MurderHobo.Club

Category: Gaming

Playing games.

  • Orcacon 2023

    I’ve made plans to attend Orcacon up near Seattle in the new year. It’ll be my first convention since SHUX back in 2019, I think. Seems like it has a similar attitude, which will be nice.

    I had originally planned to drive up, but I decided that I’d rather not deal with the potential snow going through the Snoqualmie Pass. So flying it is. Until recently, it had been at least a decade since I’d flown, I’d even driven to the Maritimes, rather than fly.

    Friends of mine from Vancouver will be driving down, and it’ll be good to see them again.

    I’ve booked my tickets to fly in the night before the convention, I’ll get a good night’s rest and then figure out how to get over to the convention hotel. I’ve booked into an RPG on the first night, but I think that’s the only game I’ve planned for that weekend.

    According to the website, there will be food trucks outside, so that’ll be nice. Reminds me of GottaCon in Victoria, back when we went.

  • Campaign Thoughts

    A few years back, I designed something we called the ARSE, Active Research System Experiment. It was a system agnostic way to handle historical knowledge in RPGs. The players would encounter a mystery they wanted to solve, such as the location of an object or the fate of an expedition, and they’d do their leg work to get an appropriate lead, such as a journal written by a member of the that expedition. At which point they’d be given a selection of character sheets to pick from; they would be taking on the roles of the members of that expedition, and the storyline that played out would give them the answers they’d sought in the future. Or not, as it was possible they wouldn’t solve the mystery, the lead turning out to be a dead end.

    This allowed us to experiment with different systems, settings, etc, and give players a break from a campaign, something that can prevent burnout. In theory, the system also allowed the GM to pull less punches, especially if there were more members of the expedition than in the party. One of them gets killed off, the player picks up one of the unpicked sheets and someone else has stepped up to fill in the vacancy left by the recently deceased.

    That system is still something I’ve had tucked away in my toolkit, for the day when I might actually need it.

    This post however, is about something a little different, thought it emerges from a similar stream of thoughts.

    I’d like to do a campaign loosely inspired by both Eternal Darkness from the Gamecube, and that recent Netflix series Fear Street, with it’s 3 parts taking place in three timelines. I’m sure there are other things that fit into this mould also, but those are the two that leap to mind currently. Also, I suppose it would owe some credit towards Doctor Who, with the various episodes that took place across human history. Or I suppose even the whole Assassin’s Creed series with the whole Abstergo operatives looking back through history.

    There would need to be a central threat or mystery, that the group was somehow exposed to, and having survived that, they’d have reason to seek the other groups who’d also encountered this, in an attempt to learn what they could about it.

    A basic framework like this gives you reason to visit places like Ancient Greece, Victorian London, and a whole variety of other evocative places.

  • The Last Witch Hunter

    I think someone once told me that the movie was inspired by Vin Diesel’s D&D character, which is partially why my previous post was about D&D. A quick google shows a whole article/video about that, but since I’m watching the movie right now, I don’t really have the time to actually do the research. Or maybe influenced by?

    I’ve heard people say it’s a bad fillm. I’ve watched about 90 minutes of it now, and I’ve been enjoying it. Though some of the themes, especially the wiping out humanity to save the planet and a global plague, feel a little strange. If the bad guy was less cartoonishly evil, there might have been an “Are we the baddies moment?”, which might have made the whole thing more satisfying. Still, it was fun, more than I was expecting.

    Having finished it now, I have to say it’s not quite as good as Constantine, but a solid entry in that category.

  • D&D on my mind again.

    The other day, I picked up a copy of the new Icewind Dale book, a 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons adventure. I’ve not played much 5th edition. I’d done the two partial campaigns with Matt that I’d mentioned here, and that’s been about it. Before that, it was Pathfinder, which I did for a while though Dimestore and I found a few ways to break things in those. Before that, 3.5, with various folks, including the man who became Olaf. For someone who has been interested in D&D for so long, I haven’t really played all that much of it.

