War of Ashes: Post-playtest

So normally, I do write ups for each game session, and I take notes during play so I can track it.

Unfortunately, I find it really hard to do that and GM at the same time.  So instead, I'll talk a bit about the setting of War of Ashes, the rules for the game, and our characters (and how the first two items affected them).

The setting of War of Ashes was, for me, the real gem of this playtest.  Probably not a shock to most who'll read this.  Evil Hat and Zombiesmith have been describing it as "grimsical," a portmanteau of grim and whimsical.  That's definitely a good fit as a descriptor.  The creatures of War of Ashes are cute.  Even the ravenous and terrifying Kuld are basically like hairless frog cousins of Stitch from Lilo and Stitch.  And yet they're out and about dismembering one another for food, a chance at survival, and in the name of their gods.  The contrast is a bit like the old Reese's "you got chocolate in my peanut butter!" commercials.

The setting info in the playtest was DENSE, but I think a lot of that comes from a lack of finished art and no real finalized layout work.  It took me a while to get through it, so I kept my scenario simple: the players were recruited by the Church of Agaptus to retrieve sacred Ghas (giant riding geese of my creation).  We all got to taste a bit of the world, but not so much our lack of knowledge distracted from play.  It was great, too, that War of Ashes encouraged the inclusion of new races, critters, and locations in the world, paving the way for the Ghas, which became a nice combination of comic relief and living macguffin.

By the time my regular GM took over in our second playtest, I felt I had enough of a grip on the world to play a priest of Atronia, who joined up with the other players to discover who was smuggling baby Kuld into Elvorix territory.  Playing was as much fun as GMing, which is a wonderful thing to be able to say.  The setting and tone were such a hit that we plan on being able to keep our War of Ashes campaing as our backup should our main campaigns need a week off.

There were some cool aspects to the War of Ashes rules, as well.  My favorite, especially as GM was "Divine Interest."  As players did really well or poorly, they attracted divine interest from the generally well-meaning but bungling (and slightly vengeful) gods of Agaptus.  It was great fun watching the dread of divine interest build in my players, making even simple pathfinding and animal wrangling almost as high tension as pitched combat.  It was just fantastic.

The system overall is built on the bones of Fate Accelerated Edition, which was easy to pick up for both our Fate vets (most of the group) and our one Fate newbie.  I'm convinced the barebones approach to Fate is not just a good in for younger roleplayers, but also for those used to the six-stat system of DnD/Pathfinder (and that seems to be the logic behind Fate: Freeport, which I recently picked up).  It was fast to get into and serves as a strong primer for the full version of Fate.

We also played with the Weight and Froth systems in War of Ashes.  Weight is something we're adapting over to our WoWFate sessions (as are lethal dice, which I'll get to momentarily); simply put, size matters and when a Ghas (weight 2) charged a weight 1 Evorix, the extra oomph added by that weight difference felt very substantial.  Froth represents a sort of battle rage, eventually leading to the use of lethal dice (also allowed by certain weapons).  Lethal dice cut straight to the consequences of an opponent, skipping stress, making them perfect indicators of when "shit just got real!"

All in all, this gave our somewhat narrowly scoped all-Evorix party a lot more room to play than one might suspect.  We had the previously divinely-touched soldier from the north, who wielded a sword of the gods.  His girlfriend, the dirksherd, who was always irritated that her mouse-like flock was thought of as a food source.  They were joined by the soldier's Beaker-inspired, meeping standard bearer.  They met a Kuld-researcher who just wanted to give peace a chance (and later got divinely swapped into a Kuld body).  There was also the retired soldier turned Ghas farmer who couldn't keep his critters under control; a bard who sang everything, sometimes violently, who just wanted into politics; and a beautiful, not-god-fearing Evorix who was handy with a knife.  When I joined, I played a conman priest who used moss in all his rituals, as well as his clothes.

Because the rules were simple and the setting encouraged us to get a little weird, we came up with a really entertaining bunch.  I could seriously see them as a cartoon that would be all-ages appropriate (which is not always a thing we're good at).  Everything seemed finely tuned towards directing us back to that grimsical tone, and our sessions were better for it.  I'd encourage everyone to look for this one when it comes out.

WoWFate: Beard War

The Quillboar, convinced by Phred, attempted to react reenact dwarven birth.  They snipped a bit of Brim's beard, and tried to concoct a plan to pass through Urist's legs as the beardless dwarf was probably the female.

Meanwhile, Thorren's air elemental caught up to Etiainen, trailing her back to the caravan.  It agreed with her that most mortals were confusing, but sided with Thorren over the elder shaman's concern for his apprentice.

At the Razor Fen, most everyone had fallen asleep, save for a few Quillboar who began snipping at the hair of Brim and Urist.  In his sleep, Urist registered these sounds and brought Urist back to his traumatic experiences against the Scourge.  He woke screaming about an imminent attack, much to the dismay of the Quillboar.

The adventuring party quickly sprang into action. Yshara gathered a group of piglets to her side.  Phred drew his daggers and encouraged the defense.  Thorren readied his command of the elements. Zulfi'shi summoned spirits. And Brim went right on snoring. After it became clear nothing was actually happening, the stealthy rogue slipped in and knoxked Urist out, ending the kerfuffle.  The leaders of the Razor Fen demanded the adventurers leave because of the disruption, and the group had no choice but to comply.

