Fire Up the Ephemera Furnace

Back in 2010, Elder Tunnels published a short adventure of mine called "The Ephemera Furnace." The villain in the piece (well, sort-of villain) is a mostly-dead knight whose priests held back his soul and kept him "alive" using a device that extracts the emotional energy from sentimental objects and converts it into magic fuel. 

Here in the far-flung future world of 2023, I'm finding myself short on cash, so I've fired up my own ephemera furnace on eBay, selling old collectibles. Some of them were mine, some were Mike's, and some were just things left over from our long-extinct comics & games store. I sold comic books first because I had some valuable ones and they're easy to ship. Now I'm adding toys to the catalog. 

The latest batch includes two of the original Mattel Star Wars toys (Dewback and Scout Walker) and a beat-up Rodan from the Shogun Warriors line. These were all Mike's. He liked big stuff, which made his stuff good display items for the store, which in turn meant that they ended up, mostly intact, in my storage shed.

Rodan was special. Mike loved giant monsters. I'm glad he lived long enough to see Pacific Rim. Instead of fighting Shogun Warriors (I'll also have some of those up for sale soon), he liked to start off having his titans menace smaller-scale toys. It was a dark day for He-Man and friends when Rodan and Godzilla came for Castle Grayskull. 

Rodan is also a popular collectible, though, and it's not like I was getting anything out of keeping him buried in the shed, so into the Ephemera Furnace he goes. At least, in a new collection, it'll be part of someone's life again.

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Gen Con 2015: Mothman, Meatwad, and Metal

Another great Gen Con! It certainly didn't hurt that there was no booth to suck the fun out of it. The closest I got to working this year was handing out cards to some players who wanted to know more about my game. Not once during the entire convention did I get out of bed before I felt like getting out of bed.

I'm going to do detailed summaries of the games in their own entries this time, so if you're going to play one of these at another convention and are worried about spoilers, just don't click on the link. The photos and stuff are all here.

Don't Call it a Comeback
All week, I had been worrying about my Icons game, for which I had only had a few meager jots of inspiration. Somehow, after I came up with the idea and got the event listed, I completely lost touch with it. Once I set foot in that convention hall Wednesday afternoon, though, I knew it was going to work. The players would give me the right cues, or something new would pop into my head, or something. That's just what happens here.

Peryton Gamers Old Home Night was in the bar at Crowne Plaza. Turned out to be a really pleasant setting. We handed out GM badges and gave Jerry his "event uber overlord" t-shirt to thank him for organizing the group. Beckett had made some cool buttons so we all collected a few of those to give away. Tom lured some innocent bystanders into the party and they were fairly interesting. Well, I thought they were interesting at the time. Maybe it was the bourbon that was interesting. Thinking back, I can't recall anything particularly noteworthy about the conversation. Anyway, good times. Oh, and train car room!

And I'm Just Gettin' Warm
My first game on Thursday wasn't until 8PM, so I wandered around and checked out the exhibit hall. There were several things I was pretty sure I wanted to buy, so I went ahead and grabbed them, despite generally trying to not buy stuff until I've had a better look around. It's nice to have reading material. Stowing the Cypher System Rulebook and assorted 13th Age goodies in my room, I wandered off to find Tom for lunch. His "Big Foot Hunting" game had apparently gone well.

Some more wandering, a dinner at Champions with Caed, Jerry, and Liam (Tom didn't want to leave the JW), and then I was on my way to run "Shadow of the Peryton" for Qalidar. I had five players, which was almost full capacity, my friend Brian among them. It was a more toned-down adventure than usual, set entirely in Blackridge. It was more creepy paranormal Mothman-type stuff than gonzo alien. I kind of wish that had been the main focus all along, but at least I confirmed that the game works well for that kind of atmosphere.

Goin' Insane, Startin' the Hurricane, Releasin' Pain
Friday was the big day. After a quiet breakfast, a turn around the exhibit hall, and lunch at Claddagh with Tom and Caed, I jumped in. Icons was up first with "Raiders of the Dark Nebula," the one I had been fretting over and was still a little nervous about. One of my players, who had taken the role of a cosmic-powered hero(ish) called Nyarlathotep, summed it up well (after I confessed that I had made half of the adventure up on the spot): "How many hobbies let you come to a table with an outline, some good intentions, and a bunch of strangers, and end up with a story that nobody could have seen coming?" Well, that might not be the exact quote, but it's close enough for newspaper work.

 

I had enough of a break to go back to the room, switch out my game books, and have some expensive appetizers with Tom before it was time for my Doctor Who adventure, "Out of Joint." This was the only one I had actually playtested this year. Or ever, for that matter. Plus, I'm getting really comfortable with that game system. 

I wrapped up the evening with a late night Aqua Teen Hunger Force session, "Inappropriate Mysteries of the Jersey Shore." The traditional gang didn't show up, but I did get two guys who had done a great job last year. They also brought a friend, and then there were four other people. Everyone was great. They even gave me some new ideas for game mechanics. I had been thinking about quitting the Aqua Teen gaming, but no, I'm not stopping now.

