Return to Ravenloft

Social distancing has meant gamers of all stripes have had to resort to the internet to keep in touch and play games. I've played a couple of wargames games now with the Rejects using Zoom but my hobby activities have extended far beyond just wargaming. For the first time in a very long time, I'm roleplaying again. And not content with one game I'm taking part in two separate campaigns with two groups! 

Last year my eldest daughter (the original Padawan) and her Partner invited my youngest daughter and me to play the Stranger Things themed D&D game. Perry had bought the special edition box set and over the course of three sessions, we played a very enjoyable mini-campaign. I loved it, I hadn't played D&D in years and it was good to get behind a character sheet again. The Young Padawan also really enjoyed it so Perry suggested we get together regularly for a 5th Edition D&D game in the Ravenloft campaign setting. We started using Discord to run the game but quickly switched to Roll20 and this has worked really well. 

Meanwhile, my old school chum, Andrew suggested running a short game with our original D&D group, using Discord as our means of communicating and rolling dice. We are playing the Red Box D&D rules from the 1980's... in fact, I'm using the same books I used for our first ever game over 35 years ago!

Probably the main reason our roleplaying group disbanded was the difficulty in getting everyone together on a regular basis. Our jobs were pulling us all in different directions (literally into different parts of the UK and beyond) and work and family commitments made game nights problematic at best, particularly when you are playing a campaign that needs a certain level of commitment by all the players. The advent of internet tools like Discord and Roll20 has suddenly made some of the problems of geography less of a problem, although work commitments still play havoc with scheduling. I for one hope we can make a go of this new socially distanced campaign because it has been great to see and chat with the guys again after our prolonged break. 

Back to wargaming, the Rejects have played a couple of Zoom enabled games recently and both I and Ray are working on some more so despite restrictions on gatherings still being in place, we have managed to see and chat with each other, and play games, almost as much as we did before. Its a Brave New World...and I think it's going to be around for a while. 

40 Years of Adventure

My job has been exceptionally busy over the last few weeks and as a result I have had very little opportunity to write anything for the Blog or paint anything for the Analogue Challenge. I'm still very busy but I am slowly getting to grips with my suddenly increased workload and hopefully things will return to some sort of equilibrium over the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping to have a new entry for the Challenge by the end of the week (I've already submitted my Casualty bonus entry) and I am trying to catch up on the huge back load of Blog Posts that I haven't had a chance to read. I'll get there eventually, but it may take a couple of weeks! 

D&D Red Box - My Introduction to Adventure

One event that almost passed me by unnoticed was the 40th anniversary of the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game. My own involvement with this game started over 30 years ago when I was about 12 or 13. I was first introduced to D&D through a friend - after a very brief apprenticeship in fantasy gaming through the Fighting Fantasy solo gaming books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. It was a short step from these adventure books to proper roleplaying when I and some of my friends bought the now famous Frank Mentzer 'Red Box' rulebooks. We played the sample scenario given in the Dungeon Masters booklet and I still vividly remember my first combat victory against a Carrion Crawler. My character was a stereotypical Barbarian hero called Vulcan the Slayer (facepalm!) and that first game was a simple monster bashing adventure, but I loved it, and I was instantly hooked for life.

This was also the time when I painted my first model - a Knight in black armour with gold edging - using the only paints I had available at the time, some Humbrol enamels. It was an awful paint job but at the time I was very proud of it. I was one of only a handful of player's to use a fully painted miniature in those early games and although the techniques and materials I use have changed a lot since then, I still hold true to the principle that I never game with naked metal! Unfortunately that first mini was lost a long time ago and its only now I look back and wished I had realised that this was a special possession marking the start of a lifelong hobby. I can't remember where I even bought the model, but back then there seemed to be plenty of small independent games shops to choose from. 

A picture of me before I became 'BigLee' circa 1985
(clearly 'Selfies' are not a new phenomenon!)

Our small group consisted mostly of friends from school and although the composition of the group changed a bit over the years the core members continued to play together for nearly three decades more. In the early years we would meet for games at least once a week and we even ran a charity game in school with some of the teachers joining in! When University or jobs beckoned we played less often but for many years we still managed bi-weekly games and it was D&D that kept us in touch with each other more than anything else.

Most of the group have run games over the years and I have twice adopted the role of Dungeon Master for short campaigns. This picture shows me preparing for a game sometime around 1985. We were still using the red box 'basic' rules at the time but we had also bought the Blue 'Expert' box and the Black 'Master' boxes as they became available. I would happily spend hours planning out huge underground complexes, stocking them with all manner of monsters, traps and treasures.

