What are y'all up to these days?

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Finally (finally!) coming off of about 6 months of relentless 12 hour shifts, which has meant very little time for anything other than commuting, working, sleeping, and occasional eating. Thank heavens that's over for now. Hopefully getting back into some games. As I mentioned elsewhere, my mate Al has picked up Morg Borg, which looks fairly lunatic but fun.
 
I'm finally getting around to getting rid of the 3E-era Dungeon magazines that have been taking up space at the back of a closet for years. I was amused to see the appropriate tagline on the magazine that ended up on the top of the stack.
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I took a trip up to Massachusetts to meet with some old friends, including BedrockBrendan BedrockBrendan. We did some location scouting for his upcoing RPG Strange New England, a follow-up to Strange Tales of Songling. We checked out some site in Salem, including this house which Brendan believes is the inspiration for the Lovecraft story, "The Unamable".
m9ZKm91ohQGpSPEYao3EsH2KKUEIS3n2AU7x2r74DIqorLRHRTFOliUiOEeUMJo4BCPl7jar1GjdPXOLyde1_eyzzgQsFbU8XoCv4g5OXvUzvsxWBRQp4DhfWtV5ybj3Syemm26NjUc-PUbtPOV8EVzdJf7qpfB9GI9zUC3mC2_lmKCIotIjJUZljJjIlALd4XszN-2fNcYb4uR5S-gM2_z50REGKKjtv9JdU2mZXedOHzDDPXR7NgUrpvG3ZnfCvGCjujtXk6Hcl6VoryJL6kqNI4UGThILZUC2rudIAe0UdpN1wBIyn2xbrQkMu31jp0KnCuSTC6dQ7fWdsC7Zn8-lFoaodjKm7CRHzMdUOmqb2DTmY3N2xOQo6J_iDaxRXQfEC4-6wUIuMkyXZM5jCQQ-gR4vbBbqfb_HtA3UKVFs_gGvPqtAMHpDxpTvOZyW0vY0gHA2WplaNpKz3XCKVTgXm7omvA1UwDdxPQk0TPpQpA1yTgO9v6z8vEK_dc_QY_QdkzBk51Eiqj0Pd8VENJsbTAxJTRom7BZIUtGNMtaKaTUgxcgQkiZnd5tETJ3r8QpwKH4RUT6t8I6v7mWh-tk465ywJFP_4QVV3JN4Js2ZPMFs4DSmXi1gEi_h2aqOaKiZlvUKjN_NIia95XoL880u-9egzNK5iM08QWV45I7fPLmlfgCXl4XKMc66_FmbbWKUWzoWDPOVwOGQqChOomXJyD7PcF5SI6N9YvGaWwa2yk9gmsMP0QvYLUm4yMpt_izrJD2jwwYCA5epmXpnjzLeXlypPIz9QEPuzMqWqmHijyNcOzVwmqgwHBGmkGyeDDz-Gg=w1210-h907-no


We also went hiking, looking for the abandoned site of Dogtown, which Brenan details here in both blog and podcast form.

For the record, I disagree with Brendan's assertion that we got lost in the woods. You aren't lost just because you don't know where you are going. You are only lost if you don't know the way back.

Today is my absolute deadline for any edits on Lady 87, and then I will be shifting my attention over to Strange New England.
 
I took a trip up to Massachusetts to meet with some old friends, including BedrockBrendan BedrockBrendan. We did some location scouting for his upcoing RPG Strange New England, a follow-up to Strange Tales of Songling. We checked out some site in Salem, including this house which Brendan believes is the inspiration for the Lovecraft story, "The Unamable".
m9ZKm91ohQGpSPEYao3EsH2KKUEIS3n2AU7x2r74DIqorLRHRTFOliUiOEeUMJo4BCPl7jar1GjdPXOLyde1_eyzzgQsFbU8XoCv4g5OXvUzvsxWBRQp4DhfWtV5ybj3Syemm26NjUc-PUbtPOV8EVzdJf7qpfB9GI9zUC3mC2_lmKCIotIjJUZljJjIlALd4XszN-2fNcYb4uR5S-gM2_z50REGKKjtv9JdU2mZXedOHzDDPXR7NgUrpvG3ZnfCvGCjujtXk6Hcl6VoryJL6kqNI4UGThILZUC2rudIAe0UdpN1wBIyn2xbrQkMu31jp0KnCuSTC6dQ7fWdsC7Zn8-lFoaodjKm7CRHzMdUOmqb2DTmY3N2xOQo6J_iDaxRXQfEC4-6wUIuMkyXZM5jCQQ-gR4vbBbqfb_HtA3UKVFs_gGvPqtAMHpDxpTvOZyW0vY0gHA2WplaNpKz3XCKVTgXm7omvA1UwDdxPQk0TPpQpA1yTgO9v6z8vEK_dc_QY_QdkzBk51Eiqj0Pd8VENJsbTAxJTRom7BZIUtGNMtaKaTUgxcgQkiZnd5tETJ3r8QpwKH4RUT6t8I6v7mWh-tk465ywJFP_4QVV3JN4Js2ZPMFs4DSmXi1gEi_h2aqOaKiZlvUKjN_NIia95XoL880u-9egzNK5iM08QWV45I7fPLmlfgCXl4XKMc66_FmbbWKUWzoWDPOVwOGQqChOomXJyD7PcF5SI6N9YvGaWwa2yk9gmsMP0QvYLUm4yMpt_izrJD2jwwYCA5epmXpnjzLeXlypPIz9QEPuzMqWqmHijyNcOzVwmqgwHBGmkGyeDDz-Gg=w1210-h907-no

