Rafe's April 2015 Diary - Now COMPLETE! :)

[Deleted]

Hi, all!

Between this week and the next, I'll run five bouts of D&D at local conventions, finish preparing a sixth one,
test a D&D fastplay format, and perhaps even finally finish part of the famed Blackmoor booklets. So, I thought, why not chronicle this time, as I go along? - I notice how I get more and more private in all aspects of my life, and I am pretty sure this will be the last time in the forseeable future that I run a game in public. Also, once that autumn game is running, I won't really be able to share much of my own plottings, given that some regulars here participate in it.

- R

[Deleted]

As I hinted here, I am working on some special charsheets - in German, though, but hopefully self-explanatory:

www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=69466

Most con games suffer from the long rules introduction; and I want to change that. If I get only the charsheets field-tested, then that's already a big win for me.

[Deleted]

The first, and perhaps, for our purposes here, most important game session will be a recreation of Blackmoor's battle of Glendower.

I won't really elaborate this here, but you can find some info on it at the Comeback Inn:

blackmoor.mystara.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8327


This was certainly one of the scenarios on my Blackmoorian bucket list, and so, I am fairly glad I get to run it, after all.

Thing is - and, since this might just be the theme of this small log, so I apologize NOW and trust that you all remember it later - I am growing out of the fan scene, in a fairly organic way, and I think it's very doubtful that I will ever return, once I have successfully detached myself. Like, no melodrama, and I certainly don't plan "to kick the bucket" any time soon*, but this whole season feels like a game of last plays. Like, if only because I am renting out my parents' old place, and in the process, I am getting rid of much of my gaming stuff. - And at the same time, my gaming habits change, and my attachment to the old TSR stuff is vaning: Not in a bad way, just that the tastes of a boy make place to the tastes of an adult. A few years back, I ran one game per week, like clockwork. Now, I am running "just" one longer game per year, and D&D is not even always my first game of choice any more: Not out of spite, just as a process of natural evolution. I like different things now than I did ten years ago. - Plus, I am, like, REALLY demographically growing out of the gamer scene; these Pokemon kids, I love wow-ing them with some oldschool stuff, from time to time - but oldschool, for them, is 3e.




*Just looked up what "bucket list" really means in English. Brrrrrrrrr. Not what I meant to express, really.

[Deleted]

Hey, guys!

Question here - so, one of the games was supposed to be a Tekumel game. Now, this would likely be a premiere for most German D&D enthusiasts... But also for me, given that I have never run a Tekumel game, ever, and really just offered the bout because I am... Well, fearless, and a bit stupid, I guess.

So, for a three-hour game with inexperienced Players using pregens, what would be the most Tekumel thing to do, in your opinion?

Got a week to prepare the game, would like to make it great!

[Deleted]

And more questions:

Does anyone of you happen to have some good re-sizeable maps for both "The Lichway" (WG #9, I believe), and "The Fear of Leefield" (WD #21)?

Will run both - in DragonMech, of all places - the Weekend after this one. I can do with the maps from the mags - I am working based on the splendid CD with the PDFs. But even so, maybe someone did some additional work on this already.

[Deleted]

***Accidental double post.***

[Deleted]

You don't anwer to my pleas? - Well, d**n y'all!




Gentlemen and ladies, here's the the first con report from the weekend:

I ran two bouts, from 1030 to 1630, and then from 2015 to 2330. I'll describe both in detail, because both were seminal events for me.
Over at the BM boards, I once listed "my curriculum as a DM".

There, I briefly mentioned how the Dragonlance game from 2002/2003 was sort of my personal coming of age moment as a DM, when I first wrote a more complex adventure sequence by myself.

Well, yesterday was sort of the end of that storyline, of my history with published D&D, in the best of possible senses, as I retire from the regional circuit:

Now, as I said above, "retirement" is a big word, and, of course, being still fairly young, I hope to stay in good health, and to look at decades of gaming that still lie before me.
When I speak of retirement, I mean, mainly, that I won't be available to run games with the same ease as before:

See, smaller-scale conventions like the ones I go to rely very much on people like me - not just people that have a lot of experience in the hobby only, but also people that have done "something" within the hobby. My own online exploits and my very modest publishing efforts basically make me a C-level celebrity in environments like this one, and that's how you get full tables as a con organizer: People who don't just run games, but also have a perspective on the genre, and the hobby.

