Secret Fire RPG: The Way of Tree, Sword & Flame Kickstarter

It’s not everyday that I get the chance to self-promote an RPG I’m involved with on my blog (sorry if its a bit self-promoting!). Last year I blogged about writing my first piece of freelance work for George Strayton’s Secret Fire RPG. The first supplement: The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame has now launched on Kickstarter, together with some rather nice stretch goals. It had a bit of a shaky start though and had to be redone after Amazon screwed things up, but that’s one of those things you can’t plan for with Kickstarter.

Check out the Secret Fire Games Facebook page here. While not all of my material may have made it into The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame  – and there may be a good reason for that (and it’s a good one!) – I’m happy with how it has all worked out. I may have more to say on that at a later date but can’t for now

Here’s a “taster” pic of one of my creations, the Void Herald. These powerful demonic critters may or may not be in The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame…

By the way, a lot of those Lovecraftian descriptions from the spell lists in the original Secret Fire RPG book were created by me. If you’ve ever played in a game I’m running you know what to expect in the Way of Tree, Shadow and Flame!

Where to get the original Secret Fire RPG

The original rulebook for the Secret Fire RPG is available to buy in both PDF from DrivethruRPG and RPGNow, and from Lulu in paperback.

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Location focused is more old school D&D. A dungeon or city is the focus of the campaign, and in itself applies restrictions to what a group can do. The characters are still important but much of their development is the result of a background created earlier, or expanded upon during session downtime. This is the easiest for a GM to run as most players can relate to it from computer games, or personal experience.

I’m planning to go back to running some old AD&D soon at ORC, which includes some higher level games – I also got in on the Rise of eh Drow Pathfinder series too -so I’ve been thinking a bit about things. Whether your game is character-driven or location focused, when the players become seriously powerful then the entire game changes. In D&D, it’s called Epic or Paragon tier – that’s a good enough name for it. It’s when your PCs can go toe to toe (hoof?) with Orcus, Vecna, or the other Bigger Bads. Wizards can warp reality, and fighters can cut through hordes like butter.

So when it comes to epic campaigns, sometimes it helps to do some of the following.

Challenge Rating

Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
Number Two: Sea Bass.
Dr. Evil: [pause] Right.
Number Two: They’re mutated sea bass.
Dr. Evil: Are they ill tempered?
Number Two: Absolutely.
Dr. Evil: Oh well, that’s a start

- Austin Powers

Ditch it. I’ve mentioned it before but I really hate Challenge Rating (CR). It should be used by GMs as a tool, not a crutch or other impediment. It doesn’t balance the game – especially when they started assigning CR to traps! PCs should know that running away is definitely an option; sometimes the monsters win! This outcome doesn’t always factor into player thinking as a result of CR, and the “fight or flee” option is definitely one to bear in mind for Epic Campaigns.

The Astartes Effect

“They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them. They will be of iron will and steely muscle. In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them. They will have tactics, strategies and machines so that no foe can best them in battle. They are my bulwark against the Terror. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear.”  – The Emperor, the Horus Heresy Bk.1: Betrayal.

Adeptus Astartes, or Space Marines, in the wh40k universe are the genetically-engineered warrior elites of Humanity. They are so powerful that they can gun down or cut through dozens of opponents faster than their human counterparts. I call this the Astartes effect: when a small group of hugely powerful characters are under attack from a numerically superior force; a horde in effect (its as good a name as any). In the Deathwatch RPG (and Black Crusade), there are rules allowing for hordes and for Astartes facing off against them. It helps prevent the game being bogged down with individual damage rolls. In games like D&D, try using narrative combat – unless the PCs are in danger of being overborne or swarmed under. Narrative combat means that players and GMs don’t have to keep account of every single Kobold they hit, but still get a feel for the battle. They’re killing a number of opponents when they hit not one per attack.

Epic battles

 ”…. like giants in the playground ….” John Sheridan, Babylon 5

Any Epic Campaign should have epic battles. If your PCs can plan and lead the battle even better – but remember to keep it simple initially. Keep in mind that your players perspective is that of their PCs – make them the focus, than the battle as a whole. Don’t have NPCs rushing up and saving the PCs every 5 minutes, and try and make it clear that is pure chaos on the battlefield – whether a fantasy world or the void of space. Watch movies like 300, Zulu, or the various LotR, to see how movie directors deal with this sort of thing – they focus on the characters. Don’t fall into the trap of describing the whole battle: let the PCs think they are pivotal to events.

Epic moments

“NOOOOOOO!” – Luke Skywalker, The Empire Strikes Back AND Return of the Jedi

Epic moments or “White vest moments” are those moments in films that usually have a stirring tune or strong motif. Luke giving in to his anger (Return of the Jedi), John Mclane leaping off the roof in Die Hard (which is why I call them white vest moments). Any time the character has been beaten down, to his last healing surge, and has one last witty rejoinder to say. That’s a white vest moment. The bad guys can have them too, but that’s a bit of an action movie cliche these days. If the PC is dying then let them have them one final moment to pull the trigger, disarm the bomb, hold back the enemy etc.

Plotting blocks of stories

I always have a basic plot outline, but I like to leave some things to be decided while I write. – J. K. Rowling

If you’re planning an epic campaign, make sure it can go the distance. If you’re starting your PCs off at a low level, then its worth taking a leaf out of Babylon 5‘s book and create a long-term story arc or meta plot. Maybe the setting has some meta plot already. Perhaps the villains from the beginning of the campaign gain new powers or advances as the players do, there’s clues to major event that will happen. Or the PCs are in the wrong place at the right time (maybe not right for the PCs!). Also get some ideas from your PC backgrounds and weave them in.  Perhaps the best way to do this is write down your ideas and see how they could be made to work together, rearranging them as needed. Just remember, more a few long-term plot lines (3-5 is safe) and it all goes Wheel of Time. ARGH.

