The Champs come out swinging!

Yeah, its been a while since the last post, but I’ve been busy…had some personal family issues come up…and well….let’s just say I’ll be glad to see May end.

Anyway! One of the things that has kept me hopping has been getting ready for my new D6 Fantasy campaign, “Champions of the North.” Well, we had our first game this past weekend and I have to say I think it went pretty well.

The day started off with a spread of some medieval “tavern food” to get the group in the mood. Breads, creams, cheese, beef jerky, sausage, grapes, sliced apples and ale (non-alcoholic) all presented with a dragon skull as the centerpiece was spread out before the group when they arrived, along with their very own ceramic tankards to drink out of.

Very cool.

I’m the kind of GM that thinks that things like “theme” food, music and props really go a long way to getting the players into the game. So, on the first day of a new game I like to go out of the way and try to do something special. It was a big hit.

The game proceeded and I rolled out some new items and concepts we’d not used in games before. The first was the “Body Point Counter”….in the D6 game you can use Body Points (hit points)…so, instead of having to write/erase repeatedly, my wife Tracy and I crafted circular counters that you “dialed” down whenever your PC took damage in combat. In addition, your would levels and adverse effects of accumulated damage are printed on the face of the counter, reminding the player of their status, physically, during combat. They looked quite cool and worked out extremely well. I’ll post pics soon and might even post templates on Raptorsquad.Net for those that what to make their own for their own game. As one of my players, "Country Girl" remarked, “you could market and sell these!” But likely we’ll just show you folks how to make your own. We’re generous that way.

Another thing we introduced was a dice game called “Dragons Bones”. Little history: Back in the day (The 80’s) there was a board game called “Battle Masters”:

It was a fantasy miniatures battle game by Milton Bradley, presumably licensed from Games Workshop. The sizeable game box came stuffed with tons of plastic miniatures, a deck of combat cards and some dice. Now the dice, I still had left over in my dice bag (and even have a few of the miniatures lying around as well- it was actually a really fun game). They were six sided dice, three sides printed with skulls, two were blank, while one had a shield printed on it.

Figuring there was some way I could use these in my new game, I came up with a game called Dragons Bones …and it worked out great. It had everything that makes dice games fun: It went quick, it caused the pot to grow large in a hurry and it was up to sheer luck as to who won. Now, I don't mind using the gambling skill in roleplaying games, and in some cases there is no way around it...but if I can make the players play an actual game-within-a-game and we can have fun doing it, well all the better. Just another level of realism and fun I figure.

Again, I’ll post the rules to this on the site at some point in the future. Playing the game of course might be hard unless you have some of these special dice, but a regular D6 would work well enough.

Another new concept I rolled out was “inventory cards”….standard trading cards that has magical items and gear printed on their face with room on the back for descriptions and weight. I purchased some plastic sleeves for the group to use and dispensed these cards to them, so that whenever they have to refer to their inventory they can actually look in their folder and see what their character is carrying. Very cool. Again, it is just a way to get the player more immersed in the fantasy world. Rather than a list of scribbled items with no soul and character, these cards are visual representations that (I think) help make a stronger connection to the character and the game.

The players themselves did a wonderful job. As I’m planning on creating a small website for the campaign I’ll point you in that direction in the future to check out the characters and their exploits, but I wanted to make sure I mentioned how great they did and how much fun we had.

In fact, I overestimated the gametime and we actually quit much earlier than I thought we would. Which is good, because now it gives me some lead-time on the next game.

Which brings me to Raptorsquad.net. Since I do have this lead-time now I plan on posting another update to the site sometime in the next month or so. I’ve already got another Episode written, artwork done and other goodies ready to roll out. That being the case, if there is anything any of you would like to see added/included in the upcoming update now would be the time to speak up and drop me a line. And of course you can continue to watch this blog for updates and special little bits I might toss out before they show up on the update.

Well! I think that’s about enough from me for now. It’s late and I need to wrap it up for tonight. Again, I love to get feedback from you guys so feel free to post a response here or drop me a line. And keep your eyes open for more info regarding the Champions of the North website and the next Raptorsquad.net update.

Later!

Positive Thinking

You know, looking back, I see a somewhat negative vibe running through my previous posts. Ragging on past GM’s, players, crappy movies, etc. It’s too bad, because overall, besides a few pitfalls and bad experiences we had a ton of fun at our RPG sessions. Plus, there is just too much darn negativity on the internet these days as it is…I really shouldn’t be adding to it.

So, that being the case, I’ve decided that I’m going to list AT LEAST ONE good thing about the players and GM’s I’ve gamed with in my time. I mean, everyone has their faults, but I also think everyone has something positive they bring to the table, even if it’s minor and only surfaces occasionally. So, get your popcorn and here we go!

ME!: I’ll bypass myself as I’m not nearly as narcissistic as folks think I am. Or maybe I am and it’s just early. Who knows?

Black Cat: An unusual guy, but always good for a few laughs. Black Cat had a lot of originality and came up with some interesting character concepts…and could imitate an Ubese speaking through a respirator likes nobodies bidness. Despite having to give him a wake-up call every gameday, he was a lot of fun to have at the table.

