Click any picture to make it vastly larger.

Top Shelf

Talisman is the original Black Isle version, of which that one is review copy #50. There’s a long story behind that one, and 2nd edition which I had to give up. I don’t play this one, I just gaze lovingly at it.

Just got Race for the Galaxy yesterday and haven’t played it yet. I’m excited to try it out! I hear there’s a steep learning curve to this game. Bring it.

Quarriors is a whole lot of fun with my kids, who love fistfulls of dice.

Haven’t tried Battleship Galaxies yet, but itching too! It’s a review copy from Hasbro and looks like a rules-lite mini space combat simulation I can get behind.

The Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine is not a game, technically, but more of a piece of my own personal history. We couldn’t have stuff like that when I was growing up. So I have it now on the pretense that I have kids.

Cat’s Eye is a game my wife had growing up. We spotted it in a flea market and now it lives with us.

Middle Shelf

Loch Ness is a favorite of my family. Fun, relatively easy to play eurostyle game. Plus, cryptozoology. My youngest daughter doesn’t quite grasp the fullness of strategy needed to win at this game, yet she regularly wins by a combination of good luck and probable cheating.

Trollhalla is a great game from Alf Seegert! It’s like vikings. With trolls. Mean, nasty, conquering trolls.

Love the Ascensions. It was my wife’s gateway game to all the rest. I’m not a terribly big fan of the artwork but the game plays fast and furious. The newest expansion (I’m missing the middle one) is a bit better IMHO than the original, adding some new dimensions to the game. Fast and fun, especially with two players.

Just got Eminent Domain yesterday but I’ve heard so much about it. Already read the rules and ready to go! I cannot wait to try this game, especially after the guys at The Secret Cabal gushed mightily over it.

Small World is fun. Infuriating but fun. :) I don’t get a chance to play this one much on the table, so I have the iPad version as well. Now I can yell incoherently on my commute home.

Zooloretto I haven’t had a chance to play yet. Same with Dixit and it’s expansion.

I have all of the FFG Talismans, which you can see here. Yes, it’s not the best game in the universe. Tough, I freaking love this game and you’ll never change my mind on that.

I have all the Dominions too. My wife’s 2nd gateway game. Also, got her entire family gaming with us. And, my 9 year old daughter can now official stomp me all over the dining room table with this game. Well, about 33% of the time. To some it may feel like playing solitaire with other people, but in my family and with most of my group, it’s just a fun time.

Thunderstone and Thunderstone Advance. Bought the first one, got the 2nd one as a review copy. Love them! Some people are frustrated by the ‘lets go shopping then kill stuff’ way the game plays. Me? I like it and enjoy the theme too. If you can’t tell, I’m a fan of deck building games. Thunderstone Advance is definitely more streamlined than the first iteration. Theme wise, this is one of my favorite games, next to Talisman.

Mini Master Mind on the top is my wife’s copy, which belonged to her parents circa 1972. It’s a code cracking game that I’ve never actually played.

That game on top of the Talismans is Survival of the Witless. Great game about being a professor and trying to gain tenure. Cutthroat!

Klunker didn’t show up in the pic, but it’s there. Cool, German gem trading game. Eurogame, but light enough to be quick and fun, potentially a party game.

Third Shelf

Just got King Me! My wife picked it out actually, looks like a fun game our kids will enjoy with us.

Pantheon and Ranking I have as review copies. I’ve only played one game of each and need to get another play in before I can properly review. Eurogames with decent mechanics behind both. Ranking is the faster, simpler of the two. Pantheon is… very full of meeples and stuff.

Burn in Hell is a fun, trick taking game. Lots of people dislike it. My wife loves it so I play it quite a bit. I lose a lot.

Family Business was bought on a whim at our FLGS – haven’t opened it yet but we’ll get to it soon.

Forbidden Island – bought for my 9 year old, but she’s obsessed with Dominion so… we’ll get to it!

Quest of the Round Table is a Gamewright games thing. It’s an arthurian take on cards, where you beat up monsters. I have 2 copies because I like combining decks. Fun, but not terribly strategic.

Blood Bowl Team Manager. I really want to play this. I yearn to play this! Playing it this Friday!

Greed Quest – a Steve Jacksonish dungeon delving game. Fun, but light with some rules strangeness.

Bohnanza – trading beans. So much more fun than it sounds. Fairly light, Eurocard style game that can cause much yelling.

Eaten By Zombies – deck building game of the zombie apocalypse. I like it, but haven’t played it enough to really get a good feel for it yet. The rules aren’t terribly confusing, but how they are presented in the rule book seems to be slightly off.

All the Carcassonnes. If it wasn’t for this game, I wouldn’t know how to spell Carcassonne! Also, a ton of fun. I have it on my phone now too, so I don’t break out the box all that often anymore.

Cutthroat Caverns and the Relics and Ruin expansions. You’ve delved to the bottom of the dungeon, got the fabulous bauble, now you’ve got to make it back up! Can you survive 9 encounters where your friends try to take you out as much as your enemies? It’s like Munchkin, but for grownups.

Elfenland we got for the 6 and 9 year old yesterday. haven’t played it yet but we’re looking forward to it. It looks eurogame style with a really nicely done board.

Enchanted Forest. My 6 year old’s hands down most favorite game. Memory game meets dice rolling meets cutthroat tactics. She wins a lot too.

Chronology – set up a timeline with 10 cards. Start with 1 and put the rest in chronological order. As a history major, I win a lot and piss off my family, so we don’t play this much any more. Good party game.

Oz Fluxx – my wife got this. She loves her some Oz. I don’t mind fluxx, and if it draws her even further into the sickness hobby that is table top gaming, so be it. I also have regular and zombie flavors of Fluxx.

Bang! – just bought it! Heard a lot about it, can’t wait to try it.

Poo! - party card game with poo flinging monkeys. Strangely, my wife loves this but hated changing diapers. Go figure.

Zombie Dice – like the apocalypse, but more contained. Fun, quick, waiting-in-line game.

Monopoly Deal - picked it up for $4 at xmas, have not tried it yet, but heard great things.

Gracias is on top of Family Business. Looks like a Bohnanza style game that I have not gotten around to yet.

Kids Shelves

Tons of Gamewright Games. Love those folks!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. The Board Game eXchange – Like Netflix for board games but with the option to buy what you like
2. Mi Gato se Incendia! (My Cat is on Fire!) A new board game by Benjamin Gerber
3. Castle Ravenloft – the board game in review

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Post tags: Board and Card Games, collection, showoff

Thanks to flickr user DaveOnFlickr! CC BY-SA 2.0

A few weeks ago, a commenter lamented that I didn’t give specific examples when it comes to the suspension of disbelief, breaking it, and potentially getting it back. I aim to misbehave please, and thus I’ll try to expand upon that idea a bit more. Here are some sure-fire ways to break the suspension of disbelief and rip your players out of the story:

Clunky Mechanics

Ultimately, they are called role-playing games, and there have to be some rules otherwise it’s just shared storytelling (nothing wrong with that, either). When there are rules, especially rules which take a lot of time to play out, are difficult to understand, don’t really mesh with game very well, or are more tedious than actually fun, you run the risk of pulling back the curtain on the fantasy world you’ve delicately set up. There are many examples of crappy rules, but one that immediately springs to mind is the grappling system from D&D 3.5

Now, grappling is a big part of 3.5 D&D. Many monsters do it, and they do it very well. It’s difficult for a seasoned player to create a character that doesn’t have some way of escaping from a grapple. However, the rules are quite horrible:

1. Initiate the grapple by moving into your opponent’s square.

2. They make an attack of opportunity. If they hit and deal damage, you fail to grapple.

3. Make a touch attack to see if you can “grab” them.

4. Make opposed grapple checks to see if you can actually “grapple” them.

You could argue that the whole system of attacks of opportunity is clunky and breaks the SoD, and I wouldn’t fight you too much. I think they make sense (let your guard down, get attacked) but sometimes it seems like it would have just been better to give you a AC debuff instead. Whatever. The problem with grapple, for me, always came around step 3 and 4. You have to make two checks, one to see if you can even be in a position to grab your opponent, and then another to see, ostensibly, if you can hold on.

I don’t know why this couldn’t be handled with one check. The reason for the above rules makes sense (grab, then grapple), but ultimately it pulled my players out of the game because everyone always seemed to forget there was a touch attack involved, then a grapple check, and then you didn’t really even do anything that round, instead you had to wait until next round when you had to make another grapple check to maybe do something to your opponent (like stab him with a dagger or bite his face off). Suffice to say, grappling was extremely clunky, and what exactly you could do while you were in a grapple (cast spell? use a weapon? move the grapplers?) was constantly a question.

A good rule of thumb here is that if you have to constantly reference the rule from the rulebook, you’re breaking the suspension of disbelief; if you have to step out of character to look through the rulebook for what you’re able to do, that sucks and it has brought you out of the game. You stop visualizing what your character is doing to that orc and go elsewhere.

Pathfinder made it a bit better (took away the opposed rolls), but not much.

An internally consistent and believable world

Watching a film like Alien is a great science-fiction experience; the staging and sets are terrific, the technology is dated but believable, the characters act in understandable ways, and have reasonable limitations. Last week I saw the movie Lockout, and I enjoyed it, but there was no world into which I could get immersed. There were just too many plot holes, bad sci-fi moments, and unbelievable characters for me to really get into it.

And that’s ultimately the point of the role-playing game, you want everyone to be immersed in a world different than their own.

Science fiction obviously has the most trouble with this. It’s a huge nail in the coffin of many sci-fi shows and movies when they try to explain why something works this way or that way. Screenwriters are not scientists, and they often flub the science; for someone with a sincere interest or technical background, you immediately might say “Hey, that’s not physically possible”, and it’s like hitting the brakes when you’re flying down the freeway. It jars you.

We’re perfectly willing to believe the world of the Matrix because it is presented in a believable way; it becomes harder and harder to believe what is going on in the “real world” as the series goes on because the technology gets more and more unbelievable.

Action has the same problem. Our hero gets shot 5-10 times and is able to shrug off the pain and crippling blood loss enough to save the heroine. Now, sometimes the story is so overwhelmingly awesome that we’re willing to overlook these issues; but when the story lets up for even a moment, our spidey-sense tingle and we say “something’s not right here”, and that’s a problem.

But the story is not necessarily going to be your savior. If you spend months developing a PC as an antagonist, flesh out his personality, and then at some point just completely veer off the tracks, your players might get fed up. The world is an unpredictable place, but when you’re refereeing a fantasy world, there’s little frame of reference for what is possible and what exists other than what the GM tells the players. If you say one thing this session (all Orcs are evil) and then a few sessions later you subvert that axiom (actually this guy you killed was a Good Orc), then players will feel betrayed. Sometimes this can work in the context of the world, but it needs to be boldly clear that CHARACTER knowledge can be wrong, but PLAYER knowledge is sacrosanct. You can have the characters believe that there are no elves in the world, but you can’t tell your player that he can’t be an elf because there are none, and then make one of the NPCs a prominent elf.

The players ultimately make decisions based off the logic of the game world. If you have a game world where there is no teleportation magic, then players trying to defend a city might fortify the outer walls and seal up the sewers to prevent enemies from infiltrating. If you turn around and have a team of teleporting mages show up in the middle of town, there is going to be a disconnect there that threatens to break the suspension of disbelief; that is, the players will start to doubt the information they have about the world. When they doubt the internal logic of the world, when the world stops making sense, then the immersion is gone.

This is not to say that you as a GM must be infallible. We all make mistakes and design things that seem really cool, only to later realize that there’s NO reason at all why the Elves would build a city like this. To harken back to an earlier post, there must be a reason why behind the existence of every game element, otherwise your players will eventually find the cracks, pry them apart and pull the curtain away.

How to Keep Your Players in Suspension

I don’t know if there is a really easy way to keep them there. You can’t ban all jokes at the table and have a serious mood, you can’t just eradicate all mistakes and errors in judgment, you can’t undo your misspeaks, and you can’t always just do away with your clunky mechanics (though you can simplify them).

What you can do is to try and be consistent. Don’t treat players differently. Don’t treat characters in the world differently just to make something a more challenging encounter. When your player truly solve a puzzle or beat one of your challenges through clever thinking, tip your hat and move on, don’t Deus Ex Machina up a way that it didn’t work or that the big bad somehow got away. Treat your characters like they are part of the world because they are.

