RPGaDay Challenge 2016 - Day 6

I will catch up! I WILL!

Some years back I worked with a group that ran a small gaming convention with the proceeds going to a children's charity. That was pretty awesome.

While it might not totally qualify for what the question is asking, I'd have to say my favorite use of RPGs in aid of the community is the programs we've run at the learning and tutoring center where I work on Sundays.

Located in a middle class, predominately Chinese neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, my ex-wife started a center that provides homework help during the week, and additional education on the weekends. She hired me on some five years ago, or so to facilitate a program using role-playing games to teach the kids English reading, writing, and speaking. 

Over the years, the program has greatly assisted our students, many of who live in households where English is a second language, Listening to, talking about, and writing stories with their characters, and the worlds those character inhabit, all in English, has improved the creative, and cognitive skills of a large number of kids. 

I'm very proud to have been part of this idea, and that I can continue to do so.

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2015 - Day 31

The big finish.

Easy.

About three years ago (or was it four...could it have been four? Wow), my ex-wife came up with a really unusual idea for the tutoring center she was running.

On weekends, after the conclusion of regular classes, the students would work on their creative writing, problem solving, and language skills by playing a Role-Playing Game. Basically, incorporating RPGs into a fun after class event in which the kids didn't know they were still learning, but they were.

To make this work, she needed someone with, as Liam Neeson once said, 'a particular set of skills'. They needed to be good with children, not afraid, or embarrassed to stand up in front of a large group of them, understand RPGs, write well, and who she knew well, and could trust (it was still a business after all).

She called me, and I accepted.

That was a while ago now, and although we no longer do the RPG program there, I am still a regular member of the Sunday teaching staff, occasionally coming in a few Saturdays as well. During the Summer months, I run my own Sunday creative writing class all by my lonesome.

What started as a pay-to-GM-for-kids gig, has turned in a teaching/tutoring job. Better yet, I get to work with, and trade ideas with one of the most intelligent, kind, talented, and truly special people I have ever known, my ex-wife.

I've also gotten to know some truly fantastic kids, watched them grow up, and seen them achieve so much. One young man went from barely speaking English to getting into a high school program for robotics in just three years!

Just last weekend, I helped teach two of my students to swim. One needs to past a swimming test to get into Brooklyn Tech High School, the other is overcoming a genuine fear of the water.

Role-Playing Games gave me this opportunity, and I can't thank them enough. The real thanks goes to my ex-wife though, who also loves RPGs, loves her kids, and being a teacher, and who had faith in me that I could make this work.

Man, what a good feeling to end the challenge on.

See you soon everybody!

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Barking Alien

Five By Five

I had a very interesting weekend.

(By the way, Happy Independence Day USA! Um...belated ^ ^; )

Sunday I taught the first classes of my summer program at the tutoring center in Brooklyn where I work on weekends. In addition to reading and writing, my morning class of second to fourth grade students created characters for Faery's Tale Deluxe. Hopefully I will tell you more about that in the near future.

Saturday my group and I played the second session of our new Champions Superhero campaign, Champions: REBIRTH. Not all of those in the first session were able to make it, although my friend Hans did, which was awesome. We also added a new player, which, well, I'll address my feelings on that in an upcoming post.

Looks like I already have some great material for my next few blog entries.

On Friday, July 4th, I went to New Jersey (yes, on purpose!), in order to run a game for some ol' friends, including my ex-wife. The game?

Basic D&D, using the free PDF of Wizard of the Coast's 5th Edition rules set.

In honor of it being the fifth edition, I'm going to break down my thoughts into five, small sections. Here goes:

Disclaimer: This is not exactly a review. This is a combination of first impressions, how play went, and the opinions I, and the other players, had after the game session was over. Your mileage my vary. Widely.

Wait...before I begin, rant coming...

I have to say, I am really glad I do not consider myself part of the D&D fan community.

In the handful of days since the PDF has been available...

There is already a controversy over some of the people who were involved. I'm not going to speak on the subject, as I have not really come face-to-face with the negative nature of those people. Why not? How did I avoid it? One has always been nice to me, even when we've disagreed (which is often), and the other, well, is a D&D person. I don't go to the blogs of too many strictly D&D people. Old Schoolers even less so.

I was treated like a newb on Google+ for asking exactly where on Wizards of the Coast's site you would go to download the basic rules (I asked 'where', and was mostly answered with when. Attention D&Ders:  It has come to my attention that you were not informed of this as children, but time and place is NOT the same thing. They are in fact, two DIFFERENT things. You're welcome. Glad I could help).

