Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Mythos, Dangerous Journeys... 25 Years later

For GaryCon in 2018, I decided to bring one of the Master's games to life...

So, I started with a concept (The Hour of the Wolf) and began to write the adventure... Then I completely realized that I forgot so much about the game system

When it was released, I bought nearly everything for the system.

Then TSR at the time sued Gary Gygax and GDW to stop the sale of Dangerous Journeys..

Good write up of the issue (Click here)

I don't agree with his assessment of the system, but the lawsuit is summed up nicely

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Now I decided that I needed to create the characters because it could not be done at the gaming table.

So I started with the Non magic users, then moved to the "Partial practitioners" and on to the lone "Full Practitioner"

I love that this is such a skill based system. you really do not want to do much combat in this system at the lower levels. but after a while of role playing and adventuring, you can run some decent combats.

I started with a basic character generation but found that typing everything or writing on the sheets was not going to be practical, so I put together a database to make adding KS area, sub areas, weapons, armor, items and anything else easy to build and cut and past e into my character sheets

This cut out lots of time from base generation of characters.. I just select, add in the steep, then run a report. I can then copy past directly into the sheet

I select in this screen

Add the Steep in this step

Copy from this report

Paste into the Character sheet

After creating most of the characters (still adding some things to them) I can say that this is going to be exceptional, the completeness of the characters and background on the game will provide a rich texture for the plot and design...

You can review the characters and the database at the link below

One drive folder

I knew that character creation would be tough as I am relearning as I go along and had to create modern tools that simply were not available. Nothing prepared me for the sheer amount of line my line input and updates that I needed to make this process smoother.

Now that I am well into the partial practitioners of Heka, I am converting spell lists for the different KS Areas... I have not tackled the large lists for the Magic Users until I have to. It requires me entering them in excel, then putting in the grade, the page and type, then copying to the database

As I am going through the process of creation, I am relearning what made this game great to me.

I love

adventure games
Games with puzzles
Games with lots of interactions
Role playing over combat
giving players 20 different options and seeing what happens
creating a story line with multiple arcs and branches
being able to use skills in a meaningful way in the story

Now Dangerous Journeys works best with 4-5 players or less. I really think that 3 players is perfect for a JM (Journey Master) because of all that each character can do. This being said, because I am writing this for GaryCon, I want as many players to play as possible, the adventure is going to be a bit more straight forward then I would normally write but, every game of mine has an element that is unique. The plot for this one is so exceptional that the players are going to be either thrilled or hate it.... I won't know until the playtest

I will be adding a video of Character creation to this post in next few days for the few people who may find this interesting STAY TUNED To this page please...

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Garycon Update - (Updated Sept 28)

GARYCON Update February 19

Link to my scheduled games

NOTE: My Dangerous Journeys game is in PERIL !!! Currently, I have 2/8 slots ticketed. I cannot run the game with less than a full load, and bringing my books will take room

The following are games I have written exclusively for
GaryCon X

The Master Stoke

The Pirates Of Dark Water Saga

The Hour of the Wolf

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The Following have been Scheduled

Thursday
6 8:00 AM-2:00 PM   Hour of the Wolf -Mythus, Dangerous Journeys
0   2:00 -6:00 OPEN
10 6:00 -10:00 The Master Stroke
0 10:00 -Midnight Open

Friday
14 8:00 AM-Noon Pizzatoon/ Toon Love Story
Noon- 4:00 PM
18 6:00 - 10:00 PM So you think you have an Attitude
10:00 - Midnight

Saturday
22 8:00 AM-Noon PODW, Lost Episode
Noon- 4:00 PM OPEN
26 4:00 - 8:00 PM So you think you have an Attitude, Too
30 8:00 - Midnight AAAHHHH... revised for 2018

30 Hours of running games over 3 days

The Pirates of Darkwater is going to be amazing, I will be using the Cortex Prime system for this and the rules have not come out yet ... I have a copy of the working rules document

I am Excited to present The Master Stroke, I love taking something and bringing it to life... in this case, a song (Billy Squire ?)

GAME Descriptions

Cortex Prime -

Pirates of Dark Water, The Lost Episode

Based on the Cartoon,

The alien world of Mer is being devoured by an evil substance known as Dark Water. Only Ren, a young prince, can stop it by finding the lost Thirteen Treasures of Rule. The evil pirate lord, Bloth, will stop at nothing to get the treasures for himself
Pregenerated characters provided.

Dangerous Journeys - The Hour of the Wolf

Set against the backdrop of war between Atlantis and neighboring Kingdoms that have raged for too long

"The hour between night and dawn. The hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fears, when ghost and demons are most powerful, the hour of the wolf is also the hour when most children are born." -From Ingmar Bergman

AD&D - So you think you have an Attitude!

