A Giant Leap for all Phil-kind

Greetings readers!

If you've been following this page, or have found this page recently, you'll notice that it's been quite some time since I've added anything. My freelance career has been moving forward -- quite successfully, if I may say so. The consequence of that has been that my time to write for this blog has almost entirely evaporated. It's a good thing and a bad thing, as I always enjoyed sharing my thoughts and methods with anyone who was interested in it.

A few things to update you all on; I'm still writing for Fantasy Flight Games. I've written two adventures for them; "On the Run" and "Mystery of the Burning Gold". Both set in the Android universe, I ran "On the Run" at PAX Unplugged last year and I'll be slapping down "Mystery of the Burning Gold" at GenCon in two weeks. If you'll be in attendance, come on by and say "hi!" Show up early enough and you may be able to jump in and play -- I almost always have at least one no-show from reserved players, so bring some Generic tickets.

My first published work debuted in Allies and Adversaries where I worked on the "Citizens and Creatures" section. The next book I worked on was Gadgets and Gear, which is due out sometime in Quarter 3. These projects were the fulfillment of a lifelong dream; seeing my name in a Star Wars RPG book as a contributing writer. Here's hoping more projects like this come my way.

The biggest news in my RPG writing life is that I started a small game company with several friends of mine in the New England area, Studio 404 Games. While our website has not gone live yet, we are active on various social media. For now, come join our community and discussion over on Facebook. I'll likely announce it here when our website goes live.

Studio 404 Games's focus is on providing top-shelf quality settings for table-top adventures. We all have busy lives, and don't always have the time to create rich, vibrant worlds for stories and adventures. Studio 404 Games is here to provide rich worlds and settings that spark creativity in game masters and make players excited to play in those worlds. Our first offering, Starcana, is coming soon.

What is Starcana? It's a scifi setting with adventure, exploration, intrigue, politics, horror, and tragedy; all with a bit of magic thrown in. We call it a "Science Fantasy" setting, and it will be available in August. More details coming soon.

That's pretty much it for now, possibly for good. "Fragments From the Rim" has been a wonderful journey to share for the past decade or so, but to be fair it's a borrowed title. It might be time to retire it and evolve my blogging into something else. Something that's more "me". If this change comes to pass, I'll be sure to link it here so you all may come with me.

Until then, may the dice be with you!

Review of "The Haunted City"

This August I had the opportunity to go to GenCon 50. Not just to attend, but also to run games for Fantasy Flight Games. It was a wonderful time and an amazing experience; "10/10 would do again" to use the phrase. With one exception, every session I ran was for Genesys, FFG's new generic rulebook based on their Narrative Dice system. It occurs to me that I never did any sort of post-GenCon commentary or review of the module, the system as presented, and my thoughts on it all.

The adventure is called "The Haunted City", and was written by one of the many "Tims" of FFG (Tim Cox if I remember correctly). The adventure is set within FFG's Runebound setting of Terrinoth. It involves a murder investigation that ends in Nerekhal, a fortified city with a sordid past of being a nexus of infernal power. There's a possibility of folks to play this module in the future, so for now I won't go into too many details about the plotline so as best not to spoil it.

First up are the characters; they're a motley bunch of named heroes from Runebound; Alys Raine, Syndrael, Leoric of the Book, Thaiden Mistpeak, Pathfinder Durik, and Ulma Grimstone. Experience-wise, these were some advanced characters; they had 190-210 XP in addition to their starting XP. This gave them a host of skill ranks, a bevy of Talents, and each of them had a Heroic Ability (something that's akin to Signature Abilities for those familiar with the Star Wars RPG, but not quite as powerful). Most of the characters were seemingly really fun to play, I didn't have anyone who came up to me afterwards with comments that their character felt lacking.

My only real criticism about the characters are that they had a huge amount of abilities and options to choose from. Since the system is still technically in closed Beta, it doesn't allow for anyone to really have any familiarity with the talents presented. I know that only one person ever used Thaiden's "Wraithbane" talent, preferring to use his crossbow in just about all situations. Several players mentioned that they forgot or didn't realize they had certain options, probably due to the wide variety of them. However, I can say that pretty much everyone did find the "intended combos" for each character; Alys is able to absolutely smash eveything with her Warhammer, and then layer on even more damage with her "Justice of the Citadel" talent.

Each character also has Strengths, Flaws, Desires, and Fears. The idea behind those mechanics are for situations where these qualities would be a benefit, they add Boost Dice to the roll. For situations where they would be a detriment, they add a Setback die to the roll. Since this was a new mechanic and concept even for me, I actually missed having that come into play more often. Also, unlike the Obligation/Duty/Morality mechanics in Star Wars, every character has 4 of these qualities to keep track of. It was a little daunting, and I probably missed several opportunities to influence the game with these abilities. Still, it was handy to have them, and just about every player of Durik was shying away from the truly supernatural threats and challenges in the module.

As I mentioned before, each character had a Heroic Ability, something new that looks a lot like Signature Abilities in Star Wars. The ability is spelled out with a few descriptors such as Name, Origin, Ability, Upgrades, and Effect. There also seems to be a tracking for Total Ability Points earned, and Ability Points available. Presumably, one will be able to earn Heroic Ability Points and spend them on a variety of effects. I really like Ulma's ability to simply activate (for 2 Story Points) and take an Incidental action to defeat an entire minion group within short range. Every group had her use this to great effect in the module. It basically lasts for 2 rounds, which seems appropriate.

One of the biggest questions before and after GenCon was how magic was going to work. Is it skill based? Do you buy spells like you do Force Powers in Star Wars? How are spells cast? How are they designed? Is there a list or something? The public got their first glimpse at Spells thanks to Alys and Leoric.

Spells are, in fact, skill based, with 5 different schools to chose from; Arcane, Divine, Primal, Runes, and Verse. We only got to see Arcane and Divine in play with this module. Alys was limited to one spell per encounter, while Leoric could toss spells all day long as long as his Strain holds out. Casing any spell costs 2 strain, which is a pretty good balance point to help reign in mages. Leoric's signature spell can hammer an opponent for 9 damage at medium range, and crit them for a +30 on the Critical Injury table for only 2 advantage; and he could do that every round. I did have one player nearly knock himself unconscious during one particularly nasty fight thanks to taking a lot of strain, so it works pretty well.