Avoid Monster of the Week

If you don’t plan your campaign you’ll likely find yourself stumped trying to find new opponents to challenge your PCs. usually this manifests as Monster of the Week, when a GM throws powerful monsters at a PC party to fill the time. There are plenty of ways to keep your PCs busy: Politics; planar travel; building their castle! In sufficient numbers, even low-level monsters are dangerous to PCs – or their sidekicks. The PCs are the top of the heap at this point, but there will be others out there who will be the “Next Generation” and might be looking to get ahead.

“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” – Inigo Montoya, the Princess Bride

Other adventurers are always good opponents! Not to mention enemies looking to get even – tribal vendettas, demonic vengeance, and undead retribution can all be used to rain down some payback for the PCs earlier actions. When you’re feeling really evil, one of the PCs becomes an evil NPC. That’s tricky to do as you’re pretty much killing off someone’s PC (whether they are still playing or not).

Imminent Peril

“No sleep till Brooklyn!” – Beastie Boys, No sleep till Brooklyn

Players love their PCs to have magic items, equipment, feats, and powers. They scream blue murder when you take them away – especially if an NPC uses a spell like Mordenkainen’s Disjunction upon them (a spell that strips items of their magic PERMANENTLY). That’s a bit extreme but there’s a strong reliance on these to balance the game at higher levels, providing buffs to the character’s stats. Feats and Powers are nearly staggering in their complexity and variety at higher levels in epic campaigns. Unfortunately this can slow things down immensely (D&D 4e can be very slow sometimes), but when you’re running a epic campaign there’s one thing you can do: use imminent peril.

Imminent peril can be anything from the PCs being hunted, a constant running battle, or being unable to sleep or recharge their powers. An encounter that continues with reinforcements flooding in means that you’ll likely have your players getting worried as their Healing Surges creep down, their powers are used up, and their ammunition depleted… At some point one of the PCs will fall, possibly fatally and at that point you can give the PCs their way out if they committed themselves to hanging around! Sometimes, surrender or fleeing is the only option.

Location-focused games can add another facet: the environment. Places like D&Ds Ravenloft or the Abyss have a lot of magic-resistant creatures who also use magic items themselves. In the Dark Sun setting, the world itself can kill the PCs through dehydration or exposure.

Epic Campaigns & Failure

“A very small man can cast a very large shadow.” – Varys – Game of Thrones

Sometimes things go wrong for the PCs. This should be a fact of life at high level campaigns: the actions of one individual can sometimes have a huge affect. Londo Mollari (Babylon 5) stops caring. As a result the galaxy is plunged further into war by his actions. What about Isildur choosing to keep the Ring of Power in Lord of the Rings? In the latter example, that’s a very good illustration of what can happen when things go wrong for PCs in a epic campaign. A simple choice to keep the Ring after the Dark Lord had fallen, like the PCs looting the fallen   – what if they fail to destroy (or decide to keep) a cursed item like the Hand or Eye of Vecna?

Would Elrond have attempted to kill Isildur for the ring to destroy it? He was a “party member”, and we know Boromir and Galadriel were tempted by the ring too – it’s not uncommon that former NPCs, allies or even PCs may turn on their former comrades (in fact that’s common practice in games like PARANOIA or BLACK CRUSADE.

Of course the most spectacular fall from grace is reserved for those who hold themselves to the highest moral standards: Paladins and Jedi, I’m looking at you. For them to fall from grace really is the stuff of epic campaigns. Whether its for love, revenge,  or the fact that they doubt themselves: their fall and possible salvation really can be rewarding to run.

Hail to the King

“A new power has arisen” – Saruman, Lord of the Rings.

Even if your PCs have got lands and titles they still need to hold onto them. Politics can be subtle intrigues, a knife in the dark, or it could brutal civil war if the lands and titles were held by someone who does not look kindly upon the PCs. The Nobility may regard them with contempt or fear and the PCs will find themselves involved in some form of politics. It’s not unlikely that a PC could end up as royalty or even married. As we know from Game of Thrones, wedding feasts are great fun for plots! It also possible that the PCs become the new tools of oppression, setting up another Dark Lord (possibly even one of them). All the time spent fighting the establishment and they have become the establishment.

Death is not the end

Despite the reluctance of many GMs to kill off higher level characters, there’s a possibility that the PCs may reach some form of apotheosis or ascension in an epic campaign. They may even become some form of demi-god  or aspire to be one – consider liches or even Raistlin Majere in DRAGONLANCE, or the Ancients in STARGATE SG-1. The journey to the point of apotheosis should be full of trials, and should not come easily. It’s also possible that a party can go walking the Planes, Kung-fu style on their own Long Walk. Planar journeys can be a lot of fun for epic campaigns!

So there’s my thoughts on epic campaigns. I hope you’ve found them useful or thought-provoking at least.

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Software

Note: some of these may not work on Windows 7 but do work on XP!