    Most of my gaming has been Shadowrun, which I find more narratively satisfying. The d20 system, always feels too random to me, while the d6 systems, where the better the skill, the more dice, feels like you still get a range of results, but the range is more closely tied to your skills. Though that might just be because I feel more in control of my destiny in Shadowrun. (I may have mentioned this in a previous post.)

    But, I’ve heard good things about this new set of D&D adventures, and I’ve been tempted to pick them up a few times. And this one, had some good buzz, and a great picture of a moose in it.

    In theory, there’s a plan to run it for some friends online, though before that, I will probably be running a few games to get my familiarity with the system back. For whatever reason, running games seems more appealing than playing in them, at the moment.

     

  • Recaps – conflict and consideration

    In theory, I should have been writing up Shadowrun recaps and posting them to the blog. Rocky wrote up his, and they definitely have his voice.

    The game continues, thought recently it’s occurred to me that we might have a problem that I’ve been minimising, in how one of the other players treats the rest of the group. The player and I have personal history, so it makes it hard for me to be unbiased, or even compensate for my bias.

    A couple of years back, he was the supervisor who asked me to sign a document saying that I agreed that I had violated the attached code of conduct, that I understood that further violations would result in my termination, despite the fact that the copy didn’t actually have a written code of conduct, certainly not one that was attached to the letter I was being asked to sign.

    Prior to that, he was a coworker with a tendency to make jokes and slack off. Then again, pretty much everyone who worked there had a tendency to slack off and try to do as little as possible. It’s been a few years, and I’m not sure how accurate my memory is, but that’s my impression of the place now.

    After I refused to sign the letter, a friend of mine offered me work in film since I was frustrated with the way the office was being run. The original plan was that he’d put together the code of conduct and I’d sign it. In theory, this also ensure that other people in the office would be held to those standards. Strangely enough, that didn’t happen, and I worked in film for a bit. The long hours were a bit of a problem sometimes.

    He’d been in a group with us in the past, when we’d done Shadowrun. I’m having trouble remember much of that campaign. I recall we had some difficulties with people flaking out.

    But, as he’d been part of the group in the past, when we started up again, he was one of the first to respond to the question on Facebook.

    His previous character was a stealth infiltrator, I recall that much.

    His current character is a bit of a tank, a big heavy troll who can absorb a fair amount of punishment. To the point where it’s a bit disruptive to the game, trying to have anything show up that would be able to threaten him, that won’t just kill the other party members.

    At the same time, he’s also been antagonistic to the other players. Mostly in character. A few sessions ago, his character choked another player’s character, due to being frustrated. His character also has anger issues, some sort of berserker rage, though it hasn’t really been a factor yet, directly, though indirectly it’s been used for justification as to why the character should get his way.

    Though two characters have been replaced, one of the ones he was in the most conflict with, has switched out for someone more social. The other character was more of a character issue.

    Two of the players seem concerned about it, one of the players was absent for the choke and doesn’t seem to have a strong opinion, and I’m restricting myself from having an opinion, since I think it’s tainted by personal issues. Though some would say, with that history, why would you be playing with that person in the first place?

    One obvious solution is to start including an X card. Basically, it allows players to signal that they are uncomfortable with content, without it needing to be a big deal. But that’s mostly because of my concerns some of the content the other day, with the snuff films that they were trying to track down.

    The biggest issue with the internal violence, is that it feels like it isn’t quite severe enough, that it’s something that can be ignored. And that’s uncomfortable in it’s own way.