Each caster has a few spells to play with, with no real insight as to how spells are acquired (yet). The spell outlines the effect, and the difficulty to cast it. With the exception of Leoric's signature spell, each spell has a list of additional effects they can layer on to the spell at the cost of increasing the casting difficulty. Some spells can take additional targets, or increased range. I really like the way the Developers handled this, it makes the bigger flashier spells able to be cast at all levels, but you definitely want to be a skilled (or Intellectual) caster if you're going to increase the difficulty of the spell to 5 purple difficulty dice (a Formidable difficulty).

The last details that were included were updates to how Defense works. It used to be a complex chore to figure out if certain effects or qualities added to defense. In Genesys they simplify it to "granting Defense" or "adding to Defense". Some armor grants Defense, a new base line for other effects to add on top of. Cover also grants Defense, so it doesn't stack with armor. The Defensive weapon quality adds to defense, and there's no limitation on how many sources of Defensive you can benefit from. This meant that Syndrael became a true tank, able to get a Defense of 3 thanks to her Sword (Defensive 1) and her Large Shield (Defensive 2).

Aside from this, the rules played pretty much the same as Star Wars.

"The Haunted City" was a fun module to run, full of twists and turns and unique, well thought out characters for the heroes to interact with. It's a somewhat rail-roady adventure, but for a convention module that's supposed to fit into a 4-hour time slot, it's understandable and forgivable. Even so, if you're not careful the players could turn the adventure into a 5 or 6 hour adventure, which is great if FFG releases this for others to play in their own homes.

Sam Stewart and his team have made a winner here. I'm really looking forward to Genesys hitting the shelves, and finally being able to talk about all the things I can't talk about right now. Until then, we at least have these bits of insight into Genesys to gnaw on.

May the dice be with you.

Sam Stewart meeting his appreciative public

2017: A Better Year

Welcome to 2017 people.

It's going to be a weird year, I can tell that already. I'll take a weird year after last year. I could use a year of self improvement and upward progress. A year of learning from past mistakes and making whole new ones.

I'm still in a creative slump, for a number of reasons. Oddly, I'm role-playing as a player more than I am as a GM of late. I'm trying to bring Another Longshot to a close but am having difficulty scheduling the last few sessions between the two parties. But there's light and hope that I may be able to get these lined up to finish by the end of Spring.

Once that game sets, the question of "what next?" arises.  I've had a few campaign ideas kicking around my head:

• Trinity, or Whatever I'm Calling It -  I'd really hate for all the World Building work I did last October be for naught, but I'm having a hard time and little motivation to continue working on the setting. There are a few contributing factors, but ultimately it comes down to feeling rather unoriginal. I know that "there are no more original stories" and "every story under the sun has been told already" but that doesn't change the fact that it still feels like I took the parts of Starcraft, Babylon 5, Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, and a couple RPGs and tried to mash them together. And because of that, probably, it feels fake to me.

•  Earth 43 - I have ideas kicking around to run a game, maybe a year-long one, that the players are DC heroes but reimagined. Their own versions.  Or, maybe they don't get to choose and session one is the PCs suddenly discovering meta abilities of my choosing. Or something else entirely.  Again, it's only in the proto "this could be fun" stage.

• Justice Council (or "The Jedi League of the Republic") - Along a similar vein, I'm writing a module for GamernationCon 2017 where the Player Characters are all Jedi versions of the Justice League on a mission against a Sith "Legion of Doom".  The module is going to take 6-8 hours to play, but I'm somewhat inspired to run something with more depth. Have it be a few sessions, or maybe a bi-weekly endeavor over Roll20. Total "beer and pretzels" level of involvement, but it could be entertaining for a few sessions.

Not my artwork, but I like it...

• A Squadron of Rogues - Rogue One really got to me on a nostalgic level; it was everything I enjoyed about the Rebellion Era stories that didn't involve The Big Three (Luke, Han, and Leia). It reminded me of all the old WEG D6 Star Wars games I ran in High School and college. It reminded me of the "Special Forces Squadron" game I ran from 2005-2007. It tag-teamed with Fantasy Flight Games and the Rebels cartoon to triple body slam me into wanting to run a Rebellion game again. I really want to do something like a Rogue Squadron or Wraith Squadron game; the players are all pilots "and something else" (con men, mechanics, slicers, saboteurs, melee experts, etc).  Maybe that feels a little too much like "Team B" in my Another Longshot game, but hey the urge is there.
• Renegades - I also want to run a game where the PCs start off as Imperials. I've never run such a game, at least successfully. I think I made an attempt once or twice, but it never came to fruition. This could be that game, but then comes the problem of "everyone's a human".  With the exception of Thrawn, the occasional Inquisitor, and a few spies the Empire is all about the humans. My main issue here is whether or not to run it as a strict Imperial game or as a game where the Imperials will eventually go rogue and join the Rebellion. But if I have them go into it knowing that the point is for them to join the Rebellion, does that take away some of the fun and character development?
• Alternately, the game could start off "how far will you go", and have it be up to the PCs to decide how far they're willing to support the Empire in their iron grip of the galaxy. To make that work and be compelling, there would have to be some sort of benefit vs. consequences conflict going on; the longer they stay in the Empire the more they get "n", but the Consequences for that is a lot higher when they do eventually defect to the Alliance.
• This game could, of course, dovetail in to the aforementioned Rebel SpecOps Squadron game.

Next up is Convention madness! GamernationCon 2017 is coming, and I've got a few things lined up for that. I might be running games for FFG at Pax East this year, which may hopefully segue into more of the same at Gen Con 50 this year in Indianapolis. I may also try to get out to one of the local cons this year, TotalConfusion, but we'll have to see if that's in the cards.

That's pretty much it for now; back to working on the Justice Council module for GNC 2017.  Maybe I'll start posting up my thoughts and builds for the PCs.

May the dice be with you!

Oh; and thanks, Obama.

PUG Life - GamerNationCon 2015

A review of a convention can sometimes read like a post on a travel website; somewhat entertaining but ultimately pointless unless the person reading has an interest in going there. To that end, I'm going to try to not only entertain you, but also sell you on attending GamerNationCon in the future;

I had more fun gaming at GamerNationCon 2015 than I did gaming at GenCon2014.

The two conventions are completely different animals; GenCon is an industry trade show and the pinnacle of competitive gaming. The biggest tournaments are held at GenCon, as are the biggest releases. Companies save product to specifically release at GenCon to boost the hype. Gamers and GMs from around the world write and register events, creating a catalog of events 200 pages long in tiny 6-point font.  40,000 gamers crowd into the vast halls of the Indianapolis Convention Center.  It truly is an experience every gamer should participate in, simply for the sensory overload of "GAME".

