The Littlest Kobold

[Dead of Night 2] Monstrous Archetypes

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:57:19 GMT

Crossposted to the (newly redesigned) Collective Endeavour website.

I'm working on the second edition of Dead of Night at the moment, my game of b-movie horror. Amongst the many refinements, one of the things I want to do is to streamline the way monsters are handled. Rather than have a vague system of creating a monster and a grab-bag of samples, some more handy than others, I've worked up a list of monstrous archetypes that each encompass a different type of monster.

I''ve managed to narrow the list to nine archetypes, and I'm fairly sure that you can fit most monsters into one of the archetypes. So, with that in mind, can you think of any monsters that I haven't accounted for? Any archetypes that seem redundant or superfluous?

The Unstoppable Killer – a relentless foe that can neither be reasoned with nor killed. Eg. Friday 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Jaws.

The Ghost – an entity that returned from the grave to haunt the living. Eg. Poltergeist, the Haunting.

The Hunter – a monster that might pass as normal, but feeds upon humans. Eg. Dracula, the Faculty.

The Beast Within – a creature with two faces that cannot help the monster it becomes. Eg. Dog Solders, Ginger Snaps.

The Witch – the seemingly harmless person who wields malevolent power. Eg. The Omen, the Blair Witch Project.

The Impostor – a monster that masquerades as somebody else. Eg. Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, the Exorcist.

The Horde – an implacable, endless tide of monsters. Eg. Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later.

The Formless Horror – the environment itself is the monstrous horror. Eg. the Mist.

The Thing from Beyond – an unknowable alien entity with an unfathomable motive. Eg. Alien, the Thing.

Actually I'm wondering whether the Horde and the Formless Horror overlap, after all zombies aren't so much individually faced monsters as facets of a larger, formless threat.

[Six Bullets] Game text done!

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:14:58 GMT

Well whaddaya know, posting my last post was actually the kick up the arse I needed - behold, Six Bullets for Vengeance, in it's current incarnation! The text is (almost all) complete, but has hardly been read through by people who are not me. I'd appreciate feedback on the text itself - does it make sense, can you envisage what the game looks like from the text, and so on - as well as playtesting of the game in general.

It's been a long time brewing, so lemme know what you think so I can kick this game into layout!

Yesterday's Tomorrow, District 9 and a kick up the backside

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:08:24 GMT

Seeing as our original plans for the weekend fell through at the last minute, me and Ruth had a cinema day today, with pizza in between. Saw District 9, which was awesome (and a little sad). Also saw GI Joe, which was intended to be something of a guilty pleasure - it had it's moments (and some cracking action scenes), but was strung together with some truly awful acting.

Need to kick myself up the ass and finish a game or two - both Six Bullets and Memories & Madness have been lingering in the "almost done" pile since last year. I'm going to aim to do that tomorrow, if playing Arkham Asylum (game of the year, for my money) or painting Tomb Kings doesn't get in the way (again).

For a lesson in what happens if you leave a game for too long, you might notice John Wick has a new game coming out called Yesterday's Tomorrows. Which means I'll need to find a new name for my own Yesterday's Tomorrow and redo the cover, I guess! Not that it's finished yet, but I have tinkered with it again recently. Serves me right for not finishing it 7 years ago when I started it!

Sunday night reviews

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:04:42 GMT

If you imagine the aftermath of a nuclear attack on London necessitating giving the cast of Hollyoaks guns and telling them to get on with the business of catching terrorists, you'd pretty much have Spooks: Code 9, with all the bleak dystopia that such a scenario implies. Yes it has mushroom clouds on the opening credits, secret detention centres, id cards and Jack Bauer-style primetime torture, but there's still time for nice haircuts, cardigans and nights out in bars.

The first two episodes were jaunty enough and the premise is actually pretty good, apart from the cast all looking about 12. They even embraced Spooks devil-may-care attitude to the longevity of its cast members, Spooks being one of the few shows where actors are all on temporary contracts because, well, accidents happen.

In other news, the Mummy 3 really was as bad as Peter Bradshaw said. Michelle Yeoh was as watchable as ever, but even her presence alongside a trio of cgi yetis couldn't save the day. I could have come up with a better sequel. Hell, I could have come up with a better sequel whilst waiting for the film to start. The humour felt forced and the acting was dreadful - Maria Bello, taking over from Rachel Weisz to play Evy, was either carved from wood especially for the part, or was so busy concentrating on maintaining a prim and proper 1940s English accent that she forgot to, y'know, act.

And this concludes our Sunday night review!

Weekend fun

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:17:21 GMT

It's the weekend! Yay! Normally a cause for celebration at the best of times, but this weekend is even more precious than normal as it's the weekend before WD deadline week, which makes it the calm before the storm. I've bought a whole bundle of Imperial Guard and am going to spend my time in blissful decadence assembling and painting them, as I doubt there'll be time for much hobby during the week.

Also - cinema this afternoon. We were hoping to go to see Hellboy 2 but it's not out til wednesday, so the occult/pulp itch will have to be scratched by the Mummy 3. Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian hated it, but as my view is normally polar opposite to his I'll take that as a good sign.

Tom and Izzy's wedding was great last weekend too - a really beautiful, humanist ceremony followed by some lovely speeches, all wrapped up with the feeling that it was taking place in Hogwarts (it was in St John's College, Cambridge). The company was good too, and it was nice to hang around with friends who we don't see so much for the whole weekend. For once we took photos, so will post them up when I get round to it.

Dr Horrible

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:39:54 GMT

I'm sure most of you have watched it already, but the internet has been a stranger to me and I've only recently caught up! So, if you're a fan of Joss Whedon, Nathon Fillion, musicals, supervillains or any of the above, you owe it to yourself to watch Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. It's Joss Whedon's online 3-part series about a wannabe supervillain (Dr Horrible) and his nemesis (Captain Hammer, played with able smugness by Nathon Fillion who, as I'm sure you all know, was Mal in Firefly). And it's superb, songs and all.

In other news, I'm writing again, this time for Fantasy Flight. First time I've done any writing since starting at GW (except for White Dwarf of course! My Tale of 4 Gamers is in print in the current issue. Oh, and Apocalypse: Reload, which netted me my first writing credit too for loads of fun datasheets), and it's really hard juggling it with a full-time job. Hence why today I'm trying to break the back of my 10,000 word assignment. And also hence why I'm procrastinating by posting on my lj for the first time in an age!

The day the earth stood still

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:45:14 GMT

So that's another natural "disaster" I've slept through then, to go with the hurricane of 1988. I was awake for the one in 2002 in Birmingham, which happened the night we moved into our new house there. Couldn't work out if it was the house falling down or an earthquake! Still, I don't think I missed much. Nottingham is, of course, still standing.

A change is as good as a rest ...

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:59:16 GMT

... so how about 2 major changes in as many months? So life has turned a little, shall we say, upside down of late, but in a good way. A really, really, awesomely good way.

Those of you who know me well will know that since leaving uni and moving in with ms_haze I've worked part time at Chesterfield College, running their IT helpdesk, whilst at the same time coming home in the afternoons and slogging away either freelance editing and writing or doing the same thing for myself. It's been quite a prolific arrangement, and whilst I haven't made enough money to give up the day job, I have written games that I'm really proud of.

Anyway, all this changed back in September when I moved jobs, giving up the part time work in favour of full time work at the local NHS trust. I won't bore you with the details, but it revolved around chemistry and stats and not at all games design or editing. Why I made the switch revolved a lot around my increased commute following our move, the need to pay the mortgage and a general dissatisfaction with my previous day job and a growing realisation that freelancing and games design would only ever be a hobby, not a viable career.

But no sooner had I started at the hospital than I got another interview, this time with Games Workshop. This would be my 5th or 6th interview for an editorial post with them in about 4 years, so much so that I'd begun to not only lose count, but also joked with friends and interviewers alike about my annual interview with GW. Each time, of course, the interview was unsuccessful and I went back to my day job a little disappointed.

Of course this time was different. This time I was a week into a shiny new job that I could walk to, and was feeling pretty content with myself. So naturally I get offered the job.

I started today, as the new sub-editor of White Dwarf, the GW website and the games development team. It's gonna be helluva hard work, but it's going to be great fun! As my mum always says to me - I've been preparing for this job for the past 15 years of playing Warhammer!

[Ordinary Angels] Pacing and the Plan

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:48:27 GMT

It's been a while since my last Ordinary Angels post, partly for reasons I'll cover in my next post. I've only really discussed the core mechanics and premise so far (mostly in the comments, here and here), but this weekend I've been working on one of the major aspects of the game - the pacing mechanics and the Plan.

The Plan is the Divine Plan, laid out by God to the angels instructing on them on how to spread the word and carry out his work. Thing is, the Plan is fairly vague and not everybody got a copy, so much of it is left wide open to interpretation on the fly and in the field. In game terms, the Plan represents the progress the angels are making towards their immediate goals as part of their current case (called a Chapter).

At the start of a new Chapter, the GM and the players work together to set the game up, splitting a number of plan tokens (I really need a more evocative name than that, but it'll do for now) between different types of obstacle (mystery, adversary and intervention, roughly mapping to investigation, physical confrontation and social interraction conflicts) as part of a briefing scene. The players all take it in turns to spread the tokens about, and as they do so they narrate an aspect of the case.