When I asked for the opinions of those fans of older D&D games, who also liked what they'd read in 5E, how I could best use new elements that they found interesting, I was given the most generic answers possible. Stuff like, "The rules are a tool. You have a new hammer, with a handle, head, and claw that are a little different than the one before. The hammer design might excite you a little, might not, but what you're making with the hammer better light your fire." Gee thanks. If only I were an adult, Human being with over thirty-seven years of gaming experience I would've known that. Wait...yeah.

I can only surmise that much like DC Comics has absolutely no clue what makes their characters and universe cool, a large number of D&D fans don't know why they like D&D. It was first, so they do. I've always thought that was the case. Now I know for sure.

Zak Smith himself responded with, "I think that's a bad way to go in--you're basically asking for preconceptions. Just read the rules and do what you're gonna do." Yes Zak, that is EXACTLY what I am asking for! If I were going to 'do what I'm gonna do', I'd not bother with 5E at all. I'd just as soon go play Champions, Star Trek, Star Wars, Traveller, Teenagers from Outer Space, InSpectres, Mekton, Faery's Tale Deluxe, my Galaxy Quest game, my Muppets RPG...you get the picture. Thing is, I promised some gaming friends I like gaming with that I'd run the new 5E rules that were recently released. Not being a D&D fan, I thought (foolishly it seems) that those who ARE fans might give me some ideas for what to do with some gamers who share their preference for the beast.

Honestly though, Zak's advice was the best I received.

I am glad I gave 5E a go, and I had fun thanks to the players involved, but trying to get real assistance and a genuine 'sense of community' from the D&D community at large is a no go. I won't bother in the future. It's like trying to get a straight, and truthful answer out of a politician. Forget about it. It'll just harsh your mellow.

Now, on to the actual post...

Take Five 

When I first read through the Basic Rules for 5E (and this was the first I'd ever seen of it), I was a little disappointed.

I had not been part of the playtest, and had no real interest in most of the posts about interviews with the creators, rules reveals, or the like. I would love to say my expectations were low, but some recent conversations with Charles Atkins of the blog Dyvers, had gotten me a little excited. He made it sound really cool. Plus, Zak was involved, and I thought, 'Well, Zak has cool ideas so, maybe this will be good.'

It's not that it wasn't. It just wasn't exciting. It was nothing really special. Nothing stood out. Nothing grabbed me. I felt like I was reading a blog post of some one's campaign who had thrown some indie stuff into their D&D game. OK. That's all though. Only OK.

Number Five Is Alive

After trying (unsuccessfully - see above) to get some help and some ideas percolating, I put together a really simple story idea I've used before for other D&D and similar games. I created a couple of monsters, and rolled up an NPC to balance out the party. I was going to have three players, and I already knew they wanted to play a Halfling Fighter, a Dwarf Cleric, and a Human Rogue. I made an Elf Wizard, and the party was good to go.

Character creation, while quicker than some of the previous editions, still took much longer than I expected.

As I mentioned, one of the players was my ex-wife. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't just dislike D&D, I would hate it with a passion. She likes it, and she has a way of making me like it while we're playing together in the same game.

This was no different. She took to the new rules pretty quickly, and liked several of the new mechanics. She especially like the Inspiration related character elements. I like that part too, though I have seen its like many, many times before.

She made the game come to life really, as her excitement over there being a new edition made me excited to be running it.

Five For Fighting

Two things I do like about the new edition is that it isn't all about fighting, but when the fighting does start, it moves pretty smoothly, and quickly. Now granted, this is the basic rules at their most basic. Very likely, additional rules and options in the Player's Handbook will slow down the easy breezy feel of the basic rule set quite a bit, but still, this is a vast improvement over the grinding, 'button-mashing' feeling of 4E, and 3E+'s gluttony of feats.

The Fifth Element

I have to say that my favorite thing about Fifth Edition is that it isn't Fourth Edition. I am not sure I can say that I can identify it's particular, unique flavor as of yet, but it does not feel as MMO-video gamey as it's predecessor. At the same time, it does have a few features that my MMORPG obsessed buddy found both familiar and interesting. I find that refreshing. Maybe, without trying so hard to appeal to both the table top and laptop gaming, WotC will be able to actually accomplish that feat.

Give Me Five

I am glad I downloaded the basic rules, and it was fun to play. Not Champions fun, or Mutants & Masterminds fun, or even Marvel Heroic fun, but fun. If I had to play D&D, or else my eyes with be poked out with red-hot chopsticks, I would prefer to play this.

I am highly unlikely to purchase the game, but I think my ex-wife definitely will. It is possible at least one of the other two players will as well.