I am not 100% sure, I am certain there are more nerdy mappers of lovecraft who have it nailed. But it is definitely a candidate (there are a lot of old cemeteries in that area)
 
Someone made a "Sandbox" system for Foundry VTT (which is the VTT I use). Not sandbox as in the style of game, but sandbox as in it gives you the tools to build character sheets and such in a sandbox matter that doesn't require you to know javascript/css to make it work. Spent a couple of drunken hours and managed to put together a functional character sheet for Brinkwood.

CharacterSheet.gif

Pretty happy with it.
 
Steel Aces: Playing Jacks 2, Page 5: Sewers & Slither Tanks
The battle below Arlington escalates as the Steel Aces face off against the forces of Chimera.
 
GothCon is over for another year. This time I wasn’t staff for the first time in 8 years, instead I ran a The Fantasy Trip demo room for two days, then spent the last two cleaning up after the convention.
 
GothCon is over for another year. This time I wasn’t staff for the first time in 8 years, instead I ran a The Fantasy Trip demo room for two days, then spent the last two cleaning up after the convention.

Where and when is this GothCon you speak of?
 
Where and when is this GothCon you speak of?
Every (western) Easter in Gothenburg (hence the name), Sweden. It’s been going since 1977, although due to pandemic issues this is the first physical convention we’ve held since 2019. Still, everything worked out and although we had a few hundred fewer attendees than normal this year, everything worked out (except for my left foot, which decided to give up a few hours before the cleaning was done today).

The TFT room was a smashing success too, we were jam packed all Friday, and although Saturday was a bit slower, we still did a lot better than I had hoped.
 
It’s just bland and tasteless really. But yeah, if you’re in Norway, especially southern Norway, you should swing by.
Well, it'll be the far North, but travelling may happen. We'll be a hour outside of Kirkenes.
 
Well, it'll be the far North, but travelling may happen. We'll be a hour outside of Kirkenes.
Wow, yeah that’s about as far as you can get from GothCon and still be in mainland Norway. Still doable though.
 
Wow, yeah that’s about as far as you can get from GothCon and still be in mainland Norway. Still doable though.
Very doable. The flight from Kirkenes to Oslo is about the same length as the flight I currently have to take from Iqaluit to Ottawa, but costs about a third as much, so it seems very affordable to me. Flying from Canada to Norway is often cheaper than my flight south to Ottawa, which is crazy pants.
 
Very doable. The flight from Kirkenes to Oslo is about the same length as the flight I currently have to take from Iqaluit to Ottawa, but costs about a third as much, so it seems very affordable to me. Flying from Canada to Norway is often cheaper than my flight south to Ottawa, which is crazy pants.
Well then why don't you fly to Norway to get to Ottawa. Jeez do I have to do all the thinking here?!?!?
 
Literally begging for help to get a newish computer (I set a limite to get a computer that's modern and will last a few years, but as long as I can get something able to play a few modern games --but not at HIGHest spec ones, and mostly write I'm good.) It's in my signature, but its not going well. *shrugs* I hate begging :sad:
 
Very doable. The flight from Kirkenes to Oslo is about the same length as the flight I currently have to take from Iqaluit to Ottawa, but costs about a third as much, so it seems very affordable to me. Flying from Canada to Norway is often cheaper than my flight south to Ottawa, which is crazy pants.
Same thing happens in Sweden. It’s often cheaper to fly to Spain from here than it is to fly to northern Sweden or even to take a train there.

But okay, good. I don’t know if this is true in Norway, but in Sweden Good Friday and then the three following days of Easter are all national holidays, so you usually don’t have to take any vacation days to show up. Hope to see you there next year.
 
Two of my nephews are staying with me for Spring Break. They discovered my anniversary reprint of WEG Star Wars on the shelf yesterday and asked me to run it. i haven't run it since the early '90s, but a brief skim got me caught up on the system. I decided to loosely run the adventure in the core, as I remember having fun with it back in the day. They made a Bounty Hunter and a Minor Jedi. The game went very well.

To give one example, the Minor Jedi, played by my 11-year-old nephew double back through the mine to check on the pursuers while the bounty hunter was hacking a terminal with the R2 unit. He looked around the corner and saw six stormtroopers approaching.

