These are the links to all of the vendors for Gencon 2021 (as of7/16/21). If you find any errors, dead links or omissions, please use the contact form and let me know.

While you are here, please take a look at my latest project: Lawfuldice.com

Lawfuldice.com tests d20 dice to make sure they are rolling in a statistically expected way. Each d20 is rolled 1000 times and we run a statistical test to make sure the dice is rolling in a statistically valid manner. Dice that fail are destroyed. End the arguments about lucky and unlucky dice at the table, use Lawful Dice!

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Our methodology is simple; we roll each die 1000 times and then apply a “Goodness of Fit” statistical analysis to check if the die is behaving as expected.

Finding a “Fair” D20

Let me explain our methodology. Here are the results of a die that passed our testing process.

Each column represents the number of each die face rolled (41 “ones” for example). The dark blue line represents a perfect distribution of rolls; 50 for each die face. It is extremely unlikely to get a perfect 50 rolls per face, which is where “Goodness of Fit” calculations are valuable. Though the graph above has a “saw-tooth” appearance, you use “Goodness of Fit” to determine if it is within an acceptable tolerance versus the expected outcome.

(A quick note for the statistics nerds, I use a .05 P value as my break point for a bad die. Further information is available at the lawfuldice.com FAQ as to my methodology.)

If the die meets the threshold for a “good” die, it goes up for sale. The dice that fail are destroyed, never to curse a table again. Some of them fail badly, as you can see below.

Why does a die fail?

I found some with clear external defects such as sides being wider than others, making the d20 slightly oblong. Others I could not find anything external, which implies there is an issue within the die itself. Perhaps an air bubble or a bit of heavier metal or plastic mixed into the die’s interior, throwing off the balance. Regardless of the reason, I am ruthless with my testing. Pass or die.

As to your next question, no I am not rolling the die by hand 1000 times. I built a robot to roll the dice consistently. Exactly the same force is applied to every roll and then the robot ( I call her “Fortuna” after the Roman goddess of fate) captures an image of each roll.

This image is then fed into a machine learning system that I trained using 30,000 d20 dice images that can read the result on the face of the die. Fortuna is 99.56% accurate at reading the faces and I validate the results manually.

For the skeptics out there that think I may not be actually rolling the dice, I provide images of every roll upon request.

What percentage of dice are biased?

I have no idea what percentage of dice in the wide world are biased, but I can tell you that around 30% of the dice I test fail.

Why bother finding a “fair” D20?

Tabletop RPG games are played for fun, with no money on the line. So why would anyone care about d20 dice that are unfair? My answer is simple; biased dice suck the fun out of any game. Though experienced players have multiple dice sets,beginners often have a single, cherished dice set. If they get a bad d20 either they will experience an amazing run of luck that lets them roll through the adventure with minimal effort or actual strategy. Great for the player, but annoying for his fellow players. Even worse, a bad d20 biased towards low numbers might drive the player away with ongoing, soul-crushing failure after failure. Neither is “fun.”

Dice are agents of chaos in games and they should remain as such. Every time a player throws his d20 that is the difference between failure and success they should have an good chance at both. Not biased for one or the other because a manufacturer skimped on manufacturing consistency for his dice.

If you have any questions about Lawfuldice.com drop me a line. I am always happy to talk about dice!

Happy gaming!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Lawfuldice.com Launches! D20 Dice Tested for Fairness appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Dungeons and Lasers

“Dungeons and Lasers” plastic tabletop scenery is a (currently live!) kickstarter. D&L is a line of sturdy, modular dungeon terrain. I got a free sample of a spru and it is remarkably sturdy. Though it resembles Dwarven Forge offerings, it is definitely build for the budget minded. Besides being entirely plastic the pieces break down for flat storage. There is also the added benefit for the walls having two sides; fantasy and sci-fi depending on your needs. The highest backer level is only $299 USD, so this is a bargain if you are in need of terrain.

Teburu by Cool Mini or Not

Normally I do not report on miniatures, so CMON never appears on this site, however their foray into board gaming technology is notable. “Teburu” combines RFID technology with a “smart board” and an app to enhance tabletop games.

Here is a an introductory video with stylish graphics that I cannot make to make my point for me.

The board senses dice rolls and player location and feeds it to an app for adjudication. CMON made a questionable choice with the demos of this game in my opinion. They scheduled them as actual events with tickets…in an enclosed room. So either you went in blind during the ticket Hunger Games months before the game was available or you just watched from outside the booth. I watched outside the booth.

The idea interests me, if nothing else to remove “bookkeeping” activities on board games that suck the fun out of every turn and add a “blind” element managed by the computer. However, the demos I watched seemed like everyone just stared at their phones instead of playing the game. I am not sure this is a good idea in terms of human interaction, but will make an effort to get in a demo next year. I believe the price point was around $200 and the first game was a another edition of “Zombicide.”

Necromech

Necromech is an app-based (IOS AND Android) tabletop role-playing game. I downloaded the app and it basically pushes all the book-based rules of an RPG into an app that uses a subscription model. Frankly, this scared me off because I thought if you stop paying your content disappears. I dropped by the booth and turns out I was mistaken. You get all the content for the game up to the point your ended your subscription. Otherwise you get content updates for the life of the game so long as you keep up the subscription (59.99/year, $9.99/month). Given I never buy an RPG before playing it I will wait to get in a slot at Gencon next year before I buy in to Necromech.

I believe this model is a good one as it allows the developer to constantly update the rules/typos and keep content fresh without killing trees for paper books. I am not sure the world is ready for this just yet, but in a few years I predict this will be the norm in RPG publishing.

Draco Studios Dragons of the Red Moon

Amazing dragon miniatures! I am not even a miniatures fan and I nearly bought one. Pretty.

Nomad Magnetic Dice Tower from Master Monk

I have an interest in high-quality woodworking for game accessories, but this one was unique in its design. Here is what was sitting on the table.

I watched the owner turn this humble box into, well, this:

One of the more cleverly designed pieces of woodworking I have ever seen. The hardwood options are varied from the common to exotic. A lovely piece for any game table. Trask may have found his Christmas present to himself….

Trapper Keeper

“Stranger Things” brought a wave of 80s nostalgia (no idea why, I lived through the 1980s and they were nothing to write home about) and companies are jumping on board, notably with a “Blockbuster Video” board game and this item, the “Trapper Keeper” board game.

“Trapper Keepers” were all the rage among grade-school kids and came in many designs. This is just a light, set building card game in nostalgic packaging. Fun to look at, but I thought the demo I played was just dull. Included in this post as nostalgia porn only, here is the “Blockbuster” board game.

That is enough for part 1, part 2 coming soon!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2019 Vendors Report Part 1 appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Secret Hitler

I do not enjoy “social deduction games” like “Werewolf,” but I had a couple hours to kill and jumped into a game of “Secret Hitler.” I am still not a fan of the genre, but it does inject some strategy besides random guessing to determine the enemy.

“Secret Hitler’s” setup randomly assigns either a fascist or liberal role to each player (one fascist is Hitler). Players choose a President and a chancellor. There is a voting track with liberal or fascist policies. The president draws three cards, passes two on to the chancellor who picks one to play. No one besides the President or Chancellor sees the cards. Too many fascist policies and Hitler wins. Too many liberal cards and the liberals win.

I am still not a fan, but the game plays in 15 minutes and has at least some modicum of strategy. When you are president/chancellor you can get some idea of who is helping or hurting the cause. An amusing time-killer, but not worth a purchase for me.

Root

“Root” has a cute theme, but ruthless execution. Woodland creatures fight for control of a forest. Leder Games clearly loves asymmetrical strategy games and this is another entry in the same vein as “Vast.” Each of the woodland creature types has a unique ability, cats begin with a large, widely dispersed army, crows can leave “mines” that you have to either set off or destroy to find out what they do. Moles tunnel and teleport around the board. One of the odder creatures were “Eyrie.” They chose their plans well in advance and failure to execute the plan (in order) caused them to choose a new leader.

Players gather resources, fight and generally try to exterminate all who stand in their way. The asymmetric aspect does elevate this game from a standard move and fight strategy game to something else entirely.

I am not doing the game justice. The abilities are shockingly well balanced and the final score was within two points between all the players. It did play a bit odd because it was basically a beta. Tape held rule blocks on cards updated from the night before!

While a great game, several of my cohorts thought it had the same issue; new players will die horribly. Knowing what the other players can do is key to victory. For example the “moles” player got his tunnel system going before any of us understood what it meant. More experienced players will not allow it to reach that point before taking destructive action. Great game, but it has a learning curve.

Clockwork Dominion

“Clockwork Dominion” always caught my eye in the vendor hall of Gencon, but I never got to play it. Finally, this year I played it. A mixed bag, but still fun.

“CD” is a fantasy/steampunk mash up set in roughly Victorian England. That said, it is definitely skewed towards the social aspect of role-playing.

We started out as down-on-our-luck soldiers and nobility in need of some quick cash. We agreed to provide a distraction during a dinner party so a fetching young woman might be relieved of her necklace. We agreed and attended. This was a “shotgun” wedding party for reasons no one knew, so we decided to cause problems with the groom, the bride, their entourages and a spurned suitor. For two real hours we worked the room, dropping hints the groom visited brothels and had an…ahem…social disease. We also raised some national tensions between the foreign groomsmen and some British soldiers.

Net result; wedding brawl!

Heist went off without a hitch, but then the girl turned up missing. Turns out some local fey wanted her for a fey wedding, so we betrayed our employer, killed the fey and got her out. She even married her suitor. Hurray!

The combat system uses a deck of cards (add skill points to card draw, high total wins) and for the social elements it worked really well. During a sword fight the rules felt clunky and bolted on. I might pick up this game for the setting, but the rules left me cold.

That is it for games played, but I will be back with some vendors of note and other miscellaneous cool things I saw at Gencon 2019

Trask The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2019 Games Played Report Part 3 appeared first on Livingdice.com.

I spent Friday morning on a bug hunt with the colonial marines in “Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corp!.” This was a mistake because I wanted to play the new Aliens RPG, but did not look at the event description closely and got the board game instead.

The GF9 Aliens cooperative game drops you into an infested facility with marines, Newt and Ripley and lots of Xenomorphs. There are several scenarios, but we played a simple “survival” game with a victory condition of a single marine needs to make it to the drop ship. Mechanically the game felt familiar. Players take moves/actions (fight, call the drop ship, lock doors) and the aliens spawn as random “blips” on your scanners. You cannot tell how many aliens spawned until you get line of sight, flip the blip marker and see the number. Lots of credit to the sculpts on this game. The Aliens look great and the marines even had movie-accurate flamethrowers and smart guns.

It was a fun game, but it is very clear that locking doors are the best use of your time. I tied up perhaps 70% of the aliens behind locked doors. They can break through on a good dice roll, but they held long enough for us to win the game. I did not dislike the game, but it is just so familiar to other fight-the-deck monster spawn cooperative games that I was not excited. I just want a set of the miniatures!

Cypher System was next up with “Castaways.” Cypher is one of my favorite systems, but this round had some GM issues completely separate from the game. In this sci-fi adventure, we wake up on a ship with no memories, crashed on a jungle planet. I was good so far, but then the story just went off the rails. The rest of the story involved getting our asses kicked by some armed super-soldiers, meeting a resistance group, infiltrating the enemy base and then getting super-powers. I am not kidding, we recovered our memories and then got amped by an extra-dimensional being to the point we were physically unstoppable. Deeply weird and flawed experience. I had a friend acquire a copy of the module so I could read it. I suspect the GM was not prepared. Better luck next time.

Gale Force Nine’s Dune board game is not out yet, but they ran slots at Gencon 2019, so I jumped in…as the Emperor!

Gale Force Nine’s Dune game is an asymmetrical strategy game. Each player plays a faction (The Emperor, Bene Gesserit, Atreides, etc) vying for control of Arrakis. Each faction has its own focus. The Harkonnen get lots of traitor cards, the guild makes a lot of cash from the other houses for transport services, the emperor earns from players buying treachery cards.

Victory is simple; control four of the named cities (though this varies slightly. The Bene Gesserit can know the future, so they can win if a specific player wins in a certain round. They secretly work towards this goal.) Battles are fought by committing a number of troops and a leader secretly to a battle, with some treachery cards. Add the amount of troops to the leader’s score and get a number. High score wins the battle. Treachery cards allow you to poison leaders, do extra damage with laze guns or provide an antidote to attacker’s poison.