Tank: A great friend, One of Tank’s biggest assets is his loyalty and dependability. That goes a long way with me, as I think those are cornerstones to a good friendship. Tank was a solid roleplayer and a definite positive addition to our gaming group, and his loyalty usually extended to his PC’s as well…so you could always count on him to be there for you when things got dicey.

Shades: Shades was an…odd…fellow who was with the gaming group before me but left very early in. He was only in a few game sessions, so it’s hard to really come up with something positive to say. However, he seemed like…he….hey! He always showed up with his snack requirement and was prompt (sometimes arriving as much as two hours early and sitting in a parked car in front of my house freaking out the neighbors) !!! See? I’m a positive guy! I can find something positive to say about everyone!

Elfgirl: Wow, well, let’s get things right out on the table…first off, she’s my wife. So points there…big points for reasons I can’t even go into without being censored. But when it comes to roleplaying, she’s the best roleplayer I’ve ever gamed with, bar none. Period. The time and effort and thought she invests in every one of her characters is astounding and puts others to shame. And I don’t say that because she’s my wife, I say it because it’s the flat out truth. I’ve been lucky enough to see her not only game but go into behind the scenes interactions and scenarios and make her PC literally live and breath…she’s actually raised roleplaying to an art form.

Scout: A friend of mine and a guy who has been roleplaying for more years than I can remember. One of the great things about Scout is that he is always up for a game and always willing to do something new and different. And when he gets into a character he really likes (like a hacker he played in the Boiling Point game) he can really shine…he did a great job with that character and it was fun to watch him play.

Linny: During the Raptor Squad game Linny put on some of the most memorable and enjoyable games I can remember. He balanced the games with combat and character interaction like a master and always seemed to have the big picture in mind. He was also instrumental in putting together one of the most intense and rewarding roleplaying story arcs I’ve ever participated in (what we’ll call here the Vaxxar Incident) and did so with such masterful flair and panache that it was a shame to see it end. It was truly a work of art and something to be proud of.

American Ninja: A great guy who joined our group pretty early on. AMNINJ (I’m lazy so you get abbreviations) was full of potential and enthusiasm, and that accounts for a lot in a roleplaying game. He especially flourished in the Boiling Point game, where he played a character who had a narcotic running through his bloodstream…a narcotic that would occasionally cause him to do and say some very…interesting…things. This was played out by him making a willpower roll against the drugs effects- a failed roll meant he dipped his hand into the “Bowl of Madness” - a fishbowl filled with slips of paper, on which were written some unusual behaviors-and retrieving said slip of paper. On the slip was a phrase or action he had to roleplay out in character. A lot of players couldn’t pull this off, but AMNINJ did a fantastic job that leant to some of the most memorable quotes and moments in our game. Such as his character driving madly into a group of zombies to save his team and taking time out to roll down his window and scream “IT’S NOT THE LOVE YOU TAKE WITH YOU, IT’S THE LOVE YOU LEAVE BEHIND!!!!!!!!”

Total classic.

Baltic J: Despite our differences and different playing styles, I’ll say this about Baltic J. Things never got boring with him around. If you had a lull in a game or combat was about to come up, you could definitely count on Baltic J to spice things up with some crazy ass stunt or scheme. True, sometimes it was a bit much and not entirely necessary, but there were those times when he would pull off something so insane and wild that all you could do was sit back, laugh and shake your head. And when you sit for eight hours around a table on a Saturday, that sure as hell counts for something.

Country Girl: CG is Elfigirl’s sister and joined our gaming group back in early 2006. She had some prior experience gaming from when she was younger and jumped back in with flying colors. CG has a lot of good traits, but some of her best are, like her sister, her ability to flavor her character with an interesting background and to roleplay a PC’s mannerism and speech. She did this with particular flair when she played a character called “Cinder”…coming to the table with a very authentic and ghetto street dialect that included gang signs and lingo. It was a lot of fun and something that definitely adds a lot of flavor to a game.

Long Haul: Long Haul is a buddy that I haven’t seen in about forever but I gamed with numerous times. One thing I can say about him is that he knows the rules well, and sure as hell isn’t shy when it comes to gaming. Long Haul would frequently dive in, ass first to situations in the game, occasionally doing a lot of damage to, well, not only himself but those around him. Still, he would also try to look out for his team, and pulled my character out of danger (at least danger he didn’t cause) more than a few times.


I think that’s about it for the major players! Wow, looking at this line up this list of nicknames reads like the late 80's GI JOE roster.

Anyways, point being you can always find something nice to say about someone if you just sit back and think about it. Despite the differences and issues that came up with some of these folks, in the end, during the heyday, we were just a bunch of friends hanging out and having a good time. I would like to think that as time goes on, the fun we shared will amount to be more memorable than any other thing that ever happened between us.

Till next time, keep gaming, and take a moment to thank those sitting with you at your RPG table!

Problematic GM Syndrome

I was crusing the forums and came across this comment:



"Has anyone else also noticed that this seems to be a distressingly common trend?

Great GM.

Great buddy.

Great imagination, excellent ability to create lots of interesting stuff.



And then, that person becomes a problematic player.

Insert frustrated scream.



