling Problem Players
6. What’s Good About 4th Edition?
5. 20 Unusual City Encounters: From Beg, Borrow, & Steal
4. What GMs Really Want (Poll)
3. “Where are we again?”: Creating Unique Fantasy Cities and Towns
2. Character Questionnaire
1. Your Teacher Was Right … Creating Adventures with the 6 W’s

Next post will be the continuation of player month, which has now become extended through the end of May. Hey, that’s an idea: let’s turn this into a blog carnival. I hereby christen May “Player’s Advice” month here at EM. If others would like to join me on this, I’ll post a link from here to your page. Just leave me a reply to this post with your post’s URL.

Top 10 of 100 and One is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Over at the Guang Keshar website, I’ve created a survey. Okay, the survey’s really at SurveyMonkey, but there’s a link to it from rpgGM.com. Even if you don’t plan on using a new campaign setting anytime soon, please stop by and let me know what you look for in a game setting.

It’s short. Only these five questions. That’s all — and I promise it won’t hurt

I’ll be posting the outcome of the survey on the Guang Keshar website.

Please Answer Survey is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Here’s a countdown of the 10 most popular posts on Evil Machinations in 2009:

10. An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games, pt. 4: A survey of roleplaying games whose titles begin with the letters Q-U.

9. Building Better NPCs II: 8 Steps to Memorable NPCs: Eight steps for bringing your important NPCs to life and making them unique.

8. How Do You Describe Combat?: A question I posed to my readers. They came up with some great ideas — make sure to read the responses.

7.  An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games, pt. 1: The first post in the survey of roleplaying games. Covers letters A-F.

6. Character Questionnaire: A list of questions to flesh out your character and bring those sets of numbers to life.

5. Handling Problem Players: A list of online resources for dealing with those players who make your gaming life hell.

4. What’s Good About 4th Edition?: Another question for my readers. Creating a wonderful discussion that came up with some great points in favor of 4the D&D. And without becoming an edition/flame war .

3. What GMs Really Want (Poll): A survey where I asked readers what kinds of articles they’d like to see. It’s still active, if you’d like to leave your ideas.

2. “Where are we again?”: Creating Unique Fantasy Cities and Towns: A list of Internet resources for creating cities and towns.

And finally, the most popular post of 2009 …

1. Your Teacher Was Right … Creating Adventures with the Six Ws: How to create an adventure by answer six basic questions — who, what, when, where, why, and how. Featured in Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #469.

Thank you to all my readers. Without you, I’d have no popular posts to share. Keep reading here — I’ve got lots more ideas I can’t wait to share with you in 2010 .

End of Year Round-Up: The Top 10 Posts of 2009 is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

It’s been a long-time coming, but I’ve finally done it. After nearly thirty years of kicking the idea around (and thanks to the guys at the Gamer Lifestyle program), I’ve finally take the plunge and started my own small-press game company, rpgGM.com.

This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time now, but just never really was in a position to do before. At least for now, rpgGM.com will focus on publishing my own original game world, Guang Keshar. The world is going to be published for sale as PDFs in a modular format — that way you only have to buy what interests you. If you want something about the Great Houses and the ruling Council, you can buy that. If you’re interested only in the geography of the world itself, then that’ll be available too.Many of these smaller products will be gathered up and published as larger compilation products (with some new material thrown in for good measure ), which will give you a price break from buy each one separately.

Soon I’ll also have a newsletter going out dedicated to the development of this world. It’ll contain exclusive content, development news, sneak peeks at products, game world tips and much more. The first issue of this should come out the end of December or beginning of January. You can sign up for it now on the company website. The site will also have free information, company and product news and tips, as well providing a place for you to provide us with feedback.

I’m really excited about this and can’t wait to share my product with everyone. But don’t worry about loosing this blog — I’ll still be posting here at least once a week (I’m trying for twice, but we’ll have to see what time permits) with the same type of content I’ve been writing all along. The newsletter Beg, Borrow, and Steal will still be published, though I may have to go to once a month, rather than once a week.