The maps is key because spice appears on the lighter areas, the darker areas have no spice but are safe from the storm that rotates the board every turn. If you are on the lighter sand and the storm hits your segment, all your men die. You are safe in the cities, except for two cities protected by the shield wall.

I may have used atomics to blow up the shield wall right before a big storm hit the largest army on the board. Oops, accidents happen.

Traitor cards, assuming you play the correct one against your opponent’s general allow you to instantly win the battle and get the general for your use. Use of a traitor card won the game for me and my ally, the guild in the final battle.

You can ally in the game and gain extra abilities. I could revive my allied troops cheaply and he in turn gave me discount transport fees. There is an issue I saw and I need to check the rules about it regarding treachery card bidding.

Players bid for treachery card draws. You play six face down on the table and players take turns bidding for the cards. All money from this auction goes to the Emperor. At one point I was broke and my ally had more money than the rest of the table combined. He bid some crazy amount for a card and gave me the money. No one could stop him and it was an easy way to give his ally money. It basically won the game for us. I suspect we played it wrong, but I could not find anything to prevent it.

Gale Force Nine’s Dune is a fun board game with a classic feel to it. I might even consider purchasing it.

Part 3 of my Gencon 2019 games played report tomorrow.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2019 Games Played Report Part 2 appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Red Markets Role-Playing Game

The Red Markets Role-Playing Game looks like a standard, post-apocalyptic zombie survival RPG, but it has an interesting twist. Rather than just survival in the chaos you have to earn a living as well. Money is the motivating factor for the PCs because if you earn enough you can “retire” to a zombie free safe zone. Meanwhile, you have to pay for upkeep of yourself, your equipment and your dependents. This drives the players to go on exploratory missions outside their fortified enclave. Red Markets reminded me a bit of the recent rash of “heist” RPGs because of the two-step adventuring process. The first section involves players either negotiating for more pay from their employer, getting equipment or actively sabotaging competing scavenger teams. Upon completion the PCs head into the wilderness to complete their mission. In our case we were sent to kill a specific zombie so our patron’s son could get “closure.”

We did the preparation phase, got a pay increase, some extra weapons and I used my position as the operator of a local STD clinic to spread disinformation to our competitors. As the party doctor, the STD clinic was the only thing I could think of that always gets customers. The flu comes and goes, STDs are a growth industry.

The party headed out and after some early scavenging we found our target in an abandoned church. Sadly, a competing team beat us to the target. Even worse, they died to the man along with a bunch of zombies. We eventually found the target, confirmed the kill and got out…right after we fought a giant zombie-mutant thing with the heads of eight children. Yuck. It nearly killed us and we ran. On the way out a party member took a bite from a zombie. He had a choice; either hope it was a “dry” bite and he stays human or take a “suppressant” that stops the infection from turning him, but makes him into a social outcast.

He refused the suppressant…

And turned! We shot him in the head.

He choose poorly.

We made it home and added up our money, paid our expenses and saved a bit more towards retirement.

I a deeply ambivalent about this game. I liked the world and the economic focus, but the system hurt me. It is fidgety, with lots of resource tracking, hit locations like a Battletech Mech and questionable design decisions. You have to expend food resource to attack…with a spear. You can run out of food because you stabbed too often. Free of the system I think this is a good world for future adventuring, but it is not enough for me to buy it.

Dice Mythbusters

This is not a game, but a seminar. Professor C. Warren Campbell of WKU put some of the common myths about game dice to the test. He wrote a fascinating paper about it you can download for free at this link:

Dice Mythbusters Download Page

I am also working on a similar project involving testing game dice. I believe that most dice are grossly unfair, especially the cheap plastic dice so many gamers use. Professor Campbell applied some solid statistical analysis and rolled several types of dice 3000 times…each! I highly suggest reading the paper (fair warning, this is a legitimate work of research, so it gets deep into the statistical weeds). However, the bottom line of this seminar is that he found most of the tested dice were unfair, but some were only unfair when pushed passed 1000 rolls. Metal and plastic dice were both tested and only a few made the cut as “fair.” He even tested the salt water float test and determined it was bunk. However, he does not draw any conclusions about any manufacturer of dice because he did not test a large enough sample. Though he does offer some interesting information about bubbles in plastic dice and how they impact rolling. Fascinating stuff.

Conan the Role-Playing Game

Conan, the name inspires awe in gamers. He is the archetype from which all barbarians spring. Much of modern gaming owes its existence to Robert E. Howard so I looked forward to playing in Hyborea. Modiphius published this latest version and this is my first run. I took the rogue (scoundrel) and we set off to protect a small town from “Howls in the Darkness.” The system is simple enough, using a system that tracks levels of “stress” and “harms” rather than pure hit points. I would not call it rules-light, but it is certainly an easier system than Pathfinder/3.5. Definitely has a bias towards cinematic actions and big wins.

We did some quick wolf encounters and finally found the evil cult making werewolves. We went underground and the game master deployed this epic dungeon prop.

Dwarven Forge makes amazing terrain, but I could never afford it or have a place to store it. Still, it was very cool to see it in action. The torches on he walls lit up! Totally unrelated to the game itself, but I thought it worth a mention.

We defeated the enemy in a hard fight and won the day. “Conan” is a fun game with light rules I enjoy, but perhaps I am jaded in my old age. Standard fantasy worlds seem a bit bland and nothing I saw would make me run out and buy “Conan.” That said, I will certainly play it again should the occasion arise.

Kingdom Death

“Kingdom Death” is successful. It made millions on Kickstarter and drives a rabid following. I am not a miniatures player, but something with that much success drew my attention. I watched a few videos on how to play and jumped into the 24/7 game at Gencon 2019. Players sign up for slots running 24/7 and try to finish the game completely by the end of Gencon. I took the 0800 shift on Friday.

KD has two phases. First you go hunting to fight a monster and second you take your booty back to your village to improve it and your people. It is persistent so if Bob dies in the first round, you need to send some other villager to fight. I arrived about 30 minutes early and they were short a person, so I helped the 0500 team fight a spider-thing.

Combat is the PCs against a deck of cards. The cards describe attacks and as you hit the monster the deck shrinks. Once you remove all the cards, the monster dies.

Once dead, you gather its resources (bones, hides, etc) and take it back to base and buy upgrades.

I basically played two rounds and determined I do not like this game. Sure, the miniatures are amazing, but the combat was flat. The tool…excuse me, player next to me was an avid KD player so he had the monster deck basically memorized and acted accordingly. He was a black hole of fun. Nothing like knowing exactly what the monster does. That said, even without Captain Spoiler the combat was just boring to me. Then the next phase put me into a coma. Tinkering with village building is not my idea of a good time. It felt like a video game without the computer to do the boring stuff. Though the part where you have to use “romance” to make more villagers was worth a chuckle.

I found out later they did not finish the game. The village died. Oh well.

I played “Kingdom Death” and that is enough for my lifetime. Just not my type of game.

Altered Carbon Role-Playing Game

Hunters Entertainment got the license for the “Altered Carbon” books by Richard K. Morgan. I am a huge fan of the books and thoroughly enjoyed the Netflix show. This event was my priority for Gencon 2019.

It was also my biggest disappointment.

A four hour RPG slot at Gencon usually costs $4.00. This slot was a “preview” of an upcoming Kickstarter for the Altered Carbon RPG. It cost $24.00. I thought it was odd, so I reached out via Twitter and got this response

Fine, I am a fan, so I am in. After a lucky draw on registration day I paid my $24.00 and arrived gleefully at the table. I sit down with four other players and get my “first look” at the game. Here it is:

There, I just saved you $24.00. That was the sum total of all material for the new game, a few beta character sheets. Nothing else. Not even a short rules summary. The GM showed up with no other materials and ran a game. To be fair, he was a good GM and it was a good plot. The system is basically roll under a target number based on your stat. So a d10 investigation score is worse than someone with a d4 score. The GM may also add extra dice to make it harder. Sort of a modified dice pool system. Though not clearly explained, there are a couple of stats “Ego” and “Stack” that relate to how old you are and how much time you spent training in VR. Too low of a score has some impact, but it was not clear what impact. It never came up during the game.

The adventure ran well, but nothing about the game really excited me. I understand it is not done and this is a preview, but this felt like it was not started.

Overall, I went from a potential backer of the Altered Carbon RPG to completely ignoring it. I saw nothing that indicated this is going to be worth my money and annoyed they charged $24.00 for a preview with almost nothing to preview.

More games of Gencon 2019 in the next post, including the new Dune game from Gale Force Nine!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer.

The post Gencon 2019 Games Played Report Part 1 appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Beyond Humanity:Colonies, an upcoming board game Kickstarter (tentatively late October, 2019) project from Three-Headed Monster, appeared at Gencon 2019 and I played a game with the designers. This is not a review because the game is not completed and some of the elements I experienced may change. The rulebooks, miniatures, tokens and cards are still in flux.

Beyond Humanity:Colonies makes the players managers of a new human colony on a distant planet. Each manager has an area of expertise. One manager is security/military focused, while my manager focused on exploring the planet and collecting artifacts. This specialization gives them bonuses on specific activities. On their turn, players gather resources (money, goods from Earth, decree cards) or spend resources to upgrade the colony. Upgrades are either modules added to the colony (greenhouse, marine barracks) or use your turn to pass a law. Players use “decree” cards to either build a building (eg, you need six decree cards to get a building “approved.”) or each decree card has a law on it you may try to pass. Green decree cards are easier to pass (lower the tax rate) and red are harder (increase the work week).

The game’s goal is to create a successful colony while at the same time increasing your own status among the colonists. While reducing the work week makes you popular, it also decreases colonial productivity. This is where the game diverges from the usual resource management board game. Most games of this type have some status board with colonist happiness and output tracked with meeples. Players take actions to adjust these statistics up and down and everyone can see the status of the colony mood. FYI, you can collectively lose the game if you make poor decisions.

The Tech

Rather than status boards, Beyond Humanity:Colonies has an inscrutable AI.

The tower in the center of the board is “The Ark.” It is a bluetooth-enabled microprocessor with a neural network loaded on it. The neural network simulates thousands of individual colonists, each with 27 different characteristics. Some are more religious than others or want more luxury goods. In order to win this game, you need to keep them as happy as possible, while keeping the colony economically viable and yourself ahead in victory points.

Undoubtedly you are looking at the picture above and thinking you need to hit buttons on the tablet to run the game. Not the case. While you do have to click through some screens each round, you actually play cards and “The Ark” records them. The tablet is just a status board. Each card and your player token has a Near-Field Communication chip in it and the Ark has a wireless reader. You just tap your card to the Ark and then your player token and it records you as taken that action. For example, I want to pass a decree to lower taxes. I tap the “Lower Taxes” decree card, then my token and at the end of the turn the AI decides how everyone votes.

Players create structures to add to the colony and influence the player’s popularity. Adding decree cards to other player’s buildings is allowed, but only one player owns the building and gets credit for it. (You can see the building cards in the lower left of the board image above.) Once you allocate enough decree cards, the building goes on the board. There are 32 building models in the box and they connect to the Ark using corridors. Once the building connects, it tells the Ark it is active and the app updates with the new building. Each building has a unique impact on the colony. For example, the “Industrial Dome” adds to your industrial output, but lowers security and happiness. An operational building also adds more options to acquire good or take other actions on your turn. The video above shows what the game looks like when it is learning new buildings.

Another unique aspect of this game is the shared universe. The Ark pulls a planet from a procedurally generated galaxy that all players share. If you land on a planet first, you get to name it. It is possible for someone else to come along and setup on your planet! The existing colony impacts the new colony in quantifiable ways, such as increasing your output or trade. There is also a mechanic to touch the Arks from two games together to join a cooperative Mega-corporation. I did not see these elements in action, but they are planned for the final release.

The End Game

After 30 turns (took me about 1 hour 45 minutes) the AI determines how well the colony is doing , what you built and how the people feel about your management style. It then determines a winner. I got second place out of three, but it was closer than I thought.

The Bottom Line

This is fascinating combination of technology with a board game. It never felt like I was playing a video game, just a board game with a digital adjudicator. If you are interested the Kickstarter is tentatively scheduled for October and the shipping data is around June, 2020. If you want more information, check out this link.

https://bhcolonies.com

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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Gencon 2019 is in the rear-view mirror and I made it home. I plan posts over the next few days covering what was at the convention, but first I wanted to share some analytical data about what it takes to complete Gencon physically.

