Fantasy Grounds 2 (FG2) is a much more robust program than Game Table, with all sorts of bells and whistles. There’s animated dice, shadowy animated dice for when the GM is rolling behind the screen (still not sure why they’d do that), integrated character sheets with all the stats and powers included, and “click to attack” features that automatically do all the math and accounting for you. You can change the colour of the screen to simulate the light of a fire, night, or being in a forest. There are all sorts of windows the GM can open on your screen to show you different maps and pictures. I’m sure that’s only a fraction of the features of FG2… it’s got everything. Which has it’s good points and bad.

Unlike our last game, with FG2 I felt a lot more like I was playing the FG2 videogame which used the D&D 4e ruleset. I noticed we all spent less time describing what we were doing or what was happening than we did with our Star Wars game. A few times I had to stop play and ask what was going on beyond a character making some kind of ranged attack and killing an opponent. I’m not sure if that an FG2 or 4e issue, but there was a definite tendency to click to activate our attacks and not follow up with much verbal description.

Like Gametable we also ran into some technical challenges. We spent more time trying to sort out how the interface worked, and a number of us ran into strange issues where the profile pics weren’t loading properly. At one point there was a Goblin Blackblade on the board that was invisible to me since the icon didn’t get downloaded properly. Hopefully these issues will get better as we all become more familiar with the software, but I’m not sure whether the added features of FG2 compared to Gametable add or detract from the experience for me.

It was good to get a chance to play D&D 4e again, and I tried to approach it from a much different angle than I did the last time. Instead of trying to play “D&D as I’m familiar with it” I wanted to embrace the more combat and tactics oriented game, and not worry about the changes to the setting that had previously bothered me.

Rather than pick a run of the mill class and race, I decided to play a BEAR. One of the features of 4e that I think is perhaps understated is that since the fluff-text is rather independent of the mechanics you have a fair amount of freedom to change the descriptions. Mechanically Grizgor the Bear is a Half-Orc Monk, but during play he definitely felt like a Bear, which was great.

We ran through the first encounter of the Scales of War adventure path from Wizards of the Coast, and I thought it was a good intro tactical encounter. The regional and city maps were very nice and I think they did a good job on the design of those. The tavern map felt like it traded a lot of realism for providing a nice, BIG, area for combat. There’s a fairly large English Pub near my house but it’s nowhere near the size of having a 70′ x 75′ common area like the pub in this adventure did. Maybe the buildings in this world are like the TARDIS – they’re bigger on the inside.

As I previously mentioned some of the powers of the other characters left me a bit confused at first. It’s easy to imagine what a Bear, or a Dwarf or a Wizard is but without having read all the 4e books a “Seeker” needs some explanation. When they use their “Guardian Harrier” power to kill a distant enemy I really had no idea what that was. A bolt of magic? A summoned bird of prey? It turns out it was an arrow, so “I shoot it with my bow” might have been less colourful… but ultimately better way of describing the attack.

It was a fun session, and since all of us have families and children it’s good to be able to spend a couple of hours playing an RPG with friends that would otherwise be a challenge to coordinate with everyone’s schedules.

Initially our group, which includes people I’ve gamed with in person and people I’ve only chatted with online, was going to use a video chat application so that we could see each other as well. Since we had a mixed group of Mac and PC users we had been testing out TinyChat as a possible candidate. It’s free and uses a browser-based video chartroom that you can make private if you want, or leave open and allow people to sit in.  Unfortunately some of our players had trouble getting it to work properly on their 64-bit PC systems, and we ended up not using this.

I think that’s a bit unfortunate as I think seeing the people I’m gaming was something I really liked about this application. Since getting back into tabletop gaming I’ve found talking “in character” to be something that takes me a while to get into, and I think it might have been taking a bit longer since I was aware it was just me sitting in a room by myself.

We ended up using a combination of Skype for audio and Gametable for the map and “minis” (called ‘pogs’ inside Gametable). Skype worked well for all of us, but we did run into some issues with Gametable including the map “disappearing” and needing refreshing as well as simply not running properly on one player’s computer. I don’t have any experience with similar applications so I can’t really compare Gametable to anything else. Getting past any challenges with technology is definitely a factor in running a smooth online RPG, and I’m optimistic that in future sessions we’ll see less technical hiccups.

Something I’d like to see more of with the gaming table would be a way of sharing photos with the group on top of the map. When we weren’t in a combat situation I think some larger sized images of the characters we were interacting with (which were included in mini-size on the ‘pog’ would help keep the focus on the Roleplaying and keep my eyes from wandering around the map and looking at all the details.

