Why don't you play RPGs?!

According to the poll I ran on this blog, most readers are boardgamers. This got me to thinking.

Roleplaying, to me, is one of the most creative, well-rounded, and engaging forms of gaming. I'm surprised more people don't do it.

So, I'm posting today to give you an opportunity for some feedback. Please leave a response in the comments. Here's the question:

"Why don't you play tabletop RPGs?"

If you already play RPGs, don't answer. I'm trying to figure out the reasons people have for avoiding roleplaying. The way I see it, most of you are already geeks, like me. You already enjoy sitting at a table and gaming with friends for hours. What keeps you from crossing that line from board games into RPGs? Please be specific and personal. What are your personal thoughts on this? Would you be willing to play, given the opportunity?

Speak up! Comment below! Thanks, dear readers!

The Escapist - roleplaying advocacy

I really wish there were more people in the roleplaying hobby. Folks may have any number of reasons for not getting involved in roleplaying, for instance:

• they don't know such a thing even exists
• they've heard stories about roleplaying which give the hobby a negative reputation
• they don't have time to get involved in another time-consuming hobby
• they feel that they lack the skills or imagination required to play well
• they know all about RPGs, but they just aren't interested
• they're interested but don't know how to get started
• they want to play, but don't have anyone else to play with
  

Whatever the reasons, I still wish more people would give roleplaying a try. It engages many parts of a person's mind and stimulates creativity, among other benefits.

I'm not the only person who wishes more people would play RPGs. William J. Walton publishes a website and a podcast, both about roleplaying advocacy. He works hard to make the truth about RPGs known while dispelling myths. He sees RPGs as an educationally valuable experience in which all different types of people can and should participate.

I recommend visiting his website, The Escapist, and listening to his biweekly podcast, The Escapistcast. The amount of information Walton presents is astonishing. He seems to catch every mention of roleplaying in the news, and has a number of interesting projects he's working on for promoting the hobby.

If you love roleplaying and wish other people did too, head over to the Escapist and support Walton's work!

News: RPG Geek and PDQ#

This week, the Games on the Table News Dept has some topics of interest for you.

The new Geek in town

Don't you enjoy those times when your life is energized by the anticipation of something good? So do I. And right now, I'm really looking forward to a treat that's coming down the pipeline for roleplayers: RPG Geek.

When it comes to board gaming, BoardGameGeek is the ultimate one-stop website on the internet. They have everything you could want: community, a marketplace, a complex and comprehensive database of all the board games you can imagine, all synchronized through and through. You can track your personal collection, track plays, write reviews and articles, upload files and images - it does it all. The site is a masterpiece, meeting all the needs of people in the hobby.

Just this week, the code for BoardGameGeek was rewritten to improve functionality. Part of the upgrade to BGG 2.0 included the ability to more easily transpose the structure of BGG to other hobbies. This has been one of the constant requests from the BGG community, and now Scott Alden and his team have done it.

The first known transposition will be RPG Geek. I'm looking forward to this. Imagine one database where you can look at reviews, images, user-created files, and where you can track your own RPG collection, all the while communicating with other gamers. There are good RPG sites and communities out there, but none that do everything, especially not with the quality of the BGG interace. Get ready, my roleplaying friends. This will be a sweet site.

I'll have my eyes on the progress and release of RPG Geek. When the site is up, you know you'll hear about it here.

Swash your buckles with the new PDQ

Although I haven't yet had the opportunity to actually play or run a game using the PDQ system, I do follow the happenings of Chad Underkoffler's work on his PDQ system. The system interests me because it is rules-light, and seems to share some of the qualities I appreciate in Spirit of the Century (Fate 3.0 system). I do own Tim Gray's Questers of the Middle Realms which is built on the PDQ engine and look forward to playing it.

In late 2008, Mr. Underkoffler made available an updated version of the PDQ core rules called "PDQ#" (PDQ Sharp). This version is specifically tailored to a swashbuckling game. It is this set of rules that the upcoming Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies will be built upon.


When I first read about S7S last year, I was immediately intrigued. The idea of sky pirates and airships is just sweet to me. The airships in the Final Fantasy video game series were always fascinating, and while I didn't play Skies of Arcadia, it looked cool, and I bought the soundtrack. I love the idea of airships/sky pirates/sky sailors. (I also tried reading Paul Stewart's The Edge Chronicles, but the gritty style had me returning the book to the library before I finished the first half of the book. Still, the morsels about sky pirates were cool.)