Most websites give you helpful advice about getting hotel rooms or games. I think many of these sites overlook the most important element of Gencon; the physical effort required to attend. As a minor hobby, I keep track of my biometric data using a Whoop 3.0 fitness tracker and my Iphone. Combining these two devices I can calculate with reasonable certainty the following markers of my physical effort during Gencon 2019:

Sleep Performance (Based on heart rate and movement at night. 100% is a perfect sleep)

Heart Rate (Average and Maximum)

Steps Taken

Miles Walked

Calories burned

Strain ( a scale used by Whoop to quantify how hard you worked. 1 is couch potato and 21 is running a marathon)

I need to take a moment to discuss the technology measuring my physical effort. Though many people wear fitness trackers, the Whoop fitness tracker is unusual in that many professional athletes wear them and has a $30 monthly charge. Whoop crunches the data it collects in the cloud and returns actionable data about how hard you worked and how much you should rest. This is not a sales pitch, I just wanted readers to understand the data is likely better than a standard Fitbit.

Whoop is not designed for people that need to count steps, so it does not record that statistic. The Iphone I carry does, so I will use the step counter from the “Health” app for this information.

I gather data 24/7, but this post will cover data collected from July 31st, 2019 to August 4th, 2019. I break the data down by day and then will put a total at the bottom.

July 31st Travel Day

Calories Burned 2531

Sleep Performance 59%

Heart Rate (Average and Maximum) 65/157

Steps Taken 7,591

Miles Walked 2.8

Strain 5.3

August 1st Gencon Day 1

Calories burned 3094

Sleep Performance 45%

Heart Rate (Average and Maximum) 65/157

Steps Taken 20,987

Miles Walked 7.8

Strain 10.7

August 2nd Gencon Day 2

Calories burned 2930

Sleep Performance 47%

Heart Rate (Average and Maximum) 67/131

Steps Taken 12,026

Miles Walked 4.2

Strain 9.2

August 3rd Gencon Day 3

Calories burned 3426

Sleep Performance 28%

Heart Rate (Average and Maximum) 70/137

Steps Taken 17,076

Miles Walked 6.1

Strain 11.3

August 4th Gencon Day 4 and Travel Day

Calories burned 2665

Sleep Performance 47%

Heart Rate (Average and Maximum) 66/132

Steps Taken 13,250

Miles Walked 4.7

Strain 8.1

Gencon 2019 Totals

Miles Walked 25.6

Steps Taken 70,930

Calories Burned 14,646

The “miles walked” metric is likely higher than Gencon average. I have no physical limitations and tend to fidget, so I walk when I am not actively gaming. A friend who attended with me only had 34,000 steps, so somewhere in-between is likely the average for most attendees. It also greatly depends on your hotel location. Some of them were quite far from the convention center, but too close to justify a taxi/driving.

Other than answering a question no one thought to ask before, this post is my idea of a public service to the greater gaming community. Gencon is an amazing experience that all tabletop gamers should visit at least once in their lifetime. Given gamers as a group are not known as “fit” as a stereotype I wanted to make sure future attendees aware that Gencon extracts a physical toll. I am not saying you need Navy SEAL level fitness, but the ability to cover a few miles in a day will greatly increase your overall enjoyment. All while carrying you entire life/books/games/food/water in your backpack. People always forget about the pile of stuff you need to drag around with you.

Ok, health and fitness rant is over. I will post the games I played, vendors of note and some new board game technology I found that fascinating in the next few days. Might have a few reviews of the items I picked up as well.

Stay tuned.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer.

The post Gencon 2019 – The Physical Toll appeared first on Livingdice.com.

https://discord.gg/QEhaZD

Join the discord server and then go to the channel “role-assignment.” Once there paste this command “$iam IS-Secrets.” This grants access to the #secrets group and all that has been discovered lies within. Be warned that the #secrets group has a spoiler-friendly rule, so once you are in you will be able to see everything we have solved and are working on.

We have already cracked a few things that are obvious puzzles, so I will mention them here. This is not a complete list!

The Invisible Sun Script:

The “Goetic” Script (official name of the font is IS Occult):

The Clocks:

FYI, the clock puzzle took so long to crack that the Discord group still uses it as a difficulty benchmark. We hated them with the fire of a thousand suns!

Good luck vislae and welcome to #secrets!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Invisible Sun Role-Playing Game Puzzle Solutions appeared first on Livingdice.com.

The Gencon 2019 vendor and exhibitor link list is just a list of every vendor and exhibitor website (pulled from the gencon.com/map) without the map. I currently do not have descriptions for any of the sites, but if a vendor would like to add something (or correct an error), I am more than happy to do so. Just use the contact form or leave a comment and I will get it updated. Free!

If a vendor would like to sponsor this list or add some art to their link, contact me and we can work something out.

The post Gencon 2019 Vendor and Exhibitor Link List–No Map! appeared first on Livingdice.com.

The Reckoners

Brandon Sanderson, creator of…well…basically any fantasy novel in the past 10 years. I joke! But the man can produce fiction at an astonishing rate and I enjoy several of his series, including “Words of Radiance,” “Mistborn” and “The Reckoners.” “The Reckoners” begins with a comet taking up orbit near Earth in the early 21st century.  Suddenly random people develop super-powers. Some of the powers are fun (flying), potentially useful (make plants grow quickly) or lethal (lasers beams from hands, burning body a la the human torch, super-human strength, etc).  While this sounds wonderful, the people with powers turn into self-centered super-villains and immediately begin laying waste to the planet. Normal people are just pawns and are often sacrificed in battles between the “Epics.”  Among the worst is “Steelheart.” He is overlord of “Newcago” (Chicago post-apocalypse) and rules with a steel fist. Pun intended. 

“Steelheart” is a superman analogue with even more abilities and is basically unbeatable. However, the universe played a joke on Epics. Each one has a unique weakness. Figure it out and you can just shoot an Epic like anyone else. Figuring out that weakness is the issue…

Which brings us to “The Reckoners.” Reckoners are a human underground movement/death squad created for the sole purpose of killing the Epics. All of them. They watch the Epic, determine a weakness and then eliminate them. 

This is the essence of “The Reckoners” board game.  Players need to gather resources, complete objectives and research weaknesses to defeat an endless array of minions and  lesser Epics serving Steelheart.

Each player receives a character board (lower-center shows “Cody”) and dice unique to that character. Cody is a sniper so his dice have extra combat symbols on them. The science geek has extra research and so on for each player. The six characters in the center represent lesser Epics that you must defeat to earn gear and other rewards to nibble away at Steelheart on the far-left center.  He is too tough to attack at the outset, but by attacking his minions you can weaken him. 

The game is co-op with players pooling their respective dice rolls to achieve goals.  Some Epics have prerequisites before you can attack them, such as research. Once you clear that hurdle you can attack normally.  If you need five research dice for a task, all players on the square may contribute. You have limited actions and limited dice, so resource management is critical to victory. 

We made a good decision early to spend money on an item that increased our cash pool. Gear is expensive and really useful and by the end we had a pile of deadly weapons and other tech that made the difference.

Game play is fast, even with new players.  Players execute their turns simultaneously and once they are done, the Epics do pre-programmed evil. The city has a population and as Epics act they whittle away at your population. Once you hit zero the players lose. Of course killing Epics and taking actions to defend the citizenry are options for the players…but it is another drain on their resources and slows the progress towards killing Steelheart and his minions.

The Epic cards ( in the center of the image above) have the Epic’s name, what evil he commits on his turn (kills population, helps Steelheart, adds troops, etc.) and the round and square tracks are hit-point and research trackers you need to get to zero to kill him. 

We bought some great gear, worked well as a team and had some amazing rolls. In particular when it got down to the bitter end and we almost defeated Steelheart, one of the players basically rolled six of a kind on six dice. Best roll ever in a board game. Steelheart fell beneath our collective might. Hurray for humanity!

Components were quite good, but I need to mention I played the “Deluxe” version. It had metal components for the hit point/research tracking paths. The physical components were excellent and I especially enjoyed the trays that held all the cards and dice. Nice presentation all around.  

“The Reckoners” is a fun co-op that plays in about two hours and I look forward to playing it again in the future.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2018 The Reckoners Review appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Star Trek from Modiphius Games

I am a Trek fan. At least I was until JJ Abrams turned my beloved franchise into a charmless “Fast and Furious” clone. Griping about the recent movies aside, I looked forward to playing “Star Trek Adventures” as it comes from Modiphius and I am a fan of their “Achtung Cthulhu!” game.  I was a bit surprised when I sat down and the pre-generated  characters were the classic crew. I went with the Monkee…er…Chekov  and our fearless captain lead us into adventure.  “Abyss Station” is an alien artifact orbiting a black hole. The Federation science team accidentally turned it on and the alien macguffin started moving the black hole towards a nearby inhabited planet full of primitive humanoids.  We explored the station, fought some security droids and eventually turned off the alien artifact. At the bitter end we discovered  a crazy Vulcan turned it on because she was exposed to the same chemical that made T’pol nuts on “Enterprise.” It was an odd round because we blew through it in two hours. Turns out we could have visited the planet to talk to the natives.  Truly awful adventure design comes in many forms. This incarnation gives you a choice between a glowing, active alien artifact moving a black hole  around like a ping-pong ball or spending quality time with some goat herders on a planet to explore their culture. 

Hmm. Let me channel Kirk on this one….this is hard…primitives with the potential for some inter-species love or GIANT, PULSING ALIEN ARTIFACT.  The system is fine and uses a system of “momentum” that players earn through rolling that can be spent to pull off amazing stunts.  It was an acceptable game system, my issue is Starfleet campaigns feel dated in the age of “Firefly” and “The Expanse.” Everyone is too idealistic, too non-violent (the GM gets points to mess with the party when you shoot to kill) and generally felt more like a parody than a real game. Of course, this is one adventure, but I would much rather play a game with some dirt on it. If they came out with a Klingon campaign….

The Expanse

Ironically, after getting a morality enema with “Star Trek,” we got down and dirty in “The Expanse RPG.” I played the AGE system years ago for  “Dragon Age” and jumped right into an “easy” salvage mission.  We, a crew of scumbags working for a distant corporation aboard a ship called  “The Goat” stumbled across a derelict Martian corvette dead in the belt. We boarded and took control after fighting some drones and capturing the lone survivor, a Martian marine.  I played an engineer, which will become important later.

We captured said marine, knocked her out with a sedative and locked her in a room while the crew argued about how to handle her. She meant we would not get the salvage because it was not an abandoned ship. As the players bickered about what to do I passed a note to the GM indicating I was going to flood the marine’s room with carbon dioxide and kill her. I planned on blaming the sedative for giving her a “bad” reaction. 

Sadly, the GM interpreted my precise instructions poorly. Instead as the other (innocent) players entered her room, the GM indicated that it had been opened to vacuum! So much for an undetectable death. One of my more naive friends immediately shouted something like “there is a saboteur onboard!”  The captain player who is not part of my regular game group orders me to investigate the “malfunction,” which I do. However, in the course of my investigation the maintenance logs are erased. Oops. 

My regular group was at the table and immediately blamed me ( I have a reputation for sinister acts for some reason) but no evidence was found. I got away clean. That said, the GM finally just busted out laughing as he could not keep a straight face. Good times.

I love “The Expanse” as a world, but the AGE system is not my favorite. All the cool stuff depends too much on charts when you roll well and not enough on creativity. The charts also slow down the game as players consult how to spend their allotment of “stunt” points.  I feel an Expanse campaign will come to my table someday, just not with AGE.

Mistborn: House War

I have been trying to play this for two years…and the round cancelled because no one else showed up! I heard this was an ongoing issue with games held in Lucas Oil Stadium, but I have not seen any numbers to back that up. Just convention rumors. That said, the stadium is quite a hike from some of the hotels. Regardless, I missed out…again. Maybe next year. 

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Reaching out to Haaldar and basically jogging from the hinterlands of Gencon (Lucas Oil Stadium) I managed to score a seat at a DCC run of Ravenloft. We got some pre-gens and immediately presented ourselves at the door of Ravenloft castle to kill Strahd. Then it went wrong. Not wrong like “oops I colored outside the lines of my adult coloring book” more like “I pressed the wrong button and convinced the entire state of Hawaii it was about to be nuked by North Korea wrong.”