Is it the fact that they get all the attention when they DM/GM, so when they are players, they aren't in focus and they feel like they have to compete to have some? Or what?Is there a corrective facility where I could put these cases?"



See, I’ve experienced this firsthand. The GM in our Raptor Squad game was a great guy- really creative, super with NPC’s and ran a fantastic game for years that we all enjoyed. Now, that’s not to say he didn’t have some faults (see the previous thread “Cheating Bastard!”) but hey, none of us are perfect.

So, when he was unable to run the RS game any longer, and had to hand over the reigns, I was happy to step in as GM. I was further thrilled that he was going to become a player. Finally, I thought he would have a chance to really shine as a player as he had as GM.

Yeah, that didn’t work out.

I don’t know if it’s the inability to know exactly what is going on at all times behind that GM screen, or the fact you have to work, you know, on a TEAM with other people or that as a player you have no more rights or privileges than the other players, but when, well call him “Linny”, became a player in my Boiling Point game things just went outright to hell....and not just for him as a player.

The first game was successful enough. He played an engaging former shockboxer and wrote up an extensive history and really put a lot of time and effort into character creation. I was totally impressed. He gave me tons to work with and really seemed to get into his character…in short he looked to be exactly the kind of player I expected him to be.

Then the problems started.

At first, the fact that he would only show up for half a game tended to throw everything into a bit of a flux. Having to ghost a character is fine, but when you are under the impression the player isn’t going to be there to begin with, it makes it difficult to just toss the PC in when they show up. But it’s cool…I rolled with it and made it work.

Then the problem began to arise between his brothers. See, Linny had two brothers who also gamed in our group..Black Cat (who has been mentioned before), and “Scout.” Now, I’m no family psychiatrist, but it didn’t take one to know that these three guys had some issues they needed to work out (and still do from what I know.)

And that’s cool.

But don’t do it AT THE FRIGGING GAMING TABLE.

See, Linny had a nasty habit of screwing his brothers over, like repeatedly. And on the occasions where they would call him on it, an argument would usually ensue that would leave one or both of them pissed and the rest of the group, well, uncomfortable (I'll give points to Scout that he tended to let it go- and I appreciate him for that). The fact that when most of these disagreements occurred was during the RS game usually ended with Linny basically dropping the GM hammer and saying “that’s that.” Fair enough- his game, his rules, his decisions- even when he was wrong.

On one occasion Black Cat had been working on creating a suit of Ubese Armor for like, weeks...when he finally got it ready to go and rolled up he presented it to Linny who then proceeded to tell him that he had no idea what he was talking about, never mentioned he was making a suit of armor to him before and that it would take ANOTHER few weeks to create it. We all sat around stunned because we'd seen Cat tell Linny in the last game session that he could make the armor. This kind of stuff happened, well, frequently between the two.

The problem occurred when he tried to pull that sh*t in MY game.

I was surprised the first time it happened. Basically Scout wanted his character to try something and Linny didn’t see the need for it. But instead of dealing with it in character, he told Scout (out of character ) NOT to do what Scout wanted to do.
So, as GM I stepped in and told Scout to go right ahead and do what he wanted. Linny apologized for speaking out of place and that was that. Still, it wasn’t the end of he and his brothers going at it…though Linny did try to keep it in character, that doesn’t mean that his actions were exactly “in character”. In fact, there were many times where some out of character knowledge tended to worm its way into his decision making processes. Still, I tried to let it slide for the sake of the game.

So, what initially started off well began to spiral.

I think the lowest point he reached was when he had an opportunity to help a fellow teammate who had just been seriously injured, had in fact, told the rest of the team he was going to help this injured team member, and when the time came, simply left him there to die. He even took the time to look at the wounded team member, and then simply walked right past him, leaving him there to bleed to death (or die of internal wounds, but who's keeping score?)

Oh, he tried to justify his decision, explain it away and pretend it wasn’t any big deal. Hell, I think he even went so far as to come off with some half-assed reasoning based on Eastern Philosophy or some nonsense- which might have worked if, you know, we weren't playing ON ANOTHER PLANET IN ANOTHER GALAXY. They were weak ass excuses and I called him on it and I know it pissed him off that I wasn't buying into his bullsh*t but I really didn't care. He decided to do something in game to screw someone over and now he had to man up and face the music with the rest of the group and didn't want to. Wah.

Bottom line was that the player who got f*cked over, Tank, sure as hell didn’t see it as anything but Linny being an ass that Tank was playing a character more powerful and more well liked in the group than Linny was. This was an opinion shared by others as well, and opinion that Linny's PC was going to have hell to pay for what he did- it wasn;t something that was just going to go away (as much as Linny hoped).

To be honest, this one event was the catalyst for Linny leaving the group. He disappeared for the next few game sessions citing various reasons for his absence, but continuously providing lip service to the effect that he was itching to get back in and game. He would stop in on the groups message board, post once every few weeks just to let us know he was still around but that was about it.