GenCon is what you make it; if you have a lot of friends to go and adventure with it can be a great time. If you can get in on one of the official events run by the game companies, you may be treated to a grand, well written adventure. You may even get in on some private-run and registered game, run by a solid GM who knows his stuff.  It's very hard to get in on pick-up games, unless you come from a gaming community and they organize something together. Even then, your group wanders around the vast halls and hotels looking for some place to play your game while a dozen other groups attempt the same feat.

In my experience, there's little friendly interaction with other con-goers unless you've happened to sign up for the same game. Because everyone pays an additional amount to play the registered events, some folks come to the table with an attitude of "I'm a consumer and I'm going to get my money's worth, dammit". They may insist on rulings go their way, or tell the rest of the party how the group will proceed and hog the spotlight as much as possible (which is funny, because everyone else paid just as much to sit at that table with Captain Blowhard).

Pick Up Games at GenCon are mostly non-existent, except in the situations I described above (gaming communities) or at demo-areas in the exhibition hall where game companies are trying to get you interested in their games. Not a bad thing, mind you, a good game is worth its weight in gold, but Demos tend to last just long enough to teach you how the game works and get your buy in to the product, not the other players.

On the flip side is GamerNationCon, a convention held entirely within the confines of a former dance studio in Plano, Texas. "Dallas Games Marathon" is a small facility with a capacity for 187 people, max. This means attendees are capped at 150, to allow room for volunteer staff and small overflow. This particular site location has the advantage of a massive games library where you can grab a game off a playing rack, a flag that states "Looking for Players", and generally within 5 minutes you're off and running.

Everywhere you look are people that are there for the same reason you are; to play some games. They're war-gaming, or board gaming, or Role Playing, or trying to get through the Artemis Bridge Simulator. There's minor celebrities and Names from "the industry" to game with, or simply chat with.  There's shenanigans, late nights, gamer food, and laughs.  It's a lot like the "gamer community" option with GenCon, but the whole room is filled with folks there for the same reason; game with others from the community. This happens at all hours.  There's almost always someone to game with, someone willing to hop in on Pandemic, or Star Wars RPG, or a hundred other games.

GamerNationCon also has the game-within-the-game; GamerCred. Various actions or accomplishments earns you small buttons that have a name, an image, and a point value. Coming in costume/cosplaying gets you the "Alter Ego" badge, worth 10 points. Getting a photo with a member of the 501st is worth 5 points.  Playing a game that's no longer being supported or produced earns the 10-point "Dead Gamer" pin. Play in 30 hours of events over the con and you get the "Iron Gamer" pin.  RUN 30+ hours of events and you'll earn the "Iron GM" pin. There are secret ones too; Order 66, Brush with Greatness, Sad Panda, Steward of Gamedor, the list goes on and on. Starting next year, your total in "GamerCred" will earn you benefits or first shots at events. It'll be fun to see.

Personally, I had a blast at GamerNationCon 2015, also called "Three Days of Good Gaming" or "3DoGG" for short.  It's a fun con where you're surrounded by gamers who are there to game with the community and have a good time. I feel that can get lost, and did get lost in the insanity that was GenCon.

If you get a chance, or an opportunity, go to GamerNationCon. It's small, it's weird, but it's awesome and can be the most fulfilling con-gaming experience you'll ever have.

Don't get me wrong, GenCon was awesome and I'd love to go back. But sometimes you don't want the Big Dog at the Big Show.  Sometimes you just want a PUG*.


May the dice be with you (and see all my Puggies in Plano next year!)


* - Someone REALLY needs to make a mascot/icon for GamerNationCon, and it needs to be a pug...

GenCon Mod Revisited: Force and Destiny Updates

Two years ago I started to create my own rules for a Jedi Career in FFG's Edge of the Empire RPG and for 18 months my players got to play Jedi in this glorious system.  Around about the time when my GenCon Module was debuting at GenCon 2014, FFG dropped their Beta rules for Jedi and Jedi-like characters, Force and Destiny.  When I made my module, I knew I'd want to incorporate the rules for Force Users that FFG would release, especially if I were going to share "The Big Leagues" with the public. I always knew my Edge of the Jedi rules were temporary; something to bide the time between then and now, and get me running my games with full-blown saber-slingers in my campaigns.  I think I had some great ideas that worked at the time, but naturally the material from the original source came in a few notches above mine.

I promised the backers of the D20 Radio Kickstarter that "The Big Leagues" would be released in October.  Converting over my Jedi (and Sith) PCs to Force and Destiny was the first step in meeting that commitment.

Update 1: Kira Carsen

With Force and Destiny's new careers, I had to find a place to start with Kira.  I figured that her brash nature and role as a melee damage-dealer would steer her towards a Lightsaber style.  Ataru Striker seemed to fit the best.  Ataru Technique allows her to still use Agility with her lightsaber attacks.  Her survivability improves with two ranks in Parry and Reflect, and her damage output is high with Improved Parry and Hawk Bat Swoop.

I wanted to give her a second Specialization to improve her Force Rating.  In the old version, her Force Rating was 3.  In Force and Destiny, a Force Rating of 2 would work just fine as long as the player is willing to earn some Conflict for her by using Dark Side pips rolled on the Force Dice.  I initially chose Seer from the Mystic Career because it was a quick skip to a Force Rating talent and gave her some Grit, Sense Danger, and Uncanny Reactions.  Now I'm taking a second look and thinking that Shadow might be better.  In fact, I might want to start her with Shadow, given her background as a street rat on Nar Shadda.

Shadow earns her Street Smarts, which could help during the Module.  Mental Fortress probably wouldn't affect her too much, so I might just exclude it for the sake of the module. Unrelenting Skeptic would add two Failures to any NPCs trying to use Deception against her.  I remember Kira doing some computer work during some of the adventures in SWTOR, so Codebreaker isn't too much of a stretch.  However I don't see it being used during the Module too much, so like Mental Fortress I'd probably remove it from her talent list just to streamline as much as I can.  If I give her Anatomy Lessons, she'd be able to spend a Destiny Point to add 2 to the damage of any attack, since her Intellect is 2.   I could always swap her Intellect for her Cunning and give her a 3, and bump up her Computers a little, but that's stepping on T7's expertise.  Maybe I'll bump her Intellect to 3 as well.

For her lightsaber, she's got the Double-bladed Lightsaber (Saberstaff).  I wrote these stats before this week's update that increases' the Saberstaff's "Unwieldy" quality to 3, so I'll have to fix that.  I gave her a Dantari crystal which has a good base damage and a neat side effect for when she uses it with Hawk Bat Swoop.