Only Dwarves need apply... 13th-15th level... bring your own or be issued a generic.... The followers of the God of Attitude and Drink are sent on a quest for the Ultimate Ale.
Beginners welcome.
Age 13+ please.
Pregenerated characters provided are lame

AD&D - So you think you have an Attitude, Too !

Only Dwarves need apply... 14th-17th level... bring your own or be issued a generic.... The followers of the God of Attitude and Drink are sent to acquire the ingredients.
Beginners welcome.
Pregenerated characters provided are lame

AD&D - AAAAHHHH

Pregen Characters Provided... I promise a truly Epic adventure that will generate stories for you to tell in the tavern
This features some of the greatest concepts and Role Play that I have ever put together. The characters provided are all high level
and saying anything further goes would ruin the integrity of the game.
Age 15+ please.
ONLY Pregenerated characters will be used.

AD&D - The Master Stroke

Pregen Characters Provided..

The celebration of the New Cycle of the kingdom is at hand according to the calendar of

the druids...once Every 100 years or so is the Celebration of Marmistal, the Hatching of the

Golden Nut at Nights Noon Time. You have been selected to find and escort the Golden

Nut to the ceremony

TOON - PizzaToon / A Toon Love Story (Submitted)
2 Shorts
Pizzatoon, deliver pizzas to ....
A Toon Love Story, where is the groom ?
Levels Mild Insanity to Outright bambooled

PizzaTOON is also the Shaun Nelson Memorial game

I met Shaun when I started to attend cons in the early 1990's, and a large group of us ended volunteering at many DefCons on NJ.

He was a great person who love to play RP's and was into Renaissance Festivals and SCA.

He also introduced us all to the "Donut Dance" He had his own music that he played and it was tradition at the close of the con to go out to eat, then get Donuts.. anytime we got together, we seemed to get them and dance about joyfully

Then at one of the Cons, Our friend Steve ran a Toon game called "Dances With Donuts" I really enjoyed playing in it and everyone had a great time... At the end of the game, Shaun came in with 2 dozen donuts and led us conga line style through the entire con... playing music and getting all the people playing upset with us for disturbing their games...

Several years later 2010 I think, I got to go to Dinner with Shaun one last time with Steve, then we went to Fog's house for our last get together with Fog who past a few years later

Shaun passed on in 2011, but I missed it, I just stopped seeing posts on Facebook from him.. He was a Great person who inspired the my Toon game and all the Toons were created from my early Con Experiences

We Dance to honor the Donut Dance Master...

He tended to alternate between "Lady is a tramp" by They Might Be Giants and "Java" by Al Hirt.------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course all of this is subject to change but so far I think this will all be done...

The hardest part is convincing a few people to try Dangerous Journeys so I can relearn the mechanics of the game... It has been years since I played with the system

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Gary Con 10 and I am intending to go

I have been gaming with Luke Heller and we are making plans to go to GaryCon 10

I have decided on running the following games

So you think you have an Attitude ?
So you think you have an Attitude, too ? (Rewrite needed)
AAAAHHHH - Version 2018 with a revised ending
The Quest for the Gate between worlds
PizzaTOON / A TOON Love Story

The following are games I am developing for GaryCon

The Fairy Fellers Master Stoke
I am fairly well along in the story and the pregens

The Hour of the Wolf
Dangerous Journeys
Starting work has begun...

The Pirates Of Dark Water Saga
Using Dream Park Rules (Cyberpunk 2.0 Engine)
Have not begun to write it, but picks up where the Series ended all those years ago

I also have a few other games that I may or may not run depending on how I feel about progress

These may include (titles only)
The Tower and the Keep
The Elves of Sanatoga
TOON Whom it may Concern

Or I may decide not to run any games and just show up to play....

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Poor Treatment from a one day Convention - Legacies Game Day

UPDATE

Legacies Game Day

March 31 at 12:39pm

Unfortunately, due to lack of interest, Legacies is officially cancelled for this year. Refunds are being issued. If you have questions, send them to info@legaciesgameday.com

HA HA HA !!!!!!!!!

So, I attended Legacies gameday in Havertown, PA last year.. I was going to run TOON and AAAHHH (AD&D 1/2 edition)

Anyway, because of Soccer that day, I was running late.. and no one signed up for my toon game anyway.

I did play in a Mutant and Master mind game.. and Ran AAAHHH that night

AAAHHH is a difficult game in that it is Role playing intense and requires puzzle solving... There are lots of player notes shifting around.. .I have also ran it at over a dozen conventions.. and it features several revisions (including a new ending I am creating)

AD&D - AAAAHHHH
Pregen Characters Provided... I promise a truly Epic adventure that will generate stories for you to tell in the tavern
This features some of the greatest concepts and Role Play that I have ever put together. The characters provided are all high level
and saying anything further goes would ruin the integrity of the game.
Age 15+ please.
ONLY Pregenerated characters will be used.

So I was planning on going back this year (April 22), sent in my games and found out that none were listed...

So I posted about it on their webpage and Facebook page - See Below

---------------------------
GREG BARRYMarch 1, 2017 at 8:25 pmComment awaiting approval

Ok, I registered to run events but none of mine are listed here or in the sign up. I got a confirmation email… I will assume I have been uninvited…

Confirmation for form GM Sign-Up
Submitted at 01/04/17 4:20 PM

------------------------------------------------------------------------
and got this reply

From: Carl Bussler [mailto:timelessadventures@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 3:33 PM
To: Greg barry <gmbarry@msn.com>
Subject: Legacies Game Day

I knew I forgot something...

At the end of last year's convention, I sent every attendee a Feedback form. I even made a point to speak with people after the games.

Overall, the feedback was positive, but I received numerous complaints about your games.

It's for that reason, that I decided not to include your games in this year's event.

-Carl

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I sent this reply

From: Gregory Barry
Sent: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 4:39 PM
To: Carl Bussler <timelessadventures@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Legacies Game Day

OK, nice way to let me know, but no hard feelings on the part of 6 or 7 people who did not get what the game was about

Game... single game. It's ok, the game was not for everyone. It's a hard old school adventure. I thought people had fun, I have had great reception on that game from numerous places

Saves me time and energy. I will just let people I have spoken to know that I will not attend

Good Luck,

----------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, I volunteered my time to come and support the convention, I had already mentioned it to many more people who were planning on attending...

https://www.facebook.com/legaciesgameday/

http://legaciesgameday.com/

So the games running at Legacies Game Day are as follows

D&D 5e – Adventurer’s League
D&D 5e – TBA
Palladium – “A.E.G.I.S. Rising”
WWII: Operation Whitebox
D&D 5e – Adventurer’s League
Ghostbusters! – “Who You Should’ve Called”
Dungeons & Dragons Fast Play – “Doom)
City of Mist
Savage Worlds/Rifts
Mutant Crawl Classics
D&D 5e – Adventurer’s League
Savage Worlds/Rifts
Dungeon Crawl Classics

As you can see, there are no Legacy Games Listed (Meaning AD&D TSR, or 80's/ 90's)

I have never felt a need to trash a Game master, even if the style is not to my liking. I am not a big hack and slash person. I love to create puzzles and challenges.

Now if you want to complain about me being an asshole or my personality.. go for it... Tell me what you do not like about the game. Not every game is to everyone's liking and I know when one or 2 players are not "into" the game

So yeah, it chaps my ass that Carl responded AFTER I had inquired.. So every year when he has this, instead of directing people to his event, I will run my own game... I hope people realize that people volunteer to run games because they want to and if you treat them like I was treated, you get stuck with people who will not want to run games and you end up with only your friends playing

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Firefly.. updates and Cargo Crate

Since playing in the Firefly game at GaryCon last year, I have been getting into the show and collectibles

It started with the Firefly RPG that I bought at GaryCon and Margaret Weis was kind enough to find me and sign my book the following day

So now I am into collectibles and playing different games. Every other month I get a Cargo Crate with stuff from the shows. It usually has a figure, Tshirt, a Pin, some print outs stickers and other stuff...

Reviews of Firefly Related Merchandice

So now I decided to review other items as well... I will update and review other items as find them or play them

Firefly Role Playing Games (********)

I learned how to play this by playing a Gamemaster Character at Garycon. I was playing the major role of the buyer for the Lassiter and Margaret Weis was playing Jayne in the game...

It was my first exposure to the Cortex system and Dice pools...

Having a Major success with one die roll and taking out Inara (she planned to use her feminine ways to tire me out before the negotiations) I enjoyed the game very much...

Margaret said if I bought the game, she would find me the next day and sign it... I was hooked...

I have since ran this at a con in New Jersey and 2 sessions for my Friday night group... It takes a bit to get used to it and the shooting / Fighting is a bit loosely defined.. but if you want to play as the Crew of Serenity, it is pretty cool...

Firefly Cargo Crate (Bi Monthly Subscription) (**********)

Firefly Cargo Crate Sign up

best Serenity Model

If you want collectibles and some of the Shiniest damn stuff, this is for you. At about $40, you get a box packed with stuff.