• Blitz 3d – games creator software for DirectX
• Adobe Acrobat 4.0 – full version + license code (unregistered by me), but genuine.
• Acrobat 7 Standard upgrade (requires Acrobat 4 or 5, or 6 Standard license.
• Acrobat 8 Standard upgrade (requires Acrobat 4 or 5, 6 or 7 Standard license.
• Frontpage 2003 – MS web creation software.
• Macromedia Studio 8 – Educational version – Dreamweaver 8, Flash Pro 8, Fireworks 8, Contribute 3 and FlashPaper 2.
• Visual Studio .NET 2002 – includes C++, C#, J#, VB, SQL server basic, XML modelling. DEFINITELY WILL NOT WORK ON WINDOWS 7!

Books

• Javascript: the definitive guide, 3rd Edition by David Flanangan, published by O’Reilly. Water damaged but readable!
• PHP and MySQL web development, Welling & Thompson, published by SAMS. Includes the source CD-ROM

If you are interested either contact me via the normal channels or via the form below.

Comments or questions are welcome.

Please do not use this form to send Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE). I am not interested in SEO placement or the like.

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Stuff for the players

GM accessories like handouts are always a winner. They provide a quick and immersive way of engaging the players, as well as providing visual clues – be they maps or letters. They also need to be readable if there’s any text, unless that’s the actual point. If the handout needs to be printed then it should work on a standard black-and-white printer without looking muddy. Colour is all very well, but can be expensive in ink/toner to print! Call of Cthulhu games may benefit from handouts, like authentic period tickets or menus (like in Horror on the Orient Express). I created the dossier for eBranch by using the Courier font (resembling typing), then carefully stained the paper with a mixture of lemon juice and teabags to give an authentic looking appearance of an old document. Although they can be tricky to produce, props and items requiring assembly provide a great deal of enjoyment -  some games have items that require assembly as part of the gameplay (like the Rod of Seven Parts artifact, or the amulet in Dragon Mountain).

Dragon Mountain has some stand-up card counters of the many monsters. These sort of things are very handy in games like D&D 4e, where miniatures are often needed and maybe too large to transport to a game. Having miniatures isn’t always easy on the table, so the counters can help. They don’t even need to be heavy duty card, just something simple. Likewise, model buildings that can be assembled (like Cities of Mystery), although they are of limited use unless you are also a wargamer.

If there are new rules for players to use, I’d like to see them in the same format as the rulebook, ideally in the same layout and typeface. I’d like them to be separate from the main adventure too (e.g. in loose-leaf form or in their own book), so players can refer to them without stalling the game.

If there are maps, they should be scalable to allow GMs to position miniatures, or there are floorplans that can be used  (or used with a Battlemat). A few years back I ran the AD&D Ravenloft adventure Feast of Goblyns using some generic room templates that I’d created. They worked really well – but they were fairly crudely drawn, but at least were laid out in grids (or hexes). Again, these are probably necessary for D&D 4e.

GM Accessories

Maps are great GM accessories, but I’d prefer maps to be in their own booklet to make it easier to refer to, preferably numbered sections in the main adventure. The Temple of Elemental Evil did this well – a separate A5 pamphlet within the adventure made it easy to refer to, rather than flicking back and forth through the text. I hate having to refer back to particular pages in an adventure. Player maps are great to include so long as they aren’t printed on the reverse of a GMs map! If the map is A3 or larger it should withstand continued unfolding!

As regards fluff and descriptive text – I’m never a big fan of background fluff in adventures, especially when it relates to stuff the PCs have no way of knowing or are just there to fill out the page count. The GM shouldn’t really have read more than a quarter page of text to the players for each room. It should also be easy to read! I like being able to find the rules I want in the correct area, indexed and with clear section/chapter headings – not scattered amidst the background fluff (the wh40k RPGs are especially guilty of this). An index is a must (perhaps also listing the page numbers where items/monsters can be found in the adventure or main rulebook). Content pages with subheadings are also good. The text should also be readable without being tiny and at the very least it should have been proofread (not just spell-checked). If its a boxed set, the box should be sturdy enough to be carried in a rucksack! Layout isn’t a black art, but more than two or three columns and it becomes a nightmare – please keep it simple.

Artwork. I like being able to show my players the artwork. To use the old cliché, a picture is worth a  thousand words. When the Dark Sun setting for AD&D first came out they used flipbooks which also various images from the adventure,and I’d like to see something similar as it really evoked the setting. I know artwork is re-used a lot but I’d like to see some new art in an adventure. The Babylon 5 RPG (and supplements) is very text-heavy with stills from the show, but it would have been nice to see some actual artwork in the product. For my D6 Star Wars game, I put the artwork from the adventures into a collage – this gave players a sort of visual history too, when I affixed it to the GM screen (the part without any charts obviously). Its not difficult to get good quality artwork, and is less expensive than people think. Cthulhu Invictus has terrible artwork and production values – so much so that I actually regret getting the game.

Playtest the adventure. Seriously, I sometime wonder if the designers have playtested some of their adventures. Some adventures seem to have a requirement for GMs leading the PCs around by the nose from plot point to plot point – others seem flawed from the outset, or fail to deal with such simple aspects as player choice. I’d like a page from the designer(s) on how to run/stage the adventure, or how the game went during playtesting, as well as possible adventure hooks.
A mind-map or timeline of plot points of the adventure – not as complicated as it sounds really.

Rules errata – I’d like adventures to include rule errata from the main rulebook as standard. I really don’t know why they don’t.

Re-usability – I love being able to reuse adventures or their materials, especially items such as floorplans or background info. The book or box should be fairly robust to handle repeated handling – the wh40k Chapter Approved book fell apart within a year of me getting  it ( and it was brand new!).