Well, September rolls around and we have what we had taken to calling our “Raptor Squad Hall of Fame Game”...a game Linny would run twice a year so we all could dust off our old PC’s and roll some dice. So, not surprisingly, a month before the RSHOF game was to take place (which my wife Elfgirl and I hosted at our house), Linny started sending me e-mails telling me he wanted to do some Play By E-mail with his Boiling Point character to “bring him up to speed” so that in October, after the RSHOF game when we jumped back in to my Boiling Point game he would be ready to play “in character”.
Yeah, that was cool I told him, though in the back on my mind, something didn’t feel “right.” I even went so far as to mention it to Elfgirl, saying something along the lines of “I wonder if he’s just doing this e-mail bit to smooth things over for the RSHOF game, so there’s no weirdness around the table.”

Well, the RSHOF game came and went with little fanfare (if you don't count Linny's wife showing up in the middle of the game, screaming and bitching him out at the top of her lungs and making everyone in the house feel awkward and uncomfortable- but thats another story) and of course, trying to be the good GM I began work on the mini e-mail adventure for Linny’s Boiling Point character, complete with artwork, maps...the whole nine yards. The plan was to get him started a few weeks before the actual game and then work him in. He was busy putting together the RSHOF game, so we decided to start afterwards with his e-mail scenario.

I worked hard on it, hoping to create an exciting challenge for his character that would segue into the game so he could step back in with as little adjustment as possible. So, yeah, I spent hours of my free time and energy creating a scenario that we could roleplay over e-mail, all at HIS request and to simply help HIM out. I was staying up late and specifically setting time aside to work on this at his request, all the while putting together adventures and work for the regular Boiling Point game. Finally, with a cool mini adventure designed to straigthen his PC out and get him back on the heroic track, I shot off the first e-mail in what I hoped would be something neat for both of us.

It lasted all of two e-mails.

Besides sitting on his hands, trying to decide what to do, his character basically did nothing. And while I tried to coax him in to some action, hell ANY action, he simply sat on his ass and did nothing. Fear, for whatever reason, had frozen his mind and instead of doing something, ANYTHING to further the game, he let his character stand in an empty hallway when his in-game ex-wife and son were potentially dying on the other side of the door.

Yeah, reeeeeeeaaaaaaaal heroic.

It would be one thing if he were playing some wimpy little coward who didn't have any backbone- but he was playing a former SHOCKBOXING CHAMPION. Someone who wasn;t a stranger to ass beatings and load of pain! But what the hell right? Better to let the bitch and the kid die than, God forbid, charge in like a man and rescue them if need be.

But I kept these thoughts to myself, and simply tried to goad him into doing something besides timdly knocking on the door for the fiftieth time.

Then, he simply stopped e-mailing me.

Or calling me. Or visiting the groups message board. Or having ANY contact with any of us, for, oh about three months. It's like the world opened up and swallowed him whole. he simply disappeared.

Yeah, I was pretty pissed.

I was pissed that after seven long years of friendship that he would basically turn his back on our group for no reason. I was pissed that after that after hosting HIS game for seven years, and always striving to be a good player, supporting whatever goofy decisions he made around the table that he would come into MY game and cause such havoc…a game I might add that only existed because his wife wouldn’t let him game any longer. And finally, I was pissed that after all of the money, time and energy I expended to create a game that we all could enjoy, my hard work was rewarded with simple indifference- basically his way of saying “I don’t even respect you enough to come around and tell you WHY I’m not gaming with you any more.”

Yeah, so I was pretty pissed about the whole affair.

He finally came dragging around three months later asking if he could be let back in to the groups message board so he could “hang out”. He outright said he wasn’t going to game (not that I was surprised.)

But you know what he never said? And it’s something a lot of these social retards never say because they either don’t have the balls or simply aren’t man enough to stand up and take responsibility when they f*ck up:

He never said "I’m sorry."

That’s it! Had he uttered those two magic freaking words, I would have forgiven him and allowed him to at least come back around and pal around with the group. I would have at least let him do that and let bygones be bygones, and hell, even let him run another RSHOF game if we wanted. But like another social retard known as Baltic J who got the boot from our group (and who, like Linny also came dragging back around after getting the boot three months earlier wanting to “hang out”- I think they must have been working from the same script) the ability to take some damn responsibility and APOLOGIZE for his actions was simply too much to ask.

So, I get an e-mail with some half-assed attempt to weasel back in to the group without having to face up and be a man about what happened.

What Linny and Baltic J never realized, is that the group was better off without them. That their actions and disregard for people’s feelings made them undesirable, and their inability to recognize that other people were involved with the gaming group, folks that had invested time, money and energy to create an enjoyable experience for the entire group- not jsut themsleves. They never realized it, and eventually, their actions led them to getting voted the hell off the island.

Or kicked off by one pissed off GM who doesn't suffer disrespect lightly.

It was pretty sad really, that it ended like it did. But, in the end a guy that I thought was a really solid GM turned out to be a lousy player, and in the long run, a lousy friend. But, that was years ago, we’ve all gotten older and moved on and my anger had been replaced by pity. Pity because I’ve put on some truly kickass games since, and I’ve got another I’m gearing up to run as we speak…and it’s going to be something special…damn special by the looks of it.

And it’s a pity that all he had to do was apologize and he could have been a part of it.

Are you that hard up for cash? Seriously?

So yeah…I’ve got Star Wars burnout.