Now, before I go on, please don't get me wrong: I am, indeed, NOT this full of myself. On Saturday, 35 DMs ran around 60 rounds, and 20 of those DMs had similar backstories to mine - bloggers, hobby writers, part-time workers for different publishing houses, etc. Not a biggie, just what you normally get when you follow a hobby with enthusiasm, and aren't shy of public audiences.

The reason why I am babbling about "retiring", in a sense, is a rather touchy topic: At this stage, I find it increasingly difficult to spare the time that preparing these quasi-professional presentations that my games really are, at this point. I would not want to settle for anything less, i. e. running "worse" games, but either people really consider compensating me for my efforts, or I won't be able to do it any more. No offense, again, this is not my personal hybris, but I can't really take one or two full days off to work solely on my games. Just not possible. While in college, yes. While I good worker bee, not.

Plus, this kind of DMing is a young man's game: The con admins awarded a trophy for "the best DM of the day"; that's something a 20-year-old can be proud of. For old coots like me, with a comparable level of experience, good DMing should be an understatement.

(Since I borught this up, a rather candid comment from my side: This trophy was basically invented for me on the fly, after my replay of "The Village of Hommlet", and my "Kingdom of Nothing" horror bout became regarded as the very best tables of that day. - I still don't think it's a good idea to so distinguish one guy who essentially offers a free community service among others that do the same. For youngsters, yeah, this is a great motivation. But for people who work, who take their little free time to do something for others, this creates a sense of tension that I deeply dislike. To also be perfectly clear, I would likely have won this year, too, had I not refused to participate in the competition. - It's not about my ego, here, it's really that I consider such a trophy detrimental to the community effort.)

[Deleted]

Ah, I'm spent now. I'll write the in-detail replay over the course of next week.

[Deleted]

Small sidenote, caught a mint-condition, shrink-wrapped copy of 2001's Stormbringer, by Chaosium.

Smartass that I am, I not only immediately removed the wrap, but also stepped on the book with my heavy boot. TWICE. seriously daming the cover.

A while later, I wondered why I wasn't too upset about this loss of collecting value: Aaaaaaah, this one will be played. Played until the bookpages are torn to tatters.

[Dave L]

You stepped on a book? Who cares what book - taking the shrink-wrap off, sure, but stepping on it, twice?!

I bet you open paperbacks wide to crack the spine too, you Philistine!

[Deleted]

Hehehe, I was just a bit annyed, because now, it's not a collector's item, any more.

But I greatly appreciate Stormbringer - the game - even though I am not much of a Moorcock fan. I wanted to buy my own copy for a while now, and, alas, now I have.
So, the idea that I will resell this, anyway, ever, pretty unlikely. ...Too much interesting stuff to steal.

Replays coming NEXT week, after all - too much to do, too little time. Another con starts this evening - still got to write the pregens. -_-

[Deleted]

The Last Chapter, Part One

So, con season is over. I had gone in there with a lot of tension on my back, as my earlier posts certainly stand testimony for: The reason, as always, being political, rather than factual.

Luckily, things turned out less stressful than during the last few bigger meetups, and we all could focus on the gaming - which, as I already hinted at, was great.

This seems like a good moment to retire from "active duty" among the local fandom, with whom I had shared strong connections ever since I first contacted them with the proposal for a Grogcon Europe, back in late 2006. - Or, rather than retiring, to start to be more selective about my fields of involvement. Like, I surely enjoy running ONE game at a local con, especially if it helps staying in touch with people you otherwise don't run into all too much, but running THREE is a bit exaggerated. As I wrote above, that's for younger folks than me old soldier.

Anyway, so that's for that. Now, to finish the last few touches on the LFC manuals, and to wrap up a decade of online activity over the second part of 2015.

