Godlike: Nazi Hunters

Out at DDC last week, someone asked me what my “main” game was. I responded that I don’t really have a single game that I play all the time. I do have clear favorites that I will run and play whenever I have the chance and one of those, as you all know, is Godlike.

Recently, and idea I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a while jumped from the back burner to the front burner and turned the heat all the way up. It’s a game based on the exploits of a group of Talents, the last remaining TOG from WW2, out hunting escaped Nazi Talent war criminals. It’ll be set in the early 1960′s at a time when people are a lot more concerned about the Soviet threat than an old enemy from nearly 20 years earlier. So, lots of Cold War shenanigans and imagery set against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile crisis.

The PCs in this TOG are led by a character from our Godlike campaign of two years ago, one Mark Logan, who in one of the preludes was hinted that he’d become a Nazi hunter after the war. This was such a cool idea, it stuck with me all this time and I’ve always wanted to do something with it. The other PCs in the TOG are a mix of characters, some ex-military, some civilian, some government types (read FBI). So there will be a generation gap as well as an experience gap between some of them and that should make for some interesting play.

My imagery for this draws heavily on movies like The Boys From Brazil and The ODESSA File, plus lots of Cold War era spy thrillers or just 60′s action flicks like The French Connection.

The players seem excited and are already working up concepts and characters. I plan to run this as one of the occasional Friday night games that we sometimes do, and given its scope it may turn out to be a mini-campaign (like a 3-parter).

I’ve really got the bug for this one!

 

DunDraCon after action report!

I got back from DDC this afternoon. I was pretty worn out but glad I went. As I’ve mentioned before, the last time I went to DDC before this was exactly 20 years ago, in 1991, just about one week before I left for Japan. And that time, I did little more than hang out.

So, here’s how it went down for me.

Friday

We got out there about 2 or 3 and after settling in, I started my first game at 6pm – Agon. It wasn’t my first choice for the time slot, but turned to be pretty fun(ny). Agon is a game about Greek heroes doing heroic Greek things. And since the characters are the sons and daughters of the gods, it follows that the gods are interested in their lives. The GM, Gil, was running this game simultaneously with Sean Nittner, and in that game, the characters were the gods our characters worshiped. The idea being events in one game affected the other. Cool indeed but tough to make it work. But Gil and Sean made a great effort, using a live video and audio feed that projected the images and sound of what us heroes were doing into the room where the god game as going on so they could observe us in real time.

Pretty cool! The effect would be for example, if I called out to Hera (whom my character worshiped) for aid, Hera (the player) would actually come over to our room down the hall and help me out! Neat! But of course the gods had their own politicking going on and for one reason or another might smite you as soon as aid you. In our game, we heroes engaged in heroic stuff (quests) for glory and often tried to outdo each other. The resulting competition was at times quite hilarious as we connived to make a rival look bad or steal the spotlight.

Unfortunately the hotel’s wireless sucked and about two hours in, the system went down and the AV setup was lost. So the two GMs decided to try texting each other to maintain contact. Unfortunately, in a fluid game like this, there was no way they could keep up and things got a little out control. Not that we were running wild, but just that it became very difficult for Gil and Sean to hang on to things as the PC began moving and reacting faster than texting would allow.

But the game was a huge blast and I had a lot of fun with it. I applaud Gil and Sean both for trying something novel that took a lot of work and coordination to even attempt – and it was working pretty well I thought, at least until we lost the realtime connection. And even after that it was still fun and coherent (if not a bit chaotic).

After this ended about 11:30, I went straight back up to my room and hit the sack. My Godlike game was at 0800 the next morning and I knew I needed to sleep.

Saturday

I got up at 6. Good lord, I still can’t believe they had games scheduled to start at 8am. This was the earliest I have ever kicked off a game in 30 years of gaming (my prior record was a 9am start for a session of Shadowrun years ago). Anyway, I was rested and motivated. And nervous. Was I going to get a crowd of good players? Even one loser would have harshed my zen for this one. All the bloody work I put into it…

I had a decent breakfast and was in the room at 7am to set up (Jeezus!) Jack helped me set up and gave me a few attaboys and that was much appreciated. He’d run his Godlike game the night before and that had gone well too, so I wanted to do my part to wave the Godlike banner.