I’ve mentioned this before of course…and it’s the contributing factor as to why Raptorsquad.Net hasn’t enjoyed the number of updates as it has in the past. I don’t know….maybe it’s the years and years spent playing the RPG, or the hundreds of thousands of words I’ve written chronicling our teams adventures in fiction, or hell, maybe it’s the hundreds, possibly thousands of hours spent building and updating the website. Who knows?

Or it could be that I’m a little sick of what the Star Wars franchise has become.

See...I’m old enough to remember what I’ll call “the good old days”. I remember when you had the movies, a handful of paperbacks and well, that was pretty much it. Then, back in the 90’s a guy named Tim Zahn came along and wrote a fine little trilogy that picked up and shed light on what had happened to our heroes after the Battle of Endor.

Cool.

The Zahn Trilogy was really something special…for the first time in like, a decade we got to see the adventures of the Star Wars characters continue…and it ended great…everyone was happy, just like a nice space opera should end.

Then the floodgates opened.

Quick as you please the comics started rolling…then more books…then talks of the prequels. And suddenly this nice little story that had a solid beginning middle and end became…well…sh*t.

I’m sorry it did.

I don’t really care if folks agree with me, and don’t get me wrong, there are certainly some bright points to the material that followed (albeit few). But as with anything, you go to the well too often, it tends to dry up. And the Star Wars well was repeatedly accosted by so-called “writers” who decided instead of telling a good story in the Star Wars fashion they would “leave their mark” on the legacy by taking a nice steaming dump all over the characters and history.

They freaking killed Chewie for God’s sake.

And when that wasn’t good enough, it turned to “Hey! Let’s knock off some of the Solo kids…or hell, turn them darksiders! Because, you know, that makes us ‘edgy and cool’ and takes the story into uncharted waters not explored before yadda blah blah frrrppppt”

Frell you, you useless hacks. I hope that nice juicy paycheck went a long way towards buying you some sort of conscience, since you didn’t seem to have much of one before. And heads up, killing off characters doesn’t make you a good writer, it makes you a desperate writer who lacks enough imagination to produce real drama and intrigue. It’s cheap, and no different than when comic book writers do it, especially since all you are trying to do is make another buck because you don’t have enough confidence in your own abilities to think you can sell books without some cheap-ass plot device.

But you know who I blame most? Lucas.

I know he doesn’t give sh*t one about the franchise anymore, and it’s just a way to fuel his “future projects” and all of that crap. Hey George! Maybe we’ll get Howard the Duck 2 now huh? But still…he steers the ship, he calls the shots. And the fact that his greed has allowed him to let these not talent ass clowns systematically rape and defecate all over these beloved characters makes me sick.

But anything for a buck apparently.

Heads up Georgie Boy, just because YOU don’t give a crap about these characters any more doesn’t mean other folks don’t.

And yeah, I hear all of the clueless Fanbois out there chomping their teeth and hammering their mom’s dining room table with their meaty fists proclaiming “But it’s his creation! He can do what he wants with it!”

And yeah, that may be true. And in the end the only thing I can do is ignore these freaking “Officially Licensed Lucasfilm” abominations that come out and stick to what I like and ignore the rest.

But that still doesn’t mean I have to like it. And it sure as hell doesn’t mean I have to keep quiet about it.

What bothers me is the lack of responsibility for his creations, the lack of “ownership”. It’s not just a problem with Georgie and the Star Wars franchise either- it’s a freaking refelction on our society as well. I won’t go too deep into all of this, as this blog sure as hell isn’t going to turn into something political- suffice to say, I think that folks need to learn to take some damn responsibility for their actions and stop blaming the government, society, religion, the ice cream man down the street, etc. Stand up! Be freaking accountable you losers! Stop trying to hang your phobias and hang ups on crap that happened to you twenty or thirty years ago or some politician you never met because you don’t have the stones to stand up and say “Yeah! I did this, it was my choice and now I’m ready to face the consequences!”

But I don’t expect that to happen. Our society is lazy, goofy and has no little direction, and until people start getting a foot dead up their ass, it isn’t going to change.

But back to more trivial matters….

So, I hope George has enough money now to keep him in plaid shirts and nose hair trimmers, and hell, it only cost him some integrity, right? Nice work man.

Meh.

See, this is why I keep Raptor Squad running. Because at the end of the day, I can play in the Star Wars sandbox, with MY characters and not have to ask for permission from anyone. MY characters, MY story, My adventures. The way I want to tell them. And if a character dies in the story, it’s not so I can sell a few more books.

So…that’s that. End of my rant. What was going to be a nice little post about how I lost the drive to update my site turned into this. I do so love me some stream-of-consciousness.

As always, feel free to sound off, agree, disagree, whatever you want. Just keep it civil fanboi, Vic doesn’t suffer disrespect lightly.

Iron Man and the Big Green Goof

Not really RPG related, but….

I gotta say, Iron Man looks pretty sweet. I have NO interest in The Hulk. I thought the first one sucked ass. Made me want to scream “GIVE ME FERRIGNO!” in the middle of it…couldn’t even bring myself to finish it in fact. I think that some comic book heroes simply don’t translate well to the big screen, be it because their characters simply aren’t that deep or their physical representation doesn’t lend itself well to “real world” interpretation. And I’m sorry, the grunts and snorts of The Hulk simply fails to convey the…emotion…necessary to draw in viewers. Add in the fact all of the “Hulk” acting was done by a CGI character and you have an even MORE impossible task. Fact is, CGI hasn’t gotten to the point yet where a grossly mutated computer generated character can convey a realistic emotional range, especially when he’s stripped of dialogue.

