Something Wicked This Way Comes

A funny thing happened on the way to our most recent session of Hunter X Hunter...

First, about a week or so ago, Marcus, who is a part-time actor, let us know he hadn't been able to make it to the game regularly because he got a part in an indie film and would be shooting for the next few weekends.

Next, a few days before Game Day (almost always Saturdays), Lee (one of the players) stopped by Ray's job (Ray is our GM and works at our FLGS) to tell him his work schedule had been changed. Lee, for the foreseeable future, will not be able to attend our games.

Lastly, the night before Game Day, Dave sent me a text saying he had been called into work at the last minute and wouldn't be able to make it for the game either.

So that left just Ray and me.

We had a great time just hanging out and talking, something Ray and I rarely get to do because of our schedules. If we aren't gaming or I am not stopping by the store (which I don't get to do very often anymore as I am working uptown during the hours this midtown store is open), it's pretty much impossible for us to get together.

We didn't play anything, but instead we ended up talking about a lot of things including, of course, gaming.

That's when Ray gave me the big reveal...

He didn't really know where to go with or what to do with his campaign. Not because he didn't have any ideas per se but rather because he felt (and still feels) it is unfinished, a work in progress. What he had created so far was a homebrew no where near the fermentation and bottling stage.

Ray suggested that the next session of Hunter X Hunter be the last...of Part 1. We (our gaming group) will then skip a week (since the following weekend is New York Comic Con anyway) and the following Saturday I will start a new campaign to run for a while. Twist my arm why don'tcha!

This 'season off' hiatus will enable Ray to put more work into his game and then he will come back to run it at a later date. I am totally down with this and he feels it's the best way to go. We're all good.

Alas, we are left with that age old question...what should I run?

I know I said my next game would most assuredly be Star Trek but I do not feel that is the right game at the right time at this juncture. Our group seems to be in flux once more and I want something simple and flexible that will appeal to everyone while still appealing to me and giving this particular group a taste of something they may not have played before.

I've narrowed it down to Traveller and Ars Magica.

Traveller because we've had numerous one-shots, half-arsed attempts and false starts but we have yet to actually run a full on campaign. I think we are overdue.

Ars Magica is a possibility because the lot of us share that, "I wish Medieval Fantasy gaming didn't have to be just D&D". Of course the actual interest in the genre ranges from Marcus' "No Doubt! I love Fantasy!" to my, "I would rather gargle live hand grenades then play that." That said, there is one type of Medieval Fantasy I do like, Folkloric Fantasy. I love mythology, folk tales and fairy tales and Ars Magica is all that and a side order of history.

Stay with me and I'll keep you posted.

Oh and one more thing...

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Barking Alien

Freaky, awesome illustration by Keith Thompson.

Space Ghost Magic

It's not what you think.

It's one of those word play post titles I am so fond of.

What it is, is alot of this...

Or maybe this...

 

And a good bit of this...

Coming in October.

Hope you enjoy,

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Barking Alien

Hunter X Hunter RPG - On A Roll

Before I begin with the regularly scheduled post, I just wanted to say a few words about a few subjects. Trust me, this won't take long at all...

Happy Birthday to Mark Hamill and the late Christopher Reeve, two gentlemen who each played one of my favorite heroes.

This last month or two (OK three) has been very tough financially. Business was especially weak this summer season. As a result, I may sell off some old game stuff I don't need (even though I'd really rather not). If I do, you'll be the first to know.

There is a new flavor of Oreo Cookie called Cookies N' Cream. Although they are available at my local supermarket, the only proof I could find on the internet was a package of the product on ebay. Ebay? What...The Hell? What an odd choice for a variation on the classic too. A Cookies N' Cream Oreo is a bit like tiny bits of lettuce between two pieces of lettuce, no?

Once more, not as many comments as I would like or as I would have expected on some of the subjects I posted about. Specifically, I am surprised by the low turn out on the last post about ideas for Marvel Heroic. No love for Marvel Heroic? No love for my ideas? Are you secretly a clone of Spiderman currently working for SHIELD and are afraid commenting on my blog is a conflict of interest. Well fine. You, that last guy, you're off the hook (I don't want you getting in trouble over it) but the rest of you have no excuse.