So, for example they might say something like, "the soul we're looking for is a dead junkie named Maurice, but we don't know where he is" and place a couple of mystery tokens down on the Chapter sheet. The next player might step in and say "we don't know where Maurice is, but we've got a lead on one of his former associates - a demon named Birgazal" and then plonk both an adversary and an intervention token down. And so on, until all the tokens have been assigned and the GM has a pretty good setup for the game session.

So how does this feed into pacing? Well, in the same way as Strife works in AGON or Budget works in PTA, when the GM wants to do stuff, he spends these tokens to create mechanical adversity for the players. So to buy in to a conflict, the GM spends tokens and gets himself dice. He can also invest tokens into making a more robust obstacle, such as a big bad Fallen or a really nasty mystery. Conversely, when the players win conflicts, they get to take some of these tokens off the Plan as their reward (I'll discuss what they do with them in a later post).

When all the tokens are gone from the Plan, either because the GM has spent them all or the players have earnt them all through winning conflicts, that's that Chapter of the Plan closed, for good or for evil depending on how the PCs did!

When we ran through a playtest of this way back when I allocated 5 tokens per player and the game clocked in at about an hour, which I had thought too short until drivingblind reassured me that with this sort of pace you could string a couple of chapters together for a pretty satisfying session.

Anyway, they seemed to work nicely in play, although it remains a little fuzzy as to exactly how and when I should be spending them, and whether the players could help themselves to a token or two over the course of the game to complicate matters for themselves too.

The Long Game

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:46:48 GMT

So a couple of recent threads at Story Games, coupled with a comment from Rich and my own experiences lately, has led me to ponder the long game: campaign-style playing.

In my own experience, we've tended to favour the long-form game over the shorter game, but I wonder why that is. Certainly with online play we went from one 5 year DnD campaign to a 13 month Etherscope game to our nascent WFRP game, which the players specifically requested be a long term game (albeit broken into manageable, season-esque chunks).

In my weekly real life game we had a period of about a year where we switched games every 6 weeks or so, peppered with my own attempts to introduce them to indie games via one-shots. But we all agreed about a month ago that what we really wanted was something long-term to get our teeth into, so now we're alternating between Deadlands and Conan.

If you'd asked me a year ago which style I'd preferred, I'd have plumped for short bursts of games to scratch the itch of trying lots of games out. But now I'm starting to appreciate (or re-appreciate?) the enjoyment of playing the same character, telling their story, making their legend, and seeing them grow. And do you know what? I kinda like that.
So what is it that makes a game playable week after week, compared to a game that can be played in one or two sittings?

Can we get the same level of satisfaction from both styles of play, or does the desire for character development, immersion or the need to try out all our shiny new games preclude one over the other?
And can any game be played in either way, or is there something about traditional games that leans towards the assumption of long-term play, and something about indie games that leans towards the short-form style?

(Cross-posted to the Collective Endeavour)

Quote of the Day

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:40:35 GMT

"[Saying Ratchett and Clank is the] best PS3 game to date ... [is] a bit like saying MRSA is the best superbug to have."

taken from the Guardian games blog

I have to say, the PS3 holds no appeal to me whatsoever. Apart from the fact it's a Playstation (which slew my beloved and underappreciated Dreamcast, way back when) and that I'm now an Xbox 360 owner, there just don't seem to be any decent games for the PS3. Certainly not the must have games that the Xbox has, nor the list of mouth watering releases in the run up to Christmas. Mass Effect, anyone?

Famous first words

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:25:48 GMT

Thursday afternoon, day off tomorrow and flexitime to finish early today. Boss is at a meeting, co-workers have all vanished for the day, leaving me, alone, with the internet. Bwahahahahaha ... ahem.

I discovered ficlets, via Wil Wheaton's blog, which are short (1000ish characters) stories used to inspire sequels and prequels. Pretty fun, and a nice idea especially when you see the network of stories inspired by yours grow.

But by far the best bit is the "inspirations" page, which has a first line/last line generator. My favourite combination so far is:

FIRST LINE: the monkeys told me I'd find you here ...

LAST LINE: BOOM!

I'd like to see one of those full of scene openers for an rpg. That'd work quite nicely for Six Bullets I think, where it doesn't necessarily matter how you've started a scene as you have done, especially the epilogue, because it's meant to be explained as the game progresses.

[Ordinary Angels] Miami Angels

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:41:01 GMT

I know it's 10 years old, but I've been reading this fascinating article at work today about the mythologies woven through the stories told by homeless kids in Miami. If taken as gospel (pun intended), it'd make a great setting for Ordinary Angels, especially one set after the events of the film.

Here are some particularly choice and tasty bits:

The War in Heaven

"On Christmas night a year ago, God fled Heaven to escape an audacious demon attack -- a celestial Tet Offensive. The demons smashed to dust his palace of beautiful blue-moon marble ... No one knows why God has never reappeared, leaving his stunned angels to defend his earthly estate against assaults from Hell."

Spirital Dispatches

"Spirits appear just as they looked when alive ... but they are surrounded by faint, colored light. When newly dead, the spirits' lips move but no sound is heard. They must learn to speak across the chasm between the living and the dead ... Spirits have a unique function: providing war dispatches from the fighting angels."

Angelic Guerrillas

"There is no Heaven in the stories, though the children believe that dead loved ones might make it to an angels' encampment hidden in a beautiful jungle somewhere beyond Miami. The secret stories say the angel army hides in a child's version of an ethereal Everglades ... Says Phatt: 'But they take care of a dead child's spirit while he learns to fight. ... and when I do good, it makes their fighting easier. I know it! I know!' ... It is the most necessary fiction of the hopelessly abandoned -- that somewhere a distant, honorable troop is risking everything to come to the rescue, and that somehow your bravery counts."

Powerful and evocative stuff, and exactly the sort of mythology and imagery Ordinary Angels seeks to capture - the mythic, the divine and the celestial, right here on our streets and neighbourhoods.

Dead of Night at horror week

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:23:44 GMT

It's horror week over at rpg.net, and despite me not getting my ass in gear to do any promo or prize support, Dead of Night got reviewed anyway!

I really need to get more on the ball and do something for halloween - I'm thinking either Dead of Night in pdf format, finishing up my 28 Days Later scenario (which I'm running for the last time tomorrow night at Furnace) or putting

rpgactionfigure's fright sheet idea into practice.

It figures ...

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:09:27 GMT

I tashte like Alcohol.

Heh. Heh. I taste like beer. I like beer. Buy me a beer. I'm not drunk, I can drink plenty without... What was I saying? Beer. What Flavour Are You?

GameCity & wii-sabers

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:19:55 GMT

I was reading the Guardian Games Blog and noticed that there is a big (computer) games design festival in Nottingham next week, GameCity, featuring all manner of cool designs seminars. Pretty cool, I thought ...

... then I noticed the blurb for one of the seminars:

"Star Wars: The Complete Saga: Jonathan Smith ... introduces the latest title in the Lego Star Wars series and will show off the Wii Light Saber for the first time."

Let me highlight that for you in case you didn't notice it first time round. Wii ... Light ... Saber. Jaw on floor time. And here's me only just got round to picking up a 360. Time for a Wii too, perhaps?

A sequel to Serenity?

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:05:10 GMT

From a link over at

ken_of_ghastria's lj, rumours from Alan Tudyk about a possible second Firefly movie. Woo and indeed hoo! Here's hoping kids.

Beer Review

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:53:07 GMT

Sorry it's gone all quiet of late, but I'm 2 weeks into a new job and have barely had time to think, let alone type. I don't think that's going to change any time soon either, although (more) change is afoot so we'll see.

For some reason Retford (the little town where I live, on the northern edges of Sherwood Forest) is a veritable nexus of real ale. My actual local has it's own brewery, and even the big commercial pub, Wetherspoons, carries a decent selection of real ales (I guess what those of you state-side might refer to as "micro-brews"). Last night me and Dave went to my current favourite pub, the Rum Runner, which always has half a dozen real ales on tap and has won awards for its beer. Technically we were there for a pub quiz, but really we were there for the beer!

So here is the first of (maybe) many beer reviews!

Harvest Pale - a nice, light, golden beer that was like a german weissbier. Current reigning champion ale and rightfully so.

White Dwarf - how could we resist such a name! For reasons that will become clear with time, this proved to be an auspicious brew. A bit fizzier and more lager like than the Pale, still a tasty pint.

Workies Ticket - couldn't have been further from the first two if it tried, this was a really dark, really thick and creamy bitter that was practically a stout. Very heavy going, but surprisingly tasty with a definite fruity taste.

and finally ...

Bateman's XXB - another fairly heavy brew, although nothing compared to the Workies. The really striking aspect of the XXB was its overwhelmingly fruity taste, like someone had dropped a crop of blackberries into the barrel. Not entirely unpleasant, but a bit much all at once.

And that concludes the first exciting installment of Beer Review.

Comics Britannia

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:29:27 GMT

I'm not sure if any of you have been watching BBC4's series about the history of British comics, Comics Britannia, but it's well worth it. Tonight's episode was about the growing sophistication and maturity of comics for boys and girls in the 50s, 60s and 70s, paying particular attention to Dan Dare, Commando and Roy of the Rovers.

It's been a fascinating series to date, very well presented and a thoroughly interesting insight, all tied together with great interviews and a compelling narration by Armando Iannucci.

If you missed it, luckily BBC4 repeats things ad nauseum, so it's on again tonight at 220, then several times throughout the week on wednesday, friday and probably sunday night too. The website it really good too, for those of you not in the UK, including exclusive interviews and some fantastic artwork.

First interesting fact: Dan Dare was originally a chaplain! Albeit a space chaplain. I don't think that lasted long.

Second interesting fact: the artist who drew Dan Dare made his brother, son and father dress up as the characters, in full costume, so he could take photos to draw from later. His son was frequently the Mekon!

[Ordinary Angels] News wrap up

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 12:59:05 GMT

Lots of Ordinary Angels stuff to report today, although very little of it concerns the game.

First off, and most importantly, the dvd of Ordinary Angels is now available to buy from the indie film outlet, Film Baby, which is to indie films what IPR is to indie games. I've yet to see the film, although having read the script, watched the trailer and talked to Todd endlessly about it, I know it's gonna be good! Me and Todd have talked about selling a double pack containing both film and game, but don't hold back buying the dvd now!

Secondly, the website for the Ordinary Angels film is now up, complete with an faq and a new trailer. My favourite bit from the website is on the faq, which asks the question "did anything freaky happen during shooting?" The answer, of course, was yes:

"90% of the crow sounds were caught on location during the actual takes and occur as if on cue. The church bells ringing on Lucifer’s exit were caught during the actual take. The weather did exactly what we needed it to do on the day. A stage photo of the director’s deceased wife made it into the background of the deathbed scene (unbeknownst to everyone on set). And one actor was mugged the night before he was to shoot, sending him to the emergency room and necessitating the inclusion of production designer Caleb Long as the angel Gavreel."

Finally, the game is zipping along, stalled only by me being ill this week. The rules are slotting into place and I've finally got most of them down on paper. I'm angling for another playtest in the next month or so, all going well. Expect a rules update in the next few days!

And that's about it I think!

[Ordinary Angels] Movie premiere

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:29:22 GMT

The Ordinary Angels movie premiered this weekend at the Dragon*Con film festival in Atlanta. My good friend Todd, who wrote and directed OA, talks more about it here, here and here. Dragon*Con sounds absolutely wild, especially the 300+ stormtroopers!

If you've got any interest in indie films or film making in general, check out TD's posts about hot films to look out for.

OA seems to have gone down very well indeed, and Todd mentions that there's even a bit of buzz and interest generating around the game. Better get a move on then, hadn't I!

[Ordinary Angels] First playtest

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:31:25 GMT

So yesterday I had some friends over and we had a quick playtest of Ordinary Angels, my game of angelic cops. Me and

drivingblind talk about it quite extensively here.

We were going to play it on saturday night but I suggested we watched the Prophecy to get in the right mood (for those who haven't seen it, it's Christopher Walken chewing up the scenery as a bad-ass Gabriel) but it proved to be such a big turn off we ended up playing something else. So sunday afternoon, with the Prophecy fading in our memory, we tried again.

Character Creation

Character creation was painless - distribute 11 points between the 3 stats and then pick a duty. We ended up with:

Leliel, the Sword of God, played by Geoff
Belief in Self 3
Belief in Man 2
Belief in the Word 6

Velon, the Angel of Mercy, played by Dave
Belief in Self 3
Belief in Man 5
Belief in the Word 3

Zagzagel, Protector of Children, played by Jan
Belief in Self 7
Belief in Man 2
Belief in the Word 2

Chapter Briefing

The game is split into chapters, chunks of the divine Plan assigned to a unit of angels, which serve to set the mechanical pace and purpose of a session. We setup the first chapter with the unit called into the office of their recalcitrant, desk-bound captain, Archas. He opened a case file, telling them that they were to complete the harvest of the soul of a girl, dying of cancer, who the angels tasked with watching over her had managed to lose.

Each chapter is mechanically divided up into Plan tokens, which represent progress towards solving the case and completing the Plan. Success during the session buys off these Plan tokens and the GM can use them to introduce adversity and complication. These tokens act as both a measure of pace and progress, as well as converting into experience at the end of a session. During the briefing the tokens (5 for each player) are split between 4 categories – adversaries (fighting), intervention (social), mysteries (investigating) and complications (a miscellaneous category for making things worse). By favoring one category over another at this stage the tone of the session can be changed.

I split the tokens evenly, narrating as I did so that the angel who had lost the girl was Zophiel (intervention), and that Ba-Ulgura, a demon, had designs not only on the girl but also her family (adversary). As Zophiel had lost the family, the captain did not know where to point them (mystery). At this point the players could butt in and define elements of the case too, but decided to go with what I’d defined up front.

Verse 1

The group started by going looking for Zophiel. Dave tossed me a point of faith to seize the narrative narrated finding Zophiel revelling in his doubt in a seedy bar. Doing so earnt him an intervention token from the plan. The others quickly got onboard, roughing Zophiel up and asking him where he saw the family last. Zophiel proved reluctant to help, knowing he was falling and unwilling to let the other angels claim credit for putting his mistake right. Leliel began to quote scripture at him, rallying him with reason and faith, and a promise of credit where credit was due. Geoff tested his Belief in the Word, getting 2 levels of success and the remainder of the intervention tokens. Zophiel pointed them to an address in Hell’s Gate and the intervention/talky side of the case was now over.

Verse 2

The unit headed to the address to find it empty, save for a teenage boy with track marks and scars up and down his arms, and empty eyes that had gazed into Hell itself – a demon. The angels and the demon snarled at one another for a bit, before provoking the demon to attack Leliel with tooth and nail. Leliel, quoting scripture and not missing a beat, spent a point of faith to manifest the Sword of God – a massive silver pistol that fired bullets that each had angels dancing on the head. In game terms this just provided a bonus die to his next roll, possibly a little weak.

In turn I spent one of the complication tokens to have a second demon drop from the ceiling and give myself a bonus to the roll. Leliel tested his Belief in Self, but tied with the demon, the conflict going unresolved. The demons fled and Leliel and Zagzagel split up to chase them, leaving Velon to search for clues.

Verse 3

Zagzagel tested Self to catch the demon, on the one hand succeeding, but rolling three 6s in the process. I knew this was especially bad, but hadn’t quite pinned down the mechanics yet. So it just proved to be an escalation of badness – Zag caught the demon, but as he did so Ba-Ulgara stepped out of the shadows, flick knives drawn as sharp as his toothy smile.

Verses 4-5

Leliel caught up with the other demon, only to be taunted about how even now his comrade was at the demon lord’s mercy. Meanwhile Velon discovered a new address, outside town, but I complicated matters with a mystery token, revealing some mysterious angelic script playing in the shadows in the corner of the room. The script suggested that God wished the entire family to be harvested, not just the terminally ill daughter. Velon bridled at this, keeping it to himself.

Verse 6

Elsewhere, Zag and Ba-Ulgara fought, Zag manifesting a flaming sword from the air itself. Zag won the conflict, removing another couple of adversary tokens, but not enough to defeat the demon. At this point Beliel narrated himself into the scene with a faith token. I described how Zagzagel and Ba-Ulgara were locked together, Zag’s sword burning into the demon’s side and Ba’s knife pushed up under the angel’s neck.

Verse 7

Ba-Ulgara taunted Leliel, asking him if his belief in his God was enough to save his friend. Leliel assured him it was and fired. Triple 6, but a success all the same. Ba-Ulgara was dead, but not before his knife had cut a deep groove into Zag’s face. Beliel was wrong, his belief was not enough and the scar on his friend would remind him of this. It became obvious what a triple 6 should do – it should increase the doubt of the angel, the measure of how close they are to doubting their beliefs and falling.

Verse 8

At this point there were only a couple of complication tokens left on the plan, so all that remained was the harvesting of the girl. The party drove out to the address Velon had found, a shack in the woods outside town. They split up and Velon found the girl’s father. Keeping the plan’s instructions to harvest the whole family to himself he rose up to his full height, manifested in all his glory and ordered the father to pack up his family and flee, leaving his eldest daughter behind. He passed his Belief in Man test and the family fled. One of Velon’s duties was “thou shalt show mercy, even to one whom the Plan decrees must be slain”, so he gained faith back for fulfilling that.

Verses 9

The unit closed the chapter by descending on the daughter in her sickbed, Zagzagel closing her eyes and reassuring her before harvesting her soul for the armies of heaven.

Epilogue: The Testament of Leliel

The game finished up with a testimony from Leliel, an in-game, “to camera” piece much like confessionals in InSpectres that are the only way to get rid of doubt. Me and Dave interviewed Leliel about his doubt, asking him why his belief had faltered. It proved to be a nice epilogue for the game.

What didn't work

So, the mechanics all held together, nothing seemed to falter in play and the players didn’t find anything overwhelming or cumbersome. All in all a good first playtest. But, there were a few issues that will require some work.

1. Duties – duties are the only means to regain faith tokens, but rarely cropped up in the game. Each duty is structured as 3 statements such as “thou shalt not allow harm to come to a child” or “thou shalt always show mercy” but it was commented that these might be too passive and vague. I think these need reworking so that they are more active in play. I’m looking for the feel of Keys with the style of the Ten Commandments, but keep coming up with vague, passive and overly broad instructions. Any suggestions as to how to improve them?

2. Pacing – the game lasted an hour, and we weren’t especially rushing. If the plan tokens are meant to act as pacing, they’re not doing a terrific job as 1 hour is way too short. I think the initial answer might be to simply use more tokens, maybe 10 per player. Thoughts?

3. Doubt – increasing your doubt score is meant to be a real temptation for the players, skipping the use of faith points and testing beliefs but getting closer to falling. However, the only time anyone took a point of doubt was when Geoff rolled triple 6. Currently doubt is just used instead of a faith point, which is handy when you’re out of faith but less so at other times – I wonder if it should be more powerful, to make it a real temptation? Or perhaps next session, with some of the players running low on faith it might crop up a bit more as a necessary evil. Does that sound like a fair assessment?

What did work

On the other hand, if I had to point at bits of the game that really sung in play, that I want to tap into and help bring into every game, it would be the point at which the demon and Zag were locked in combat, with Leliel's beliefs tested as to whether they were strong enough to save his friend. Also, Velon turning his back on the Plan to spare the rest of the family from being harvested. Those two moments captured, for me, what the game is all about.

I has an ENnie

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:42:56 GMT

The ENnie Awards winners have been announced, and with a very strong showing by my friends at Black Industries (well done guys - you've earnt it), the WFRP Companion has won a gold award for best supplement! I guess I can claim to be 1/10th of an ENnie award winning writer now, right? :-D

Congratulations to all the winners, especially the BI writers and developers, and the Evil Hat crew for their silver in best rules!

Here is the full list of winners.

Best Fan Site, presented by Russell Morrissey:
Silver: Planewalker
Gold: Dragonlance Nexus

Best PodCast, presented by Dan Repperger of Fear the Boot:
Silver: Yog Radio
Gold: Have Games, Will Travel

Best Cover Art, presented by Kevin Kulp:
Silver: Hollow Earth Expedition, by Exile Games Studio
Gold: Five Fingers, Port of Deceit, by Privateer Press

Best Interior Art:
Silver: Qin, by 7th Circle
Gold: Mutants and Masterminds, Ultimate Power by Green Ronin Publishing

Best Cartography:
Silver: WFRP GM Toolkit, by Black Industries
Gold: Ptolus, City by the Spire, by Malhavoc Press

Best Production Values:
Silver: Mutants and Masterminds, Ultimate Power, by Green Ronin Publishing
Gold: Ptolus, City by the Spire, by Malhavoc Press

Best Writing:
Silver: WFRP Children of the Horned Rat, by Black Industries
Gold: Five Fingers, Port of Deceit, by Privateer Press

Best Rules:
Silver: Spirit of the Century, by Evil Hat
Gold: Mutants and Masterminds, Ultimate Power, by Green Ronin

Best Adventure:
Silver: Mutants and Masterminds, Time of Vengeance, by Green Ronin Publishing
Gold: WFRP: Lure of the Liche Lord, by Black Industries

Best Setting, presented by Kieth Baker:
Silver: Five Fingers, Port of Deceit, by Privateer Press
Gold: Ptolus, City by the Spire, by Malhavoc Press

Best Supplement, presented by Kevin Kulp:
Silver: Mutants and Masterminds, Ultimate Power, by Green Ronin Publishing
Gold: WFRP Companion, by Black Industries

2008 ENnies Judge Election, announced by Richard Miller:
Kathryn -Gertie- Barden (Xath)
Elizabeth Bauman (Queen_Dopplepopolis)
Chris Gath (Crothian)
Zachary Houghton (Zachary The First)
Kevin Kulp (Piratecat)

Best Aid or Accessory, presented by Kevin Kulp:
Silver: GameMastery Combat Pad, by Open Mind Games/Paizo Publishing
Gold: Deck of Many Things, by Green Ronin Publishing

Best Miniature Product:
Silver: EZ Dungeons, by Fat Dragon Games
Gold: Game Mastery: Flip-mat Tavern, by Paizo Publishing

Best Regalia:
Silver: Liber Chaotica, by Black Industries
Gold: Order of the Stick, No Cure for the Paladin Blues, by Giant in the Playground

Best Free Product:
Silver: Classic Battletech Free Package, by Catalyst Games
Gold: Savage Tide Player's Guide, by Paizo Publishing

Best Electronic Book:
Silver: Magical Medieval Society: European Warfare, by Expeditious Retreat Press
Gold: Classic Battletech Free Package, by Catalyst Games