Good work Wizards of the Coast.

I was hoping for something a little different but what you have works.

Kudos.

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Barking Alien

Adventure Time

It's June and a new month (the true start of summer no less), signifies a renewed sense of purpose to get my game blog on, as it were.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Artitificial Intelligences and Non-or-Trinary Sexual Species from the Andromeda Galaxy, It's...ADVENTURE TIME!

Trying to maintain a theme these last two months has not done well by me so I think I am going to skip that approach for now and go back to the tried and true method of spilling out whatever weird concoction fills up in my head.

Ewwww.

I do it to cleanse the palette in a sense, as I have a pretty awesome theme month planned for July. It's one I've been wanting to do for some time and I think next month is the perfect time to (try to) pull it off.

In the meantime, I want to address the 'State of Gaming' for yours truly and also discuss a few ideas I have regarding a project that may allow you (Yes YOU loyal Barking Alien fans!) to join in on a game run by my moi. How's that for incentive to check back!

Why do I hear crickets?

Anyway, the status quo fo yo gaming bro is as follows:

Traveller: Operation Paladin

Run once a month, usually the 2nd Saturday, at The Compleat Strategist, New York City's FLGS.

We have 5 regular players, with 2 on again off again players for a full ensemble cast of 7. The campaign is a science fiction sandbox using a kitbash of the classic Traveller and MegaTraveller rules.

The setting is my personal take on the classic Traveller canon. Very story heavy and character driven. There have been no PC deaths thus far. Almost no combat has actually occurred honestly. A lot of politics, secret agendas, diplomacy and trading however.

This is going very well and is up to the 5th session I believe, with the 6th coming up this weekend (update for prosperity - the session run on June 15th was actually the 7th session of the campaign). I am liking this one a lot.

Champions: New Age Heroics

Run once a month, usually the 4th Saturday, at a public space in NYC. At this point, it looks like we'll have 4-5 players.

The system is Champions 4th Edition, though considerations will be given to adjustments or added material from 5th if the player can convince me its worth using.

The campaign will be set in my previously used Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1 universe, which was based on the nearly 11 year campaign created by my friend William. Part of the draw is that it will be set in the same 'universe' as my every other week campaign and could feature a crossover somewhere down the line. The main premise is a sort of Justice League-Lite or Avengers on the cheap. The PC team will be a B List superteam trying to reach A List in a world where there really isn't an A List superteam outside of those who work for UNTIL / Project: UNITY and Britain's Watch. The USA has no Avengers or JLA anymore. Can these guys be THE team?

This campaign has not yet begun.

Champions: Dark Champions NOW!

Run every other week or so, at a public space in NYC. There are only two players other than myself but I hope to add some more down the line.

This campaign will also be using Champions 4th Edition, with considerations given to 5th edition material based on player input and cajoling.

The campaign is a slightly above street level game focusing on gangs, organized crime and low level supervillains in Chicago. The setting is interesting. We have essentially gone back to Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1 (the setting of our previous campaign 'The New Age of Champions'), but we are pulling the camera in a little tighter on one particular city. It's kind of a new status quo (like Marvel's Marvel NOW) crossed with a darker, grittier Dark Champions outlook. Just started. Literally one 4 hour session so far.

Players liked it, I liked it and their characters are pretty cool. I hope this continues at least for a while. I am curious as to how I am going to cross this over with the other Champions campaign.

Marvel Heroic: Avengers Initiative: The Rookies

The campaign at the learning center where I teach on Sundays is approaching the end of its Marvel Heroic Event Series, designed and destined to finish up in time for the Summer Program to begin in July. At this point the kids, ages 10-13 for the most part, are in dire straights after a mysterious villain attacked them while they were aboard a SHIELD Helicarrier by dropping a Celestial on them from near orbit. If that sounds like it would hurt, you're right. It did.

What am I running next for the kids? Well...I do have an idea but I am going to save the details for another post. Stay tuned.

Trek Tuesdays

As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently in a Google Hangouts Star Trek game (actually two alternating campaigns) every Tuesday night and its been a real blast. Played again yesterday with my alien science officer taking even more of a command role aboard the USS Odin. I may switch my shirt from Blue to Gold.

***

Whoah Nelly! That's a lot of gaming going on don't you think? It doesn't even address the game I am working on for the younger kids class for summer and my Star Trek adventure planned for RECESS. I mean, I couldn't possibly take on another game.

Or could I?

Thinking very seriously about running a Google Hangouts game of my own set either in the Star Trek universe or in my homebrew Galaxy Quest game. I haven't decided anything yet but the ideas are germinating pretty quickly.

