Dev Diary - AFF Science Fiction: The Jigsaw

So - I have all my pieces and it's time to put them all together.

Now that the majority of the work has been done it's now time to take each of the separate pieces and make sure they fit. I know they won't on the first attempt but that's what this process is all about. The intro I'm happy with, the psionic rules may need tweaking and I've purposefully kept the starship rules simple and quick as I didn't want to add any complication to the system.

As for the setting... well, I've decided not to go into too much detail with that at the moment. It's all fair and good creating a huge setting for the game but to truly do it justice, a campaign setting like the one I've got in mind requires it's own book. Once I've pieced the game together I'll see what I have and if the game requires a basic setting then so be it. As a basic, do-it-yourself core science fiction rulebook, though, there's no reason why this system can't cover every genre of sci-fi. An enterprising and creative gamer can get mileage out of the system using it for an existing setting or one of their own creation.

Onwards and upwards... upwards to the stars.

Review - UK Games Expo 2013

The car park was labelled 'Middle-Earth'!

UK GAMES EXPO 2013

I almost never made it to this year’s UK Games Expo, and that would have been somewhat upsetting. As a huge gamer, especially as far as tabletop roleplaying games are concerned, it would have been remiss of me to have not attended probably the biggest games exhibition in the country. With some very last minute wrangling I managed to get both the time and tickets, and with Jedi News t-shirt washed and ironed me and my wife Lisa, who was there representing her website The Mind Palace, set out on the long(ish) journey to the Hilton Birmingham Metropole hotel near the National Exhibition Centre.

One minute in and already in trouble!

First off, the venue was incredibly simple to get to, literally five minutes off the motorway. Get off the motorway, turn left, turn left again, bingo. The location of the new venue for the expo is so much easier to get to than the original location, and so

much larger. While the original venue was quite good it was in a bit of an awkward location to reach, especially by public transport, so this place was automatically full of win. Ten or twenty minutes from railway stations and Birmingham airport, as well, so even if I didn’t drive it still would have been easy to get to. And the best bit? Free parking in a car park only five minute’s walk from the hotel. Yes, please.

Heroic dudes from
Titan Games, Lichfield

When we arrived it was already heaving with gamers. The Hilton was big – really big. There was a huge trader’s hall, which was packed to the brim with stores and publishers all pushing their wares and titles. There was a great selection of games and the hall was constantly rammed. The great thing about the size of the rooms at the Hilton is that I never felt crushed or penned in, and there wasn’t many bottlenecks of bodies all crowding around a single stall. By the time we ran into our friends from Titan Games in Lichfield we’d

pretty much seen every game in existence, and Titan had even more stuff for us to get all googly-eyed over.

Gunnar Roxen (left)

In this hall we met Gunnar Roxen, the author of ‘The Wyld Hunt’ (amongst other titles) a cyberpunk/noir/fantasy novel set in a future London. He was a thoroughly nice bloke, very eager and passionate about his work and we got free badges! Hooray! He was on the Chronicle City stand with others – I very brie

fly met owner Angus Abranson but, as it is with popular and busy publishers of his calibre at a convention, he only had time to shake hands, give me a brief hello and wish me the best, and then take off at lightspeed to his next meeting. I’ll be setting up interviews with both these dudes in the near future.

My favourite

It wasn’t long until I found the source of the crazy costumed people wandering around the venue. Galactic Knights are ‘a Star Wars and Sci-Fi costuming group that brings together enthusiasts from all over the world who enjoy celebrating the stars and characters of movies, TV, comics and video g ames.’ The costumes on show were fantastic and full marks to this team for getting the details so spot on. Alongside the Star Wars suits there were, amongst others, some great Doctor Who characters and a 2000AD street Judge, but my favourite was definitely the Sith warrior.

Me being done in by a Judge
and a lightsabre - no fair!