Coming Up:

In the next few weeks I’ll be reviewing a few products, a couple of books from Pathfinder and a few games, both online and off. So stay tuned!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. The Suspension of Disbelief
2. Dark Sun Campaign Prep – the Challenges of Starting a New Game
3. TrollTips 5: A cheap and dirty way to transport your minis.

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Post tags: D, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, Game Mastering, gaming, pathfinder, Role Playing Games, rpg, Suspension of Disbelief, Tabletop

My father views board games as a critical tool for learning concepts such as tactics, probability, and the importance of having flexible plans.  This is why he had to beat me at every game of Risk for two years he claims.  “I couldn’t just let you win.  The game would have been pointless if you just win.”  I didn’t win my first game against him until I was nearly thirteen years old, at which point I asked him if there’s any other games we can play.  He went to the massive double door cabinets that held all his dusty games and brought to the table a box much smaller than that of Risk, which admittedly had me disappointed and suspicious.  It simply read ‘Stratego’.  That’s not even a real word!  At least Sorry and Trouble are real words I thought to myself.  He explained the basic rules of the game and then we began to set up our pieces.  He went first.

Table top gaming is an art form to me.  I know some people just see it as a way to pay homage to their fandom, others see it as a tool for hanging out with friends, and some just enjoy the competition of it all.  But I can never see a game as something quite that simple, rather they provide me with inspiration, laughs, enlightenment, satisfaction, debate, creation, goals, wit, and mass quantity’s of joy.  Gaming isn’t a hobby for me but rather a section of my life that I carry with me every where I go.

Now that my love and adornment of gaming has been established you should probably know that I’m extremely critical of the medium.  If I’m to invest my funds, time, and friends time in a product then I want high quality.  I believe in quality over quantity and don’t want to wake up to see that my board games and role playing books are all the same thing just painted differently.  With prices often matching or exceeding a new video game the board game company’s must remain making the best possible games they can and avoid at all cost the mediocre.  I want to be impressed when I play a new game, not simply accepting of it.

Like anybody though I have preferences.

Horror is delightfully deliciously delectable in every sense.  I am practically a cultist when it comes to H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos because for me it’s not enough to just read the story’s.  I like the board games, video games, comics, movies, clothing, toys, all of it.  Does this make me a mindless consumer I ponder at times?  No.  Why not?  Because I still have quality control over this encroaching Lovecraftian madness.  In honesty I would be far angrier should I play a bad game that’s steeped in the Cthulhu Mythos than if I played a poorly built Civil War game.  Don’t just start trying to prod me with tentacles, I demand some crazy chanting first and a minimum of at least four hooded cultists.  Oh and my favorite story by him is The Rats in the Walls, yes it’s somewhat outside of the Cthulhu Mythos, but it just grips you.  Plus it was the first story by Lovecraft I ever read.

I also enjoy movies a great deal and am planning on presenting you with a variety of sci-fi films that are must see’s while potentially stumbling across the occasional dud that must be avoided at all cost.  I often have the tendency to blur the lines of sci-fi and horror though so I’ll try my best to limit it to sci-fi and sci-fi horror films.

I’m pretty sure it’s self evident that I enjoy writing other wise I wouldn’t be doing this.  Other interest include comics, cartoons, investigating geek culture (stumbling about online looking for cool things so I can go ‘Oh that’s cool.’), video games, and the out doors.

While this is the first time I’ll have my writings read by others I’m hoping to continue this trend and have my short story’s published and eventually work up to writing a series of books and comics because when it comes to writing I honestly love nearly every medium as is the same with gaming.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Living with the dead – Zombies in Role Playing Games part 2
2. Quick Review: Cthulhu For President
3. There are no roads where we are headed. But we have a map. Living in a science fiction reality.

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Post tags: critical, cthulhu, gaming, horror, lovecraft, Role Playing Games, table top

So you’re looking for something new to play? Maybe a nice addition to a system you’re already familiar with or something that’s totally new to you? I’ve got two things to say about that.

First, go grab the Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack while you still can (only available until the 18th of this month!) It’s $25 and you get $235 worth of stuff. You can’t beat that with a stick.

Second, here’s a bunch of awesome games that are 20% off. Hit up the links to see them at DriveThruRPG and then when you check out, use the code DriveThruApril (Yes, we know it’s a month out of date in verbiage, but it’s the correct code, I assure you).

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Get 20% off a bunch of titles at DriveThruRPG and a chance at a $10 gift certificate
2. The Very Best of Troll in the Corner Vol. 2 available at DriveThruRPG
3. Flash Contest! Win one of three RPG PDFs from Drive Thru RPG worth a total of $50 over the next 2 days

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Post tags: drivethrurpg, pathfinder, Role Playing Games, rpg, sale, Savage Worlds

1. Wolfram Alpha 

Most of you are probably familiar with this little wonder. If not, then I really  suggest you give Wolfram Alpha a try. It’s a search engine of sorts, though it displays various facts and bits scientific data about the queried subject as opposed to pulling up individual web pages. It offers a wealth of information with each search, providing great details for character backgrounds, helping with adjudication of a tricky situation, or providing bits of information for an exceptional Knowledge roll. It also handles conversions extremely well, distance, weight, volume and other such forms of data can be easily interchanged, which can save you a hell of a lot of time on certain tasks.

2. The Cartographer’s Guild

Pretty much the ultimate resource for mapping things, the Cartographer’s Guild is a conglomerate of map-makers meeting to share their work, discuss projects and make requests of others. You can commission a beautiful, custom map from of the many professionals on the forum, or just nick a pre-made one for you own use in a campaign. These folks really know their stuff, and pretty much any map-related question you could come up with can be answered here.

3.  Corbis Images

Corbis is a site devoted to stock photography and illustration, and has a large commercial market for both editorial and creative purposes. It has fantastic search protocols, which makes it very easy to find whatever imagery you happen to be looking for. It is most often used in my group to find photos references for character portraits and the like, but you can use it to easily pull up images of ships, weapons, people, places and situations for a quick visual reference. Just browsing through different categories will offer plenty of fodder for NPCs and plot hooks alike.

4. Subreddits. 

Reddit is a content aggregation site with many, many users. In addition to siphoning off years of your life, it allows for the creation of smaller, niche-specific aggregators known as subreddits. Not only can these be used as quick-and-easy forums for your gaming group, but there are a variety of existing subreddits that are fantastic resources for gaming. The nice part about these subreddits is that the members in them are usually pretty cool folks who are more than happy to help out with questions or provide information you might not be able to find on your own. A few of the ones I use on a regular basis are the Map Porn, RPG, Savage Worlds, SpecArt, World Building, Vexillology and Ask Science, but you can find subreddits devoted to pretty much any topic you can think of… which also includes the horrible ones, so I’d advise a bit of caution when poking around the site at work.

5. Wikia 

You can use Wikia to create a custom Wiki page for your campaign. This is a great way to store notes, and keep your players current on events. This sort of thing is an absolute must before putting a campaign on a hiatus, and it’s also great for keeping the various threads of your plots and subplots organized. It also lets your party take some ownership of the campaign by editing existing pages and creating new ones based events within the game itself.

Making the page itself takes a little bit of work, but having all the public information in your game readily available in a single place is utterly invaluable.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. More info on Paizo and WizKids’ forthcoming mini line, with a handy Q&A section.
2. GM Essentials: How to keep a handle on clues, communication and collateral damage.
3. Building a Better Short Game

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Post tags: Cartographer's Guild, Guide, reddit, rpg, Tabletop, Tutorial, Wikia, Wolfram Alpha

The charity pack is only available at DriveThruRPG and affiliates, and will vanish into the ether(net) at Midnight on Friday, May 18th. For $25 you get $235 worth of really, really fantastic things. Entire RPG systems, books to expand universes you already know and love, original novel length fiction and original character artwork. Hit the link above for a full list of what’s available.

Thanks!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Wayne Foundation charity pack update – a whole fistful of awesome!
2. Wayne Foundation Charity RPG bundle – Take 2
3. Wayne Foundation 2nd Annual Charity Pack – here’s everything you’ll get!

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Post tags: charity, Role Playing Games, rpg, wayne foundation

The Game

A few weeks ago a giant package arrived at the Troll in the Corner offices, and it contained a giant box of deck building happiness – Thunderstone Advance: Towers of Ruin! I’ve now sat down and played this through several times and I’m ready to give you my honest assessment of the newest version of Thunderstone. To start things off on the right foot let me just say that I like this game a lot, but others in my gaming circles were a bit more on the fence. Here’s why!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Building a Dungeon in Classic D&D
2. Deck of Many Things
3. Fantasy Flight’s Talisman 4th Edition Massive Review – Base Game, Reaper, Frostmarch, Dungeon, and the Highland

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Post tags: board game, card, deck building, review, rpg, thunderstone, thunderstone advance

Hermes, God of Athletics and Sports.

There are approximately 640 skeletal muscles in the human body. These are the muscles that work in conjunction with your glorious skeleton to move you from the computer to the fridge and back to the computer again. I’m assuming you live like me, wrapped in a blanket, drinking coffee and wishing your kid was old enough to make sammiches.

These muscles sit between your disgusting but useful organs and your skin. They help to propel you forward, pick things up, put things down, punch that caterpillar that was sassing you, summon and then wrassle Kord, open jars, put a case of water in the shopping cart. The list is extensive. Without your muscles you would be as useless as one of those hanging skeletons you always see depicted in high schools, made from the donated bodies of dead people (at least that’s where my science teacher told us our skeleton came from).

Depending on your level of physical activity, different muscle groups on your body will be more developed than others. When my spouse was taking Eskrima (a Filipino martial art influenced by local tradition and Spanish fencing), he had huge forearms from drills with ratan sticks. He also had insanely hard shins and huge calves from kicking things. A friend from high school is a female bodybuilder. That means that periodically she has to change her diet significantly and bust her ass in the gym to achieve the definition required to place. When I was growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan I often heard the crazy pops and sneaker scuffs of those playing handball, hard hands and harder muscles sending a tiny rubber ball zipping across the court. Badminton players, fencers, basketball, soccer, all these sports demand a certain body type in order to best play the game.

We’re all born with muscles but definition and strength is built and made. Even the lowly farmer would still have enough muscles to work in the fields, guide and strongarm his or her animals, perform household chores and whatever else might come their way. Different professions would require different physical bodies. The lord who rides his horse all day and gets as much food as he needs will have a different body from the porter who works from sunup to sundown, carrying loads on their back and eating whatever could be carried all day. The soldier who practices sword drills all day needs a different strength from the one who loads the cannons or projectiles. The knight who wields the customary broadsword of their deity will probably have a different build from the fencer. They all have different muscle memories, some of the training able to be easily transferred to a different skill set or different objects, others not translating well at all.

Adventurers must be strong enough to carry their own gear obviously but what kind of physiques do they have? What kind of training lends itself to the perfect archer, duelist, bludgeoner or empty handed combatant? Beyond the bodies we inherit from our parents, how do our jobs and livelihoods carve and build the muscles that we use to run from or beat up danger?

Click the link to see pictures of different athletes and the body types that correspond to the specific sport (note: the athletes are wearing black undergarment type things so if someone at your job might be all o_O proceed with caution). The bodies really run the gamut! Not everyone is straight up ripped like Conan the Cimmerian; actually, hardly any of them are. There are many kinds of strong bodies that exist and the adventuring party will run the gamut.

How do people get the types of bodies needed to perform their tasks? Most train at a gym. Gymnasiums have existed for thousands of years, and in Ancient Greece athleticism was seen as an important aspect of life. Gymnasiums were places not only for the body but the mind, where children and young men went to learn ethics. The Ancient Romans preferred a more militaristic approach with training helping to train soldiers that could help with conquests. The aristocracy might set up training schools for their children, buying the best teachers tuition can pay for while a poor child with aspirations to knock heads might take on difficult chores to build strength or offer to trade work for training. A teacher might have one student or a roomful, all of of them vying to be the best. Mundane tasks can translate to dangerous moves if done correctly. Others might train as soldiers where they are forced to work out not just to gain skill but to push the individuals to their limits, to physically and mentally condition them to keep going past what they think they can do.

And all bodies have limits, those points where we physically break down. Sometimes the exercises we do can do more harm to our bodies than good, causing or exacerbating problems. Do the adventurers plow through the pain? Switch hands/weapons/tactics Or do they break down under the strain?