Would any site visitors be interested in joining in?

Lots more to see, show and tell on the next episode of Barking Alien!

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Barking Alien

And The Children Shall Lead Them

I wanted to take a quick break from the Star Trek entries to catch you all up on some updates of other things going on here at Barkley's Den.

My Champions campaign is ending, with the first of the 'two-parter' finale already completed last Saturday. We are skipping this coming Saturday as my friend and player Ray will be attending GenCon. And I am not jealous at all. Nope. Not one bit. I...oops. Seem to have broken my third stress ball.

In all honesty I am happy to see this campaign end, before it got to the point where I was really disliking it. I went back and read my accounts of the early part of the campaign and then compared those posts to the ones related to the latter half and you can clearly see...things changed. I think I will hold off from Superhero gaming for a bit, at least with the current group dynamic. It's a shame. I am still a huge fan of Supers games and this one had so much coolness that I didn't get to.

My amazing girlfriend Jenn (no, seriously, she is amazing. I am amazed.) has agreed to give gaming a try. The introductory game of choice? Faery's Tale Deluxe! Didn't I tell you she's amazing?

***

The main focus of today's post is an update on the RPG/Storytelling class summer program I continue to teach on Sundays in Brooklyn.

For this particular summer session, I wanted to focus on something a bit more light-hearted and humorous but more importantly, to teach the kids about cooperation and teamwork. Now it has been working...for the most part...but I am up against the mentality of 3rd-to-6th graders, some of whom are related. Having trouble with your cousin outside of the game means you don't want to help him in the game.

One lad in particular has a tendency to be a bit troublesome and self-centered, although strangely enough, he didn't act that way at all when he was a Starship Captain in a Starships & Spacemen one-shot I did with the kids a ways back. There he was fantastic,. letting each person voice their opinion, taking everything into account and going with the choice that best solved the problem at hand and benefitted the crew and ship as a whole.

It took some time, I had to get all 'tough teacher' on him, followed up with extra homework and then a little one-on-one conversation but I did finally find out what the issue really was. He was indeed having issues with his cousin (another player/student in the class). In the end, I think we worked out an understanding, even if everything may not be completely squared away.

I don't know that I will never see the same bad behavior again but I honestly believe he'll think about it before doing something in the game that hurts his allies (who are, in truth, his friends) or stops the game from being fun. He's a good kid, one of my favorites but like all of us at his age, he's got a lot to learn about life and growing up. Luckily he's got time.

I think I really like this teaching thing. Who knew? I sure didn't. I despised school. But then again, none of my teachers used RPGs to try to teach us stuff.

I'd love to get back to that Starships & Spacemen idea with this class. Not only would it be fun but I wonder if I could make each planet a mini-lesson on a different subject. Ooh. Wonder if that would work with my regular gaming group. They could use it...

***

Also, I wanted to acknowledge a few happenings, both joyous and sorrowful, that have occurred within the last month or so.

GenCon is this week! AHHH! I cannot go (weep) but my good buddy Ray will be. I am going to try for next year. If my business is as slow next year as it is this year it should be no problem to get the time off.

Congratulations NASA on the successful landing of the Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars. Nice work ladies and gentlemen.

While our brains were placing robot explorers on the red planet, our athletes were taking the gold on the green and pleasant isle of England. Kudos to our Olympic participants.

We may be a gun-toting nation of rich people treading on poor people's backs, without money, jobs or a decent health plan but we really do kick ass at the cool, fun stuff don't we? Boo-yah!

On a more serious note...

Rest in peace Joe Kubert, father, teacher and comic book artist and pioneer. The man who taught me nothing's ever easy in Easy.*

Well, looking forward to the weekend! Another session with the kids, a game with my girl and hopefully cool news from the floor of GenCon. In the meantime, more Star Trek RPG talk is on the way!

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Barking Alien

*From the classic DC war comic 'Sgt. Rock and The Easy Company'

Take Me To The Other Side

As I approach my 35th anniversary in the hobby, I feel like I am at a strange crossroads. On the one hand, I am gaming more than I have in years and I am really inspired to finally self-publish...something...but I am simultaneously enjoying the overall experience of gamemastering somewhat less than I traditionally have.

Actually, that is only partially true. I am enjoying it quite a bit with the younger kids at the learning center I teach at on Sunday in Brooklyn. My regular group however, well, that's been a source of some frustration as you can surely tell from some of the posts in the recent past.