Even with the Gametable I found that without being able to see the other players the game makes you focus much more on the audio environment you’re in, and this is where I had the first really pleasant surprise with this setup. Using MorphVox on the PC or Audio Hijack Pro on the MAC you can add music, ambient sound effects and voice-changing effects to the audio. This worked extremely well for the Droid player and NPCs and really helped me “buy in” to the fiction of the game world.  Rob (our GM) also started the session with the theme music from Star Wars, which was a really nice touch. Although I think if you’re going to try and talk along with such dramatic music it’s probably best to have a prepared bit of text to read so you don’t get upstaged by your music.

That’s not to say I think less music would be better – almost the opposite. I would have liked to see more ambient sounds throughout the game. Not a constant distraction, but at relevant times like when the characters visited the local Cantina the right audio would be great at helping to set the scene. I think I’d also rather hear some audio clips of Wookie growls than hear one of my fellow players grunt and growl into their mic. Speeder engines, blaster fire, and the swoosh of a blast door opening would all be great audio clips to play during the game as well.

While it was occasionally easy to let my focus wander and found myself checking email or posting updates on Twitter, the game kept my attention more than I was expecting (since I had been thinking it would compare to an MMO or something similar). It’s definitely not the same as an actual tabletop RPG game and does lose some of the things that make those kind of game so much fun. On the other hand it also has some new possibilities for making a fun immersive game world that I do find compelling.

I’m looking forward to our next game session.

This set would go very nicely with a game of Warhammer Fantasy, Savage Worlds, Pathfinder or D&D 4e.

Send us a photo of your home-made gaming terrain. This could be either scratch-built, card/paper models, or even resin models you painted yourself. We’ll pick a winner next Monday and send you a link to download your new fantasy village.

WorldWorks Games – Treasures and Tombs

If you’re going to go to the effort of painting your own minis it’s nice to have some great looking terrain to go with them. This is a good set to get started with if you’re new to paper models since some of the more advanced models can be a bit intimidating for a beginner. WorldWorks Games create some excellent textures, but more importantly I appreciate that they really think about the process of building these models and take into account that you might want to mount your tiles and walls on something a bit more durable like foam core. The TerrainLinx system of joining board sections together is a very nice addition, as is the choice of scale (1″ or 1.5″) squares your minis will fit into. Part of me wishes the statues were a bit more “3D” and not part of the wall, so I’m considering printing that piece again and mounting those bits on foamcore so that they “project” out from the wall a bit.

Crescent Moon Tavern 30mm Paper Model

This is a great paper model and really adds a lot to your gaming table. There’s a lot of attention to detail, such as the underside of the roof being nicely textured, and enough variety in shapes and angles to give it a more natural appearance without it looking like a little paper box. This was one of the first of Dave’s models that I built and I had a lot of fun putting it together. For such a nice model I’d suggest printing it on the highest quality printer you have access to (I used a copy shop) and a nice thick cardstock.

Hornet: Engine/Cargo Module

A nice free battlemat of a spaceship cargo hold. The map uses 3D models and photorealistic textures for many of the accessories like the engine, while using more basic shapes for walls and doors. My personal taste would be for a more consistent style, either photorealistic or basic shapes, to improved the overall effect – although that might not be as much of an issue when printed. At any rate the price ($0) is certainly right, and I’m sure this will be helpful for many scifi gamers.

In the past few game sessions we’ve had quite a few situations where Buck, the sharpshooter, has made his attack roll and “missed” necessitating some description of how the shot goes wide or hits the ground between an opponents feet or something similar. Even if there’s a “hit” we then roll damage and if the opponent isn’t reduced to zero hit points we still need to describe the attack as some sort of “almost hit” or near miss. This leaves us with a sharp shooter who just doesn’t feel as accurate as he should be.

If failing your attack roll is your opponent defending themselves or otherwise getting out of the way AND your damage roll also represents the same basic thing… then they do feel a bit redundant. Why not just have one roll? You’d always feel your character was at least somewhat competent and it would speed up the game a bit.

What I’m thinking for a new single roll combat system for our game is the following:

• All attacks roll a base d6 to reduce your opponents stamina (hit points).
• Like our other rules using a dice-step mechanic that d6 can be stepped up or down with d2, 1 and 0 being steps below d4.
• Exceptional attributes, special abilities, types of weapons, armour, and relative levels of combatants might all factor into stepping the base attack roll up or down.

As an example Buck would start with a d6 and gain steps for:

• Deadeye (+Dex)
• Sharpshooter (Fighting-Man Focus)
• Rifle

and roll a d12 for his attack to reduce his opponents stamina. Against regular folk Buck is a very dangerous man.

