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Dead Presidents

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

One of the most successful games I’ve run recently was an Unknown Armies game called Dead Presidents. I left the players to come up with some campaign frameworks, and they decided to play reincarnated presidents with superpowers. I blame The West Wing. (The other suggested campaign, which I think is utter genius and really must run sometime, was about a unit of marines in Iraq who get zapped by a curse. By day, they appear normal. By night, they appear to be scary Jihadists to anyone who sees them.)

Dead Presidents went to some bizarre places. Here’s the transcript of a conversation between the bad guys, which the PCs managed to obtain with the typewriter used to write the Watergate story and some sorcery. On Thursday, I’ll recap the campaign and discuss why it worked so well.

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State of the Mongoose 2009

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

Matthew Sprange (aka My Boss)’s annual State of the Mongoose report is up. It pretty much lists all the books I’ll be writing for Mongoose in the months to come. My current project is Deus Vult, about a secret order of demon-hunting monks running around Medieval Europe. I spent part of this morning rewriting Papal Bulls and the Gospel of St. Thomas. I’m also supposed to be doing a supplement for the game at some point…

The other big project is Reavers in Spaaaaace or whatever the current working title is. It’s Sid Meier’s Pirates with laser cannons and jump drives, essentially. I’m hoping to integrate several elements from my current home campaign into that setting.

All that, plus the ton of other supplements and other freelancing, means next year is going to a busy one.

Dragonmeet 2009

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

dmlogo I’m down as a special guest at Dragonmeet in London this weekend, which is rather nice as I was going to attend the con anyway. I’ve only missed one ‘meet since James Wallis restarted it back in 2000*. The convention’s as close as the UK con scene gets to GenCon in terms of industry events and water-cooler chat (or water-cooler tweeting, these days). The UK Gencon has alternated between ‘not abjectly awful’ and ‘actually abjectedly awful’ in the last few years, although the last one I attended wasn’t bad.

I’ll be running an IntSec Paranoia scenario in the morning slot, and I’m supposed to be part of a to-be-determined seminar in the afternoon.

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Jonny Nexus & Game Night

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

I’ ve known the mysterious Mr. Nexus for quite a while at this point. Our first meeting is emblematic of the sort of stuff that happens to Jonny more often than it should. I was at some GenCon UK with two friends of mine, and I’d been enthusing to one of them – Brian Nisbet, if memory serves – that we should try to get the Critical Miss guys over to an Irish con. He agreed that this would be a wonderful thing indeed.

Later, at the con, I bump into Bubba and Jonny, but I do so just as I’m running off to run a game. I ask them to go talk to the rest of the Irish contingent about going to an Irish con. Unfortunately, the part of the contingent they ended up chatting to wasn’t the same part of the contingent I’d enthused to.

Jonny: Hi, we’re Critical Miss. I’m told you’ve heard of us.

Colm: Er, no.

Jonny: Oh.

* * *

That was a long time ago, and since then the Critical Miss lads have been to quite a few Irish cons and I have crashed in the James Wallis Memorial Bedroom many, many times. (Hey, it’s right next to Heathrow.)

Last Monday, Jonny began a project to publish the entire text of his ENnie award nominated roleplaying novel Game Night on leading RPG website
EN World in 26 free weekly instalments.

To publicise this project he’s embarked on a blog tour, and I offered to be one of his stops. The first stop was at rpggamer.org. Now he’s here.

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Fish for Fish & sundry

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

One measures a circle beginning anywhere; so too let it be with blogging. In other words, I’m back.

* * *

While most of the last two months was taken up with the aftermath of my mother’s passing, the attendant legal matters, and trying desperately to catch up on work, deli and I did manage to keep fish for fish going. The webcomic is into its ninth chapter, and while the audience for it hasn’t exactly exploded, we’re going to keep working on it and other projects. Learning how to grow a readership base is one of those other projects.

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For simplicity's sake, I'm just cross-posting from the newspaper notice
Hanrahan (South Douglas Road): On September 24th, 2009, at the Bons Secours Hospital, HELEN, eldest daughter of Leanora and Jim Hanrahan, devoted mother of Gareth and Clara, beloved sister of Deirdre Morrissy, Dr. James Hanrahan and John Hanrahan. Deeply mourned by her aunt Dympna McCormick (Athlone), extended family, friends and former colleagues and past-pupils of South Presentation Secondary School. Removal from O'Sullivan's Funeral Home, Turner's Cross on Saturday at 4.30pm, funeral in Turner's Cross on Monday at 1.00pm.