OK, down to business...

***

We had our second session of Hunter X Hunter this past Saturday with Amari (Dave), the Barber (Lee*) and Smiley McGee (aka Stan - played by me), joining hundreds of other Hunter wannabes in the attempt to overcome the first of many challenges on the way to getting our Hunter licenses. If we pass that is...and of course survive.

The opening challenge was a Ninja Warrior style obstacle course, modified by the GM (Ray) into D&D-like death traps. There were 10 traps in all. Most could be taken singularly, with a partner or as a team but some required you to go 'single file' with no assistance from anyone else.

We managed to get past them all with only one or two scary moments where a poor die roll seemed to hold the power of life and death over our characters' heads. I hate that.

There was a lot of die rolling this session. A. LOT. Now I must give Ray some props because it was never boring and didn't ever deteriorate to the point where I felt like having someone else roll for me while I went to read a book or play some video games because so much was based on random luck that I felt like I didn't need to be there.

I've been there and done that, didn't like it and told the GM what he could go do with the T-Shirt.

I have a love/hate relationship with rolling. I don't want to eliminate it and play some crazy diceless thing but I can't stand when GMs make you roll for every breath you take and every move you make (thank you Sting and The Police). I also hate it when, as a player, you come up with a reasonable reason why the die roll should be altered in your favor and it feels like it was rolled straight.

Case in point, one of my least favorite gaming moments of the last three years...

OK, using a system that is a homebrew variant of D&D 3.5, we set out into a homebrew medieval world that is described awesomely but feels like every other D&D game world I've ever gamed in. Its Lord of the Greyhawk Realms basically.  

I was playing a Gnome

We come to this odd valley, essentially a very large crater with shear cliff walls. We need to explore the incredibly dense forest down in this pit/canyon. First we need to climb down. Four or five of us, sheer cliff walls, everybody first level.

We have rope and we come up with a plan using iron spikes and a cheap pulley system (thanks to a nearby tree and rock) to lower us down more carefully. It's about 50 ft down I think, maybe more.

All I know is that the GM made us each roll our Climbing skill at least four times on the way down. Now lets do the math. Four players each rolling four times to climb down a wall. That's Sixteen rolls just to get to the woods. Why? For what reason? Are we getting bonuses on our rolls for the mountain climbing ingenuity we rigged up? Didn't feel like it. One guy fell a short distance and got stuck but the rest of us helped him down. One guy fell kind of far and got hurt but our Cleric healed him.

In the end it was so tedious, so boring and so dangerous to our characters that it drove the majority of us a little bonkers. Dude, if you are that determined to hurt somebody for no reason don't pretend. Just number the PCs, roll 1d4 and deliver 1D10 damage on that guy and move on. No. We had to sit through 16 goddamn rolls.

Luckily, Ray didn't go that far but it felt very much like it was threatening to go in that direction. It started out challenging, with each player/PC trying to figure out a way around the traps based on the predicament and our own unique abilities (or at least strong suits). Eventually at some point near the end we were just rolling dice and seeing if we made it.

It's a good game and I am looking forward to continuing but I will say it needs to kick up a notch on the excitement level. It is engaging. Yes, that is a good word. It is a very engaging game and yet I am hoping it turns into a 'Holy Crap! Wow!' game.

Time will tell. 

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Barking Alien

*I still can't remember his character's name even though he told me twice already. I think it starts with an N.

Marvel Us

My 550th Post! Hoody Hoo! And it's about Marvel Comics?!

What the 'What If?' is going on here?

While I have always been more of a DC fan, I am by no means unfamiliar with the House of Ideas and the universe that centers on Earth 616 (The default Marvel Comics mainstream universe).

I was an avid collector and reader of Marvel in the days of Claremont and Byrne's X-Men, Shooter, Stern, Perez and Byrne's Avengers, John Byrne's Fantastic Four and Michelinie and Layton's Iron Man. I even followed a good bit of Marvel's Ultimate Universe in later years, being especially fond of The Ultimates and Ultimate Spider-Man.

At present I am loving the current take on the Fantastic Four, the new Ultimate Spider-Man and some of the Avengers comics, although I was monumentally disappointed by the Avengers Vs. X-Men story (and when I say 'story' I am being awfully kind).