Not only did I meet the great people behind this costume group but I got to have a blast on a range with a pistol, the only requirement being that I wear a clone trooper helmet. After the obligatory ‘I can’t see a thing in this helmet!’ quote, I had four shots at small stand-up cutouts of various Star Wars characters. After a somewhat lacklustre attempt – mainly because I couldn’t see a thing in that helmet, of course – I was presented with a certificate signed by Darth Vader welcoming me to the Galactic Knights. It was great fun, and thank you to the team. They were very welcoming, friendly and gracious to a bumbling guy in a helmet who couldn’t shoot straight.

No, honestly - I couldn't see a thing in that helmet...

... but it was worth the embarrassment!

My wife Lisa (r) arrives in the TARDIS with Rose and River...

... meets The Doctor...

... and then leaves again.

I found the Arion Games table and met Graham Bottley, the man who bought the Advanced Fighting Fantasy roleplaying game back onto the gaming table. I’m currently writing the science fiction version of AFF for Arion Games so, after the internet communication we had prior to this, it was nice to finally meet the man and shake his hand. He had a lot on his table, all the current AFF books and the new Port Blacksand book, as well as other material for other games such as Alexander Scott’s Maelstrom. It was a nice stand and the maps of Port Blacksand he had on offer, large affairs inside their own tubes, were really good and great not only for the AFF game but for any game system, or world, in general. The same could be said for the Port Blacksand sourcebook. We talked about the science fiction AFF project… but I won’t go into any details here!

After lunch we moved on to the Fantasy Flight Games demonstration stand where they had a few games being shown off. Of course, my interest was in the Star Wars games they had on offer, all of which I have already played and reviewed, but I wanted to get a feel of what the people taking part thought of the products.

Edge of the Empire in full swing

First of all there was the Edge of the Empire Introductory game. It was great to see a mix of ages at this gaming table; the first group I saw were children, no older than eleven or twelve years old, and they were having a great time. The game was in full swing by the time I got there and they seemed to be eager and excited, with lots of questions and energy. I spoke with a couple of people after the demo and the feedback was good – the younger players new to the game were very positive about the game, and the older players were suitably impressed. It seems that the new Star Wars RPG has gone down quite well, and one or two gamers were please to hear that the full rulebook was due out very soon.

Star Wars: The Card Game

Next, I moved on to Star Wars: The Card Game. I came into this towards the end of the game so I missed the actual gameplay, but I do know that the guy I saw playing the game seemed quite impressed, and when we were leaving the venue I saw him with a copy of the game in his bag. Obviously, the game he had played had impressed him enough for him to head back to the trader’s hall and purchase a copy.

The Star Wars Miniatures Game
on the amazing Death Star board

Finally, I moved on to the Star Wars Miniatures Game. Wow. The Death Star gameboard complete with turbolaser towers was really impressive (sadly, my amateur photography does it no justice) and the whole set of available fighters and starships were arrayed across the table. This attracted a lot of attention not just for the gameplay - which was both funny and exciting as there were a lot of ships on the board with multiple players trying not to fly into each other - but also for the miniatures themselves. The Millennium Falcon model was photographed a few times, I can tell you. The game was quick and fluid and everyone was having a great time, and upon speaking to a couple of guys after the battle was over, one was all for buying it and the other was incredibly impressed by the models. Out of the three games I think the Star Wars Miniatures game was definitely the winner.

Impressive... most impressive...

There were a few other stands I attended, too:

DICE!!!!!

Coiledspring Games were a nice bunch of people, very approachable and friendly. These guys are responsible for the game Rory’s Story Cubes, where you roll several six-sided dice with symbols on them and create a story from the results. Right now it’s my son Bruce’s favourite tabletop game so it was great to meet the people that have given him so much fun.

The blokes at the Yog-Sothoth table were great guys, and we got a great hardback book ‘The Express Diaries’ by the very charming NickMarsh, who was not only at the table but he signed the book for Lisa, too! The gorgeous book is on the review list so look out for that in the future – I’m also hoping to arrange an interview.

James Edward Raggi IV was a thoroughly nice chap and I honestly wish I had found his table offering ‘Lamentations of the FlamePrincess’ earlier. I had run out of spending cash by then and he had the boxset of what appears to be a wonderful game – of which I’ve heard a lot of good things about – on show, as well as some supplements and adventures for the game and some great-looking OSRIC modules. These are things I will most definitely be checking out in the near future.