So I was pretty excited about the concept of S7S, until I read this page in Mr. Underkoffler's blog. While the bit about "setting-heavy" isn't attractive to me, what really turns me off is this statement:

S7S has intriguing (to me) sexual politics. Each Island has a different take on gender relationships; this is intentional. I'm afraid that people won't notice it. The inclusion, here, is intended to spark intriguing thoughts: a female Viridese Warmaster interacting with a Colronan Musketeer SHOULD bring up culture-clash. I crave it.

But will other folks find it as interesting as I do?

This kind of thing would quickly spoil the good parts of an RPG for me. First of all, I work to keep "sexual" out of all my hobbies except for my marriage. But even worse is if sexuality is tied up in a world's politics. I just don't know what to think right now regarding S7S. I wonder if PDQ# would enable playing in my own world of airships and cloud islands? I have yet to read PDQ#, so I can't determine that just now. It's on my list of things to do when I get the time. Stay posted for my thoughts on PDQ and S7S in the future.

The taste of pulp

In another session or two, I'll finish the current adventure I've been GMing. It's in a fantasy setting, using the SotC rules. After that, one of the other guys is taking over as GM for a standard SotC game, by the book, with a few little mods.

In the past, I would have said, "I don't really want to play anything other than fantasy. That's part of the fun for me." I'm a big fantasy fan, hence my love for the fantasy setting in roleplaying. But now that I've been exposed to SotC, through reading the book and playing it, I've really come to appreciate the pulp genre. My tastes have adjusted to the point that I'm actually eager to play in the pulp setting now.

So, I'm psyched for the upcoming adventure, when I'll be sitting back into the player's seat. The guy who's GMing and I have been talking a lot about SotC, and how we can improve our use of it for the upcoming adventures. We've realized that we need to be much more active in our spending of Fate points and in performing maneuvers. We're also thinking of tweaking the skills system to use something other than the pyramid.

I also had a little burst of inspiration the other day and jotted down some neat ideas for the next SotC adventure I'll run. So much fun roleplaying, so little time. Drat!

So, thanks to the guys who created SotC, not only for a good system, but for writing a newbie's guide to the appreciation of pulp.

The importance of urgency in roleplaying

Out of several roleplaying sessions, you're likely to have one or two stand-out, highlight sessions. Yesterday was such a day for our group.

The PCs have been attacked numerous times during this adventure. Each time, the attack is performed by covert and unseen enemies. There has been no clue as to who is after them, or why. Until recently....

After a mid-night onslaught against the PCs, in their inn room, by 10 superbly strong men, the PCs interrogated one of them who was still conscious after the skirmish. The attackers all spoke with strange, slurred, incomprehensible speech. But this one fellow managed to utter one word, which sounded like the name of a person they knew - the head of the craftsmen's guild. The man who had welcomed them to town and given them a free booth for the craftsmen's convention.

That was two sessions ago. The following session, the players were all fired up to go find this man and do some serious talking, even though it was the middle of the night. They located the guildmaster's house and snuck around the back. Using Elros' energy magic, all three PCs hovered safely over the 10-foot wall surrounding the courtyard at the back of the house. Rwake then proceeded to climb through an open window into a small study. At the same time, Leo worked the complicated lock on the back door until it successfully unlatched. Then, as Leo opened the door, much to the PCs' dismay, alarm bells started ringing from the top of the house.

That is where we began yesterday's session. Immediately, there was a sense of urgency. The guildmaster's house was rigged with an automated alarm system that only someone like him could have crafted. The PCs heard viciously barking dogs coming down a hall toward them, accompanied by yelling voices.

This urgency was great. I was moving things along pretty quickly, in real time. I didn't want the players to have too much time to meta-game the scene. They came up with a couple of options - fight or flee. Leo and Elros chose flee. Rwake chose to stay and fight, to be consistent with his character. He requested a compel, which I honored, and he got a fate point for it.

Running back through the courtyard to the 10-foot boundary wall, Elros launched Leo and then himself over the wall, after which they both rolled successful stealth checks, keeping to the shadows outside the wall. A moment later, someone loosed three muscular attack dogs into the study where they had smelled an intruder - Rwake. Trapped in a corner between two sets of shelves, he quickly launched a paralyzing dart into one of the dogs before they lunged at him with teeth and claws.