My usual gaming group took four of the table seats and three mouth-breathing mutants took the remaining seats.  Believing themselves “good” gamers they proceeded to make bad decisions, not related to character traits, but because they were too stupid to come up with any good ideas.  We started throwing small, packaged snacks at them because when they ate they stopped talking.  Never have I been so grateful for the sound of crunching crackers.

Though our three Dunning-Kruger exemplars made the game painful, our GM pushed it into waterboard territory.  Our pre-gens had no equipment. Well, I did have three items. A hen (chicken) which ran off at the castle gates, weapons and a vial of holy water. No magic items and our supposedly 5th level characters had weapons doing 1d6…against Strahd’s minions. 

We stumbled through the castle, had forgettable encounters and finally everyone died attacking the heart in a tower and got turned into vampires…in one round.  The DCC System is an abomination of 1st Edition and weird 16-sided dice. I did not enjoy the system at all.  The GM had a pre-made mechanical stamp for our character sheets indicating we died playing DCC. Forget my character, this awful game managed to kill part of my soul.  Never again.

I will wrap up the games played in part 3 tomorrow!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2018 Games Played Report Part 2 appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Invisible Sun

Ironically, the first game played was an “Invisible Sun”  scenario by Monte Cook Games named “We Begin at the End.” Invisible Sun is a surrealistic fantasy RPG with a heavy emphasis on  player-driven story development, minimal game mechanics and long-term goals.  It is not suited for convention play, but MCG put together a fun four-hour slot in the IS world. IS has a deep, complex world behind it, so I will hit the highlights rather than make a deep dive. It gets a little weird, so bear with me.  A local luminary named the “Illustrated Messiah” asked the PCs to kill her. Said messiah had powerful magic tattoos that kept her alive at all costs and she wanted to die and go into the “Pale” (land of the dead) to expand her experiences.  However, killing her meant the murdere became afflicted with a magical madness. So the PCs arranged for a demon to do the deed not knowing about the curse.  Demon shows up in the first 10 minutes of the game and kills the target. All is good…until we discovered he captures souls of his victims. Which means we had to hunt him down and get the soul back. Off adventuring we go!

After some research and  non-combat encounters we tracked down the demon, half mad from the curse and used a combination of guile ( telepathy convinced the demon I was a voice in his head…my advice was not helpful) and brute force (beat him up until he gave up the soul). We eventually got the job done and the Illustrated Messiah passed on to the next level of existence. 

Unlike a traditional convention RPG slot I felt this was more of an introduction to the game mechanics and a (very brief) introduction to the world of “Invisible Sun.”  The game has many layers and this covered perhaps two. It did help me get a better understanding of the mechanics before I run my own campaign and I highly suggest anyone interested in IS give it a run. 

Numenera

Our next round was “Numenera” also from MCG, so we did not even have to leave the room for our next slot. “Forgetting Doomsday” had two opposing sides  in a long-running war combining forces to resolve a memory-loss plague. Numenera is a favorite of mine, but this event had elements from the new “Discovery and Destiny” Numenera books.  There are new character classes and abilities designed to build long-term bases and communities. Nice to give these a try because Invisible Sun has me tied up for the foreseeable future. 

Blades in the Dark

“Blades in the Dark” is one of the new line of  “heist” style RPGs. Rather than focusing on dungeon crawling it places a heavy emphasis on planning and executing an  “Ocean’s 11” style heist. Instead of the players burning time planning the heist BitD uses a “flashback” mechanic to allow players to build a plan on the fly. It allows items or other preparations to magically appear as though we had planned it in advance, though it is limited to prevent abuse.  In our case, we needed to break into a locked train car and steal some items. We ran into a steel cage we needed to get into so I used the “flashback” to acquire  some bar-destroying acid.  As with most game heists, ours went wrong. Our original plan totally failed, but we improvised, got the goods and framed a poor guard for the crime. Good times.

The Yellow King

“The Yellow King” RPG draws inspiration from Robert W. Chambers short stories, which in turn inspired Lovecraft. Though from an earlier  source, TYK plays much like a Cthulhu game with a literary air. Set in “Belle Epoque” Paris, we played art students, poets and architects hunting a book, the legendary “The King in Yellow” play.  It physically alters and kills all who read it.  An investigative mission, we ran around Paris chasing mutated bodies, crazy old art collectors and had to dispose of a body. As an aside, the PCs were utterly ill suited to playing investigator.  Which was quite amusing, especially when we had to get rid of a body and I suggested using a dangerous river feature called a “stopper.” It is a feature in many rivers where an object (like a body) is recirculated in a hole by the flow of the river. Objects can be trapped for days or weeks and would make a great body disposal site. I was an architect, so I thought some river features might have come up in his studies. The jaw drops I got at the table made me smile.  I dabbled in kayaking in college and it was high on the hazard list. I think they thought I was a serial killer in training. After tracing the book we defeated an invader from the dark city of Carcossa and saved Paris. Great fun, but I dislike the Gumshoe system, so I will only play this if it is ported to a less annoying game system.

Captain Sonar

A board game, Haaldar raved about it last year and it lived up to expectations. “Captain Sonar” needs eight players (yes, eight!) to control the movement and combat of two submarines. Each player has a task, such as listening to the other team and tracking their commands on a board or maintaining the engine room.  As you move around the board you activate systems on your ship, attack your enemy and try not to overload your engines.  It plays fast, under 20 minutes and has a high adrenaline factor.  Think of it as a real time game of “Battleship!”  Great for conventions as rounding up eight players is a challenge. 

Harnmaster

There is one every Gencon, a game memorable only for the suffering it caused. “Harn” is that game at Gencon 2018.  Let me be clear that the game, the setting and the rules were not the problem.  This game lacked a key element to make any RPG fun; a competent GM.  I need to give a little history on this event.  Harn was on my gaming bucket list because it was one of the early 1980’s games I always saw in “Dragon” or mentioned by other gamers, but never played. Swearing to check it off my list I signed up at Gencon 2018. Haaldar and others warned me that as a game from the 1980s it was afflicted with complex rules derived from  wargames played by retirees in the back room of an Elk’s Lodge circa 1979 that I am on record as loathing.  I ignored their advice and went in knowing full well that the game would likely not be to my taste, but I would finally play Harn!

I sit down and was pleasantly surprised. 

The character sheet looks reasonable and the system is a simple percentile system. Woohoo! I can work with this. The game begins and the GM passes out some rather nice pre-gens in folders. Complete with equipment and history provided for each PC.  The setup is we are on a ship and we need to make some cash to keep sailing. The captain is up to his eyeballs in debt to the wrong people and needs to make money. First step is to sell off the current cargo, keep the creditors at bay and go get some more goods to sell. I smell piracy! Alright, we will spend 10 minutes selling our cargo, grab some equipment and we sail off to adventure!

Then it goes completely off the rails.

We wandered into town, hit a house of ill-repute got into a little trouble as sailors do. Then the captain started selling his cargo to make what he could and keep his creditors from killing him.  This set off at least an hour of pointless meandering around town as the captain DID THE MATH on selling his cargo…individually. I will paraphrase.

“You have 25 barrels of ale, each worth 25 gp, with a 10% tax rate and 8% going to bribe for the longshoremen and the local mafia…”

Rinse and repeat… for each type of cargo. The captain player deployed a calculator to do the math. This meandering and math misery went on until the 1 hour and 45  minute mark. That is when I politely left the table rather than waste any more of my life on this disaster. 

Rant time. Sorry.

I am not usually so harsh on convention GMs because I am acutely aware that I too have shortcomings when I run a game. I am far from perfect. That said, the highest priority in my mind whenever I run a game is “are the players having fun?” If the answer is no then I need to adjust, compensate and get creative to save the game. A meandering, dull plot and tax preparation do not a fun game make.   

Rant over. 

The real irony here is the Harnmaster system did not cause the issue. It was fine, but the GM destroyed the experience.  Oh well, bucket list item checked. 

More tomorrow!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2018 Games Played Report appeared first on Livingdice.com.

In 1995, long before Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition was a gleam in White Wolf’s eye, I was the epitome of “gothic punk”, with my chain wallet, all-black clothing, and a tee-shirt for a famous gothic record label. I had played other tabletop role-playing game titles, but I will never forget the night that I experienced Vampire: The Masquerade. My friend had brought me along to a sandwich shop in Omaha, Nebraska, and while we waited patiently for the man who would become my first White Wolf Storyteller to end his business for the day, it felt like being an extra in Fight Club waiting for Lou’s Tavern to close. Once the lights dimmed and the sign flipped to “CLOSED”, the books opened, and I played a roleplaying game that spoke directly through my faded, black tee-shirt into my tragic, black heart.

White Wolf had introduced an intriguing soap opera of horror, intrigue, and bloody nights that was fascinating to play and to read. It was an ongoing story of vampire politics dating back to pre-biblical times, and with it came a rich history of vampire clans, the political and spiritual sects they’d divided themselves into, and the actions of ancient vampires recorded in the game’s canon as being the secret influencers of both mortal and vampire history. When it was announced that the game would be ending in 2004 with an event called “Gehenna” (A supernatural apocalyptic event), I was sad to see it go. It felt like a cliffhanger moment of a cancelled television series. it truly the end of Vampire: The Masquerade?

White Wolf Entertainment Interactive acquired the rights to White Wolf in 2015, and a few years later my question was answered with a resounding: “No.” Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, or “V5” for short, was going to be released. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a copy for review. Would this be my old love coming  into my life with a shiny coat of paint and a bloody-fanged smile, or would it be an attempt to resurrect a setting that I should have let go in 2004 when the books had told me that it over?

This, I imagine, is the same curious question weighing on the hearts and minds of the worldwide fan base of the Vampire: The Masquerade before this game’s 2018 release date.

THE REVEAL:

White Wolf Entertainment comes out of the door swinging for blood. The first 32 pages of the book  introduce the world through little pieces of flash fiction that I recommend everyone read. This section is entirely in-character, containing letters, secret memos, and spy-grade reports that give an update as to what has happened between 2004 and today. This section serves as an emotional example of what the world of V5 has become, and seasoned veterans of the game will find mention of some famous canon characters in this section. My favorite piece comes at the end, with a full-page photograph of a neon sign that reads: “DEATH IS NOT THE END”, which felt like White Wolf Entertainment’s better answer to my question if Vampire was finished.

THE NEW ERA:

I won’t spoil the setting, but this new era White Wolf Entertainment has given Vampire The Masquerade is exciting. Times are tough. A new worldwide “Second Inquisition” is on the offensive against vampires, and the power flux between the game’s three main sects of vampires has shifted. Old vampire-run networks that provided security aren’t as reliable anymore, and it paints the new setting in a light that vampires need to fear exposure to the outside world. There are new threats, old threats returned, and some of the vampire clans seem to have old enemies knocking at their doors…or through their blood.

If you are a veteran player who felt that there wasn’t enough inherent risk outlined in the setting’s previous efforts, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. On the other hand, if you’re the sort of Vampire player who prefers a vampire who owns the police and has little fear of ramification from making mistakes, then you will face disappoint. V5 makes it very clear that this new setting is about the struggle to continue in a world that is trying to extinct your kind. Death may not be the end, but is sure as Hell is scarier on the other side.

THE SYSTEM:

It seems that White Wolf Entertainment has taken a look into some of the gray areas of older Vampire releases and made some improvements, while keeping most of the old system intact. The driving force behind some of these new dice systems seems to reiterate that the player characters are monsters, have internal struggles, and these struggles are a regular part of gameplay. The book makes it very clear that you are playing monsters, not humans with vampire powers. Real vampires don’t sparkle, right?

Older versions of Vampire revolved  around an economy of blood and willpower: blood to fuel your powers and willpower to keep the beast at bay. In a clever move, V5 has updated the economy to include hunger. Hunger is now a constant variable in your dice rolls, and includes some very well-defined rules for when and how a vampire loses their control. One of my favorite new terms in V5 is called the “messy critical”, where your success is critical, but it is a hunger-driven critical. When a hungry vampire wants information…I’ll leave this to your imagination.

White Wolf Entertainment has also updated the list of clan banes. Each vampire clan descends from one vampire, and his or her personal curse burdens  the younger generations. V5 has updated the clan banes to be more impactful, and in most cases can affect dice rolls. While I find these clan banes challenging, exciting, and harder to ignore, there will be veteran players who will feel the impact of some of these changes. Clan Tremere players? You will  know what I mean.