Kira's a brave soul, which is reflected in her Emotional Strength.  She also tends to be a firebrand, and sometimes that bravery can turn to Anger when push comes to shove, hence that Emotional Weakness.  Her Morality is pretty middle of the road, at 55.  I'm somewhat tempted to make her a Light-Side Paragon, just to make sure there's always a Light Side point to flip to dark (see Lord Scourge, below).

Looks like I've got some revisions to make on this...

Kira Carsen F&D v1.0

Update 2: Lord Scourge

Thanks to the novel, Revan, I had a lot of backstory for Scourge to draw from.  Unfortunately, I couldn't use a lot of it because it mechanically doesn't make sense.  The novel says he uses Soresu and Ataru, which would make him a Agility and Intellect-based duelist.  He's also strong, and a melee tank, so he needs a good Brawn too.  I've always thought that Sith Purebloods would be Cunning, so I wanted to start his Cunning at 3.  He also needs a good Willpower, as he's supposed to be an interrogator of high caliber.  That means that Scourge probably wouldn't have a "great" stat (4+) if I gave 3s to all these Characteristics.  Heck, this would mean he had 3s in everything but Presence.  He'd also have three Specs, because he'd have Soresu Defender, Ataru Striker, and Aggressor (the only Spec that gets Coercion as a class skill).  Also because Kira is already an Ataru Striker, I didn't want to double up on those abilities.

So I fudged it a bit.

Scourge has a good Brawn and Willpower at 3, and a high Cunning at 4.  Starting as a Warrior and taking Aggressor, he branches over to Shien Expert, which gives him very good melee and ranged defensive abilities.  It also gets him access to Saber Throw, which he did a fair bit in Revan. He can use that high Cunning with his lightsaber skill.

Hmmm...looks like I didn't update his Dice Pools to reflect the lower Brawn score.  I'll have to fix that.

Aggressor gives Scourge Fearsome and Intimidating, two very apt and appropriate talents for his background as an Interrogator and as the former "Emperor's Wrath".  Shien gets him some good Parry and Reflect ranks as well as Saber Throw.  I'm tempted to also give him Falling Avalance from the Djem So side of Shine Expert, but I think that with his Force Powers would be too much.

Scourge doesn't have anything fancy for his lightsaber, just a basic Ilum crystal with two damage boost mods and a Vicious 1 mod.

The hardest part about Scourge was considering his Emotional Strength and Weakness, and his Morality score.  I figure his Morality score is in the teens, thanks to his adventures with the Hero of Tython.  That makes him a Dark-Side character with a -1 to Strain Threshold and +1 to Wound Threshold.  Looking over the options for Emotional attributes, I selected Coldness for his Weakness and Discipline as his strength.  The immortality ritual he is under is a constant source of pain, so a rigid discipline and mental will is needed to function.  Because of this he has a detached nature, the constant pain has removed almost all traces of compassion and empathy.  He remembers warmth, love, the taste of foods, simple pleasures, but he can no longer feel them.  The price of immortality.

Lord Scourge F&D v1.0

Update 3: Nadia Grell

I pretty much had Nadia's build pegged before I really sat down to map her out.  The daughter of a diplomat, learning from watching, and possessing an insatiable curiosity and a passionate drive.  She's a potent Force-user, but not a highly skilled one.  I started her in Consular with the Sage specialization, as the talents and skills in Sage fit her role as the diplomat for her world and as the padawan and/or spouse of the Jedi Bar'senthor. Because she is the melee damage dealer of the party, she moves to Niman Disciple and puts her high Willpower to work in melee as well as with the Force.

Between Sage and Niman Disciple, Nadia gets a bevy of good social talents; Kill with Kindness, Nobody's Fool, Sense Emotions, and Smooth Talker all beef her up in social situations (and will be a big help during the first part of the module).  Through Niman Disciple she gets some great combat talents; ranks in Parry and Reflect, Force Assault to smash foes she misses with her lightsaber attacks, and Draw Closer to pull targets to her for her to slice up with her saberstaff.

I lowered her Lightsaber (Will) skill to only one rank partially because I don't see her as an exceptional combatant but also because she can technically use Draw Closer every round.  Doing so will add her Force Rating in Force dice to her attack checks, and she'll be able to add any Force pips she wants to spend on Successes.  Nadia really shouldn't have a hard time hitting foes in combat.

Because of all her combat options, I gave her a basic Saberstaff with no modifications for her weapon.  With the Linked 1 quality, and all the options for scoring damage (either by hitting with the saber or using Move if the saber misses with enough Advantage or Triumph) adding too much more damage felt too good.

I ended up giving Nadia two Emotional Strengths and Weaknesses; she's compassionate and curious, but she's also prone to reckless behavior and she can be prone to moments of hatred for those who hurt her allies.  Her Morality is high at 65; on the road to Light Side paragon, but not quite there yet.

Looking over this sheet I see some typos I need to correct. 

Nadia Grell F&D v1.0

What's Next?

Next up is looking at some of the opponents I have, specifically the Force Using ones who could use some of the abilities given in Force and Destiny.  Then I give the module a final polish, add a sidebar for running it with different characters and different Eras, and then it's ready for the public.

I got three weeks.  Tops.

Off to work I go.

May the dice be with you.

World Building and Costume Conundrums

Wow, it's been a while since I posted.  I could come up with lame excuses why, but you've heard it all before.  Sadly, they're still reasons I've been kept away from this blog for too long.

At least I've got a modern browser on my work computer now, so I can start updating while I'm at work during breaks.

So what has DarthGM been up to in September?  Well, I've ordered a new costume.  Not for me, for my father.  He tried on my Biker Scout at the Dover Mini-Maker faire this past August and really liked it.  So we talked with a few folks and he has a suit of un-assembled Scout trooper armor on a UPS truck en route to his home.  Ideally we should have it set up for St. Pats day (if we troop it)

We also need to make some upgrades to his Old Ben Kenobi outfit.  The outer robe shrunk and the inner robe stretched out during one of the rainy parades he trooped in.  We got new material for his inner robes, but the wool army blankets I ordered to make his outer robe from never shipped.  Never even heard back from the eStore owner I bought them from.  That transaction is now in dispute with Paypal and I'm waiting for resolution.

Preliminary work is being done on a Cade Skywalker outfit for my stepson.  He'll be 18 by the time we go to Anaheim for Celebration VII, which means we can get him into the Rebel Legion group photo if we do a good enough job on it.  It's simple, yet difficult to make.  Gotta make it look right.