Most of the time we would create our own 'dungeons' but we would also reach for inspiration in the pages of Dragon magazine and even the earlier editions of White Dwarf. One such dungeon complex I developed was based on an article in WD43 called The Hive of the Hrrr'l which featured creatures called the Flymen. I expanded the original maps into a huge complex of rooms and chambers which kept us busy for many many weeks. In later years, using the 3rd edition rules I designed an entire world setting called The Isles of Ethos and my players fought their way through two long story arcs before we moved on to the 4th Edition rules.

Nearly all the members of my first D&D group are
pictured here. 

D&D and painting inevitably and rapidly led to our involvement in other games and our first flirtation with wargaming in the form of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, WH40k, and Epic 40k. This of course was in the days when my friends and I still had disposable incomes (student loans mostly!) and before careers and families nibbled away at our spare time. For a long time we wargames and roleplayed simultaneously depending on who could attend a game and where we were playing. If we had space to lay out a wargame on a floor we would play WFB and if we didn't we could happily pick up where we left off in our D&D campaigns. 


Over the years many of my early gaming buddies have moved on and moved away and as far as I know I'm the only one still playing with toy soldiers on a regular basis. But although we are not gaming on a regular basis most of us still keep in touch - through the wonders of social media - and we still occasionally gather for an impromptu board game or one off RPG game. I credit the strength and endurance of our friendships entirely down to the hours we spent 'adventuring' together as young adults. Yes we were socially awkward geeks but through the enduring power of collaborative roleplaying games like D&D we became slightly less socially awkward adults... and I wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything else. 

Dorneypalooza Board Game Weekender

Over the weekend some friends of mine ran what can only be described as a mini-convention in their house. As the title suggests it was board game oriented weekend (although there were also some card based games) and for those with the stamina there were a lot of options on offer. I was there on Sunday with three members of the Dagenham Delvers and we managed to fit in seven games over an epic 12 hours. 

Shadows over Camelot is a cooperative board game that uses cards and miniatures to add some extra dynamics to the game play. The players are different Knights of the Round Table and must work together to complete various quests to win the game. One of the players however is a traitor and their job is to remain undetected while working to undermine the efforts of the other players. The board and cards are high quality with some very nice plastic figures included as playing pieces. I was the secret traitor and managed to win the game by looking like I didn't understand the rules thereby masking my treachery behind a veil of stupidity. It was only partly bluff... 

Next up was the brain hurting Back to the Future Card Game. Players compete to reset history as they want it by changing certain linchpin events, which in turn changes one or more other events. Once you have history as you want it you need to prevent Doc Brown from inventing time travel in the first place, thus setting your version of history forever. The game mechanics are very simple, but maintaining and implementing any sort of strategy to win seems almost impossible which make this frustrating and great fun to play. John was the winner of this game in the end. 

We then went on to play Munchkin. This is one of those games where working against your fellow players actively increases the fun. For most of the game I was trailing in last place but made a late surge and we ended the game with all four players struggling for that last vital level to win. Derek was the ultimate winner and it was well deserved.

Next up was the very aptly named Castle Panic! This is a cooperative game with the players combining forces to defeat the advances of a hoard of monsters converging on the castle in the centre of the board. After just the first turn it looked like we were about to loose but somehow we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. 

After lunch we started on probably the hardest game of the day, A Game of Thrones: The Board Game. It took nearly an hour to set up and the game play initially seemed very complicated, but it is definitely a game that deserves a second sitting to really understand it. In many ways we thought it was like a much more involved version of Risk, utilising plastic figures, battle cards, tokens, and card overlays to enhance the game. 

After the brain ache that was the TGoT board game we played a much simpler card based game called Cards Against Humanity. This is definitely not a game for the light hearted, easily offended or politically correct but it is damn good fun! Players must answer questions or fill in the blanks on the black cards from the statements on the white cards in their hand. The combinations are often hilarious, sometimes bemusing and nearly always offencive! Only the most despicable and low people can win this game, so well done to Derek for beating his fellow players hands down. 

The last game of the day (after a very nice curry at the local Indian restaurant) was Pandemic. This is another cooperative game where the players work together to save the world from four deadly infections that risk getting out of control. The players must travel the globe to fight infection hot spots while also trying to research cures before the diseases get out of control. Good fun and enjoyed all the more because we were able to gain a team win to finish the day off. 

By the end of the evening we were all feeling a little exhausted but we had also had a fantastic day playing some excellent games. A big thank you must go out to John and Rea for giving up their home for the weekend to run this event. I think everyone considered it a massive success and we are all looking forward to Dorneypalooza 2! 