Now part of this is surely do to my lack of free time lately and not being able to prepare and develop the campaign as much as I'd like. Another element is my impatience with the idiosyncrasies of my current group. The third major factor however is that there are so many idiosyncrasies with this group and that element interferes with my traditionally smooth flowing style.

So, much as I generally dislike being on the other side of the table, I think I am going to pass the GM chair to one of my players for the group's next campaign.



My friend Ray has a cool idea for a campaign based off of an Anime/Manga series that I must confess was never a favorite of mine. In truth, after watching four episodes of the animated series I never saw another and simply forgot about the show. Ray noted that he feels the Manga to be superior to the Anime and that is what he is basing the game on.

Now, lets take a close look at this situation and see how my group and I differ...

It's a game based on a series I didn't care for.
I will be playing instead of GMing and I prefer to GM over playing 100 to 1.
My last two experiences as a player were not so hot.

So what does your ol'pal Adam say when Ray says he wants to run this thing and asks if I'd be down for it? Why, I say, "Yes!".

Unlike many members of my group who, "Played something like that once, years ago, and it wasn't good so I'm not interested", or, "That's different from my tightly defined view of the 5 genres that interest me", I am more likely to say, "That's different. I haven't tried that thing, quite that way, before this. Count me in!"

So...

BattleTech Reborn goes on the back burner with tons of other campaign ideas and game projects. It's getting awefully crowded back there.

Meanwhile, I think I am going to take this opportunity to work on ideas for an old school, Original Series style Star Trek campaign. I'll save it for just the right time with just the right group. Weee! I am excited now. I am smiling. Ahhh. The burden of trying to entertain these guys is now the domain of some other masochist...er...talented referee.

Heh.

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Barking Alien

View From The Observation Lounge

This weekend I noticed something while running RPGs for the two very different groups I game with each weekend. Here now, is what I noticed...





The first group is the one I work with at the Study Center and consists of about 8 kids between 3rd and 6th grade. It is a mix of boys and girls, all from Brooklyn.

The second group is my regular gaming group and consists of four guys, ranging from their mid-twenties to mid-thirties, from all over New York City.

Observation and Speculation

The mysteries I provide for each group are not all that different in complexitiy or depth. Though the groups are very (very) far apart in age, I don't dumb down my connundrums much for the younger group or create overly complex and nuanced ones for the older group. Perhaps a little more of the latter once in a while but not in a significant way.

The younger players take a lot of notes (or at least most of them do) and look at each clue or element and put together what's happening pretty quickly and easily.

The older group, especially one player in particular, tends to lean toward speculations after their observations. That is, they will look at the clues, identify what they know and then spend 20 minutes or so speculating on what else might be involved but there has been no evidence of. This quickly leads to unwarranted assumptions, missing other key details, confusion and often putting the players in a bigger pickle than they started in.

I've noted here on this blog before...or perhaps it was elsewhere (in the comments of a fellow blogger's blog post)...that I need not create terrible monsters or brilliant death traps to cause harm to the PCs created by this gaming group. All I need to do is place a cup of coffee on the floor in the middle of a room and within a hour they will be trying to kill each other or destroy the building that has the room in it in order to save the world from what they are certain is a deadly menace beyond all reason. It is instead, quite simply, a cup of coffee in a room.

So you can keep your dragons and spring loaded floor panels, your pits of acid and well-organized goblins. I can TPK four seasoned veterans of gaming with a hot cup of java.

This is the face of evil.

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Barking Alien

God From The Machine

I've got quite a bit to cover this morning so let's get started...

I've finally decided what my next campaign is going to be.

It was a long, winding and none-too-smooth process to come up with this bad mamma jamma but I really think my group and I have a winner on our hands.

Over the course of our last few Champions sessions and several one-shot side games, I really tried to analyze what I was doing right, wrong, not as good as I could do and what elements I wanted to add in that I wasn't adding in and why.

I also paid close attention to my players, their likes, dislikes, personal styles and I had a pretty powerful Q&A with them in this regard a week ago and a report on my 'findings' a week later (this past Saturday).

To a small extent, there are definitely elements of our gaming techniques that are different enough to rub each other the wrong way on occasion. I am just as much at fault in this regard as anyone else (except my good buddy Dave, who we all agreed is the one person in the group whose approach to gaming sits well with everybody), if only in that I need to show a little more patience with those whose styles are most different or contrary to what I find fun. Honestly though, I certainly acknowledge that there are other elements of my style of GMing that may not be perfect for everbody.

With all of our sins laid bare (er, so to speak), I was able to begin putting together something that would appeal to everyone...even me.