[Sales pitch over, we now return you to our regularly scheduled ponderings ]

It’s a Brave New World — Guang Keshar is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Open Gaming Table is an anthology of roleplaying blog posts. Published in March 2009, it’s definitely worth checking out. Now Jonathan Jacobs, the editor-in-chief for that book is putting together a volume 2. You can nominate your favorite RPG blog posts on this nomination form. Here’s the nomination rules from the form itself:

The Rules
1. You can anonymously nominate as many blog posts as you want. Keeping in mind that, the more you submit, the more work the reviewers have to do.
2. ANY RPG BLOG POST CAN BE NOMINATED. The type of content that is submitted is extremely broad: any “RPG blog” is eligible to be nominated – let the reviewers figure out if an individual post is appropriate.
3. Nominations must be for specific RPG blog posts (you must send in the URL). This is not a “Best RPG Blog” contest; but it is intended to be a showcase of the RPG blogging community’s best content.
5. Blog posts that were printed in Open Game Table Vol. 1 will not be accepted for Vol 2.

(http://rpganthology.wufoo.com/forms/open-game-table-vol-2-blog-post-nomination-form/)

You can nominate up to five posts on one nomination form. There seems to be no limit on the number of nomination forms you can submit. All nominations are kept anonymous. The deadline for nominations is 15 January 2010.

The success of this work depends on the entire gaming community — not just those of us who write these blogs. So please, take a moment and vote for your favorite blog posts. Not just from Evil Machinations, but also from the other great blogs out there.

Open Gaming Table Vol. 2 Taking Nominations is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Abandoned gold mines. Orc raiders. Cave-ins and a dark, mysterious past. Gold Strike! the winner of 6d6 Fireball‘s Autumn Adventure Writing Competition brings us that and more.

This d20/D&D 3.x adventure sends three to five 4th – 6th level characters down an abandoned gold mine to rescue a group of miners trapped by a cave-in. But as is often the case with adventures, things are not completely what they seem. I’m going to do my best to review this without giving spoilers. This review is based on a playtest my group and I did of the adventure.

The Good

The setting of the adventure is one I don’t see used a lot in fantasy adventures — a mine cave-in. Much of the challenge of the adventure comes from being in an unstable and very deep cave environment. This was a refreshing change from fighting drow and deep cave monsters. The monster encounters that adventure did have were, on the whole, appropriately challenging and made sense.

I give big kudos to the person who designed the layout of the PDF. It may seem a minor thing, but this is the first adventure I’ve run in a quite a while where I didn’t spend half the gaming time flipping pages to reference on thing or another. I loved having the little maps next to the descriptions of an area.

The side notes listing the skill checks needed for any particular event were a real help, as were having the encounter tables in the adventure’s margin. The wide left margin also gave me plenty of room to write corrections and notes. The layout was so helpful, I’ll be looking for other adventures published by 6d6 Fireball on the basis of that alone. And the addition of core book page numbers for monsters, treasure, and other things the DM might want to reference is a very welcome addition.

The Bad

The names. While the NPCs are well-suited to the adventure, my group had a field day with their names. Even I had a hard time saying some of them with a straight face. “Junior” was fine, if a bit odd in a fantasy setting. “Jumpy” and “Furd” were harder, but even I lost it when it came to “Bark”, “Mourne”, and “Bonksi”.

Also, some class or skill suggestions would’ve been nice in the GM notes. The play test party consisted of a rogue, a barbarian/fighter, and a warlock, all non-dwarves and all 5th level. Not a survival skill among them and the party should have either a dwarf or someone skilled with either dungeoneering or underground survival. And some check DCs seemed rather high. At one point, the PCs are asked to make a DC 2 4 Survival check, which seems a little high for 4-6th level characters.

The adventure could also use some more consistency checking. At one point the PCs approach a camp with the description “The fire you saw in the distance is hidden by the stone walls.” If it’s hidden by the walls, how can the PCs have seen it in the distance? At another point a tunnel is described as being 6′ high and 2′ wide, but further down, it’s described as being “less than 4′ tall.”