Taking some damage, Rwake realized things were unmatched. So he decided, "I'm going to use my staff to vault over the dogs, then make a quick flying leap out the window." I asked him to roll, and his roll was a success. On the way out the window, he slammed a shoulder and twisted an ankle, but he made it out alive. Two dogs quickly ran around to the back door which Leo had left open in his retreat and darted for Rwake once again. The poison from the dart had left one of the three dogs disabled inside the house.

Elros, per Leo's recommendation, was now doing a pullup on the wall to see what was happening on the other side. Using pure mental power, Elros wielded more energy magic to float Rwake back over the wall. As Rwake left the ground, he narrowly avoided the thrown ax that someone from inside had just thrown at him through the doorway. He made a successful stealth check when he landed, and all three PCs retreated to the back of the building to come up with a plan. The sounds of locals and constables echoed from the front of the house now.

All this time, the players felt the need to keep moving, to plan quickly, and to avoid being seen. They would be regarded as criminals now, if they were seen or caught. They were almost certain they had been seen heading this direction earlier in the night. They decided that their only option was to find an answer behind the mysterious attacks before they could be found. They couldn't risk being caught.

A young urchin named Vonny Jaywhistle whom they had earlier befriended happened to be in the area that night and gave the PCs a "Pssst!" from behind a nearby building. The PCs joined him and found out that some of Vonny's friends had reported seeing the guildmaster enter his nearby warehouse earlier that night. The PCs stationed themselves in small tree-enclosed area within sight of the warehouse and took a few minutes to plan their next course of action.

Everyone came away from this session feeling good about it. Whether they were correct or incorrect in their suspicions, the players had an idea of what they wanted to do. They had a reason to move quickly. The law would now be their enemy unless they revealed the greater criminal. They had avoided unnecessary combat. Rwake had earned a fate point in the process. For the first time in a long while, they had a solid sense of direction, and much was on the line.

It's hard to line this kind of thing up. But this session reminded me how helpful urgency is to an adventure. We all came away pleased and eager for the next session.

Faery's Tale Actual Play:Liza and the Jewelled Brooch, Part 3

This is part three in the actual play report from the Faery's Tale game I'm running for my wife. Last time, Liza and Cherry had exited the underground tunnel and once again picked up on the trail left by Markle in the dirt.

---

Having located Markle's trail, Liza races ahead, certain that she can catch him up - he's toting a large bag after all - fatigue has to set in sometime.

After running for several yards, they see ahead of them in the darkness a big, lumbering, oafish night troll. He is moving in the exact same direction they are going. Liza sees this as an opportunity for a free ride. [This was impressive roleplaying to me. My wife has some clever ideas. Some players may have chosen to find a way to take the troll out - defeat him. But not Liza! Fighting trolls is a job for sprites. Liza is a brownie - she has a different approach.] She turns invisible and darts forth, hoping to reach the troll and grab a shred of his gnarled pants. She whispers to Cherry to follow along, but out of view. She hears the troll mumbling to himself: "Yummy faery snack. I find you, little faery." He has apparently spotted Markle, and is trying to catch him for food!

Liza runs as fast as her little brownie legs will carry her, hoping to catch up to the night troll. [I thought this would be somewhat difficult, considering the size difference, so I rated it at Tricky (2). She rolled no successes.] Liza finds that she's gaining on the troll, and then - TRIP! - her foot catches on something, and she goes down with a high-pitched yelp. The night troll stops and turns around, looking. His nightvision allows him to see everything at night as if it is daytime. Fortunately, Liza is invisible. The troll says, "What is it? Is it a faery?" He sniffs the air and scans the area for a few moments, then turns back to his original pursuit.

Liza becomes visible again so that Cherry can locate her. She waves Cherry over and whispers her next plan: "Pick up some pebbles, fly up, and throw the pebbles down as hard as you can onto some big rocks to create a distracting noise! Maybe we can get the troll to head off in a different direction, off the trail!" Cherry whirs off to the side of the trail, into the trees and throws the pebbles down onto a boulder. They bounce down the side of the boulder, clicking along the way. The troll looks in the direction of the sound and sees Cherry's pixie dust floating down among the treetops.