I attended other tables, looked at products, heard about some great things and learned of upcoming projects, and finally it was time to leave. My feet ached, I was almost hoarse from the all the talking and I need some air. On the short walk back to the car my wife and I mulled over our impressions of the UK Games Expo 2013.

Attendance was amazing

First and foremost, the venue was a massive improvement on the previous location. The Hilton was a great place, easy to find and huge, really huge. The attendance was amazing, so good that by the time we got there, just shy of 12 o’clock, they had already run out of programmes and the ones they had left they were having to keep back for the Sunday show. An hour later I heard that they had run out of printed Saturday attendance tickets – that’s just great to hear. It’s fantastic that the turnout was so amazing, and coming back to the size of the venue it’s worth noting that even though they appear to have exceeded expectations in numbers the venue never felt packed and crammed. I remember feelings of claustrophobia at the old venue so the high ceilings, bright lights and open spaces of the Hilton were a welcome relief.

There were plenty of games going on in multiple rooms

Everything was organised really well. The expo was clearly signposted, easy to get into and everything inside was clearly marked and labelled so you knew where you going and what was in each room. Because I couldn’t get hold of a programme (and if anyone reading this wants to part with theirs then please let me know!) I didn’t have a map of the venue, but not only was it easy to navigate without one there were volunteers on hand with copies to point you in the right direction. They needed to do this as the attendance was fantastic and no doubt there may have been some confusion, but it was all very well handled. It was also great to hear so many different international accents.

I don't remember seeing any empty tables in any of the halls

This year’s UK Games Expo was a resounding success. We had a great day out, met some wonderful people and saw some amazing things. If you decided not to attend because of the venue change then you’ve done yourself a disservice, and I should know – I was one of those people wondering at the wisdom of changing the venue. I couldn’t have been more wrong and I’m more than happy to say that as the location, attendance, exhibitors, games and traders were all top quality.

Very well done, UK Games Expo 2013. I’m posting you a gold star.

Make sure you attend next year!

Dev Diary - AFF science fiction: Phew!

When I agreed to write the science fiction version of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy game I knew it would be a lot of work, but I honestly didn't realise how much. I've been sidetracked somewhat as I complete other projects, but now they are pretty much out of the way I feel like I'm ready to dive back into the game again.

The rules are pretty much finished and I've finally decided on the way I want the psionic rules to work. I'm also not going to worry about the vehicle/starship rules as I'm using what has already been given to us in the gamebooks and any ironing out can be done during playtesting. I have a couople of systems in place that I can use so they'll get an airing.

I've had a few emails regarding playtesting groups, which is great, and what I'll do is get a playtest document together for the groups to use in their sessions. If you'd like to be part of that then drop me an email (you'll find it on the right hand sidebar of this page) but I'll only be sending a few copies out.

The setting, however...

I need to accept that no matter how much I'd like to do it, cramming all the sci-fi gamebook themes into one setting simply will not work. The best I can do is work on my full setting and add elements as I go. I've already managed to work in 'Starship Traveller', 'The Rings of Kether', 'Space Assassin', 'Freeway Fighter' and 'Robot Commando'. How did I get the basis of a gamebook featuring giant robots and dinosaurs into my setting? You'll have to wait and see. Still, the rules will be adaptable for any setting so the gamebooks can be used as sourcebooks, no problem. I still want to use all the monsters and meanies for the bestiary, but that remains to be seen.

Sadly, I have definitely had to let 'Appointment with F.E.A.R' drop by the wayside. The superhero setting doesn't mesh with science fiction setting I've designed so I've had to let it go. Sorry, F.E.A.R fans.

For such a simple game, there's a lot of work involved!

Hulks & Horrors - the first adventure is over!

And we all lived! HOORAY!

The adventure was a good one. In a nutshell we had to investigate a planet where the indigenous species had been 'uplifted', a race of beings being forcefully evolved into a higher species over a period of thousands of years by a very advanced (and patient) but extinct alien species who seems to have wiped themselves out. It took three games, a few fights with some insane injured crewmembers of a previous expedition along with some monsters and some very unfriendly aliens, and a lot of working out the clues to get to the conclusions we came to.