The point to remember here is that this is a playtest version of the adventure. It’s going to have inconsistencies and imbalances until playtesting is complete. There are quibbles, but no major flaws — there’s nothing in this adventure that couldn’t be cleaned up after a few rounds of playtesting.

The Ugly — not!

On the whole, I think this is a great adventure idea. Both my players and myself enjoyed the change of pace from the usual “fight monsters, steal treasure” underground adventures. While there are still some problems to be ironed out, they’re changes that can be easily made before the final version is printed. The sequence of events is interesting and logical.

The layout of the adventure itself is definitely not ugly. It’s one of the easiest adventure printings I’ve ever used, keeping page turning to a minimum, whether that’s in the adventure itself or in the core rulebooks.

On the whole, I recommend this adventure. Recongnize that it’s a playtest document and either make notes or tweak the adventure accordingly.

Oh, and be sure to brush up on multiple skill checks and survival skills before you go.

Other Product Reviews:

• Kobold Quarterly #ll
• Paizo’s Combat Pad
• Protodimension Web ‘Zine

Bringing Home the Gold: Review of Gold Strike! Adventure is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

This review is part of the Game Cryer Holiday Gift Guide.

Running combat in d2o/3.x systems is no task for the faint-hearted. Multiple characters, each with their own initiative, spells, delayed actions, held actions, potions, magic items … whew! It’s a lot to keep track of and it’s easy to forget who goes after whom … oh, and when does that spell take affect, again? No wonder so many GMs resort to laptops to keep track of who’s doing what and when.

What is it?

But what about those of us without laptops? Luckily, Paizo.com has a solution for us, too. Called their “Combat Pad“, this sturdy magnetic board takes much of the drudgery out of keeping track of combat. Individual magnets allow you to write the names of the PCs, NPCs and monsters in dry or wet-erase pen. You can also take notes directly on the board itself and there’s a large space on provided to do just that.

The center “column” is numbered down the side allowingyou to place character/monster magnets near the number corresponding to each N/PC’s initiative roll. Is one PC readying or holding an action? Just move his magnet to the appropritate column on the right-hand side. Then once the character uses his held action, just move his magnet to the new initiative order number. No more “When did you come in last round?”

The line of numbers across the top allows you to keep track of what round you’re currently in. I also use it to note what round a spell goes off and what round it finishes. After many years of trying to keep track of it in my head or on scraps of paper, this is a very welcome addition to the product.

What’s so good about it?

First of all, large notes section. It allows me to track hit points as well as combat rounds. Secondly, the rounds tracker, which I mentioned above. The fact that it’s magnetic means I don’t have to worry if the cat decides to take a short-cut across my notes during combat.

I generally use wet-erase markers (I’m always dragging my hand through what I write, so dry-erase for me ends up being one big blur) and both the magnets and the board come clean with a damp cloth or paper towel. And when I say clean, I mean clean. No color residue left. The different colors of magnets — blue for PCs, green for NPCs and black for monsters — makes it easy to tell at a glance which you’re dealing with right now. The board comes with a good number of magnets, but if you lose some or find you need more, Paizo offers an extra magnet pack.

I also like the size. While a larger board would allow for more notes, the current 81/2″ x 11″ fits easily into my game notebook. Which means I can carry it with me wherever I’m running. A big bonus, since our group tends to rotate hosting the game. And it works for more than d20; I’ve used it with my Vampire: the Masquerade game with the same success.

The price tag for this product — $16.95 — is very reasonable. The extra magnet pack is $7.95. It’s a great gift for that special GM.

Taking the Initiative: Review of Paizo’s Combat Pad is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

I stumbled across this ‘zine while checking out my stats. They did a very nice write-up of my adventure creation with the 6 W’s post (Thanks!). If you’re looking for all things conspiracy-related, this ‘zine is a must. I love playing with conspiracies (probably too much for my players’ own good ) and I’ll definitely be using this as a resource. The magazine’s in full color and best of all — it’s free!