Give us gamers free stuff! Whether its a unique download of a character class or a font (like my Mandragora Glyphs Font) or even a discount off another products, give us a reason to purchase the full version of  a module. I suspect that a huge proportion of the RPG community use illegal PDFs, so give us a reason to go for the full products (rather than locking them down with DRM).

More by the same author. There’s usually some blurb about how the designer came up with the ideas for the adventure. Why not list some of the other products if it is a series (together with the product code and ISBN)?

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Now comes the inevitable *SPOILER* alert! If you’ve never played Shadows over Bogenhafen (or the Enemy Within series) for WFRP, be warned. I’m discussing some of the plot here, as well as some of the NPCs! If you’re actually planning to run it, I hope this helps.

Staging Shadows over Bogenhafen

Actually running Shadow over Bogenhafen is quite easy, but you may find yourself flipping through the adventure a lot. It’s about 12 hours to run through, although if things go badly wrong (Apocalypse!), it may take longer. Especially if your Players decide to split the party – it’s a lot more fun when things go wrong that way!

Events take place according to the timetable set out in the book but its sometime a bit tricky to keep track of when things happen. I’d recommend getting a summary printout of the events so that you can refer to them later, or attach them to a GM screen. I often lost track of what day we were on – this can be a bit of a problem unless your players are taking copious notes too. I also made a mistake in starting to run it just before Xmas. This meant a serious time lapse between sessions.

The Schaffenfest is a riot and a lot of fun to run as the PCs blew some of their dosh on armour and equipment in places like Boch and Queller (B&Q). They also had some fun at the wrestling ring with some typical dwarf-elf animosity going  on in the wrestling ring. It was pretty much an assault on the senses for the PCs, and one section that went really well. I recommend that anyone running that section try and use as many events as they can, dropping in occurrences like the fortune teller and Elvyra Kleinestun, not to mention some random anarchy. I also inserted Hieronymus Blitzen (a wizard) into the events as the group as no real magic oomph, just in case someone fancied following that path in Death on the Reik. You may want to add other NPCs that can act as mentors or tutors to the Schaffenfest as well.

Players should become aware the when the sun goes down, Bogenhafen is far more sinister place as the river fog creeps in, and the town quietens down for the night. The City Watch are heavily armed and armoured (crossbows, mail shirts and hand weapons make them pretty tough). In hindsight I should have made the Players aware that their PCs carrying weapons were likely to meet with some very serious questions from the Watch. I’ve fairly certain that they would have screamed blue murder.

In previous games, I’d established that “rats of unusual size” were rumored to be living in the sewers as an urban myth: the Warhammer players immediately leaped to the conclusion that Skaven (Chaos Ratmen) were involved. This made the sewer expedition vastly entertaining, with them jumping at every sound. Not to mention highly amusing as the group tried to avoid landing in the Via Cloaca. Worth bringing in things like these urban myths from time – naturally, some of these are false but you never know…

There’s a lot of investigation in Shadows over Bogenhafen. There’s also a lot of running around town chasing up leads, and for me, this was my failure as a GM. WFRP has a very low level of success, with the average human Stat being 30 out if 100. The average  skill score relies on these stats, so there’s a very low chance of success, particularly on social Fellowship (Fel) tests. This was where I made a cardinal mistake, and asked for Fel tests when I could have roleplayed them out better. My mistake is that I adhered too strongly to the rules on this. As someone who’s been GMing for a long time, this was pretty much a colossal mistake for me to make. The Players were getting frustrated as result, particularly their low rate of success.

There’s also a lot of “low reward dead-ends”. A lead/NPC seems promising, then the players discover that: the witness is dead, has somehow forgotten everything, doesn’t want to get involved, or was Gideon in disguise. The whole Kastor Lieberung sub-plot effectively dead-ends for the PCs in Bogenhafen. My players missed the fact that they could have gone to the printers to find who ordered the Lock, Stock, and Barl stationery too. If I was running it again, I’d possibly shove a run-in with the Red Crown and also the whole “purpled hand” incident from DotR. However, Adolphus Kuftos could also put in an appearance: by the end of Shadows over Bogenhafen, the PCs are wanted for murder and arson too. The bounty on the PCs is likely to be considerable.

If the players decide to burglarize the Steinhager offices they may get lucky. There’s a lot of cash the PCs can make from this raid (and a spellbook – if you want the Wizard PC to get certain spells later in Enemy Within, this is where to put them), and it was one of the more rewarding incidents in the game. As a GM, I decided to make this gold newly minted (i.e. easily recognisable!) and part of the Steinhager payroll. The following day the Watch were searching the town looking for some freshly minted Gold Crowns, especially the waterfront where the PCs were staying on the Berebeli. The players had a lot of gold, but no way to spend it. Actions have consequences and all that. It was also a good way of getting the PCs to see how much pull the Steinhagers had in the town.

Something for Everyone

As mentioned previously, there’s a lot of investigation going on, and players won’t be able to follow every lead. It can be tricky to keep all the Players engaged. Here’s what I’d do in hindsight:

• If they’ve ever played Call of Cthulhu, the group’s Academics will likely hit the Temple of Verena and the library there. They can also use their elevated social status to try and get in with the merchants and upper classes. Those with magical or healing skills may also be able to help with the diagnosis of Richter or even recognise Gideon for what he is. Not to mention the whole Morrslieb being full as a Bad Thing.
• Warriors haven’t much to do except in a couple of situations, and at the Ritual (add a few Bodyguards to make it a little more “tasty”) . They should probably get involved with wrestling at the Schaffenfest, and a drunken brawl or the joust there. The Guardian Daemon should be beefed up a bit, perhaps with a couple of magical powers too. Alternatively, use a Pink Horror . Make sure they get attacked by the Giant Rats (of Unusual Size) in the sewers too.
• Rangers should get the chance to shine in the sewers with their tracking skills, and possibly their Hide skill during any stake out. There’s not much “wilderness work” for them, but their BS skills may also come in handy at the Ritual, e.g. shooting the knife out of Teugen’s hand for example.
• Rogues will probably spend most of their time talking to NPCs or sticking their nose where it’s not wanted. Try and orchestrate a meeting with Baumann at the Crossed Lances, or a Rogue notices a Thieves Guild symbol. They could also have to talk their way out of the Crossed Lances out of they wander in thereby mistake from the sewers.