As the players filed in, I noted that no one was late and no one was missing. Everyone seemed pretty cool and that was good sign too. As it turned out, 3 of the 6 players had used their GM priority slips to get into the game, so I had a bit of a pucker factor going on since I felt I really needed to deliver. All this freaking out gradually subsided as we got started and I realized I indeed had a very good crew. Four of the players were WW2 buffs and that was a big part of the draw for them, only one other player had experience with Godlike (and he actually had his book, yay!). But even the players who didn’t know much about the war were ready to jump in.

If you’ve read the AAR of the initial playtest I did for this game last year, things pretty much went the same way – a few opportunities to establish characters in the base watering hole the night before, followed by the mission itself. It really is a very simple scenario but with the amount of stuff going on it can be a long one, so I was worried about the time. Perhaps because the players didn’t know each other so well, there was not quite as much interaction in the bar scene as in the playtest but that was okay.

The players had at least some feel for their characters when it was time to take off. As the mission progressed and they started to encounter enemy activity and other problems, the players found their feet with the game and started really getting into it. When the main action set piece began – the attack on the airbase at Rabaul – they went at with a lot of gusto.

Like the playtest, there were many similarities but still many differences. In this game, much of the action took place at the airfield and the Talents managed to stop or otherwise destroy about a squadron’s worth of Zeros on the ground before they could get airborne. The furball over the harbor raged and the Japanese Talents did their level best to wipe put the Americans. But, my enemy dice rolls were for shit and I did not make any spectacular kills on the American Talents! Two Talents died in the playtest by comparison. That said, I did do a lot more damage to TOG302 overall. Almost all their planes were fairly shot up during the fight, and several characters had taken wounding hits of some severity. So I guess I spread it out more.

The players all did a fine job and there were many excellent moment of action and roleplaying. Everyone found ways to do cool things with their characters and I felt they were all doing a great job when the spotlight was on them. My hat’s off to Gil, James, Frank, Jill, Geoff and Thumper! Any RPG is only as good as its players and they were all very good!

We ended on a high note, with all the characters making it back to base. Everyone said they had a good time, enjoyed the theme of the game and the setup with all the minis and maps and whatnot. There were a couple things I wish I had done better or more of – I think I rushed a bit. But there were smiling faces and words of thanks so I’m very happy with that!

So, once again, Godlike TOG302 for the win!

The rest of my Saturday I just chilled. Originally I’d thought to get into some other game at 4pm, but on second thought I realized I’d be wasted from my own game and falling asleep around 5 or 6. And indeed, I was spent. I decided to spare any potential group I would be playing with the sorry sight of me dozing off mid-game and canceled my registration for the 4 o’clock games. I spent the rest of the day wandering around, in the dealer’s room, and just hanging out. In the evening I had dinner with Chris R. and we played a game of Age of Conan (boardgame) to round things out.

Sunday

Slept in a bit on Sunday but still had to hustle up to check out at 10 and get to open gaming where I was going to run The Mountain Witch for whoever came along. I ended up with 3 players (I’d hoped for at least 4) but all three were very good. One, James, had actually been in my Godlike game the day before! He and another player, Bryan, had been recruited by Matt Steele, who’d said he wanted to play. TMW is one of those games that actually works better with more people, but three is the minimum required to make it work so we went for it.

The smaller group is one of the standout aspects of this particular game of TMW. The other more significant thing about this game was, the characters didn’t betray each other! As we rolled into the end game, and the Witch’s influence became overt, I was doing everything I possibly could to get them to stab each other in the back, but they stayed loyal. The character with the Revenge fate had all kinds of Trust built up with the guy he had established as the target of his vengeance and yet… he couldn’t bring himself to kill him! Likewise, the guy with the Unholy Pact fate decided in the end not to betray his fellows to the Witch! Even Matt’s character with the True Motives fate managed to accomplish his goal with backstabbing anyone – even though he could have plenty of times.

There was a bit more to it, but in the end, they all survived! In maybe 9 or 10 games of TMW that I’ve run, this is the first time the characters haven’t betrayed each other or succumbed to their Dark Fates! Very awesome! This unexpected outcome is just one of the many reasons I love TMW. The players all seemed to enjoy it and I hope they play it again if given the chance.

