Origins Recap

Its been almost two weeks after Origins and I'm finally getting around to writing a recap. Overall, it was an awesome con - in fact, probably one of the best in years. I'm only going to hit the highlights, but suffice to say there were many other great times that were had.

The first highlight was my wife and I were able to snag a copy of Imhotep, a board game which sold out almost instantly. To be honest, we had not even heard of the game before the con, but everyone was grabbing it so we grabbed one as well. The best part was when someone in the board room asked why we hadn't been tackled yet since we were carrying it around.

I only played in two RPGs the whole con. The first was a Quantum Black game. I recently got my hardcover copy of the rulebook from the kickstarter and have been itching to play it again. In case you don't know, in Quantum Black you are part of a corporation that researches, captures, and fights the occult and mythos. Unlike an organization like Delta Green, whose goal is to wipe out the mythos, Quantum Black wants to get as much knowledge on it as possible to use it to make money.

In our game we were a clean-up team sent to investigate a research facility that had gone dark. I played a tech guru girl who was callous and more interested in downloading the latest movie torrents. I had so much fun playing her! The game was only two hours, so we had time to get in, find bad things, blow them up, and get out. I highly recommend playing the game when possible.

The second RPG was one of the biggest highlights of the con for me. It was a great game, but it was also my oldest daughter's first RPG. We found a supers game called Cold Steel Wardens, and the GM was amazing. He helped her go through, figure out what to do, and let use her character how she wanted. I know it was a success as she said she wanted to try more RPGs. Now to just find some...

We made a number purchases (probably too many), but one stands out. For a while I've been looking at getting a copy of Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games. I have a fondness for the OSR clones, and have heard great things about it. When I went over to the booth and saw that they had some copies of the latest softcover printing for sale. The best part, it was only $25.

That price is amazing. If you've never seen it, the DCC rulebook is over 400 pages. For $25, its a steal.

I've been reading through the book and have fallen in love with it. The book itself is incredible. Its well written, and the art is evocative of the old D&D books. The book is worth purchasing for the art itself.

So far I've been loving the system as well. Its very simple, but also allows for that old school feel that I've been looking for. I'll do a better review later on, but its already high on my list.

Overall, Origins was a blast. While the con has had its low points over the last few years, it has started to recover and the gamers can tell. Every year seems to be better than the previous, so I can't wait until next year!

Origins Game Convention

In a few days I will be heading off to Origins with my family. This is my 13th Origins. As I look back over the last 14 years (I missed one year), it truly amazes me the experiences and friends that I have had and made at this convention.

The first few years I went to Origins I went with my cousin Ryan. I honestly had no idea what to expect from the con, and I suspect he didn't either. The first year, he didn't play any games and just sat in while I did. However, I think we both still had a blast - being introduced to Zombies!!!, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and most importantly, Call of Cthulhu.  (I should still apologize to my uncle for driving all over Columbus looking for Ryan Sunday morning while he was in a game with me.)

The next year Ryan came with my friend Brian. This year Ryan played, and the three of us had some great games. We introduced Brian to Call of Cthulhu and AFMBE, and those are still some of the most memorable games to me. I still remember playing a Marine in a CoC game and almost braining a Deep One that I was trying to knock out, and being Japanese Princess PePe in an AFMBE game.

The next few years are a blur. Our friend Tony replaced Ryan, and the three of us played even more Call of Cthulhu, run by the excellent Rogue Cthulhu group. More importantly was the decision for us start running games there.

Tony and I hooked up with the guys running shoggoth.net, Matt and David, and starting running Call of Cthulhu games at Origins. Our first year we ran the first (out of two) Call of Cthulhu RPG tournament with an amazing success. By the next year we had many more GMs working with us and were running over 80 games at the con. I remember many game sessions starting up with people lined up along the wall to try and get into a Call of Cthulhu game, when we were already overflowing with people in our current games. It was truly amazing.

I met so many great people through running games who I am still friends with - David, Matt, Bill, Michelle, and the late, great, John Addis; there are so many others too. Origins is where I also met, and roomed with, Oscar Rios, one of today's greatest Call of Cthulhu masters.

In the previous few years, my wife and daughters have started to come to the convention with me. It has become a yearly tradition for us. While this does take time away from me playing in games I otherwise might, I don't find that as a problem because I get to experience having new gaming experiences with them. My oldest has even shown an interest in trying some RPGs at this year's con, which I am really looking forward to doing with her. I know of another father/daughter duo that has been playing and running games at Origins for as long as I have been going; I will be ecstatic if I can ever emulate 1% of what they do.