If he were attacking an animated Terracotta Soldier his attack roll might be reduced 3 steps to a d6 to represent it being made out of stone. If Jebidiah the skitterish old Miner were with him and shooting with his revolver he might only do 1 point or even 0 with his attack! Alternately the Terracotta Soldier might just be given a high stamina score (hit points) instead, since the net result is the same. Since I tend to favour less accountancy at the table I’m leaning towards reducing the attack dice.

If we go with this approach I’d like characters who want to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble to have an option to reduce their opponents attack rolls against them. So young Jesse might reduce opponents attack rolls by one step for being “slippery” (+Dex) and another for actively evading.

This is very much a “work in progress” but I wanted to share this and see if anyone had comments on this type of approach to RPG combat.

Holy smokes, did we ever have a crazy day!  I’m still shaking after everything and really need to write something to help calm down. Voodoo zombies at the Chinese mansion; living terra cotta warriors; it was just like those adventure books that Randy Cooper has.  Only it really happened.  I wonder if that’s why someone wrote those stories cause it happened to those people too?  Guess I’d better write this down so I can write my own book one day.

Okay, so the day started off pretty normal – at least I think it did but I can’t really remember actually.  I heard that they found a half-buried horse outside of town.  That’s creepy.  Also, Randy told me that folks thought the workers at Lu Cheng’s mansion aren’t normal and folks stay away from it.  Of course I wanted to go see that!  But not yet.  Shen Mao is still wandering somewhere so I gave his horse a light work (what’s that darned horse’s name anyways?  who calls their horse ‘fine horse’ as a name?) and a brush after.  The carnival is coming so that’s cool – I’ll be interested to go to that and maybe someone can teach me to spit fire or juggle knives.  That would be nifty.  Then there were these other odd fellows from China kind of like Shen Mao but not nice – not mean just kind of off like they think that they are better than everyone.  They wanted us to find Shen Mao but I wasn’t there for that because I was checking on how Betty and Davy were doing but their pop wouldn’t let me see them.  Then I went to Randy because I wanted to get his adventure books from him to learn about the zombies that we saw!  But I couldn’t see him either on account of his being grounded forever.

Oh man, I skipped a part.  It was nothing much, just kind of scary that we went to Mister Cheng’s mansion and the workers were all… just not acting like a right person should.  They acted like we weren’t even there when we talked to them but then all dropped their tools and stuff and came at us real slow and scary like when we tried to get to the mansion doors.  I wanted to run tho the house but the others got chicken feet and ran back to where we came from.  But then they went back and a big old voodoo man came after us and Buck shot Tennessee poor fellow.  He got some nasty hurts what with Buck shooting him and the big voodoo man beating him.  Buck really was trying to shot the zombie man but he’s too good a shot to miss like like.  He must have been drinking already or did too much whoring last night.  He’s a queer kind of man to be partners with the Doctor.  That reminds me that the Doctor showed up about then and helped us all get away and gave Tennessee some medicine for what was hurting him.  It turns out Buck shot Tennesee’s carrying bag so he wasn’t too badly hurt after all.  Didn’t seem to be too mad at Buck – I would have kicked Buck in the shins if he’d shot me I can tell you!  I wonder what Tennessee has done to be able to forgive someone a-shooting him. Must have been bad.

We got back to town but I wanted to go back to that spooky place (but now I wish I hadn’t).  I could run faster than those slowpoke voodoo men and the others had horses.  But that’s when I went looking for Randy and those other monks (guess that’s what they are ) were looking for Shen Mao.  When they couldn’t find him they wanted to get that big box of Mister Cheng’s that we done delivered when we saved the stagecoach.  And so off we all went again, but I don’t think the men were all that happy about it.  Buck looked like he wanted to shoot those monks for being terrible rude.

This is where I can’t tell what really happened and what I must have dreamed up.  This is really crazy.  Really terribly bad cuss word crazy.  I’m not writing down those words hear in case anyone reads this cause I don’t use them.  But Buck sure does.  So do those girls that visit Buck too.  I don’t think I understand what those words mean, but they sure are used in a whole lotta different ways.  Anyway, that’s not important right now.  We and the monks and the voodoo men all start going for the mansion.  We got horses and the monks are really fast (maybe even faster than me) and we get in the house and some of the monks do too.  I heard some fighting outside the door and then we saw the monks that didn’t get inside running back for the hills.  Inside everyone ran in different directions but it was us that found the urn.  Someone told us that it held the wind that was really Lu Cheng who is an ancient and wicked sorceror and the monks needed to catch him because they work for the dragon that trapped him.  The monks must have told us that after Buck shot the urn into pieces.  But before Buck and Tennessee and the Doctor shot up the monks.  I think they did that, but it doesn’t seem right.  Actually, I think I imagined that part.  But there was a lot of blood.  I think that the terra cotta warriors must have killed those monks during the fight.  I can’t rightly say because I scooted out a window as soon as the fighting started because those crazy statues that came to life were nothing no bullets were going to stop!  Tennessee got hurt again and came crawling out the window so I pulled him through.  I don’t know how the Doctor and Buck escaped but I think they had some science potion cause they ran about as fast as me to get away from those warriors.