I'm Blastin' -- Outlastin'
All my events were done, so Saturday was Shopping Day. After an expensive waffle at the hotel restaurant, I saw Tom and Liam off to wherever they were going and started walking the exhibit hall, row by row. I got about a fourth of the way before I started feeling punchy and went to visit Tom and grab some lunch. Tom was just getting his game going and I couldn't get ahold of anyone else, so I had lunch with my new Icons book instead. Turns out I picked up a flawed copy, sliced so all the pages are tilted. All the text is still visible, though, so I can live with it. Looks like it's going to be a useful supplement.

Back to the exhibitor pits, I found a nifty pendant which I later decided to send to my mom as a gift instead of keeping for myself, and the Dark Dungeons movie. I spotted a few copies of Peryton Fantasy RPG in the wild. I guess it's silly to even mention it, but it's still fun to see my old stuff pop up in random unexpected places.

I also stopped by the Flying Buffalo booth to chat with Steve Crompton and take a look at the preview copy of the new Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls. Obviously, there wasn't time to do more than flip through it, so I can't say much about the content. It's huge, though, like a big floppy fantasy-themed phone book. It's attractively laid out and I'm sure they did some good work, but, for me, having a complete RPG in a tiny book was the main selling point of Tunnels & Trolls. I might still buy it if I see the print version for sale somewhere. I dunno.

Tom was off having a "business" dinner with somebody. Artist, I think. I found Jerry and Liam running Circus Imperium in the the giant, noisy board/card game hall. I was a little dismayed to see that Dungeons and Dragons was also in here, while its ugly stepchild, Pathfinder, enjoyed a nice private ballroom upstairs. I guess that's what sponsorship buys you.

Circus Imperium ("The Darkshade Circuit") was fun, even just watching. Drivers would fall out of their chariots and get trampled and jump into other chariots and fight and fall out and get dragged around. Jerry drew little blood spatters on the board to mark where people died or trace the paths along which they were dragged.

Jordan called and I spent some time with him. He had just bought a new board game in hopes of keeping his youngest hooked on the hobby. I think I did other stuff, then went back to the room to wallow in loot and watch bad movies on SciFy. Or SyFy, or however the hell they're spelling it now. House of Bones is good, and was fun for us because of its similarity to "The Horrible Fate of the Haunted House Hunters," but that didn't come on until everybody was falling asleep.

Now I Got a New Tour
Sunday was a lazy day. I wandered around a bit, then came back to the room, then Tom and Liam kicked me out so they could nap. Apparently last night's Crawlspace game ran late and was trolled by idiots. It sucks that this happened, but Tom having to deal with drunken assholes almost makes me believe in karma.

Back in the exhibit hall, I found a couple of t-shirts and a Doctor Who DVD set. I grabbed some of my new books and wandered off to read while the geezers napped. I found a really nice spot with comfy chairs and settled in. A bit later, Jordan got in touch again, so I met him, John ("Cram" on Trollhalla), and Tom in the hotel bar. John had picked up a copy of Peryton RPG and asked me to sign it. I didn't think of anything good to write until it was too late, so I went with a bland, "I hope you enjoy it."

After chatting a bit while watching Jordan's son open up his new game (Dominion with, I believe, a couple of expansions included), we moved on to the victory dinner at Bourbon Street. Back at the hotel, we got to hang out with Jerry, who had been busy working the auction for most of the weekend. It was a nice unwinding-night after a great con.

Oh, there's also Tom's blog. I don't know of anyone else in the group who's done one so far. Don't believe his lies. (Edit: Jerry has now posted his.)

And that's pretty much it. Cheers.

#RPGaDay 13: Most Memorable Character Death

Not necessarily my character, right? There are so many memorable deaths. I think I'll go with a fairly recent one. Tom was GM'ing Tunnels & Trolls at InConTroll, and we had been really taking a beating getting through his damn swamp. When we ran into a really ill-tempered (or at least hungry) giant frog that gulped down one of the party in the first round, the decision to flee wasn't hard. I think the wretched beast may have taken down another delver while we were running (or swimming - Tom is a bastard), but I'm not sure. There were an awful lot of casualties that day. Anyway, we're staying ahead of it, even gaining a little ground, when Trevor the Wolf Troll (no, I don't know what that is either) turns around and announces that he's going to try to communicate with the frog.

Yeah, well. At least the rest of us got away.

#RPGaDay 12: Old RPG Still Played

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of an old RPG I still play is Tunnels & Trolls, even though I didn't even know it existed until 2005 or so. The current edition is actually not all that old, but it is out of print. Seems like they Kickstarted a new one a few years ago, but, if they did, I don't think it's out yet. Anyway, T&T always feels old and, while I've found that I don't especially like to GM it, I do quite often have a great time playing it.