Check Out Protodimension Magazine is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

I thumbed through my advanced copy of KQ #11 (okay, since it’s a PDF, I didn’t exactly thumb – more paged down through) — the first issue of KQ I’d ever seen, and started to feel the excitement I used to have when looking through early issues of Dragon magazine.

15 articles (counting Maps and Free City), 9 of which I could immediately apply to my game and 5 more which, with some adjustments, could be adapted to fit my game. The visual layout of the magazine is minimalist — something I like very much. Color illustrations and splash graphics are nice to look at, but often eat up space in magazines I’d rather have taken up with ideas and text. KQ balances graphics and text well.

I particularly enjoyed Uvandir: The Pride of Craftsman — an alternate take on dwarves which seems to fit with the way I’ve been wanting to take dwarves in my own game world. Even as a veteran World of Darkness gamer, I was happy to see two articles reminding us that two favorite supernatural monsters (vampires and werewolves) are just that — monsters. It was a pleasant change from angsty soul-searching and eco-rage. I found the article on werewolves as PCs (Howling Werebeasts) especially helpful — full of great ideas on how to remind players that being a were is not like having a limited polymorph or shape-shifting ability. Were-creatures aren’t just powerful alternate forms — lycanthropy is a curse, first and foremost, and this article gave me some useful tips on how to bring that home to players.

The articles Running Across the Screen and Haunted by the Spirit of the Rules have good, solid advice on being a GM. The first one consists of interviews from industry designers on how to be a good GM, while the second reminds us that it’s the spirit of the rules that matters. I’d never thought of putting it that way before, but I’ll definitely be thinking about it the next time I have a rules-abusing player at my table.

I’d don’t play 4th ed, so I mostly skimmed the Wishing Well (an article about how to codify and use wishes in a game), but it did get my brain working on ways to structure the power of wishes in 3.x ed and other game systems. Whack Jacks and Harpy Nets got me thinking about how intelligent monsters would enhance their natural abilities with specially-designed weapons. I’m almost ashamed to admit that the idea never crossed my mind before I read this article.

Torture and Fear on the Tabletop puts teeth back in torture, creating ways to put the screws to (so to speak ) even characters with huge pools of hit points. Same Rules, Different Treasure gives ideas on how to make magic items interesting again with little to no modification of game mechanics. Philip Larwood, in Monstrous Paragons, discusses PC “monster” races for paragon-level characters. The article Mysteries of the Philosopher’s Stone, tells us how to use this real-world legendary item in fantasy games. While aimed specificially at D&D, the article does include some ideas (in a separate section of boxed text) for using it with Mage: the Ascension. I wouldn’ve like to see a bit on how to adapt it to Ars Magica along with the Mage data, but it’s a minor quibble and I can easily adapt the idea to  ArM by myself.I’ve often found myself less than enthused about rangers having the ability to cast spells. The Spell-less Ranger gives me the alternative I’ve been looking for.
———–

On the whole, I couldn’t be more pleased with this magazine. It’s been quite a while since I’ve gotten this many ideas out of a gaming mag. Please excuse me while I go subscribe and look up back issues.

Have you used any of the material from this or previous issues of Kolbold Quarterly? If so, please pass your experience on to us.

Product Review: Kobold Quarterly #11 is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

I haven’t done a round-up in a while, so here’s a list of Evil Machinations’ ten most popular posts:

1. “Where Are We Again?”: Creating Unique Fantasy Cities and Towns. A list of web resources to help you build a city of your own.
2. What GMs Really Want. A survey about what type of articles you want to see more of. This is it’s last week; Sunday, October 25th, I close it.
3. What’s Good About 4th Edition? Readers speak up about what they like about the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
4. Handling Problem Players. A list of web resources to help you deal with those players who seem to enjoy ruining everyone else’s fun.
5. An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 1. An alphabetical list of less well-played games with a brief description for each one. Covers letters A-F.
6. Character Questionnaire. Not actually a blog post itself, but one of my static pages listing questions to help round out a character.
7. How Do You Describe Combat? My plea for help in narrating combat beyond “You hit, he takes 12pts of damage.” These guys came up with some great ideas.
8. An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 4. An alphabetical list of less well-played games with a brief description for each one. Covers letters Q-U.
9. An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 2. An alphabetical list of less well-played games with a brief description for each one. Covers letters G-K.
10. What’s Good About 4th ed. Contest Results. The winner of the contest I described in the What’s Good About 4th Edition? post.

Post Round-Up: EM’s 10 Most Popular Posts is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

As a GM, what information are you looking for? What kinds of topics would help you run your game better? Where do you find yourself struggling? What ideas do you want to see more of? Take the poll below and tell me!

What GMs Really Want (Poll) is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Angels and demons. The core of In Nomine. If you’ve ever dreamt of playing one of the Heavenly Host or a Satan spawn from the depths of Hell, this is your game. Even if you haven’t, it’s still worth checking out. In Nomine ranks in the top five of my all-time favorite games.

Excuse My French

In Nomine is based on a French game called In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas. But the American version, published by Steve Jackson, is no mere translation of the French game. The folks at SJGames made changes, making the game (according to them) more appealing to an American audience. I’d love to do a From the Basement coverage of the original French game; unfortunately, I haven’t yet been able to get my hands on a copy. If anyone has one they’d like to sell…

God Does Not Does Play Dice With This Universe

One interesting thing about this game is its dice system. Like GURPS it uses d6′s, but that’s where the resemblance ends. In Nomine uses three six-sided dice, one of which should be a different color from the other two. The basic mechanics are straight-forward: roll two sixes and total them. Add in situational modifiers. If the resulting number is lower than the total of the character’s appropriate stat + skill score, you succeed. If it’s higher, you fail.

Then comes an interesting bit — you’re actually rolling all three d6′s. The third die isn’t added into your total — called the check digit, it indicates the degree of success or failure. A low result means a borderline success or failure, a high result means a particularly spectacular success or dismal failure. The GM interprets the check die to describe the results of your character’s actions.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. If you roll a natural result of 111 (a one on all three dice) or 666, things get really interesting. Called an intervention (DI — divine intervention — for short), a roll of 111 means God’s favor smiles upon you. Great if you’re playing an angel; not so good if you’re playing a demon. A roll of 666 means you’ve gained the personal attention of Down There.

Baby, You’ve Got Character

Character creation is simple and very quick. Groups I’ve played with have been able to finish character creation in under an hour, even if they’re new to the game. The steps are as follows:

1. Find out from the GM if you’re playing angels or demons. You may be running a mixed party of both, but that works much better for one-shots than for on-going games.
2. Choose a Choir (for angels) or Band (for demons). Each Choir/Band has different powers, called resonances. These range from always knowing if someone’s telling the truth (Seraphim, an angelic Choir) to being able to destroy things with your mind (Calabim, a demonic Band).
3. Choose a superior — which archangel or demon prince do you serve? Your superior gives you further powers.
4. Purchase levels of the three Forces, corresponding to body (Corporeal), mind (Ethereal), and spirit (Celestial). Depending on the type of character you’re playing, you have between five to nine Forces, which you can spread out as you please among the three types.
5. The level of your Forces determine your characteristics (stats/attributs) scores. You’ve got six characteristics, two for each type of force: Strength and Agility (Corporeal), Intelligence and Precision (Ethereal), Will and Perception (Celestial).
6. Purchase further powers and/or resources from a pool of points. Resources include skills, Songs (like spells), possessions, servants, extra bodies, etc…

Skills are broad and many of a character’s powers are determined by his Choir/Band and Superior. This leaves few choices for the player to make, which has its good points and bad points. On one hand, you can create characters very quickly; on the other hand … well, you have limited choices.