3:16 Mission Variants

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

While I’m at it, some ideas to throw in between or during missions.
Letters from Home: A mail pod catches up with the 3:16th, containing letters and recorded messages from home. Who would write to the PCs? What family or friends do they have back home? Are the letters from home censored? What’s life like back on Terra? Do the PCs send replies back?

The Unit: If a PC reaches Lieutenant, give him a short list of names (the list on page 90 is ideal). Whenever the aliens succeed in an AA check, mark a name off the list. Don’t be surprised if players get attached to these disposable NPCs – a character who starts off as just a random name on a list can become a memorable part of the supporting cast if he survives three or four missions.

Credits per Kill: PCs earn credits for each kill – one $ per kill. Credits can be gambled, spent on the ship for luxuries like better food or extra ammo, or hoarded for retirement.

Embedded Reporters: A reporter visits the 3:16th. The PCs have a chance to speak candidly about their experiences. Maybe the reporter even goes with them on their next mission, in which case they’ll have to keep him alive.

Left Behind: For tactical reasons, the Expeditionary Force has to depart, leaving the PCs to fend for themselves. The characters are stuck on this planet for at least one more mission. They may heal their wounds and repair armour if they find a suitable base.

Reload! (new rule): If a PC rolls exactly equal to his FA, he runs out of ammo at the end of his turn. He may switch to a different weapon, or make an NFA roll to reload. The weapon cannot be used unless reloaded. If he reloads, he scores double the normal amount of kills when he next uses that weapon in this encounter. Grenades and hand-to-hand weapons are exempt from this rule.

Stalker (new equipment): The Stalker is a four-metre tall suit of power armour. It may be taken instead of an APC. A character wearing the Stalker suit has the following bonuses:

He may change range at the start of his turn if he makes a successful FA check that is higher than that of his opponent
All his attacks have their damage upgraded by one step. This stacks with upgrades from Development rolls or automatic improvements, but a weapon’s damage at each range can still only be upgraded twice. Therefore, a weapon that has been upgraded twice by development rolls cannot benefit from this bonus.
The Stalker suit provides a second Armour box. However, if this Armour box is used, the Stalker suit is destroyed and a new one must be obtained with a Development roll
A character wearing a Stalker suit cannot ambush aliens by winning Dominance. The PCs can only Ambush using drop pods if any of them have suits.

20 new 3:16 Alien Abilities

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

Some new abilities I came up with when playing…

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The Swine Flu Diaries

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

It’s day four of quarantine here in the house. At this point, I think I’ve had every possible flu symptom other than zombification. It’s a very courteous bout of swine flu - the symptoms come one at a time, as if it’s trying a new trick each time after abandoning the last one. Fever, freezing, headache, joint pain, racking coughs, dizziness, nausea, running nose, sinus pain, but always in sequence, never in parallel. The only constant symptoms seem to be a lack of energy (although I’m rarely actually tired, just lethargic), lack of appetite and, frustratingly, lack of concentration. I wouldn’t mind being stuck at home if I get some solid writing time in, instead of typing a few words, alt-tabbing over to bejewelled, then getting bored of bejewelled and trying to write again before looking obscure stuff up on wikipedia.

There’s a reason I like to write in coffee shops, and it isn’t the caffeine. It’s the lack of wireless broadband. When I am rich I shall have a conservatory that is also a faraday cage.

I’m supposed to be non-infectious by Monday, so if I’m feeling well enough I shall emerge from this cocoon I’ve built out of used tissues and Lemsip, a social butterfly reborn.

Edinburgh Fringe ‘09, and the unfortunate consequences thereof

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

The Fringe clashes with GenCon US, so every year there are two events that I really want to go to, but instead end up following online, like Gollum stalking Frodo through Moria.

If Frodo had a twitter account, that is.

This year, deli & I flew over, using her birthday as an excuse. A dedicated Fringe follower can rack up four shows a day easily, so we could theoretically have seen about thirty events. We saw considerably less than that, although deli suggests that each wine glass could be seen - nay, must be cherished - as an individual event.

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Life not found

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

Fish for Fish is now being updated every Monday. I’m trying to write a chapter ahead of deli’s drawing, which means I need to write the next chapter this week.