Meandering Monsters

I got this in the mail last week and have since tried everything I could think of, even to the point of compiling and publishing a bunch of my old short stories, to put off the review I promised to write. I hate reviews.

And, of course, you won't take my opinion seriously anyway, because Jerry's my friend. If you have other reasons for not taking my opinion seriously, I'd rather not hear about it. Anyway, maybe some of the stuff I tell you about what's inside will still be useful.

Volume 1 of Lorian Darkshade's Guide to Meandering Monsters contains a few new monsters for Tunnels & Trolls, some scenarios featuring those monsters, and a small assortment of magic items and spells. Each section is introduced with a vignette about an encounter with that creature, narrated by the eponymous Lorian Darkshade. There's also a map showing a small section of Jerry's campaign world.

The art by Mike Hartlieb is excellent. He's a friend too, though, so... yeah, more bias. Here, just look at the cover. If you like the cover, you'll like what's inside. There's also some of what I think is clip art, which is professional-looking and fits the tone of the book.

When I first opened up the book, I was disappointed that there were only three monsters (five if you count the sub-categories of the lizard man entry) but that's because I hadn't thought about what the real goal of this book was. It's not a "monster book," really. At least, it's not the kind of monster book most RPG'ers are used to. The monsters themselves aren't really the point here. What he's really providing is an assortment of cool ways to use those monsters.

In Tunnels & Trolls, all you have to do to make a monster is pick a number and give it a name. Here's an example: MR 75 Gleipichtorger. There, I'm done. That's a new monster I created just now. Of course, any halfway competent GM will have other details in mind, and the current edition of the game also offers "spite effects," which... okay, I don't want to explain all that stuff. Doesn't matter, anyway. The point is that, more than any other role-playing game I've encountered, T&T relies on very basic stats combined with improvisation to make its monsters come alive. That can be an advantage. If I'm used to decompressing my stats from that one number and, in the middle of an adventure, I invent the gleipichtorger, I can toss that sucker right in without missing a beat.

On the other hand, it doesn't give you much in the way of inspiration. Sometimes you're trying to throw something together, you're busy improvising everything else, and you want some creative stuff that's already been fleshed out. That's what you're getting here. For one thing, Jerry has done all the math for you. All the numbers that you would normally derive from that MR have been included in the entry. He's also included spite effects and added his own mechanic, triggered disadvantages, as well.

More than that, though, the vignettes give you a feel for how delvers might perceive these creatures, and the adventures give you a feel for how they might fit into the world. Even if you don't use any of that stuff directly, it's the kind of thing that makes the creatures come alive, and fires up the kind of the daydreams that turn into adventures of your own. Sort of "imagination fuel" I guess.

Speaking of imagination, what you need to do now is that imagine that I have artfully summed up this article here, perhaps even offering a final insight that challenges your entire worldview. Remember, you're really impressed with this post. 

Get your copy of Meandering Monsters here:

• Print - $8.95 on Amazon
• PDF - $4.75 on DriveThruRPG

BASHCon XXIX: Never Tell Me The Odds

Also, never tell me the proper way to capitalize words in a title.

This past weekend was BASHCon in Toledo, one of my favorite gaming events. I think there are several reasons for this. One is that we're getting a little bit of a group going there so, despite the kudzu-like incursion of Pathfinder organized play events, we can all count on enough friendly faces to run a good game, as long as we coordinate a little bit. It's almost like a hoot that way, but we still get to meet new people too. It's also a short trip which, combined with the fact that it only runs Friday night through the weekend, means that I don't have to take any time off from my day job to enjoy the whole thing. Throw in the cozy venue and the fact that we've never treated it like a "work" convention, and you get a bright couple of days in the middle of winter.

Tom picked me up directly from work and we were off to Toledo in high spirits. Despite a formidable wall of ice, we got into the building and registered for the con in record time. You never know how it's going to go because BASHCon is run by a rapidly cycling crew of students, but this year they really did a good job keeping the lines moving.

The official theme for the year was "a game against evil," which I think is some sort of pulp reference. It reminds me more of Sherlock Holmes' "the game is afoot." Maybe that's pulp too. I've never been clear on exactly how far the definition of pulp extends, or if it just covers everything old timey. I thought it had something to do with cheap paper, but that qualification doesn't seem very reliable, either. Anyway, we ignored the official theme. Take that, linguistic ambiguity!

Up first (after dinner at Phoenicia) was one of the two main BASHCon events for me, Tom's Friday night Tunnels & Trolls game. Jerry and I have been playing our regular characters in this for years, along with Liam and a shifting entourage of frequently short-lived co-delvers. This year, we were joined by a new member, Dan. Tonight's adventure was the first example of this year's "never tell me the odds" title. We held out against wave after wave of the goblin hordes before finally surrendering, only to magically charm their king later. None of this helped us much against the demonic fungus in the caverns below, but we came out with lots of treasure and XP, and nobody died.