Now, the night troll faced a dilemma - which faery to pursue. [I figured this would be a relatively simple decision, even for a big oaf. After all, one faery was flying around, the other was stuck on land. So I rolled for the troll against a Mind challenge of Easy (1). He achieved 1 success.] The troll gave up on the idea of chasing after the pixie and returned to his pursuit of the brownie. The hesitation was time enough for Liza to catch up to a range of about 10 feet behind.

"There you are, little faery. Now I will get you," the troll says. He has apparently spotted Markle. Liza puts her energy into racing forward as fast as her little legs will carry her. [I had her roll a Body challenge of Easy (1) to see if she could catch up to the troll. She succeeded.] She gets under his feet and jumps up, grabbing a loose tatter hanging from his pant leg. [I had the troll roll a Mind challenge of Easy (1) to see if he could sense the tug at his leg. He failed.] The troll doesn't feel the brownie's weight on his pants. Liza becomes visible momentarily so that Cherry - a few yards back, high in the air - can see her. She can't tell whether or not Cherry can see her from that distance, but Cherry still seems to be following the troll anyway.

The troll finally catches up to Markle, reaches down to grab him up, and - WOOSH! - Markle is gone, making his bag invisible as well, which is difficult but possible for a brownie. The troll pats around on the ground frantically, grabbing at the air, hoping to grip the invisible brownie. [When brownies are invisible, they retain their physical presence, so theoretically, the troll would feel an invisible brownie if he touched it. But in this case, Markle's had found a way to edge himself out of the way, carefully making sure to lift his bag instead of dragging it, which would have left a trail.] The troll kneels down and pounds the dusty ground in frustration. "I'm tired of faery. I will find something else to eat," he moans. [I later decided that I should have made it a Tricky (2) challenge for the troll to find the invisible brownie. But, it's probably better for the story that he didn't find him, and the troll isn't controlled by a player, so the consequences of his actions don't matter as much as they would for a PC.]

Liza drops quietly from the troll's pant leg and turns invisible again. Once the troll has retreated a reasonable distance, she reveals herself until Cherry locates her and flies down to join her. After a moment, they hear the familiar scraping sound of Markle dragging his bag a few feet away.

Faery's Tale Actual Play:Liza and the Jewelled Brooch, Part 2

This is the actual play report from the second session of Faery's Tale which I have been running for my wife. Last time, we saw Bwok, the great horned owl, admonishing Liza and her pixie friend, Cherry, to hurry on their way if they intend to catch Markle, the blacksmith brownie.

---

Seeing the need for swift action, Liza - a lover of birds - asks Bwok if he is willing to carry her on his back and fly her, speeding their pursuit. Bwok agrees to help her for the price of a boon. Liza agrees and gives the owl a boon. [Boons were one of the features of the game that took me a while to get my head around. I had at first been thinking of them too much like tangible currency. The best way to define a "boon" in this game is "an owed favor". It's an abstract entity that gives the holder a claim on a future favor. Faeries and other creatures of Brightwood have an endless supply of their own boons. If a faery achieves the title of "Knight" or higher, that faery can trade boons, making them more like a currency. In essence, this means using a boon you've acquired from someone else as payment - transferring the boon to a new owner.]

Liza climbs on Bwok's back and, with Cherry alongside, they float into the air and take flight to the west, in search of Markle. The owl, using his keen senses, tracks the fleeing brownie and returns Liza to the ground, only about 10 feet behind Markle. In the darkness, the faeries see the brownie's form. They run after him and in another moment, he climbs the base of a tree, enters a large hole in the tree's trunk, and disappears from view.

Liza climbs up to look into the hole. It is absolutely dark inside. Cherry flies over to the hole and gives off enough light to reveal a downward passage. Liza can't see the bottom. She calls out after Markle and the sound of his bag dragging in the dirt stops. He seems to have heard. Then, a moment later, it starts up again, faster now. Liza bravely throws caution to the wind and jumps down the shaft! [For which I awarded her 1 essence mote. It was a brave and selfless thing to do, after all. I had her roll her Body of 4 for this fall. I made it a Tricky (2) challenge. She didn't succeed, and so I had her lose 1 essence for taking fall damage.]

Liza falls a few feet and slides out into a faery-made underground tunnel, supported by wood and stone. Liza calls Cherry, who soon arrives at her side. By Cherry's pixie light, they follow quickly after Markle's trail in the dirt. There are various other tunnels which diverge from the sides and top of the tunnel, but Markle's tracks are easy to follow.