So, yeah…The Hulk sucked. And I realize Edward Norton is in the new one, but the last good thing he was in was Fight Club and unless they paint him green and juice his skinny ass up on ‘roids, the moment he “Hulks Up” I’ll loose interest.

But now, Iron Man? Iron Man looks badass.

Oh, and I saw some screenshots of The Watchmen.

I’m torn on this one. I read the book a decade ago and even then its ideas and presentation was a bit dated. Rolling a film out NOW, like, 20+ years since the graphic novel came out just smacks of desperation. Plus it’s cast by a bunch of relative unknowns…which usually makes or breaks a flick. Likely it will wind up on the Netflix list.

But hey, all this takes a back seat to seeing my man Indiana Jones kick the piss out of some f*cking Ruskies.

Hell yeah.

Cheating Bastard!

Meh. I’ve been sick as a dog the last few weeks, so you’ll excuse the lack of posts. Or maybe you won’t. Doesn’t matter, not like you’ve got a pair to come and do anything about it. Huzzah!

Anywho…

I’ve been lurking on various message boards and forums and pondering certain topics. Here’s one I’ve seen come up fairly frequently that I just don’t get:

What the hell is the point of cheating in a roleplaying game?

See, I understand cheating in a poker game or a craps game (don’t agree with it, but I certainly understand it). You’re going up against another person, money is on the line…sure, I could see the logic behind wanting to cheat. A brother needs a new pair of shoes, right?

But a roleplaying game?

WTF man?

A roleplaying game is an entirely different beast. There are no “winners or losers”…well, there may be losers but that’s a different post altogether. But you get my meaning. There is generally no money on the line, no one walks home with a trophy at the end. So why? Why cheat? Especially, since, in the games I’ve been involved with, you are working together with others to not only tell a story but to have a good time and some laughs. What is the desire/need to cheat?

I’ve played with two cheaters I know of around the table in the last few years. One guy we’ll call Baltic J, the other, Black Cat. Both had their own little methods of cheating at the game, yet different.

Black Cat was the most subtle. See, Black Cat would sit there and when it was time to make a skill check would roll, like ten times. Now, the GM was usually involved in a dozen other things…so he would tell Cat to just roll it and let him know what he got when he got back to him. So while other things happened around the table, and other players pursued angles and drama, Cat would simply sit there, quietly rolling his dice, a half dozen times or more until he got a total he liked. When he did he would sit back, smile and wait. When the GM wrapped up with the other gamers, he would ask Cat what he rolled and Cat would proudly gesture at his dice and the GM would nod, describe the success and we would go on with the game, In the rare occasions the GM would catch Cat in the midst of his roll-a-thon, Cat would simply tell him he was “warming up his dice” or “throwing around some practice rolls”. The GM bought it and Cat would make an actual roll.

The thing is, the roll was RARELY that important! It would be one thing if it was some life or death moment and the whole game was hanging in the balance, but it wasn’t! It was some lame, mundane skill check to see if his character could operate a freaking subway token machine or some nonsense. The roll in question rarely affected the outcome of the game in any meaningful way, yet it seemed that he simply did it just to see if he could get away with it.

Baltic J on the other hand did like to pick his spots. Not content to cheat when it meant nothing, Baltic J would try to slide one past the GM when he wanted to do something and simply questioned his character’s ability to pull it off. Baltic J was especially bad when it came to play by posts. He would outright change his D codes when rolling, or would roll using a dice roller and conveniently fail to mention that he rolled a “1” on his wild die (a critical roll in the D6 System). At first when I was running the play by post and I did a lot of the GM’ing from work (and was unable to access my e-mail) I relied on the honor system for players to tell me what they rolled, checking their results when I got home in the evening. Well, after being burned by Baltic J several times I had to end that habit completely.
The fact that Baltic J was an uber-munchkin didn’t help. His characters were downright silly in some cases…he brought munchkin creationism to a whole new level. I attribute the only reason that he didn’t play a ninja to the fact we were playing Star Wars. Still, I can even forgive that, if only he had even remotely pretended to give half a crap about what was going on with the rest of the group. But he didn’t. It was said many times that Baltic J was a solo player in a group RPG game, and the rest of us simply got in his way when it came time to play his game.

But, solo player or not, Baltic J did love to cheat when he could- and when he didn’t he tended to bitch. He especially got upset and angry when someone created house rules for the group to play by. Reason being? Because any time there are questions or grey areas that come up with house rules the responsibility to clarify the fuzzy areas falls to the GM. Baltic J hated that. He hated the fact that he didn’t have a rulebook he could point to that would support his opinion or a set of rules that he could manipulate to do what he wanted.

Case in point?