The NPCs

The Ordo Septanarius aren’t a Chaos cult as such, more like a secret society – and that’s how I played it to the players. However, once they found the “temple”, they pretty much went on the whole “Dark God” schtick. However I managed to make it quite clear that the group had powerful friends in the town. They fixated on the Ordo as a cult though: there was no way that the Players were going  to believe that the Ordo were some benevolent organisation (particularly after fighting the Guardian Daemon).

To summarise, Johannes Teugen is planning to open a Chaos Gate in the town. He has been duped by a Lesser Daemon of Tzeentch, by the name of Gideon. Teugen believes that he and his followers, the Ordo Septanarius, will be rewarded if they complete a ritual designed to give them “wealth and power”.  It’s a lie of course, concocted by Gideon for Teugen. My concept of Teugen is someone who’s 100% control of any situation: he’s used to getting his own way and no scruffy band will stop him. His appearance really put the fear of god into the PCs at the interview, as most are used to playing FRPGs where vampires and the like can wield huge power…

Gideon is a Lesser Daemon of Tzeentch. Not a Pink Horror, just an “independent contractor”, as it were. The adventure was written before Realm of Chaos came out, so fair enough. However, if I was to run it again, I’d make Gideon a Chaos Champion (with magical powers), not a Daemon. He’s a bit too human and underpowered – plus a Chaos Champion makes a great nemesis further down the line. Also, Gideon is very much more than Teugen’s hitman. He has his own agenda, and he interactions with the PCs pretty much make him more than a glorified Pink Horror. He’s the one that frames the PCs for arson AND the murder of Magirius. He deserved better treatment than he gets in the adventure.

Changes to the adventure

Running it “as is” was something of a mistake for me. Looking back, there’s a few things I’d change:

• Make a Gideon a Chaos Champion, not a lesser Daemon. A number of his abilities are essentially magic powers.
• Make the Guardian Daemon a Pink Horror. The Ordo knows nothing about it.
• The PCs arrive at the warehouse when the Ritual has already begun, and the PCs are already on the run (for both arson and murder). If they hide out inside, add some armed Bodyguards (they’re paid generously for their silence!).
• If the PCs decide to raid the homes of Teugen or Steinhager it should receive the full weight of the City Watch’s attention. The Adel Ring has regular patrols, and both houses have their own guards. Teugen and Steinhager may not be there anyway.
• Throw in a few NPCs like a mercenary captain or other advanced career at the Schaffenfest. If the PCs want to progress to a new career, the Schaffenfest is a great way to introduce possible tutors or mentors.
• Don’t rely on Fel tests. Let the Players roleplay it.
• Aside from Temples to Shallya and Verena, the various Temple Priests aren’t mentioned. Come up with NPCs for them (or at least the ones for Boganeur, Sigmar, Ulric and Myrmdia). Chances are the PCs will visit them.
• Make sure that heavily-armed PCs wearing armour roaming the streets attract a lot of attention from the Watch. This can lead to them getting hauled up before Richter on charges, or hauled in front of the Watch Captain, Reiner Goertrin, for a “chat”.
• If your PCs decide to do their own thing – ignoring leads, making a mess of the plot, legging it out of town, and generally making a nuisance of themselves in the town – without at least trying to stop the ritual, then let them. Unleash the full horror of “Apocalypse!” upon them. If you’re a cruel GM you could do this as well, but the Players should at least feel they tried to stop it.

Running Apocalyse!

Although it didn’t happen in my game, it could have (and I’d have huge amounts of fun doing it!). Apocalypse! should cost the life of at least one PC (but avoid a TPK – Total Party Kill), and the whole atmosphere should be one of panic. Don’t give them a chance to plan things out in detail – get them to react. If it means leaving a PC behind so be it – remember you’ll have Pink Horrors roaming the streets, possibly a Lord of Change to terrify the PCs as it manifests – and of course Tzeentch himself (automatic Terror tests!). Don’t let up on the pace as the PCs flee the doomed town – the Chaos Gate widens slowly. Add Discs of Tzeentch (Void Sharks) to harry the PCs, and Flamers randomly setting buildings and people on fire, Tzeentch’s hand scooping up felling townsfolk etc.

This is epic fail mode for the PCs – roll out the disaster movie cliches and anime-style explosions – use Godzilla and Avengers Assemble for inspiration on how to trash a city! Remember that this will have ramifications on Death on the Reik and later, so you may have to do some more work for those!

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The Mandragora: Ashes of Freedom RPG is a casualty of this, unfortunately. I just can’t find the time right now, nor the energy. With the success of the FATE Core Kickstarter, that could be for the best: if I wait for that to come out, then I might not need to come up with the necessary stresses, aspects, etc. I’ll come back to it at a later date.