Other new rules include Blood Resonance (how emotion flavors blood) and a wealth of gameplay resources for city design, coterie (the group of PCs) design, and character generation that includes some life-pathing and the ability to tie your character to famous canon elements of the story through a system called “Loresheets”. White Wolf Entertainment has definitely done a lot of the legwork  helping Storytellers and players flesh out their gaming experiences.

THE VERDICT:

I’m going to play the Hell out of this game!

The Masquerade is BACK! White Wolf Entertainment seems to have written this game as a love letter to the setting, clans, and drama that I loved, too. This book is gorgeous and upholds the IP’s standard of being filled with artistic fiction and imagery to help prime the roleplay setting. The design of the pages is clean and easy to read, the rules are precise, and it’s a powerful addition to the history of the game. I love  the hunger system and the rule changes feel like upgrades to the existing engine. All in all, this game is a rallying cry for lovers of vampires, horror, romance, and all things gothic-punk to unite and share stories with one another.

Locke

The post Review : Vampire The Masquerade 5th Edition appeared first on Livingdice.com.

After removing the cardboard shell, the chrysalis protected the contents well.  Note: the corners have hard reinforcements to protect the Cube during shipping. A major concern for me, but it turned out to be a non-issue.

Chrysalis removed:

Removing the plastic wrap and a flyer reveals the Cube in its true form:

Here is the Cube fully deployed:

This is a close-up of the logo on the top and the hand that comes inside one of the shelves. As an aside, packaging on this monster is impressive. Everything has a slot and everything fits. Tight!

There are two drawers. The top drawer is for GMs. You can just see the hand underneath the GM envelope.

Next drawer is “props.” Note the massive numbers of card decks. Have not even opened them yet.

The bottom shelf (no drawer) are the books and multiple miscellaneous items.

Finally, this item which I will most definitely not tell you anything about. Just enjoy the view future players, this is as close as you get to the real secrets.

That is it for now. Give me a couple of weeks to digest this monster and I will post a follow-up.

Onward Vislae!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Invisible Sun RPG Initial Unboxing! appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Show Notes:

D&D Redbox

Heroquest

Kingmaker

Diplomacy

AD&D Oriental Adventures

Palladium Books

Wargames West Catalogue

Living Arcanis

Alpha Omega

Aces and Eights

Eoris

Shadows Over Esteren

Invisible Sun

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Invisible Sun

Numenera/Cypher System

Blades in the Dark

10 Candles

The Yellow King

Kingdom Death

Captain Sonar

Dead of Winter 

Harnmaster

Star Trek RPG

The Expanse RPG

Firefly Adventures

Mistborn: House War

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Who Goes There?

The Captain is Dead

Fireball Island 

The post LD Episode 7 Gencon 2018 Games appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Here are the topics we discussed:

Here are the games we mentioned during the show.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Nightbane

Aces and Eights

Star Wars Sparks

Dragon Age RPG

Numenera

Living Arcanis

The post LD Episode 6 Lessons From Gaming appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Numenera Starter Set

The Cypher System rulebook

Numenera

The Strange

MCG Asset Team

The post LD Episode 5 The Cypher System appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Good luck and happy shopping!

PS. As a shameless plug,  please check out the new Livingdice.com podcast.  I promise we will never teach you how to “pimp your paladin” or optimize your PC, but we will talk about how to run a great game, leverage history for a better gaming experience and create thrilling plots that will leave your players wanting more. Check us out!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2018 Vendor and Exhibitor Link List appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Aces & Eights

3.5 D&D

The post The Gamer Social Contract LD Episode 4 appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Methane Hydrates

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates

Rifts Underseas (Rifts World Book 7)

Numenera Into The Deep by Monte Cook Games (2016-05-11)

7th Sea Core Rulebook

Under a Graveyard Sky (Black Tide Rising)

The post LD Episode 3 High Seas Role-Playing Games appeared first on Livingdice.com.

30  minutes of focused discussion on running a role-playing game. Cheap!

Games Mentioned:

Honey Heist

5E DnD Basic Rules

Basic Fantasy RPG

Open Legend RPG

D20 System Reference Document

Books Mentioned:

Words of Radiance

Wasp

Note: Some of these links are affiliate links that help support the site.

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Key elements of a plot:

Introduction

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

Resolution

The post Livingdice Podcast Launches! Episode 1–The Plot appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Or if the table and amazing chair are not your thing, how can any gamer turn down a Spartan helmet for ambiance.

You can enter only once yourself, but by sharing your link amongst your friends and henchmen, you can get more entries.  As treasure rooms go, this one is amazing, so if you are interested you can sign up for the contest at the link below.

Wayfair Game Room Contest

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“Coma Ward” the game is an upcoming Kickstarter effort that will launch this month from Everything Epic.   I previously mentioned “Coma Ward” when I got a somewhat mysterious envelope at Gencon 2017.  A few weeks later, this interesting package arrived at my door. I give EE credit from some excellent trade dress on this game. The game came as a medical file folder, complete with a hospital wristband and a biohazard bag for the components!

Before I continue, I should mention this is a prototype of the final game and I have no idea what that final version will look like. Hence my choice of  “first look” rather than review for the title.  Consider this more of a play report rather than a full review.

“Coma Ward’s” premise is the players wake up in the coma ward of Saint Dymphna’s Hospital. (Saint Dymphna is the patron saint of the mentally ill. I had to look it up.)  Each player begins with nothing except their wits and a hospital gown. The goal is simple: get out of the hospital alive.  Here is a shot of the game in progress.

For this next bit, it might help to have the image above open in a separate window, expanded to full size. It makes the following gameplay explanation a bit clearer. The card in the lower-center is your character’s statistics. Health, strength, and dexterity cover the physical elements and you will note that as you take damage they decrease in unison.  In the center of my player card is a white strip called the “neurosis”  card. You have abilities that change depending on your physical and mental state that you may call on.  In case you have not figured it out, the characters are not really…sane in this game. You are never really sure if what you are doing is real or just in your head.

The lower section is “focus” and “terror.” I will speak more on those in a moment.

Mechanically, your statistics represent how many dice you roll to complete a task. For example, to force open a door you need to make a strength roll. I get 5d6 because I have a strength of five. Coma ward uses a “success” system. 1-3 is a failure, 5-6 is a success and a 4 is “suspense.”

“Suspense” are exploding dice. So if you roll a “4”  you get to reroll that die and an additional die. Should you get another “4” as part of the reroll the rolling continues until you stop rolling “4” or you succeed.  It means that you can attempt anything, even if you only have one die to roll. During my playtest, this happened more than once.

Players move around the board exploring rooms. As each room is revealed, the player makes a “focus” check. Success on the focus roll means you get an item. Some grant benefits like speed,  healing or weapons while others are  “clues.” Once you find three clues the “Phenomenon” phase of the game begins and the game changes.

If you fail then you get a “hallucination” card that may be beneficial or harmful.    Another player reads the card and offers you a choice, which you do not know if your choice is beneficial or harmful until after you choose.  Choices often involve making a roll of some kind. Sometimes a successful roll prevents damage or you receive an item.  Other times you see something no human should see and you earn  “terror.” “Terror” is a fun mechanic because any “terror” over five comes off your physical health. You can be scared to death during Coma Ward!

“Focus” is your ability to use your mind to make rational, cautious decisions. “Terror” reduces your higher-thought processes but provides adrenaline to fuel your strength and speed.  I spent almost the entire game “terrored” out of my mind. It meant I was miserable at finding items but good at physical tasks.

During this phase of the game, players may attack each other with the goal of stealing items or simply hurting the other person. We took advantage of the stealing rules several times to grab better equipment from each other.  Combat is quite simple. Roll your strength dice (five in my case) plus any weapons against the strength and any weapons of your opponents. Weapons add dice. I was a dangerous patient with my syringe and bedpan.  I fought successfully several times. Though an IV stand wielded by another player defeated me.

After much exploring (and increasing terror), we uncovered the third clue and the “Phenomenon” phase began.  Hidden in a separate, sealed envelope were the cards and implements for this phase. It included the epilogue card with the final result and unique, secret goals for each player.  After drawing a goal, each player had to achieve the goal in order to win the game. In the final version there will be many options for this, but in this prototype game, we only had a few.  I discovered I was an angel missing his wings and needed to get to an operating room to re-attach them and then jump off the roof of the building to fly to heaven.

As part of this final phase, a new deck came into use. The “nightmare” deck added additional monsters and obstacles to the final tasks.

By a bit of amazing luck, I stood in the correct room as I drew my objective. With minimal effort, I made it off the building and flew to heaven…only to discover….

Spoiler on that particular outcome, so I will not ruin it. Flying to heaven is a happy ending. Just accept it.

“Coma Ward” is a fun game with a lot of promise, but I would be negligent if I did not mention its resemblance to “Betrayal at House on the Hill.” “Betrayal” and I have a mixed history. I consider it one of the most tragic disasters in all of board gaming.  The game holds such promise, but the mechanics rip all strategy from the game.  Acquiring equipment early game is blind luck and no one ever gives it up because the haunt may be every man for himself.  CW lets you steal from each other. Additionally, BaHotH has no carry limit, which “Coma Ward” uses. CW only allows you to carry one item per point of strength and if your strength drops, so does an item. It kept the end game a much more equal affair.

“Coma Ward” is mechanically well designed, balanced and has a great insane asylum aesthetic.  The Kickstarter will start in a few days and I will update you when it goes online.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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Prothes’ Tale

“My son is dead.”

Excellent!

“My deepest sympathies lie with your family. May you find peace and wisdom in this  trial.”

Eles raced to old age in the few weeks since her son fell ill. Far more than  40 years of farmer’s wife stood in my door, hunched and intermittently weeping in the dawn’s light. Homespun clothing clutched with grief and anger soothed her need to act.  To do something.

“Will you come, Prothes? We had a bad season and we do not have much …”

Mask now, always the mask. Gently, kindly. Physical contact increases perceived empathy.

“Of course,” a warm hand on her shoulder, “I will prepare your son.  He was a kind boy that deserves the final honors. There are no debts in Ellomyr, only neighbors.”

Neighborly kindness elicited more tears and a few quick words set Prothes arrival time later in the day. Preparations came first.

Sending Eles back into town Prothes stepped out of his small cabin of wood and synth shingles and headed for the paddock. Stopping only briefly in the spinning shed for armor,  helmet, shield, and harvester. Overlapping synth plates sewn into a dril-cloth garment provided a level of certainty should shield skills fail. Thick scars reminded him of the learning days. The days of pain.

Armor donned, helmet seated, shield grasped in the left hand and the harvester in the right.  Its arm-length wooden handle worn with use and the thin blade, barely a thumb-width wide stretching nearly the length of the harvester. That sliver of metal cost a month’s spinning from a passing trader, but it was ever sharp, ever ready. The dril demanded readiness.

The paddock set a few hundred paces from the spinning shed and the cabin.  Close enough to observe, but far enough for the harmonics to fade into the wind. A sturdy wooden stockade, taller than a man enclosed a small field, perhaps 300 paces in diameter.  The man-sized synth door lashed into the wooden stockade the only visible ingress.  Dril crowns peaked just above the wall, swaying gently,  generating a peaceful hum.  Several produced magnificent flowers of fluorescent greens and deep blacks. Others sported only the small, pale yellow leaves common to the species. Needed to watch the blooming ones, they tend to be more aggressive during the rut.

Prothes unlatched a tiny panel in the door and peered inside the paddock. No dril stood ready to ambush him. It had not happened in years, but caution prevents scars.  Softly lifting the bar and opening the door, he stepped in.

Dril hum filled the field and filled Prothes with dread. He knew it was not the peaceful song of nature, but the song of a hungry predator. Saliva dripping from its jaws in sound.

Thirty-five dril filled the paddock. Each one 22 paces from the other, carefully spaced by some natural logic to respect each others territory.  Thick grey trunks pushed their reproductive crowns toward the heaven.  Thin, yellow roots constantly twitched and moved in and out of the earth, seeking meager sustenance among the subterranean life. Prothes kept his herd healthy, but hungry.  Hunger made them more aggressive, more dangerous, but it made for a better product.

Turning towards a large specimen immediately to his right, Prothes raised his shield and slowly approached, keeping the harvester held low, preventing its capture. Lean forward, left leg in front, right behind as a brace.  Almost there…

Whoomp!

