And Now For Something Completely Different...Mostly...Sorta...

I write a lot of Star Wars games...

...I mean, A LOT of Star Wars games...

I think I technically have three games going right now; both Another Longshot campaigns (same story, 2 teams) and I'll be starting up a new Wednesday night game shortly tentatively called Star Wars: Relics.  I've got six campaigns with the words "Star Wars" on my Obsidian Portal campaign list. Relics will be my first foray in mainstream, Rebellion-Era storytelling since 2007. Before that, I've run games going back to 1992, when I discovered West End Games and their Star Wars 2nd Edition rules set. I'm trying to think of a time when I didn't have at least one Star Wars game going; maybe in College, in the Earthdawn days and early D&D 3rd edition timeframe, but still...

I've run a lot of Star Wars. It's what I know. It's what I'm passionate about. I can, in my egocentric opinion, run a damn good game. It may not be a Machiavellian tale or a Best-Seller-List-quality plotline, but if you're in my game you can be sure that I'm going to try to show you a good time, present a story worthy of at least a comic book series, and give you a good fight or two every session.

But every now and then, every once in a great while, I want to try something new. Something different. Right now, I'm not solid on what that is. I find myself latching on to various aspects, and trying to put them together. Think of it like taking a blank canvass, some paint, and just sort of painting what comes to mind at that particular moment. Or maybe it's more like Legos; yeah, that's a better analogy. I've got all these Lego sets that I like aspects of, and sort of want to take the bits and pieces I like and put them together and see if what I can make from them is interesting enough to invest real time and effort into refining. A little Fallout 4, a little Starcraft 2, some Dresden Files, some Earthdawn (or Shadowrun, whichever), some half-cooked ideas from campaigns past, a baseplate in the shape of my old Twin Worlds D&D campaign...

And yeah, even a little Star Wars.

Who knows what system I'll use for it; that comes later. That's just a mechanism to drive the story. First I want to figure out how to put the pieces together; build the world, build the opposition, build the story, then we see how the players fit in. Figure out where the story goes.

A while ago I made a campaign world that I submitted for consideration of a new campaign. I lost, never even made the qualifiers, but I liked it. I put energy and effort into it. I think it's time to give World Building another try.

And if I win the lottery on Saturday, maybe I can do it full-time, hire a staff, and publish a new campaign world for you all to use. And if Wishes were Wings...well, hopefully mine would be an "X".

Next week I'm going to give a "retort" on an article blogged by writer Max Gladstone where he explains key scenes in The Force Awakens as a D6 WEG-era Star Wars RPG. It would be improper of me not to do the same as a Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG (especially after @FFGames "liked" my Tweet about it). It should make for a nice warm-up piece for our next Order 66 Podcast episode...

May the dice be with you.

Welcome to 2016

Happy New Year and welcome back to Fragments from the Rim!

It's been a long year. I haven't really posted anything of consequence since Gamer Nation Con.  After that, it was a whirlwind trip to Celebration Anaheim, a very long couple of months dealing with the water damage in my home caused by ice dams from the Great Snowpocalypse of 2015, and...general lack of time and drive to write anything for this blog.

Which is sad, I really enjoyed writing and sharing my thoughts.  So with the new year comes a new focus, a new mandate to try and write as much as I can for this blog, while sharing what knowledge I can drop on you unsuspecting peoples in the interwebs.

D20 Radio

As some of you know, I've been an occasional writer for D20 Radio's gaming blog. There have been some handy and entertaining articles posted up on that site; hopefully you find that mine are some of them.  I do still plan to write for them in addition to writing here.  I'm not sure if some of my articles will be cross posted, or if I'll keep content to either page exclusive to one or the other.  I know my readership is more over there, they simply have more viewers.  Still, cross pollination of blog posts can't hurt, right?

Aside from that, Chris and Dave have graciously kept me involved and a part of the Order 66 Podcast, and it's still a lot of fun to do.  We're trying to get the shows down to 2-hours in length, partially because Dave wants some shows he can submit for Ennie consideration, and partially because they were honestly getting long and off-topic at times.  If you never listen, you should.  And "if you never listen", thank you for your patronage.