I wonder if we can submit him for a BH or SL designation in the 501st.  He was a Bounty Hunting, drug using scum who collected a bounty on a Jedi, and he did go dark-side for a while there.  If Mara Jade could do it and get SL designation, why not Cade?

I promised my stepson that if he got the costume all ready by his birthday, I'd get him Cade's lightsaber.  I thought I was going to have to build it from scratch, but Ultrasabers actually has a really good saber that looks right.

(Looks like Ultrasabers won't let me link their photos, but this is what I see as "close enough!")

Even my wife is starting to look into costumes.  She expressed interest in a couple; we'll see when we can move forward with one of them.

And me?  Cripes, I don't know.  I've been meaning to kick my EVA Jedi Knight/Sith Acolyte into high gear for a while now.  It's all about finding the time to work on it, which means I have to start neglecting something else.  Probably Mechwarrior Online is the next thing I really have to ramp back on.  Too bad, because in December they're releasing the King Crab, and it looks bad-ass.

Oh look; something else to fit into my already tight schedule!

I'm reminded that I was going to release my GenCon Module "The Big Leagues" for public consumption this month, or at least to those who backed the Order 66 Podcast/GamerNationCon 2015 Kickstarter.  I really need to get on that.  Building these characters using the Force and Destiny careers and specializations should prove a fun exercise.

I've made some changes to my "Another Longshot" campaign.  Previously I was running my Tuesday night game (dubbed the "Wild Cards")  as a prelude campaign to "Another Longshot".  I've had some inspiration with what I want to do with the overall Longshot campaign and right now the Wild Cards don't really fit into that.  I've split the Wild Cards off as their own campaign on Obsidian Portal and made a new Another Longshot website.

I've put some time and effort into mapping out a sector of space where the Longshot game will predominantly occur in; the Hagen Sector.  Thanks to Pro Fantasy and their Campaign Cartographer, I was able to slap together a pretty cool map of the area.  I then went and applied my "Eons System Generation" method I talked about a year ago and came up with some pretty fun locations.  I haven't fleshed out every system, but I've got some neat ideas.

And with that, I think I'll call it for another blogpost.  Gotta get back to work.

May the dice be with you.

Force and Destiny

24 hours ago I was at the Indianapolis airport in an Indy 500 themed restaurant starting to recover from all that was GenCon 2014.  What a whirlwind week that was.  Time dilation seemed to be the theme of the event, as Thursday seemingly took forever (which was awesome) and suddenly it was Sunday ("...wait, what? I have to go HOME?!").  Through it all, Fantasy Flight Games may not have been the advertised belle of the ball (that went to 5th Edition), but they were certainly one of the 800 lbs gorillas smacking some gaming goodness down on folks entering the exhibit hall.

Star Wars Armada (capital ship and fighter squadron combat), Star Wars Imperial Assault ("Descent" style, modular tile map, character scale combat and adventure), and of course the Beta Release of Force and Destiny.  The giant pile of Force and Destiny books sat atop a table as I entered with the other VIGs at 9am Thursday morning (shout out to Chris Bradshaw for letting me join his quartet this year).  Many copies were purchased, and by Sunday they were all sold out.

On the flight(s) home, I was able to give F&D a good read-through.  I read the limited fluff, tried to absorb and understand the crunch, and started to formulate opinions and impressions about the book.  Before these thoughts and ideas are blown away by my return to real life and the mental bandwidth required for employment, I shall get them down here and tell you all about Sam Stewart's, Jay Little's, Andy Fisher's, and the rest of the FFG team's brilliant book that is Force and Destiny.

The cover of the book is great.  Black and gold (I thought it would be green, myself), with the image of a Lambda-class shuttle landed in front of the Jedi Temple draped in Imperial iconography.  Clearly the Emperor has moved in and is using the Jedi Temple as his palace.  Probably redecorated the Grand Council chamber too.  The image actually tied in well with the book; you're trying to undo the damage the Empire has done in quashing the Jedi Order, seeking out the lost lore and knowledge of that once great sect.

This is not the "Jedi Knight RPG"

Take a look at that header and absorb it for a moment.  If you were planning on this book being the on that allowed you to bust out your Jedi Robes and your lightsaber and go stomp the Empire, you're about to be disappointed.  This book will not allow you to move the game to other eras and play fully fledged Jedi Knights as written, but it's a great start.  What it does do is give you the opportunity to rediscover and aspire to the legendary status of the Jedi Order, and work towards bringing that light back to the darkened galaxy of the Empire.

Force and Destiny takes place in the same time frame as the other two "Core Games" (Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion).  Even as back as far as the Edge of the Empire Beta, we were told "In Star Wars: Force and Destiny, the players become figures of legend; the last surviving Force Users in the galaxy.  Hunted by the Empire, they must stay alive, and more importantly, stay true to the ideals of the forebearers - the fabled Jedi."  Put your mindset there and get ready for it; you're not a Jedi.  You're someone who has discovered the Force within themselves and has decided to unlock it's mysteries in-spite of what the Empire has outlawed.

Keeping your Morals in Order

The new character role-playing mechanic in F&D is Morality.  Every character in the game has a Morality value that measures how good or evil they are.  Much like Obligation and Duty, Morality pushes your character to act in certain ways in certain situations.  It's a dynamic system, that moves up and down with each passing session.  Morality has two elements; Emotional Strengths and Emotional Weaknesses.  Strengths might be Bravery, or Compassion, or Justice.  Weaknesses of those same aspects are Anger, Hatred, and Cruelty.  If your Morality is triggered, you're encouraged to "engage" your Morality's Strengths and Weaknesses during the session.  If you do, the adjustment to your Morality score at the end of the session are doubled.

I Sense your Conflict

For years now we've wondered what the mechanism will be for handling dark side actions, and falling to the Dark Side.  We finally know, with Morality and more specifically Conflict.  Actions you take during a session will accumulate Conflict.  Inaction when you know someones going off to cause harm may earn a Conflict point or two.  Stealing out of greed or for no reason may earn 2-4.  Murder of a helpless foe at your mercy could earn as much as 10.  Calling on the Dark Side and using Dark Side Points to power your Force Powers earns a number of Conflict points equal to the Dark Side Points used.  

At the end of the session, you roll a D10 and subtract the Conflict score you have earned.  That number is how much your Morality score moves, up or down.  Conflict is then reset to zero for the next session and you start all over again.