In the Mood

The In Nomine games I’ve played and ran tended to be rather tongue-in-cheek; the game lends itself to a light-hearted mood. But there’s no reason you couldn’t run a serious campaign. Like many games from the 90′s, the setting tends to be dark, even when it’s funny. For one thing, the angels of this game aren’t your fuffy, “sit on white clouds strumming harps” angels. Think Prophecy, rather than Touched by an Angel.

The quick character creation means that this game works as well as a series of one-shots as it does an on-going campaign. Given a fairly straight-forward objective, you can easily run an entire adventure in one evening, including character creation.

That’s All, Folks!

Steve Jackson Games — to the best of my knowledge — isn’t putting any more In Nomine material in print, but there’s been some support in the form of PDF material. You can find these at e23, including an introductory adventure called The Sorcerer’s Impediments. This PDF contains 4 pre-generated characters and all the mechanics you need to run the adventure, allowing you to try the game out for free.

If you’ve played In Nomine, please share your experiences, good and bad.

Just remember:

Angels always do more damage.

Other posts From the Basement:

• From the Basement: Everway

From the Basement: In Nomine is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

I’m starting a new feature here in this blog. In “From the Basement” posts, I’m going to dig up an older game and review it. Today’s game is Everway.

I have to admit, when it came out, I paid little attention to Everway. Everything I read and heard about it seemed to indicate it was a game slanted at new gamers and with 15 years of game experience under my belt at the time, why would I need a beginner’s game? Plus, with it’s box and cards it seemed … well … kitschy.  But when our local game store marked their copies down to $3 apiece, I bought a set … just for the collection, of course.

I don’t remember what prompted our group to try the game, but somehow I ended up volunteering to run a short-term campaign. That was when I fell in love with the game.  Everway is great system for groups who want story and character-focused games without a lot of pesky mechanics to get in the way.

Character Creation

Character creation begins with what the game calls “The Vision Stage” — where you come up with a character idea. Before you ever start filling in numbers, you decide who your character is. The game comes with several “vision cards” — fantasy art cards. You chose five of these that appeal to you and write your character around them. Then comes the “questions stage” where you present your five cards and basic character concept to the other players, who then ask you questions about him and the cards you’ve chosen to represent him.

Once you’ve got a basic concept of your character, you move on to the “identity stage”. At this point, you choose a name for your character and decide on a motive — the character’s reason for adventuring. After that, you chose three cards from the Fortune Deck — a deck of cards with a similar feel to tarot or other divination decks — describing your character’s virtue (a special talent, gift, or beneficial trait), fault (a weakness of flaw), and fate (an inner conflict your character has that will shape his destiny).

Only now in the creation process do you start figure numbers for your character.  Each character has four stats corresponding the four classical elements: earth, air, fire, water. Earth covers health, strength, endurance — a character’s physical traits. Air covers intelligence, wisdom, communication — a character’s mental abilities. Fire covers action, combat skills, speed. Water covers feeling, intuition, empathy. Stats are done with a simple point-buy system and each character gets one free special ability and you can spend more points to gain further powers, like the ability to use magic. The numbers stage of character creation tends to go very quickly, since players have already developed their character concept before even reaching this stage of creation.

I found this method of character creation very enjoyable. Frequently I tend to play the same type of character over and over no matter the game system or genre. But this method caused me to come up with a character I loved that was very different from my norm.

Mechanics

To say Everway is rules-light would be an understatement. The basic game mechanics are simple — you tell the GM what you want to do and the GM tells you what happens as a result. It’s a completely diceless system, in the tradition of Amber Diceless. If a GM is uncertain what the outcome of a character’s action should be, she can draw a card from the Fortune Deck and use it’s image or meaning (the game comes with a booklet describing the meaning of each of the Fortune Cards) to inspire her. The character’s stats are used as a rough guide to ability — if a character has a high Fire score, they’re much more likely to win a combat against a character with a low one, for example.