Another Longshot

Ah, my current flagship; the Longshot Campaign.  It's still going, and tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary of it's birth. I'm celebrating with the second of two "Side Bets"; games that incorporate characters from both teams (I have one PC group consisting of Force Users from various factions, and another PC group consisting of Galactic Alliance troublemakers called The Idiot's Array). Tomorrows game involves one of the Legacy Era's watershed events, and the PCs get to deal with the backlash from it in the Hagen Sector. Or not. They're PCs after all, they could surprise me.

More about the Longshot Campaign will be shared in this blog as we enter Season 2 of the story.

Fallout 4

Another source of seemingly endless time-consumption lately has been Fallout 4.  I've been playing this game like a mad, mad fiend.  Juilian Cross, sole survivor from Vault 111, has crafted quite a considerable Minuteman Protectorate in the northern Massachusetts region.  I'm finding the game a lot of fun, but as usual I'm getting massively sidetracked from the main plotline by exploring the wastes, managing my multi-settlement Mutfruit-and-Purified-Water empire, and using the proceeds to construct bigger and better towns.  I'm glad I picked up the PC version, as the Settlement Creation Editor's size limit can be bypassed, allowing me to make some pretty elaborate towns (much to the dismay of my frame-rate, at times)

Playing Fallout has got me thinking about roleplaying Fallout.  It's the only real deficiency that I have with the IP, the fact that it doesn't have a dedicated RPG supporting it at this time.  I've kicked around a few ideas to home-brew something, or adapt it to Savage Worlds (pretty easy) or to Edge of the Empire (a little harder).  I even wrote an article about it for D20 Radio called They Came From The Vaults.  Doing so inspired me to come up with an Edge of the Empire module to play at Gamer Nation Con 2016 that takes place entirely in the Fallout world.

It's still under development, and a lot of that development is going to be shared here in the coming weeks.

Costuming

Remember how I advertized this as a costuming blog too?  I haven't forgotten about that.

I'm working on a few costumes for 2016, not all of them mine.  For the 501st Legion, I'm involved in a group project to make a horde of First Order Snowtroopers for the local garrison. My father and I are waiting with bated breath for all our pieces to be complete, and start assembly as soon as they are. I like the look of these snowy's, and while I wish they got more screen time in the movie, at least they were in the movie, you know?

After that, I'll be keeping my eye on something for the Rebel-side of the group, or should I say the Resistance-side.  I really dig the new X-Wing pilot outfits, and there's already talk of supplementing our pilots up here in "Phantom Squadron" with some T-70 jockeys.

Finally, I'm working on a more practical suit, something to be used for the upcoming Crossover LARP in my area. I've been working with EVA Foam to make (a rather mandalorian looking) armor suit for my new character, and my lovely wife picked up an airbrush kit for me to learn how to use. The airbrush can be used for painting and giving the armor some wear, but the main reason for the kit is for use with liquid make-up for my character.  Think something rather Darth-Maul-like, but with blue and white instead of black and red.  Along with that comes repaints of the various weapons I'll be using in the game; nerf guns painted a more appropriate shade for use in the game. I'm moving towards painting nerf guns for other players for commission, and am painting up 5 of them for the NPC camp's use.  I probably won't be doing much work on that until March, as the game isn't starting until May.

Welcome Home

And that's pretty much it for now. Thanks for reading, please check back in here from time to time and see where things are going!

Until next time, may the dice be with you!

T-8

T-22

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...

The Long Dark Road Out of February

I made one post in February...One. Partially because of all the writing I needed to do for my Another Longshot games. Partially because of the show notes and additional work I was doing for the Order 66 Podcast.  Partially because I was suddenly inspired to write a Convention Module from scratch for Gamer Nation Con 2: Electric Boogaloo.  But also partially because we in New England were subjected to an unprecedented amount of snowfall in the course of 1 month. It became the snowiest month on record and are only inches away from the snowiest winter on record. My time for creative writing was limited, so I had to focus.  Naturally this fell by the wayside.