Memory Lane with Model Soldiers

When I heard the news last week that Donald Featherstone had passed away my first reaction, like many others, was to write a post saying how influential I thought the man was to our hobby and how much he would be missed. Like many I felt that the wider wargaming community had been diminished by his passing but also that his legacy in terms of his vast back catalogue of written work was incalculable. Like many I have very fond memories of my first encounters with his work, although for me this came not at the beginning of my hobby but much later when I had been away from wargaming for several years. One of the books that really helped with that transition was Battles with Model Soldiers.

I don't recall where I first saw this book, I think it was lent to me by a friend but for the life of me I can't remember who it was (senility is clearly creeping in, and I'm still only in my 40's!). What I do remember is that it was the perfect reintroduction to the wider hobby of wargaming and that it came just at the right time. I and my friends had been enthusiastic Warhammer and Epic 40k players for many years and I in particular always fielded fully painted armies. All through our University years we would regularly meet up for big games played out on living room floors because we didn't have a games table. Those were halcyon days when we had money to spend, time to indulge and relatively few commitments to confine our enthusiasm.

But (like many others judging from the stories I have read on other peoples Blogs) we started to drift away from wargaming as my friends and I began our working careers. It had always been an expensive habit, but when I got married and started a family (in the mid 90's), time became an issue, space was at a premium, the money dried up and so did my enthusiasm. As a group of friends we had always had a diverse range of interests and some in the group just weren't that into wargaming and painting and so it was inevitable that we would collectively 'move on' to other things. Looking back on this time I'm just glad we decided to move on together rather than loosing touch as I'm sure that would have killed off my hobby interests entirely.

There was a long time when I was in danger of drifting away from gaming altogether and it was only my by now disparate circle of friends determination to keep in touch that kept us meeting as a group. For many years we switched our tabletop interests to other games and indulged in a variety of boardgames, CCG's and RPG's, in particular our first love, Dungeons and Dragons. Most of us had by now sold off our old Warhammer and Epic 40k armies, although I kept a few models as a keepsake. I was still painting but by now my output was almost exclusively fantasy figures to support the many tabletop RPG's we were playing at the time. I don't regret this period for a moment, it kept us together and it kept us gaming and it was 'right' for that time in our lives. Then someone handed me a copy of Battles with Model Soldiers and the low burning embers of my interest in wargaming were fanned back into life. 

I never got round to buying a copy of this book (I reluctantly returned the borrowed copy) but after learning of the death of Don I decided it was high time I corrected this oversight. I was overcome with a deep feeling of nostalgia and an overwhelming desire to became reacquainted with the book that literally saved me from abandoning wargaming altogether. So I did what we all do nowadays, I logged into Amazon and found myself a 1972 edition ex library copy of the book. Its the same edition I read some time in the early 'noughties' which just goes to show the longevity of Don's work. When I got home from work yesterday there was my parcel and inside was a fantastic trip down memory lane that has been both enjoyable and enlightening. This really is a great book for the beginner (or the lapsed wargamer for that matter), especially his review of the periods available. Reading that section in particular had helped me to evaluate what I was really interested in and set the course for my return to wargaming that lead inexorably to where I am today. 

Game of Thrones: Customizable Card Game

Last Friday three of the Dagenham Delvers gathered for another game, only this time we settled on something a little more complicated and interesting than some of the board games we have played in recent months. Dave brought along the Game of Thrones Game by which is sort of a collectible card game but based around fixed card expansion sets. This still allows for customization of decks but without the bottomless expense associated with the blind buy random booster packs that made older Trading Card Games such an expensive habit. 

As a point of terminology it may be worth quickly explaining the concept of the Customizable Card Game (CCG) to those who may not be familiar with it. There are several terms used by different systems that fall within this group of games. The original concept was the Trading Card Game or Collectible Card Game whereby players bought a core deck and expanded it with randomized expansion packs (such as Magic:The Gathering). Fantasy Flight Games describe Game of Thrones as a Living Card Game because they have removed the random element from the model but retained the idea of expansion packs. Regardless of the method for expanding sets the core concept remains the same with players creating a unique a deck built taken from a pool of cards available to them. The idea is that multiple players can participate in a game each with unique decks that fit the theme of their chosen faction.

This CCG lets players build their decks to represent the competing Houses of Westeros and every card has some meaning or significance within this detailed world and its history. Although the rules (and the rulebook) seem intimidating at first glance we got to grips with them pretty well after just one game. As with all games like this most of the information you need is on the cards and the real learning curve comes from understanding the various symbols and keywords on them. Once you have these mastered the game is fairly self explanatory.

The objective of the game is to acquire 15 power tokens though a combination of Military, Intrigue or Power Attacks. These enable players to accumulate power in temporary alliances, acts of treachery and  careful planning, all of which can be thwarted on the turn of a card or at the hands of equally scheming opponents. One of the elements that I liked was the fact that Characters in play can be used to attack or defend (at which point the character 'Kneels') but once used they cannot be reused until the next turn. So if you use a powerful character to defend yourself you cannot then use them to launch an attack unless you have a card that allows that character to stand up ('untapp' to use the technical term).

The other gameplay mechanic that I thought was very good was the use of 7 Plot Cards. These are drawn at the start of the turn, each can only be used once and they can drastically change the way that the following turn is played. Each plot card has three attributes which determine initiative, how much money you have to spend each turn and the strength of your attacks that turn. Each plot card also includes a special ability which can have a drastic effect on the game, for example "Kill all Characters in Play" which is a b**tard of a card and scuppered my chances of victory in the game we played.

In theory this game could be played with two players but its clearly better balanced for three or four players. The rule book suggests the game can be played in about 30 minutes but we managed to string our game out for two hours. That was almost certainly down to the fact we were learning the rules and I expect future games will be much quicker.

Now for a confession. When I first played this game I had neither read the books or seen the HBO series (although I have now started watching Season 1) while some of the other players had. But from a game-play point of view didn't make a lot of difference whether I'd read the books or not although obviously some knowledge of the books or TV series would have enhanced my enjoyment the game. Having said that I still had a good time and was challenged by the complexity and intricacy of the game mechanics. Despite my lack of background knowledge I came to within a whisker of winning this first game and I'm looking forward to playing it again - only next time with maybe a little more understanding of the setting. 

Killer Bunnies of Catan

The Dagenham Delvers gathered on Friday and played our way through a trio of boardgames that ranged from the funny to the bizarre and the excellent. Playing multiple games like this in a single evening gives us a chance to evaluate and assess which ones we would like to see come back for more in depth games. More importantly it lets us know which ones should be avoided!

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot - What can I say about this rather strange game? Well for a start its not the sort of game I would have expected to find myself playing at a gathering of the Delvers. First published in 2002 by Playroom Entertainment it is for two to eight players and the manufacturers give a suggested aged suitability 13 and up (although the game is simple enough to be played by much younger kids). Games take between 60 and 90 minutes although a lot depends on random chance and the number of players. Its simple and fun to play with an emphasis on cartoonishly grisly deaths for your own and opponents bunnies. One the things I liked about the game was the fact that you play your cards two turns in advance, making planing vital. A fun 'popcorn' game aimed at families... or desperate former roleplaying groups in need of en evenings entertainment.

Killer Bunnies is a strange but rather funny game of Bunniecide for two or more players.

Relationship Tightrope - I have absolutely no idea why John even bought this game, let alone why he brought it along to Game Night. But having brought it along we decided to give it a go.  The aim of the game is to keep your relationship in balance by bidding against the other players for coloured markers (you guessed it, blue and pink). Pairs of opposite colours cancel each other out so the player with the least tokens of any colour wins. Lets just say this is possibly the most sexist game I have ever played, with all the artwork on the cards seeming to depict every gender stereotype its creators could think of. It was so bad it was almost funny. Almost. Trust me when I say we won't be playing this again.

Why John brought this game along (any why we played it) is still a mystery. The game mechanic is simple but the point of the game still eludes us.

Settlers of Catan - The last game of the evening was the popular and award winning Settlers of Catan. We should have got this game out earlier because we really enjoyed it. The game mechanics are quite simple but the complexity of interactions with other players makes this an addictive game to play. For the new players this was an easy game to get into although we could probably have done with a second game to really get into it. 

The third game of the evening (and the only proper one IMHO was Settlers of Catan. Two of the group had never played this before but found it very easy to get into the rules. 

All in all a pretty fun evening improved by the fact that we ended on a high note with Settlers. We will definitely have this back for a future session, assuming we can scrape together enough players that is!

Cthulhu Fluxx Card Game

The Delvers gathered on Friday for a game of Cthulhu Fluxx. I bought this game last week at Salute and this was its first outing. We played the original Fluxx game a few months ago and I have been keeping an eye open for this Mythos version for some time.

This is a self contained card game (none of that collectable nonsense) published by Loony Labs. There are a 'family' of Fluxx games on the market and the general concept is the same throughout them all. As players play cards from their hands they modify the rules of the game with those cards. This may mean that the number of cards a player draws or can hold in his/her hand may change as the game proceeds. All the rules you need to play are on the cards before you but with those rules constantly in a state of change (hence the name Fluxx) this is an easy game to play but a devilishly hard game to master. Throw in a few elder gods and you have a recipe for utter madness!

"Explore the dark and horrifying mysteries of the unknown as you battle insanity and fiendish cults in Cthulhu Fluxx! Follow the wild-eyed Poet, the obsessed Artist, and the expeditions of the Professor as they investigate Eldritch Secrets no mortal was meant to discover. Someone has stolen the Necronomicon from the library at Miskatonic Univeristy, and a Farm in the hills is undergoing a horrifying Metamorphosis. Meanwhile, unspeakable abominations stir in Penguin-riddled Tombs beneath the ice. Are you Inevitably Doomed to a lifetime of Nightmares in the Sanitarium, or are you, in fact, a Secret Cultist, worshiping the Minions of Darkness?

(Source: BoardGameGeek.com)

The box contains 100 cards and a simple rule sheet, but as already stated most of the rules are on the cards themselves. The game is designed to be played by 2-6 Players but the optimal number is somewhere in the middle. Most games will last about 30 minutes but a lot depends on the number of players involved, the draw of cards and whether players start to gibber uncontrollably mid play.

Limping along together

A handful of The Delver's will be meeting later tonight and once again we will settled on a simple board game as our entertainment of choice for the evening. Its been a bit of a struggle getting the group together for a game recently. We all have the sort of busy lives that prohibit anything like a regular schedule of games and just getting together a minimum number of attendees can be difficult to say the least. Around midnight when the guys have gone home and I have finished tidying up I'll probably find myself thinking about where we are going and worrying about the future of the group, just like I do after most game nights.


[This has morphed into quite a long post and sort of an 'open letter' to The Delvers; so you might want to get comfortable and settle down before reading it. Alternatively just hit the +1 button below and pretend you've read it!]  


The Times They Are a-Changin'

According to the Bob Dylan song "Then you better start swimmin', Or you'll sink like a stone" and he was right. If we don't make an effort to change the format of our group it'll sink without trace and before we know it the Delvers will be no more. We've been discussing this issue for years as our schedules have got busier and the games have become fewer, but the catalyst for this latest round of naval gazing has been the demise of our 4e campaign. Our GM has effectively left the group (although he seems reluctant to admit it) and what started as one missed game night has turned into 8 months of missed games with no end in sight. Its not his fault, he has kids, commitments and a demanding job - life has temporarily got in the way of gaming for him.

Other members of the group have their own issues and commitments to deal with. Three are actors and the very nature of their work means they are either away on shoot's or tied up in the evening with performances etc. They make those game nights that they can, and we all appreciate the chance to meet up, share news and relax. Of the eight members of the group probably only two of us have something that could roughly be described as a 'regular' job with regular hours. So a rigid schedule of games is bound to fall foul of our lifestyles.

Multifaceted Gamers
Most of the gamers I know have more than one hobby. I have a theory that if you are inclined to take up a hobby you have already crossed an invisible dividing line between those that do and those that don't. Once across that line, the barriers to taking up another hobby - and another and another - are only limited by how much spare time you have. So most 'hobbyists' (for want of a better phrase) have multiple demands on their time, and gamers are no exception. I'm a roleplayer and a wargamer, and I love Photography, and reading, and painting, and living history, and... well, you get the picture.

So expecting every member of the group to have the same level of commitment to roleplaying games would be pointless. Aside from our busy careers and home lives most of us are also trying to find time to squeeze in several hobbies and spending days and weeks planning an RPG campaign is increasingly unrealistic. Our last GM discovered this last year and so far none of the other Delvers have been able to find the time commitment necessary to run a campaign of our own and I'm just as guilty. I started preparing a HEX campaign but progress stalled because I got sidetracked by other things (namely my 6mm North Africa project). The lesson I take from this is that we need a much simpler approach to RPG's with a focus on quick, single session games that don't require lots of planning.

Shiney!
I'm the only wargamer in the group but I can still see an element of the traditional gamers desire for 'the new' in my fellow roleplayer's. They may not be out buying miniatures (there are only two of us that own a painted mini let alone paint them) but the desire to try new stuff is as strong as it is in any wargamer. The drain on our collective wallets is constant and never ending.

Over the years we have indulged in Fantasy RPGs (D&D, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay), horror RPGs (Call of Cthulhu), Sci Fi RPG's (Dr Who, Traveller) and Super Hero RPGS (Marval Heroic) and there's a very real liklihood we will eventually play some Pulp games (HEX) as well. We've dabbled with CCG's (Babylon 5 and Magic: The Gathering) and countless boardgames of varying genre's. Variety is the spice of life as they say and you don't get much more varied than the gaming tastes of this group.

As a group we clearly like variety and don't like to be tied down to a particular game. We also all have different opinions about what makes a good RPG game. Some like them complex, others hark back to simpler days, some like miniatures based games others prefer pen and paper only. I think this goes some way to explaining why we have found it increasingly hard to hold down an RPG campaign, especially in recent years. With our erratic schedules it just takes too long between games for us to progress with a story or keep up to speed with the rules. Eventually some of us loose interest [Sorta like reading this post!] and when the group is in discord things just don't work properly.

Location, Location, Location
Another problem we have is the lack of a suitable games venue. For years most of the games have been at my house, but this has meant packing my family off upstairs out of the way. That was OK when the kids were little, and entertaining them was just a matter of finding a suitable film to watch on the bedroom TV. But my kids are getting older and don't want to be exiled upstairs whenever I have a game... and for that matter neither does my wife. She's a great sport, and dutifully trots off into internal exile on Friday nights, but its not fair on her and I know it.

When I win the lottery and buy a big house I'll make sure I have a large purpose built game room, but in the meantime we'll just have to make do with what we have. And what we have are seven semi regular players and therefore seven potential venues to meet at (hint, hint!). One of the advantages of sharing games around like this is that everyone gets a chance at an evening where they don't have to pay for a taxi or get the bus or a train. Hosting a game needn't be strenuous.

Put it out of it's misery, or find a solution
I remember reading a great article on GnomeStew a few years back about the GM that decided enough was enough and dissolved his gaming group. At the time I read it and thought "I'm glad that's not my group" but now I realise it is us.

We have reached a decisive moment in the Delver's history and we need to change what we do or the group will fall apart. Sooner or later we will call it quits and go our separate ways, and that scares me because I know that 'the group' has kept us in contact with each other even as our lives have diverged and members have moved away. More than that it has given us thousands of hours of shared adventures and stories that can never be replaced. I'll be an old man - sucking food through a straw - and I'll still be telling tales of my adventures in Greyhawk and Krynn, Pelinore, Ravenloft and the Forgotten Realms.


Ramming home my points in 'The Conclusion'
So there are my thoughts and ideas. We need a more flexible approach to game nights, with 'event' games rather than a schedule. If we are going to play RPG's we need to find systems that encourage single session adventures and are easy for the GM to prepare and run. When we aren't playing an RPG we need to embrace a broader range of games to keep things fresh and interesting. And we need to be a bit more creative with where we have games, sharing the load a little better. Whatever we do we need to do something, because the status quo just isn't working.

I hope it hasn't sounded like a long moaning rant, because I don't feel like that at all. My main concern is ensuring we stick together as a group and if that means shaking things up a bit then that can only be a good thing.

Wiz-War by Fantasy Flight Games

On Friday four of The Delvers met to play the board game Wiz-War by Fantasy Flight Games. This is part board game, part card game and comes with high quality card tokens and a set of nicely sculpted plastic miniature playing pieces representing the Wizards. The aim of the game is to steal the enemy wizards treasure or, better still, kill them. Either action will earn the victor one victory point and overall victory is achieved when a Wizard reaches 2 points. 

Wiz-War is a Tom Jolly designed game by Fantasy Flight Games

The quality of the contents is impressive including these miniatures. 

Each player controls a Wizard and each is trying to steal the others treasure or kill them.

This part board game, part card game resulting in a fast paced and unpredictable game

Dave (on left) is looking smug because he has an attack planned. 

Derek (L) and I plan our attack during the Team game. 

My Wizard win the winning move, having stolen the yellow wizards treasure and returned it to my base square.

Each game lasted about an hour and was easy to learn and master. The game can be played by two to four players against each other or as 'teams' of two per side. The rules provide loads of scope for backstabbing, deception, traps, murder and mayhem, making it fun, fast paced and a good laugh too. We certainly enjoyed it and I expect this game will get played at future Delvers game nights.

Superpowered RPG

The Delvers have had another game of the Marvel Heroic RPG system and its definitely growing on us. We were supposed to have a game last week but I got my weeks messed up (dementia setting in!) and I was double booked. So instead we decided to have an out-of-sequence game night and take advantage of available players to fit a game in yesterday instead of next week when several of us can't make the it. This might end up being our last game of the year as we are fast approaching (or already entered?) the 'silly season' when parties and social engagements make spare Fridays for gaming as rare as hens teeth.

As always we had a good game with plenty of laughs and some absurd situations played out. On the plus side my character (the Thing from Fantastic Four) got to thump that annoying Tony Stark a few times although in the end we lost the fight. We're playing the Civil War story arc from the rulebook and as someone who is not familiar with the intricacies of the Marvel Universe I'm finding this all very confusing but enjoyable. 

Second (third, fourth and fifth) Bites

On Thursday last week I received the latest edition of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy in the post. I really look forward to this magazines delivery and in particular the regular columns by the likes of Rick Priestly and Dan Johnson. Ricks article this month is all about second chances and in particular new editions of well loved games. This Gaming Life - A second bite was of course talking about the news that Warhammer 40,000 has been re-launched for the sixth time - but his article struck a cord with me because I immediately thought of the imminent 5th Edition re-boot of the Dungeons and Dragons Roleplaying game rules. 

The central premise of the article is that while it is almost inevitable that games designers and publishers might want to update, revise and improve on successful rules systems this process nearly always fractures and divides the existing community of players. Warhammer 40,000 appears to have bucked this trend but I suspect this is more to do with the business model of GW and its relentless supply of teen and pre-teen players feeding into the hobby and moving on as they get older (yes, I know this is a stereotype and probably inaccurate, but its my perception of the business). But for games like D&D, which have always had a broader audience of players the result of each subsequent re-boot has been the inevitable and painful division of its core player base. Old farts like me hanker for the game they knew in their youth while newer players are brought into the fold by the latest glossy edition of the rules.

There are still players out there that have resolutely stuck with the Basic Rules, or AD&D or 3rd Edition etc. With the possible exception of 3rd Edition (which introduce the popular d20 system) every other reincarnation of these rules has had a painful birth that has left some players behind. Ever since the acquisition of D&D by Wizard of the Coast many players have been suspicions of the over commercialisation of the brand. WoTC are essentially a publishing house and they make money by selling books, so it was no surprise when supplement after supplement began to be churned out for admittedly eager players and GM's. As a player during that period it sometimes felt as if there was a storm of reference works being published, many by companies other than WoTC. So while the D20 system arguably revitalised the brand it also sowed the seeds of its own demise at the same time. 

The problem with supplements - especially the 'unofficial' ones, is that with each new set of the rules the flaws in the core rules became more and more obvious. A common complaint during that period (and still today) was "the maths are broken". Thus the pressure for a new edition (beyond the need of a publishing house to publish another book) became inevitable, resulting in yet another splinter group undermining the core fan base of the game. This cycle is being repeated once again with 5th edition. I've read a lot of pro-5th edition rhetoric about how this version is inspired and developed by the fans and will usher in a new golden age for the game. I've been around long enough to have heard it all before. Sooner or later a new set of supplements will start to be published and the whole downward spiral will start again. And in the meantime a few more players give up, move on or abandon the 'new' version for the one they prefer the most.

I should state that I don't subscribe to the rather pessimistic view that 'real' D&D is dead. Although I have my preferences regarding which edition of the rules are best (duh! Basic of course!!) I don't see the splintering of the games player base as a necessarily bad thing. We are all essentially playing the same core game, with the same principles of co-operative storytelling that Gygax and Arneson forged way back in 1974. Ok so the rules systems have diverged with each edition but when you put the rules to one side its clear that the respective systems have more in common than they have in conflict. If you put two D&D players together its not the rules they tell anecdotes about its the 'adventures' they had with their characters.

So will I be buying 5th Edition D&D? Probably, but only out of curiosity and not because I expect to play the game. And if my group decides to return to the best RPG in the world I expect it may be using an earlier edition... with a healthy dose of house rules thrown in. At the end of the day the rules are unimportant; the adventure's the thing that really matters. 

Death of a Leviathan

The Delvers met on Friday night, minus the Evil GM, which means that yet again we didn't play our by now moribund D&D4E campaign. I think the life has gone out of this particular beast and when we talked about it we realised that the last game was so long ago none of us can actually remember what we did or where the story was heading. But while one great leviathan breaths its last (at least for a while) others are bursting with new life. As several members of the group were in attendance we took the time to discuss the future direction of the Delvers, including a couple of alternative RPG's. 

The first of course is the Hollow Earth Expedition RPG that I have mentioned here before. I'm almost ready to run the first game (been a bit distracted with my new 6mm tanks!☺) but I wasn't quite comfortable to 'wing it' last night. I want a chance to play-test a few solo combats first, so I can be sure I understand the mechanics of the Ubiquity system properly before I try and run a game. Its one thing to improvise storytelling during a game but quite another to pretend you know the rules when you don't. Most of the group were quite positive about giving this game a try and hopefully we can have our first game session sometime in the next few weeks.

The other RPG we looked at was the Fantasy version of the Marvel Heroic RPG we played a few months ago. The core mechanics look to be the same and it seems like a very easy system to improvise with. It should be fun and will be a refreshing alternative to the increasingly rules-heavy system we play now. Both these 'alternative' RPG's are much simpler in design than D&D and require far less investment of time (and money) in order to just sit down and play. 