Best d20/OGL Product, presented by Rodney Thompson of Wizards of the Coast:
Silver: Five Fingers, Port of Deceit, by Privateer Press
Gold: Mutants and Masterminds, Ultimate Power, by Green Ronin Publishing

Best Game, presented by Rob Boyle of Catalyst Games:
Silver: Qin, by 7th Circle
Gold: Scion, Hero, by White Wolf

Product of the Year, presented by Peter Adkinson:
Silver: WFRP, Children of the Horned Rat, by Black Industries
Gold: Ptolus, City by the Spire, by Malhavoc Press

Fan's Choice, Best Publisher:
Silver: Green Ronin
Gold: Wizards of the Coast

Last Chance at the ENnies Saloon

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 15:57:45 GMT

Voting for the 2006 ENnie Awards closes ... imminently. If you haven't voted, do so NOW.

Not only is it a great year for indie games at the ENnies, with the likes of Burning Empires, Spirit of the Century and Dictionary of Mu nominated, but the Warhammer Companion, which I have a chapter in, is up for Best Supplement and Contested Ground are up for Best Publisher.

So vote now, before it's too late!

[Ordinary Angels] Help me put these pieces together

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:48:02 GMT

Crossposted to the Collective Endeavour

Ok, so Six Bullets seems to be on hold at the moment whilst I wrap my head round some of the issues with structure and narration. So Ordinary Angels has swaggered forwards to fill the gap. I know what I want the game to do, and I have a check list of rules that I want in it, but I'm having trouble piecing all the pieces together.

But first a bit more about the game, which is based on the film of the same name by my good friend, Todd Downing. It's a cop show or police procedural, thematically and stylistically similar to the Shield or the Wire, if you've seen those. Oh, except the cops are angels, the criminals are Fallen and the victims are souls caught between the two sides.

You play a cell of angels making hard choices between doing what's right (saving humans, killing the Fallen, trying to make the world better) and what's necessary (reaping souls for the War, making concessions and deals with the Fallen, and sacrificing humans in line with the Plan). Each session is a "day in the life" of your cell, as though being filmed by a documentary crew, a la Cops.

So here's what's in so far:

Dice mechanics

3 stats - humanity, will and belief - rated by a number of d6.
when you make a roll you roll a combination of all 3 stats, although i'm not yet sure how or why you might want to.
rolls are opposed, with 1-3 being good, 4-6 being bad.
triple 6s are super bad, and triple 1s are super good. So the more dice you roll, the more likely you will be to get a triple in some capacity. Not sure what happens on a triple yet, but probably some sort of manifestation/narrative FUBAR.
i'm toying with borrowing slightly from Don't Rest Your Head and having whichever stat rolls the most successes "colouring" the outcome in someway, or putting a restriction on the narration. So if your humanity comes up trumps, the narration will be grounded
in mundane reality, whereas if belief dominates it's likely to appear full-on miraculous.

Faith & Duty

on the next layer up you have faith, which is a pool of points that you can use to perform supernatural stuff with, either by spending some to create an effect or introduce a story element, or to add additional dice to a conflict.
you get faith back by acting in line with your duties.
Duties are very much like keys in TSoY, set responsibilities coupled with restrictions on what thou shalt and thou shalt not do. Acting in line with them gets you faith back, but obviously the more complicated the situation you end up in as a result the more faith you get.
Breaking your Duties puts you on track to Falling, although I'm not sure if there should be a mechanical incentive for neglecting them too - perhaps bonus dice too?

The Plan

The Plan is the spine of the game, a measure of opposition and progress, inspired by Agon's Strife mechanic.
The various elements of the game are each assigned a number of points from the Plan, be they mysteries, Fallen opponents, plot complications or whatever.
Whenever the angels solve or accomplish one of the elements from the Plan, those points are discarded. When all the points are gone, the angels accomplish the Plan and the adventure is successful.
I'm thinking the angels can go "off plan" by burning faith, allowing them to ignore or overcome an element of the Plan in some other fashion.

Testimony

The to camera monologues by Afriel are one of the best bits in Ordinary Angels, and I'm hoping to do something similar in the game, very much like Testimonials in InSpectres. I'm not sure what game effect this will have yet though.

So, there you have where I'm at at the moment, which is 4 separate mechanics that only tie loosely together. I'm hoping the Plan will tie neatly in with Faith and Duty somehow, and those in turn link in with the trinity of stats. Where Testimony fits in I don't know, but I think it'll be the players way to tweak with the Plan.

I don't think my dice mechanic is funky or interesting enough just yet though - am I missing something obvious I can do with 3 pools of 3 stats?

Is it too fiddly? Am I trying to squeeze too much into it at the moment?