  • Guy

    Created with Hero Lab® Guide
    METATYPE: HUMAN
    B 2, A 2, R 2, S 2, W 5, L 4, I 5, C 6, ESS 6, EDG 5, M 6
    Condition Monitor (P/S): 9 / 11
    Armor: 8
    Limits: Physical 3, Mental 6, Social 8
    Physical Initiative: 7/9+2D6
    Astral Initiative: 10+3D6
    Active Skills: Assensing 5, Con 6, Counterspelling 1, Enchanting Group 2, Etiquette 2, Impersonation 1, Intimidation 1, Leadership 1, Navigation 1, Negotiation 3, Perception 5, Spellcasting 6, Summoning 6
    Knowledge Skills: Corp Politics 1, Gang Politics 2, Interesting pseudo-history 2, Tour Areas Knowledge 4
    Languages: English N, French 3, German 3, Japanese 3
    Qualities: Creature of Comfort (Middle Lifestyle), Day Job (1,000¥/month, 10 hrs/week), Focused Concentration (2), Mentor Spirit: Bat, Norse Magician, Uncanny Healer
    Spells: Analyze Truth, Foreboding, Heal, Increase Reflexes, Mindnet Extended, Physical Barrier, Shapechange, Stunbolt, Toxic Wave, Trid Entertainment
    Vehicles:
    Cocotaxi [Handling 4/2, Speed 3, Accel 2, Body 5, Armor 4, Pilot 1, Sensor 1, Seats 3]
    Gear:
    Anti-Theft System (2)
    Linguistics: English (local language)
    Linguistics: Japanese (Manufacturer’s Language)
    Morphing license plate
    Spoof chip
    Gear:
    Ace of Wands w/ Gear Access, Shock Weave
    Albrecht Robinson w/ (0 months) Day Job, Fake License: Spellcasting (1), Fake SIN (4), (1 month) Traveler Lifestyle
    Ballistic Mask (Customized) w/ Micro-Tranceiver, Trodes
    Guy DeCiti w/ Fake SIN (1)
    Matrix Systems GridGopher
    Contacts:
    Bartender (Connection 1, Loyalty 3)
    Fixer (Connection 3, Loyalty 4)
    Talismonger (Connection 3, Loyalty 4)

    Cocotaxi
    CHASSIS: COCOTAXI
    Handling 4, Handling (Off-Road) 2, Speed 3, Acceleration 2, Body 5, Pilot 1, Sensor 1, Seating 3, Device Rating 1, Data Processing 1, Firewall 1
    Condition Monitor: 15
    Armor: 4H
    Limits: Mental 2
    Physical Initiative: 2+4D6
    Vehicle Mods:
    Anti-Theft System (2)
    Morphing license plate
    Spoof chip
    Gear:
    Linguistics: English (local language)
    Linguistics: Japanese (Manufacturer’s Language)

    Spirit of Air
    Force 4
    RACE: SPIRIT OF AIR
    B 2, A 7, R 8, S 1, W 4, L 4, I 4, C 4, ESS 4, EDG 2, M 4
    Condition Monitor (P/S): 9 / 10
    Movement: x2/x4/+10
    Armor: 8H
    Limits: Physical 4, Mental 6, Social 6
    Physical Initiative: 12+2D6
    Astral Initiative: 8+3D6
    Active Skills: Assensing 4, Astral Combat 4, Perception 4, Running 4, Unarmed Combat 4
    Critter Powers: Accident (8dicepool vs. Reaction + Intuition), Astral Form, Concealment (-4dicepool for 20 small or 4 large targets), Confusion (8dicepool vs. Willpower + Logic), Engulf (6dicepool vs. Strength + Body): Air, Guard (4 characters), Immunity to Normal Weapons (Armor Rating 8), Materialization, Movement (x/÷ 4), Sapience, Search (8dicepool (5, 10 minutes))
    Weapons:
    Engulf: Air [Unarmed, Acc 4, DV 8S, AP -4]

    Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at https://www.wolflair.com Shadowrun © 2005-2019 The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Shadowrun is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.

  • Shadowrun Returns…

    5th Edition Shadowrun – Priority Build summary.

    Well, it’s been quite a while since we played Shadowrun, but tonight we had a meetup at the local Pizza joint to discuss the idea of putting together a new crew.

    We’d be playing Shadowrun 5th edition, using the standard priority system to build characters. I prefer to build my characters via the Karma gen system, but with a couple of newbies, this isn’t really an option.

    How about a crash course in building a Shadowrun character?

    Priority Build : You have 5 categories, Attributes, Magic, Metatype, Skills, and Resources. You toss these into order of personal importance and share it out in that order.

