Gaming in October 2020

 

• 4 Oct - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 7 Oct - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 10 Oct - Boardgames - face-to-face
• 14 Oct - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 18 Oct - Without Warning (Call of Cthulhu) - on-line
• 21 Oct - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 25 Oct - Sunday in the Shire (Under Hill, By Water) - on-line
• 28 Oct - Blackmore (OSE) - on-line

Blackmore (OSE)

• 4 Oct

Back to the Abbey of Fitz.  We acquired war-dogs from passing trader and went back to clear out the ruins of the Abbey.  We found a large grizzly bear and the matriarch of the clan of Reavers we thought we'd cleared out.  Not all the dogs (or my PC) made it out, but we did rescue a mutilated unicorn.

• 7 Oct

There were spiders

In the Under-Booh.   Pluteus my Cleric gained an acolyte (Myxomycetes) and after much discussion we decided to go on a boggart hunt.

• 14 Oct

We continued our mission for the Grand Wizard of Booh to clear out the nest of Boggarts.  We were succesful in that, but unfortunately their hostages and one of our retainers died in the process (the last surviving hostage - and more importantly, "witness" - at the hands of our thief).  The retainer was the pretty-boy Klaus.

• 21 Oct

More exploration of the Under-Booh on behalf of the Grand Wizard.  In this one we finally took him up on his mission to destroy 'Outsider' eggs (after all, he had given us a Wand of Fire Balls to do this).  First though, we went back to the Shroom Shrine to collect some more mushrooms - Myomycetes, our Acolyte of Shroom, being transformed into a giant mushroom during one of the rituals.  

Sadly, we'd left the mission so long (weeks since we accepted it), that the eggs had hatched and wiped out the gang of Teddy Boy Halflings.  We battled with Facehuggers, but still haven't met Mother.  The session ended on a cliff-hanger, Holmund sending a Fire Ball into a pool filled with eggs.

• 28 Oct

A continuation of the last session.  We defeated the Outsiders but have been cut off from out usual exits.  Going around the long way, we ran into some (well-signposted) patches of Blackdamp - fatally.  The Zombie Cat remains a mystery.

Jason Connelly taks about the 21 and 28 Oct sessions on an episode of his podcast.

Under Hill, By Water

• 25 Oct

It's always fun to try something new, and this is one that I've been looking forward to since it came out.  I've written about it here.  Basically a pie-quest.

Board Games

• 10 Oct

The Home Group (or the majority of us anyway), met up at The Games Table for a evening of board games.  We played Scrawl (much better when you actually understand how to play), 7 Wonders and a opening couple of rounds of Pandemic to introduce some of us (including me) to the rules.  

Board games played in October: - 3

New games tried - 1

'Without Warning' (Call of Cthuhlu)

• 18 Oct 

This was an on-line session run as part of Miskatonic Repository Convention 2020.  It was the first play-test of a new scenario from Bill Adcock.  A routine flight to resupply an Early Warning Post in the romote Arctic leads to more than was expected...

Obviously influenced by 'The Thing from Another World' (but not slavishly so), this was great fun.

Sundays in the Shire #1: First Thoughts

Last month Josh McCrowell published 'Under Hill, By Water' an RPG that had been gestating for a a couple of years on his blog Rise Up Comus (which I would highly recomend for a variety of good stuff).  It's a game about being a Hobbit* living a quiet, pastoral life: "Adventure! No, thank you!". 

*I use the term advisedly - 'Under Hill...' doesn't use that word of course.  'Hobbits' are the IP of the Tolkein Estate.  Still it is clear that McCrowell is talking about, and in homage to, Tolkien's creation.  These aren't the 'Halflings' that have grown out RPG culture: McCrowell explicited says "a lot of fat from dragons and/or dungeons has been trimmed off".  

As an aside to this footnote, I would point to McCrowell's excellent blog post in which he considers how one would RPG The Hobbit if the Middle-Earth IP had solely consided of that book.  It gives a nice feel of his style.

How JRRT saw his Hobbit

As the description says, "this is an OSR(ish) game that’s about living in the cozy under-hill homes of the halflings" going back to 'the source material of Tolkien and the eclectic, rustic, anachronistic little British gentry that were the center of his stories".  The adventure promised is on the level of delaing with awkward aunts and ornery goats, rather than defeating dragons.