While the concept for this game was surely the result of the efforts I mentioned above (as well as being the fulfillment of a long time pet project of mine), it was just as surely cemented by a conversation I had with my girlfriend this past weekend about atheism, spiritualism and quantum physics (Yes, she's THAT awesome. Yes.). In that conversation, which also discussed different approaches to the creative process and how communicating with someone passionate about their craft can inspire the desire to create in yourself, I realized that depending on ones perspective, the Art Film can be viewed as a Blockbuster and vice versa.

I wanted to create a game with a very unique atmosphere, a 'look' and 'feel' very different from what we've been playing over the last year or so. At the same time, I definitely didn't want something unregoinizable, where my slightly more conservative players would find themselves lost. I needed action, intrigue, grand vistas and awesome 'special effects' complete with my signature big explosions. I also needed and wanted there to be Human passions, philosophies and a perceived meaning behind it all. This campaign idea called for a grand epic across disputed stars, where survival of a people was at stake, not just a quest for fame and glory.

Sounds exciting, no?

The end result, is something I have been wanted to do for some time. I really like the Battletech universe, always have. It's Great Houses, Clans, various political, economic and social factions battling for control of a massively large space opera setting is the perfect backdrop of an action/adventure game with the potential for a bit more character depth. Plus, it has giant robots. Mecha are like bacon. Everything is better with mecha.

Except...Battletech mecha suck. They just one-hundred-percent-no-ifs-ands-or-buts suck the big wazoo. Slow. Limited in function. Ugly.

First things first. Replace all the images and designs with ones that are actually in the style of Japanese mecha and look cool.






Excellent. Moving on...

And the rules to Battletech and Mechwarrior? Clunky, wargamey and definitely not what I want. I want Battletech as if it were an modern Anime or Manga series. I want fast, kinetic with cool robot designs that can do what robots in Anime do.

Got it!

A little while back I brushed off my ol' Mekton book and my homebrewed alternate version of the free RPG Extended Mission and created a very fun kitbashed frankenstein of a game I call the Extended Mecha system. I have decided to clean that up a little and use it for this game. Essentially a simplified Mekton, the key difference is that weapons don't do points of damage, they do 'rolls' of damage. When you score a hit, the targets armor removes a numbers of rolls. If any rolls get through, the attack rolls on a chart to see what damage was done to the enemy mecha, vehicle, etc.

So let's say my Particle Cannon does 5 rolls. I hit my target, who has an armor of 3. I scored 2 rolls. I roll twice and get:

- Component Damaged. Operates at -2.
- System Offline. Skill action needed to restore.

Based on where we were in relation to each other and the way I worded my attack ("I am not letting him get aways again!"), the GM decides the Component Damaged was the Flight Jets in his left leg. The System that went down was the enemy mech's Enhanced Maneuver System and he can't really steer right now. The enemy pilot needs to rolls his Computer Skill or Mecha Engineering to get the system fixed and the system back up and running.

While I am normally not one for charts, I have used this system in the past to excellent effect so I am willing to go with it for this type of setting. By defining a mech's operational capacity as made up of Components (Physical Parts like Hands, Feets, Weapons, Rockets, etc.) and Systems (Functions programmed into or handled by the computer such as Communications, Targeting, Sensors, etc.), players get the feeling they are operating a robotic vehicle and not just a tower of numbers.

I have a lot more to say on the subject and rest assured I will be detailing the campaign elements and how it all plays out here on Barking Alien.

Oh before I go...almost forgot...

New summer session has begun at the learning center in Brooklyn where I run a combo Creative Writing/Storytelling/RPG Playing class on Sundays. We just started and it looks like it's going to be a blast. I am running a sort of humorous horror game based on the Japanese TRPG 'Peekaboo Horror' where the kids play Middle-School club of supernatural investigators who each have an otherworldly companion/side kick - played by another player! So each kid is playing two characters, their own club member and some other members 'Boo'. I am using InSpectres crossed with Monsters and Other Childish Things.

RIP Ernest Borgnine. Sad to see him go but he left us with a great body of work.

I'm sure I am forgetting something...oh well, I guess I'll just have to blog more. ;)

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Barking Alien

Labor (Day) of Love

I know I promised to begin my series of articles covering my personal take on D&D but I got sidetracked. Yes, yes I still haven't finished my Smurfs RPG either. Sigh.

I am waaay behind schedule. For largely enjoyable reasons I have been extremely busy of late. Real time intrudes upon fun time once more, although these days it brings in own kind of fun as well. In addition, I've been getting the chance to game so often that writing about gaming and sending to the blogosphere has taken a backseat.