The larva struck perfectly center on the shield, its newborn-sized body writhed and twisted.  Rows of teeth from its central mouth ground against the synth shield with a soul-shredding screech.  After a few seconds, four tentacles emerged from the grey ball of flesh.  As the larva began to quiver and pulse, the hypodermic-like fangs at the tip of each oozed a bit of white ichor at first that quickly became a spray.  The spray solidified into nearly transparent sheets of dril-cloth that threatened to cover Prothes completely.

Quick, practiced swipes with the harvester’s blade sent the cloth floating to the ground.  After perhaps 30 seconds, the larva dropped away, spent. Twitching for a few moments more it lay still. Prothes grabbed the dead flesh and threw it back towards its parent tree. Dril are not fastidious eaters. The offspring is now food for the parent.   A  larva-wound on the side of the trunk, still weeping fluids from its powerful expulsion, stitched closed with a wet sigh.  Normally Prothes harvested multiple trees per visit to minimize time away from the project, but the prospect of procuring another human specimen excited him. Besides, this harvest was more than enough for the shroud.

Gathering the dril-cloth in his arms, Prothes nearly floated back to the spinning shed in his joy.  An hour’s work created a beautiful, thin sheet of dril-cloth. Perfect in size and shape to disguise his work and give his neighbors their pointless death ritual.

Eles’ son is dead and the shroud is ready.

Today is a good day.

Part 2 to follow.

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I said “capabilities” because Shapeways sells printing, not designs.  The designs come from an army of individual creators that post their offerings on Shapeways and share their earnings with Shapeways on each sale.  Materials range from softer plastics up to steel and brass, but for gaming purposes, I am most concerned with “smoothness.”  3D printing is additive printing where a machine lays down a thin layer of material to slowly build a model.  The thinner the layer, the smoother the miniature looks.  Early 3D printers created “Michelin Man”  miniatures with clearly delineated layers.  As you can see below, there has been some progress…

These particular miniature models come from Heroforge.com, but printed by Shapeways. They are standard 25 mm tabletop miniatures in a high-resolution plastic.  With a coat a paint I suspect no one could spot the 3D printed miniature against standard injection molding.  And you can customize them!

Shapeways also works in metal.  Check out this “Kraken D20” in brass!

This d20 is 3 inches from tentacle to tentacle and is absolutely amazing. Be warned though, metal is significantly more expensive than plastic printing, but the material choice is up to you. That said, I suspect prices will drop in the next few years as the technology develops. If you are interested in something a bit more fanciful (and cheaper) Shapeways also has some colored plastic options for printing. The set below is unpainted.

It does concern me I will see a flood of hot purple paladins at my next RPG game!

Finally, every tabletop game needs dice!

These are a mix of brass and steel print options in a standard d20 size.

Here is a shot of a sample D6 in steel.

It is hollow and quite light. Note the lighter colored “stones” embedded in the die. These are part of the printing process and came right out with a quick brushing. Polishing the dice would likely bring out a nice shine, but I liked the dull, matte finish. The texture is still a bit rough in case you are looking for perfectly smooth.

I am very impressed with Shapeways offerings and I think they will continue to disrupt the tabletop gaming industry.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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Top Dog Games

Top Dog has an interesting line of initiative/combat tracking paper hangers (not even sure how to describe them) with part visible to the players and the remainder having stats. Clearly meant for 5e and other crunchy games and a GM screen.

Terra Tiles from  Rainn Studios

Rainn Studios has a great line of combat terrain cardboard tiles in themed sets. The boxes have 66 double-sided, 9-inch diameter tiles in them.

Here is a shot of the contents.

“Terra Tiles” is a great accessory to any board game, but they lack a hex or grid layout.  This lends their greatest utility towards measuring tape miniature games (Warhammer)  or “Wings of Glory” template movement.

Dapper  Devil

I am not one for the art offerings for gamers, but the wall art from “Dapper Devil” caught my eye. Their chosen medium is wood. Laser cut, I believe.   The Dapper Devil’s offerings were well done, wonderfully stark in their simplicity and no chainmail bikinis.

I have my eye on the darker d20 picture…

Massif Games

A clear winner for the most unusual board game at the convention, this October 2017 Kickstarter called “Mountaineers” requires an actual mountain!

It packs flat, but sets up quickly. Players compete against each other to scale the mountain. I give it high points for an original design idea. I did not get to really play it as it is a pending Kickstarter. Still, it looked fascinating and I will likely give it a try next year.

Coma Ward The Game

This is one of the stranger, but effective bits of marketing I found at Gencon 2017. Everything Epic had a booth with their new “Rambo”  and “Big Trouble in Little China”  board games (Jack Burton is my spirit animal), both looked fun. They are in pre-order status so more information to follow on those games.   I took some notes and walked away.  I made it 20 feet when one of the booth guys ran up and said, “He wanted you to have this” and handed me an envelope.

The label said rather ominously,” Will you be the one?”  Inside was a mysterious letter written on medical stationary with a plea for help and directions to a website. Best booth pitch ever! I went to the secret site and did something that I am not allowed to share, but the link above goes to the  “public” Coma Ward website with additional information.  It is a board game where players struggle to escape their own coma nightmare. Mechanically it reminded me a bit of “Ravenloft” with the tile laying or “Betrayal at House on the Hill” with its mid-game strategy change (PvP or player versus event/monster after an initial cooperative phase.) I am looking forward to this one and I think it was an overlooked gem at Gencon 2017.

That is it for my Gencon 2017 reports…mostly.  I have “Weave” and “Shapeways” on deck as they are full reviews. Look for these in the near future!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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Terminator 2029 (T2029)

“T2029” is a new board game from the Australian company “Rule & Make.”  The premise is players work cooperatively to hack Skynet and get John Connor to the temporal displacement equipment that puts the “Terminator” series in motion.  They had a prototype board on display.

Though there are dice on the board, you do not roll them. They are just placeholders for resources and you assign them as needed. John Connor moves up the center of the board (mini between the white dice in the center) while his loyal soldiers keep the Terminators from advancing on their tracks towards John.

There is also a mechanic for an airborne hunter-killer to attack and players can call upon Kyle Reese (he is in the truck with the cannon) to blast the bad guys. I am a fan of cooperative games and the theme is a personal favorite. The Kickstarter is scheduled to launch September 2017 with a March 2018 delivery date.

Exploding Kittens

While I am not a fan of the game, “Exploding Kittens” ran the best vendor booth I have ever seen.

You never interacted with a person, just this creepy cat kiosk. You hit the button for a product, inserted your money in the slot and the game spit out. They held up signs with snarky comments like “Purroccessing” and a “Blue Screen of Death.” People loitered just to see what would happen.  Occasionally, the cat spat out completely random items after a transaction. I have no idea how to interpret a  plunger, toilet paper, and some fresh asparagus. Clever implementation and they likely made a ton of cash. 

Nauvoo Games

Not much to report yet, but Nauvoo has the license for “The Reckoners” series from Brandon Sanderson. “Reckoners” takes place in a world where super-heroes are all ruthless villains and subjugate humanity. “Reckoners” are human death squads that exploit a supers’ weakness (they all have a unique kryptonite) and the killing them. Fairly dark for a young adult book, but it was good fun and makes great fodder for a board game. I am looking forward to this Kickstarter.

Dragon Bags

Several booths used the “blind buy”  sales method. Basically, you buy a box/bag/container and it contains some pile of random, but guaranteed items (every bag has a Pop! mini, for example) and the chance to get something better if you get the right color ticket. These booths never made any sense to me as the random element means you have to just want themed “stuff” rather than a specific item. Not my cup of tea, but seemed popular.

Ukiyo-pop

Artist BD Judkins produces a fascinating line of pop-culture infused traditional Japanese art.   The triptych below is the “Battle of Hoth” and to the left is Pokemon circa 1750.

Amazing stuff and having seen many Ukiyo-e style artworks when I lived in Japan, these feel surprisingly authentic. While not an art fan, I am sorely tempted to order a couple of the Marvel ones.

More vendor reports in part 3!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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Gencon 2017 Vendor Report

Game Anywhere Table

Game Anywhere was in the board game hall and not the vendor hall, so likely some  missed it. Game Anywhere produces a line of folding, metal game tables.

Unlike conventional game tables, this one folds down to a luggage-sized package for easy storage.

I saw these online some time ago but wrote them off because I thought them too flimsy. My mistake. They are made of steel and I made a point of giving them a good jostle to simulate the “gamer bumped the table quakes” that all too frequently destroy miniature games.

They are stable and heavy enough that I see no issue with running a regular game on them. Additionally, the tabletop is entirely magnetic and the accessories offered (trays and the like) adhere to the table or the bottom when it is in storage(see image above).  Overall I was impressed and see many applications for gamers with limited space or wives that will not allow a more permanent style of game table. If anyone has one and runs a game regularly on it, I would like to hear how it performs in real world conditions.

Monte Cook Games–Invisible Sun

I bought in big to this game during the Kickstarter and the project proceeds at a reassuring pace.  Behold, the (incomplete) Black Cube!

And this is only a fraction of the total game! There are enough books to fill all of those drawers in development. This releases next year and I expect it to be one of the most impressive RPG launches in history.

Elderwood Academy

Elderwood Academy has had products reviewed on Livingdice.com before, so regular readers are familiar with their line of high-quality dice and game boxes. However, this item was so interesting I had to share it. They call it “That Floaty Thing.” It rotates!

Degenesis

A primary reason for me producing a Gencon 2017 vendor report is when you are wandering along in the vendor hall, minding your own business and a fascinating game appears out of nowhere.  For me, that is “Degenesis.”

A European import RPG, the game books boasted amazing art, a post-apocalyptic story and an interesting approach to the rules. Rules were contained in short stories, rather than bullet points. I did not get to play it (I want to) but it is definitely on my play  list for next year.  If I get in a game, I will post a review.

Rocket Pig Games Dungeoneers

Rocket Pig Games displayed an amazing line of .stl files for sale at the convention. Yes, the picture is of miniatures, but Rocket Pig does not sell miniatures. .STL files drive 3d printers, so rather than selling miniatures, Rocket Pig sells the 3d printer files. You can make your own miniatures at home or send them to a 3d print shop and have them made. I truly believe that 3d printing is the future of gaming miniatures and market disruption is inevitable. Plus I thought the models were very well done.

More Gencon 2017 vendor reports in part 2!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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Gencon 2017 Games Played Report Part 2

AEG Big Game Night

AEG’s Big Game Night 2017 went better than the infamous “box of air” incident at Gencon 2016. For my $32 entrance fee, I got this haul.

I have yet to play most of them (see below), but that was just the “thank you for playing package.” Also, AEG provided some excellent incentive to stay around and play through the entire event with some impressive raffle prizes. (Raffle was free for ticketed attendees.)

Of course, I lost in the raffle but played some great games from the AEG library.

AEG the Captain Is Dead Board Game
Your heroic captain died, aliens are everywhere and half the ship’s systems are offline. Time to man up and save the ship!  Players work cooperatively to repair systems, fight off invaders and get the hyperdrive back online. We played on an easy setting and saved the ship. That said, it was a near thing and we almost died.  Felt like a better version of “Pandemic” with more options. Fun times.

60 Seconds to Save the World

This is a cooperative card game where you try to keep the world from panicking while a deadly plague threatens humanity. This game did not light my fire at all, but the volunteer explaining it did such a terrible job that I am not sure we played correctly. I got a copy as a door prize, so I might try it again. I barely remember anything about it, other than I found it dull.

Cutthroat Kingdoms

My favorite of the evening!  Players earn points for taking and holding castles, using different colors of cards to defend their holdings or attack enemies.  Standard card combat stuff, but this game really shines with the deal making. Anything goes and once you make a deal you have to keep it. Need to move past someone’s castle to get at your target? Pay them and all is well.  Cut deals with friends to pillage another player? Of course! My favorite was a marriage mechanic that allowed two players to join forces and jointly win. This also makes the happy couple a prime target for everyone else. In this game, you win the throne or you die.  I liked this one a lot as the deal making made for a “Diplomacy” like experience.

Finally burned out around 11:30 and went to bed. Next morning I arose to…

The Strange RPG: Mad Professor’s Gambit

Avoiding spoilers, as usual, but this game was a blast! Steampunk London infested with Professor Moriarty and his goons. There was a dirigible attack, rocket packs and general mayhem. I got a spinner (basically a face/talker character) pre-gen character that someone thought needed a combat focus. It made him a mediocre speaker and a terrible fighter. So I played him like a nut job with no hope of survival and wound up with a jet pack that I could not pilot.  That jetpack was better than any weapon for sheer entertainment value.  We defeated our enemy and destroyed at least one London landmark. A job well done.