I’m definitely going to try and write my short story though, in November, featuring Kayle Wynter. It should be an interesting exercise. It’s going to be a sort of espionage whodunit, set in the world of Ashes of Freedom. I’ve not participated in NaNoWriMo before, so it should be an interesting experience.

I’d also planned to return to D&D and to the Ashes of Freedom world, possibly using some of the DNDnext rules. Again this looks unlikely. There just won’t be enough time. However, its quite likely that I will be running some one-off games at ORC – its a good way for folk to get to know other people outside of what can be a small gaming group. They’re quick and easy and fun to run, plus they give everyone  a chance to try some systems that they may not have otherwise tried. My D&D 4e Watch upon the Border mini-campaign (and drop-in game for ORC Edinburgh) will finish shortly.

I’d also thought about running my Necroscope game at Conpulsion , the Edinburgh University RPG convention. I was going to run the New Forest game (the one that had the burning orphanage – yes, that one!). The game is usually is a blast for those players who’ve never experienced that kind of game… Although it is still some way off in April its probably best if I prioritize my time right now.

I’m also still planning on running a number of wh40k-themed games, as part of wh40kforty. Although I may have mentioned this elsewhere, a number of my friends are hitting 40 this year. The idea behind wh40kforty is to run a number of games, both 40k battles and also the RPGs (Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Death Watch, and Only War – plus Black Crusade!). I have some interesting ideas, as do a number of the other folks involved. The real trick will be forging it into coherent whole.

And finally: I’ve a couple of posts that I need to get underway with: one relates to Shadows over Bogenhafen, the WFRP adventure I recently ran; the other to “magic as technology” that is still sitting as draft from December…

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ELITE: Dangerous is one of these. Back in 1984, my family got a BBC model computer. I scrimped and saved the £14.95 for floppy disk version of Acornsoft’s Elite game. It’s long ago enough that I can still remember that utilities was the most expensive thing I’d ever bought at that time – it was the 80s and was 11! I’ve a lot of memories regarding the heavily detailed faux-leather manual, Robert Holdstock’s Dark Wheel novella (a sequel to follow the following year, which didn’t appear), and struggling with the ship recognition chart (usually in the middle of combat!). I remember breaking the Voltmace joystick from heavy use, leaning on the fire button! When I went around to a friend’s for tea (the taper version which took 10 minutes to load from tape), we’d take turns piloting the Cobra Mk.3, and inevitably shooting our own missiles that the other had just launched! Since the BBC I used to have is now long gone, I’ve not played since – although I did finally reach the giddy heights of the Elite eventually. I’ve a lot of fond memories, but didn’t have an Amiga to play the sequels. So I’m happy to hear that Elite is back, in the form of Elite: Dangerous, now 90% funded on Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous). There’s only a few days to go but I’d love to see this game made.

Another bit of nostalgia is the Fighting Fantasy series. This series is the main reason why I am an RPGer, and Jonathan Green, one of the authors is putting together a book on the series Fighting Fantasy: You are the Hero, it looks at the history of FF (as Fighting Fantasy was called), and will involve interviews with Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone (both wrote Fighting Fantasy and, Jackson the companion series, Sorcery!). They are also known for founding Games Workshop, Eidos Interactive (Livingstone), and  F.I.S.T. (Jackson). It’s been 30 years since the Warlock of Firetop Mountain came out. Scary stuff. When I look at some of the RPGs on offer we’ve a long way since then. Should be interesting to see what their take is on the way the gaming landscape has changed.

I’ve also been receiving twitter messages from @SynnibarrInvictus (don’t bother trying to follow it, the account has been removed for some reason). Apparently that car crash of an RPG has reached its funding goal and will now be re-released as Synnibarr Invictus. AW, HELL, NO!!! – that is all.

Happy New Year everyone.

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I’ve had little chance to do much PC or Xbox gaming this year, although I loved the free mod of Half Life‘s Black Mesa (which has a cracking remixed soundtrack for free too) and played through it. It recreates the original Half Life game but with new graphics, audio and game-play. Worth a look – the next part Xen will be worth the wait I reckon. Still no news on Half Life 2: Episode 3 either. I’ve also backed the Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter (see below), because I loved that game so much on the BBC micro (and, yes, I did reach Elite status).

Edinburgh’s tabletop gaming scene got itself a new venue in August – the Edinburgh Games Hub. Their Tollcross basement has become something of a Mecca to all kinds of tabletop gamers – CCGs, boardgames, war-games and of course RPGs. I myself can be found there on Thursday nights, continuing the adventures of Diogenes “Basilisk” Valexos in our Rogue Trader RPG. I’d have provided a link but their website has been hacked and shows no sign of getting fixed any time soon, but you can find them on FB at https://en-gb.facebook.com/GamesHubEdinburgh. They also have a boardgames and miniatures shop in the basement, 6S2Hit.

As well as Rogue Trader, which I didn’t make it to half as often as I would have liked, we started the year off playing on the Dresden Files RPG on Wednesday nights, followed by the Pathfinder (Isador) game. My workload hit nightmare levels though and I was forced to drop the Wednesday night games.

Yet again, I didn’t make it to Conpulsion, the Edinburgh RPG convention run by Edinburgh Uni’s RPG club, GEAS. I really must try and make it there. I’m considering running my eBranch game there as a one-off next year. It uses the Call of Cthulhu rules, and features physic spies and Brian Lumley’s Wamphyri vampires. It is set in the New Forest, close to Southampton where I was born.