    Attributes are your stats, and you’ve got a pile of them to spend points on, broken up into 3 categories. The physical ones are Body, Agility, Reaction and Strength. Then you’ve got the mental list, Logic, Willpower, Intuition and Charisma. Then there’s a couple of special stats, like Essence, which only goes down usually as you become less human, Edge which creates a pool of bonus dice and determines how often you can use them, Magic and Resonance, which relate to your mystic powers, and finally Initiative, which determines your speed in combat, and is derived from other stats. Complicated eh?

    Players familiar with D&D might be slightly confused, since they normally have 6 attributes, plus BAB. Some of the attributes map directly, such as Strength and Charisma. Body and Constitution are fairly close, as are intelligence and Logic. But Wisdom gets broken into Intuition and Willpower, and Dexterity gets broken into Reaction and Agility.

    Magic is an attribute, so in theory it should be part of the previous block, but since magical ability varies considerably between individuals, it’s got it’s own priority. If you set it high, you get plenty of magic, set it last, you can’t do anything magical.

    Metatype covers your race, and provides some extra points to toss into magic, and into your edge. Humans can take pretty much any metatype and they’ve have some points to spare. An elf will take up some of those points, and a troll would take even more. Which is a bit rough, since troll also costs you more when you calculate your lifestyle.

    Skills determine how many points you have to put into your skills. The way skills work in Shadowrun, you build a dice pool, taking a die for every point of related attribute, then one for every point in the skill. So the more points in a skill, the more dice you’ll be throwing, which means the better you’ll do on average, and of course the higher you can potentially reach. And of course, if you really need to succeed, you can spend a point of edge and throw those dice in also.

    Finally, resources, how much you’ve got to spend on your gear and all the fun toys. The more you’ve got, the more you can afford on spend on chrome to go under your skin, things like chips that adjust your sleep, voice changers, bone reinforcement, hidden weapons, smuggling compartments, etc. It’s a long long list of stuff. Of course, installing stuff into your body costs you essence. There’s a complicated formula for it, where the grade of the implant and the amount of other implants can adjust how much you’ll lose. The important thing to take away from this, upgrades make it harder for you to do magic or benefit from magic, and also make it harder to relate to other people.

    So, you take these 5 categories, figure out which one is most important for your character concept, which one is least important, and put together your priority order, from A to E. After that, just consult a chart jot down the numbers, and you can build your character. Assuming the numbers look right to you. You might want to juggle a few around a bit.

    After that, you’ve got your qualities to buy. Positive Qualities cost you karma, negative qualities give you extra karma to spend, but they’ll make your life more difficult in the long run.

    And that’s the basics of how you’d build a Shadowrun character, in the priority build system. Though it completely ignores one of the most vital aspects of building the character, and that’s defining your character concept. This was how to build it, not what you’d build and why. That will have to wait for the next article.

  • Ancients Delayed

    I’d been in touch with the fellows in the Esoteric Order, and they’d shipped me a copy of the new Cthulhu Wars faction, the Ancients, to demo at Shux. Unfortunately, the package got delayed by customs, and arrived a few days after Shux. So, I’ve been trying to arrange some games to get a feel for the faction.

    Having played against it as Windwalker, that faction gets one benefit and one drawback playing against them. The spellbook that allows everyone to summon their highest cost monster, can help them to get their Gnoph Keh out early, since their cost is directly related to how many you’ve still got in your unit pool. But, they lack a Great Old One, which inhibits hibernation. And the extra power points that their cathedrals provide might make it harder for the Windwalker to get the first player marker.

    It’ll be interesting to see how they interact with the Yellow Sign, since that’s the only other faction to share that set of symbols. It seems pretty likely that there will be desecration markers and yellow troops around at least some of the cathedrals. Though if the Yellow Sign will control the gate or not, it’s hard to say.

    The Sleeper will enjoy having the Ancients in the game, with his Ancient Sorcery allow him to borrow Dematerialization during the doom phase. Not to mention, getting the Formless Spawns out for free, and speeding up the Death from Below, depending on the timing. 