For GMs
-What types of places exist for athletes and adventurers to train and hone their skills?
-Are there schools to learn physical activities? Are they free or do people have to pay? Are there scholarships?
-What kinds of sports and physical activities are prevalent in the area?
-How are athletes viewed?
-What sports do the local peasants play? The aristocrats?
-How important is physical healthy? What is considered ‘healthy’? Is there a deity that honors sportsmanship?
-Who is the best swordsman in all the land? Best archer? Etc.
-Are there competitions for athletes/soldiers? Are they regional? Between towns? Between cities? Nations?

Plot Hooks
-When the country is at war, the local athletic training camp is decommissioned and the athletes left to fend for themselves. The PCs are all athletes who now must work, using their specially honed skills and strength to make money for their athletic halls and clubs. Are they recognized by their fellow countrymen? How do they translate their sports skills to fighting?
-A cultural exchange program has the PCs at a symposium where different athletic schools talk about their merits of their methods of trainings, the PCs all prime examples of the best their countries training can produce. What other students are there as well? Is national pride involved? Friendly rivalry? How do the other nations view the athletes and ideals of others? Are there any competitive events in the exchange?
-A rag-tag team of non-conventional fighters is sweeping through the countryside and the PCs must stop them and bring them to justice. Where did the street fighters learn their craft? Who are they fighting? Do they have anything to teach the PCs?
-The PCs are all part of a sports team for the national sport. While being presented with an award from the local or national important person, a sudden explosion rocks the stadium. The PCs are the only ones close enough to rescue the state official. Who caused the explosion? Do they get the official out? What kind of recognition do they receive for performing the task successfully? What kind of punishment do they receive if they fail?
-When the ‘Deityof Wrassling’ possesses the local religious figure, they goes around challenging all government officials to wrestling matches, claiming that ‘might is right’ and soundly beating any who meet the challenge. The deity goes on to say that a great battle is coming and all must be ready to take on the attackers The PCs must figure out what is going on. Is the member of the clergy really possessed? How does it affect the church they represent? How do the people react when their officials are beaten? Does the deity play fair? Rough? And what ‘attackers’ is the deity speaking of?

For PCs
-What type of body is ideal for your line of work? Do you have this body? How is this ideal for your work in line with how people are generally built?
-Can people tell what you are/do just by looking at you? Do you hide it (under clothes, with your demeanor) or do you flaunt it?
-What kind of physical training did you undertake to get into shape? What kind of activity do you do to maintain your physique? Any foods you eat or avoid?
-Do you play sports to help you maintain your weight/body type? Are you a competitive person?

What say you? Also, I need to start working out. :/

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Death and Funerals
2. Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Bathing and Personal Hygiene
3. Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Domestic Animals and Plants

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Aruneus is a source book for the Pathfinder Role Playing Game detailing the world, politics, and lives of those living in a high fantasy world one hundred years after a cataclysmic zombie apocalypse.

Aruneus is a new world for use with the Pathfinder Role Playing Game system. 100 years past, Aruneus experienced an apocalyptic event. Starting in a small village, a family infected by a strange sickness died, only to rise again several days later. Within weeks hordes of undead were roaming the Human empires, ravaging any warm blooded creature that fell in to their grasp. Aruneus was devastated – losing in a few years over 10 million sentient beings.

After 100 years of fending off a complete collapse, the sentient races are rebuilding their societies and for the first time there is hope that the undead menace can be destroyed and life given a chance to flourish again.

The Gods of Aruneus gives the divine backdrop in which the zombie apocalypse was formed. Have the gods abandoned this world?

• Six gods
• Six new Domains
• A new threat for the world of Aruneus

You’ll find 10 pages of new material for use in your Aruneus campaign, or in any Pathfinder or d20/OGL game. You’ll also find a new, tougher class of zombie which not only turns humans, but other races as well!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. The World of Aruneus – A Brief History now available at DriveThruRPG for FREE!
2. The Zombies are here! World of Aruneus – Contagion Infected Human Zombies and Zombie Cards now available!
3. The World of Aruneus – Contagion Infected Zombies 2.0! The new PDF is here!

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Post tags: Aruneus, gods, pathfinder, Role Playing Games, rpg, zombie

This kid is a cheat and a liar!

I’ve spent a fair amount of time lately creating games for kids, and playing games with kids – primarily my own two girls who are 6 and 9.  I’ve come to the conclusion that the natural state of gaming for children is to get away with absolutely as much as possible and do what needs to be done to try and win the game or shape it to their satisfaction. I kinda love this about kids too, for  several reasons. I admit that my sample pool is pretty small – my two kids who are always willing to play games in the name of science, and a few other sessions with other kids. So, take this report with a grain of salt.

For some systems, this is okay. There are a ton of kid oriented RPGs out there, my own Argyle & Crew being one of them. These tend to go a little lighter on the rules than RPGs aimed towards adults. The fact that kids seem to like to cheat is one of the reasons I built A&C like I did. Yet, rather than call it cheating, I simply call it imagination. We’ll get back to this in a few paragraphs.

Of all the kids I’ve played with over the past few years, it doesn’t matter what we’re playing – board games, RPGs, My Little Freaking Pony, many of them tend to let their imaginations really run wild.  It’s an awesome experience. I can interject something strange, such as a Martian spacecraft into my daughter’s My Little Pony play session and not only does she take it in stride, it gets incorporated into her play in a matter of fact way. That’s not cheating.

When you’re playing Quarriors though, and she opts for eight dice rather than six, well that is cheating. Really in her mind it’s a much lesser form of cheating than say introducing my Godzilla action figure and my wife’s hairy Wonder Woman doll into the Pony mix. When she watches ponies on the tube, both Godzilla and Wonder Woman consistently fail to make an appearance.  Yet here she is playing with dice already and she just wants to add two more. Sheesh, what’s the big deal?

Why when young kids cheat, it ain’t cheating

Back to my game and imagination – that’s why when I made a game for young kids, I built into it the ability for the person running the game to say “yes” as much as possible. Mixing atomic age giant monsters with golden aged comic people and talking ponies who have no hands yet somehow still build trains and stuff is perfectly okay! In a young kids mind there’s no barriers formed yet between what is, what should be and whatever. They’re still learning all this stuff about the world around them and what’s possible – to a 6 year old, just about anything is possible.

I don’t look at my 6 year old as cheating then, when she adds two dice to her six dice Quarrior pool – this is more of a creative way to get something that she wants. I should also stress that she doesn’t really play this game to win, she’s not on that level yet. She does play it to acquire the most of her favorite colored dice (the blue Questing Wizards, or anything even close to pink). She’d have a much easier time of it if she had more to spend, so in go the extra dice and hey, look at that, I can buy those blue dice now!

While this is no way to play Quarriors on a competitive level, it is a chance to turn a fun game with a fistful of dice into a teaching moment. To show her why it’s not right that she use eight dice while the rest of us are stuck with six, but also to let her know that she came up with a creative solution even if it won’t fly with the rest of the family. It was a real educational process for me finding out why she added the dice. She didn’t want to cheat to win, she wanted to buy more blue dice.

It’s one of the reasons I really like gaming with kids – they cheat via not following the expected norms all the time and it’s entertaining as all hell. Getting into that mindset myself has been the single biggest drive behind my creative process.  We’ll get back to this in a bit, first lets take a quick look at older kids.

Why when older kids cheat, they’re testing the rules

My 9 year old daughter is a different story. She fully understands that when you roll your six dice in Quarriors, they stay where they fall and that’s that. It doesn’t stop her from occasionally trying to pull a fast one over on me. Or constantly doing it but being pretty damned good at it so I only see her cheating occasionally. For her, winning means a great deal – a lot more than it does to me. And she’ll do what she can to ensure that she has the best chance to win. Really, when you’re playing a game with a group of 9 year old kids, you’re sitting down with a bunch of cut-throat CEOs who’ll stop at nothing to come out on top. Sort of.

It’s taken me a little while to come to this conclusion, but she’s not really cheating just to win, and damn the family fallout. She’s really testing the rules to see how flexible they may be, or how flexible the other players may be. Doing this in the context of a game gives her a far safer environment to test the rules than say talking back to her teacher, or acting out with others. It’s her first steps into the pre-teen world of pushing boundaries. She can see that it’s okay to re-roll a die that fell on the ground, but it’s not okay to blatantly flip over a die that resulted in something she didn’t like, whether we’re all looking or not.

It’s been interesting to me because I get to see what rules make sense to her (in the context of a 9 year old’s head) and why the don’t when they don’t.

Where I ramble on a bit about cheating reality to make better games

I want to propose a very brief thought experiment. Suppose that you, the adult you, in real life are sitting at home alone. You’re on your couch with the television on or reading a book. Suddenly, out of nowhere, your coffee table turns to you and says “Man, I can’t stand American Idol. How can you watch that crap?”

How would you honestly react?

Me, I would probably scream just like my 6 year old daughter does when encountering a large spider and get the hell out. I’ve seen enough horror movies to understand that this won’t end well. To my 6 year old though, talking animals and furniture is just now becoming something outside the realm of the possible. She’s seen plenty of movies that show these things, so they must be real! The universe isn’t cheating when then happens, not in the 6 year old’s mind anyway.

Imagine you could harness that power, the ability to think so far out of the box that you can’t even see the box anymore. When you’re creating something, whether it’s tomorrow night’s adventure or the next big gaming sensation, it will be unique, interesting and cause adult people to say “where the hell did  you come up with that?” Whatever that idea is, my 6 year old would look at it, shrug her shoulders and carry on.

If you’re creating something, then to some extent you’re already tapping in to your old childhood brain. I would highly, highly recommend doing more of this though. Try your hardest to remember what it was like to be 6, or 9. Remember back to when you didn’t feel a little odd playing with toys in front of other people. And if at all possibly, sit down with a kid and play with them. If you have kids, you’ll do this a lot – awesome on you! If you don’t have kids, find some friends who do and offer to babysit. You’ll not only have a chance to expand your creative mind, you’ll be a hero to a parent or two as well.

At first it’ll be awkward. You’ll watch the kid play for a bit, and then they’ll hand you that one toy you really didn’t want to play with, the purple car with three wheels say, and go “this is yours.” I’m telling you now, run with it. Only three wheels? Well, the forth must have been transformed into a bagel to save the starving village of horse sized amoebae! Get down with those toys and let anything happen. Then encourage the child your playing with to think differently by introducing strange things – like the tire/bagel connection. If they run with it, remember it. If they give you the stare – you may want to consider letting that idea go.

I’m not saying you sit there and take notes as you play, and when you walk away you’ll have your next adventure/game/novel in hand. No, what you are doing though is using your brain in ways it hasn’t been accustomed to in a while. You’re making it cheat on it’s own tidy version of reality. Do this for just a little while and wonderful things will happen.

When I design games now, I think a lot less about how the mechanics of the game before I come up with ideas. I do the idea part first, and figure out later what will work mechanically. Sure I throw some stuff out, but what I’m left with is a lot better than what I had been coming up with before I had kids and interacted with them all the time. I ‘cheat’ regularly now but throwing the rules out (even as I’m designing them) when I have a crazy-fun idea. I’ll make the rules fit later, or if I don’t, I’ll save the idea for another project.

To date, the freest I’ve felt while designing was making Argyle & Crew because at it’s core there are really only a few simple rules. You must make a sock puppet, you can only add two Extras to start with, and the Guide in the game must try their best to always say yes to a player. When my kids play A&C, they can get that cheating feeling all the time because the rules are so far in the background, they’re not really telling the players not to do something, but encouraging them to do anything.

Photo courtesy of Julien Haler, kid on a broomstick courtesy of the public domain.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Role playing, storytelling, kids and adults – a little project I’m working on
2. The Scared Soppet – an Argyle & Crew scenario released for Teach Your Kids to Game Week
3. RPGs for Kids: The Savage Peanuts

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Post tags: cheating, creativity, design, gaming, kids, Role Playing Games, rpg

There’s a gazillion podcasts out there covering everything from the music of Macross to This Week in Tech, This American Life on to The Married Man Podcast. Listeners are bombarded with innumerable choices, but perhaps there is room for one more?

I run a gaming podcast, Wargaming Recon, releasing new episodes every other week. Being a podcaster since 2006 has taught me that when people find something they like, they’re willing to stick with it and to try out related content. In other words, if you like what TrollITC has on the blog you may thoroughly enjoy a podcast discussing the same type of content found on the blog.

The million dollar question is, would YOU listen to such a show? Something that released weekly, or bi-weekly, lasting say 30-60 minutes in length. Perhaps you’d like it to be shorter, maybe clocking in at 15-20 minutes?

