Wednesday 31 October 2012

Voting is live in the 24 hour RPG challenge

Voting in the RPGgeek.com 24 Hour RPG Contest is open. I encourage all of you to take part.

The Diminutive RPG
This was my first ever time entering this contest and really the first time I've tried to write an RPG since I was about 13 years old. It was a very eye opening experience and I strongly suggest everyone give this a try at some point in their life. No matter how the voting goes in this contest I will be glad to have taken part and now have something to be proud of, a role playing game I wrote myself.

My entry is The Diminutive RPG which features a unique system I called The Diminishing Dice Pool System. The game attempts to re-create the feel of books and movies like" The Borrowers, Tom Thumb, The Secret World of Arrietty, The Littles, or any other setting where small heroes do big things. The system is designed with this theme in mind where smaller is always better, A D4 is better than a D8 and you want to make your dice pool smaller and smaller. You strive to triumph over complications by getting rid of them, removing complication dice from your dice pool. Proper planning, traits and backgrounds help you triumph while hindrances make your life more complicated. Gather too many conditions and your life can become over-complicated.

D&D Encounters: The War of Everlasting Darkness - Session 1


Great session of Dungeons and Dragons Encounters this morning.

Had four players show up. One of which had never played an RPG before and one who hadn't played D&D since AD&D.

Got a ton done. Characters met up in a hunting lodge where they overheard rumors of ghost sightings in the town. After calming down the locals somewhat and getting some leads they decided to wait for the ghost to appear and follow it. Rumors were that it was travelling from the town to the ruins of Methergist every night.

The rumors appeared to be true as they followed the ghostly paladin through the woods. The group took a side track when the overheard voices in the woods. Investigating they found orcs from two rival tribes meeting with a Drow emissary. After stealthily listening in to hear about an impending attack on a nearby town they group ambushed the orcs. As the drow disappeared into the darkness the orcs were quickly dispatched and the group hurried to catch up to the ghost.

Arriving at the ruins of Methergist the party found that a rival group was already here. Figuring them to be tomb robbers the party ambushed the group. The fight was quick with two human hirelings taken out quickly and the more capable looking Dwarf and Elf taken hostage. After a lot of rather amusing roleplay it was decided the Dwarf and Elf would join the group in exploring the ruins for a 25% cut of any treasure found.

The ruins proved to be a small dungeon. Traps were found, the rival party was abused and left the dungeon (players tried to use them as hirelings from AD&D and use them as meat shields and trap finders and they would have none of it, aka some more good roleplay moments). A statue was found, the Tears of Helm were found, some Infernal Braziers were extinguished and the group banished an Imp by guessing what it was and what it's name was.

Then a rift opened in the ground and webs of darkness shot into the sky. The adventure ended with the group staring upwards as first the moon was blotted out then all the starts. The War of Eternal Darkness has begun.

The most impressive part to me was the fact we did all of this in 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons in about an hour and a half. That's unprecedented for Encounters. Their goal to try out the feel and some of the rules for D&D Next seems to be really paying off.

Monday 29 October 2012

There's a new Dungeons and Dragons Next playtest pack out


I was checking my hotmail during lunch at work and I found out that there's a new Dungeons and Dragons Next playtest packet out. These things seem to be coming out more and more frequently. The last time I actually got a chance to run the playtest we were still playing around in the Caves of Chaos. 

I had a great time running the two games I got in back then as did all of the players. Even though it only went up to level 3 and we were stuck playing pre-generated characters. I think everyone at the table was excited for the new edition of D&D at the time and we all were looking forward to playing again.

Then another packet came out. This had character creation rules and went to level five and had a new module. I found this one hard to sell to my groups. Mainly because they wanted to continue the old game with the old characters playing through the old dungeon and really I don't blame them. I meant to re-pitch the event and have everyone just re-make their characters at level 2 and continue to run the caves.  Then reality happened.

Now it's only a couple of weeks later an there's yet another packet out. I haven't actually read this one yet but from the buzz online it seems you can go up to 10th level. I know there was a mini packet sent out at one point too with rules for magic items.  Seems I'm falling way behind here.

You can grab the latest and greatest files here: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDNext.aspx

What has been your experience with the playtest material so far?

Board Games at the Green Bean November 9th



The Windsor Gaming Resource returns to the Green Bean Coffee Co. on Friday November 9th

The Green Bean is an independent coffee shop that provides a wide variety of coffees, teas, lattes and more. They have a full menu that includes fresh made soup, paninis and some really tempting deserts. There's the option for a bottomless cup of coffee and they have free WiFi. For us gamers they have a wide variety of tables and a well lit stage.

This is an open non-competitive gaming event that anyone is welcome to a
ttend. Any form of games are welcome, board, card, rpg, miniatures, whatever you want to bring we are willing to have you. We aren't rule lawyers. You are welcome to bring your own games or share in some of ours. Everything we bring we are willing to teach and no experience is necessary. The goal is to get as many local gamers out as possible to enjoy some good food, some good company and some good games!

Games we've played at events like this in the past include: Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Scrabble, Ca$h and Gun$, Bohnanzha, Magic The Gathering, Carcasonne, Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico, Agricola, Chess and more.

An important note: we are not a private club. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come out and join in the games. If you see someone playing a game and it looks interesting, ask about it. If you see a game on a table and you want to try it out, ask around and see if someone will teach it.

The Green Bean is located near the University of Windsor at:
2320 Wyandotte St. W (Lower). Windsor, ON.
It's in the basement of the Church with the big sign that says "God Loves Students" on the side of it, next to Harvey's 


Note: The Windsor Gaming Resource has no political or religious ties to the Green Bean or the Church it is located in. It just happens to be an awesome place to play some games and meet other gamers.

You can find The Green Bean on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/greenbeancoffee

You can find The Green Bean on the web here:
http://www.greenbeancoffee.info/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/windsorgamingresource/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on G+:
https://plus.google.com/b/114520579551583540642/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/WindsorGaming/