The dealer’s room was smaller than I’d expected but quite busy, and EndGame seemed to be doing well, which I contributed to by picking up a copy of Legends of Anglerre. I also bought a copy of the old Fiend Folio, a pack of original WFRP 1e character sheets, and an Underground supplement, all dirt cheap. And last but not least, I got a copy of Remember Tomorrow.

One unexpected but cool (and just a bit freaky) thing was having people I didn’t know say they recognized me or had heard of me in some way. When someone mentioned this rep I seem to have in a game I was playing in or running, it kinda made me feel I had to live up to it and not disappoint, which is why it was kind of freaky.

Another cool thing was just meeting people. My sense of the Bay Area gaming community was widened – I usually interact with the crowd and EndGame only so it was good to meet some new people.

And that was my DunDraCon!

Gonzo games – Battlelords of the 23rd Century

For some odd reason, I have found myself contemplating Battlelords of the 23rd Century, which has been around for 20 years (believe it or not) and is in its 3rd edition. I’ve known of it all that time too, but never bothered to give it a look until now. My awareness of the game was that it was one of those insane kitchen-sink sci-fi/fantasy games, kinda like the infamous SenZar or the perhaps even more nefarious Synnibar, that many gamers would be embarrassed to have on their shelf (“Oh, I don’t actually play it…”) But where those games are truly awful and deserve their poor reputation, as it turns out, B23 (as I’ll abbreviate it) seems to be a rather more respectable 2nd-tier game and has even garnered praise from gaming luminary Ken Hite!

And although I still take my sci-fi pretty seriously, I’ve developed a greater sense of nostalgia for the kind of sci-fi I embraced back in the 80′s, when Hollywood churned out plenty of sci-fi B-movies of the so-bad-it’s-good variety, which is kinda what B23 is starting to look like to me. Something kinda like, oh, Battle Beyond the Stars, The Last Starfighter or The Ice Pirates.

In B23, the PCs are mercenaries/media stars who travel the galaxy blowing shit up (which in some respects reminds me of another acquired taste cult RPG, SLA Industries) . Can’t argue with that. The game seems to have a lot of gear list lurv going on and the requisite weapon and crunchy combat system fetish that plays to a certain taste (which I sometimes crave). Normally, high crunch games have to really hook me to be worth my time. The game also apparently wears its sense of humor on its sleeve, which may be the source of my relative disinterest over the years. But maybe I’ve gotten over myself a bit and so now I’m actually considering getting a copy and seeing what I’ve been missing the past 20 years.

Sunday musings

Yesterday was session 2 of our 40K campaign. It went really well, with the PCs getting more than they bargained for  with the Genestealer cult they were going after.

There was a head on firefight deep in the bowels of a cult stronghold with some serious action that left everyone seriously wounded and hanging on by a thread – several Fate points were burned. One particularly cool image was at the end of the fight, when the PCs finally took out the last of the cultists charging them, they were totally out of ammo – bolts locked back, power packs spent. Elsewhere, one of the PCs caught up to the Big Bad who tried to psychically explode out heroes head. But I choked a couple of die rolls for the villain, and our heroine shot him point blank then whipped out her mono-sword and cut him down. Awesome!

But my favorite moment was when the Acolyte team kicked in the door of the hab of another cultist and came face to face with a 4th generation hybrid child and a purestrain ‘stealer baby (and some other strangeness). There was much freaking out and blown fear checks and lots of panicked shooting and screaming. For some reason, I’d thought the Crew wouldn’t be so phased by this, but the looks on their faces throughout the encounter were pretty priceless!

I also enjoyed the denouement where they were summoned to the Tricorn Palace for their mission debriefing, and I got to lay on the massive, monolithic atmosphere of the 40K setting with a shovel. The two statues flanking the entrance of the basilica were not statues, but Deathwatch Space Marines on ceremonial guard. I came up with this on the fly, and the players worked the moment perfectly. It really felt very 40K.

Since we’re eventually going to be playing Deathwatch as part of this campaign, this little cameo sparked a couple of ideas I think I can build on down the line and should help provide some nice symmetry to the whole thing.

The Dark Heresy portion of the campaign now has 4 more sessions to go, and it’s evolving as we go along which I do enjoy. My antagonists have their plans but so do the PCs and one affects the other, so things are constantly changing. The conspiracy grows and mutates!