That one won't be a goodbye, either - but as much as I enjoy especially my online exploits as a free time activity, it's always about things with someone else's name on it. It's time I start some stuff that is truly my own.

[Deleted]

The Last Chapter, Part Two

Finally, as promised, the replays. Now, about those who can write a little, or you can write A LOT. I prefer to write a little, only, because the games were really not very sophisticated - just good, clean fun. The players loved it, and that's really all that mattered for me.

My Dungeon Master's Bag of Books and Bones

For all the games I run, I use, outside from a few personal scripts, and perhaps adventure notes, the same couple of books and props at my table. Perhaps not 100% accurate in these particular cases, but usually, this is what rests on my desk:

1 pack of d10 - usually used as tokens to measure distance and position, if a battlegrid is needed.
3 packs of the usual D&D dice - for the same purposes, and as counters.

The DCC RPG - base of all my RPG sessions; base, as in, whenever a player has a question.
The D&D RC, in German or English - whenever I have a question.
The Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary - because it's my favorite monster book, plain and simple.

Setting books, I usually don't use - as by now, I know most of my playgrounds pretty much in- and outwardly.
The one - and the first - deviation from that rule was the DragonMech game, as I bought the books explicitly for this game, and had no prior knowledge of the setting, at all.


The Siege of Glendower (a week ago)

A continuation of last year's "Firewater" adventure, set within the continuity of the Last Fantasy Campaign, my Blackmoor pet project ever since 2005.
A replay of the classic scenario/dungeon, as presented in the FFC - but with considerable simplifications, to make the setting work for an inexperienced party.
During the battle of Glendower, the party encounters the Flying Monk, and aids him with the exploration of Glendower dungeon, which in our story is connected to the tomb of the Grey Dragon. Unable to fight through the hordes of monsters - and, from the rear, the servants of the Egg of Coot - the party finally decides to abandon the dungeon, but at least manages to collect a few weapons that turn the tide for the defending Glendowerians.



The Cursed Chalice (a week ago)

A Ravenloft scenario, set in my version of Barovia, from my old "Ravenloft Origins": In this game, though, player empowerment was the defining condition:
The party mapped out their city, their family, and their living conditions - within a set of options that I gave them. The level of affective emotional bonding with the setting was very tight from the get-go, and became a true nightmare for the players when I, predictably enough, started to pick it apart in true Ravenloftian fashion. My best game at a con, ever, especially in terms of applying horror conventions to an interactive narrative. My players complete seemed to forget that this was just a game, and we had a few pretty bad freakouts on at table - delightfully bad, because I had been working towards them. The players left pale, shaken, and praising me for the experience.



That Thing With The Cow (last weekend)

Set in Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, within the LFC continuity. A replay of the classic scenario "The Hellcow", from the Atlas Games book, "En Route" - an old, but pretty famous d20-scenario. The game was really a "light" RPG - as I had foreseen what would happen: Given that our merry band of rogues only meets on this weekend of the year, we all were really drunk before the first hour of the game was over. Like, really drunk. Like, by Hextor, were drank like poets. And that cow beat them up pretty bad.



Land's End

A two-part adventure, that lasted around 14 hours of game time: Again, the characters created their own backstory and setting, a village built by refugees from one of the bigger City Mechs on the Twilight Line, an entire generation ago. The game was very intense, again, as the party's emotional attachment to the environment - a town, complete their weekly routines and their respective family trees - was very intense. Luckily, this was not as somber as the Ravenloft game from last week, and the party managed to defeat the dreadful Elven necromancer who had demanded the lives of their fellow citizens as tribute. In a battle of giant mechs, of course.





All in all, I am pretty happy how things turned out.
I hope I can take all the good experiences with me, and I hope I can accomplish what I am now setting out to do next.


And that's it, folks.

[Deleted]

Oh, yeah, and if you want to follow my other exploits, at least until the end of the year, take a look over here:

www.facebook.com/utherlives

Something pretty sweet is in the making there... As another sort of parting gift.