"I throw a grenade! No wait! I throw a SMOKE grenade, then I go out into the smoke-filled hallway to take them out one-by-one with my lightsaber!"

They system worked wonderfully. The only tweak I made to the 1E rules was throwing in a Wild Die partway through the session. Not being able to even attempt something with DC of 15 because you only have 2 dice just doesn't feel very Star Wars, but that is an easy fix.

I also discovered that Year Zero dice make the perfect Wild Dice.
 
Disappointed that the next thing Pinnacle is putting out is the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion. Really wish they had prioritized the Sci Fi Companion or the Martial Arts Companion. Guess I'll just have to be patient.

Pretty standard though, common wisdom is that fantasy sells the best so most lead with that. I guess we should just count ourselves lucky anything non-fantasy gets released at all.
 
Finally got to throw the bones for the first time since the first lockdown. It's a 1-1 game of Burning Wheel, though at least one other player will be joining soon. Feels amazing to be gaming weekly again after literally years away from the table.
 
Finally got to throw the bones for the first time since the first lockdown. It's a 1-1 game of Burning Wheel, though at least one other player will be joining soon. Feels amazing to be gaming weekly again after literally years away from the table.
Ahh, Burning Wheel. Great game.
 
Ahh, Burning Wheel. Great game.
It suits me and a couple of my players perfectly. Not to start a flame-war, but it gives us "what if Rolemaster or Mythras was a story-game?" vibes and we love that about it. BW doesn't click with all my players though, so it isn't the One Game To Rule Them.
 
It suits me and a couple of my players perfectly. Not to start a flame-war, but it gives us "what if Rolemaster or Mythras was a story-game?" vibes and we love that about it. BW doesn't click with all my players though, so it isn't the One Game To Rule Them.
No, BW is a game that some people love and other people bounce off of hard.
 
No, BW is a game that some people love and other people bounce off of hard.
I want to love Burning Wheel, and I enjoyed the games I ran and played in, but I'm not currently motivated to try and run another game. I'd love to play sometime with folks who really know how to make the game sing to really learn it.
 
So, I've been devouring any fangame, unofficial adaptation, or homage to Phantasy Star I can find and, man, they are rough. I have... however... gotten what I wanted out of them, inspiration for how to make my generic D&D clone less generic. As an added bonus, I think I'll be able to take my game and release a free, unofficial guide for using it to play legit Phantasy Star games.

It's not a working title, but at least I have my comp title triangulation in place: Spelljammer plus Phantasy Star. Could use a third leg, but I feel like anything else I added would detract from what I already have.
 
Finally got to throw the bones for the first time since the first lockdown. It's a 1-1 game of Burning Wheel, though at least one other player will be joining soon. Feels amazing to be gaming weekly again after literally years away from the table.
That's a long dry spell. Not a fan of Discord?
 
It suits me and a couple of my players perfectly. Not to start a flame-war, but it gives us "what if Rolemaster or Mythras was a story-game?" vibes and we love that about it. BW doesn't click with all my players though, so it isn't the One Game To Rule Them.
No flamewar here, that's probably the best description of BW I've seen. It is a game I really wanted to try, too...

Then I tried Torchbearer, and realized it's probably for the better that I didn't go for BW:grin:.
 
Prepping to re-launch my Cryptworld campaign on Roll20. In honor of "all things twos" in 2022, I'm using Chill 2nd ed. material for the first adventure, "The Beast of Exmoor" from Mayfair's Lycanthropes.

This original adventure map will have to suffice (I had to edit out the location of an NPC death):

exmoor map.png
 
Power Tricks: Fun Things To Do With Powers
This week we announce a new article series. We're going to be digging into fun and interesting ways to use different power boons. Check out the lead in post in the link below!

#Metahumans #Superheroes #TTRPG #TTRPGSolidarity #TTRPGRising
 
Ran a D&D 5e “light” game for my son’s 10th birthday yesterday. Went really well. I made custom character sheets with streamlined rules and they worked.

…so well that one of the kids who owns the Player’s handbook wanted me to share blank versions of my sheets because the official ones are too complicated!

Amazing to see first-time players pretty much acting out what even experienced adult players do. The Rogue was a selfish opportunist, the Paladin was a selfless protector, the Wizard a clever problem-solver, the Warrior bloodthirsty and the Ranger a devious sniper.

I was really surprised how much they got into it.

I’ll try to post pics later of those sheets. Nothing special at all, but I’m very pleased that they were so effective .
 
Amazing to see first-time players pretty much acting out what even experienced adult players do. The Rogue was a selfish opportunist, the Paladin was a selfless protector, the Wizard a clever problem-solver, the Warrior bloodthirsty and the Ranger a devious sniper.

I was really surprised how much they got into it.

I’ll try to post pics later of those sheets. Nothing special at all, but I’m very pleased that they were so effective .
I think that's simultaneously great and hilarious!
 
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