Several recent discussions about Marvel Heroic with friends prompted me to formulate some alternate ideas on how to run it for a short campaign.

One of the drawbacks of the Marvel Heroic game in the opinion of several of my players, friends and indeed, myself, is that you don't really have a mechanic for improving your character all that much. It has been noted by the games designer, Cam Banks, that comic book superheroes do not really improve, they change. At some point Spiderman has the Black Symbiote suit, then he doesn't and he loses his powers. Then he regains his powers and he grows extra arms, etc., etc. The plots of the comic book stories modifiy the heroes horizontally more than vertically. They don't 'raise in power level' so much.

Now why is this a drawback? Mr. Banks and company would likely note it as a feature! He may be right but it is not viewed as such by my group. We are role players but also gamers and gamers want to get points and improve. We want to get rewarded for putting all that effort into playing our characters and also we like to see and show progress.

The funny thing to me is that Marvel Heroic puts such a focus on Milestones as a list/source of how to get XP rewards but then there is comparatively little to do with the XP once obtained.

This got me thinking about an alternate way to spend XP.

What if you could combine these concepts of lateral changes, Milestones and XP in order to set up player generated plotlines?

Imagine the GM or Watcher sets up an event involving the Negative Zone turning sorta inside out and pouring into our universe through some portal in Reed Richards' lab in the Baxter Building.

In the process of trying to reverse the effect and undo the damage, Reed Richards and Iron Man manage to rack of a good chunk of XP. Once the day is saved and the Event finished up, the Iron Man player hands a note to the Watcher. He asks that the Watcher add a subplot to the next adventure involving Iron Man discovering that his armor is now charged with particles from the Negative Zone.

The Watcher (as Editor-in-Chief and Head Writer) has a 'Bullpen Session' with Iron Man's player (Co-Plotter for the next arc). They discuss the general idea the player has (the Negative Zone particles have altered the suits abilities but at some minor drawback). The Watcher thinks it's neat but asks what the long term goal is. Iron Man's player replies that he wants a suit of armor specifically designed to battle in the Negative Zone.

The Watcher than tells the Player, "OK with these conditions. The longer the N-Zone particles stay in our universe without the proper adjustments, the more critical the Complications or Limits that armor will suffer. How's that for comic book consequences?"

Now comes the fun part: RESETs, REVAMPs and good old comic book RETCONS.

The two agree that if 30 XP are spent, Iron Man can RESET, returning to his original armor with it's original abilities by, oh I don't know, using the Fantastic Four's Cosmic Dispersion Field to rid the suit of the N-Zone particles.

If Iron Man spends 40 XP and spends part of a session out of action in his workshop, he can REVAMP, returning to battle in his new Iron Man Mark-N Armor while his original, standard suit of the time can be 'seen' in the background in storage.

Finally for 50 points, Iron Man RETCONS the situation. His suit was never imbued with Negative Zone Particles but instead the Negative Zone particles reacted in an unsual way with his Repulsor Ray Systems, creating a new energy form. Iron Man doesn't sit out any action if he can find a sensible moment where he can say he had gone back to his workshop or had moved the proto-type nearby to test it. Off-Panel. Otherwise, he needs to sit out a Scene or two and returns with an all new Armor. This new Armor should actually have one or two improved or totally new abilities even if it makes for a larger than normal Power Set. 

In a fashion this isn't much different from the way it is in the game now but my goal, hopefully, is to set in motion and play out individual story arcs in which both the player and the Watcher have a say in how it is built.

Also, the idea is to make a big change in the status quo of a character cost a bit more. Basically, real improvement or at least additional options become available but the player will know in advance that in order to get that big payoff he needed to focus on hitting those Milestones for the better part of a multi-session arc.

Thoughts?

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Barking Alien

Happy Birthday To A Man With A Frog

Greetings all,

Here with my dog and a warm cup of chocoffee (my personal invention - a hybrid of hot chocolate and coffee but not quite a mocha) and listening to songs from The Muppet Movie and The Muppet Show in celebration of a great man gone too, too soon.

Happy 76th Birthday Jim! I normally hate to re-gift but someone who is very special and important in my life made this for me and I'd like you to enjoy it too.

 

 

 

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Barking Alien