Overall Impressions

I enjoy this game very much. I found the visual input from both the vision cards and and the Fortune Deck helped me immensely when describing both setting and PC actions and outcomes. But it is very GM-dependent and requires a GM who’s comfortable running “off-the-cuff”. The players, too, need be flexible and willing to place the coutcome of their actions solely in the hands of the GM.

If you prefer a more structured gaming style, Everway is definitely not for you. Gamers who like “crunchy” systems will likely find this game a exercise in frustration and the lack of randomized outcome generation does eliminate luck as a factor. Generally, you’re not going to have the incredible successes and wild botches tha gaming stories are made of.

I’ve run Everway games for beginning as well as experienced players and it does make a good introduction to roleplaying game concepts. I wouldn’t recommend it for beginning GMs, however. Still, if you’re looking for a change in fantasy game, Everway could be just what you’re looking for.

From the Basement: Everyway is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

First off, let me apologize for not posting the winner when I said I would. I have a chronic rheumatoid condition that flared really badly, finally ending in a trip to the urgent care clinic last night and a cortizone shot. Things are better but my brain is still a little foggy. I’m hoping to resume normal posting schedule on Monday.

Next, thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to my post. I really appreciated all of your input and was really happy to see the discussion didn’t degenerate into an edition war. You’ve all given me a lot of good information to think about.

Finally, what you’ve all been waiting for — the results of the contest. After removing the names of those who asked to not be entered, I had slightly under twenty entrants. So, I chose randomly the way any self-respecting GM would — I rolled a d20. The winner is … Paul. I’m still waiting for RPG Shop to get the dice to me and then I’ll mail them out to you.

What’s Good About 4th ed. Contest Results is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Game conventions can be a great way to stretch your GMing muscles, but running a convention game is very different from running even a one-shot at home with your regular gaming group. You never know who (or what) is going to end up at your table and you’re running within a limited time frame, frequently 4 hours. This can be intimidation to a first-time con GM. Here’s a list of tips that will (hopefully) make your game go more smoothly:

1. Give the PC’s a clear, concrete goal. This may seem obvious, but I’ve played in convention games where the PCs had no clear idea of what they were supposed to accomplish. The ultimate one was an In Nomine game where the challenge was “Chicago. Trouble. Go fix.” Literally. That was our entire mission briefing.  It left me feeling frustrated and aimless through much of the game.
2. If you don’t state the goal at the very beginning, make it clear as soon as possible. The classic con scenario is the “mission” scenario, where the PCs are given clear mission goals by a superior in whatever organization they belong to. This is a great way to begin a con game. If you don’t want to go that route, you can have the goal find the PCs, but make sure it happens within the first 30 mins of game time. An example of  the mission finding the PCs: I ran a Trinity game where the PCs were all traveling to new jobs on Luna. That was just a device to get the PCs on the same ship; the real game began when a group of NPCs hijacked the shuttle and the PCs had to capture them while protecting the shuttle’s crew and passengers.
3. Consider running a “closed-room” scenario. A “closed-room” or “locked room” scenario is one what takes place inside a very limited area which the character, for some reason intrinisc to the plot, can’t leave until the goal has been accomplished. You see this most often in murder mysteries and, indeed, my first successful con games were murder mysteries. Yes, it’s contrived. Yes, it can be constricting. But it makes it much easier to run a scenario when you know the PCs aren’t going to suddenly take a train to Borneo.
4. Give your game an intriguing title. That will help it stand out from the mass of other games in the con catalog. You want your title to intrigue players into finding out more about your game. Some titles I’ve used:
   • Things that Go Bump in the Night (an Everway game)
   • Crimes Against the State (an Amber Diceless game)
   • Every Now and Then (a Mage: Technocracy game)
   • (After)Life is a Caberat (a Wraith: the Oblivion game)
5. Advertise your games, particularly if you’re a brand-new con GM. Frequently cons have boards where you can tack up game notices. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to put up posters in other places at the con venue, such as lobby pillars — always get permission to put these up first! I like to use 8 1/2 x 11 fliers with an eye-catching picture, the name of the scenario, the name of the rules system (including edition!), the time of the game, the location of the game (if you know), the name of the GM, and a brief description of the scenario designed to pique players’ interests.
6. Take time to explain. Many, many players come to cons to try out games they’ve never played before. So you may have someone at your table who’s never played any RPGs or someone who’s been gaming since Chainmail was new. Take the first part of your time slot to do a quick run-down of the game, its mechanics, its background and the characters involved. For a four-hour game slot, I reserve the first hour for explanations
7. Time your game. It’s extremely rude to run over. If you run too far over, your players will miss their next game. I usually aim my games to run one hour less than the available time. That gives me some leeway to deal with plot derailments, lost players, etc.
8. Use pre-generated characters. Unless you’re running an extremely simple set of mechanics, you’re not going to have time to create characters and play the scenario. And if it’s a new game to a player, most likely they don’t know what they want to play. Also, having pre-generated characters means you can tie them to your plot and to each other. They’re known quantitites, you can plan the scenario around them.
9. Consider creating player handouts. Along with a copy of the character sheet, I give out a character history/background, a one-page explanation of the game, another 1-2 pages of “cheat sheet” for mechanics, and brief summary of any important background information the player will need to know for the scenario. Don’t bog them down with details or mechanics that aren’t crucial for that session. Important: don’t photocopy the books unless you have specific permission! This is plagerism. I give my players “crib notes” — something they can refer to during the game, but is basically useless without the rest of the rules.