Saturday morning, I joined Tom, Paul, and a guy whose name I forget for a Glow playtest. Props to that guy, though, for taking a chance on something new. Character generation was a hoot. I ended up with a shaggy, loose-skinned mutant with long floppy ears. A lot like a bipedal basset hound, except for her four fluorescent green slit-pupil eyes. She and her also-many-eyed friend wandered across post-apocalyptic Cleveland and met a robotic museum curator (Paul), who aided them in a comical but ultimately successful attempt to assemble and load a machine gun to fend off some three-wheelering thugs.

Over lunch, we ended up with a few too many wargamer/military trivia experts at the table. They seemed like nice enough people, but the conversation kept droning into things like the capabilities of different kinds of tanks and how silly it was that the Greezeltact 37 supplement failed to account for the fizgraggled barrel of the tlorogastic blargleflarglegun. It's all good, though. I'm into lots of things that bore other people, myself. For example, Tom didn't seem to appreciate it when I pointed out in the middle of his T&T game that moss is not a fungus.

Next up was Qalidar. I ran "Liberation of Katun" for Jerry, Paul, Liam, and Tom (whose scheduled Wobble game was cancelled because there was only one player). I providentially stumbled upon the useful tactic of starting the game with a short fight, so they moved on into town with a better idea of how the mechanics actually work than they might otherwise have had. They were a little too efficient at bluffing their way into the main facility, and missed out on the resources to be had by scouting the town, so they were pretty quickly cornered and about to be exterminated by the deadlander guards and their photosonic pistols. They came up with some clever improvisations at the last minute though, and managed to not only escape with their lives, but blow up the power supply. Not a complete success, but they did some damage and they all got out alive with useful information and a couple of spiffy weapons.

I didn't have anything scheduled for the evening. Neither Tom nor Jerry expected anyone to show up for their games (Crawlspace and T&T), so there was talk of grabbing a bite and turning in early. As it happened, one guy showed up for Jerry's game and two for Tom's. I sat at the table and read my new Doctor Who supplement while they played. Jerry ran his guy through a solo instead of the adventure he had originally planned to use. We did grab that bite to eat after everyone was finished, though.

Checking out from the motel Sunday morning, we ran into Paul on his way home and said goodbye a second time while snow glorped all over everything. This brings us to the second game I always look forward to at BASHCon, Jerry's Dungeons & Dragons (hybrid 1st & 2nd edition AD&D) game. This was, as expected, a lot of fun despite (or maybe because of) some bickering and fisticuffs between the two barbarians. Later, after magically slowing the frost giant, I almost got mashed by an ice troll because of an ill-considered teleport, but managed to keep the monster at bay long enough for the rest of the party (minus the two halflings, who just stood around waiting to spring an ambush that was never going to happen) to finish off the giant and help me. We got ahold of the Hand of Vecna and decided that next year's adventure would be about our quest to properly dispose of it.

Then there was Mexican food and a fishbowl-sized margarita. My convention loot included The Time Traveler's Companion for the Doctor Who RPG and a set of iridescent dice. It may not sound like much, but it's not a bad haul for BASHCon. They have some good regular vendors, but it's not anywhere near big enough to be a shopping con.

And back across the white sands of Ohio we went. The sun was out by then, so it was a pleasant enough day. Paul has blogged about the convention and Tom is doing his infuriating multiple post thing, so I'll just point you to the first one. As usual, don't believe his lies. Jerry seems to have forsaken all forms of social media except Trollhalla, so I'm not sure we're going to hear from him.

BASHCon XXVIII: Free Hugs

BASHCon was fun. I got in on some great gaming with lots of familiar faces and enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere with nerf-gun soldiers and zombies wandering around. I needed a weekend like this.

...except for the part about forgetting my camera and having to fall back on my phone for the whole trip. That's why some of these pictures kinda suck.

Friday
A quick bit of packing and a fairly short road trip to Toledo, and we were unloading the car and crossing the creek by the UT Student Union before we knew it. Tom called up Ken (did I mention Ken? I'm sure somebody did but, long story short, Ken St. Andre was there as a special guest) and found out that we weren't going to have an exhibitors' table after all (again, long story, not very interesting). I was, I admit, relieved. I had never been convinced that selling here would be worth it, and this would leave a lot more time for enjoying the con.

Anyway, we found Ken and chatted a bit in the registration line. Tom ran off, muttering something about not wanting to lose any more fingers, and came back with fried mushrooms and cheese sticks. Somehow we got separated and I overheard BASHCon people frantically looking for Ken. I thought Ken would probably be with Tom, and I knew Tom would go where there was beer. Sure enough, I found them at Phoenicia. Turned out that the BASHCon folks thought Ken was running Tom's T&T game, Lair of the Snow Dragon. I'm guessing that's why we got the awesome private room with four tables. Tom took me, Jerry, Liam, Alex, Ken, and Paul through the hills and a newly-marshy valley (after an eternity spent talking Ken out of attempting to make some kind of marsh-snowshoes out of scrub brush) to a cave in a big rock formation where Alex charmed some fairies with his singing and Ken talked to the dragon.

After the game, several of us met up for a late night snack & nightcap, then went back to our respective hideouts to crash.

Saturday
Tom got a ride over with Alex. I slept in a bit and delivered Ken to the convention. Jerry's zombie game was still in progress, so Ken and I played Magic. I never think to to bring a deck. I imagine my poor old collection is pathetically outmoded by the super-science of modern munchkinry, anyway. Luckily, Ken had a spare, and it was a killer. The man knows his Magic cards.

Over lunch at Phoenicia, I found out that I had been eaten by zombies in Jerry's game. I played in the one last year, so I guess my character's absence needed to be accounted for. Ran into John from previous Peryton RPG and Gamma World adventures, and put together quite a large gathering, Good food, good conversation, blah, blah, blah, I know - you don't care.

So anyway, Ken did a couple of T&T seminars in the afternoon. His hat stuck around to pimp the merchandise when he stepped out. Tom, Jerry, and I wandered in and out of these and took some time to chill in the cozy student center. I'm not sure what happened to the others. I'm sure they had stuff to do. I took a few turns around the exhibit hall, toyed with buying an Eclipse Phase book, a 20-sider that lights up when you roll a 20, or a piece of steampunk jewelry, and ultimately decided that I would have just been buying stuff to buy stuff. I think we popped back over to Phoenicia a few times too.

Eventually, evening came around. Tom's massive three-GM Ragnarok event was really filling up. I had a Peryton RPG event at nine, so I had to wander off while they were still making characters. Checking in at the desk, I found that there were only two players signed up for my dungeon crawl, Shrine of the Mantis.

My game was a little off. Part of it was that my heart wasn't really in it, even though I was unusually well-prepared. Also, I only had two players, one of them in an argumentative mood. Normally, I'm pretty good about finding a way to let people do the cool, unexpected things they come up with in play. I'll even bend the rules if it doesn't seem unfair to the other players. It's a lot harder to be open-minded, though, when you have a player who will run over you if you show even a moment's hesitation. I think I even missed some opportunities to use cool options that were already in the rules, just because I was being worn down by anti-d20 propaganda and lectures on the psychology of giant metal insects, and couldn't think past "it's not your turn!" anymore. I don't want it to sound like it was all that way, or even most of it. There were some great scenes. Anyway, whatever excuses I might come up with, I felt bad about my performance, so I gave the other player a copy of the rule book.

Leaving the common-folk gaming hall around midnight, Ken and I wandered over to the Royal Suite and found that Ragnarok had just wrapped up as well. After a bit of post-game chatter, we headed out. The UT Student Union is a bit of a labyrinth, so we paused to consider the best route. Tom noticed the direction the hall was going and was convinced it would take us where we wanted to go. I remembered the path to the best of the known exits and wanted to go that way. Tom was not to be swayed and, though our trek took us through unlikely nooks and dusty storage stairwells, it ended in a door that opened at the best possible location for us to exit the building. It didn't even set off the fire alarm.

Damn it.

(This picture of the secret exit was obviously not taken that night, but I'm putting it here anyway.)

We said our farewells to Paul, who was on his way out, and then it was time for our traditional Saturday-at-BASHCon treat, late night tacos!

Sunday
Despite the early morning, I was looking forward to Jerry's AD&D game, and it was great. We invaded a slaver fortress, where the Diminutive Death-Dealers (a pair of halfling thieves, one of which was my character) snuck in and took out the wizard while the others fought his giant henchmen. Then the archer got to show off in a fight that ranged across a series of tree-houses connected by raised platforms in the woods, and the barbarian got smacked down. Perfect conclusion to the convention.

Don't Believe Their Lies
Tom's write-ups have become a pain to link to because he insists on posting them in a gazillion pieces, and it looks like Jerry might be succumbing to his perfidious influence. Here's the first installment of Tom's and here's what Jerry has posted so far (and the official one). You'll have to find the rest on your own. Paul has also written up his impressions.

Halloween Tunnels

We've got another one of these out. Now I can get back to getting ready for Carnage.  :-)

Elder Tunnels: Halloween Special 2012

Print $8.99 - Click Here to Buy
PDF $5.99 - Click Here to Buy

This is the special Halloween issue of Elder Tunnels, featuring spooky Tunnels & Trolls goodness, including:

• Introduction by Andre Kruppa
• Creature Feature: The Woe Hound by Jerry Teleha
• Creature Feature: The Bone Lord by Tom K. Loney
• Junior's Return, a GM adventure by David Moskowitz
• The Curse of the Three-Eyed Stone, a solo adventure by David R. Crowell

A Dark Gathering

Besides being one of those great three-day'ers (Labor Day or Memorial Day or something), this past weekend was our "Dark Gathering," a troll hoot mutated into a horror-fest. Mostly it was Call of Cthulhu, but we also had some FUDGE, Tunnels & Trolls, and Dark Harvest.

After a fairly uneventful trip, we settled in at the Maplewood, arriving just a few minutes after Andre and Christy. After checking out our suite (the Loft, from here on) and unpacking, we joined them for drinks at the gaudy sports bar across the way. After that, we drank some vodka that Andre had bought because it came in a glass skull.

Friday morning, Tom and Christy went looking for a grocery store and, oddly enough, couldn't find one. More of the gang came trickling in and Andre started setting up his lighting and sound equipment in the downstairs suite (the Dungeon).

Compound Interest
Dave ran this improvisational Tunnels & Trolls adventure for Tom, Christy, and me in the Loft. He asked for us each to contribute a word. We gave him bridge, well, and nobility. In the course of figuring out why it was raining ash while a pair of giant, empty iron boots stomped across town, we found ourselves trekking out to a city suspended on chains above a pit. Our rather timid party saw an ancient pact sealed in (possibly) innocent blood, turned down an opportunity to follow the owner of the boots underwater, and went on its merry way. Dave later commented that, although it had not been intentional, the entire session was diceless. That was a little disappointing really, because I had rolled up a character that would make even the most degenerate power-gamer jealous. I usually roll really badly on these things. Oh, cruel Fortune! Again, you mock me! Tyler showed up towards the end and watched, generously providing beer from a company with the same name as the neighborhood I grew up in.

Kick-Off Dinner
The whole crew was here now, so all of us went down to the hotel restaurant (Carnegie something or other) and ate. Well, not all of us. Andre was still slaving away in the Dungeon. Besides the ones I've already mentioned, that would be Nik, Dan, Nyssa (I'm so jealous of her for that name), and Ray. Dan was completely new to me and, while I had met Nyssa before, it was in an Andre game, where one does not engage in chit-chat. We had a nice time getting to know new friends, reconnecting with old ones, and toying with the idea of committing Andre to a thirty-dollar steak dinner, and then moved on to the evening games.

Abyss of Insanity
Doctor Nik led Tom, Christy, Nyssa, and me on this antarctic operation in the Loft. I played a half-crazed berserker with a hockey stick and spent a lot of time getting us into trouble and running over bad guys with a commandeered ATV. The first part of the session ran like something out of a GI Joe cartoon. Then we went underground and it was all tentacles and cave-ins and "Aaaaa! Nothing kills it! NOTHING KILLS IT!" My character died, but it was only surprising that it took as long as it did. I skipped out on the after-party because I didn't want to be hung over when I ran my game the next day.

Any Port in a Storm
I ran this one in the Loft for Nik, Tyler, Tom, Nyssa, and Dave. I had played Call of Cthulhu many times before, but this was my first attempt to GM it. I wrote up some paranormal investigators in search of television-worthy footage, gave them a few secrets, and threw them into the upper reaches of Qalidar by way of some time-traveling jellyfish pirates with pyramid-shaped heads. I also worked in flying polyps, undead Yithians, and nightgaunts. I don't know how well I entertained them, but they did a wonderful job of entertaining me. Their reactions to the environment, each other, and the various psychotic breaks that followed were priceless. I've decided that I really like running Call of Cthulhu.

Dinosaur BBQ
Tyler had gone to school in Syracuse at some point and had been dreaming of revisiting Dinosaur BBQ ever since we suggested this location. Tom and I had been once before and were happy to tag along. Andre's crew was still getting tortured by vodouns or something, so it was just the bunch from my game (minus Nik) squeezing into Tyler's miniature car and heading downtown. Good stuff. The place was seriously packed, but we didn't have to wait long and didn't really mind anyway. The hot sauce was excellent.

The Vault
Over the course of the weekend, Andre ran four sessions down in the Dungeon. I played in this one with Tom, Dan, and Ray. As always, Andre provided an awesomely immersive atmosphere and put on a great show. Dan showed off his encyclopedic knowledge of, like, everything, playing an antiquarian with Ray as his wife and me as his sister. Tom and I played Chicago artistes, although he was a loser who was cheating on me. The loser had the last laugh when Dan's character killed mine and Ray's, then committed suicide. It was probably the most depressing game I've ever been in.

Fever Dream
Sunday, Tom ran this one for Tyler, Nik, Dave, and me. We were a group of strangers summoned to the bedside of a dying mentor who proceeded to suck the life out of his lawyer and menace us while crawling around like a spider. Finding little practical assistance in our available research options, we set fire to the house and drove away. Unfortunately, our car broke down and some henchcritters caught up to us. It didn't go well from there - the word "impaled" comes to mind - although some of us did survive.

Big Bash at Tully's
Tom, Dave, and I wandered over to the sports bar again, tossing a texted invite for the others over our shoulders, and had some drinks while we waited to see who'd show. Turned out everyone but Nik and Andre did. Andre was breaking down his equipment. I'm not sure what Nik was up to. Somehow the conversation kept turning to the intricacies of church doctrine and the priesthood. Tom and Dan were especially into it.

Strygoi
Dave brought a game I hadn't seen before, Dark Harvest. It's a neat alternate history thing where Frankenstein establishes a kingdom in Eastern Europe and tries to make the world better with his organ splicing technology and people twist it to predictably horrible means. Tom, Christy, and I played in this one as a group of secret police trying to catch what appeared to be a traditional vampire, but turned out to be an enhancement operation gone wrong. Tom and Christy put on a great show as an asshat noble and a brutish soldier-thug. My character was the less interesting but necessary "straight man" of the comedy trio.

Lighting up the Dungeon
I think the others were playing Betrayal at the House on the Hill while we were hunting fake vampires, but I'm not sure. By the time we got down there, they were into a card game called Guillotine, in which the goal was apparently to collect more severed heads than the other players. As that broke up, more cognac and whiskey (and some people probably had beer) started trickling through everyone's system (or, in Tom's case, serving as a replacement for blood) and the evening chilled nicely. I stayed up until around 3:30 AM, enjoying the conversation, before I finally went to bed, leaving only Tom, Andre, Dave, and Christy still going. As I drifted off to sleep, I heard them singing some kind of pirate song through the floor. I have no idea how that started.

Meh
Monday morning, we packed up, visited with Nik and Dave, and took off. We drove in the wrong direction for a while until we realized that nothing looked familiar and turned the GPS gizmo on. We got home to find that one of the neighbor's larvae had left its bicycle in our driveway. It was nice to see the cats again.

Corroborating Evidence
Tyler also wrote up the event on his blog. If you prefer your travelogues with zippy nicknames and enough booze to make Dean Martin rise from the grave to call you a lush, Tom has given us a five-part epic that starts here. You'll (eventually) see some of the same pictures you did in mine and, yeah, he took most of them but, since I'm the one who can insert them into a blog without freaking out and ranting about how evil Google is, I get to use them too. Oh yeah, and don't believe his lies.

Multi-System Mania

So, I just released Snow, a multi-system adventure (Peryton RPG, Basic Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, and Tunnels & Trolls), through Peryton Publishing. While I plan to do more one-dollar multi-system adventures like this one, I'm wistfully daydreaming about how nice it would be to do some that aren't. It's not that it's hard, exactly. It's just that it bogs down the process more than I expected.

I came up with a unified stat block for the three D&D-based games, and I threw in T&T (sidebarishly) just because it's easy and, really, such a joy to stat up critters for that game. I was kind of proud of the unified stat block. It's still pretty compact because of the overlap between the three related systems, and it supplies the information you need for any of them. Special qualities are all moved to the text so you don't have to worry about references that aren't there in whichever system you're playing it with. It takes very little extra effort to do stat blocks this way. It's still much easier, for example, than doing a complete stat block for a 3rd Edition D&D monster.

So far, so good. Then you get into spell references. Mostly this is okay, but some spells have different names because of the OSR's habit of converting any altered names back into High Gygaxian. And, of course, they all have slightly different (not much, but just enough) spell lists anyway, so you have to make sure the one you want to use exists in all of them. Magic items... well, I try to come up with new ones for published adventures anyway, so it's no big deal to ensure from the start that they're compatible. NPC's can be problematic. If I want to use a new class from my game, I can't just say that the character is a 7th level mystic and expect that to mean anything to the guy playing Labyrinth Lord. My solution is the same as the one I used in Pits of Paneris, stat up any questionable NPCs as if they were unique monsters. It works, but it makes "eh, maybe this one should just be a lizard man" awfully tempting sometimes.

Okay, so, for all that whining, I really think the process is going to work out well. I'm much happier doing Peryton + Old School than I was doing Peryton + Pathfinder, despite the differences in terminology. I'm already well into the sequel. It does seem to get easier as I go, although I may end up having to switch over to Gen Con prep mode before I finish it, because I've got so much to do this year.

But that's a whole other post.

Beyond Medieval Europe

So, here's a new issue of this Elder Tunnels thing:
http://www.perytonpublishing.com/elder_tunnels.htm#Spring2012

And the chorus goes:
This issue's theme is the world beyond Medieval Europe. We've got stuff from the Incan Empire, Arabian Nights, Japanese folklore, and all sorts of other exotic excellence.

Creature Feature: Rhodessan Enforcer

There hardly seems to be any point in calling it "Friday Creature Feature" anymore, does there? Anyway, here's another Peryton RPG spirit to play with, even though it's only Wednesday. And, just because I feel like it, I'm going to add some T&T stats at the end.