ORC Edinburgh – RPG Retrospective

No RPG Retrospective would be complete without me mentioning ORC – Edinburgh’s Open Roleplaying Community. ORC Edinburgh saw many new faces and also a number of new games, and we had a lot of fun at the pub meets throughout the year. This gave us a chance for many of the community to socialize outside of scheduled games and actually lead to the creation of at least one group. However, the last one wasn’t quite so well attended and the venue let us down somewhat.We’ll need to think about an alternative next time.

We definitely need more GMs at ORC – we had games running at the Meadow Bar, the Games Hub, Illegal Jacks and also Cafe Renroc. Unfortunately these were often on the same day – many of our GMs are also players too, but some of us (like me) rarely get the chance to play. This is partially my choice, but some of the other GMs would love a chance to kick back and let someone else do the work (and so would I really). And of course anyone wishing to try their hand at GMing should feel free to do so.

Call of Cthulhu was definitely popular this year at ORC. We had two home-brew campaigns running (and one still is) and the also Cubicle 7′s Shadows of Scotland campaign – which was over-subscribed at one point! I’d thought about running my Arunstoun setting, but didn’t need to in the end. It did feature in Cthulhutech though! I considered running Masks of Nyarlathotep, but it has significant flaws and pretty much suffers what I call Cthulhu Syndrome where the PCs get drawn to a remote location for a minor reason and the players just know the Mythos is involved.

I put my Cthulhutech game, Through the Looking Glass, on hiatus (to give me a break really). The Dark Edinburgh setting really worked and I’ve been looking forward to getting my mitts on the new Burning Horizons supplement. With Pacific Rim out in 2013 (Guillermo del Toro‘s new movie featuring giant robots – mechs or mecha), I can see there being a few mecha-based games turning up in the future (Cthulhutech or otherwise). Wildfire, the makers of Cthulhutech have had a bad year with distributors so I hope things pick up for them in 2013!

Pathfinder was also popular this year at ORC and continues to be a successor to D&D. The campaign paths of Jade Regent, Raging Swan, Carrion Crown, and Kingmaker all put in an appearance, along with Dee’s Critical Missions home-brew. Nuno’s Shapes of Grey home-brew setting returned in Pathfinder form too. For those of us looking for an alternative to 4th Ed. D&D, Pathfinder provided the necessary fixes it seemed.

This naturally brings me to 4th edition D&D (4e). Oft-requested by players, yet only a handful of people were willing to run games. I’m not going to go in a debate about the version wars, as I’ve posted about that elsewhere. EmbraCraig continues to run Perils of the Nentir Vale at the Games Hub fortnightly, but Jill has wrapped up her War of the Burning Sky game. Radonir’s Scales of War continues to run, although he had some early recruitment problems with players.

At ORC, I began running the WFRP Enemy Within Campaign. As campaigns go, its tough to beat – there’s a lot of background info, not fluff for once, and I’m enjoying running it immensely. I’ve a good bunch of players to work with too, most of whom are enjoying themselves immensely I hope. I started recording the sessions but they’re such a large size that I’ll need to work on compressing them down to a manageable size.

However, my biggest disappointment of the year was Marvel Super Heroes (the original set from the 80s). We had a full session of character generation, but a third of the group then dropped out. As a result I (somewhat petulantly, I admit) decided to cancel the game in its entirety. I’d planned to run the Nightmares of Futures Past storyline, having fond memories of when we played it back in the late ’80s.

We even had a game of Vampire: The Masquerade scheduled to run at ORC at one point. For one session. Then the GM involved disappeared. VtM is one of those games that seems to be something of a Macbeth for ORC RPGers! Every time someone mentions they want to run it something happens, and the game only lasts a few sessions. Many of hose who liked the original VtM have now moved onto the Embraced and Isle of Darkness LARPS (I’d never be able to suspend my sense of disbelief for LARPS – I’d continually have to bite my tongue). I’ll possibly be running Werewolf: the Apocalypse in the future so who knows? Maybe we will get a proper Vampire campaign at ORC too!

And of course there’s D&Dnext, the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons RPG. Surprisingly there’s not been much interest in the Playtest packs at ORC. I think that everyone has largely adopted a wait-and-see attitude, possibly brought on by the whole 4e debacle. There’s a couple of games going on, but no one is seriously participating right now.

We also ran a few pub meets that I’ve mentioned  elsewhere – these have rapidly proved to be a great way to meet other players in a non-RPG setting. So that’s the year at ORC really. Here’s to another year of great RPGs there!

Kickstarter

2012 for me was the “Year of the Kickstarter”, or more likely “Year of the Stretch Goal”. Also “Year of the Stretched Bank account”. I backed a number of Kickstarter campaigns, some of which are still ongoing.

• Werewolf the Apocalypse: 20th Anniversary Edition – I had to really. Some many fond memories of running that World of Darkness game!
• Reaper Miniatures Bones – where I picked up A LOT of miniatures. I’ll never get around to painting them.
• Horror of the Orient Express for Call of Cthulhu. A classic reprinted, with new handouts and materials.
• Legendary Realms Terrain – this terrain looked great but didn’t make its funding level unfortunately.
• Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary. Why not?
• Shadows of Esteren: A medieval horror RPG – a game which looks amazing.
• FATE Core rules. It’s the least I can do if I intend to use it (STILL ONGOING on KS).
• Kingdom Death: Monster boardgame. A seriously freaky game, with some seriously freaky miniatures (STILL ONGOING on KS).
• YOU ARE THE HERO: a celebration of 30 years of Fighting Fantasy (STILL ONGOING on KS).
• ELITE: DANGEROUS. I’m of two minds about this, on the one hand Frontier have laid off staff and the KS is probably asking for too much, but I’d love to see a proper version of Elite again (STILL ONGOING on KS).

