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!