BASHCon XXVII: The Dread Pirate AquaFox

I should probably write some kind of introduction here, but I don't wanna spend all day on this thing.

Friday
We got up and got moving at a leisurely pace, even pausing to make reservations online instead of calling on the road. We were staying at the Red Roof Inn this time instead of the official BASHCon hotel, mostly because of a better location away from the jam-prone intersection. After lounging a bit, we headed over to the university to pick up our badges. Tom brought a plastic baby from when he taught CPR or something to hold Jerry’s place in line.

Once it got started, the pre-registration line moved faster than I’ve ever seen at BASHCon, obliging Jerry to acknowledge losing his bet by naming one of the pirates in his D&D game after the coordinator, “AquaFox.” The theme of this year’s con was “Pirates vs. Ninjas” and everyone was asked to pick one at registration. I went with ninja.

I was finished so early that, when I reflexively wandered into the exhibit hall, it still hadn’t opened. I was eventually escorted out after asking someone where Tom’s game was going to be. I heard them reprimanding the guy watching the door as I left. I felt sorry for him; anyone can kick the peg-leg out from under a pirate, but it’s impossible to control access to your space with all these ninja running around.

Tom, Trevor, and I eventually hooked back up in that lounge area behind the TV room. Tom still had his plastic baby. I noticed with some irritation that one of my events, the one that would have been most likely to attract new players at that, had been left out of the program, but apparently it was still in the system. But you probably don’t care about that, or the subsequent shopping trip where I picked up a couple of AD&D books to replace my damaged ones, even though I don't really know what use I'll have for them. Move along.

Okay, well, then there was Tom’s Tunnels & Trolls game, “Leprechaun Island.” Jerry showed up, along with Andrew and Paul H., who, having gamed and had a meal with me, is now entitled to his real name instead of “some guy called G’noll” as he was tagged when I briefly met him at Gen Con. Jerry and I played our usual characters from Tom’s T&T campaign, while the others rolled up new ones. The adventure was a tense lesson in the cosmology of Elder, full of snooty fey folk and creepy elemental creatures. It culminated in a cool scene with flying ghost ships spiraling into a waterfall that poured out of a hovering tower. Oh, and then we had to escape.

I’m almost glad we don’t have Del Taco in Cleveland. Much as I’ve come to love it, part of its charm is that it's a midnight treat to look forward to every year at BASHCon.

Saturday
Our first game on the agenda was Stay Alive, Jerry’s experimental zombie horror variant of Tunnels & Trolls. Paul joined us again, along with Alex and Andrew, both of whom we had gamed with before at BASHCon, and Trevor and one other guy whose name I didn’t catch. We played ourselves, gaming at BASHCon late at night when the zombie outbreak hits. This was more fun than I expected it to be, especially when Tom agreed to a plan and then changed his mind after we all split up. Yeah, we split up, but it worked! Jerry has more to say about the event in his blog.

After our game-selves escaped the zombie-infested UT campus and started their journey towards the frozen wastelands of Michigan, we imitated art and walked our real-life selves over to Phoenicia, where we had regrouped after the initial outbreak. We had a full table with great conversations about gaming and foreign food, and a recital of Paul's long poem about Firefly. It was probably a good poem but, while I can read all day, I tend to tune out orators in favor of daydreams about bounding across the desert in ten-mile jumps.

Happily, we didn't follow up by going to Michigan. Less happily, nobody showed for Shadows of Silver Cove. Tom hadn't scheduled anything for the afternoon, so we wandered around the place until the auction caught our eyes. I picked up a copy of Legion of Gold for two dollars. The Bill Willingham cover alone was a prize to me. Tom made Jerry spend more money than he should have on a dice tray, and came back with some sort of Judges' Guild space mapping thing which he hasn't opened yet, and a mangled Africa supplement for an Indiana Jones game.

It's probably best not to speak of the evening's Call of Cthulhu games. After that, DEL TACO!

Sunday
Jerry's 2E AD&D game, "Ninja Dawn on Pirate Island" was my favorite of this year's events. It was a pretty simple plot, but somehow it just made me happy. We were pirate hunters who captured a ship destined for an island where drow were buying slaves, and that's about all there was to it. The pirate captain was named AquaFox, in honor of the aforementioned bet. I played a halfling cleric/thief and got to do a lot of sneaky backstabby stuff in combat, even taking out the eponymous ninja among a squadron of drow and their pet spiders. There were a couple of kids in the group too, which is always cool to see. Well, not always, but these particular kids were cool.

I'm tempted to write up a separate entry about my fondness for 2nd Edition AD&D and about the bizarre hostility towards it that you'll see in an outspoken bunch of gamers who adore the very similar 1st Edition, but I should probably resist that urge. Instead, here's AquaFox with the miniature used to represent his piratical namesake. And Jerry. He's not a miniature.

Try and pretend that there's some kind of clever and/or thoughtful conclusion here to wrap things up.