This was what I wanted in a science fiction game - a core concept steeped in science fiction, a mystery, adventure, a bit of combat and, most importantly, some character roleplaying. My PC, Samuel Johnson, is a pilot who smokes too much and packs two laser pistols, looks after numero uno and loves his ship. Sadly, he also has a terminal incurable lung disease thanks to his smoking, which explains why it is he wants to both experience new things - so that he can live the wonder of the universe in his last few months - and why he throws himself into danger because, well... what does it matter? He's dead either way, right? This aspect of his character hasn't come up in the game yet - and there's a chance it never will - but it's a great angle and gives the character impetus; instead of sitting around thinking 'shall I do that?' I just get on and do it.

Rich has done a great job of GMing the game and it still surprises me that this is his first proper GMing session for a serious, experienced group. He handled it all very well and told a great story.

We start a new adventure next week! Win!

Playing D&D on Google+

It pains me, you know, to have to sit on a computer talking to people over the internet when I would much rather have them sitting with me, at my table, their pencils scratching furiously at their character sheets, their dice clattering across the table, their responses tangible and in real time. That's not me railing against technology, or decrying the death of face-to-face gaming as the digital age encroaches upon my hobby. Not at all. It's me finding it difficult to step away from the physical social gathering aspect of the game and transferring what I know to the internet.

Last Sunday's session went well, as far as I can tell. Feedback has been positive - which is incredibly relieving, to be truthful - and everyone is looking forward to the next session. What really helped is the fact that while some of us were new to D&D we were all new to roleplaying on the internet.

What I found so enjoyable about this session was the fact that I could go back to the part of running a roleplaying game I enjoy the most; weaving the story. Narrating the scene. Creating the reality the players were going to experience and, most of all, talk lots and lots of bollocks. I got to act the characters (what few there were) and really get my teeth into telling a story.

Of course, the game doesn't exist solely for me to show of what storytelling and roleplaying talents I imagine myself to have, and when I had set the scene and sat back, asking the players what they wanted to do, they really got stuck in. As expected some were a little quiet and maybe didn't get as involved as I would have liked but I put that down to the technology we were using as it can be difficult. I'm sure if we were sat around a table things would have been different.

Ahh... oh, for a table.

The players responded really well and I was proper impressed as to how patient, attentive and willing they were to get involved, ask questions and put their characters and their skills to good use. If this is what I have to look forward to in future sessions then I am more than looking forward to this new chapter in my hobby.

But, damn, do I want that table.

WE HAVE A WINNER! ‘ANCIENT ODYSSEYS’ FROM PRECIS INTERMEDIA Competition Results

* CONGRATULATIONS *

from

to

LEONARD ANTHONY

In the Philippines

ON WINNING A COPY OF

THE LOOT IS WINGING IT'S WAY TO YOU AS WE SPEAK!

Thank you to Brett M. Bernstein at Precis Intermedia and everyone who took part!

Check back for more great competitions in the future!

Roleplaying on Google+

Well, that was a first for me.

All my gaming for the past 30 years has been around a table, passing books and dice around and quickly and easily explaining character generation, rules and combat. Minis and counters guided our encounters and banter was easy and flowing. Not so in the internet. A slow connection and a dicey computer almost destroyed any interest I had in gaming over the web.

Let me explain what's happening here. Recently my wife joined the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club and met some very nice people there. They swapped letters and it was decided that everyone wanted to try D&D, and my wife, bless her Jayne hat, volunteered me as DM. 'Okay' I thought, 'I'll give it a go'.

After purchasing a webcam and settling down at my computer with the basic D&D books we got started on Google+ and I began by introducing the game. But disaster struck. Slow connection. A dodgy PC that wouldn't keep up. A constant echo in the headphones that annoyed me and a stop-and-start nightmare that stalled everything.

After a long period of slow, confusing character creation in which almost nothing happened I looked at Lisa with a pained expression. 'I don't want to do this anymore', I said. After a few more moments I finally dumped my machine altogether and used Lisa's laptop. The character creation finally began.

And what a wonderful session it was. We could finally talk in virtual realtime, we went through the classes bit by bit and I simply read out the numbers and told them where to put them, questions were asked, concerns were raised and characters were created. I mapped out the world I wanted to use - original Forgotten Realms - and explained the kind of game I was going to run. As it was an online game there would be combat but not extremely tactical as we had no combat mat or minis we could move around effectively. I would concentrate more on plot than on rolls as the dice rolling would get in the way, no doubt. Overall I wanted to make the game story driven as the limitations of the internet, the fact that we weren't all standing around a gaming table, would severely hinder combat and mapped exploration.

But most of all, what I took away from all of this, was simply how much fun I had once the computer problem had been sorted. I was talking and interacting with friendly, funny and simply nice people and it was relaxed, fun and quite sincere. We were all there for the game but also to meet fellow nerds who enjoy geek stuff. I had one of the best times I've ever had in the roleplaying hobby and these people were thousands of miles away.

And do you know what?That really irked me. It irked me that these people who I just spent a couple of hours gaming with don't live around the corner, weren't sat at the same table as me or are available for a quick call or a coffee so that we can talk about character backgrounds or adventure ideas. Because I've just tasted live international internet none-MMO roleplaying and I want more, damn your eyes!

And I demand that 'twatter' is added to the dictionary!

Dev Diary - AFF Science Fiction: The Long Road

Wow.

After 56 pages and almost 24 thousand words I'm close to finishing the playtest version of the game. I've copied across a lot of the original rules and I've been through it twice and I'm still seeing gaps and changes to be made. Not only that my head keeps filling with rules variants that I'd like to put in, but I'm refraining as I don't want to complicate the game and I also don't want to get sidetracked. It was my intention to have begun writing the setting by now but the rules really have taken longer than I thought they would.

Right now I just need to get combat and starships down as I'm still hand-wringing about certain aspects, such as ship design and ranged combat. I'll use what the original gamebooks give me for now and take it from there. I can make adjustments as I playtest.

As far as the setting is concerned I'm taking a step back to the science fiction of the 1970s and 1980s and using it for inspiration. I don't want to get bogged down by design and technobabble; I don't really care how something works, it just does. I want to keep it simple and easy and make sure that the primary thing is the adventure, not the window dressing. Each gaming group will have their own idea of how a game will look and feel, they'll have their own ideas of design and aesthetic, and the rulebook - even the setting - shouldn't dictate any of that.

I shouldn't concern myself about any of that right now. I need to get these rules finished!

A new game, a new GM, and a fresh set of eyes

The Greyhawk Basic D&D campaign is having a break at the moment as the excellent GM recharges his batteries, so for the next few weeks the game is being run by regular player Rich. He's decided to do a Hulks and Horrors game.

It's an adventurous dungeon crawl game, substituting ruins for starwrecks, tombs for asteroids, long lost lands for unexplored worlds. It's a great little system and as Rich knows Basic D&D the perfect choice for him.

Now, Rich hasn't run many games - in fact, as far as I'm aware, you can count the games he's run on one hand - and I've never played in one of his games and he's never run one for us. To be honest, you wouldn't have noticed. If ever I've seen someone slip into the GMs role naturally it was Rich. He kept the story going, allowed us free choice, didn't get flustered and rode the 'players are taking the piss' waves well. He'd obviously made sure that he'd covered the rules so that he didn't have worry about them and just got on with the actual game.

I've gamed with many first-time GMs and had a horrendous time. You can forgive any of them initially because it's their first time, or they've not done it much, and they're understandably nervous and inexperienced - running a game can be quite daunting at times, even for seasoned gamers. Some you can see will only get better while others... well, there are others that simply aren't cut out for it. Even the best players make lousy GMs.

Rich, I think, has started out really well and looks to only get better. The next few weeks will really tell but right now I'm enjoying his game.

Hulks and Horrors is a really good game based on Basic D&D and was a great choice for us as we've been wanting to get into a science fiction game for a while. My attempts fizzled out after two or three games but I now realise the problem; as we've been playing D&D for years I should have just used that system and kept everyone happy instead of trying to learn a new system

Here's the H&H blurb below:

'We are not alone in the Universe, but we have few friends. As we emerged on the galactic stage, we found a universe stripped bare of sentient life by a great Plague, leaving only the wild beasts and twisted plague horrors wandering the ruined hulks of lost civilizations.

We are the Surveyors. We explore the uncharted sectors of space and hunt these ruins for the treasures they contain and the riches they might bring to what sentient life remains. We are not brave, merely foolhardy and desperate. Those who survive become rich beyond dreams. Very few survive. Hulks & Horrors is a science-fiction roleplaying game of galactic exploration and adventure for 2 or more players ages 13 and up. Inside you will find:

• Complete rules for characters up to Level 6 and beyond

• 7 character classes: Pilot, Scientist, Soldier, Psyker, Hovering Squid, Omega Reticulan, and Bearman.

• Easy to learn old-school inspired game rules and combat system

• Weapons, armor, and equipment inspired by classic science-fiction

• Spaceship construction and combat rules

• Random tables for creating whole sectors of space

• Loot generation rules

• Dozens of alien monsters as well as guides for designing your own

• Dungeon-mastering advice for sandbox space exploration

• Optional rules for customizing Hulks & Horrors

Hulks and Horrors is available in 6"x9" format in both PDF and Print on Demand.'

The Rules May Be Guidelines, But They're Still Rules

This is a quick snippet from my book 'The Book of Roleplaying Hints, Tips and Ideas', available from DrivethruRPG and on Kindle (see the right hand sidebar).

Roleplaying games have a set of rules to adjudicate actions and abilities and these are reflected, in most cases, in the use of dice. So why do some roleplayers feel it necessary to cheat? The idea of a high adventure game is to inject a little of the chance and danger inherent in such things. If a bad roll is made, it does not reflect badly on the player, it's just the way things turned out and it's a sign of good roleplaying to take the rough with the smooth.

There are five general types of cheaters:

1) The "Pooper Scooper" who will roll their dice and pick them up straight away before anyone else has a chance to see the result and claim they succeeded.

2) The "Ready-To-Rumble Roller" who will claim they succeeded with the dice that are already lying on decent numbers on the table, which were not actually rolled.

3) The "Bombardier" who will roll their dice one at a time, and every time a low dice comes up they will slam their next roll into the previous dice in the hope of knocking it onto a better number.

4) The "Houdini Skills" players who suddenly acquire a skill or increased ability to help them out of a situation, usually added to the character sheet secretly during play.

5) The "Phantom Equipment" player who will suddenly have an item or tool appear on their character sheet, again added during play.

There is no sure way to guard against these cheaters, especially in large group games where there is a lot to be aware of. There are some precautions you can take, however. Make sure that, before play starts, the group is aware that all rolls are to made in the open and watched by others. (The GM may be exempt from this, depending on their use of GM screens and wanting to have the chance to have more control over the game). Then the player/GM has no choice but to make the roll. Also, rolls must be made with all the required dice thrown at the same time. This way, the group is aware that rolls are being monitored and pre-warning them means that players don't feel picked on.

Don't worry too much about weighted dice. These little monsters are easy to spot as they don't roll naturally and have a tendency to spin when landing on their set number. You can check most of the dice before play, anyway. Have photocopies of the PC character sheets to hand to the GM, and make sure as a player that you've had a good look over other player's sheets (group style/policy permitting). This way you'll have an idea what each player is capable of and what they own, and have an insight into the possibility of cheating.

Case: During a strange game of Call of Cthulhu, the group was skulking about a sunken church in the Black Forest of the Rhine when they were suddenly attacked by ghouls. Single handed, one of the weakest characters in the group managed to hold off the ghouls with a machete and pistol while the others grabbed artefacts and made a run for it. He was hailed the hero of the encounter...until it was realised that no-one had actually seen any of the rolls made, and that the items "pistol" and "machete" were not actually on the player's character sheet equipment list.