I'm going to attempt to make it up to you folks, my loyal readers and those who just happen by every once in a great while. I've got plenty of things to write about for all my main topics of blogging; gaming, conventions, costuming, RPG tips. I've got a lot to talk about; I had a great experience at GamerNationCon 2015, making some good progress on "Another Longshot", wrote a module in two weeks that folks seemed to have a good time playing in, and we're in the final few weeks to get costumes ready for Celebration Anaheim.

There's some big changes and upgrades happening over with the D20 Radio folks on their website. They've started a Patreon Campaign to help pay for some improvements and give our listeners some additional content on a regular basis. I'm excited to see what comes from all this.

So I'll post this now as a place-holder, and I promise I'll be back before Sunday with a less generic, more focused post.

Until then, may the dice be with you.

Suspending the Rules: The Snap-Roll action

During the "Saga Edition" version of the Order 66 Podcast, the boys had an occasional segment where listeners would send in their various house rules or "fixes" for the game. I was an occasional contributor to this bit, but in the new FFG system there hasn't been much call for it. Most of my home-brewed rules (like my Jedi Career) have been addressed in full, official rules. Practically everything has been addressed except for one glaring deficiency to this game, or at least something I find to be a deficiency. 

I've found the system's vehicle combat rules way too lethal for what we see in the films and EU. I'm okay with unnamed or minor characters being blown out of the sky at a whim, but for the named heroes (and villains) the space combat system is a big game of "who hits first" with there being no margin for error. If you don't score the first hit, you're toast, and if you're outnumbered you'll never get a chance to get the first hit in on everyone. This has made starfighter scale combats in my games quick, bloody, and unsatisfying affairs. There's nothing in the system currently to help the PCs survive if they come under the guns of an enemy ship, and nothing I can do as a GM if my enemy ace becomes a focus target by the PCs except spend a Destiny Point to make them survive when their ship is destroyed around them.

Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, Ben Kenobi, Corran Horn; these are all pilots who have been in ships under heavy fighter attack yet somehow survived getting hit long after the rules say they should have been blown to space dust. They are also all (with the exception of Kenobi) great pilots, and pilot skill doesn't currently have any influence on a ship's survivability.

Lastly, the system doesn't take into consideration a ship's Handling in relation to defense. I've played a lot of X-Wing/TIE Fighter over the years, and I can attest to the maddening difficulty of trying to shoot down and A-Wing, TIE Advanced, and TIE Defender.  Shouldn't the sudden responsiveness and turning ability of a ship factor into it's defense and survivability somehow?

While pondering a possible resolution to this dilemma, I remembered back to my last stab at home-brewing and what I did to make Lightsaber Combat more survivable. During the time before Force and Destiny, lightsaber were god weapons; one hit wonders that would take enemies out in one hit, two at most. To counter this I stacked up defenses as best I could in my Jedi Career talent trees, but that just reduced the odds of a hit; one hit still killed most targets.  Ultimately the solution came with FFG adding the Parry (and Reflect) talents, as well as dialing down the base damage of the lightsaber.  The reduced damage meant that the wielder would still likely carve up weak foes, but against Rivals and Nemesis-level opponents the fights would become more drawn out, more cinematic especially thanks to the Parry talent. Now both the player and their opponent can "suffer" from a few hits in such duels.

The advantage that this change had in lightsaber combat is that FFG didn't publish the complete rules for Saber users until Force and Destiny. Space Combat has been in since the beginning.  There are set Talent trees for pilots; both independent and combat trained. If I created a Talent to basically make a "Starship Parry" effect, how would we get it into the game for those who took the Pilot tree, or the Hotshot tree, or the Driver tree.

I looked at other ways to get it into the game; where it could fit in and finally figured it out. If I make it a Pilot Only action, I can add it to the available choices in the Vehicle chapter of each book. It simply becomes another option available to pilots, instead of something they have to spend XP on and buy a special specialization tree to get. 