As they headed back to the caravan with their recovered supplies, Brim woke, having remained unaware of what had transpired.  The party hastily explained to him, and Etiainen, what had happened and Brim, bow quite angry, demanded that he and Urist go back to apologize to their potential customers.

They set out, with Phred in tow, as the rest of the party settled in to get the caravan ready to move come morning.  Once at the Fen, Brim and Urist did apologize.  The Quillboar agreed to accept it should the Lightbrew brothers agree to take on apprentices. Phred backed this plan and Brim quickly accepted for both brothers.  

After quite a bit of debate over how apprentices should be picked, Brim simply approached two Quillboar, asked a few questions and announced he was taking one of them. Urist quickly followed suit.  Their names were Keb-keb amd Hogwa and they were extremely eager to learn the ways of brewing Lightbrew Ale.

Once everyone had regathered, the caravan set out again sending dude to warn Honor Hold about the Undead in Razor Fen Downs.  Hopefully, that garrison would be able to defend the area until Orgrimmar or Theramore could send reinforcements.  Once that was done, the party would continue on their mission to Ashenvale via the Crossroads.

As they travelled, they came upon an oasis.  Thorren felt something off about the elements there and was only just able to warn the others before a sudden storm gathered and something attacked!

That something turned out to be a centaur raiding party, led by a hige centaur in ornate armor carrying a spear of Tauren craftsmanship.  The leader singled out Thorren and told his followers to handle the others while he faced the Tauren.  He charged in , reading a powerful strike, but Thorren was ready and able to mostly deflect it.

Two of the archer centaurs fired artows at Urist, who was lightly injured but undaunted by the attack.  Etianen, wanting to help her mentir, fired a lightning bolt at the lead centaur, but his armor glowed and absorbed the attack.

Meanwhile, Zulfi'shi launched skeletal skulls at some of the centaurs towards the back of the group, burning at their skin.  The centaur stormcallers retaliated with lightning strikes, which most of the adventurers dodged after Etiainen blocked a good amount of it.  Brim and Parker, angry now, angled to get into good offensive position.

The centaur leader backed away, readying for another charge, but Thorren closed with him and disarmed his foe with a mighty swing of his axe. At almost the same moment, Etiainen blasted the centaur with redirected lightning, rocking him.

One of the archers took a shot at Brim, but the Dwarven hunter was ready and fired a blast back into his foe, killing the centaur.  Urist added shielding to his companions as Zulfi'shi attacked another of the lackey centaurs with spirit attackers.  Phred stealthily cut around the groups, cutting off their route of escape.  Meanwhile, Parker mauled yet another centaur marauder to death.

The centaur leader managed to trip Thorren up and moved into position to trample him.  Seeing her mentor hurt, Etiainen asked if he needed healing, but Thorren refused it, despite being heavily wounded.  Instead Etiainen blasted the centaur leader again, and this time it struck home.

Another arrow found purchase in Brim's shoulder, but Urist was already blessing Parker a charge to avenge the Dwarven hunter.  Parker chomped down on another Centaur, taking it out of the fight as the Centaur's companions failed to slow the raging bear.

Zul'fishi began preparing herself for a far greater spell than her norm, chanting quietly in Zandali.  Yshara, needing to close the gap with a distant foe, tookoff running in her bear form, leapt while changing into her Night Elf form, cast a spell, and hit the ground running once more as a bear.  Phred, for his part, used the distraction to down a foe with a well-placed knife to the back.

The Centaur leader managed to trample Thorren, who was badly wounded but refused to yield.  Etiainen went against her mentor's wishes and healed him.  Urist dollowed that up with a heal of his own.  Meanwhile Brim used his rifle to fell another Centaur archer.

In the momentary lull, Zul'fishi completed her spell, using it to have entangling hands grasp at all of the Centaurs, slowimg their leader greatly.  He made to charge, but Thorren was ready this time.  The Tauren had retrieved the spear and found it of Tauren-make.  Etiainen used a spell to blind the Centaur leader, who was left open to a huge thrust from Thorren's spear.  

Phred, Urist, and Yshara finished the remaining Centaur.  Yshara recovered the leather armor of the Centaur and Thorren determined that he would return the spear to Tauren representatives ge hoped to find at The Crossroads.

Systems I Love: Fate Core

This probably feels like it's been a long time coming, if you've read things here.  I gushed about Fate Core's Kickstarter.  And then the Fate Dice Kickstarter.  I made myself in Fate Core after I got the PDF.  I redesigned a past DnD character for a now upcoming Warcraft Fate Core Hack and updated my previous Fate Supernatural Hack and Fate Rifts Hack characters.  My group played a one-shot Fate Core Pacific Rim Hack.  I raved about my love for my Fate Dice.  I think it's no real secret that Fate is my favorite system right now and that Fate Core's release has been a big deal for me and my group.  But I've been slow to review it.

Yeah, no one has a better cover than this.

That's mostly because I've been waiting until we were actually playing Fate Core on a regular basis to do so.  We haven't gotten there yet, as Scion is still finishing up.  But we've begun work on our Warcraft game, which will be in Fate Core and now everyone is right in the midst of going through the book to build their characters (and Evil Hat started up the Evil Hat Street Team).  Which brings me to my first major point about the Fate Core book:  it is beautifully laid out.

I'm not sure this is a fact that will get enough attention.  Fate Core is perhaps the best laid out RPG book of all time and definitely the best laid out I own (so shoutout to Jeremy Keller for fantastic work).  This is for two main reasons.  First, the book is easy to flip through quickly to find material.  This is because sections of material are logically and simply named as well as laid out in the order in which players and GM's are most likely to need them.  Any number of RPGs miss this simple concept and their books become much more difficult to navigate.  In Fate Core, I know intuitively that character creation should come after game creation and am rewarded with the material I need in the order I would expect.

The second key factor to the layout is the fact that the table of contents and index strike a good balance between being highly informative and not overwhelming.  The table of contents in Fate Core has more information than most RPG books do; having subsections listed under the major chapters of the book.  For example Character Creation has the subsections Character Creation Is Play, Your Character Idea, The Phase Trio, Skills, Stunts and Refresh, Stress and Consequences, You're All Set! and Quick Character Creation.  That's a lot of information, but each subsection title is fairly self-explanatory and it really best serves people who are looking for specific information, which will include most players getting ready for a game.  The index, unlike most RPG books, is fairly light.  It feels to me as if it focuses on terms not already covered in the table of contents, meaning it works well as a quick reference to the more obscure terms and rules of the system.  This balance means that I am provided with a large amount of information in a rather digestible manner, which makes the book quick to navigate.

Secretly the best page in the book.

Another huge score for Fate Core is that it is easy to read.  The language is simple, which all too many RPGs forget is useful.  Because the book is conversational, and so many subsections exist, it's easy to read quickly and find appropriate stopping points.  Sometimes when a book becomes too conversational, it can become easy to have sentences that look like they're informative, but don't give quite enough  information.  Fate Core seems to have avoided this pitfall through strong editing and the rounds of community feedback on the book.  I have yet to come across a point in which I had to re-read a section over and over to be able to tell myself "I think I get this concept."  In fact, it's helped me clarify a few of those points on older editions of Fate, allowing me to "get" some things that I wasn't quite sure of in the Dresden Files RPG.  Similarly, there are loads of game play examples conveniently placed after the most complex or important concepts of the rules, which speeds along the comprehension process.

Imagery is also a big help in making Fate Core easy to read.  There are tons of pictures in the book, giving readers a place to take a break.  And there is excellent use of symbols to help players remember and define the four major types of dice rolling actions.  This means that they can be used to recall that information at any time during examples or later rules discussions.  While it seems like a little thing, this is HUGE and greatly helps to cut down on flipping back and forth between sections of the book.  And if players do need to flip back and forth, the symbols make it easy to spot places in which the information they're looking for might be located.

Seriously, RPG publishers, do this. It's ultra helpful.

Outside of Fate Core, I have never read an RPG book cover-to-cover in order.  Fate Core changed this by providing an easy way in which to find rules and stopping points as I read through the book.  I also think the ease of reading for the book really couples well with the flexibility and openness of the system itself.  This has given my group, and I would suspect others, an added sense of ability to take the system to do whatever setting we might want.  My group has already discussed a fairly large range of game settings in Fate Core (from sci-fi like Rifts, Pacific Rim, or Stargate to fantasy like Warcraft to modern fantasy like Supernatural or the zombie apocalypse).  None of these seem like a stretch because the rules are flexible and it is easy to quickly navigate the book for the tools to put them together.  That's tough to beat.

As for the rules, they're pretty much Fate as it's been for years.  Players get four dice with blank, plus, and minus sides to them.  When players take an action that needs resolution, they roll those dice, count up the plusses and minuses then combine those with their values in various skills.  If the GM or player compels or invokes aspects, there might be shifts in that final number.  If the final number surpasses the target for success, the player succeeds.  Simple stuff really.  The real punch of the system is its ability to do anything and give enough structure to it that there's order to play but flexibility to allow players and GM's to attempt whatever they want.  It's clear that tenet carried over from the rules to the rule book, and coupled with Evil Hat's willingness to get their player community involved, it produced a great way to get both experienced and new players playing.

Truth in advertising.

Dice Addict: Fate Dice

I've said before that I've got a dice addiction.  I like to have tons of options of dice when I game so that I can choose dice that fit my character, my mood, or the events of the game.  I'm also highly likely to abandon dice I feel are rolling worse than I'd like (which is, of course, silly statistically, but who cares).  So when Evil Hat launched a Fate Dice Kickstarter, I was on board pretty much immediately.  Fate/Fudge dice are kind of hard to come by and in even more difficult in terms of finding both a weight and a style I like.  It's pretty much "solid colors" or "too light."

Or at least it was.

Left to right: Atomic Robo, Centurion, Fate Core, and Winter Knight.

I knew this before I ever got them, but the Fate Dice are gorgeous.  I told a friend when I first got them (which was yesterday) that they're probably the best looking dice I own.  I'm sticking with that statement.  The themed color sets, coupled with all the work by  Evil Hat moving the molds so that gate marks wouldn't show, and the sheer variety of colors and styles makes these dice a step above and beyond the average set of dice.  A lot of love and work went into these dice and it really shows.

Out of the box! Atomic Robo, still my favorite!

Even better, to me, is the fact that this is only round one of the Fate Dice I will receive.  These first four sets include my two favorites (Atomic Robo and Dresden's Winter Knight), but there are still some really awesome color combinations coming, especially the Eldritch set.  So now to talk a bit about each set.

The Winter Knight set!

The Winter Knight set is awesome for its contrast.  The pictures just don't do justice to that orange fire die.  It really looks like fire and it works so well in opposition to the navy and silver die.  The translucent die sparkles and provides a nice balance between the two.  I'm fairly certain I'll reach for the navy and orange dice on a fairly regular basis.

Fate Core in the house!

The purple die from the Fate core set is really the marquee die for me here.  It has a lot more shine than can be seen in this picture and it's such a different color from anything else I own or is really out there.  The blue and green dice also let a lot of light through without looking washed out, which is really an achievement which makes me like these translucent dice a lot more than most of the translucent dice I've owned.

Centurions beyond Dicepocalypse!

I have a serious soft spot for the Centurion dice.  That gold is such a soft but bold color.  These dice theme well together, perhaps better than any of the other sets.  I think I'd be hard pressed to not use them together on a regular basis, because they just fit together so well.

For SCIENCE!  Atomic Robo!

The Atomic Robo dice are, by far, my favorite of all the Fate Dice sets, not only in this round of shipping but in the whole announced series.  Silver and blue together on a die, especially with the  blue being the highlight is a pretty direct way to my heart.  And a teal die on top of that is amazing.  Not to mention the green which pretty much screams "use me for science-y or arcane characters!"  This is easily going to be my go-to set.  If I had been pressed to only get one box, which I am thankful I wasn't, this would have been it.

Obligatory mountain'o'dice pic.

I want to say thanks again to Fred Hicks, Chris Hanrahan, and everyone else at Evil Hat for having run this campaign and deciding to fill the need for more good looking, well-weighted Fate/Fudge dice.  While some of my friends tease me about not needing this many dice (what do they know!), it makes me really, truly pleased to have the options to customize my dice to my characters and change them when the mood takes me.  I think the Fate community is pretty darn lucky to be involved with a company that's so responsive to our interests, needs, and artistic demands.

Pacific Rim: You Got Served

Scion was on hold for a week, so SGG Fate Core'd a Pacific Rim one shot!  Forewarning: rarely do we take our one-shots seriously, so prepare for ridiculousness.  We spent our first couple hours coming up with names, aspects, skills and stunts for our Jaegers.  Mine was Raptor Enigma, a  UN-funded Jaeger piloted by a UN soldier and boasting a powerful sensor array, nominally for identifying, tracking, and recording Kaiju.  I was definitely not a spy (a nod back to my character in SGG's Stargate game a year or two ago).  No sir, not a spy.

Ultimately, the team was made up of Valhund Anzus, the stalwart Norweigan defender piloted by a flamboyant man, his fifteen-year-old neice, and an AI; Dingo Baby, the Aussie Jaeger with boomerangs, piloted by a military science experiment team of soldier and kangaroo; Deus Macarena, gunslinging fighter piloted by a god-fearing ugly American; Whisky Tango, the adrenaline-junky American in a small, fast, agile Jaeger; and my aforementioned Raptor Enigma, co-piloted by an AI (but not because I was a spy, because I'm not).

We were in the New York Shatterdome (yep, we were further down the timeline and now events were occuring in every ocean) when the base's alarms went off.  We got to our briefing where we were told that Jaeger Jaguar Dream had been sent out to combat a gorilla-like Kaiju dubbed "Knuckledragger" that had come through apparently alone.  We watched footage of Jaguar getting some good shots in before a blur joined the fight and downed Jaguar.  The blur was assumed to be a Kaiju, now dubbed "Chameleon." Valhund's pilots lamented the loss of the ever-so-sexy crew of Jaguar Dream.

The pair of Kaiju had pushed into New York, laying waste to several neighborhoods.  We were tasked with stopping them with the Irish Jaeger, Guinness Bomb, waiting as our backup.  We were airlifted to the edge of the city and quickly spotted Knuckledragger atop the Empire State Building.  In an amazing display if tactical genius, Baby charged off after Knux and Whisky went off on her own to try and cut it off.  Meanwhile Deus, Valhund, and Raptor followed behind.  

Unsurprisingly, as Dingo Baby closed in on Knuckledragger, the Aussie was ambushed by Chameleon.  It was then that the team discovered that it looked more preying mantis than reptile.  In the ensuing fight, Dingo found it, lost it, found it, lost it, and then Macarena shot at it, but it dodged away.  Valhund, Macarena, and Raptor continued to close in, with Raptor's sensors working overtime, but strugglimg to find Chameleon.

Then, a couple blocks over, Chameleon jumped Whisky.  It scored a soft hit, but the Jaeger kept coming.  Dingo, solar panels ineffective in the night-fight, recharged off of Macarena and the local power grid.  Valhund leapt to defend Whisky, interposing itself between the Kaiju and the smaller Jaeger.  And then, finally, Raptor countered Chameleon's stealth to some degree, giving the team a better sense of where the slippery Kaiju was.  After a few misses, Chameleon slipped away again and Valhund switched to take on Knuckledragger.

Chameleon reappeared engaging. Dingo and Macarena.  Dingo tied an electrical cable to his boomerang to use as a grapple, but it broke on an errant throw.  Raptor was able to use Chameleon's distraction, though, to sprint in and bury a blade into Chameleon.  Knuckledragger charged Valhund, but couldn't bring down the tough Jaeger.

During that exchange, Whisky got onto Knux' back, but it managed to try grab her and tried to slam her to the ground.  Fortunately, Valhund was able to sacrifice himself to absorb the blow, catching Whisky and setting her aside.  Chameleon tried to take down Macarena again, but failed, and Raptor missed him as Chameleon's camoflague took effect again.

Meanwhile Valhund rammed Knux' head to the ground and Whisky added on, keeping it pinned.  Dingo shut down the damage and a now cracked solar panel depleted his energy.  Seeing an opening, Chameleon slammed into it.

Per the plan formulated by him, Valhund, and Whisky, Raptor jumped onto Knux, lighting up his flamethrower and barbecuing Knuckledragger's face.  The Kaiju barely survived and tried to strike back, but Valhund shoved Raptor out of the way and smashed the bubbling flesh of Knux' face into pulp, finishing the Kaiju.  The Jaegers high-fived and Valhund moved to defend Dingo.

Powering back up, Dingo made a net out of scavenged materials, but struggled to make it strong enough.  Whisky joined the fight against Chameleon, but failed to find the Kaiju.  The team formed up in their search, each defending another 's back.  However, Chameleon evaded them until Whisky spotted it and charged to attack, pinning it to a building before charging into to slash at it with her other knife.  Blood splattered everywhere and the Kaiju became clearly visible.

Chameleon was pinned, and Raptor tried to attack it with his flamethrower, but the Kaiju managed to push him aside as he closed and he smashed into a nearby building.  Macarena rolled around a corner, put his six-gun to Chameleon's head and pulled the trigger, heavily hurting the Kaiju.  Dingo, on the other hand, missed, smashed the building, and freed Chameleon.  Whisky, didn't miss, though, putting a knife through Chameleon's head.

Macarena made everyone do the macarena for a victory dance, using a slave program he'd slipped into their Jaeger software.  Valhund lamented the loss of Jaguar Dream and Guinness Bomb showed up just in time to realize he was too late and be forced to dance.  All in all, a successful mission!

Characters I've Played: TJ

TJ is a character I've come back to a few times over.  Like some other characters I've played (funny how it's happened), she started out as a character for a zombie horror game that didn't last terribly long.  But when Sunday Game Group was discussing having regular roleplaying for the first time (which was maybe 4 or 5 years ago, now!) we discussed starting off with the Cortex System from Margret Weis Productions using the Supernatural setting.  So TJ seemed like a natural fit for an update into Evil Hat's Fate Core.

So a first thing to throw out there is that TJ is what's generally called a "crossplay" character.  I've actually seen the topic of "is it possible for guys to play girls in RPGs?" come up quite a bit lately, so I feel like it's important to acknowledge the discussion.  Personally, I've never seen much of an issue.  The characters I play aren't me and as a writer I tend to make characters based on what fits the story I want to tell.  So in this instance, TJ just fit.  Do I play her as a woman would play her?  I have no idea, to be honest.  But I try and keep in mind that TJ should be a complete person with opinions and feelings.

That means that TJ has a sexual orientation (which is bisexual) and standards as to what she wants in that orientation.  I have the list of what she likes in my head and I can use that list to go back an assess things from her viewpoint.  Which, I think, is the value of roleplaying to me.  I know what I'd do, or would like to do, in a lot of life situations.  It's far more interesting to see if I can build a story for someone else and carry that to outcomes.  It's a test of my writing/creating skills and a test of my ability to create logical reasonings for things.  In that sense playing a girl, for me, isn't really all that different from playing a Tauren.

So that all said, a bit of story about TJ.  TJ was born in the Portland, Oregon and was a gearhead from a young age.  She has a number of tattoos, which reflect successful missions as a hunter.  She is strong but still has a figure rather than an overly-muscled frame and she cares deeply about people and the environment, but is fairly apolitical.  There's a couple of secret bits of information about here that I'll try to hint at here, but not reveal.

TJ's original system was D20 Modern, then she rolled over into Cortex, and then from there we did manage to briefly continue our Supernatural game in the version of Fate used in Strands of Fate.  As a reminder, I'll be going over TJ's High Concept, her Trouble, 3 Phase Aspects, her Skills, and her Stunts.

TJ's High Concept is an easy one for me, because it was the first set of words I came up with when I was first creating her.  She's a biker, a girl, she's got tattoos, and she hunts the supernatural.  All that rolls together well.
High Concept: Tattooed Biker and Huntress

TJ's Trouble is similarly fairly straightforward.  She's a striking woman, with all the tattoos.  She's not gorgeous or hideous, but she's fit and has strong features.  She dresses in a tomboy fashion and doesn't do "meek and demure."  Add to that a loud motorcycle and a penchant for baseball bats and shotguns and she's pretty hard not to notice.
Trouble:  Hard to Forget

The first phase aspect is usually the background for my characters.  In the Supernatural setting I like to make this about what made them a Hunter.  For TJ, this goes back to when she was visiting a friend in Santa Cruz and an angry ghost decided to crash their party.  It turned out the ghost was haunting the locket TJ's friend had picked up at an antique store and assumed the girl had gotten the locket from the ghosts' husband, who'd cheated on the ghost so many years ago.  TJ stopped the ghost by destroying the locket, making a pretty clear aspect.
Phase One (Background): Ghost Lock-down

The second phase is a situation in which the characters form some of their initial connections.  One of the main characters that TJ has had repeated adventures with is named Jane, who is a bookish, smaller, quiet hunter, which serves as a good foil for big, loud TJ.  We've never quite fleshed out their first meeting, but it's been hinted at that TJ saved Jane from some monster and Jane saved TJ from the cops.  TJ also showed a penchant for breaking down the obstacles in her way.
Phase Two (Jane Guest Star): Break Stuff

Third phase, like second, should be another guest starring situation.  I don't know that at this point any of the characters I've played with in the past fit particularly strongly for this slot, so I'll leave it open for the day we play again and I need to fill in.  A key feature of TJ's persona is the fact that she uses her tattoos to record her hunts, so it's an easy choice to make this aspect about that.
Phase Three: Stories in Ink


Skills wise, TJ is fairly straightforward.  Her key ability would probably be fight, as that's where she makes her living.  Beneath that would be the drive skill (for her motorcycle) and the craft skill for her mechanical inclination.  Following that would be physique (because she's got the ability for a lot of stamina), athletics (because she works out regularly), and shoot (because it's her other key mode of combat).  Filling out her skills would be rapport, empathy, notice, and contacts.

Great(+4): Fight

Good(+3): Drive, Craft

Fair(+2): Physique, Athletics, Shoot

Average(+1): Rapport, Empathy, Notice, Contacts

In terms of stunts, TJ uses them to fill in a bit of her weak areas.  She has a strength with shotguns, but relative inexperience with other guns, so I give her a shoot stunt that boosts her shotgun skills.  I've called this "Buckshot Blast" in the past and I'll stick with that here.  Similarly, TJ isn't a great investigator, but sometimes can make leaps of insight that get her where she needs to be.  I'll make a stunt in this case that plays off her empathy to take on a trapping of investigation.  This, I think, should be called "Seeing the Pattern."  Finally, TJ is fairly intimidating and can get what she wants out of people using her looks or her brawn.  Both of these fit in with physique, so I'll give her an ability to use physique to intimidate or charm over rapport.  I'll call this "Woman of Note."
Stunts
Buckshot Blast
Seeing the Pattern
Woman of Note

So that's TJ.  Feels good to update her though she's less out of date than others I might do in this series.  Hopefully another chance to play her will come up soon.

Previous in this series: Thorren

Characters I've Played: Thorren

The goal of this type of post is to update a character that I've played before and intend to play again, though on occasion I may share a character who I probably won't play again.

Thorren was a character I created for Sunday Game Group's Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition campaign in a homebrewed setting in which our group would be playing "monsters" struggling to overthrow a human-elf-eladrin kingdom which enslaved or oppressed all the other races of the world. The intent, eventually, was for the PC's to raise an army and lead the assault on the corrupt kingdom and overthrow it.

Thorren Bluffwatch was a Minotaur Seeker. Given that most of the members of the game played World of Warcraft or WarCraft III, we often referred to him as a Tauren, and the Bluffwatcher NPC type from WoW inspired Thorren's last name. As a Seeker, Thorren was of the primal power source and focused on using that power to aid him in making ranged attacks.

Rather than making Thorren an archer, I chose to make him a thrown weapon focused Seeker, giving him a hammer bound to return to him and a number of axes, javelins, and knives to be thrown situationally. Thorren's abilities generally focused on the production of ice or lightning effects.  He was great fun to play even though the Seeker is a fairly underdeveloped, flawed, and unsupported class in DnD 4e.

In the interim, I've picked up playing WoW and Thorren became a Tauren Shaman, with a leaning toward lightning and fire powers.  So in remaking him for a potential RPG, I'd like to incorporate both versions of Thorren.  As is typical based on Sunday Game Group's system of choice, I'm going to do this exercise in Fate Core's ruleset (just as I did for myself, here).

As a quick reminder, this means I'll need a name, a high concept, three phase aspects, a skill pyramid, and some stunts.  If you'd like more of a breakdown on these, go back and check out my previously linked post for a more detailed rundown.

Naming this character is a simple choice.  The name was inspired by the videogame and transferred out and then back in, so keeping it the same is a no-brainer.
Name:  Thorren Bluffwatch

Next up is the High Concept.  As the most likely place for me to play Thorren is in a Fate WoW RPG as has been discussed several times by SGG, it seems to make sense to involve his race and class here.  Tauren Shaman would be the simple way, but I always try to aim for making the High Concept more dynamic, so I'll try to add a bit on here.  I think Thorren's personality is probably the element missing in this situation.  Thorren's personality, in my mind is based strongly on his loyalty to his friends, people, and the Horde, so I'll call him a Steadfast Tauren Shaman.
High Concept: Steadfast Tauren Shaman

As before, I think of the first phase aspect as "back story" so here's a good opportunity to get in why Thorren is called Bluffwatch.  Tauren have a clan society (pretty clearly influenced by Native Americans) in which children can take on either their parent's surname or a name created by their deeds.  I've always intended that Thorren's family took the name Bluffwatch for being renowned defenders (with keen perception) of the bluffs (or, in WoW terms, Thunderbluff) that are their home.  Thorren carried on in this tradition for a time and took the name, but has since set out on broader adventures.  I summarize this in Generations Watching the Bluffs.
Phase One (Background): Generations Watching the Bluffs

The second phase-aspect is generally the first "guest star" situation that will link a character to the others in the party.  Given that I don't know who else will be in the party, I'll try to leave it a bit open ended.  In terms of the original game, Thorren met his companions because he had been captured by humans who hoped to sell him into gladiatorial slavery, but he escaped with his band of adventurers.  In WoW terms, I tend to consider that Thorren should have entered the lore of the game about when I started playing, and so probably first began his wider journey during the Cataclysm.  So I'll attempt to incorporate those things together.  I think something like, Forced to Battle, talking of Thorren's duty and the fact that he doesn't always look for the battle.  Fighting for Others might actually better sum up my general concept and get back to Thorren's personality, but lacks the outside influence.  I'll split the difference as best I can.
Phase Two: Called to Fight for Others

Third phase is another "guest star" with the same limitations at the moment.  In this case I think it's time to speak to Thorren's connections to nature.  In the original version, he was tied to lightning and ice, and in the WoW version he was tied to lightning and fire.  But in both, he could call upon spirits to aid him.  I think I'll focus on the lightning (or something near to it) and the spirits since they're a commonality.  And I think I have something that sounds cool.
Phase Three: By Ghosts and Thunder

Now for skills.  In the DnD game, Thorren was noted for his perception (which has lived on in SGG by the phrase "what do your ____ eyes see?" since we riffed off Lord of the Rings' "what do your elf eyes see?" by replacing "elf" with "Tauren").  In WoW terms, he's also renowned for his vigilance.  Seems only fitting that his strongest skill be notice.  From there I think fight and empathy make a lot of sense, given that he's a strong fighter in both settings and Shamans in WoW theoretically gain their elemental powers by communicating with and understanding the spirits.  Trailing along with that empathy would have to be rapport and lore, given that they'd strongly correlate the same connections.  I'd include shoot in that same tier as Thorren has always had an element of ranged combat to him, though less so in WoW than in DnD.  I think his Tauren size lends Thorren the physique and athletics skills, he has some ability to ride (aka the drive skill),  and his work and loyalty to the horde have gained him the contacts skill.

Great(+4): Notice

Good(+3): Fight, Empathy

Fair(+2): Lore, Rapport, Shoot

Average(+1): Physique, Athletics, Ride, Contacts

Now to finish off with stunts.  These are the most likely things to change upon actual game play dependent on how we work elemental powers in game. That said, I think the first stunt I should take is one that allows for Thorren to use Empathy to make attacks using elemental powers. To make it aspect-y I'll dub it Speaker to Elements. Next I think I'll add an ability to play off Thorren's ability to notice at a prodigious rate. I'll use it to allow him to use his notice for a trapping of investigate. It seems only right to call it What Do Your Tauren Eyes See? The final stunt should be about Thorren's connections, I think and his ability to call on allies. I'll take a line from the game and call it The Horde is Family.
Stunts: Speaker to Elements
What Do Your Tauren Eyes See?
The Horde is Family

So someday, Thorren will be ready to play again. I'm looking forward to it.

A few musings on Kickstarter

It's been a bit quiet around here, which is at least partially because of the fact that the day of Scions On A Plane has been literally the only day of gaming I've gotten to participate in the new year.  There are plans for International TableTop Day, though, so hopefully that'll get things going again.

In the meantime, I'm just going to jot down some of my musings on Kickstarter campaigns, based on what I've seen working and the campaigns I've chosen not to back.  I'll go over a few categories of what I look at in a Kickstarter and talk about what usually entices me and what doesn't.  Right up front I'll say that I often first inspect a campaign based on the product offered, but the product offered has yet to overcome my apathy if I'm seeing things that I dislike about the project.  I'll list the projects I've backed, but I'm going to leave out specific names of ones I've chosen not to back, since I don't want to directly harm their chances of getting other backers.

Price Point

One of the most important things I've seen about how I interact with campaigns on Kickstarter is that I need to feel like I am getting value for the money I'm pledging.  If the initial reward tier is too high, then I virtually never pledge, especially if I'm considering a project that I've got no prior experience with.  Low as the price point sounds, it seems like $10 is about where I need to feel like I'm getting some reward even if it isn't the full version of the product.  I backed Dresden Codak, where I get a PDF for $10; Artisan Dice, where $7 nets a die; Fate Core, giving a PDF at $10; and Werewolf 20th Anniversary, with a wallpaper at $10.  The outlier is Zombicide Season 2, where the first reward was at $50; in that instance I already owned Zombicide Season 1 and had friends who participated in the first Zombicide Kickstarter.  I pledged more than the minimum on them all, but I feel that the reasonable minimum was a contributing factor in my choice to pledge.

In the projects I've chosen to skip over, the lowest pledge at which I gained a reward was $14 dollars.  More typically, I've found rewards starting at $25, $40, or $50.  In a few rare cases I've looked at projects at where the initial reward was over $150!  Obviously some design projects need that high of an initial level, but I think it puts them at a distinct disadvantage from the start.  I've seen some of the projects where high pledge levels are important for getting actual products made get around the need a for a high "first" pledge by offering things like t-shirts and schematics for lesser pledge levels (and this is somewhat the Werewolf Kickstarter did).

Funding Goal

In a lot of ways, the funding goal is even more important than the price point to me.  In order from lowest to highest, the campaigns I've backed were Fate Core ($3000 goal), Artisan Dice ($9000), Zombicide Season 2 ($25000), Dresden Codak ($30000), and Werewolf 20th Anniversary ($85000).  These campaigns also all managed to hit their funding goals at a rapid pace.  Many of the Kickstarters I've chosen not to back have had goals upwards of $150000.  While there are certainly projects that do require that sort of funding, I've found that many Kickstarters which might not need such high goals (a single RPG game book, a figure carrying case, production of cooking sauces) aim for these lofty goals.

My sense in this case is that when the Kickstarter is designed to reach for "just enough" to fund a project they set these lower funding goals and when they're aiming for enough to produce the Kickstarter and then gain mass release outside the campaign, too.  While that's probably the better business decision on paper, I think it often does not actually pay off as those campaigns go unfunded where campaigns with lower goals have far more success and pull in the extra funding that would enable them to seek broader release.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the campaigns with higher funding goals are also those with higher initial pledge levels.

Stretch Goals

Stretch goals are vitally important.  They're not a requirement on Kickstarter, but they are a fairly common aspect of virtually every campaign on the site.  Most Kickstarter campaigns are long affairs, lasting over 30 days.  Stretch goals keep people considering a higher pledge level and serve as extra incentive to woo individuals who are undecided into pledging.  In looking back at the campaigns I've backed, Dresden Codak has 26 stretch goals, mostly announced fairly early on, but modified as the campaign continued.  Artisan Dice, still fairly early in the campaign with 35 days to go as I write this, has six stretch goals with more hinted to be revealed further down the line.  Zombicide Season 2 has 45 stretch goals currently at just 5 days to go, with a few optional bits that aren't quite stretch goals, but have been revealed similarly.  Fate Core had 35 stretch goals.  And Werewolf 20th Anniversary had 12 stretch goals, though they were bigger ticket items such as whole new books.

While most of the campaigns I haven't backed have had stretch goals, those goals were often, in my mind, unobtainable.  They were set out past the funding goal (which is the norm), but when the goal is so far out that it may be unobtainable, stretch goals fail to add extra incentive.  Similarly, I find that I'm most motivated when there are a few stretch goals laid out at the start and more are added as the campaign goes on.  That pattern taps into my curiosity and encourages me to share the Kickstarter and raise my pledge more than a list of stretch goals which is completely set down before the campaign even begins.  Obviously, I'm sure the best campaigns have their goals planned internally before the Kickstarter begins, but there's no need for full disclosure right away.

In looking back, a lot of the campaigns I've backed have shared quite a few attributes and given their success, it seems like those attributes are attractive to quite a few people.  The key outlier in my purchasing habits here seems to be the Werewolf 20th Anniversary book.  It had a higher funding goal, fewer stretch goals revealed less frequently, and didn't provide the actual produced item until a much higher pledge level.  I think that the key factor that got me to overlook those things that might normally turn me off was the fact that I was highly familiar with White Wolf/Onyx Path and the product that I'd be purchasing.  The same goes for Zombicide in some ways, as I knew that $50 was less than I'd pay for the full game once released and I already owned Season 1.

As a side note, I've left out one Kickstarter which I backed with the intent of helping a 9 year old girl go to camp to learn to make computer games.  I excluded it because I consider it a charitable donation more than a purchase and am not concerned with getting a final product back.  Normally, I'd do that sort of thing on Indiegogo, but it happened where it happened.

It's Fated

I feel like a good place to start off writing here is to talk about my experience with the Fate Core Kickstarter.  Simply put, it was awesome!

Okay, so I could end there, but you should know WHY it was awesome!  I've been a fan of Fate for a while.  I first played Fudge maybe four or five years ago with friends in an attempt to introduce them to the Rifts world.  It was fun for one game, but didn't really hold anyone's attention.  I liked the simple mechanics, though.  Skip ahead a couple years and the Dresden Files RPG was released by Evil Hat (publishers of Fate Core).  My buddy decided he was going to run it, and here were those funky dice from my long before Fudge game.

DFRPG runs on the preceding version of Fate to Fate Core.  Our game was tons of fun, even if the sudden disappearance of half our party (and the representatives of our in-game Russian mafia) disappeared. I liked the mechanics even better, even if there were some rough spots.  Fate was quickly my Sunday group's favorite system.  Between DFRPG and the upcoming release of Fate Core we've used the also excellent Strands of Fate/Strands of Power system.

But anyways, back to the Kickstarter!  I managed to hear about it within 24 hours of it going live, and being familiar with Evil Hat, jumped right in.  When I signed up, I was in for one book and there were maybe 5 or 6 stretch goals announced.

The game was funded, if I recall, about ten hours after I pledged.  Quickly, the stretch goals representing various settings based on Fate Core mechanics began to be left in the dust.  Even better, the Fate Core book was ready for download right away!  I could get into the system without waiting for publishing and shipping!

And them came some awesome stretch goals like The Deck of Fate (playing cards with Fate dice results doubling as fate points!) and Fate Accelerated (a stripped down version of the game designed for newbies!).  In that time period , the settings books began to be available, too.  I can tell you right now that I've read Kreigszepplin Valkyrie and Camelot Trigger cover to cover and I'm in love with those settings.  But even better was when all the settings became print books, which I was promptly able to buy in for.  Ditto a Fate Core toolkit book and Fate Accelerated got their own books.

In the end, I pledged $80 and paid an extra $20 for separate shipping and am pulling in 4 physical books, those same four books in PDF/ePub/mobi, a font, pdfs of at least 2 other upcoming Evil Hat books, sounds files and videos of Fred Hicks of Evil hats doing funny things, and pdfs and utilities pledged by other backers of Fate Core, which looks to be adding another half-dozen pdfs to my haul. Not te mention that further Fate projects have been funded because of this single Kickstarter.  All that while watching a rocketing ascent to over $433,000 of a stated $3,000 goal!  The folks over at Evil Hat seemed so genuinely excited and proud of their Kickstarter that it's hard not to be thrilled.  (And why would I not be?)  Truly, Fate Core's Kickstarter set an amazing standard for RPG Kickstarters to aspire to!