Well, for a Hobbit-botherer like me, this sounds like fun, and luckily I know a few like-minded people.  Accordingly, last week we sat down for the first of what I hope will be many Sundays in the Shire.

The Village Map

The first step in playing is to create a Hobbit village and populate it with both PCs and NPCs.  The books suggests that this is done with all players together, in order to build relationships and family ties in at this early stage - in effect to have a Session Zero.  We didn't quite do that.  Dave and his co-GM Scarlett (aged 6) created the village beforehand.  Fortunately, Dave recorded the process and has put it up as the first episode of his new podcast My Kids Will Kill You.  You can listened to this 40min process here, which I'd advise as it gives an excellent overview.*

*And if like me, you like to shout at your podcasts, rest assured that Prof Aldridge does now know that peat-cutters cut peat (and why).

Character Sheet

Although there are some basic attributes, character-generation - like village-creation- is mainly based on a series of random tables.  Perhaps most important of these for a Hobbit is the family name, which potentially makes PCs and/or NPCs relatives (though it didn't in our case) and reference to an Ancestral Home.  Each PC begins play with a dream (the fulfilment of which is a means of acquiring XP).

In order to give a taste, here are our three PC's:-

Dolfin Tukkish

• Occupation: Cook.  
• Dream: To meet an elf and learn to sing one of their songs.
• Personal complication: A great-uncle had died (but has left him a bottle of particularly nice vintage of wine in his will).  We added that the will was being contested.
• Attributes: Dolfin rolled highly in CHA - he was 'Comely'.

Harvey Tunneler

• Occupation: Antiquarian.
• Dream: To steal his rival's apple-pie recipe.
• Personal complication: One of his more unpleasant relatives is visiting.
• Attributes:  Harvey rolled particularly badly in CHA: this meant that he had a Bad Reputation.  The player decided that he had used his knack once too often in stealing pies (this is before he rolled the Dream, which proved to be a nice tie-in).  He also rolled badly in INT, leaving him illiterate (an interesting complication for an Antiquarian!).
• In addition, Harvey was of a 'Stock' of Hobbit that has a 'knack' - in his case the ability to manipulate something that he can see as if he had his hand on it.

Jemmy Gaggler

• Occupation: Chandler.
• Dream: To publish his family's geneology.
• Personal complication: His parents are complaining that he's not living up to his full potential and wondering why he never visits (which we made into a prompt for his Dream - to show them that he did consider Family important).
• Attributes: With a high roll in WIS, Jemmy was a 'Greensinger' and able to use more skill points in Wrangling/Woodcraft.

As can be seen, the process of character-generation provided a lot of back-story and some good plot-hooks.  In addition, for each season a Current Event, a Worrisome Thing and a Village Event are rolled.  We ended up with late, heavy snows; the fact that an elderly aunt in a neighbouring village isn't answering her letters (this Thing was allocated to Jemmy's character); and that a petition against wearing large hats to public events was going around.

There are mechanisms for skill checks, combat, and particlurly Hobbit-like activities such as Feasting (restores HP), Singing (gives inspiration) and Party-Giving (increases prestige).  I won't discuss them now as, frankly, we hardly used any in this first session.

So how did the play go?

It was fun!  Gentle fun.

We quickly established that our activities needed to revolve around meals.  Luckily there was several inns in the village and our cook friend was renowned for making the best muffins in the South March.  The only drawback was that pesky pie recipe!

And, although we did make some progress on the other Dreams, I think it's fair to say that the Pie-Quest took centre stage.  Harvey's rival turned out to be a wretched fellow called Tylo Splistening.  Activities including souring his courtship with the fearsome Walda*, who was behind the hat petition**; interaction with the local fencibles***; and orgainising a violent snowball fight between rival fraternal societies; the last as a diversion for a spot of light breaking-and-entering.

*Walda is the subject of the romantic interest of a surprising number of NPCs.  It is yet to be established why.  She may prove to be an heiress.

**Jemmy took against the petition as likely to upset his many elderly female reatives.  Jemmy is the PC I played.  Although Lobelia Sackville-Baggins is in the mix, my concept of his aunts owes a lot to P G Wodehouse.