Your input is desired because I’ve been mulling over the possibility of such a show. I know that Ben, and the gang, are open to new ideas in the hope of seeing if the the spaghetti sticks to the wall. I’m not saying that we will end up creating a show. If interest is sufficiently strong you can bet that I’ll see what can be done.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Old School Podcast – I talk to the future: an interview with my daughters, ages 5 and 8
2. Podcast Recommendation: Game Night Guys
3. The Con Job – Troll in the Corner Goes to the Conventions

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The lovely Kickstarter logo

Short post today. I want to talk about Kickstarter, the self-described “funding platform for creative projects.” Here’s a link to their guidelines, which constrain but don’t seem that strict.

The concept behind the site is very simple. Let’s say I want to create something. I can start a Kickstarter page, and fill it out with all the details about whatever it is I’m gonna make. Donors can come, see how much my fundraising goal is, and choose to contribute. I set up fundraising “tiers”, much like larger fundraising organizations do, except these tiers provide tangible benefits. The $10 tier might get you a personalized thank you card, the $50 tier might get you a signed copy of whatever I’m creating, and a $500 donation might get your name listed as a Gold Donor or whatever.

The main selling point of Kickstarter is that if the fundraising goal is not met, you don’t end up donating any money. So if my goal is $400, and I only raise $250, the money raised all goes back to the donors, no questions asked. So it’s kind of like risk-free financial supporting: toss some money if you like the idea, but if not enough people do, then there’s no risk.

There are definitely some cool projects that have popped up on Kickstarter in the past year or so. But I am a bit worried that it might get out of hand.

I’m not saying the Kickstarter model is a bad one. In fact, I’m absolutely positive that more projects will see the light of day because of the platform, when in the past they would have been merely the dreams of idle gamers, artists, and programmers. Kickstarter is a fabulous tool for the indie creator, to be able to subsidize the creation of whatever his or her dream project is – and if enough people can get behind it, then it’s worth creating.

There are a few obvious worries. What if the people just run away with the money? I’ve heard that the Kickstarter folks are very serious about fraud so they have your back there. I don’t think there’s any guarantee against “shitty product”, but when tossing your money toward anything, caveat emptor. There’s no way anyone could guarantee the quality of the products supported, which is a bit troubling but not a dealbreaker.

I guess what I am worried about is the fate of the works created – once all of the backers have been compensated, then what happens? To me it seems that the donors are simply putting forward the production cost and then all they get out of it is a copy of the game or a little piece of themselves in the game (or some recognition from the author).  I’m especially wary of the numerous video games which are popping up – the primary option simply seems to be able to pre-order the game. Many of these games have far exceeded their initial fundraising goals – in some cases the creator has a plan for the additional money, but in some he/she does not.

It would all make sense to me in some way if the projects were distributed at-cost or for free following a successful Kickstarter campaign. But, donors are basically paying retail price (and justifying it as “I would have bought a copy anyway”) SIGHT UNSEEN for the game, footing the bill for the production of the game. I feel like there is an evil genius somewhere who loves the idea that the very people who will be buying the game are paying for the production – which just increases the profit margin on every copy sold after the game is produced.

Furthermore, I feel extremely manipulated by some of the projects. I don’t like that we’re “donating” money, because, really, we’re not. We’re paying for a service. Now, that service might be incredibly valuable to me (oh boy, Baldur’s Gate 3?!?!), but I can’t help but feel that it’s not a donation (especially since there is the tiered system of “rewards”). I know that Kickstarter likely must make this decision for tax/legal purposes, but I still don’t like it.

Plus, and I may be stereotyping us gamers here, but I think it’s a very typical desire for people like me to want to be a part of things. I mean, look at conventions where we get to meet William Shatner or Nathan Fillion. How crazy would it be if we got to be on Firefly? or at least a part of the show in some way. We feel the same way about our games. How awesome would it be if my character was one of the main villains in this new campaign setting? This feeling is not at all uncommon and I would say it’s perfectly natural. Thus, I feel somewhat manipulated by the super-expensive options that allow you to “put a piece of yourself in the game”. It’s the same kind of impulse that makes us buy one-of-a-kind collectibles like costumes from the Star Wars movies, or one of the original Browncoats. Except Kickstarter-based projects ask us to do that before the project even comes out. It’s like they’re promising awesomeness, but they aren’t guaranteeing it. The risk-averse angel inside of me is stomping my nerd-glory devil like crazy.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t fund Kickstarter projects that appeal to you. You absolutely should. If there is a certain webcomic that you have been enjoying, for free, that has a Kickstarter page, by all means support the comic’s work. Reputation is king – our fearless leader has his own game that I’m sure he makes almost no money off, and those are the types of projects we should be supporting, not fan-service bloated-budget revivals of games we used to love. We need to support the indies who are Kickstarting because they literally cannot afford to fund it, not the creators who are Kickstarting because they couldn’t get enough investors. Heck, crowdsourcing works; it’s a lot easier to get 10,000 people to “donate” buck then a single person to chip in 10,000 bucks.

Just be wary. I don’t think we’ve reached the first wave of massive Kickstarter disappointments, but I do honestly believe that it’s coming. And people won’t be happy when they shelled out a few hundred bucks for a limited-edition specialized copy of a game that sucks. Again, Caveat emptor, and don’t get your hopes up too high. And maybe this is the recalcitrant jerk inside me talking, but don’t delude yourself that you’re doing the world a service by donating to some of these projects. You’re investing in their product, and instead of a share, you just get a copy of the game when it’s done.

Update: Looks like an already well-established publishing company (Paizo) is getting involved in the kickstarting (though the other links in the article are dead) for their MMO.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Tracy Barnett’s School Daze featured on Wired – still time to get in on the Kickstarter!
2. Three Kickstarter projects worth investing in
3. Argyle & Crew, the sock puppet RPG – just 4 days left to fund through Kickstarter

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Post tags: Creative projects, Fundraising, games, gaming, kickstarter

Image courtesy of DA user mffugabriel-stock

My gaming group has, collectively, an incredibly short attention span. Everyone has an idea for something they want to run, and most of us have several campaigns floating in the works at any given moment. Needless to say, we’ve burned through quite a few systems on our never-ending quest to give reality the finger. In the course of doing so, I’ve noticed a few reoccurring problems over the years that can cripple or kill a campaign before it even gets started. 

Personal Conflict 

This is a fairly common issue, but it can also be a surprisingly subtle one. Gaming groups can be comprised of a fairly diverse set of people, which means that you’ll inevitably wind up with players that have problems getting along with one another. While the obvious interpersonal problems can be dealt with and left behind (or not,) the more subtle ones can persist and slowly drag a  fledgling campaign to its grave. Let’s look at some of the issues that can seriously impede progress!

• “This isn’t difficult to understand…” Is just a somewhat more polite wording of “you’re mentally deficient for not grasping this.” I see this issue come up a lot online, and this particular line of thinking needs to die in a syphilis fire. Just because somebody isn’t grasping something, be it rule mechanics or setting fluff, does not mean that they are cognitively handicapped. People have different mental priorities, and different levels of interest in memorizing the details of a system or setting. Expecting an immediate level of competency and lore absorption is unreasonable, and treating someone like they’re stupid for not getting something will only make the learning process harder. You should also consider the fact that they might not be bad at understanding the system, that you might just be bad at explaining it.
• Bad teachers, bad students. Some people are innately pedantic, and if you work in technical support for long enough, it’s practically inevitable that you’ll wind up that way. Others, conversely, are sensitive towards being talked down to, and will absorb information poorly since their mental energy is more devoted towards resisting the pedantry coming their direction. Inevitably, it seems like the the pedantic person winds up trying to teach the stubborn one, and nothing ever gets accomplished. The best way to work around this is to recognize the people who can’t learn from or teach eachother, and assign them to a more tolerant partner.
• You’re doing it wrong. Everybody has a pet system. Their favorite, their baby. Some settings are more generic than others, and some people have much narrower ideas of what constitutes a “proper game” than others. As an example, my group has been particularly fractious over our campaigns run in Exalted setting. Some of the players/storytellers in the group feel that Exalted needs to be run, and played, in a very specific way. Others are more interested in the classical adventuring you typically find in other high-fantasy games. This has resulted in multiple tiffs at the table, and while a high-voltage shock collar may seem like the most appealing option at times, it’s much better to compromise between the different views and establish a tolerable medium.

Information without context. 

It is extremely difficult to grasp data of any sort if you don’t have any context for it. This is a very important thing to keep in mind when dealing with lore-dense settings such as Exalted and Warhammer 40k. Trying to rattle off the statistics for a vehicle that they are completely unfamiliar with is pointless, and telling them which weapons are good for handling Tyranids is isn’t going to do any good if they don’t know what a Tyranid is.

When introducing someone to a setting, paint it out in broad, shallow strokes first. Who the different factions of the land are, what they are like, locations of note and a light timeline of events are all good starting points. Once they get a handle on that, start painting with narrower, deeper strokes. For example, it’s a good idea to explain the factions of the Imperial Guard and the Space Wolves to a newcomer before you start going into the deeds and significance of Commissar Yarrick and Bjorn the Fell Handed.

Brevity is the soul of wit. 

You’ll have time for great slews of information once the players are situated and comfortable in the setting. When asked about something in the system, particularly in regards to technical details, keep your answers as brief and to-the-point as possible. Ten minute replies are the bane of swift learning, and if a player asks how much damage a weapon does, just tell without explaining WHY the weapon does that amount of damage, unless it’s directly relevant to the situation at hand.

Show, don’t tell. 

While this is an adage of most every form of fiction, it also applies to learning rule mechanics as well. Rather than giving a twenty-minute explanation of combat, run the players through a choreographed battle designed to showcase the combat system. Use larger amounts of weak enemies to let the players be successful and gain a sense of confidence, making sure they have plenty of opportunity to see exactly what their character can do. Since it doesn’t count for anything, encourage them to use their spells, items, daily abilities, special attacks and the like so they can get familiar with everything their character has at their disposal. Keep the first few rounds to simple melee and/or ranged combat, then throw in elements like grappling, cover, called shots and special attacks until the characters have a rough grasp on the mechanics.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Everything Old is New Again: Book Review of The Neverwinter Campaign Setting
2. Sand and Steam – A New Campaign Setting
3. Quick Review: Swallowfeld – a Pathfinder adventure setting for a low level party

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Image courtesy of TOR

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have tag teamed so many novels of the years that they have become a household name to fantasy readers.  Rage of the Dragon is the third installment in their latest series, the Dragonships of Vindras.  Here is a blurb from the inside flap of the cover.

Skylan Ivorson is the gods-chosen Chief of all Vindras clans. But the gods from whom the Vindrasi draw their earthdwelling power are besieged by a new generation of gods who are challenging them for the powers of creation. The only way to stop these brash interlopers lies within the Five Bones of the Vektia Dragon—the primal dragon forged during the creation of the world—which have been lost for generations.

With the Gods of the New Dawn amassing a vast army, Skylan finds allies in former enemies. Calling upon the ogres to fight their common foes, the Vindrasi soon find themselves in the middle of an even larger war. Skylan and his Vindrasi clan must sail the Sea of Tears into the heart of the Forbidden Empire of the Cyclops, to implement a cunning yet delicate plan that risks his life and leadership at every corner. But a new enemy lies deep in the sea, one who draws upon powers never harnessed by land dwellers.

For me just seeing the names Weis and Hickman on the cover is enough for me to want to read it.  When you add in gods going to war and dragons I can’t turn the pages fast enough.

It is becoming quite typical of series written by this duo to start off rather slow, almost ponderously trudging along.    What really makes Weis and Hickman good at what they do though is that there is always payoff for your patience.  They take their time building the story, introducing you to the characters.  Perhaps we have become a cultural too inundated with technology and instant gratification that we cannot wait for the action to start.  Well, you have to wait with a good book.  I will tell you this much, when the action starts, it gets your heart beating. It is in conflict that Weis and Hickman truly shine. The battle scenes in this book are thrilling and so well conceived and written that it is easy to visualize yourself standing there at Skylan’s side.

I enjoyed this book, though it does meander a bit.  This is good, fun, fantasy.  If you haven’t started this series yet, do so, and know that you need to have a little patience, let the story grow and you will be rewarded.  I’ll be honest though, this isn’t the pair’s best work.  They have yet to repeat what they achieved with the Death Gate Cycle, though for me and nostalgia’s sake their best work will always be the Dragonlance Chronicles.  However, that being said, this is still a great story that is well written and most assuredly worthy of a read.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. International Dragon Dice contest winners
2. International Dragon Dice Contest – Win 3+ boxes of TSR’s Dragon Dice from 1995
3. Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening expansion announced

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Post tags: dragons, margaret weis, tracy hickman

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. My zombie infested, post-apocalypse high fantasy campaign is starting to take shape
2. The Aruneus Project – a look at the cost of zombies and high fantasy
3. If You Build It… – Book Review of Fantasy Craft

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Available only from May 4^th – May 18^th 2012

Starting today, right now, the 2nd Annual Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack is on sale! With $235 worth of product and retailing for just $25, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better bargain than this.