So that’s it. My RPG Retrospective. Sorry if I rambled on a bit, but it has been quite a year. Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!

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• I’m trying to get the first part of the Mandragora: Ashes of Freedom RPG written, most likely using the FATE rules set.
• There’s a blog article on “Magic as technology” that I want to try and finish.
• I’m waiting on publication of my first RPG work for The Secret Fire RPG.
• DMing an introductory D&D 4e campaign at ORC called A Watch upon the Border.
• Possibly restarting Ashes of Freedom with DNDnext rules.
• Running the AD&D adventures Dragon Mountain and Return to the Tomb of Horrors when the AD&D rules are republished in 2013.
• Running Werewolf: the Apocalypse again – I got rid of my 1st edition stuff years ago, but got in on the 20th anniversary Kickstarter edition. When will you rage?
• Running a game of the fantastic-looking Shadows of Esteren.
• And finally… I’m forty in 2013, so I’m planning a wh40kforty event along with a friend (who also turns 40). We’re coming up with a linked campaign using various RPGs and battles in the wh40k universe, set in the Midwinter Expanse, a nebula of our own creation located close to Ultramar.

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There’s also some real idiots out there on ebay who will screw you over any chance they get for postage or Paypal fees. There are also those who claim 100% positive feedback, often through somewhat unscrupulous means, particularly when they are selling multiple items (usually over-priced) through a single listing or “Buy it Now”. Some individuals have huge amounts of games listed but most collectors will avoid having anything to do with those who threaten and browbeat customers – check the Acaeum forum if there’s any warnings and always look closely at the feedback. Make sure that any maps or similar are included as some fail to list these missing items.

I’ve recently contributed to the Werewolf: the Apocalyse Anniversary edition on Kickstarter. I’m not really looked at the game since late second edition when it was beginning to collapse under its own meta-plot weight as with all the original World of Darkness games. Can’t believe it was 20 years ago though! Along with AD&D, it was one of the first games I ever ran as a campaign – and I understand Samuel Haight may reappear (or his clone anyway!)… Also on Kickstarter, I’ve backed Shadows of Esteren, a medieval horror RPG that looks gorgeous and has a lot of extra stuff for backers.I know that Numenra, Monte Cook‘s new game has recently been funded, along with Robin D Laws Hillfolk, but neither really interested me. UPDATE: Unfortunately the Legendary Realms Kickstarter failed to secure their funding so that’s a pity.

I’m starting to see what makes Kickstarter so attractive for established companies – they can offer free PDFs of their stuff and memorabilia and it makes for a good business model. However smaller companies will probably get crowded out – they need to offer something special, rather than regarding it as a revenue stream. Just using it to get your game published is one thing, but using stretch goals is a proven way of raising the bar considerably – it encourages folk to up their pledge. Also, it’s nice seeing a bundle of goodies rather than a single book…

I’ve recently begun playing the Rogue Trader RPG again after a few months break. I quite like the wh40k universe but it does take itself a bit too seriously sometimes. When we play, it’s more Red Dwarf than Dune in style – and we get away with it. Post-game, a couple of the other players and I headed off to the bus stop and we began talking about war-games.It has been a long time since I played a war-game. I think I’ve kind of lost my appetite for destruction in that respect – whether it is wh40k, fantasy, or historical.

Perhaps its just the sheer logistics and the actual time involved in getting the games setup or maybe I’m not as tactically minded as I used to be.  I’m just not that competitive these days. I’m hardly ever on the X-box for LAN games these days, and my time seems to just fly out the window these days. Although I’ve been playing Black Mesa (Valve’s Half Life game re-imagined) recently I’ve done very little PC or X-Box gaming. I’m waiting to hear what X-Com is like…

I’ve been looking at trying to get the audio from the last WFRP: Enemy Within sessions uploaded but I need to split the somewhat large audio MP3 file down into much smaller sections, perhaps using Audacity. The files were too large for YouTube!  I also forgot the recorder for one session so I’m kicking myself over that. We had two players absent so I ran a game set in Weissbruck as part of the Mistaken Identity storyline. The Bounty Hunter Bad Guy, Adolphos Kuftos will return, despite a crossbow bolt to the head (NPCs can have Fate points too)! The group wound up hunting a Chaos Spawn, who had been attacking and killing townsfolk – a mutant who had been brought back from the Kislevite city of Praag by his father, once overrun by the forces of Chaos.

I pulled out all the stops for this game I’m calling the “Legacy of Praag“- we had bugs in the walls, Silent-Hill style images of mould and decay, and huge (non-monstrous) slugs in the garden. I based the house on the Haunting Horror adventure from The Restless Dead campaign. I decided against running TRD as it stands as it doesn’t quite gel together so I’m planning to use the adventures standalone as part of The Enemy Within, linking some of them together. I might put up the stats and a brief summary for the Spawn in the future, but it looked like a mixture of the Alien Queen, a giant spider, and one of B5s Shadows, so all good

One of my WFRP house rules is that you roll 1d10, not 1d6 as mentioned in the rules. It works well. Although this can make combat deadly it cuts both ways – PCs can get taken down as easily as monsters. It definitely makes things a lot more gritty, more like Joe Abercrombie than David Eddings! NPCs and PCs can still use skills like Dodge Blow, so the fact that the amount of damage can actually cause a critical hit in one blow makes my players very wary of their PCs picking a fight with competent melee opponents! There’s always Fate points too

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