Too many good ideas can be just as much of a pain as too few I'm sure, though I rarely have too few so I'll just have to take your word for it. *WinK*. More often then not it's like there's an avalanche of cool concepts in my mind, I'm a terrible skier and there's not a Saint Bernard to be found.



If this Labor Day weekend was any indication of what being buried under awesome game ideas is like, hold your shovels, as it rocks on toast! I got to run two very different games and play another and all were amazing.

On Sunday I ran a game for the Learning Center I mentioned in some of my previous posts. Our original 'campaign' ended and I decided to run a sort of generic Sci-Fi/Star Trek thing based on a super-duper-simplified Starships & Spacemen. I tried to be inspired by E.T. Smith's awesome RECESS game, while at the same time modifying it for use with a younger player unfamiliar with old school game or Star Trek. Not only did it go over really, really well (this time) but the kids (mostly 5-7th graders) were great at it. They had more team work, more effective decision making approaches and more knowledge of the setting then I expected. I was very impressed. We explored two planets, battled an alien monster on one, fought an enemy starship in orbit and then prevented a volcano from wiping out all the animal life on another world. So fun!

Sunday night was the Legend of the Five Rings game run by Erin Palette on Skype. Very cool. I have really good camaraderie with one of the other players and our adventures and misadventures remind me a lot of the Booster Gold and Blue Beetle team of the ol' early 90's Justice League comic (and the later 'I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League' mini-series).

Finally, the Labor Day session of my Champions game was...it was...I don't have the words. Me. I don't have words. It was that good. I tried explaining part of what happened to Erin Palette and I think I mostly just confused her.

It was an 8-hour session, three players and myself and we covered a lot of ground. This was our 9th or 10th session/issue and it dealt with subplots (both major and minor) from earlier sessions including (but not strictly limited to):

The whole team finally unites (sorta), as Jeff/Syphon Zero decides to ally with the other heroes in hopes of capturing the villainous Dr. Helix who he's been after since issue 4 I think.

Marcus/The Power comes up with a pretty clever plan to call out either Dr. Helix, his lackeys or an another major villain who may be working with Helix. While preparations for the sting operation are underway...

The PCs all find themselves in an alternate timeline due to deal Syphon Zero made with a time travelling weapons collector back in issue 5. Actions by the time traveller (one of my ol' NPCs 'The Weaponaire', not really a hero or villain) create an alternate history in which a more controlling and militant approach to handling superheroes creates a Wildstorm-y Authority/Stormwatch feeling version of the campaign world. Only Night Knight knows the original timelines history (a high Presence score but otherwise it's a mystery why he remembers and not others), although Syphon Zero and a few NPCs remember fading bits and pieces.

With the help of an NPC scientist specializing in temporal and dimensional travel, Night Knight is able to uncover what caused the timeline to change but in the process reveals the truth behind one of the settings major mystery/conspiracy situations. The revelation is big but higger is the question, 'what happened after the event that, once altered, created a divergent timeline'?

Meanwhile... (ah, Meanwhile. Don't you just love a good Meanwhile...) the heroes are attacked by Dr. Helix who has under his control Integral (aka Integra), Primal and a psionic powerhouse called Ego. In the correct/original timeline Integra and Primal have been freed of Helix's influence and are allies of Syphon Zero. Here and now, Integra's first move is to try and kill Syphon.

The Power and a few NPCs (Pulse and Overload specifically) try to engage Primal while Omni (Super Psionic NPC and leader of the primary Superhero team) faces off against Ego. Brutal and wild battle. Lots of TK, teleporting and psychic wrestling.

Finally, Omni gets super-pissed when the actions of the villains endanger lives to the point where the heroes need to take capital action against them (Power, Syphon and Silver Sun* kill Primal and Ego using Integra's Intrinsic Field Energy attack using a plan brillantly choreographed by The Power). Just before Ego dies, Omni does the forced mind meld type move with his telepathy that he would never, EVER do in the main timeline. By doing so he discovers Dr. Helix's whereabouts. He telepathically broadcasts it to the team (including the PC heroes).

That's when Night Knight finds the Weaponaire and convinces him to fix the timeline. It takes some fancy wordplay but Night Knight is successful and within moments of Weaponaire's departure into the timestream things return to the previous pre-mishap status quo (at least it seems that way).

Night Knight remembers everything and tell Omni to read his mind to verify. Omni is in shock because of the revelation of the conspiracy I mentioned above as well as his own actions in the alternate timeline.

That is just the tip of the iceberg as far as consequences from this one guys and gals! Crazy stuff went down and even crazier stuff is coming. I can hardly wait.