Weave

“Weave” is an RPG, with an IOS app element. I will do a separate post on this game as it requires a more in-depth description.

1879
“1879” is a FASA offering with Victorian England discovering a portal to another universe filled with technologically and magically advanced Babylonians. An amazing introduction to the adventure and world made my spirits soar.  We got jeeps, a mission to disarm a magical bomb some ancient race left lying around, big guns and one of the players had a zombie/skeleton horde as a character class power.  The GM was deeply invested in the world, extremely well-prepared and my fellow players displayed competence and enthusiasm. It was a glorious start to a convention game.  Tally ho!

Then it went horribly wrong.

Driving down the road, we ran into a horde of bugs and combat began. At this point, I looked into the abyss that was my character spreadsheet and felt my soul die. Behold the crunch that is…the Earthdawn RPG game system.

There is is so much math and the system uses exploding dice to step up damage on weapons and the combat crawled like a dying bard in the “Tomb of Horrors.” Slowly, painfully the combat encounter rolled on….

At the 100 minute mark, I broke and fled. I felt bad because I have never left a table before solely because I could not stand the system. Life is short and this style of super-crunchy, math heavy, tedious, over-engineered game system crushes the role-playing aspect of the game.  Tragically, the GM and players were great, the adventure carefully plotted out and potentially interesting, but the system killed it for me. No disrespect to the DM or players, this was my fault. I should never have played this game. It is the last time I buy tickets to a system sight-unseen at Gencon. Research and due-diligence are my new watchwords.  I just cannot play this style of RPG anymore.

Kosmos Exit: The Game

Wandering around the board game hall I found the Kosmos area.  Kosmos has a series of “disposable” board/card games that simulate an escape room event. The games are around $20.00 and you play them once. Reason being is you tear up, write on or otherwise spoil the components and puzzles.  Each game runs about two hours. Kosmos wisely put together a “demo” version that plays in 30 minutes and it was free. I grabbed one up and tore into it. Behold the carnage of solving the puzzles!

Haldar and I completed it in 33 minutes. We decoded codes, tore up cards and scanned images for minuscule clues. “Exit” was great fun and I went looking for one to buy, but it sold out.  Might be a good choice for a party game with non-gamers because the puzzles were challenging, but not overly difficult. I will play it again if I can ever get a copy.

Crashing on Saturday night from game-induced fatigue, I awoke to face the wrath of Dracula in…

Nights Black Agents RPG
This was a priority game for me this year as it got great reviews and the theme was very “Delta Green,”  a personal favorite. Our secret organization does battle with the minions of Dracula in 1980s Europe. We got the call to find a missing agent that escaped a massacre at a MI-6 station in West Berlin. Inspired by “3 Days of the Condor” we charged around Berlin avoiding minions and covering up the supernatural to protect the general public and save the agent. It went well until I tried to arrange the pickup location for the agent using a code only she would understand. I assumed the line tapped and an ambush awaited us at the “official” location. GM ran over my plan like a runaway freight train squashing a cute and fuzzy bunny to railroad the plot.   So…we got ambushed at the original location by the bad guys that overheard our conversation.

Trask annoyed.

Rant time. Railroading is never acceptable. You are a GM, suck it up and fix it on the fly. Adapt and overcome. Rant over. Sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine.

Otherwise, a fun slot. However, I am still deeply ambivalent about the Gumshoe system. The key mechanic is if you have a skill (ie. forgery) and you examine a forged document, you automatically “get” the clue. If you choose to burn points from your skill (they refresh every game) you get a bonus to potentially get more information. I understand the mechanic solves the “we missed the clue and the carefully crafted plot goes awry” problem, but it feels like a GM crutch to me. Good GMs can recover the plot with cunning and structural legerdemain. Worse, the players have a neon metagame hack staring them in the face. They know that they will always succeed on a trained skill, at least at some level.  Nothing should be certain. No skill absolutely effective.   Complacency makes for a boring game.

Sorry, slipped into another rant.

Gencon 2017 provided me with many great, and occasionally painful gaming experiences. The next post covers the vendor area and some of the more interesting booths.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer.

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Gencon 2017 Games Played

Colonial Gothic

“Colonial Gothic” is a bit obscure as RPGs go, but the premise of the early American historical events influenced by the supernatural was too good to miss. Harvard’s library burned to the ground (mysteriously) and the local authorities tasked our heroes with solving the mystery. We poked around in the ruins and discovered a “special reserve” library filled with books guaranteed to drive you insane. If that was not enough to get you in the mood, we found the night watchmen with his organs sucked out, reduced to a flesh bag. Sanity was lost during that encounter.

Determining our arsonist was a disgruntled, disgraced former professor, we tossed his rooms and found his evil plan. On the outskirts of town, our villain scribed a summoning circle to gain the power of ancient gods.  We arrived just as he completed the ceremony, a demon appeared we attacked and … died. TPK. Toast. Ex-adventurers.

Turns out we missed visiting the villain’s girlfriend with the magic amulet to protect us from the demon.  It is a convention game, so dying did not bother me so much as an adventure where missing a single clue means you automatically fail. The game world was fun, the system was ok, but a poor plot undermined an otherwise great slot.  Might read through the base book  for some adventure ideas.

Monte Cook Games Seminar

Not really a game, but it was a ticketed event at Gencon 2017.  The main take away for me was “Numenera 2: Discovery” and “Destiny.”  “Discovery” is a backward-compatible cleanup of the base book, which is going out of print. MCG made a point of saying this is not a new edition, just a new iteration that is fully compatible with everything that came before it.  It boasts some alterations to the base classes, more world content and character options.  “Destiny” offers rules for PCs building equipment, vehicles, and even entire settlements. It is for the PCs to put down roots and develop their town or outpost, even rules for upgrading the settlement.  Sound like a “4x” approach to a campaign. I am looking forward to it.

The Cypher System: Infinity Shift

Cypher is MCG’s generic RPG game system. For this event, we played completely incompetent airmen exiled to a remote Alaskan test facility.  This game was hysterical because the PCs were a collection of total losers, with pathetic back stories and minimal skills.  A science experiment goes wrong and suddenly we are fighting interdimensional invaders. I do not want to spoil it, but the cross-section of enemies is…diverse.  We prevailed and were still stuck in the middle of nowhere.  Life sucks, but it was a fun game.

First Exposure Playtest Hall

This slot allows me to try out some new games under development. Many were barely one step above hand-written cards on a kitchen table.  I played a dice/resource management game fairly far along in development. Werlen and I were both in this slot and figured out the game became mathematically unwinnable for three of the four players about 70% into the game.  It needs more work and we gave some constructive feedback. As with last year, I am not going to search-engine blacklist an incomplete game with bad keywords. Hence this game shall remain anonymous.

Numenera: The Jade Colossus

An old school adventure with Numenera explorers running a traditional dungeon crawl.  We escorted a healer into a giant, humanoid-shaped structure to cure a plague. Solved that problem in about 5 minutes and then it all went sideways.  Oddly, Numenera eschews traditional dungeon crawling, but this adventure (and the Jade Colossus sourcebook) are dungeon crawl supplements. We even broke out graph paper to draw the dungeon! I love the Numenera system for its ease of use and elegance so the adventure was fun even with the combat-focus. This entry is vague so as to be spoiler-free as the adventure is likely to be run in many home games.

Predation: The Cawdor Complex

Another MCG offering based on the Cypher System rule set, “Predation” has high-tech time travelers stuck in the distant past with dinosaurs kept as mounts and companions. Again, spoiler free, but the adventure was secondary to the entertainment value of the dinosaurs. Every PC gets a dino ( I had a T. Rex!), the animals are modified to make them easier to handle and better companions but they are still animals. To simulate this unreliable control, players make a control roll to get the dinosaur to do the things you want.  Standard stuff, but in “Predation” another player runs your dinosaur! Yes, you can tell your loyal companion to attack a specific enemy, but another player decides how the animal acts.  It will attack your chosen target, but it might step on another PC to get there. They do have brains the size of walnuts, after all. It made for hilarious moments and worked well. My GM already stole the mechanic to run droids in his Cypher System “Star Wars” game currently underway.

Enough reporting today on Gencon 2017. I will post again with some exciting game reports, including the much-anticipated “AEG Big Game Night!”

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2017 Report Part 1–Games Played appeared first on Livingdice.com.

FYI, while many of these companies had easy to identify websites (e.g. Paizo), some were a bit equivocal, so please drop me a comment if I made an error.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Pax Unplugged 2017 Vendors appeared first on Livingdice.com.

I lack the camera equipment to get the shot, but I wanted to make it clear that the image on this  Hex Chests Remastered box is not painted, it is an inlay. Elderwood cut the design into the top of the chest and then filled it with another type of wood.  Besides removing paint issues and guaranteeing the art will not fade, it is an elegant and precise  bit of woodworking.

The lid uses magnets to hold it in place and a small interior ledge prevents the box from twisting off. The only way to open it is to pull directly on the lid.  Here is a shot of the open Hex Chest.

There are seven honeycomb cells that fit my standard set of role-playing game dice very nicely.  The foam in the lid is  .25 inch (5 mm) thick and is held in place with a pressure fit. I did a “rattle” test and my beautiful, but somewhat scratchable aluminum dice did not make a sound.  You can easily remove the foam to replace it or use the lid as a dice tray.  I would also direct your attention to the magnets that hold the box closed. Oh, sorry, you cannot see them because they are underneath the lighter, decorative wood on both halves of the box. I checked with a steel ruler that magnets are on both sides of the box and correctly oriented so they grab quite well. I am very pleased with the hidden magnets as many other dice boxes have the metal exposed and it detracts from the overall look.

This is amazing craftsmanship and I am nothing but impressed with the Hex Chest. It is one of the most elegant game accessories ever to cross my review table.

If you are interested in this item, I highly suggest you check out the Hex Chests Remastered Kickstarter currently running. There is a multitude of options for art, materials (even an Ikea do-it-yourself version) and designs available.  They are even selling a gizmo to make your dice float above the table!

Check it out!

Update: The Kickstarter exceeded its goals and will fund!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Hex Chests Remastered Review appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Here is the methodology  I used for my analysis.  I calculated the percentage of seats available for chosen  RPG events by company as of June 30th, 2017.   I leave it to others to crunch the numbers for board and miniature games.  Combining the “Max Players” column with the “Tickets Available,” column I generated a percentage of seats available by company. My assumption was that any event leading with  “RPG####” met my criteria. The seminars were also removed as they have massive seat counts and threw off the numbers of people actually playing games. I think this primitive number crunching gives a snapshot of demand, which I think is a reasonable placeholder for the popularity of a game overall. I also did not do the entire list of RPG companies, but I did pick the notable ones and a couple of interesting outliers.

First, Gencon as a whole as a bit of trivia. There are  349193 total seats for all events (of all types, not just RPGs) and of those 192116 are currently available. This indicates that 55% of the seats at all events at Gencon 2017 remain unsold.   Interesting, but fairly meaningless because items like seminars/tournaments/movie showings have huge available seat numbers and likely skew the results.

Here are the results.

The Extremes

First, the extremes on the chart. White Wolf has 222 seats available and sold all but one. This implies they are underserving their fan base. Not surprising as White Wolf is a shadow of a once great empire with a large fan base. Long neglected by its owners, I see a possible resurgence if WW actually ran more slots.

At the other extreme, Paizo’s numbers show that Wizards of the Coast ceded supremacy at Gencon to Paizo. Baldman Games runs the “Dungeons and Dragons” effort for Wizards and they are only offering half of the seats of Paizo. That said, Baldman’s 25% unsold implies that they are providing a seat count more in line with demand than Paizo at 45%.  In either case, they are clearly the “Big 2” at gencon for RPG offerings.

The Cash Cow

“True Dungeon” is a license to print money. Offering 8840 seats and selling all but 156 states clearly that this is a wildly popular event.  I knew that but doing the math on the gross receipts for 8684 players, at $62.00 each, comes out to $538,408.00 in four days! This number does not even include the swag and tokens TD sells. Not bad for a glorified haunted house. If I was working at this monster, I would ask for a raise. Capitalism at its finest. I approve.