This post is part of the RPG Blogger‘s August Blog Carnival.

9 Tips for Running Your First Convention Game is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

As a D&D player, I’ve developed a reputation for making combat use of non-combat spells. Sure, dealing out massive amounts of damage with Fireball or Lightening Strike is a lot of fun — there’s no denying that — but I get even more enjoyment out of find ways to use other spells in a fight. Whether it’s casting Nystul’s Magic Aura on all the party’s weapons (great for intimidating opponents in low-level games) or using Animate Rope to trip an opponent, I love watching the DM’s face whenever I come up with an idea he’s never seen before.

When I started playing 3.5 ed., I discovered that familiars can carry touch spells to a target and a whole new world opened up to me. My biggest success to date is the Touch of Idiocy spell. While our opponents were camping in the woods, I sent my weasel familiar to deliver Touch of Idiocy to the group’s sorcerer while he was tending to a “call of nature”. Since we were in a wooded area, I guessed he wouldn’t notice the presence of a normal woodland creature.

He didn’t. After removing 4 pts (each) of intelligence and wisdom and 6 pts of charisma, our opponents were without their spellcaster for the entire combat, allowing us to defeat them more easily than we would otherwise. Unfortunately, this trick now only works once in awhile, as word got around and our opponents have started killing every small creature than came near them.

Other “creative” spell uses I’ve come up with:

• “Blanking out” written mission orders using Erase
• Researching a new version of Reduce Person that only shrinks the actual person — not anything they’re wearing or carrying — and using that in combat. It’s really fun to watch your opponent get tangled up in their own clothes.
• Using Detect Thoughts to determine if there were any invisible opponents around us. Granted, it doesn’t tell me where the invisible critters are, but it can at least warn me that I need to start looking for them.
• Luring an opponent into a room with a single small doorway, then casting Enlarge Person on him, effectively trapping him until the spell wears off.
• Using Levitate on a dropped or thrown weapon to put it up out of an opponent’s reach, keeping them from retrieving it.
• Hiding an ambush using Rope Trick
• Mending an opponent’s sheath opening. This traps their dagger or sword inside the sheath, making it take longer for your opponent to draw their weapon (thereby — sometimes — creating attacks of opportunity for our side).
• Casting Grease on an opponent’s weapon handle (preferably before they draw it, thereby avoiding the need for a saving throw).

This post is part of the July RPG Blog Carnival, hosted (this month) by 6d6 Fireball.

“You Want to Do What?” is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle