Basic Fantasy RPG - a playtest

So. The other week I was on holiday. For some reason I got myself all excited over the 3rd edition Basic Fantasy RPG. A few texts later (as I was away) my friend had ordered it to be delivered to my house a day after my return.

Now often these things happen, you get them and they gather dust or look good on a shelf. However I was so enthused when I read it I managed to pass that enthusiasm on to friends. One who ordered all the books based purely on my enthusiasm.

A week on and we had session 1 booked in.

The plan.
Create characters.
Go into a cavern.
Kill some monsters.

Nice and simple to get a feel for the rules.

The big night arrived. I had got so excited I bought a set of dice for each player to use as well as 30 pencils....no time wasting on a broken tip...grab another!

Player generation went really smoothly. I used the book as reference and before the first hour was out all three characters were rolled and kitted up.

We have:
A human mage
A dwarf cleric
A elf thief

I had the players roll two sets of stat numbers and pick the ones they wanted to keep. Then assign them as they wanted.

So character creation was as easy and painless as the book felt like it would be. We didn't worry about encumbrance as they couldn't afford much!

The party started in a tavern where an old man was retelling his story of being attacked by a monster. After buying him a drink he offers them a map for a cut of the profits. The dwarf held him to 3 percent...better than nothing the man thinks and they shook on it.

Map in hand they set off the next morning on a three day hike to the cave entrance.

Remembering they had no food when they settled in for the first night they went hunting. As luck would have it they found a solitary boar. After slaying it they gutted it and sent back to feast.

During the night an ogre wandered close to camp but after rolling he was feeling friendly he just sniffed the air obviously smelling the guts off in the distance and wandered off.

The final day a hungry pack of wolves tracked the party. A wolf padded out to block the road. Realising there had been multiple howls the wizard thought to look behind them and spotted the other 3 sneaking up behind them. There was a brief scuffle that involved distracting 1 wolf with what was left of their boar jerky (I rolled he was chowing down on that for 5 rounds). They killed 2 wolves and seriously wounded the third. At this point the wounded wolf and the one who had fed on boar fled.

The party continued on to find the entrance to the caves. They entered and just as their map suggested a few feet inside was a 10ft ledge down with a rickety wooden ladder. The thief hopped on feet either side and slid down. The mage went next with a. Dex check and also nimbly climbed down. The dwarf was the final party member to confront....the ladder....

After a spectacular dex roll he panicked pushed the cliff and ended up balancing on the ladder as stilts. A second check saw him slowly begin to overbalance back. The mage decided to pitch in with a strength check. Unfortunately all he managed was to shove the bottom of the ladder causing the dwarf to fall ontop of him. 1 damage to the dwarf and 2 to the mage.

The party made camp and rested up after the traumatic start!

After a good night's rest they set off with lanterns lit. Having the map they could see all the hidey holes and an int check from the wizard had him spot what he thought was movement in a hidden part of the cave wall ahead. Pre warned the party leapt in front of the spot surprising the kobold hiding there.
They spent their free turn wagging their respective weapons in the air and looking impressive. The fight that then ensued was not pretty for the kobold.

Proceeding on and another int check from the wizard and be realises the cavern ahead has a ledge that could be a good ambush point....and kobolds love a good ambush. The wizard then decided to throw....yes throw....a candle onto the ledge...as it flies through the air it goes out, however I gave it a 5 in 20 chance..and rolled a 5...there was a grunt as the candle hit something...someone...

The dwarf being a stoic sort charges into the room to the far end where he can then run up the slope ontop of the ledge.

...ok I think the kobolds (that's what they were) are surprised, but they are ready to throw rocks at people so I'll give them a modified chance to hit the dwarf as he runs in front of them....natural 20...ok that's 1 point of damage from a rock to the head!

The dwarf charges on and summarily smashes a kobold with his mace so hard he separated the torso from the legs. His friend is a little unnerved and is summarily dispatched by the dwarf the next round.

The party re group and using the map head for a tunnel with a door. The thief has a shot at picking then locked but Ignis a type he hasn't seen before and isn't successful. The dwarf takes a run up and smashes it open only to be facing...kobolds (no one listened at the door)...

That was where session 1 ended...

We liked it so much session 2 is next week.

So we probably played a little fast and loose with the rules but on the whole we played it as they are written. The game flows well and as an RPG is great fun. I can't wait to see how the characters progress!

If you haven't tried it the rules can be downloaded in pdf for free. Grab it and have a look. If you like it the softback book cost me something like £4.22. That has rules spells monsters 4 races and 4 classes. There are more available free on the website.

Right. Next time I'm hoping will be more carnival of dreams updates!

Adventure Update - Nearly there!

So, after watching the exciting and successful Midderlands kickstarter it is back to my stand alone one night adventure the Carnival of Dreams!

I have finally finished the first draft and sent a copy for play testing and a copy to a friend for some feedback. At the moment I know I need to clean up some of the PDF as some of the layout needs work, and also I need to re-check to make sure it all makes sense and remove typos etc. I'm also missing maps but I am so close I can feel it!

I am in discussions for cover art and then I just need to sort the feedback and maps and I'm all good to publish!

Well from the very first blog post to now I have been on quite a journey. I have learnt a lot, and when I am finally finished I will try and sum up what I have learnt along the way.

On a related note I read how to write adventures like a fucking boss. I took a lot of that on board, and amongst the gems that are in there one of the things that I think everyone should pay attention to is that everyone will have their own style. There is no right, or wrong, find your style and make it work for you.

I'm also prepared for lots of outcomes when I finally get this one out there and start work on my next piece to publish. I am expecting anything from no-one even noticing that it is out there to criticism. I just need to use it and learn.

For the moment, while I wait on some feedback and sort the images and work out what I want to do with the maps I'm going to work on an adventure for a competition. If you haven't seen it Venger Satanis is running a competition. If you haven't seen it I would recommend having a look.

On that slightly optimistic note I'm off to write more notes.

Midderlands

So, you may not have noticed but I was a big follower of MonkeyBlood Designs Kickstarter the Midderlands.

After a fast start a slower middle and an amazing ending the Kickstarter funded. I for one can't wait to hold that book in my hands and see it complete.

I'm also hoping there will be more Midderlands content coming out. But I'm sure we will hear more about it in the coming weeks and months.

Now back to writing!

Golden Age

Ask anyone when the golden age of RPG gaming was or is and you are likely to get a lot of different answers.

Plenty of people know the rich history behind RPG games. Others probably only know the more recent games.

Where we are today there is a rich catalogue of systems and adventures. With the advent of the internet more people than ever before can publish their masterpieces.

But equally there is a sea of total chaff to wade through. Sometimes you have parted with cash and you feel cheated, other times you feel elated at what you have found.

When people had to get publishers and editors and all the other bits lined up for real world publishing, when they had to persuade someone (possibly themselves) to part with real cash to make this happen. Bad reviews would leave copies unsold, so quality was paramount.

Oh I'm sure people can probably reel off the bad ones but the people out of pocket more than anyone would have been the writers publishers etc.

So that leaves me at when do I think the golden age was/is? I think it is here, right now. Never before have gamers been able to connect with each other so easily globally. The resources are richer and more abundant than ever and gaming systems far more accessible. All this leads to a great environment for gaming. So let's all go enjoy it!

Completing an adventure

So. I'm so close to being able to playtest and release/publish the carnival of dreams that I can taste it.

However every step forwards also seems to have 2 steps backwards!I have a definitive list of what I need to do.

Pre generated character sheets are first on my list.
Then maps.
At this point it's time for play testing.
Commission the front page art.
Tidy up the layout and consistency.

Publish.....
Shout out to everyone that it is in the wild.

I figure it will come in at around 60 pages give or take. That's. A ruck load of information . Yes it's a one night adventure but the GM can use or ignore whatever they want. There is enough depth (I hope) to support less experienced GMs giving them lots to fall back on. For more experienced GMs, they can ad lib throwing in random NPC's and flexing the story to make it their own.