The Venerable Ancients

Chaosium, Palladium, Goodman Games and Exile Game Studios are long time publishers in the RPG industry and their strength shows here. While not running vast numbers of events, they have respectable numbers and low unsold percentages.    A nice showing all around.

The Young Guns

Monte Cook Games, Ulysses Spiel and Posthuman Studios also put up good numbers, with Monte Cook Games in the lead (accounting for both number of events offered and percentage unsold).  Ulysses Spiel , in particular, looks off to a good start with the “Torg” release and a respectable seat count.

The Upstart

Monocle, which I doubt you heard of, is a new company with an interesting idea; the Weave RPG. Weave uses a tarot deck, an Amazon Alexa device, and a smartphone.  Even with minimal exposure, it managed to sell very well. I am playing this at Gencon 2017 and will let you know how it goes.

That is it for my humble mathematical efforts to determine gencon 2017 event demand. I hope you find it interesting and let me know how many ways I made statistical errors.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2017 Event Demand–A Mathematical Analysis appeared first on Livingdice.com.

“Invisible Sun” is the new role-playing game from Monte Cook Games releasing in February 2018 (This is a release date push as IS originally had a November 2017 release date ).  As part of the Kickstarter, MCG just released the “Invisible Sun Sooth Deck” art book.  The “sooth deck” mechanic allows for significant changes to the nature of magic depending on which card is in play.  I will cover the mechanics of the “Invisible Sun Sooth Deck”  in a post after the game releases, but for today I just wanted to share some of the beautiful art in this book.  Sadly, the book is part of the Kickstarter rewards and not available to the general public, but here are a couple of images to tantalize you with what the final game will look like.

I am in for the whole package on “Invisible Sun” and the  “Invisible Sun Sooth Deck” art book fills me with confidence. The quality of the art on these cards is excellent and if the rest of the game meets these standards, I will be very pleased indeed.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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There is a trend toward metallicized plastic dice that look like metal dice, but roll (and cost) like plastic dice and I almost walked past them. Closer inspection revealed that these were truly metal dice. I quickly bought a set and this is my review. Gravity Dice manufactures their metal dice sets from aluminum and anodizes them in multiple colors.  Most metal dice etch/cut numbers into the face of the die. This always annoyed me as it is likely it threw the balance of the dice off. The “1” face had less material removed than the “20.” Gravity Dice resolved this issue by using a laser to remove the anodized coating to expose the underlying material. This means the numbers are laser sharp and the amount of material removed is barely measurable.

The aluminum alloy makes for very light dice, but still heavy enough they do not jump out of my dice tray.  Gravity Dice’s owner comes from an aerospace fabrication background and produces some of the most precise dice I have ever seen. The anodized coating is sharp and clean and to my limited testing, durable. That said, I would not throw these in a dice bag without some protection. I keep mine in my Elderwood Academy box and it has foam cutouts for each die.  The only real drawback to these dice and it is a complaint across most metal dice sets; the d4 is sharp!  Other than that, I love these dice. They are now my “daily rollers” and I retired my Crystal Caste Dwarven Metal set.

I cannot recommend these dice enough and I highly suggest you check out the Gravity Dice website.

Disclosure: I paid full retail for these dice.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gravity Dice Metal Polyhedral Dice Review appeared first on Livingdice.com.

• Call of Cthulhu (Mostly 7th edition, but some 5th & 6th. Interest was also concentrated at established groups, but just about everyone had more demand than could be accommodated)
• Dungeons & Dragons (Almost entirely 5th, but with some 3.5 or Advanced 1st/2nd edition. This isn’t just a hunger for official events, either – independent GMs, as a group, were the second highest overall demand)
• Starfinder
• Star Wars (Specifically the new Fantasy Flight editions, all three flavors)
• Savage Worlds (General, but also some focused interest
• Shadowrun 5th edition
• Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Numenera

I highly suggest you read the entire thread to get the complete list including board games and his statistical methodology. Even though he freely admits it is a rough estimate, it makes for fascinating reading.  It warmed my heart to see “The Strange,”  “Numenera” and “Cypher System” fairly high on the list. Combined they would likely be near the top, even separated, they made great individual showings.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2017 Event Demand Analysis appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Starting with the idiot with real weapons and an issue with the Green Power Ranger.  Said idiot, after boasting on Facebook about his clever plan, promptly spent some quality time on the floor of the convention center with several Phoenix police department guys standing on top of him.  Once the metaphorical smoke cleared, Comicon banned all prop weapons and instituted bag checks and metal detectors at the doors. It was not TSA-grade security, but rather the same level as a concert. This instantly created lengthy lines around the convention center in the blazing sun.  I planned to go Friday morning but after the long lines on the news and a torn calf muscle (exercise is good for you!) I put off my trip until Saturday.  Also starting Friday, the vendors had to cover up all the weapon-like stuff they sold to avoid violating the “no weapons” rule.   Which created the next tempest in a teapot, Ultrasabers ejection/departure from the vendor hall. I have no insight as to what happened, but other media reports that the security requirements created friction between PHXCC and Ultrasabers. Ultrasabers wound up leaving the convention. Both sides blame the other and good luck to anyone that can figure out what actually happened.  Still, it was the talk of the convention.

I finally hopped in (on one good leg)  Saturday morning to the Phoenix Comicon 2017 Hyatt gaming area.  Jim from the Crit Hit game convention organized the independent gaming area. Running for Crit Hit meant I got a badge which I picked up in the gaming area.   Haaldaar, Werlen and I  planned a three-table run of  “Assault on Singularity Base”  battle interactive for the Cypher System. It is a hoot to run with each table working towards one part of a multi-pronged assault.  Between the security issues and a somewhat obscure location (in the lobby across from the bagel shop), I only ran a single table due to a lack of players.  Many battles ensued and the players had a great time. I finished around 2:00 PM and went upstairs to the Hyatt atrium.

Another side of the atrium:

The atrium had gamers and games to play at Phoenix Comicon 2017, but attendance was better in previous years. Security concerns and the long lines on the evening news were possible deterrents.  Werlen and I jumped into a game of “Ghost Stories” and managed to lose…badly. The evil Chinese ghosts and hopping vampires overran the village.  Sorry peasantry, we did our best.  After failing miserably,  we decided to hit the vendor area.

We had the wherewithal to drop our bags with the bellman at the Hyatt (a very well spent $2.00) and skip the bag check at the convention center. Saved a great deal of time. The vendor area had many, costly options to spend my hard earned dollars, but a couple did pop out at me.

Ztag ran an interesting scavenger hunt game with small digital badges and infra-red emitters. You get close to other people and they become infected and join the zombie horde or you can gather enough checkpoints and become a doctor to cure the sick. I could not play due to injury, but it would be fun if I could walk faster than a 90-year-old man. Here is a shot of the badges and a checkpoint.

Gravity Dice had some amazing dice on display and I bought a set. A full review will follow in the near future.

Imperial Outpost Games operated a separate room with an eclectic list of games, including Cestus, which had a nice miniature combat table.

Normally I do not cover cosplay on a gaming website, but this was just amazing.

And this group, which I present without comment. It pretty much speaks for itself.

Not really sure what it is saying, but it does speak for itself.

Overall, the Phoenix Comicon 2017 ran well, even with the security issues. I look forward to attending next year.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Phoenix Comicon 2017 Report appeared first on Livingdice.com.

One item deserves mention; the available games as of today (May 29th, 2017) seems low to me versus other years. Some events sell out every year quickly (True Dungeon) but even a 350 seat L5R game filled in seconds.  I suspect that Gencon 2017 will break attendance records. Which means the vendor hall becomes Thunderdome.  I expect long line and brutal navigation. You are warned.

 Gencon 2017 Events!

Wednesday:

Nothing officially planned, which is normal.  We usually scrounge a pickup game.

Thursday:

The Strange Case of the Burning Library—Colonial Gothic

This is 18th-century horror game has been on my bucket list for years and this two-hour slot fits perfectly in the schedule.

The Monte Cook Games Seminar

I am a huge fan of the MCG product line and I spent $500 dollars on their new “Invisible Sun” product. I hope to get a preview of the IS release and maybe some hints on upcoming products.

I am also working the MCG booth for a couple of hours after the seminar.

Infinity Shift—Cypher System

We explore an issue with a research station in Alaska using the Cypher system for RPGs.

Playtest Hall

I get uneven results from this event because some of the games under test are…catastrophically terrible. That said, you never know when you might find a promising game worth backing on Kickstarter.

Friday

Numenera: Awakening the Jade Colossus

Time to explore a mysterious statue billions of years into the future.

Predation: The Cawdor Complex

New MCG offering with time travelers doing battle in the age of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs armed with rocket launchers!

AEG’s Game Night

AEG runs a slot where you buy in and get some of their games to keep and a room filled with gamers to play with. Last year earned AEG much gamer wrath after the box of swag from this event turned out to be mostly air. I want to try “The Captain is Dead” and the swag is a nice bonus.

Saturday:

The Strange: Mad Professor’s Gambit

Cypher system and mad science! What is not to like?

Weave: Storytelling Redefined

This one is a new card and dice based RPG that leverages Amazon’s Alexa device in some manner. Limited information now on this odd game, but it will be broadcast on Twitch.tv, so I will be on my best behavior.

Danger: UAD

This is an “1879″ game from FASA. A resurgent British Empire invades an alien dimension.  Guess I am going along for the ride.

Sunday:

6 Days of the Bat–Night’s Black Agents

A modern horror game with shades of “Delta Green.” Got a vampire problem? Then it is time to break out the claymore mines and RPGs.

Sunday is also the day I try to hit the vendor hall most aggressively as there might be a bargain to be had and my willpower is weak…

This list is locked in (I have tickets), but Gencon 2017 events are likely to appear over the next three months, I may shift this around as new stuff appears on the site. If I missed a game you think I cannot live without, drop me a comment. I am always open to changing my mind.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The post Gencon 2017 Events–My Schedule appeared first on Livingdice.com.

Puzzles are something of a double-edged sword. They make for great props on the tables and are likely to get the GM kudos for preparation. That said, some players do not like puzzles.  In game physical puzzles like safe cracking resolve through dice rolls and the solution is abstracted from the players. The do not actually have to pick the lock, just roll the dice.  This is a test for the player character’s skills. Real world physical puzzles are a test of the player’s abilities.  While gamers are a clever lot, spending an entire session fiddling with a puzzle is not role-playing, it is puzzle solving and will kill a session with terminal boredom.  Physical puzzles are adjuncts to a role-playing game, not a game unto themselves.

I suggest that the physical puzzle is an element of the story, a macguffin.  Take the beautiful  Cryptex Security Box as an example.

Integrating this into an RPG campaign is easy.  The PCs steal a box from an evil wizard, but powerful wards seal it. Inside the box is a mysterious macguffin that many powerful interests desire.  The Cryptex represents the wards.  As the party moves through the campaign and casts spells, steals secrets and gather information, bits of the code reveal themselves.  The physical puzzle sets on the RPG table week after week, driving the story forward and when it finally opens after months of gaming, there is real tension around the table. Even better, make the contents the disarm code for a nuclear weapon or its fantasy equivalent.  It makes getting the box open that much stressful and glorious in success.

I am not saying that a physical puzzle need be the core or a campaign, there are many options for using puzzles as elements of an RPG campaign, specifically cryptography.  “Escape Rooms” are quite the fad these days (Gencon has several of them) where people work through various puzzles to escape a room.  They are so popular that companies sell props specifically for Escape Rooms.  Most of them are far too expensive as an RPG prop, but I did find one company Creative Escape Rooms that offers a variety of inexpensive cryptographic props (under $50.00).

A GM could encode a message using the wheel and make acquiring the key to crack it a mission. Or perhaps the PCs stole the cipher wheel and use it to send covert messages to allies…or false messages to enemies.  World War Two provided the impressive “Enigma Machine,” as a method of encryption.  One of the key missions during the war was both stealing the machine and stealing a book that listed the setup for each day. If you have both you could intercept messages.  While a full Enigma for an RPG tabletop is not feasible (though amazing if you could pull it off), there are simpler versions available.

Puzzles add a physical element to the table that is often lacking from RPGs. Let the players touch the puzzle, fidget with it, shake it or otherwise try to discern its secrets. It adds so much to the game and the GM does not have to do anything but let it happen organically. Trust me, the players will love it and the plot benefits are manifold.

This is just a tiny sample of great physical puzzles you can add to any tabletop RPG game. If you have any other suggestions, leave it in the comments.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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