    The Opener loves having the Ancients in the game, because free summoning of the Spawn of Yog Sothoth is a great way to awaken big Yog himself. If the ancients decide to do this first turn, Yog will be on the board and counting as a second gate. Not sure if it’s a great start, but it’s certainly a different option. Or, awaken Yog on turn two, as your 4th gate, after spending your 8 power to move and open two others. You’ll still have 6 power left over to push some mutants through enemy controlled gates for some spellbooks.

    These are just the interactions that come to mind. I’m sure there are others I’m missing. 

  • Matt’s Campaign – Day Six

    After a long break, we have managed to get the group back together for D&D. We’re in a forest, and two of the party members have gotten into a fight and exploded. Currently, the forest is on fire because of their fight.

    And we are running away from it. The elfadin has the stag, the bard casts cat’s grace to make it easier to weave through the trees, and the mercenary is in trouble. There is also a druid, who has recently assisted the party in finding their way through the woods. The bard attempts to inspire the mercenary, and then the druid turns into a dire wolf for the mercenary to mount.

    We escaped from the woods, and there was a strange voice that we didn’t hear, memories that we no longer remember, and now we know that we need to find the Leader of the Feathered Ones, who lives among the vines. Though old, he has one more flight in him.

    And we are now some place near the Wizard of Wines, and we’ve noticed that there are lots of vines around.

    The swordsman that we’ve been dragging along with us seems to have a different set of memories than we do. And when the bard checks his notebook, he notices that his notes aren’t in his hand. There has been a shift in reality, someone has handcrafted a patch over this reality. But the changes seem fairly minimal and benign.

     

  • A different campaign

    So, since Reive is stuck working with an unreliable schedule, we’re starting a new campaign.

    We’ve got a human criminal who woke up after his execution in a strange metallic body, and had to craft himself a human suit to be able to blend in. It took him a while to realize that he’s a continent and a few hundred years away from where he died.

    He was buried with a rather large rifle, which despite having no memory of, he knows intimately, including how to fire it, reload it, and craft ammunition for it.

    For those who were wondering, the skin for the human suit came from “recycling” a bandit who died during an ill-conceived attack on the people who had recovered him from the ruins. The bandit continues to contribute to the greater good, post mortem, despite his ill intentions in life.

    Speaking of the people who dug him up, one of them is a strange elf, and the other is a catperson.

    He looks much like a beggar, wrapped in stained rags.

    The adventure began with some traveling down a road, approaching a village. The party was look forward to relax over a nice roast beast at the village, but the village is currently be roasting by a beast. Kobolds and humans wearing purple robes are running around causing trouble, while dragons fly around overhead, spitting flames.

    Running into the village, we ran into kobolds running out of the houses. They don’t live long, facing of against a tabbymonk, a elvish swordswomen, and angry half elf dragonstalker. Oh, and a tall silvery man who did some healing.

    However, they were just a scouting party for something much larger, so we fled into the nearby keep, getting inside just before they sealed it.

    Inside the keep, we helped with the defenses, and waited out the attack. There was talking about why the cult would be attacking the city. The old man kept smoking his pipe and mended things.

    There were people who we probably should have killed, but they wanted to take things slow, so we went down the tunnel.

    The door was locked, so the strange ragged man pulled off his gloves and then his finger tips, and then inserted the metal underneath into the lock. After a bit, he’d cleaned enough of the lock for the key to work properly again.

    On our way out of the sewers, we ran into a rat swarm, which would have eaten our faces, if we hadn’t had a ranger who knew how to whistle for the rats.

    Then the ragged man ripped something wiry from his arm, and dripped liquid from it onto the hinges. After that, the sewer exit opened silently.

    Outside, a couple of kobolds and some dragonborn and a guard drake are searching for the party. But since they don’t know where we exited, the party manages to surround them.

    The monk throws darts, the ranger manages to calm down the drake, the funny man shoots the leg off one of the dragonborn, and the other kobolds get knocked out.

    Then the monk gets a skunk thrown into their face, which sickened her. After the battle, the ranger made the drake into a pet, and stored it in the basement of the tower. The beggar picked up the dragonborn’s severed leg, with the spoken intent of creating a lamp out of it later.