***Who, quite properly, wear very fancy large hats.

Getting My Geek In (Again)

Another week, another haul from Charity Shops...

Obviously I'm getting ready for Second Lockdown (though I've still go four seasons of 'Buffy' to watch first: 'Firefly' went by far too quickly).  Being the age that I am, I'm most excited to watch the 'Blake's 7' (if somewhat aprehensive about how bad it might turn out to be...).

Miskatonic Repository Con 2020

Miskatonic Repository Convention was a two-day virtual convention that took place on 17 and 18 October, celebrating the Miskatonic Repository, the online collection of user-made content for Call of Cthulhu supported by Chaosium, the CoC publishers.  Details of the MR and several hundred products (mainly scenarios) can be found on the DriveThruRPG here.

As can be seen from the programme, there was a lot going on - much of it at UK-friendly times - but  unfortunately I've recently been working on Saturdays, so was only able to take part in the Suday sessions.  I was able to listen to the two panels, one on writing for the MR and the other on publishing on the MR (though, feel reassured that I have no aspirations to do so!).

But my main reason for 'attending' was to play!  The game I plumped for was 'Without Warning', written by Bill Adcock.  It was sold as follows:

• Summary: 

1950s - A routine flight to an isolated Air Force radar station proves less than routine.

• Description:

1958 - The DEW Line of radar stations across Alaska and Northern Canada provide early warning in case of Soviet bombers coming over the Pole.  One of these stations has reported an injured technician and requested a routine supply flight be moved up to bring the injured man home and deliver his replacement.  That's where things begin to go awry. 

I won't go into details, as it was by way of a play-test for a scenario Bill will be publishing in the future.  Let just say that it was heavily influenced by a certain classic movie (but without the intellectual carrot!).  A great evening's entertainment.

Bill's other scenarios can be found on DriveThruRPG here.

Getting My Geek In

Last Friday was one of my few days off from managing the charity shop (we've been very short-staffed since Lockdown was lifted).  So what did I do?  I went into a couple of charity shops at the other end of the city.

And look what I got...

Ross S Kraemer; William Cassidy; Susan L Schwartz, Religions of Star Trek, Westview Press (2003).

H P Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Creation Oneiros (2008).

Because my reading hasn't been sufficiently niche lately!

The Games Table, Norwich

In this blog entry I'm going to shamelessly plug The Games Table in Norwich and take a look at it's new venue in the centre of the city.  Some of the photos and the video are nicked from their Facebook page.  I have no connection with the shop other than being a very happy customer and Kickstarter backer.

Background

Those of you who have have been reading this blog over several years (and surprisingly there are some!) will know that I've developed from someone who thought about gaming into someone who actually gets quite a few games in.  There are two factors in this.  Most recently, due to the COVID pandemic there has been a lot more on-line RPG sessions (and my monthly games summaries show I've been playing a lot!).  But before that came The Games Table.  It was The Games Table that got me back sitting down at a table and playing.

The Games Table opened in (July? August?) 2018 in Anglia Square, Norwich.  From the start it aimed to build a welcoming venue (dare I say, a 'safe environment') where people would come and play table-top games (or even buy a few).  Because of the hard work of Keiran, the proprietor, it took off really well and quite a solid community of gamers has built up.

The old shop

A New Location

Earlier this year, Keiran acquired new premises, twice the size of the old shop and right in the centre of the city.  He ran a successful Kickstarter to raise funds to refurbish and expand the facilities on offer.  It was all very exciting.

Quoting from the Kickstarter pages, here's what was promised.

• Create an amazing space for tabletop gamers.
• Expand our board games library, sorting it into categories that make sense.
• Offer mouth-watering hot food from some of the best local restaurants. 
• Serve the tastiest hot drinks provided by businesses run by military veterans.
• Host other independents, allowing them to showcase (and sell) their products.
• Maintain our unblemished reputation for providing a welcoming space.
• Keep our focus on community-building activities.
• Create expertly painted scenery setups for a variety of miniature games.
• Events, events, events and more events! Constant events. 