In the meantime while I continue on that I am waiting for MonkeyBloodDesign to start their Midderlands Kickstarter. Slated for 1st of July. Can't wait!

Till next time.

UK Games Expo

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get to the UK Games Expo. I have to say it was a fantastic event and certainly something I plan on doing again.

So here are some musings from the event!

Getting their Early(ish) the traffic was ok. I arrived around 10.

I didn't plan what I was going to do! My son some friends and I sort of wandered the stalls, chatted to a few people and generally soaked up the atmosphere and spent money for 5 hours.

There was a lot of Pathfinder stuff there! I have to say I knew Pathfinder is popular but the amount of stuff there for Pathfinder was breathtaking. I've tried reading the Pathfinder rules and I just couldn't get on with them. Maybe I need to give them another read through but to be honest I like the simplicity of Swords and Wizardry. If you haven't checked it out then do, you can get the PDF from Frog God Games for free so worth checking out!

There were a load of new and upcoming board games. I wish we had sat down and played a few!

There were board games... I mean lots and lots of board games. Lots of stalls, and lots of variance in prices which is interesting. I saw the same board game vary from 26 - 35 pounds so it pays to scan around.

Oh and while on the subject of what we saw, there was quite a lot of Cthulu based stuff which all looked pretty fantastic.The Black Hat stand was brilliant, nicely laid out with some great stuff on there. 

There were some good Fate powered products there, but I wish there had been more, they were swamped out by D&D Pathfinder and Cthulu. Oh and Doctor Who .... which did look very tempting!

I may just have missed some of the products though as I know at least one book my mate turned over had a Powered By Fate logo on the back.

So what would I change ... well here goes with the plan for next year!

Plan is the word .. I would aim to plan the visit with more structure. So I want to get round all the stands for sure ... more than once as you always miss stuff! However I want to break it up and play some of the great board games people are demoing!

If I can pre-book then I want to pre-book on some of the RPG stuff, especially anything from from 4 - 6 ish time frame. 

I want more money to spend .... I need to start saving now!

So there you go, in a nutshell. Take cash, plan the trip, have fun!

The Home Straight

Well, as a journey, trying to get my first indie published RPG adventure has taught me a lot so far. So as a quick summary:

• For every note written down there are 20 things I have generated in my head.
• I have to try and get those 20 things out, and in a way that makes sense!
• The first thing I write is likely tosh and will require re-writing.
• Art makes things really look better.
• Layout is really not the easiest thing in the world.
• Layout takes way more time than anyone could imagine if they haven't had to do it.
• When I layout a document, it flows subtly differently to when it is just in a text document. I need to change some of the text to take this into account.

So after those quick lessons learnt I'm heading into what I see as the final stretch! So whats left to do ...

• Lay everything out. (I have a PDF with everything in but the page numbers need sorting, and the formatting is only done for the first 3 chapters)
• Commission the art I want to finish it off. I have 2 pieces in, and 2 out on commission at the moment. My rate of art commissioning is dictated by my available funds :\
• Finish the pre-generated characters (I'm setting myself a goal of 1 per night and I need 8, one for each super power).
• Get the maps and insert them in.
• Get it play tested.
• Make changes from play testing.
• Publish.

Ok so looking at it now that list looks quite daunting, but really compared to getting everything written originally it isn't worrying me :) 

So as I sit here I have a PDF that is starting to look like a finished article. Still a work in progress but the bulk of the content is there. I find myself querying whether I put too much information in, whether it is overkill, this is meant as a one night adventure. I know one of the great things with Fate is that there is so much scope to expand the story and go in any direction, it shouldn't be too constrained. But then I also, and this is just my opinion, think that if I'm asking for someone to pay for something, then I should give them as much information and content as possible. They can use as much or as little as they want, but the seeds should be there for them to build off, or use in their entirety.

Only time will tell. With this being my first piece of work I'm sure there will be things I get wrong, and I will need to work on that and improve what I deliver. But then I think we could use that as a great way of living life. I will try, I may well get things wrong, but I will learn and I will strive to get better.

On that note I'm going to go work on a mechanic for a totally different RPG.