Suddenly, a scorpion falls down from a hole in the ceiling! [This is a creature taken right from the book. His stats are: Body 2, Mind 1, Spirit 0, Gifts - Venom.] Cherry backs away while Liza pulls out one of her homemade weapons - a shard from a broken paring knife, with a leather-wrapped handle. [My wife allocated all 4 of her Body dice to attack and none to defense.] Liza carefully lunges forward, slashing at the scorpion's legs. [She rolled a 6 and three 3s. A 6 on the die earns an extra die. She rolled the extra die and achieved a 4, for a total of 2 successes. I had allocated no dice to the scorpion's defense pool, so he took 1 damage to his Body score.] The scorpion squeals in rage and swings a pincer at Liza. [Since the scorpion's body was now 1, I rolled one d6 and achieved no successes.] Liza deftly ducks the attack and lashes out again, this time with her sewing needle sword. [This time she allocated three d6s to her attack pool. She rolled a 2, giving her 1 success. He still had no defense, and therefore took the damage.] She plunges the needle into the top of the scorpion's head. The scorpion falls down and stops moving completely after creeping backward into a side tunnel. Liza sheaths her needle and beckons Cherry to follow her onward.

Then, from the scorpion's hole above, they hear a muffled voice calling out. Liza sends Cherry up to see what it is. Cherry reports that there is a faery wrapped up in spider's webbing. Cherry gives Liza a bit of pixie dust to float her up into the hole and Liza uncovers the faery's mouth. He is a pooka named Dandaloo. He had been wrapped up for a spider's dinner, but the scorpion had stolen him and brought him back to his hole for later. Liza cuts through the webs with her knife and Dandaloo breaks free, thanking Liza heartily. He gives Liza a boon for saving him. He feels a bit weak and is unsure whether or not the spider actually bit him at any point. Therefore, he isn't certain whether or not he's been poisoned by spider venom. Either way, he feels well enough to move and even travel. He plans to go to Bwok's tree and rest (he knows Bwok). He tells Liza that, if she brings him some healing remedy tomorrow after he's had some rest, he'll give her another boon. Then he drops down the hole into the tunnel, transforms into a snake, and slithers back down the tunnel.

Liza and Cherry climb out of the hole and make it through the rest of the tunnel without any further distractions. When they arrive at the end of Markle's trail, they see another carved shaft going up into a tree, just like shaft by which they had entered the tunnel. There are grooves in the ground where a ladder had recently been planted, but there was no ladder now. Markle had apparently pulled it up after him. Liza sends Cherry up to have a look around. Cherry reports that the ladder is up here, outside the hole, but it is too big to carry while flying. Liza recommends pushing it, which Cherry attempts and finds to be a workable option. After a series of good pushes, the ladder comes falling down the shaft. Liza dodges out of the way until the ladder hits the ground. Then, she scrambles up to the hole and climbs out onto the ground. The faeries are somewhat disoriented and unsure of their location, so Cherry uses her pixie dust to burn a small "C" in the tree bark. That way, they will have a marker for their journey back.

Faery's Tale Actual Play:Liza and the Jewelled Brooch, Part 1

I recently reviewed Faery's Tale, an RPG geared toward the young and/or light-hearted roleplayer. For the last couple weeks, I've been running an adventure for my wife. Certainly, running an RPG for a single player is not the ideal situation for a GM, but this was the only way I could test the system, and I really don't mind it at all - it's gaming, and therefore, it's fun. The only other people I play with are my gaming group from work, and we're always playing Fate/SotC.

This has been a great time for me because my wife's only previous experience roleplaying was years ago, when I was trying to create my own RPG. She was graciously willing to playtest it with me. That was some 4-5 years ago. So, to have her playing with me again has been a joy.

I wrote up the basic plot points and NPCs for an adventure, prepared some other materials for her, including an overhead picture of the house where her PC lives (drawn using Inkscape) and a player cheat sheet which includes all the different types of actions she can take. Game night arrived, we got the kids in bed, pulled out the ol' dice bag, dumped a handful of d6s, and launched into the adventure.

This post is the first in a series of actual play posts where I will record the happenings of the adventure, which I titled, "Liza and the Jewelled Brooch". I will include a few insights and technical details for the players and GMs out there who care about those things (designated with [ ] brackets).

Here are my wife's character's stats:

---

Liza the Brownie

Body: 4

Mind: 3

Spirit: 2

Starting Essence: 4

Innate Gifts:
- Household magic
- Invisibility

Individual Gifts:
- Alert: perceptive and observant
- Fortunate: +2 to Spirit in tests of luck
- Lore: Well-versed in fairy lore

---

Because I knew it would be somewhat difficult for my wife's PC to handle an entire adventure by herself, I created an NPC to accompany Liza.

---

Cherry the Pixie - Liza's good friend

Body: 2

Mind: 3

Spirit: 4

Starting Essence: 8

Innate Gifts:
- Flying
- Pixie Dust

Individual Gifts:
- Inspire: spend 1 Essence to add +2 to another faery’s Attribute score in a challenge
- Sneaky: stealth, silence, concealment, sleight of hand

---

To begin the adventure, I read the following out loud:

After a good evening’s work, you fell into a deep, restful slumber. The spring air gave you refreshing energy for all of your usual tasks. You left the kitchen properly tidied, having cleaned up spills and dust left by the newlywed Togberts. After a dinner of dark wine, red meat, and sweet-smelling breads, the young couple had hastily set the dishes in piles by the wash basin and headed off to bed. Only last week you had discovered the Togbert’s new home. Sneaking in and finding them in need of a Brownie, you took the opportunity to move in. Having given your last home over to another Brownie as the result of a boon the week before, you were relieved to find the walls of the Togbert home roomy and relatively dust-free.

Now you are sleeping peacefully.

You wake up with a start. You are almost certain you heard a sound out in the kitchen.

Liza races to a hole in the wall where she can see into the kitchen. [I made this an Easy challenge, which has a difficulty of 1, requiring 1 success on the dice, that is, one even number.] She rolled 4 successes, getting to the hole with plenty of time to get a good look at an intruder heading for the open front door. The intruder is a faery for sure, carrying a large bag over his back. As much as her brain tells her it's impossible, she's almost sure that this figure making his escape from the dark kitchen is Markle, the kind brownie who lives in the Blacksmith's shop! Markle is a well-liked faery who makes weapons for noble sprite warriors. Liza can't understand why he would be sneaking into the Togbert home to pilfer items.

Liza scrambles through passages in the walls and exits to the exterior of the house just to the side of the front door. By the time she gets there, the mysterious brownie is gone. Suddenly, some sparkling dust falls down in front of Liza. A moment later, Cherry, Liza's dear friend, lands next to Liza and says, "I was out flying around and saw the front door opened. I thought it seemed strange, so came over to see if everything was all right."

Liza notices a trail through the dirt leading away from the front steps, headed away from the house. This trail was undoubtedly created by the large bag the brownie intruder was toting. Liza asks Cherry to follow the trail and see if she can find the man she thinks is Markle. Cherry flies away and returns saying that she couldn't see him within a few yards.

Liza goes inside and looks around the house, using her Alertness to quickly scan the room. She sees evidence of bits and pieces of moved objects, open drawers and the like, apparently used by the intruder to climb up to a high point on the wall where there hangs a plaque. This plaque usually holds a very valuable jewel-studded brooch - a Togbert family heirloom. But the spot where the brooch usually rests is empty!

Liza leaves the house, closes the door, and suggests to Cherry that they go check the blacksmith's shop to see if Markle is there. She wants to be sure she saw what she thinks she saw. [This event was unexpected. I hadn't thought of this possibility, but these are the things that make GMing fun. So I happily went along to see what my wife would come up with.] Liza asks Cherry if she can spare some pixie dust to make her fly so they can travel more quickly. Cherry agrees. [This was one of those times when I figured this would be the best way to make the story keep moving and I didn't have a problem giving my wife a little help - she was doing this by herself after all. I wanted to make Cherry function somewhat like another player character. So I figured a free sprinkling of pixie dust was a reasonable option.]

The two faeries fly off and quickly arrive at the blacksmith's shop. They try to open the front door by turning the handle. [I gave this a difficulty of Easy (1).] Liza got 1 success. She is able to turn the handle, but it's locked. The gates to the shop are closed, but the faeries slip through a crack and go to access another door into the house. [This also had a difficulty of Easy (1) to turn the handle.] Liza got 3 successes for a hefty turn of the handle, but alas, this door is locked too. Cherry suggests that they go to the hole in the wall where Markle comes out to meet customers. They locate the hole on the exterior of the house and Liza pokes her head inside. She whispers to see if anyone is awake inside. There is no response. At this time, Liza's pixie dust wears off and she can no longer float.