13 Origins is a lot of conventions, with a lot of games. However, despite issues that inevitably happen at every con, each one has had its bright moments. Will I be going to another 13 Origins? Only time will tell. However, despite that, I know that I can look back at the amazing moments I've had and the friends I have made, and know that it has been time well spent.

See you at Origins this year! If you are going, try and find me and we'll play something!

Play Report: Special Delivery

Last night I once again had the opportunity to run a Call of Cthulhu game at the Malted Meeple. I've actually been running a number of games in the last few months; this is just my first opportunity to report on one.

I ran a Delta Green game using my 2014 shotgun scenario submission, Special Delivery. Warning: spoilers ahead. If you plan on playing this game (as I plan on running it again), do not read any farther.

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Still here? Good!

I knew the game was not going to last 4 hours, so we started by creating characters using the Call of Cthulhu 7th ed quick start method. Things went quickly and within 45 minutes everyone had their character. We had 2 criminals, a lawyer, and a PI. Not your typical DG cell makeup, but still made for a lot of fun.

The game started with the agents being briefed that they needed to retrieve a Russian Icon that was reported contained the spirit of Rasputin (spoiler: it did not). The icon had been sent from an antique shop known to sell mythos and paranormal related artifacts. However, the agents only had a delivery address that was a PO box with an obviously fake name.

They began by visiting a local green box to see if there were any supplies. While they found a number of ... interesting ... items, few would help them out. They left wondering why someone would leave a full length human tongue wrapped in bubblewrap in a fridge. Some things agents are just not meant to know. I have to give my thanks to the Delta Green Green Box Generator - that site is amazing.

The post office was the agent's next stop. While the office was small, they found that it was extremely busy as it was short-handed. Through an amazing persuade roll, two of the agents convinced the person in charge they were from the USPIS and "were here to help". Given such a good roll, they got access to all of the information they wanted and quickly generated two leads.

The first was the person who the package was supposed to be delivered to, Benjamin Hale. The second was a postal worker, Harold, who had not been showing up, and who they found had an unusually high number of missing packages along his route.

While two of the agents cased out Hale's apartment, another called him and found him to be extremely irate that his package was missing. Through some sly investigative techniques, the agents deduced that while Hale was a cultist, he didn't appear to have the icon and that Harold may have taken it. Two agents then went to Harold's house to stake it out.

In the mean time, a plan was set into motion. Hale was telephoned and told that his package had been found and was in his PO box. In the PO box, they placed a fake note from Harold saying that he had the package and gave his address. Their plan was to have the Harold and Benjamin fight it out, and hopefully taking care of their problems on their own.

This was actually a brilliant move and one that I had never anticipated. I was impressed with the group at this point, but had also started to form my plan for what was about to happen.

After finding the note, Benjamin went back to his apartment. Two agents followed him and waited for him to leave. The agents then went up to his apartment and broke in. They botched the locksmith roll, so I still allowed them to open the door, but it was apparent that it had been broken into. This also triggered a neighbor calling the police.

The agents ransacked Hale's apartment and found a number of cultist-related artifacts they grabbed. They also noticed a place on a shelf where a statue had recently been, but was now missing. Had Hale taken it? What was its purpose? (Cue evil Keeper laugh here.)

Police sirens were heard approaching, so the two agents knew they had to leave. To "hide" any evidence, they broke open a gas line and lit a candle, barely making it out of the building before it exploded. At that point they received a text from the other agents that something bad was going down.

The agent at Harold's house (there were originally two, but one player had to leave) saw Hale arrive and proceed to the front door. He heard shouting, and decided to dial 911 to hopefully get either arrested or killed. Seconds later he heard gunfire as Hale started shooting into the house from the front door while Harold exchanged fire with a shotgun blast. Wounded, Hale moved to the driveway where he was shielded from any shotgun blasts, bent over and began to chant.

Soon a creature appeared from a statue that Hale had placed on the ground and burst through the front door. This was a formless spawn Hale had summoned to take care of his problem. Unfortunately for Hale, inside the house the formless spawn was met with something equally formidable and was wounded. Shortly after, Harold burst through the garage door in his truck, running Hale over and killing him.