With that done, I’m now anticipating DunDraCon at the end of the week! My Godlike game is primed and ready for engine start, I have my Mountain Witch stuff ready, and I’m looking over Eclipse Phase since I’m hoping to get into a game of that on Friday night.

Godlike – The Good War – Campaign Book

I’ve been meaning to put this up for a while and have finally gotten around to it. These are the files for the campaign book I made up and had printed (from Lulu) for my group after we finished our Godlike campaign two years ago. They got the actual dead tree version, hardcover and all, but I wanted to make the files available eventually.

I had a lot of fun making it. It’s a compilation of all the story hour posts I did for the campaign on RPG.net (the photos of the miniatures tables we used can be found in that thread), with all the maps and extras included as well.

Looking at it now, I see a lot of typos and such (which does kind of bug me – it should, I’m an editor after all). I suppose it could use a revision. I might go back and do that sometime. But for now, here it is.

The_Good_War_complete

The Good War_cover

Old School Lurv

Today felt like summer (typical for the Bay Area in February – July will of course be colder than Siberia) and it reminded me of my wasted youth spent indoors on perfectly beautiful days like this playing D&D until the sun went down. As one member of my old Tokyo crew used to say “Ah, a perfect day for gaming!” (which he would say rain or shine).

So anyway, with no game on today (besides the Super Bowl) I sat around this morning and afternoon reading over my old AD&D books and getting all hot and bothered and wanting to play some of that again. Or perhaps some Warhammer FRP 1e. Either game would suit me just fine.

When I was 12, making complete sense of Gygax’s overwritten prose was beyond me, but I managed well enough. The old DM’s guide certainly had character. Given the way people moan and groan about the authors of RPGs having a”voice” it is comforting to know this went all the way back to the very beginning of the hobby. Reading these old books now with the eyes of an adult is pretty damned interesting. The old AD&D book is horribly organized and the density of the writing often obscures the rules, so you have to read carefully. Some of the advice in the old DMG is pretty crazy too by today’s standards (though it certainly was the norm at the time).

This led me to what is known as the OSRIC which stands for Old School Reference and Index Compilation, which is basically a restatement of the AD&D 1e rules (a retro clone). I’d heard of this but hadn’t been motivated to check it out until today. It’s a free PDF so you can grab it at that link too. It does a fine job of reorganizing, rewriting and combing out the original rules. But as a result, it lacks the character of the original, though I’m sure it is far easier to make sense of.

And I half suspect that character of the original books is part of the firm nostalgia I have for the old material. Reading that turgid, tortured game prose was (perhaps) meant to make my little 12 year old nerd self feel smart – I don’t think I’ve ever seen the word milieu used outside of the DMG, but I know that’s where I picked it up from. My family has always chided me for using big vocabulary and maybe that’s where I got it? I dunno (it’s their fault for not being more well-read anyway).

When I ran those insane free-wheeling AD&D games of my youth, I used the rules as I understood them, and I know I never used them as a whole. That may also have been why we had such a good time with it.

I’d still like to give AD&D 1e a go again. I doubt I could recapture the feeling of being 12 again, but it would be kinda cool if I could at least get a glimpse of the spirit that moved me 32 years ago.

Pop Quiz – Retro?

If I were to run some serious Old School AD&D 1e or some other retro-clone, and use it for the old Against the Giants series of modules, would you play?

Casualties would be high!

Fingers in the pie(s)

I have the next session of our 40K campaign in the breech and ready to fire, and my Godlike adventure for DDC is also ready to go now as well – all I’m doing with it now is tinkering with bits of it (fiddling with the handouts, etc.), but I could run it now with no further prep necessary.

And since it’s winter, again I find myself full of restless gaming energy. I have that long-talked-about Underground adventure on the front burner and I plan to run it for the Friday night crew later this month if I can get it ready in time. Shouldn’t be too hard.

I’m also thinking about another big Godlike “spectacular” – the North Africa LRDG game I mentioned before. I have the basic idea for the mission. Now I need to think about the enemy Talents’ll be bringing to the show. But this game won’t be for a long while yet. If it happens this year, it will happen later this year.

Finally, I am flirting with the idea of going Old School and running a game of 1st edition Warhammer FRP.