I've long been an advocate of going back to a much simpler and basic version of D&D in our group (the Basic system itself in fact) where the emphasis is on actual roleplaying rather than power gaming and rules management. I'm sure I've just committed some sort of heresy saying that (I expect the D&D community to dispatch an  angry mob forthwith) but as someone who has played this game in all its forms, for over 30 years, I think I have a valid opinion. Part of me hopes the 5th Edition currently in development will be simpler and more 'old school' but the realist in me knows that will never happen. 

Variety and all that...

Its been a busy week one way or another and I had almost forgot to post about The Delvers game last Friday. As usual we didn't play our D&D 4E campaign (I think that's dead on the water) but we did manage to gather together six players for a change. Instead of playing our campaign we pulled out a few alternatives and actually managed to fit in three quite different games.

Derek is a bit of a Dr Who fanatic and brought along this simple game to play. We were halfway through playing it when I realised it said "Ages 6+" on the lid of the box! 

John brought along several card based games including Fluxx. The rules start off simple. Everyone has three cards then each turn you take a card from the deck and play a card. 

Some of the cards are New Rules so the game gets progressively more complex as it goes on. We had two relatively quick games with these but decided to finish the evening with something else.

The last game we played was the Back to the Future Card Game. Each player has a unique set of pivotal events they must fix in time before time travel gets 'uninvited'. Players can change Linchpin events which in turn change several 'Ripplepoint' events to change as well. 

With six players all trying to manipulate the timeline to their own ends it quickly became very complex and frustrating. Time and again vital linchpins were swapped back and forth thwarting any attempt at a plan or strategy. Good fun but very frustrating.

We had a fun evening, swapping news and catching up as we played. We also set our timetable for the coming weeks so hopefully we can get a few more games in and avoid cancelled meetings.

Hex RPG coming together

As recently announced I have looking at writing and running a Hollow Earth Expedition role-playing game for The Delvers. We all seem to have lost heart in DandD 4e, especially as yet another edition is looming on the horizon. I'm still hoping we can complete our current campaign but in the meantime I thought I would give the Evil GM a breather and run something a little bit different. 

I'm rather enjoying getting back into story writing for an RPG game and my preparation is coming together quickly. There are several pre written starter adventures available online but I've never been one do things the easy way. I may well nick ideas from these scenarios but essentially I wanted our first adventure to be something original and potentially part of a much larger campaign arc. Obviously I can't discuss the details here (you never know, some of my friends might actually read my Blog!) but I want something that captures that cinematic and high adventure feel that you find in 'pulp' adventures like Dan Dare, Doc Savage, Flash Gordon and the like.

I have the framework for that first game laid out already, using the excellent (and Free!) flowchart program, Lucidchart. I am now working on some of the details but I'm deliberately trying to keep this part of the planning minimalist leaving descriptions and exposition brief. In short I'm putting faith in my improvisational skills...and its a scary but exhilarating prospect. I've bought some special dice for the game (yes I know I already have thousands of dice, but these are special) and I have even treated myself to the HEX GM's screen so I have all the essential rules to hand and won't need to rely on the rulebook too much during the game.

I'm not sure I can get everything finished in time for the DDD's next planned evening in a weeks time, but I'm confident I'll be ready to go before the following meeting. I'm rather looking forward to launching my players into an alternative 1936 where high adventure, secret cults and monsters abound and where magic and weird science merge in dramatic and unexpected ways.

The DDD's play Tigris & Euphrates

By Gygax beard, The Delvers have actually had a game! We have had a very flaky schedule this summer with lots of cancellations due to holidays, work commitments and just plain old bad luck. Our ongoing D&D 4e campaign has died a death and nobody is sure if we will resurrect it. On the other hand we have played a wide range of alternative games - having a  blast in the process - and last night was no exception.

So three of the DDD's got together after yet another long break between meetings and yet again lacking the Evil GM and his campaign. So we pulled out a variety of card and boardgames ahead of our gathering and chose Tigris & Euphrates, a game we have not played before, as our game of choice for the evening.

With three players the board soon gets 'busy' as each Kingdom grows

The game has up to four players each trying to build and control their own kingdoms by the placing of tiles. The aim of the game is to have the most balanced Kingdom and uses a variety of card tiles and wooden counters to control the game. The tiles represent farming, trading, religion, and government and players collect victory points in these same categories. The winner is determined at the end of the game by counting  the number of points in your weakest category, which encourages players not to get overly specialized. 

The tiles and counters are very good quality with good artwork on them. 

We all enjoyed this game which lasted about two hours. I think now that we have had a chance to try out the rules we would certainly give it another go. Of course next time I would endeavour not to make the same mistakes again and end up last last last. Did I mention I came last? Hmmm... But a game is a game and this was far better than cancelling yet another meeting of the DDD's.