Want another reason to get excited? All of the profits raised from the sale of this pack will go directly to The Wayne Foundation – a 501(3)c charitable organization dedicated to ending child prostitution.

This charity pack will get you a huge variety of amazing things! Complete RPG systems, books to supplement your D&D 4e, Pathfinder, Fate, G-core and other games, original character artwork, original short fiction and several full length novels!  You will find months, if not years of entertainment right here, in one convenient, fairly huge .zip file just waiting for you to download it.

If you’d like to help spread the word, you can grab a copy of the word/gdoc press release suitable for cutting/pasting directly into your blogging/website software. Or grab the prettier PDF press release created for us by Kristin Moran! We’d love to hear you spread the word on your sites, Facebook, Twitter, G+ and hell, even MySpace!

About the Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack

Organized by Benjamin Gerber from Troll in the Corner, this is the second year a group of generous independent game developers, artists and authors have come together to raise money for a great cause.

About The Wayne Foundation

The Wayne Foundation is committed to spreading awareness of CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children) and building a rehabilitation facility for victims DMST (Domestic Minor Sexual Trafficking). We acknowledge that sexual trafficking victims can be of any age, nationality, or sex. Our primary objective is to assist female DMST victims in the United States, but in the future we would like to expand our programs to additionally serve male and adult sex trafficking victims.

We believe that all victims can be rehabilitated through a program that provides education assistance, mental and physical health services, housing, and a support staff who are dedicated to assisting these girls reach their full potential. It is our objective to aid these young women until they are capable of reentering society on their own as happy and healthy adults.

The Wayne Foundation’s vision is for a world without child slavery. Our mission is to provide young women who have fallen victim to commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking with a means of leaving the sex industry for good. The Wayne Foundation is committed to fighting human trafficking, child prostitution, & child sex exploitation one victim at a time by providing individuals with a safe home environment that will empower them with the tools they will need to stop the cycle of abuse. It is our intent to end commercial sex exploitation within the United States through direct victim assistance, public outreach, and by directly working with those who shape the policies and statutes which impact victims and their abusers.

Founder and President Jamie Walton invites you to join her and Wayne Foundation on twitter. Be sure to follow the official WF Twitter account @TheWayneFDN&  @JamieWalton We want to hear from YOU!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Wayne Foundation 2nd Annual Charity Pack – here’s everything you’ll get!
2. The Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack is here!
3. It is done! The Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack raised over $1800 in two weeks!

© admin for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Board and Card Games, charity, drivethrurpg, fantasy, fiction, Literature, Role Playing Games, rpg, the wayne foundation

I record the Wargaming Recon podcast when I am not writing this weekly column. Wargaming Recon is a bi-weekly hour-long gaming podcast dedicated to historical gaming and New England gaming. I review products, discuss games I play, chat about cons, and travel the wargaming world with listeners.

Being a podcaster is a fun and exciting hobby that also can be a lot of work. New Jersey native and SModcaster Kevin Smith released a new book titled “Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good.” As a fan of his earlier works, i.e. Clerks., Mallrats, and Chasing Amy in particular, I started reading the book. Unexpectedly, Smith reveals a lot of great advice for anyone wishing to be creative. He owns a highly successful, fun, and funny series of comedic podcasts, which garner millions of listeners per episode.

My podcasting desire waxes and wanes, which surely is transmitted to my listeners. My show debuted August 17, 2006 under the name CWF Game Discussions Podcast. The second episode released the next day. Each week new episodes released until November of that year. Gaps large enough to hide the Executor in appeared. Eventually, those gaps coalesced into the first long absence in the show lasting from the end of November 2006 and ending May 2007.

You would think my return to podcasting in May meant that I was reinvigorated with all of the energy necessary to record shows for the long haul. If you thought that I’m sorry to tell you that you’re wrong. Two episodes released in 2007 and they were 6 months apart. Listeners must have thought my show was deader than a triceratops.

Then 2008 arrived and like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park my show’s DNA combined with that of a frog. New episodes released on a regular schedule. I was firmly in my wheelhouse discussing Games Workshop, covering contests, unveiled a radio station, talked about my first con (I didn’t attend), and suffered technical difficulties. After three months living high on the hog I was gored by the wild boar. One more new show found its way onto iTunes four months later before the show once again died.

It doesn’t take a level 1 common townsperson to tell you that although I liked podcasting, I didn’t like it enough to dedicate myself to it. I needed to love it like a Star Wars fan loves to hate Jar Jar. Instead, I found other things to love.

In 2010 I got married and tried to listen to some old podcasts. Some of the shows from 2006 that I remembered were no more. I started to think about trying to get my old show, then called CWF GameCast, running again. My decision was made because of e-mail conversations with an old fan named Tom Barbalet. He not only liked the old episodes, despite their rawness, he podcasted in his spare time. He hosts several shows and he wanted to interview me for one of them. In October I appeared in episode 19 of the Stone Ape Podcast.

One of the unexpected outcomes from the interview was the rebirth of my podcast. If my show were a cat, it would have used most of its nine lives by then. Somehow, it gets knocked down and then, like the phoenix, is reborn in the flames. Instead of the same old same old, the show had a co-host in the shape and voice of Tom Barbalet. Weekly releases happened, what a novelty, and the show found an audience. Tom always said he thought I was good enough to host a show with thousands of listeners. It sounded cool at the time but I didn’t drink much of the Kool-Aid. Me? A thousand people listening to my voice? Why?

In time, Tom left to pursue his other projects. Perhaps the most bizarre, twilight zone, event in the known universe happened at this time. My show did NOT die. That’s right. The show lost half of its hosting power and lived on like a guy donating a kidney to a family member. I’m still podcasting yet I can occasionally feel the call of not podcasting.

This is where Kevin Smith comes in. His book exclaims, shouts from the rooftops even, that podcasters need to put out new episodes on a regular basis. Our fans expect new content. They invite us into their lives. They spend time opening their aural pathways for what we have to say. They think we’re important enough to listen to what we have to say.

Now, I’m just this guy living in Massachusetts. I’m not an expert. In fact, most times I realize the enormity of what I don’t know. I have other responsibilities in my job, my family, and my life. It is easy for those responsibilities to Zerg rush, forcing new podcast episodes to the precipice of extinction. No matter how fierce the Zerg how, no matter how many Skaven outnumber me, no matter what other demands on my time exist, I always must remember the people who look forward to and listen to my podcast.

My show is an hour of gaming talk. It won’t put an end to world hunger, it won’t cure cystic fibrosis, and it won’t answer the question to live, the universe, and everything (42). What it will do is entertain, hopefully, listeners for the duration of the episode. Providing the chance for others to escape from the monotony of existence is a gift to give. Smith does this with his SModcast Network. I do it with Wargaming Recon.

Smith doesn’t hesitate to explain that he’s just a “fat, lazy slob” but one who does a great job at talking. He knows how to communicate, how to elicit laughs, and how to tell a story. His podcasts utilize those strengths. Everyone has something, no matter how inane, making them special. Podcasting allows us all to easily share our strengths with others. I love gaming, so I talk about that. Maybe you love interior design, or housekeeping, or automobiles. Play to your strength and you can’t go wrong.

For too long, Smith paid too much attention box office numbers. His movies were judged by how much money they made and what the critics would think. Yet, the film that got him noticed was created with none of those things in mind. Clerks. was made because Smith loves films. He loves to tell stories and he wanted to tell his story in the film format. You may despise everything that Kevin Smith has ever made. You may think he is a blight on humanity. But, imagine what would have happened if he spent his time and energy focusing on what others might think instead of doing his best to create the film he wanted to create.

These are our lives. They do not belong to anyone else. We can’t pay attention to numbers of listeners and ignore why they listen to the show. As a podcaster, I need to keep doing what I’m doing and not what numbers might tell me to do. People listen to my show because they like what I’m doing. They don’t listen because of what I’m not doing. If they wanted to listen to what I don’t do, they’d listen to another show.

These are very important lessons that I had forgotten. It is easy to be caught up in the minutiae of podcasting thereby forgetting the motivations that keep us interested in podcasting.

When my will flags and I think about spending an hour in World of Warcraft I need only think about the great people who listen to my show, who write me e-mails, and comment on social media about my latest episode. The interaction with the fans, may I call them fans, both grounds me and motivates me. As I said before, I’m just this guy in Massachusetts. For some reason, people listen to my show. I owe it to them to keep new episodes coming, to stay true to myself, and to play to my strength.

I may never have as many listeners as Kevin Smith, or Neil Shuck, or Steven MacLauchlan. The listeners I do have are important and need to know they’re important.

I’m sorry this week’s column wasn’t the typical gamer fare that I publish. It is a little self-indulgent. But, I hope that someone, somewhere, is reading this and thinking that they are really good at something and that they want to share it with others by podcasting about it.

The more of us that podcast the better it is. Each of us helps to keep the others honest. We can be inspired by how good our fellow podcasters are and then up our game to create higher quality shows for our respective listeners.

If you want to check out my show, you can find it on iTunes at Wargaming Recon. Or, see all of the episodes on my blog by going to Wargaming Recon Podcast Episodes.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Podcast Recommendation: Game Night Guys
2. Podcast recommendation: The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast
3. Old School Actual Play podcast to return soon(ish)!

© Jonathan J. Reinhart for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Alosar Emanli: Druid Mediocre

Reviewing products, especially gaming materials, is not an easy task. There is literally an entire universe of material to consider when looking at a product and saying, definitively: “this is good” or “this is bad”. It’s very easy to slip down the rabbit hole; for example, I could easily talk about the history of D&D 3rd Edition, and how that led to Pathfinder, which eventually led us to this product. And while I don’t expect anyone to buy or not buy this product based on my recommendation (I hate to think that folks’ livelihood is on the line here), I do want to always leave a few breadcrumbs so that you might find the rabbit hole.

The product I’m reviewing today is Paizo’s Pathfinder-branded Party of One BB3: Alosar Emanli and the Creatures from the Fallen Star. It’s a short adventure for, you guessed it, one player which follows the tale of Alosar, a druid’s apprentice, as he interacts with, well, the creatures from the fallen star. I can’t say the title isn’t spot on.

There have been two previous Party Of One supplements, so I imagine that the series has been received reasonably well. The previous adventures go for 2.99 on Paizo’s website, so I would assume that this product will be priced similarly. BB3 comes in at 15 pages, with about 12 or so being the actual content and the remainder being stat tables for your character.

I am going to be reviewing a number of products in the coming weeks, months, and years, so I imagine that some kind of standardized format would be in order. Since I am a massive nerd, I thought a lot about the best system to use: a larger scale allows for a more granular rating system, while a smaller scale is easier to understand. I also considered a buy/don’t buy recommendation system, but that recommendation relies on too much information I don’t have (your budget, your preferences).

I am going to break the review of products like these into three sections: Content, Mechanics, and Format. Content will include the meat-and-potatoes of many RPG products, the story. The Mechanics section will include my review of the mechanics of the product (and I will try to stay away from talking too much about Pathfinder’s mechanics in general, in this case). Finally, Format will include all the information about the physical/digital product, including layout, artwork, editing, etc. Yes, everyone’s favorite section, when I critique other peoples’ writing. Because mine is so awesome, of course.

Mechanics

I’ll start with Mechanics because knowing how the Party of One materials are intended to be used will frame your understanding and my review of the product.

In short, Party of One is a standalone supplement meant to be played by one person. How, you ask? Well, it’s basically an RPG version of a choose-your-own-adventure book. If you’re a child of the 70′s-90′s like me, the words “choose-your-own-adventure” call to mind memories of small paperback books with spines well-worn from the near-constant flipping and paging. They always seemed to have ridiculously awesome art on the front cover (reminiscent of the sword-and-sorcery artwork from the 2nd edition AD&D books). My favorite choose your own adventure book was this one (and yes, it is that R.L. Stine).

Of course, Party of One has it’s own Pathfinder flavor: after some passages, in the place of choices there are combat-esque challenges. I say “combat-esque” because, yes, you have an AC and a to-hit and fight monsters, but there is no movement, little option to do other than what it says, which is, in some cases, simply attack with your sickle and get attacked.