Shirt, Pin, Sticker, Book of schematics, Cargo Crate Labels and so much more... Every month is a different theme.. this was from Serenity

Previous Themes

Shiny - Kaylee Figure
Let's be bad Guys - Jayne
Big Damn Heroes - Zoe
Leaf on the Wind - Wash

February - YOSAFFBRIDGE - That Special Hell
April - THE WORTHIER PART! - Sheppard Book

Firefly Fluxx (********)

LINK - Firefly Fluxx Products

Fluxx is a game where things change, Rules, Goals and keepers all change.

Even people not exposed to Firefly will enjoy this game.

I received the Safron Expansion pack in a Cargo Crate, so this worked on getting me to buy the game.. we enjoyed Fluxx and then got the Batman version version a few days later

It is best played with 4 or more players

I like the Expansion cards, all of the expansion cards available are pictured below

Best Strategy, Get Zoe, she can take Wash, he can take Serenity, It can take Stolen goods

bonus if you have Simon, He can take River

Our Mistake when playing: All cards are active for the person that played the card... so if a Play one is in effect, the player plays the "Play 4" card, they now get to play 3 more cards... we thought they did not get active until the persons next turn

Firefly Yatzee (****)

First, I am not a fan of Yatzee, it takes to long to play and I lose interest after 10 rolls

So here it is, I bought this because the rendering of the Firefly is pretty good.. not outstanding

I am really into dice and these are ok, would have been better with engraving the image but at least they are not stickers. I like the orange color for the dice, but Yellow Dice would be preferred

The Scoring pad is tiny, so I recommend that you can it and print it on larger paper...

Gameplay: Using the Ship for the dice cup is cumbersome, just roll the dice in a cup or your hand, that will speed up play

Serenity Adult Coloring Book (*****)

I bought this for my 11 years old Browncoat... I have to say for every page that is great, there is one that is not very good... I like the Quotes on the pages opposite the coloring pages and the layout is well done. The drawings with people in them are poorly done and not enough objects only pictures

Firefly, The Game

I have not gotten this or played this yet, The reviews have been positive, so I will update this section soon

Firefly Clue

I am not too trilled about the premise of this game... River has been betrayed to the alliance and you have to figure out who, with what and where. Classic Clue elements

If I find this for a good bargain, it may be worth picking up

Firefly Monopoly (*)

I think I am going to avoid getting this... it seems badly thought out and the placement of spaces is haphazard. Has gotten bad reviews across many sites

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Firefly RPG.. Season 2

After I run my Firefly episodes, I will be putting up the synopsis here

Firefly Season one Transition

At the end of “Objects in Space,” the crew comes together one last time as River returns to the ship. The entire season winds down to one poignant moment—River playing a game of jacks with Kaylee.

Since this time, Mal does not require her to be on lockdown, but more care is taken to try to avoid her "moments"

The Sheppard has been good for keeping her grounded and the Doc has been managing her Meds nicely.

Even Jayne is at ease on the ship, of course he limits his exposure to River.

Inara is still making her preparations to leave the ship.

Mal is still keeping them flying while he figures out what to do with the Tams

Zoe and Wash are in some desperate need of off ship relaxation, they have been fighting a bit more lately

They are still in possession of the Lassiter Laser, an "Earth that was" artifact. After having failed to find a buyer so far.

They also are in needs of parts for Serenity and since they have not sold the Lassiter, any jobs they have taken have been to keep Flying and not enough to do some serious repairs.

Season Two, Episode one

Started at Li Shand's space station, the crew got some mail and info on a job at New Melbourne

Turns out, the meds were being withheld and Jaynes family has a small ranch in New Cortigan

They needed to go trade for the meds (Phienesia) for Damplung. after an intended swindle, Mal was captured by an associate of Adelai Nishka

River managed to rescue Mal and the get the meds to the right people

Season Two, Episode Two

This Episode was all about a salvage Job.. They had to find the Information Dealer (Kaar Peing) in order to find a crashed Firefly for parts..

This lead them to have break Kaar out of a Jail cell on one of Highgate's Moon's

Seemed to be simple enough, when they finished, Kaar gave them the location of of a crashed Firely ship on one of the rim worlds

The second part of this was Moving Jayne's mom and sister to another location.. one that did not have an issue with Damp lung.

Season Two, Episode Three

This Episode was all about a Wedding and escorting an old friend to attend. Oh, and Sheppard Book might conduct the wedding. And someone may have found a buyer

Season Two, Episode Four

This Episode is about a Buyer, Sheppard Book's past and River