The poor agent witnessing this then saw the formless spawn exit the house, and seeing the agent as the only person around, proceeded to move toward him. The agent was able to get into his car, but not before the formless spawn shattered the back window and proceeded to attempt to enter the car. As the agent sped through town, swerving to avoid any attacks, he rolled a 02 on his Drive Auto. He slammed on the breaks, did a J-turn, the rear-ended a phone pole, causing the formless spawn to get knocked off the car. The agent then hijacked another car and sped off in pursuit of Harold, leaving a number of dazed and confused cars to deal with the formless spawn on their own.

The agents quickly figured out that Harold was heading back to the post office when they got a call from the manager that Harold was there shooting everyone. By the time they got there, Harold had killed two workers and had begun to turn the shotgun on himself. One agent tried to talk him down while the other went to sneak behind him. Unfortunately, before they could prevent anything from happening, Harold began to vomit swampy water and choked to death.

One agent found a duffel bag with the Icon in it, while the other grabbed Harold's shotgun. The agent with the duffel bag ran out to the car, while the other started to leave. That agent quickly stopped when he saw something rise out of the water that Harold had spewed out. This was the Bolotianyk, a Russian swamp demon that had actually been imprisoned in the Icon.

The demon immediately attacked the agent as began to ran. The other two agents were waiting in the car outside as they saw the other agent running toward them, the demon following close behind. The demon landed a great hit on the agent, wounding him severely and taking him down to 1HP. The agent jumped onto the car and tried to hold on as they sped away, but failed his roll and fell off. Fortunately for him, due to some lucky rolls by his fellow agents, they were able to stop and opened fire on the demon. The demon was obliterated, and they sped off to deposit the Icon in the green box. (A shotgun blast, a glock and a magnum at point blank range (with an extreme success) does alot of damage.)

They later found out that the Icon, which they had never actually looked at, was blank and that due to a number of suspicious drowning deaths in the vicinity of the post office, they had never actually destroyed the demon. But that was for another team to deal with.

Overall, the game was a blast. One player ended up with 1HP, and all three were 1 SAN away from going indefinitely insane. When seeing the demon, one PC lost 8 SAN in one shot, but failed his INT roll (lucky for him).

This was my first time running Special Delivery, and I was really pleased with the results. Based on running it here, I'm not sure a team of more than 4 players would work well without throwing additional things at them. However, for 1-4 PCs, this is perfect. I have a number of ideas that I can throw in, and may expand it later on.

Until next time!!!

Play Report: Consider Yourself

Last night I had the opportunity to run another Call of Cthulhu 7th edition game at The Malted Meeple. I was particularly excited to do this, as I had to cancel my August game. I had 5 players, one who was new to Call of Cthulhu and one who was new to RPGs; the other 3 had played in my other games.

This time I ran a scenario I wrote called Consider Yourself, which I have run multiple times in the past. I won't go into specifics as I plan on running it in the future and possibly submitting it for publishing. The summary of the scenario is the PCs are asked by an oil tycoon to discretely find his missing daughter. This leads them down a road to where they dig up the past sins of others and have to deal with them in the present.

The game ended with 1 PC dead (more on that below), the rest hurt badly, and the only book that could banish the big bad vaporized in an explosion. The players had a good time, especially the first time player.

A couple things on the game:

One part of the game takes place in a homeless shelter. The PCs decided to go undercover and send one in. Who do they meet there, but Walt 'Mash Potatoes' Johnson, an NPC of Oscar Rios (and a former PC IIRC). Upon introduction, the PC introduced himself as Mike "French Fry" Fry. Walt regaled the PC with tales of riding the rails, the "hobo council", and the supernatural encounters he's had. Immediately another player exclaimed, "I'd watch that show. Mash Potatoes and French Fry, two hobos riding the rails and fighting evil." Expect a script soon, FOX. (Walt is stat'd up in GGPs Island of Ignorance. Purchase it.)

I originally wrote the game as a 50s noir scenario and had originally tied an NPC to a pre-gen to give the scenario a little more meat. However, I took that out this time and was afraid the scenario might suffer. Fortunately, it did not and I don't think anyone could tell a piece was missing. I'll likely reintroduce some of the clues into it through another fashion, but am glad things worked out.