The game encourages players to play Dark Side Users if they want to.  It's certainly something you can do.  Something to consider if you're a Dark Side user your Strain Threshold lowers and you poison the Destiny Pool, flipping a Light Side point to Dark once the pool is generated (you still use Light Side points when you spend Destiny Points).  Characters who venerate the light gain a bonus to their Wound Thresholds as well as an extra Light Side point to the Destiny pool (not a flip, an additional point).

Racial Profiling

I was almost dead-on with my racial predictions in this book.  I nailed Human, Kel Dor, Mirialan, Togruta, Twi'lek, and Zabrak.  I picked Droid and Miraluka for the other two races.  FFG went with Cerean and Nautolian instead.  The races look great, and all appear to be fun to play.  I'm surprised by a couple choices in starting abilities; I didn't see Kel Dor as particularly weak, yet they start with 1 Brawn.  Maybe it's more a reflection of their constitution rather than their strength.

Career Day

There are Six Careers in this setting, just like Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion. They are Consular, Guardian, Mystic, Seeker, Sentinel, and Warrior.  Every one of these careers starts with Force Rating of 1.  They also only have six Career skills, instead of the normal eight.  All the specializations come with the usual four skill choices to add to the Career skills list.  None of the Careers have Lightsaber as a career skill, but every career has one Specialization that offers it.  Each Career has one Specialization tree named after one of the six Jedi Lightsaber Forms (no Form VII: Juyo/Vapaad).  Each form (except Shii-Cho) has a talent that allows the Lightsaber Skill to be used with a talent other than Brawn.

Most specializations get a Force Rating talent, improving the character's Force Rating by 1.  Some get 2, a few get none.

Here's what we got:

• Consular
• Healer (like Doctor but with some Force tricks added in, has 1 Force Rating talent)
• Niman Disciple (Form V specialist, Force Effects with lightsaber attacks, uses Willpower with Lightsaber, 1 Force Rating Talent)
• Sage (Force Using scholar, has 2 Force Rating talents)
• Guardian
• Peacekeeper (Group leader who buffs his allies with the Force, 1 Force Rating talent)
• Protector (Part Combat Medic, Part Bodyguard, 1 Force Rating Talent)
• Soresu Defender (Form III specialist, melee defensive form, uses Intellect for Lightsaber attacks, no Force Rating Talent)
• Mystic
• Advisor (Social expert with support talents, 1 Force Rating talent)
• Makashi Duelist (Form II specialist, focuses on one-on-one duels, uses Presence for Lightsaber attacks, no Force Rating talent)
• Seer (precognitive and clairvoyant prowess, 2 Force Rating talents)
• Seeker
• Ataru Striker (Form IV acrobatics, uses Agility with Lightsaber skill, no Force Rating talents)
• Hunter (Ranged combat expert and big game hunter. 1 Force Rating talent)
• Pathfinder (The second half of the "Ranger" class, with animal bonding powers.  One Force Rating talent)
• Sentinel
• Artisan (A Force version of the Outlaw tech.  One Force Rating talent)
• Shadow (Infiltrator and Investigator.  One Force Rating Talent)
• Shien Expert (Form V master, uses Cunning for Lightsaber skill, experts at Blaster Deflection.  No Force Rating talents)
• Warrior
• Aggressor (Uses intimidation and fear to resolve disputes, 1 Force Rating talent.)
• Shii-Cho Knight (Expert with the basic Form I. Good at fighting multiple opponents. No Force Rating talent)
• Starfighter Ace (Use the Force while piloting vehicles.  1 Force Rating talent)

Remember how I told you this was not the book for Jedi Knights?  That cannot be better spelled out than in the fluff description of "A Consular's Role" for that Career. 

"Followers of this career are not Jedi Consulars of the now-fallen Republic, but they do embrace some of the same philosophies and practices."

You are not playing a Jedi Knight.  You are playing someone who's trying to live up to their reputation and legend.  Someone who in many cases has learned to use their Force aptitude alongside a more mundane role; be that melee combatant, diplomat, or technician.  It also means that you're going to have to spread yourself far and wide to grab all the "traditional abilities" of the Jedi.  The only tree that has blaster deflection (Improved Reflect) is the Shien Expert tree, yet we see Jedi throughout the Movies, Shows, and EU bouncing back blaster bolts.  Usually, those examples are full-fledged Jedi.  You're not a Jedi, not a fully-trained one anyway.  You haven't been using a lightsaber since before puberty.  You're lucky if you have a lightsaber at all.  So only those practitioners who have invested time and effort into tracking down the abilities of Shien will have any proficiency in slapping a "return to sender or nearest enemy resident" label on incoming blaster fire.

I can get behind that.

The (Glowing) Elephant in the Room

One of the first things I dove into when I got the book was how Lightsabers were working.  I had them being upgraded melee combat checks, because so much can go wrong when you're swinging around a massless plasma blade that can cut anything.  Lightsaber is now exclusively a Brawn skill, but can be replaced by other talents as listed above.  The difficulty is the same as any melee combat check, 2 Purple difficulty dice, with no inherent upgrades.  The lightsaber we've seen in previous books is not the base lightsaber now, however.  The "10 damage, Crit 1, Breach 1, Vicious 2" statblock we've seen is apparently for a lightsaber with an Ilum crystal that's been tweaked to Hell and gone by some previous Jedi (or Sith). Base lightsabers deal 6 damage, have a crit of 2, and still have the Breach 1 and Sunder qualities.  You can try and find a wide variety of crystals, too.  Crystals that add Burn, Disorient, deal more base damage, or even have higher Breach ratings.

Getting hit by a lightsaber has been mitigated by the prolific inclusion of the Parry talent throughout the Careers.  Parry lets you take 3 strain to reduce the damage you receive from a melee attack by 2 plus the number of Ranks of Parry you have.  Note I didn't say "soak", because Soak is armor that can be blown through by the Lightsaber's Breach quality.  Parry simply reduces damage before Soak is applied.

Gearheads

There's some awesome gear in this book.  The lightsabers for certain (Double Bladed Sabers with Linked 1!), and a new quality; Unwieldy (also applies to the Saberstaff).  Unwieldy is like Cumbersome, but for Agility.  You have to have a certain Agility or you suffer increases to difficulty when you use the weapon.

This book gives us Electrostaves, Cortosis shields and swords, ancient swords (that use Lightsaber instead of Melee), and even Cortosis plated gauntlets (like the Imperial Knights use in Legacy).  Nothing REALLY new in the equipment section; oh, except for Demon Masks, Meditation Tools, and Holocrons.

Use the Force

This book offers eleven Force powers; the five previously released are back and unchanged from their Core Rulebook release, and 6 new ones.  Many of these new Force Powers have a minimum Force Rating to take.  A lot of these powers have alternate effects if you use Dark Side points to power them.