OK, off to work. Next up, back on target for D&D and Smurfs...

Laters,

AD
Barking Alien

*In some scenes my pal Dave switched to another PC alt he is using from time to time called Silver Sun.

A New Week A New Update

I missed Muppet Monday! Holy crap. If I don't recharge my Muppet powers once every week I may lose them.

Just kidding. I was bitten by a radioactive Fraggle. My abilities are permanent.

I will make up for it with a good one next week. This week I may be directing your attention to more Sci-Fi fare. Why? Sci-Fi Space Adventure on the brain is the culprit. Still now exactly sure when and where I will run my next Sci-Fi game or what it will be but I have the distinct need and desperate feeling of wanting to get back to gaming in outer space.

On another note, my Summer Program Fantasy RPG campaign is starting up next Sunday. I am really excited and can't wait to share some of the craziness here.

Short post I know but I've been so busy with work and actually playing games I haven't had a lot of time to ponder what to blog about. Hopefully I will come up with something soon.

Until then, have a great day and good gaming all!

AD
Barking Alien

Intermission Impossible

My recent lack of posts has been due, largely, to my being pretty damn sick and having a work and personal life schedule that doesn't leave me much time to relax and get well. My motto is 'Keep on Keeping On'. I also like 'Make Love, Not War' and the British 'Keep Calm and Carry On'.

It's nice to see the Barkkers/Barkkies debate rages on and in regards to the Barkettes, sorry gentlemen, you just don't have the legs for it.

Now, about my summer job...

So far it looks like 6-8 kids are signed up ranging from 2nd to 7th grade. The majority are 5th to 7th graders with only one younger lad, the kid brother of our oldest student. The sessions are roughly 3 hours long each, which isn't a lot of time but you'd be surprised. I can get a lot done in three hours.*

I'm going to be running a hackneyed version of D&D with the following elements customized for the task at hand:

Ability Scores: As mentioned in my last post, standard six rated 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0 by Player's choice. The number will standard for how much you add to a D20 roll to do pretty much anything. Skill Use, To Hit, Saving Throws, etc. Need to lift a heavy load? Roll D20 plus Strength. Want to figure out what the runes say? Roll D20 plus Intelligence. Want to hit that Bugbear with your sword? Roll D20 plus Strength plus...ah...over to my D&D-But-Not system.

Combat Types (Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, etc.) Hit at Level Plus 1
Quasi-Combat Types (Cleric, Bard, Rogue) Hit at Level.
Non-Combat Types (Wizard, Druid, Sorcerer) Hit at Level -1.

Which classes qualify as which? Should be easy but I'll make final decisions later.

"But wait! I want to be a BattleMage! Yeah!"

Sure. Quasi. Next?

OK, Hit Points. Everyone has 10 plus Constitution plus/minus 1 based on class just like the To Hit. Why make a new chart? I know, I know. You guys like charts. *shudder*

Ever character gets a free ability based on their class. Wizards get Spells, Clerics can use Miracles (Cleric Spells), Druids Shapeshift (turn into animals), Warriors will get some kind of Mighty Blow/Strike thing, Rogues get Stealth, etc.

Then (and this brilliant little piece of awesome was created by my ex-wife, gaming goddess extraordinaire!), you write on your sheet..
.
I am Really Good at __________.
I am Really Bad at __________.

Is that awesome or what?! We tested it this past Sunday. The Paladin was incredibly fast (I am Really Good at Speed) but he couldn't read (I am Really Bad at Reading). Hilarity ensued when he began searching a shipwreck for treasure and realized he could read the signs on the doors like 'Captain's Quarters' or 'Cargo Hold'.

OK...and...that's about all the rules I need. Seriously, why the frick-dang-blast are all these books over 10 pages? I mean what the heck is all that writing about? ;)

Anyway, still working on a few details and checking with Selina (my ex-wife) as she may want to include some additional rules and systems to get the kids used to following instructions, following rules, reading rules and comprehending what they've read and that sort of thing.

Still and all, it doesn't really need to have more than that.

Which brings me to...

Once again the world of other peoples game has brushed up against mine and my golden retriever like curiousity has me sniffing about to find out how the other half lives. I plan on making a post that addresses some questions I have about how other people run certain aspects of their games, though mostly this is directed at D&D players and Old Schoolers, anyone and everyone is welcome to pop in and share.

Look forward to our exchange,

AD
Barking Alien

*One of the questions will deal with how much time one session takes and what you get done in a session. After talking about my Muppet Show game with one of the players who participated in it and a recent post on another blog has me really curious about time, content and maximizing both.