In my opinion, this is probably one of the best scenarios I've written. However, I'm struggling with the fact that there really isn't much horror until the end. I'm usually OK with this, as I look at horror in Call of Cthulhu scenarios as an arc - it starts off slowly with a few SAN checks, builds up with the checks becoming worse, until it peaks toward the end. I feel this one needs a bit more though. I've never had any complaints and I know I'm my own worst critic, so it may be fine. I think the best thing for me to do is compare it to a number of well done scenarios and see how they work.

Finally, I love the way magic works in 7th edition. Essentially, when a PC wants to cast a new spell they sacrifice the number of MPs required and then make a POW check. If they succeed, it works. If they don't, they may attempt to push the roll (roll again). If they succeed, then the spell is cast. If they fail, the spell still goes off but bad things happen.

The Call of Cthulhu rulebook gives examples for these bad things, and IMO most are rather benign. In the game, I look at spells and magic as something that man is not meant to play with, so the consequences are dire. Very dire.

In this case, the PC had attempted to learn a spell called "Summon the Fires of Hell". They failed their check to learn up, but I told them that their PC thought they knew it. During the final confrontation, the PC cast it and failed their POW check. I explained they could push it, and what would happen. They decided to risk it and rolled again; they failed.

I described how they felt the spell go off and flames start to shoot from their hands. They also felt an intense pain as their hands began to melt and they could feel a burning inside of them. The PC charged into the center of the room where they burst with a fiery explosion, injuring everyone in the room (all the PCs, some NPCs, and some possessed attacking them). The sole copy of the book that contained the banishing spell they were trying to cast was destroyed.

While most of the PCs survived, it was definetly a dark and Lovecraftian ending in my opinion. They had no way to get rid of the evil entity plaguing them and thus decided to encase its frail prison in cement and dump it into the ocean. Too bad some Deep Ones are going to find it. ;)


In the end, a fun game was had by all and two new players were introduced to the game. A successful night.

#RPGaDay2015 - Days 26-31!

Before I begin, I'd like to take a moment to thank Dave Chapman for coming up with #RPGaDay. This was it's second year, and I've enjoyed writing my entries and reading others. With that, onto the days!

Day 26 - Favorite Inspiration For Your Game

Inspiration for my games come to me all over - from short stories I read, to TV shows or movies, to a glimpse of something I see in my daily life. The last thing that inspired me to write a scenario was the book Pines by Blake Crouch - the first of the Wayward Pines trilogy. I won't go into spoilers, but the unique twists in the book gave me a great idea for a low mythos but highly weird Call of Cthulhu scenario. I've run it once with some of the guys from the MU Podcast, and it went exceedingly well. If anyone is interested in playing in it, hit me up; I'd love to run it again!

Day 27 - Favorite Idea For Merging Two Games Into One

I think a cross between the Dresden Files RPG and the Army of Darkness RPG would be incredible. I mean, Harry Dresden and Ash?!? Groovy!

Day 28 - Favorite Game You No Longer Play

2nd Edition AD&D and Ravenloft. I played that so much when I was younger, but there just hasn't been the opportunity to play. I'd love to play in a one-shot for AD&D or Ravenloft, but can't see myself in a long term campaign for it.

Day 29 - Favorite RPG Website/Blog

There are a number of RPG websites that I like to read, but the #1 for me is www.yog-sothoth.com. (Disclosure: I am an admin on the site.) Ole Yoggie has been around forever and is the place to go for information and help on Call of Cthulhu. Paul does an amazing job keeping the site going and it has become a fixture in the CoC community.

Day 30 - Favorite RPG Playing Celebrity

This is hard, as I don't know many RPG playing celebrities. I will probably have to go with Wil Wheaton. While I think many gaming geeks don't like him for whatever reason, Wil has done a tremendous job of advancing the hobby and putting it in the spotlight in a positive light. Any time that happens is nothing but good for the rest of us.

Day 31 - Favorite non-RPG Thing to Come Out Of RPG'ing

Friends. Plain and simple. I have met so many friends - both online and at the gaming table - from RPGs that I have lost count. Enough said.

#RPGaDay2015 Days 21-25

Alright - lets go!

Day 21 - Favorite RPG Setting

When I think of an RPG setting, there's one that comes immediately to mind: the Forgotten Realms. My first experience with a setting was FR, and I remember looking through the boxed and being amazed at how much was there. Unfolding the maps, I would stare for hours at the vastness of the place, and plan where I would run my games. There was something magical about it, and to this day there still is.

The best thing were the large maps in all the supplements, that if you got multiple copies would line up perfectly. I always dreamed of getting them all and putting them together. Did anyone ever actually do this?

Day 22 - Perfect Gaming Environment

Some place quiet where you can add the atmosphere you desire. This can be a basement, a kitchen, or a desk for an online game. Quite honestly though, it can be anywhere - as long as you have good friends or those happy to be gaming.

Day 23 - Perfect Game for You

My ultimate game would be a Call of Cthulhu game, in a cabin deep in the woods, with the only light from a dying fireplace.

Day 24 - Favorite House Rule

I can't honestly think of any real house rule I use, except an overall one: don't let the rules get in the way of the story. When I run a game, if the story is going well and everyone is enjoying it, I would rather make an on-the-fly decision that is outside of the rules than stop the game, look up a rule, and break the tension/excitement/fun.

To me, RPGs are about the story. The rules just help streamline that and at times are optional.

Day 25 - Perfect Revolutionary Game Mechanic

I can think of two, which when they came out may not have been revolutionary, but were to me when I first encountered them.

The first is Sanity in Call of Cthulhu. In all previous RPGs I had played, I had only dealt with hit points as a measure of your character's vitality. When I first played CoC, the sanity mechanic blew my mind. It was so simple and obvious, yet so powerful. Since I started playing Call of Cthulhu I've seen sanity duplicated in multiple other games, but none ever have quite the impact as Sanity does.

The second are style points from Hollow Earth Expedition. These are points that are given to players for doing good things in a game, and can be returned for benefits such as rerolling a die or a temporary boost. Yes, I'm sure this has been done in other games, but HEX was the first time I encountered it. When I first saw it, I thought it was just a gimmick and something that would never really work. Then I used it, and saw others use it, and realized how powerful it could be. Their use becomes viral in games too; once one players throws in a style chip, more are soon to follow from the other players as they see their power.

#RPGaDay2015 Days 13-20

Running a bit behind, so these will be shorter than normal.

Day 13 - Favorite RPG Podcast

I'm going to split this up into favorite RPG podcast, and favorite RPG Actual Play podcast.

For my favorite RPG podcast, I'll have to go with the Miskatonic University Podcast. They consistently have great shows that I always listen to...and are a Silver Ennie winner this year! Congrats!

For my favorite RPG AP podcast, thats tough. Its probably a 2-way tie between:

• Skype of Cthulhu
• Knights of the Night 

There are multiple other podcasts I download, but these are the ones I most consistently listen to.

Day 14 - Favorite RPG Accessory

Generically, I'm going to have to go with..dice! While I realize there are diceless RPGs out there and ones that use different mechanics (like poker hands in Deadlands), I can't really imagine playing an RPG without dice.

Day 15 - Longest Campaign Played

Sadly, I've never really played in what I consider a true campaign. When I started out, we played for 2 or 3 years with the same group of characters, but the adventures were mostly one-shots.

Day 16 - Longest Game Session Played

Again this goes back to when I first started playing RPGs. We would play for hours - 8-10 hours easily at one sitting. Ah, the good ol' days.

Day 17 - Favorite Fantasy RPG

To continue the theme of when I first started, I'll have to say that my favorite fantasy RPG is AD&D 2nd Edition. Thats what I grew up on and what I love. THAC0 rules!!!

Day 18 - Favorite SF RPG

I have not played too many science fiction RPGs. In fact, I can't remember the last time I played one. However, I have read a number in the last several years. My favorite to date is probably Age of Rebellion from FFG.

I've never played a Star Wars RPG, but FFG's line seems to provide something that I would like to try out. While I still don't get their dice mechanic, I've heard nothing but good things about it.

Day 19 - Favorite Supers RPG

I am not really a fan of supers RPGs at the moment, but my favorite is the original Marvel Superheroes RPG. My brother had actually bought this and we played it constantly - creating our own superheroes against the many villians of the Marvel universe. Somehow, when I was the GM, the villian was always Red Skull.

Day 20 - Favorite Horror RPG

Wow...anyone that reads my blog knows what this is gonna be.

Call of Cthulhu

Hands down, my favorite horror RPG. While there are currently edition wars and kickstarter issues, I will still come back to it. The game is about 35 years old and has stood the test of time. I can't think of too many other RPGs that are just as old and still have such a tremendous fanbase.