My design goals were thus:

• Utilize pilot skill and ship maneuverability to reduce the damage from an incoming attack
• Have a cost to use (as with Parry)

After some thought, this is what shook loose.

SNAP ROLL - Out-Of-Turn Incidental

Pilot Only: Yes
Silhouette: 1-4
Speed: 2+
Quick reflexes and fly-by-wire systems are not only important in maneuvering a ship into a superior attack position, but are also helpful to quickly respond to enemy fire blasting away a ship's shields and hull.  Snap Roll allows pilots to utilize the maneuverability of their ship and their own exceptional skill to suddenly react to incoming fire.  The pilot quickly rolls, dives, or climbs to avoid part of the incoming attack as soon as his shields and armor start getting hit by a volley of blaster bolts, or he times his maneuver so only part of a missile's detonation affects his ship.

When his ship is successfully hit by a Gunnery combat check, the pilot can elect to take a Snap Roll Incidental action and reduce the damage of the attack by the sum of their ship's Handling plus the pilot's Ranks in Piloting (Planetary or Space, whichever is applicable to the vehicle he's controlling). This sudden dodge puts the ship, and the pilot, under extreme stress and g-forces; when this incidental action is taken the ship suffers 3 System Strain (bypassing Armor) as the high-G maneuver taxes on-board systems and support surfaces.  Additionally, the pilot suffers 3 Strain (bypassing Soak) as those same G-forces pull, crush, and exhaust him.

If a person is wearing a flight suit that reduces the amount of Strain incurred from Critical Hits to the ship, they reduce the Strain they take from a Snap Roll action to 1.  Droids are immune to the personal Strain damage as long as they are at a station, locked in a droid socket, or have some other means to prevent them from being bounced around the ship's interior. Finally, certain species* may be immune to some or all of the Strain damage, such as those with hearty metabolisms or who can survive in a vacuum (GM's discretion). 

* - Recommended examples include:

• Kel Dor, as they can survive in a vacuum for 5 minutes (total immunity to personal Strain damage from Snap Roll)
• Nautolan, who are described as having a metabolism that's able to survive great pressures such as those found in deep water (total immunity to personal Strain damage from Snap Roll)
• Zabrak, strong metabolism with two hearts (reduce personal Strain damage from Snap Roll by 1)

What this does is allow folks in highly maneuverable, yet fragile craft survive a hit or two, at the cost of pushing their ship's systems closer and closer to shutdown. It can also give a great pilot the ability to take an additional few hits in a less-maneuverable craft as long as their Pilot skill is higher than a ship's negative Handling score.  Minions would not be able to utilize this action because they are denied from voluntarily suffering strain. This keeps the classic "horde of TIEs" from suddenly becoming more deadly while making that enemy Rival or Nemesis with the red-bloodstripes on their TIE Interceptor's wings even more of a challenge. It encourages a PC pilot to invest more in their Piloting skill, since every Rank is another point of damage blocked when making a Snap Roll.

As a suggestion, a target can spend a Despair on the attack roll to activate Snap Roll at no cost (system strain or personal strain).  My buddy also suggested that the attacker can spend an amount of Advantage to pass along the 3 strain to all occupants of the vehicle, not just the pilot. I'd probably say that it would require 3 Advantage or a Triumph to do that.  There was also a suggestion to allow an attacker to spend a Triumph from a Gain the Advantage check to prevent their target from making Snap Roll incidental actions until the end of the attacker's next turn.

Testing

So how would this work with some iconic craft, on paper?  Let's take a look at a couple ships with a pilot with the appropriate skill at Rank 2.