Next thing I can remember is being on a horse going back to town.  I must have landed funny and hit my head as I was feeling pretty queer and couldn’t remember much about how we got away.  But writing this down sure helped me recall some things.  I’m not sure that I really want to remember everything because it’s such a bunch of crazy stuff. A little scary too – I can’t seem to remember the monks fighting the warriors, but they must have since I know that they were dead.  And bleeding like… like they’d been shot up.  Buck must have been trying to shoot the statues and missed again.  He was just having that kind of day I guess.  I hope he doesn’t hurt any of those girls tonight. Maybe I’d better watch him to be sure.  But first I’m gonna take a long nap.  After I drink some of this cure all drink that I got from the man in the street today.

• Carl Macek, creator of Robotech, has passed away.
• Peter Cushing painted toy soldiers, and played war-games
• Gencon’s ball-and-chain icon for spouses of attendees gets people upset
• One Monk Miniatures makes all their paper models free
• I’ve been working on my own new miniature project
• In the news: Being morally strong makes you physically strong
• From the news: Eyjafjallajökull: Prevents All Creatures From Flying
• Wizards of the Coast releases a D&D adventure for kids ages six+

Next week’s roundup will include more links to other blog posts I’ve found interesting… now that I know I want to keep track of them.

This is the conclusion of the recording from our first Weird West game night, and wraps up the first Chapter of our story. Tune in next time as we begin a new Chapter and things start getting a little bit weirder in the Weird West town of Tharsis, Arizona.

My criteria for picking a silly monster to get an upgrayedd is based on at least one of these factors, and usually all three:

• The illustration looks goofy
• People make fun of it online
• I’ve never used it in a game before

For today’s example we’ll use the Displacer Beast. Now I know it’s not the silliest monster out there, but to me a panther with spiky tentacles grafted at it’s shoulders is goofy enough. I’ve seen other people mention it as a silly monster online, and I’ve personally never used it in 25 years of playing RPGs… so it’s a good enough candidate for today’s example.

Let’s take a look at this thing:

• It’s not a natural earth-like sort of creature, despite being described as ‘cat-like’
• It’s based on the Coeurl an alien predator from A. E. van Vogt’s short story “Black Destroyer” (1939)
• It has tentacles which it uses to attack – it strikes with them rather than grappling
• It confuses enemies into thinking it’s several feet away from where it is
• It is semi-intelligent, carnivorous, aggressive, and vicious – this is a nasty creature

Things we’re going to change from the common depiction (like the mini pictured above):

• It’s not a panther with tentacles – that’s just a rough approximation of what it looks like. This is an alien creature that is only vaguely ‘cat-like’
• It doesn’t have octopus or squid tentacles with suction cups on them – it’s not grabbing and squeezing with these things, it’s attacking with them. They’re going to be sharp and whip like.
• Since we’re making it an alien creature instead of a magical one the displacement effect should be some sort of strange alien physiology that it uses when hunting. Angler fish use bioluminescence to attract and confuse their prey. They also have one or more long filaments growing out of their heads… like thin tentacles. Making the Displacer Beast’s power based on a similar bioluminescence makes it feel more “real” to me. Alien, but real.
• Finally, that name has got to go. Maybe some local guy calls it that, but that doesn’t mean everyone does. Toss out the silly name and give it something else. The Beast of the Black Woods, or some Alien sounding name would be better.

And speaking of which, at this point our silly monster is actually starting to make me think of another not-so-silly monster from a Sci-Fi movie I saw quite recently.

The Moorwen from Outlander.

Imagine it being a bit smaller and cat-like, the tendrils coming out around it’s head and shoulders instead of it’s tail, and its bio-luminescence distorting your vision. Our monster won’t be quite as Dragon-like and indestructible as the Moorwen (unless you want it to be), but it’s a lot more fearsome and less silly than a panther with some squid tentacles glued to it’s shoulders.

I think you could use this process with virtually any monster from any RPG source-book. With some you might need to replace a bit more than others, but there’s almost always something there for you to work with.

Like I said yesterday: They’re not bad monsters… they’re just misunderstood.

* Note for my players: I could be totally faking you out here.