That was in March.  Then Lockdown happened.  Keiran was left with two venues, one of which needed a huge amount of work, and an almost complete cut in income.  

Other people would have given up or seriously cut-back on the plans.   Kieran persevered.

He's delivered on what he promised in the Kickstarter (except for the sofas and lounging area, which have temporarily fallen foul of social distancing), and he's coped with the changing regulations.

The new venue opened on 16 September.  Because of work commitments, I've been unable to visit until today.  All I can say is that it looks fantastic!

The Games Library

As of this afternoon (2 Oct 2020), there are 297 board games in the library.  Currently, of course, after play they are removed from the shelves, cleaned and quarantined.

The Games Tables

These are photos of the larger tables (there are several smaller ones for more intimate games).  Future developments will include an upstairs area.

There are perspex screens everywhere - I don't think they came out in the pictures.

This was set up for Painting Night

There are a lot of Warhammer players 
- and a lot of scenery for them to use.

Stuff to Buy

There's that as well!

Photos With People in Them

There was no-one in when I visited on a wet Friday afternoon (though I was glad to see that some passing trade was interested).  Here are some suitabliliy populated photos nicked from The Games Table Facebook page.

And Finally...

Keiran takes COVID regulations seriously.

Books & Stuff (NS, No 6) - Reading in Sep 2020

 

Robert A Heinlein, Time for the Stars

What can I say?  I love the Heinlein juveniles.  And they're just the right length to read at a (long) sitting (and if you don't have anyone who objects to the light being on until 4am).

Joss Whedon, Brett Matthew, Will Conrad, Serenity: Those Left Behind

Regular readers might have spotted the odd hint that I'm a 'Firefly' fan.  During Lockdown I watched several dvd box-sets.  One of them was the complete 'Firefly' - which, sadly, doesn't take long.  I'm now making up for it and getting some Joss Whedon fix by watching the complete 'Buffy the Vampire Killer' (which is less hokey than I remember).

This comic book (orignally issued in three issues) bridges the gap between the premiture end of the TV series and the film 'Serenity'.

It's nothing spectacular - it would have made a couple of decent episodes.

John Gisby, New Zealand With A Hobbit Botherer

A quite funny account of a holiday to New Zealand the author took with his Orlando Bloom-fancying wife in 2004 - the height of the LOTR tourist boom.

Light but fun.

Currently Reading

Simon Harris, The Other Norfolk Admirals: Myngs, Narbrough and Shovell

Biography of the aforesaid admirals.  Another study of the Restoration navy.

I'm not sure if I actually picked this up during the month. It's a little heavy-going.

James Ellroy, Perfidia

About 20 years ago I read a shit-load of James Ellroy (that's the technical term), but very little since.

Perfidia is the first book in the Second LA Quartet, serving as a prequel to the first Quartet.  This book covers the first fortnight of America's entry into the Second World War and, more specifically how that effects LA's Japanese community and the LAPD.

As you'd expect from James Ellroy it's dark, dense and a little perverted.  

A great read.  It's making me thing that I should re-read the original Quartet: but a little Ellroy goes a long way!

Max Brooks, The Zombie Survival Guide

Because the way this year is going, it's better to be safe isn't it?

I picked this up on a whim and am finding it better than I expected (I didn't rate the film that was made of his other book, World War Z).  It's written in a dead-pan completely in-universe style and makes some interesting games.

If anyone plays any Zombie RPGs (or LARPS!) this would prove invaluable reading.

Blackmoor (OSE): No 3 - Vermin and Clockwork

Played online – 16 Sep 2020 

Dave is running games using Old School Essentials set in Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor.  Wednesday games have been the “main” quest of exploring the Under-Booh: Sunday games have been side quests. 

16 Sep 2020 Session: Centipedes and Rats 

 

Dave	Games Master
Me	Pluteus	Cleric of King ‘Shroom (Lvl 2)	Retainer:  Holmund the Mage (Lvl 1)
Spencer	Juss Overhere	Hafling (Lvl 1)	Retainer: Scutter (Lvl 1 Thief)
Seph	Sir Robert the Fearless	Fighter (Lvl 1)	Retainer: Eric (Lvl 0 Human)
Ian	Radlea of Booh	Halfling (Lvl 1)
Swiper	Ballard	Magic User (Lvl 1)
Guy	Dexter	Thief (Lvl 1)

 

Previously... 