Frankly, I found the combat actually detracted from the story. There were scant few places in the supplement where one could actually make decisions – it really felt like the die was choosing for me. I’m not really that interested in Roll Your Own Adventure.

The game shines when you can make decisions, such as choosing between casting a spell and using an item, and those feel quite flavorful. Furthermore, since this is an RPG, your character can grow over the course of the game. You can level up, acquire items, spells, and companions, which make future tasks easier or more difficult, or simply open up more options. There needs to be a lot more of this: actual character improvement that has a tangible effect on the gameplay.

There are a couple of minor issues with the mechanics (I don’t know why your AC goes down when you level up. Is that a typo?), but they’re easily repaired or ignored. Some of the encounters did seem annoyingly difficult, but what would the point of having a trivially easy encounter be, other than to just waste time?

Final verdict – mechanics: Disappointing

Content

I don’t want to say too much about the content, but the gist of the story is this: you are Alosar Emanli, a druid’s apprentice. You go on a short adventure.

Seriously, that’s it. There’s not much more backstory than that, which is disappointing. You jump right into the adventure, when Silandral, the master druid, summons a badger to eat your face.

Despite the lack of backstory, the writing is fairly solid. It’s evocative, flows nicely, describes the scenes well. There are a few scenes you might expect: a run-in with some bandits, some Yoda-like trials your master puts you through, an encounter with a mischievous nixie. All of this is set against the appearance of some strange creatures from, well, you read the title.

Verdict – Content: Solid

Layout

I’ve got few complaints here. Paizo does a good job with their editorial team. Working with a full-page format is somewhat restrictive, forcing multiple entries to be on the same page, but it’s not that big of a problem.

Combat encounters are highlighted in red text, which offsets them from the normal black text of the storyline (italicized entries are calls for decisions and pointers to new sections), a technique which allows the reader to clearly delineate between what is just to be read, and what is actually to be engaged.

In terms of artwork, there are a few pieces, and they’re not bad, but I wouldn’t say they’re particularly good either.

Verdict – Layout: Nice work.

Overall Thoughts

When Ben first sent me this product, I was excited. I mean, it’s every gamer’s dream, especially us adult gamers who might not have frequent access to game groups or whose schedules may not allow collaborative role-playing, to be able to RP by oneself. But, I think Party of One misses the mark by quite a bit.

It’s not a problem with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, of which I am personally a big fan. It’s the mechanics of the Party of One format. The best thing about roleplaying, and even choose your own adventure books, is exactly the ability to choose for yourself the path you follow. Party of One feels like it doesn’t have the freedom of a roleplaying game, nor the scripted-but-some-choice railroad tracks of one of those books. Instead, I felt like I was often a slave to the dice, where a bad roll cut off options I really wanted to explore.

Maybe you’d say “that’s why you play it again, silly” and maybe you’re right. But I found myself skipping the combat encounters on the second, third, and fourth times through. They just felt tedious. I mean, seriously, combat at first level can be pretty tedious with a party, but going toe-to-toe to a badger felt really stupid.

Nothing is wrong with the story, if it is a little bland. The master-apprentice story is a bit hackneyed and unfortunately the authors don’t do much (in my opinion) to avoid the cliche. The plot of the adventure is fun though, and some of the characters you encounter are cute, but ultimately I’m left wanting again. At only 65 entries, there just aren’t that many paths to take, fewer conclusions, and even fewer satisfying outcomes.

It’s not fair to compare, but this type of thing has been done before, and it’s been done way better. Plus, all the Lone Wolf stuff is free.

A couple bucks is not much to spend on a product, and I advocate support of Paizo. But I would stay away from these products until they improve the experience: give us more choices, make them longer and have more content, make the stories feel cool and evocative and not like generic fantasy. Party Of One has the potential to be a good product, but in one writer’s opinion, it’s just not there yet.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Quick Review: Swallowfeld – a Pathfinder adventure setting for a low level party
2. Quick Review: Pathways #2 – a free Pathfinder ‘zine with tons of good stuff
3. Review: Pathfinder Beginner Box

© Nick for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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'Let the Games Begin' by see-through-the-eye-of-g on Flickr

Failure can be interesting if it encourages creativity; when players can’t do the first thing that enters their heads, so they’re forced to pursue alternate paths.

But.

What if, instead of success/failure, you rolled to determine one of two different outcomes? Or a range of outcomes?

I’m sure there are systems that do this (like Fudge). But imagine it accepted broadly, in most RPGs. What if popular systems were built around the idea of dice rolls providing more than a binary outcome of success or failure?

What if the GM built dangerous situations, not monsters?

GMs are used to constructing encounters with a balanced mixes of baddies, and choosing or constructing appropriate baddies. What if we rose our thinking to a higher level?

Imagine the GM laying out possible outcomes for a situation. The players then roll to determine which one occurs.

We could build a system for this, but let’s use common, existing mechanics. When in a dangerous situation, choose appropriate abilities, skills, etc. Instead of rolling against one target difficulty, you roll for each possible outcome. The outcome with the highest roll occurs.

Example: The players have been hired to protect a caravan traveling through the desert. An airship covered with a swarm of giant insects descends out of the sky and crashes on the path ahead. The PCs see at least one unconscious survivor. Outcomes include: the players rescue the survivor but are attacked by insects; the players are attacked by insects and the survivors die (but leave behind a record of their trip); all the insects are dead but the players rescue the survivor. The players roll for each of these outcomes, adding all their results together.

How might this broaden the kinds of situations that your party would get into?

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Rules, Rules, Rules
2. When Randomness Intrudes
3. Gary Gygax was born today in 1938 – let’s give him an honor roll!

© Brent P. Newhall for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Pen and Paper RPG, rpg

Geist: The Sin-Eaters

Geist is one of White Wolf’s more recent system releases, and it’s also one of my favorites. You play as a Sin-Eater; a relatively ordinary mortal who suffered a premature death only to be dragged back into the land of the living by a Geist, a bizarre entity from beyond time and space.

Having cut a deal with the dead, the Sin-Eaters act as gatekeepers between the worlds of the living and the deceased. They help pacify angry ghosts, protect the living and dead alike from the predations of the supernatural and even make the occasional perilous run into the Underworld itself as the need arises.

While life as a Sin-Eater can be bizarre and miserable, it is the strange and tumultuous life of a hard-boiled detective as opposed to a never-ending parade of suffering and drudgery that one might expect. The image links to the free quick-starter document on DrivethruRPG, and I highly suggest that you download it and give the system a try.

After the jump we’ll take a look at some new Geists your character could use, one for each type of Sin-Eater, and see how these strange, alien beings can aid and influence your character.

The Iron Gavel 

Sin-Eater Affinity: The Torn.

Likely Candidates: Those who have been executed on false convictions, strangulation victims, anyone murdered on or near a railroad.

Aspect/Keystone: Just Executions.

A hulking monolith of a Geist, the Gavel stands at a height taller than any human should have been able to reach. Workman’s coveralls, bloody and frayed with grief and age, serve as his only garments, his bare feet leaving prints of wet, crimson soot in his wake. Knotted, rough-hewn muscles stand out in painful detail beneath the dark, mahogany skin that’s stretched a little too tightly across his gigantic body. His features remain a mystery, concealed beneath a sack of rough burlap that’s been pinned in place with a severed hangman’s noose.

The Gavel is  a grim, humorless spirit that constantly drives the Sin-Eater to free the ghosts of the unjustly slain and punish their transgressors, usually by directing the Sin-Eater with graceful twirls of the large, rusty sledgehammer that dances between his gnarled fingers like a child’s toy. He can be difficult to work with due to rigid adherence to the just, methodical punishment of the wicked… and the fact that his voice is a low, wheezing rasp, frequently intelligible only when echoed in the rumble of a passing railcar or the crackling roar of thunder. Crucifixion seems to be his preferred method of justice, though the Gavel will accept most any execution so long as it is performed with a decent amount of ceremony and process.

Luckily, most ghosts are able to identify their killers with a reasonable degree of accuracy, making it fairly simple to avoid killing the wrong individual. The Gavel is, however, extremely particular about Due Process, and will not tolerate lackadaisical investigations or executions performed without sufficient evidence. Killing an innocent man without proper cause will earn you the Geist’s enmity, though he is generally indifferent to allowing others to die through inaction and other such “hands off” forms of murder.

Likes: Justice, rum, the early recordings of music, ritualized executions, railways, hammers.

Dislikes: False convictions, laziness, cutting corners, carrion birds.

Poppyback

Sin-Eater Affinity: The Silent.

Likely Candidates: The children of addicts, victims of starvation or neglect, diabetics.

Aspect/Keystone: The Last Meal.

While one of the less dangerous and unpredictable Geists, Poppyback is definitely one of the more unsettling. Suffering the body of a malnourished, ashen-skinned child, the Geist sports a stylized Calavera mask with a wide, open mouth in lieu of a head, crawling around on spindly limbs that are long enough to have belonged to a fully grown man. There is an empty divot of flesh where his stomach should have been, and a small patch of bright red poppies sprouts directly from the cadaverous skin on his back. A closer examination of the flowers reveals a tiny, accusing eye in the center of each one, as well as a hidden, bristling forest of crimson-stained steel needles.

Poppyback is somewhat easy to please, and a Sin-Eater can usually mollify him by playing games in the park, watching movies or cartoons, or eating a vanilla bean ice cream cone sprinkled in cinnamon-sugar. He will, however, grow incredibly fussy and unreasonable if the character does not eat an appropriately lavish and filling meal at least once per day. Juicy cuts of meat, generous heapings of bread and pasta, tarts, pastries and other desserts are all good candidates, though he will typically drive the Sin-Eater in the direction of eating their own favorite foods rather than something selected by the Geist himself.

If questioned about this particular insistence, the Geist will calmly explain, in a rambling, sing-song voice, that today is the day that the Sin-Eater is going to die, and they’d better have a decent meal in their stomach before they go.

Likes: Candy, ice cream, children’s games, big meals, fancy restaurants, Thunder Cats, Animaniacs, Spongebob.

Dislikes: Hard drugs, excessive violence, confined spaces, Bikram Yoga.

Wolframe 

Sin-Eater Affinity: The Prey.

Likely Candidates: See Text.

Aspect/Keystone: The Slaughter of Rivals.

The Geist known as “Wolframe” is, simply put, a creature of nightmare. A swift, humanoid golem wrought from the dessicated bones of dear with jagged-thorned blackberry vines acting as sinew, thrusting crudely out through a crude skin of rotting wolf-hides, its motives remain an utter mystery. Rotting, turgid eyes regard the Sin-Eater in constant judgment, and it barks dark, primal commands through seemingly endless rows of jagged teeth stolen a dozen different predators.

The Geist seems driven to make something out of nothing, and it’s careful selection in Sin Eaters reflects this driving philosophy. Wolframe will pass over hunters, park rangers, and other skilled woodsmen in favor of those who do not belong in the woodlands at all. Far preferable is the inner city artist who drowned in shallow water because they never learned how to swim, or the gaming fanatic with a thousand allergies who happened to find the bee with his name on it after finally getting dragged away from the console for an ill-fated hiking trip.

Those saved from a trip to the underworld from this Geist will likely wish they had simply chosen to succumb to death instead. Wolframe tolerates no weakness, and is constantly haranguing the Sin-Eater into forging themselves into the pinnacle of excellence while bloodily crushing any who would challenge them into the dirt.

While this constant drive usually leaves the Geist significantly improved over their past selves, they are often possessed of a haunted, tired look and seem to be constantly distracted, as trying to tune out a stream of endless spectral nattering.

Likes: Hunting, combat sports, competition, raw meat.

Dislikes: Weakness, lethargy, television, defeat.

Suit-and-Chain 

Sin-Eater Affinity: The Stricken

Likely Candidates: Those killed by pollutants or chronic exposure to toxins on the job, victims of corporate malfeasance.

Aspect/Keystone: Lethal Toxic Exposure

A tumor-riddled man slipping away in the cancer ward, a steady-stream of radiation from a faulty containment system having slowly devouring him from the inside. Alone and largely forgotten, his final visitor is a squat, simian man with freakishly long arms and a concrete cigar dangling from pale, atrophied lips, fumigating the room with a faint, noxious haze. Clad in an oily black suit and sporting a tie intricately woven from a thousand tiny chains, he offers a contract written in smudged ink on soft, luxurious paper.