Baltic J was once playing a Jedi. He and the other Jedi in our group (yeah we had two- don’t get me started on how our group seemed to have a revolving-f*cking door for wayward Jedi. We were like a travelling halfway house or something), anyway, he and the other Jedi had come in possession on a holocron. Being mature adults playing in an RPG game, it was only natural that jealousy and pissyness would rear its ugly head. So what did Baltic J decide to do to make sure no other Jedi surpassed his uber-munchkin Jedi badass? He hid the holocron, preventing any further teachings.

Now…lets clarify something. In our game, Jedi being Jedi it was almost impossible to “lose” a holocron, seeing as long as Baltic J’s Jedi knew where it was his rival would be able to pick his brain and find out the location.

So what did Baltic J decide to do?

Well, see there is this neat little DARKSIDE power that can basically erase a persons memory.

You see where this is going?

So Baltic J decides he’s going to go, dump the holocron on some remote-ass planet, then mind wipe HIMSELF so he couldn’t remember where he stuck the holocron, and by extension, no one could pick his brain and find it either.

Yeah…mature.

So, he uses this power. “But wait!” you cry! Didn’t he get a darkside point for using this DARKSIDE power?

Of course not! Because Baltic J reasoned with the GM that since he was using the power on HIMSELF and not another person he really wasn’t hurting anyone but himself.

Right.

Ignore the fact that the point he used a darkside power to begin with should have landed his lame ass a DSP. Also ignore the fact that he should have AT LEAST gotten one for the action itself- jealousy, greed, fear all of that other crap contributing to the hiding of the holocron and preventing other Jedi from gaining insight and knowledge. Ignore the various reasons the GM should have slapped him down for being a childish munchkin ass…

What happened?

Not a damn thing.

He hid the holocron, mind wiped himself and went on down the road with his silliness.

Now, I think there is a fair amount of blame to be put on the line for this. The GM, for whateverf*ckreason seemed to allow this kind of shit to go on like, ALL the time with Baltic J. I don’t know why, but it was almost like he was scared to piss off this uber-munchkin for fear Baltic J would stop playing (which wound up happening anyway eventually but again-another story). So it wasn’t entirely Baltic J’s fault for getting away with all of his childish crap. The GM was as much at fault in some- hell most-instances.

Personally? In addition to two DSP’s I would have had Baltic J’s Jedi mind wipe work so well he would have pissed himself and forget the last twenty years of his life- reducing him to a drooling moron who couldn’t scratch his ass without help.

But that’s me. That’s how I roll.

Still, between Baltic J and Black Cat, I sat and watched cheating go on, pretty much saying nothing and minding my own business. I still can’t figure out the mentality behind cheating in an RPG, but of the group I gamed with, it really didn’t surprise me that these two players were the ones to do it.

I guess the pathetic this is, that in the end it didn’t even matter. Cat’s character never wound up to being more than background noise in most games while Baltic J burned through several more characters- each one a pale reflection of the last.

In the end, for all the cheating and fudged rolls they spent more time trying to beat the system than just playing the game and having a good time.

Roll It Up!

So, the Raptor Squad game has effectively been dead for, oh, going on about three years now. In that time I’ve run several games for the gradually shrinking group of roleplayers. The first actual game was a play-by-post I ran during the Raptor Squad years called “Freelancer”. I was a fun game with some cool characters, but was sidelined by a selfish, self-centered gamer who was more interested in showing he could “outsmart” or “outwit” the Gamemaster than he was in playing a game with friends. A trait that would eventually lead to him being told he wasn’t welcome in the gaming group any longer. The Freelancer game lasted a few months but really didn’t go very far (thanks in part to the aforementioned player and the fact the Raptor Squad game was winding down and I was asked to GM a new game) The new game was “Boiling Point” a cross between the Star Wars RPG and Shadowrun. Boiling Point went well…I was able to do a lot of exciting things with the characters and able to create some original storylines and settings. The game took place on a planet called “Blue Xenith”, and quite a bit or work went into fleshing it out.
Boiling Point lasted from January 2006 until mid 2007. A few of my gamers left or simply disappeared (the reasons are varied, though that little tale is an entire blog entry unto itself). When it became obvious folks were having a hard time showing up, I started a play-by-post game called “OCW”.
Outlaw Championship Wrestling lasted for all of a few months. The work that went into it actually surpassed the amount of time we played the game- a piss-poor statement if there ever was one. There were a few reasons why this game failed to take off and endure. Again, I won’t go into the details…suffice to say, that I learned one VERY important rule about my gamers that day:

Do not, EVER, pit them against one another. EVER.

See, when facing insurmountable evil across the galaxy, or taking on a crimelord or cutthroat band of pirates as a TEAM, the gamers worked well together, and each loss was shared as a loss by the team. But, when pitted against one another, as the OCW did…placing player-created wrestlers against other player created wrestlers…well, lets just say that some players can’t handle “losing” in the imaginary world of roleplaying. Which was a damn shame and sad as piss really…over half of the group had a blast with it, while just a few either couldn’t summon the ambition to participate (which allowed storylines and angles to stagnate) or would get outright pissed off when their grapplers would lose (keep in mind we were only three weeks into the matches when the complaining started). It was sad that it had to end the way it did…but it did end. And looking back at all of the work, time and money spent on creating it, I can honestly say that I’m proud of what I was able to create and accomplish with it, even if it didn’t last very long, while disappointed in the players and “friends” who felt that losing in an imaginary game somehow demeaned them as human beings or something. I guess they didn’t see having a group of people who care about you and consider you a good friend counted as “winning”, but maybe that kind of insight only comes with maturity-something these folks tended to lack.