I’d like to say that we started our session in media res, but our beloved GM (now the Professor), tells us the ‘in media res’ is always grammatically wrong and that “it’s in medias res (accusative) if you are going into the middle of things and in mediis rebus (ablative) if you are left in the middle”.  Does that set the tone?  I think so.

You can imagine what fun we have parsing rules or deciding whether the plural of arquebus is arquebi or arqubuses (it’s the latter).  We decided to use hackbut/hackbuts. 

So, we were in mediis rebus... 

 

The write-up of the previous session is here.  Some might suggest that my note-taking tailed-off towards the end.  I would point out that after Gandalf is killed and the rest of the Fellowship make a fighting exit from the Mines of Moria, they kill a roomful of orcs.  That is covered in a sentence.  I would suggest that we were in a similar situation. 

This Time in the Under-Booh... 

 

 

 

So, after the death of Scruffy and Scutter, we defeated the giant ants.  We made a half-hearted attempt to find their nest in the hope that it was lootable.  However, when we found it, it was far from empty – occupied by numerous creatures the like of which we had seen bite a dwarf in half.  We moved on and found a safe place to camp. 

 

The next day (Day 4 of the current delve) we continued our trek towards the northwest. 

 

We were surprised to bump into two new adventurers – Dexter, a thief, and Ballard, a magic user.  They were in the employ of the Tunnel Fighters’ Guide of Booh (for whom the rest of us had previously worked).  We exchanged information.  Hearing from us how dangerous the Under-Booh was proving, and of the rumour about the Clockwork Fortress, they agreed to join with us.  In return, they told us about the Guild’s secret camp – the Lonely Lodge – and entrance into the Under-Booh. 

 

We did consider leaving the Under-Booh and taking advantage of the Guild’s resources – possibly even travelling back to Booh overground.  After some debate, we decided that the Guild wouldn’t welcome our presence in a ‘secret camp’, and ask too many questions about our current employers.  We were still uncertain about how to handle conflicts between these Halfling factions 

 

The rest of the day was spent following the same passage to the NW.  It terminated at a crossroads, where we camped for the night.   

 

Ballard demonstrated an ability to read hitherto hidden Dwarven signs.  These read 

 

• “True Gnome” (NE passage) 

• “Bottomless Shaft” (W passage) 

• “Black Damp” (S passage) 

• “Clockwork Factory” (SE passage – the direction we’d come from) 

 

We realised that if we were to continue looking for the Battle Throne, we’d have to double-back on ourselves.  A whole day (Day 5) was spent doing this, before we camped at the junction with an unexplored passage leading eastwards.   

 

 

Again, we were attacked during the night – this time by three giant centipedes.  One was destroyed by Juss’ hackbutt, the others put to Sleep by Holmund before being despatched by Dexter (who was interested in extracting their poison).   

 

After further rest, what was left of Day 6 was spent travelling east into unexplored territory. 

 

 

 

Here we found a group of five giant rats chomping down on the bodies of four dwarves.  After fighting the rats, we stripped the bodies and moved on.  Coming to another junction, we decided the take the passage north in search of the elusive Clockwork Factory.  We left the dwarven workings into more natural passages, eventually coming to a cavern crossed by a raging river. 

 

 

Crossing this 80ft river took some finessing.  First, we stashed the loot we’d collected so far and tethered our trusty (but not very trusting) mule.  Then with a combination of our thief's climbing skills, and a lot of rope, we made a makeshift bridge which we were able to cross without mishap.  We were acutely conscious that we would be in trouble if we tried to make the return trip in a hurry. 

 

Pressing Northward our scout, Dexter, spotted some gems embedded in the wall.  Heedless of the noise he was making, Pluteus took a crowbar to them and managed to prise several out.  In doing so, however, he appeared to have alerted others to our presence.   

 

Three very large copper-coloured humanoids – clearly products of the Clockwork Factory – loomed out of the darkness.  A long battle followed, made more risky by the fact that Dexter became separated from the rest of the party.  Fortunately, he was able to use his agility and skill at hiding to good effect and the automata were defeated.