• Battle Meditation (Pre-Req: Force Rating 2+): Buff (or dominate) your allies to perform better in combat as a more cohesive unit.
• Bind (Pre-Req: Force Rating 2+): Restrict your target's ability to move or act, or if you use the Dark Side crush them in your Force-powered grip.
• Heal/Harm (Pre-Req: Force Rating 1+): A Force-powered stim-pack which can restore health to a target.  If you use the Dark Side you Harm your target instead, and can steal the life force from that target to heal yourself or allies.  You can even bring someone back from the bring of death (Light side) or pervert the Living Force and use the life force of one person to restore life to someone who has died (Dark Side, duh)
• Misdirect (Pre-Req: Force Rating 1+): Create powerful illusions to beguile (or haunt) your foes.
• Protect/Unleash (Pre-Req: Force Rating 3+): Erect potent Force Barriers that can protect yourself or allies, or call on the Dark Side to project lethal lightning blasts or deadly cones of cold.
• Seek (Pre-Req: Force Rating1+): Become the master of location and be able to hunt down anything or anyone.  Can even be used to perceive the weaknesses in those around you (Shatterpoint powers, anyone?) and add Pierce to all your attacks.

 

The Knight Time is the Right Time

The book spells out the option for "Knight Level Play" saying that characters with 150+ earned XP are advanced characters, should have proper lightsabers (if they want them), and can generally handle opponents with Cortosis weapons and lightsabers.  The book also spells out rules for starting at Knight Level, with every PC getting 150 points to spend after character creation (no buying up Characteristics) and a basic lightsaber or 10,000 credits in gear (player's choice).

No One Expects the Imperial Inquisition

The GM chapter includes more than 2 full pages to making bad-ass Inquisitors to send against your PCs as a main adversary, and brings up the rules for "Enhanced Nemeses".  These pages are a godsend, and really get your juices flowing to provide your players with their own Darth Vader to contend with.

You All Meet In A Cantina

There is, of course, a starting adventure.  I've only skimmed it, but it does look like a fun romp and does offer some neat rewards at the end.

Opinions: Everyone's Got One

In the final analysis, you're probably reading this to find out what I think about FFG's Force and Destiny book.  I'll put it thusly; I am sorely tempted to derail my Tuesday night, bi-weekly game and have everyone roll up these characters.  I find the theme of the book to be simple yet elegant, and most of the design decisions the Devs made towards "Jedi Characters" to be brilliant given the era of the game.  You're not playing characters who will become Jedi Knights after a year or two of playing, you're portraying beings that follow in the Order's fading footsteps and may one day rival their expertise.

Look, Luke Skywalker thinks he's the last Jedi, and he's right from a certain point of view.  He claims the mantle in Episode VI.  He moves on to restore the Order after the war.  But as Johnny Bravo once said "Space...is really, REALLY BIG" and Luke is the Hero of Yavin, on everyone's radar and everyones lips across the galaxy.  Who says there aren't bands of Force Users out there that are fighting against the Empire, or simply just trying to survive in this crazy mixed-up galaxy.  They wouldn't be known to all, and even if they were in the Rebellion how quickly would word of such Force Users spread across the thousands of light-years and millions of worlds?  Obscurity is helpful when the powers that be are out to get you.

This book completes FFG's love-letter to the dawn of Star Wars Gaming, giving us characters that feel like the ones I first played back in the 90s with West End Games.  Characters that work to improve their raw, untapped Force potential to perform great feats and greater heroics while being hunted by the Empire.  It gives us the chance to have our own "Luke Skywalker moments", of finding our place in the Galaxy and our role within it.  It also allows us to experiment with our own Morality, discover for our own if the ends do justify the means, and how far down the "line we will not cross" lies.

How this book will affect my upcoming games, I do now know yet.  One thing I do know is a retort to Grand Moff Tarkin's line "The Jedi are extinct.  Their light has gone out of the universe."

Beware those who carry the light, no matter how diminished or dim.  

Beware the Lightbearers.

(...and boy, does that line give me ideas...)

GenCon 2014: Pre-Game

Here I am, in New Hampshire.  In 24 hours I hope to be in the middle of the D20 Radio GenCon Meet N Greet, rubbing elbows with those of you out there in the Gamer Nation that could make it to the con, and with some industry friends of the show.  After that, it's likely going to be 4 days of poor sleep, late nights, and geek overload.

Gods, I hope I can survive it.

When going away on any trip, it's important to make sure you don't forget anything.  This trip is no different.  It's even more important not to forget anything because I've got probably a dozen or more folks in Indianapolis who are looking forward to sitting down at my module, "The Big Leagues".  So I did what anyone would do (yes, at the suggestion and urging of my wife); I made a list.

So here's what I'm bringing...

The Big Leagues

• Huttball Map
• Final Encounter Map
• Dice Rolling Tray (Thanks Ann Marie and Erich!)
• Dice (...for the tray)
• Initiative Tracker (8.x11 dry erase board, thanks Chris!)
• The Module (printed)
• Character Sheets (24 of them, 3 pages each.  Quickest use of a printer cartridge ever...)
• GM Screen
• Character Tokens
• Assorted Alea Tools Magnets (Status conditions, height modifiers, etc)
• Cargo Tiles
• Age of Rebellion core rulebook (rules and autographs)
• Edge of the Empire core rulebook (rules and autographs)

Jedi Outfit

• Jacket
• Tabards (2)
• Obi
• Pants
• Boots (with insoles)
• Belt
• Pouches (2)
• Lightsaber
• 32" blade (bought my current suitcase specifically because it fit inside)
• Charger
•  Hex Key

Vaultdweller

• "101" Jumpsuit
• Belt
• 10mm Autopistol (Made from a NERF Maverick)
• Mentats
• Combat Boots
• Vault 13 flask
• Pipboy 3000 (gotta remember to get 9v and AAA batteries)
• Micro Mp3 player (45+ minutes of music & 3-Dog clips pre-loaded)

Electronics

• Phone
• Tablet
• Charge Cords
• Back-up Battery 
• Power Strip (I'm rooming with 3 other guys with just as many electronics as I...we'll need the plug-space)

Mundane items

• 4 days of clothes
• Toothbrush & Toothpaste
• Deodorant (I will not be "That guy")
• Drugs (Wife would be upset if I died in Indy...so would I)
• Airborne chewable capsules (Wife will kill me if I bring home the ConCrud)
• 2 travel-size bottles of Purell (see above)
• Electric Razor (gotta remember to shave the head tonight)
• Moleskin (for when I wear the Jedi boots)
• Scissors (for the moleskin)
• Box of Pop-Tarts
• Box of Granola Bars
• Water Bottle w/ built-in purifier (This item alone will probably save me $10-$20 per day...)