• Y-Wing:0 Handling, 10 SS Threshold, Snap Roll reduces damage by 2 - a solid, robust System strain allows the pilot to reduce the damage by 2 three times. Helps define the Y-Wing as a "reliable, sturdy bomber"
• X-Wing: +1 Handling, 10 SS Threshold, Snap Roll reduces damage by 3 - even better than the Y-Wing, the pilot is able to prolong his engagement time thanks to the X-Wing's high maneuverability
• A-Wing: +3 Handling, 6 SS Threshold, Snap Roll reduces damage by 5 - the A-Wing pilot is able to practically ignore some hits, but can't do it very often (only twice, assuming no other System Strain inflicted to the A-Wing). The lack of an astromech or additional crewman further limits the pilot's ability to restore System Strain.
• B-Wing: -1 Handling, 6 SS Threshold, Snap Roll reduces damage by 1 - Unless the pilot is exceptionally skilled, the Snap Roll action is ill advised except for life-or-death circumstances where a point of damage means killing the B-Wing
• Z-95 Headhunter: +1 Handling, SS Threshold 8, Snap Roll reduces damage by 3 - as good as the X-Wing, but with less System Strain to play with and no astromech a Z-95 pilot could only do it twice without attempting Strain repairs himself
• TIE Fighter: +3 Handling, SS Threshold 8, Snap roll reduces damage by 5- a Rival TIE pilot (or one flown by the PCs) means keeping that skilled Imperial pilot in the thick of things, and represents a talented Imp Pilot like those in Vader's Black Squadron
• TIE Interceptor: +3 Handling, SS Threshold 8, Snap roll reduces damage by 5 - the same as the TIE above, perfect for anyone in a squadron like Baron Fel's 181st.
• TIE Defender: +2 Handling, SS Threshold 10, Snap roll reduces damage by 4 - the TIE Defender wouldn't quite get the same benefits as the previous TIEs on paper, but since it has one extra point of armor over the Fighter and the Interceptor it actually would provide the same net result.
• YT-1300: -1 Handling, SS Threshold 15, Snap Roll reduces damage by 1 -  our first freighter, as minimally effective as the B-Wing, but with a high strain threshold and the likely presence of a crewman to repair the strain damage, it becomes a much higher option.
• YT-2400: +0 Handling, SS Threshold 18, Snap Roll reduces damage by 2 - more maneuverable and more resilient than the 1300, a 2400 could practically Snap Roll every attack. It could burn through the system faster than the crew could repair it, so while the Snap Roll keeps the 2400 in the fight longer, it doesn't make it impervious.
• 74-Z Aratech Speeder Bike: +1 Handling, SS Threshold 4, Snap Roll reduces damage by 3 - our first speeder, the Speeder Bike could do this once, assuming no system strain damage to the vehicle. Gives a PC or named NPC once chance to survive a light hit.
• T-47 Snowspeeder: +0 Handling, SS Threshold 6, Snap Roll reduces damage by 2 - like the speeder bike before it, a Snap Roll would give the Alliance speeder the ability to possibly survive one hit from an Imperial Walker's cannon, but only just.
• T-16 Skyhopper: +3 Handling, SS Threshold 6, Snap Roll reduces damage by 5 - a Snap Roll for the Skyhopper is pretty much the only way it could survive a hit from any sort of laser cannon, and even then it would only be delaying the inevitable.

This is what a Snap Roll would look like given a starting PC or comparable Rival NPC (not counting those Corellians, of course). Raising the ranks in Piloting would increase the effectiveness of a Snap Roll, and allow PCs to eventually reach a point where they could take on multiple enemy fighters at one time and stand a good chance of survival thanks to their superior Skill.

Final Thoughts

I like the way this looks on paper. Next, like any good idea, is to see how it works in practice. I'll want to do some test rolls on classic fights (X-Wing vs TIE Advanced, A-Wing vs TIE Interceptor, YT-1300 vs horde of TIEs) and then the ultimate test; giving this option to my PCs. I like the numbers above, as they don't look overpowered. I guess I need to see how it plays and if it slows down combat, or makes space combat long enough to be enjoyable.  I'm hoping for the latter.

Should be a blast (or maybe not, if this works as intended).  I'll let you know how it goes.

May the dice be with you.


EDIT 2/3/2015: I've decided after supporting feedback that giving certain species reduced or immunity to the strain from the Snap Roll opens up too big a can of worms. I no longer recommend that, but feel free to use it with caution.