Anyway, a few months passed, and with a smaller group of roleplayers now totaling four, I figured I would go back to the Star Wars well and start up a new game. The premise? Bounty Hunters (an old, but popular, standby), out in the galaxy trying to make a buck. The players agreed and in January we rolled up characters and February we ran through our first game with the new characters.

There was only one problem- I was totally burned out on Star Wars.

See, this March marked my 9th year of doing NOTHING but Star Wars roleplaying (around the table at least). It wasn’t until time to run the new game that I realized I was just burned out. The hobby I had grown to love had become a burden. I was tired of cookie cutter Jedi, evil Hutt crimelords, starships that all looked the same save for a new ion thruster or some other such nonsense. The D6 SWRPG community is all but dead, so that helped matters little. Bottom line, if you don’t know SWRPG D20/SAGA don’t even bother going on a message board or forum looking for inspiration- it’s pretty much a waste of time. In the past, when creating a new game for my players I was driven by unrestrained enthusiasm that drove me to create some truly unique and interesting adventures and settings.

Not this time.

This time, out of respect for my players (who can only meet once a month to game) I phoned it in. I did something I’ve never done before- run an adventure out of a module.

And it sucked. Harder than a F5 blowing through a Hoover factory.

The players knew it, though God Bless Em’ they tried to be positive about the suckage, but the damage was done. I was finished. I couldn’t bring myself to shove my group under the bus again for the sake of simply running such a sucky game. At first I blamed myself, but hey, I’m all about placing blame where it is due…and the adventure module didn’t help a bit. The adventure was convoluted, confusing and in the end, made little real sense. I should have tried something else, but the fact is that I didn’t have the time to come up with something on my own, so I put my trust in this ass-tastic adventure module and got burned for it. Now, I understand the problem with adventure modules- those that work are ones that generally pigeonhole players into pre-made characters or sets limits or requirements on what kind of characters the players can run…then there are the ones that tank- and tank hard. The problem? The writers of the modules have no clue what kind of characters, or, more importantly, what kind of Players you will be running through the adventure. So, they tend to make very generic generalizations and plots that try to accommodate most games…and the end result is either a game that works and is enjoyed by everyone or a game that doesn’t work.

Well, this one didn’t work-no, this one signed up for welfare, grabbed a sign and found a cozy spot beneath a highway underpass to panhandle for loose change.

Deflated, I was ready to pack up the Gm’ing tools and call it a day. But, it’s not that easy- not for me at least. See, I don’t have tons of kids screaming for my attention every day to pull me away from gaming. I don’t have a job that keeps me occupied till 10pm slaving away for that almighty dollar. I don’t have a wife who nags and bitches at me any time she sees a gaming book lying out in the open (quite the opposite in fact- I’ve got the most wonderful wife in the world who would respond “Hey! Cool! A new sourcebook for our game!”- yes, lick your lips with envy fanboys).
So, I’ve got the time to put on a good game…heck, a GREAT game- but I’ve got to be enthusiastic. I’ve got to feel the drive to create. I didn’t have it with Star Wars anymore…but what about other genres? Now there’s an idea…an idea that had been hovering in the back of my mind for some time really.
So, I went back to my crew and presented it as such:

“There is a D6 Fantasy game, using the D6 system but instead of Star Wars/Space it's fantasy/Sword & Sorcery...it's like D&D but with the D6 rules (which I like better).Would you guys be interested in trying it out? Maybe rolling up some new fantasy characters and giving it a whirl?"

They agreed, having been weaned on old school D&D (Back in the days where you found bare breasted succubus gracing the pages of the sourcebooks). Knowing that the interest existed, I began rolling through my mind the various ideas/plots/personalities I could create and use to populate this new world. Inspiration poured from the likes of John Howe, Tolkien and even the Elder Scrolls video game (which is the world our game will eventually be set in). And gradually, but with increasing speed, the enthusiasm began to build. With every page I read in the new rulebook, with every spell I converted over from D&D, with every piece of parchment paper that rolled out of my printer sporting a new list of potions or some other bit of arcane goodness, I could hear the roleplaying muse calling to me, her sweet song drawing my fingers across the keyboard as I worked on 3d models of the new player characters or customized character sheets for the players.
We sat down this past Saturday night and rolled up new characters, and the trio of adventurers are now poised to sally forth into the fantasy world of Tamriel, where goblins, wizards and dragons await. I don’t know how long my enthusiasm will last (or that of my players for that matter) but I can’t worry about that. You don’t go through life worrying about what might happen or what will happen, you can only worry about the here and now, and make decisions and actions that will hopefully bear fruit for future endeavors. Advice as relevant to real life as it is to a pastime spent rolling dice and eating junk food with friends.
So here I am ready to run a different game set in a different world. No Jedi, no Sith, no starships. Just swords, sorcery and a group of great roleplayers willing to give it all a go and go back to their roots (and mine) as gamers.
I’ll let you know how it goes.