Your Sin-Eater has just signed a deal with Suit-and-Chain, a second shot at life given in exchange for letting the Geist play permanent piggyback with your senses, starting right now. As they sign the deal, the brass-and-bone beetle perched at the gaping hole in his throat assures you that everything will be just dandy while the Geist looks onward with a wide, wordless smile.

Likes: Contracts, fine items and luxury goods, conquest.

Dislikes: Organic produce, filters, clean apartments.

The Wheelman 

Sin-Eater Affinity: The Forgotten

Likely Candidates: Victims of vehicular collisions, especially if alcohol is involved.

Aspect/Keystone: Car Wrecks.

Your Sin-Eater’s relationship with the Wheelman will depend heavily on how they died. Those who were struck and killed by another driver will find the Geist an oddly comforting presence, in spite of being a nightmarish ruin of human flesh stretched over a skeleton of jagged, mangled metal. The opposite is true of those who were at fault in the collision. He will drag them back from the dead, but will generally ensure that the rest of their unnatural lives are spent in hellish servitude to the dead.

With a jagged crown of car keys thrust through the top of his skull and vaguely human eyes the syrupy green shade of whiskey and antifreeze slowly blending on the pavement, he is one of the more unpleasant Geists to look at. He is far more unpleasant to look at, and will often demand that vengeance upon the wicked be delivered in a way that sates his need for a deadly, cacophonous collision.

Likes: Muscle cars, large vehicles, petroleum, the jangle of keys.

Dislikes: School Zones, AA Meetings.

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. The Road to Canterbury – a game of pardoning sins
2. Stardock is the Bacon of the video game publishers world. Sins enhancement delayed for all the right reasons.
3. Origins 2010 Expanded Coverage – All Flesh Must Be Eaten

© Vanhavoc for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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The novel is set in 1895 inNew York Cityand the protagonist of the novel is a 14 year old orphan named Carver Young (hence the young adult/teen classification). Teddy Roosevelt is the Police Commissioner and there’s a super secret detective organization called the New Pinkertons operating out of the old Alfred Beach Pneumatic Subway (seen briefly in Ghostbusters II you may recall) and chock full of steampunk devices which make sporadic appearances throughout the novel. Carver, due to a change in the status of the orphanage he resides in, finds himself in need of a new home fast—or else he’ll end up on the streets. Being extremely interested in police work, he’s encouraged to write a letter to Teddy Roosevelt in hopes of finding a job with the police department. He’s also recently discovered in his file at the orphanage a cryptic letter that appears to be from his biological father. He believes if he can get himself an interview withRoosevelt, he might be able to start looking for his father while working for the police. The letter to Roosevelt leads to a sort of apprenticeship with Albert Hawking, a retired and somewhat disabled Pinkerton Detective. Hawking brings Carver into the New Pinkertons organization and helps with his training so that he can track down his father while developing his own problem solving and detective skills. The New Pinkertons are on the hunt for a killer who seems to be following in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper and leave Carver on his own most of the time. The hope is that if they find him, then they can step out of the shadows and bring back the glory days of the original Pinkertons agency. The goals of the New Pinkertons and of Carver Young quickly become intertwined and the race to find the Ripper before he strikes again leads you through the rest of the novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. The main violence of the killings happens “off screen” as it were, so it’s pretty light on the gore. There’s a sweet budding romance and a feeling that the main character could carry over to other stories. Mixing real history into fiction can always be tricky, but Mr. Petrucha has done it well. I’m still on the fence as to whether there’s enough steampunk in this novel to bother with classifying it as such though. The unusual devices that pop up for Carver to use were all plausible devices that were simply ahead of their time. I’m not against their inclusion; they were done in such a way that they felt very natural–like they belonged in the real 1895. All that coupled with the mystery Carver was trying to solve and the twists and turns that came up along the way make for an enjoyable read. Mr. Petrucha not only developed his main characters well, but he also did an excellent job with the peripheral and minor characters. They are fully developed and their actions always seem fitting based on what you’ve learned about them—even the “bad” characters don’t come off as bad for the sake of filling a function, you could understand why they are the way they were. I do believe that the real reward of the novel is the amazing twist that comes at the end. I’ve read a lot of mysteries over the years and I’ve read a lot of novels in general where the author really wants to shock people with a twist to shake things up.  It’s always a wonderful surprise to get hit with a twist, have a momentary “wait…what!?” pause, followed by a re-read to make sure you got that right–then sit back and realize it’s perfect. More people need to read this so I can talk about the twist!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Coming to Steampunk by way of The Affinity Bridge
2. Double Review, All the Way – Dragonchow Dice Bag and Q-Workshop Steampunk Dice
3. Rewind: Going Back to The City & The City

© Kate for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alternate history, detective, jack the ripper, Literature, mystery, review, reviews, Steampunk

Mark your calendars for this Friday, May 4th! That’s when The Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack will be available for sale! With $220 worth of product and retailing for just $25, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better bargain than this.

Want another reason to get excited? All of the profits raised from the sale of this pack will go directly to The Wayne Foundation – a 501(3)c charitable organization dedicated to ending child prostitution.

This charity pack will get you a huge variety of amazing things! Complete RPG systems, books to supplement your D&D 4e, Pathfinder, Fate, G-core and other games, original character artwork, original short fiction and several full length novels!  You will find months, if not years of entertainment right here, in one convenient, fairly huge .zip file just waiting for you to download it.

To see the gigantic list, continue on after the break!

RPGs and other tabletop games

About the Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack

Organized by Benjamin Gerber from Troll in the Corner, this is the second year a group of generous independent game developers, artists and authors have come together to raise money for a great cause.

About The Wayne Foundation

The Wayne Foundation is committed to spreading awareness of CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children) and building a rehabilitation facility for victims DMST (Domestic Minor Sexual Trafficking). We acknowledge that sexual trafficking victims can be of any age, nationality, or sex. Our primary objective is to assist female DMST victims in the United States, but in the future we would like to expand our programs to additionally serve male and adult sex trafficking victims.

We believe that all victims can be rehabilitated through a program that provides education assistance, mental and physical health services, housing, and a support staff who are dedicated to assisting these girls reach their full potential. It is our objective to aid these young women until they are capable of reentering society on their own as happy and healthy adults.

The Wayne Foundation’s vision is for a world without child slavery. Our mission is to provide young women who have fallen victim to commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking with a means of leaving the sex industry for good. The Wayne Foundation is committed to fighting human trafficking, child prostitution, & child sex exploitation one victim at a time by providing individuals with a safe home environment that will empower them with the tools they will need to stop the cycle of abuse. It is our intent to end commercial sex exploitation within the United States through direct victim assistance, public outreach, and by directly working with those who shape the policies and statutes which impact victims and their abusers.

Founder and President Jamie Walton invites you to join her and Wayne Foundation on twitter. Be sure to follow the official WF Twitter account @TheWayneFDN&  @JamieWalton We want to hear from YOU!

Thanks to everyone who’s contributed product to this pack! Without you, we would have nothing to offer!  Please check out their links and show them all some love! Also, a huge thanks goes out to Jeremy who rapidly put together the charity pack logo you see at the top of the page. Check out his other work on his portfolio!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. On sale now! The 2nd Annual Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack!
2. The Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack is here!
3. Huge gaming goodness, little tiny price – an update on the Wayne Foundation charity RPG Pack

© admin for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: artwork, charity, fiction, massive, Role Playing Games, rpg, wayne foundation

Brained by Ashe Rhyder

It happens to the very best of us. From first level Bard to 18th level wizard, sometimes that monster just rolls a crit and you’re doomed. It’s not fair: you get a DM who just gets off on killing PCs, there is nothing you can do and the dice rolls are against you, or sometimes you’re just an idiot and don’t check for traps. Now you wouldn’t think that having a pretend person die in a pretend way would be difficult, but it can be. I recently had my first brush with character death and it scared the pants off of me. It was my absolute favorite PC and I would’ve honestly been sad had she died. Now, chances are we’re all grown ups here and the death of a fictional character shouldn’t cause us to hide under the covers for days on end; but just in case you’re a little heart sore, here are some ideas on how to ease the suffering.

Laugh It Off: The first time I witnessed a PC death the player just laughed. Now it /was/ a rather hilarious death, being dragged away by giant spiders while my character failed a shooting roll and killed him with an arrow. But the nonchalance and acceptance I saw inspired me to do the same. Most of the time people laugh hysterically at their poor character dying. This is a good reminder that it’s a game and should be treated as such. It’s not the end of the world.

Save Them: Some DMs will try and help you. My Penelope got a direct Crit 20 hit by the monster they were fighting and had her skulls smashed in. She was -14 hit points. My DM knew how much I loved her and he was upset that the dice had rolled such a way. He allows for other characters to try and save dying PCs (Via potion, a healer, or something else), or he’ll allow us to sacrifice something (such as an NPC, a really special piece of equipment, or a limb). In Penelope’s case we took a chance and another player made her drink a random potion we had picked up. Our DM pulled out the random potion table, the player trying to save me rolled…and lo and behold it was a potion of restoration. She gained back all her HP and gained +2 to her INT. HALLELUIAH!!!! I nearly started crying of relief right then and there. Her bright violet, Jack Kirby inspired Helmet-of-Reading-all-Languages was destroyed (see the “smashed into skull” above). But I (being a resourceful player) turned the lenses it came with into a pair of bright purple glasses that still gave her the same abilities.

Run With It: Deliberately kill your character. Slayer/Death dungeons are a blast as long as you go into it expecting death; that way it’s a treat if they do survive! I know one player who killed his character in order to murder the groups most hated NPC villain. Rumor has it was spectacular, over the top, and grand. If you’re going to die, make it fantastic!

Acceptance: Chances are you’re PC didn’t get as lucky as mine and you’re in mourning. Best piece of advice I can give is KEEP PLAYING! Roll up a new character that will join the party. Take over a NPC and make him/her/it your own! It’s a game and should be treated as such. The goal is to have fun.

In Memorandum: Keep track of your dead characters. I know of a guy who runs games that only dead characters are allowed into. Someone suggested to a local game store that they have a wall where customers can pin their dead characters sheets and how they died. Years later you’ll find this sheet, remember how they died, and hopefully have a good laugh.Yeah it’s silly to cause such a fuss over a dead character, but some people would argue it’s silly to cause a fuss over table top games. It’s only as serious as you make it. We’re all human and all have emotions. No one will fault you if you are honestly upset. Just keep it mature and in good sportsmanlike conduct. Enjoy playing the game and growing as a person while you mow down PC after PC. KEEP PLAYING!!!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Making Death Fatal
2. Today only – The Orcs! A new Pathfinder RPG Player Character Race is $0.50
3. The World of Aruneus – The Orcs! A Player Character Race now available!

© GingerSnap for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: character, characters, Death, non-player characters, Role Playing Games, rpg, Tabletop Gaming

Even macaques like baths! What about the fighter? Image by Yosemite

Are you a night shower person or do you wash up in the morning? What’s the perfect temperature? Does a lack of water pressure cause you to scream to Kord for vengeance?

Bathing for many people is part of a daily routine. It’s a time to cleanse the body and zone out to the sound of rushing water for those of us who shower (don’t front). Baths can be used for cleaning, relaxation, medicine or ritual cleansing. And the list of accompanying products is daunting. Soap, body wash, scrubs. Sponges, those poofy mesh things, loofahs, washcloths. Razors with an infinite amount of blades. Lotions, aftershaves, shampoos, deodorants, powders. Cleaning and grooming is a huge industry, taking up shelf spaces larger than some studio apartments. And there’s always some new product, assuring you it will fizz, bubble or explode cleanliness upon your epidermis, visiting cruel doom upon germs and dead skin cells.

Cleanliness is important to all living things since filth and dirt traps and attracts bugs, germs and can affect retention of heat. The Ancient Egyptians living under the golden gaze of their sun god bathed regularly, usually in the Nile river and shaved, plucked and removed the hair from their bodies so as to avoid lice. In addition, scented oils were used to perfume the body and stave off the damage the hot sun could inflict upon skin. Ancient Greece and Rome encouraged regular bathing and with great scientific strides were able to create aqueducts, extensive plumbing systems and built public bath houses so that everyone could be clean. Private baths were for the rich who could afford the servants and slaves required to haul clean water in and carry used water out. For many people throughout the ages bathing meant a visit to the local river, which was also the local waterhole, laundromat and sewage dump. Did I mention waterborn diseases were a common cause of death?