Also included are various gifts and attire I need for the weekend, including my 501st Legion Challenge Coin and Name Badges.

Supposedly most of that will fit into my suitcase and two carry-on bags.  I don't think I'll be over 50 lbs in the suitcase, I've actually got a bit of dead-space in there.

I should be running The Big Leagues at least twice, but I brought enough material to run it all four times (once for each PC Set).  We'll see how many times and who I get to play with.

I have no clue how often I'll be updating this blog this week.  I'm more likely to post little blurbs on Twitter.  Follow me @DarthGM on twitter and you'll get my various updates.

May the dice be with me...

Bonus Content: Boston Comic Con

This past weekend was Boston Comic Con, and I wanted to give a shout out to my base CO, Mike Brunco, for getting his idea for our convention booth from concept to finished product.  Another local legionnaire Kevin made the bulk of our new Trash Compactor, and many of us went to Mike's house to paint it up.  The dianoga head was made by Brian Anderson, and the tentacle was made by Bob Gouveia.  By the images on the NEG website, you can see that it was something of a big hit.

Oh, and I bumped into GM Sam at the con.  Chatted with him for a bit about upcoming conventions. 

And didn't have to pay BCC $40 to do so...

Inspirations and Motivations

Late last night The Wife mentioned she hadn’t seen a Fragments blog post in a while.  I’ve been around the block enough times to know that if your wife points something out to you, you pay attention to it. I resolved to making sure today did not go by without an update to Fragments, so here we go.

I’ve been finding it harder and harder to find the time to post to this blog, but it’s important to me that I at least try and continue to do so.  If I’m going to keep a link to this blog on my various forum signatures around the web I really need to stay on top here.  What’s more important is the content.  I’m sure many of you are interested in the mental workings of my mind, but let’s face it; according to the statistics on my blog more of you are interested when I have something of substance like my Edge of the Jedi rules or a build thread about a costume I’m working on.

Let’s see what I can do with that.

GenCon Module

The GenCon Mod is coming along and growing.  I’ve done quite a bit of re-working.  I’ve realized that my long-winded writing style doesn’t work very well when introducing a con-module.  It was pointed out that my opening speeches were too long and too verbose.  I needed to get the PCs into the action, or at least the interaction, a lot quicker.  So I trimmed off an entire page of dialogue and replaced it with a paragraph.  Got rid of some useless bookkeeping, added in some ties to some of my plot threads, and cleaned up the flow of the module.  All this should allow the module to flow better and fit into the time-frame I have set aside for the adventure.

I’ve got time set aside in my GenCon schedule to run the module twice, and if I find myself with a few hours to kill I may do a bonus run or two.  We’ll have to see what time allows, because I do want to do other things besides running the adventure.

This weekend I’m going to look at printing options for the maps for the Huttball encounter and (thanks to Chris West at Maps of Mastery) the final encounter to the module.  The Huttball map is an odd size, about 40”.  I need to talk to the folks at the print shop if I should print it as an odd-sized poster or as a banner.  I’m worried the banner won’t be as good a print as the poster, but it allows for a larger surface and a little more structurally sound.  

NOTE: As an aside, Chris West is going to be starting his next Kickstarter soon, first one in over a year.  Finally releasing his Space Station Maps, and pout a preview for it up on Facebook.  It looks AWESOME.

The PCs and NPCs for the module are coming along nicely.  During one playtest one of my PCs stated that “no one was playing huttball, everyone was just attacking each other”.  Now, the encounter is based on a PVP Arena zone in Star Wars The Old Republic, but she’s right.  The objective, and how you win Huttball, is to score more points than the other team.  Attacking your opponents are simply a tactic to make scoring easier or preventing them from scoring.  Another problem was a mistake I was making; I was basically setting up my NPCs as opposition and not really playing them like they would to play Huttball.  Everyone rushed the center, or attacked the ball carrying PC.  No one was going long for a pass, or moving to prevent the PCs from getting the ball.  So I went through all my NPCs who could appear in the huttball match and gave them one-paragraph notes on how they will act when playing the game.  Some will be all over the sport, some will enjoy the combat aspect, others will play a tactical-reserve game, and some will just be in there to hurt people and if they get the huttball they’re just as likely to toss it away because it throws off their aim.

It’s gonna be fun…32 days and counting.

Inspirational Works

The Age of Rebellion core rulebook finally released last week, and I picked up my copy from my Friendly Local Gaming Store (at a discount; the benefits of membership!)  One thing I immediately focused on was how damn pretty the book is.  The artwork in prior books in the companion line (Edge of the Empire) was good, and even some of it was re-used in this book, but my word the artists out-did themselves in this book.  So many iconic characters, and not-so Iconic ones.  One artist did Rebel Battle Armor from the old Star Wars Galaxies game, which made me long to see some updated imagery for my old R.I.S. Battle Armor my Armorer had made back in the day.

One artist who has done some phenomenal backdrops in the various FFG books is Mark Molnar.  I really enjoy his works, as they capture the high-tech yet desolate locales in the Star Wars Galaxy, and in some cases the vast urbanization of entire worlds.  His starships are majestic.  It’s just…insane.

Another great artist I’ve enjoyed is Anthony Foti.  His character portraits are incredible.  Absolutely gorgeous and inspiring.  Its artists like these that give me an urge to find a Computer Painting class at a local college and really learn how to get the most from some of these programs I have.  I’d love to do art a quarter as good as these guys.  My only issue is time, and the fact I don’t have much of it.  But I suppose if I really want to get something done I will set aside time for it.

 

Hosts with the Mosts

So that should do for now.  Once I’m “done” with my GenCon Mod I can start to focus on my impending Star Wars campaign, Another Longshot.  I really want to have this game be an “in-person” game as much as possible, but I may have to resign myself to the fact that I can never get everyone I want to at the same place at the same time.  I’ll just be happy to get my Expatriate Gamer and former co-host  Alex back from Georgia in October.

Speaking of co-hosts; I’m still the  “Regular Guest Host” on the Order 66 podcast for the immediate future.  This week we’ll be talking with Art Director Zoe Robinson from FFG about Rebellion Era Campaigns.  

Art Talk and Classic Star Wars with me, GM Chris, and a gaming industry pro; yeah, this will be a short podcast…