* * *

June and July were swallowed by INTSEC for Paranoia and other Mongoose work and some wedding planning. It’s in a year’s time, but some things need to sorted now; primarily, the guest list, so I’ve been rating friends and family on spreadsheets. I have entirely too many friends; should I randomly insult you, it is purely because I need to trim the guest list.

(To be honest, I’ve been such a hermit of late that I’ve probably wiped out whole swathes of acquaintances. It’s all falling into place.)

* * *

We’re off to Edinburgh in a week, to see friends and catch a bit of the Fringe. Certain people are inconsiderately swanning off to GenCon as we arrive, but we shall bravely endure.

Edition Books Aftermath

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

First, the saga of the comics.

We ordered a somewhat ambitious print run of 100 copes of Fish for Fish from Comicxpress in the US about a month ago. Shipping should have taken two weeks. Even if there was a delay, we should still get them in plenty of time for the Edition Book Arts book fair.

Right?

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Off to the fair
deli & I will be selling our comic at Edition Book Arts in Temple Bar in Dublin. If you're around Dublin, pop in (entry is free) and support us!

Once again, I hunt the laptop

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

Apparently, my Toshiba A200 is suffering from water damage, causing the keyboard to glitch. Replacing the keyboard hasn’t helped, so it looks like I’ll be investing in a new laptop at some point.

Certain people are urging me to jump ship to the MacSide. Anyone else changed operating systems and lived to tell the tale?

Slammers on Sale

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

The Hammer’s Slammers rpg I wrote for Mongoose is apparently out on the shelves. Early reports appear positive, on the whole. The game’s based on the novels of David Drake, and I’m both amused and honoured by his comments that “the fellow who did the writing really understood the military and (I think) got the feel of the Hammer series“.

Edition Book Arts

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

This weekend (Sat. 4th July), deli and I will be at Edition Book Arts in Dublin. It’s a book, comic and zine fair, and entry is free. It’s on in Temple Bar.

We will - assuming the postal service co-operates - be selling print copies of Fish for Fish. Support would be very, very welcome, as this is our first real step into self-publishing.

4e thoughts so far, part 2 - upsides

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

My quibbles aside, 4e is a significant reinvention of D&D. It’s vastly easier to prepare material for than 3.5 was, and easier to run. Back in 3.5, the real tactical game was in spell stacking and preparation, and the DM had to outthink all the players. There were far, far too many options, especially in high-level play.

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4e thoughts so far - the downsides

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

The PCs in my ongoing Company of Heroes D&D4e game just hit third level, and I’m growing more comfortable with the system. As expected, the tactical side of play works very well, and encounters do usually hit the sweet spot where the players are nearly-but-not-quite overwhelmed. The little I’ve written for it was also great fun, but anything’s better than calculating skill points for 16th level 3rd edition NPCs.

I do have a few concerns, though.

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How to Write Con Scenarios, Addendum

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

Since writing thelast post on this topic, I attended the Scenario Writing Workshop in Cork, which was entertaining and moderately productive, although I’m not sure if entrenched opinions (mine or anyone else’s) changed.

The most useful part of the whole workshop was where people discussed their favourite scenario ever to write and to play. In almost every case, the ‘favourite piece of scenario writing’ was some over-complex and experimental game, like my Serene and Primal. By contrast, the ‘favourite game to play’ category was more varied, but there were a few interesting common elements:

The first time the person played a particular game
Simple, effective scenarios with plenty of scope for the players to drive events.
Games set in unusual locations or time periods. Even something as simple as running a Cthulhu scenario in, say, Mexico instead of Arkham made the game much more memorable.

A few other tips:

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A Very Busy Month

Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.

My blogging has been rather non-existant of late; it has been an absurdly busy month. Among the highlights:

deli & I got engaged. This should surprise no-one, as sharing webspace like this is just as much of a committment as marriage. Really, it is. Anyway, we’re both very happy, and will be even happier when the ring finally arrives.
We’ve done several new chapters of Fish for Fish, and even put a PDF version up on Drivethrucomics
I’ve written 90% of the Scoundrel supplement for Traveller, and am about to plunge back into Alpha Complex for more PARANOIA
I’ve also helped put together lots of material for the PARANOIA 25th anniversary DVD, and gotten involved with 1d4 new freelance projects.

I’m also running two ongoing campaigns. One is the Z-Space Traveller game I blogged about earlier, the other is a D&D 4e game.

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