Public bathhouses all over the world are a place where everyone is on the same level. All are naked, no telling signs of rank, class or profession adorning people for the most part. In many public bath houses the individuals are required to scrub in order to cleanse the skin and rinse before they step into the communal bath. Everyone is trying to get clean and relax, talking, enjoying the warm water and time spent away from work. In Japan they call this ‘naked communion,’ as the state of being naked allows strangers to let down other barriers.

While some baths are built as in the case of bathhouses and tubs, others occur naturally in the form of waterfalls (Nature’s shower!) or hot springs. Thermal activity close the earth’s surface heats the water and in many cases imbues the water with minerals which may (or may not) have therapeutic qualities. These kinds of springs are therefore prescribed by physicians to their patients for ailments ranging from issues of the skin, sexual dysfunction, problems with the joints and more.

There are also ritual baths based on faith practices. Baptism as performed by some Protestant sects are a form of ritual bath, symbolising death and rebirth. In Judaism the mikveh is used for different ritual cleanings, with the stipulation that the whole body be immersed in the water. Islam has its own set of hygienic laws that encourage the cleaning of teeth, regular hand washing and the trimming of hair and nails. Bathing is one of the five Nitya Karmas to be performed by Hindus, and failure to perform these karmas leads to skin. The Japanese bath tradition and culture is derived from Buddhism which came from India via China, used initially by the Buddhist monks and the sick. Ritual cleansing could be required after touching a dead body, after childbirth, in order to prove one’s inclusion in the faith, before prayers, after engaging in sex, the cleansing required before one can engage in faith-based activities or enter certain sacred locations (seriously, religious cleansing is super interesting and worth researching all by itself).

Keeping clean isn’t just washing up with water. Hair can harbor lice or other parasites and knots and snarls look unsightly. Hair also doesn’t just grow on the head. Nails can become black crescents of dirt and if you’re eating with your hands, what are you really putting in your mouth? Dry skin is uncomfortable and painful and is more likely to tear and snag on objects. Various smells once they reach a certain ripeness can be difficult to be around (especially if you’re the one stuck sharing the tent with Paladin of the Deity of Don’t Need A Bath) or can just give away your location to beasts and men alike. And don’t forget to clean your teeth. You don’t have to be some kind of alchemist to realize cleaning your teeth in some fashion (wiping with a cloth, chewing certain leaves, etc) helps oral hygiene, preventing terrible mouth problems that are painful and hard to travel with. Try talking to someone above your station when you smell like a skunk made sweet love to a garbage can and see how hard that Diplomacy Check is.

The bathhouse as a staple of many communities might serve more than just a location to bathe. Anywhere people congregate is a place ideas can be shared and when the bathhouse is brought in by an immigrant culture, a place to get back to one’s roots, to get clean the way they do back home. Russian immmigrants brought the banya with them, Turkish people the hamam. And of course, the bathhouse as a place where all are naked and can’t be armed is a perfect meeting place for rivals. Some bathhouses in Japan don’t allow anyone with tattoos to use the sento since tattoos are usually worn by the yakuza, Japanese gangsters. Bathhouses were also seen as places where people could wantonly intermingle with people they were attracted to. Many did not have separate facilities for various sexes and during various time periods and regions bathhouses were associated with prostitution, outlawed and allowed back into use.

Something as simple as bathing is a HUGE topic and yet as an everyday ritual is overlooked. How about your PCs? Do they need to clean up their acts?

For GMs
-What are the bathing practices typical for this region? How often do people bathe?
-Are the reasons purely hygienic or are there religious reasons as well?
-Are there any immigrant groups that have different bathing requirements or practices? How has/does this influence mainstream bathing culture?
-Where do people take baths? Are there bathhouses or do people bathe in the local river?
-If there are bathhouses, what kinds of services/baths do they provide? Hot baths? Warm baths? Saunas? Cold baths? Massages?
-Is bathing communal? How do people view nudity in the context of the bath?
-How big are the communal baths? Are they limited to one sex or mixed sex?
-Who runs the bathhouse? Are they run by the government? A church? An organization? Are they businesses?
-Are there holidays that require bathing? A day of the week set aside for bathing?
-Do any of the faiths of the region have ritual cleansing? What are the requirements and what would constitute a reason to be cleansed? Is there a ‘shortcut’ if a follower wishes to cleanse themselves but is far from a bathhouse/appropriate water to perform rites?
-How is the water heated? Who brings the water? Who heats it? Who watches the belongings of those taking part in the baths?
-Do all classes bathe in the same place or do the rich have private bathing quarters?
-What is done with the waste water? Is it allowed to run into fields to water crops? Into the streets? Collected somewhere? Diverted to a river?
-What kinds of industries flourish in a culture that bathes? Towels? Robes? Soap? Ointments? Lotions? Oils?
-What are the basic grooming rituals of the public? Do they shave? What kind of body hair is socially acceptable? Who does the shaving? Barbers? Servants?
-Are there hot springs? Do people see these as having medicinal purpose? Are there any legends behind the hot springs?

Plot Hooks
-When the local hot spring suddenly drains (or cools down), the people are frightened. The PCs are sent to investigate the causes. Why did the hot spring drain? Was it through natural means? Magical? Is it a sign of something else happening underground? Can the PCs reverse it or has the water stopped for good?
-When an epidemic breaks out in the town the officials find the illness is being caused by something in the local river, something from upstream. The PCs are charged with going upstream to find the source of the illness in the hopes that finding the cause will lead to a better understanding of a possible cure. What do they find upstream? Are other villages and town along the waterway also affected? Do they travel by land or by boat?
-An important politician and his servant are found dead in his room, apparently getting ready to bathe. While the soap is used there isn’t any water to be found in the room and there hasn’t been enough time for the water to evaporate, nor are there any wet spots to be found in the room. Who killed the politician and the servant? What happened to the water? And is the murder an isolated event or the first of many bath related slayings?
-The local bathhouse is neutral territory for many of the gangs and the PCs all happen to work there. During a monthly colloquium two of the mob bosses are found dead in the sauna. The PCs must try to convince the various gang members to stay in the bathhouse and figure out the culprit and cause before an all out gang war erupts on the city streets.
-A local water shortage/drought has most of the population on edge and a group of people start to blame a religious group that is known to partake in many types of cleansing a day. The small church claims they are not wasting the water, using it as sparingly as their religious law allows. How much water are both sides actually using? Are there any peculiar causes for the drought? Where is the church getting their water from?
-The PCs partake in a relaxing bath only to finish and realize all their gear has been stolen. Who stole it? What do they wear in the meantime? What exactly was stolen? Is it the first time this has happened or have a string of ‘bathhouse robberies’ happened?
-When the biggest church wants to close down half the bathhouses in the city on the grounds they are dens for fornication, another church offers to open more bathhouses to fill in the gap, since their deity is one of cleanliness. The local prostitutes ask the PCs to look into the matter, angry to have their stomping grounds taken away by the church. What is at stake? Who has the money to build new bathhouses to replace the old ones? Are their ulterior motives for the shutdown or is the church really just concerned with sexual purity?

For PCs
-How clean of a person are you? How often do you bathe? Change your clothes?
-Do you have a daily ritual of cleaning? Do your personal/religious beliefs dictate your personal hygiene?
-Do you wash your hands after or before every meal?
-Do you cleanse your body in the morning or the night? How do you feel about people who clean at the opposite time of day as you?
-Do you use any special items to get clean? Oils, soaps? Items to trim/round your nails? Combs, brushes?
-How do you feel about leaving all your gear behind while you go in for a bath?
-How do you feel about being naked? About seeing others naked?
-Do you think you have a particular smell? Is there someone who if you smelled them you would know who it was?
-Can you shave yourself or do you have someone else do it for you? What do you use to shave? A razor? A pumice stone? A knife?
-Do you prefer a hot or cold shower? A sauna? A dip in the river? Are any of these (or other practices) barbaric/superfluous to you? What would you consider ‘too clean’ or ‘too dirty’?
-Are you fine with cleaning in public or would you prefer to bathe alone?

What say you? Ready to get your PCs in some hot water (I know, puns. I have them)?

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Body Types and Physical Training
2. Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Death and Funerals
3. Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Alcohol (Not the Rubbing Kind)

© TristanJTarwater for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Dystopian Wars Prussian Airship Box Art

This time around I painted a Pflicht Class Scoutship (aka zeppelin) for the Prussian Empire in Dystopian Wars. The rules, models, and accompanying accessories are in my possession. Yet, I have no intention of playing the game. The models won me over with their looks. Seeing pictures of them made me think “those would be fun to paint!”

Awhile back I painted some frigates and cruisers for the Prussian Empire. I decided to use something different with the airship. I had to know how Army Painter’s Quickshade impacted the process.

The airship was painted with the following Games Workshop paints after spray priming the model with Chaos Black (note, please SPRAY prime the model because the models are resin and/or pewter making hand priming almost impossible):

Basecoat

• Citadel Foundation – Adeptus Battlegrey
• Citadel Colour – Tin Bitz
• Citadel Foundation – Calthan Brown

Drybrushed Highlight

• Citadel Colour – Space Wolves Grey (I wanted to use Codex Grey but ran out)
• Citadel Colour – Burnished Gold
• Citadel Foundation – Khemri Brown

The first step in the process was determining my paint scheme. They’re Prussians so that means gray. There are wooden parts on the airship denoting a brown. The final option was the machinery. My previous ships were painted with a Tin Bitz basecoat followed by either a Burnished Gold or Shining Gold highlight. I went with the Burnished Gold.

With that complete, I raced outside to spray prime the model with Chaos Black. A few passes were needed to get every nook and cranny without caking on too much primer.

Once dry, the model needed its base coat of paint applied. I painted the Adeptus Battlegrey first because that is the largest area. Then I did the Tin Bitz. My thinking was it would be easier to paint over a metallic color with a brown than worrying about keeping a metallic paint from going outside the lines onto the brown painted areas. All weapons, the cone of teh ship, engines, exhaust, and control room were painted with this metallic paint. Finally, Calthan Brown was applied onto the horizontal band around the ship, and the rudders.

It didn’t take long for the model to dry. So, I donned my latex gloves for the messiest part. After shaking my can of Quickshade to thoroughly mix the contents, I pried off the lid, and dunked my airship into the concoction. Some people prefer to paint on the Quickshade instead of dipping and shaking off the excess. Proponents of that method feel that too much Quickshade gets onto the model when dunking. I like both methods. This time I chose to dip because I was running out of the Ultrabrushes, by Microbrush International, that I used to apply the Quickshade by brush. If you do use a brush it is important to pick one you don’t care about because the bristles get ruined unless you use a paint thinner afterwards.

Anyway, the excess Quickshade was shaken off and the model sat down on paper towels to dry. It takes a full 24 hours for the model to completely dry, and be sealed in gloss varnish, before anything else can be done. With some help from my wife I removed my gloves, that Quickshade gets EVERYWHERE, and waited.

Almost 18 hours later I realized that I wanted more Quickshade on the model. Using that handy Ultrabrush, mentioned above, I applied more product to the model. Finally, 6 hours passed and the model was workable. Unfortunately, I realized the second application of Quickshade didn’t work as planned. The model was glossier than anticipated and some recesses had a thick layer of varnish. That stuff is as hard as a rock. Time to soldier on.

The final step is to highlight the model. For this I like to drybrush. The gray areas were drybrushed Space Wolves Grey. Originally I wanted to use Codex Grey but I ran out of that paint. The blue tint in Space Wolves Grey is ok because my Prussian ships have a blue tint to their metallic paint. All parts that were painted Tin Bitz were drybrushed with Burnished Gold and all wooden areas were drybrushed with Khemri Brown.

The particularly glossy areas, y’know…the ones with the thick layer of varnish, took several coats of drybrushing for the paint to adhere. All that remains is to spray the model with Testor’s Dullcote to seal it in a coat of matte varnish.

I’m not as happy with the outcome as I would like. I messed up with the second application of Quickshade. The model should NOT have that much gloss varnish on it. Additionally, there was a concern that the Quickshade would not mesh well with metallic paints. That concern was unfounded.

Below you will find pictures of the airship throughout the process. Maybe you’ll be inspired to paint some Dystopian Wars too!

Troll in the Corner.

Related posts:

1. Painting 15mm Renedra Tents
2. Fiat Lux: TrollTips #1 – Easymode for priming and painting minis.
3. Can I Play With My Toy Soldiers? PLEAAAAAASE!

© Jonathan J. Reinhart for Troll in the Corner, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dystopian Wars, gaming, painting, steam punk, Steampunk, Tabletop, war game, war games, war gaming, wargame, wargames, wargaming