Liza calls Cherry into the dark hallway, carved within the wall, so they can have some light by which to see. They quietly proceed until they reach a point in the hall where another hallway breaks off headed upward. The hall they are in continues forward. Liza climbs up into the upper hallway and sees that Cherry's light just barely illuminates a few articles of a bedroom. Cherry cautiously stays back in the main hallway, keeping watch.

Liza listens before entering the bedroom. Her Alertness tells her that there is no noise from within the room. She now uses her Household Magic to create a small magical ball of light in her hand to see the interior of the bedroom. There is no sign of Markle. In fact, his bed is tidily made and everything seems to be in its proper place, including a number of fancy weapons hanging from the walls.

Liza meets Cherry back in the main hallway and they continue forward until they arrive in Markle's shop. He has this section of the thick wooden wall carved into a tiered workshop. Cherry is still nervous, but Liza is resolved to make sense of things. She uses her light to examine the shop - again, finding no Markle. Liza looks around to see if there is anything she can use as a decoy brooch for the time being, but she sees nothing significant - just a bucket of water, and various blacksmith's tools.

Cherry, cautiously waiting further down the hall insists they be on their way. Liza disappointedly agrees and they return to the exterior of the blacksmith's shop. Liza wants to fly again. [This time, I decided she would need to pay 1 Essence mote to receive more pixie dust from Cherry. It was my way of making her pay to control the NPC to her liking. I'm thinking it might be reasonable to alternate like this - one freebie, one pay. It seems fair enough, especially since Liza is receiving the gift of flight every time Cherry agrees to help her.] So Liza spends 1 Essence and Cherry works up enough pixie dust to share. They float into the air and dart for the Togbert house once again.

Liza realizes that she needs to have the brooch in its place by morning, so she must make haste. The two faeries race north, following the path left in the dirt by the thief's large bag. But then, the trail gets lost as it runs right into a large grassy area. They stop to look around, seeing and hearing nothing. Just then, they hear from overhead: "Hoo! Hoo! Who are you looking for? Who?"

Looking up, they see a black great horned owl who introduces himself as Bwok. The faeries ask if he has seen anyone come this way, to which he replies that, indeed, he has seen someone come this way - a brownie in fact, dragging a large bag slung over his shoulder. But, to the faeries' displeasure, he is not willing to give the information for free. He wants one of two things from them. They must either bring him a mouse to dine on, or, they must tell him a story. He is a lover of fascinating stories. But, he has heard many, many stories, and to think of one he hasn't heard before is quite a task.

Being a brownie, Liza has a natural love for mice, so the first option is out of the question. Yet, to Liza's advantage, she has the Gift of Faery Lore - she knows many great stories, old and new. Because Bwok wanted a story he'd never heard, I decided this would be a somewhat difficult task. Therefore, Liza would have to spend 1 Essence mote to tell such a story. [I gave my wife two options: she could actually make up some interesting story and earn an Essence mote, gaining back her spent Essence - or - she could just say that Liza tells him a great story and not earn the Essence mote. Being new to RPing and not in the mood to come up with something like this on the fly, she chose the latter option.] So Liza spent the Essence mote and told Bwok an amazing story from ancient faery lore called "Twilight" [yes, my wife is very much into the vampire book of the same name], which pleased the owl very well.

Bwok tells the faeries that the brownie they are following went west. He also made it quite clear that, if they intended to catch up with him, they would need to hurry.

---

That ended our first session. My wife later mentioned that she had enjoyed playing. This was good news to me since she is generally not the sort of person who would readily sign up to play an RPG. She loves board games, but RPGs are a different entity altogether. She had a great attitude and actually continues to look forward to each session.

Faery's Tale RPG: a review

This year I came to the conclusion that when it comes to RPGs, I prefer rules-light systems. A few weeks ago, during my RPG-related web surfing, I stumbled upon the game Faery's Tale.

Production: Firefly Games
Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing
Authors: Patrick Sweeney, Sandy Antunes, Christina Stiles, and Robin D. Laws
Artists: Janet Chui, Patricia Ann Lewis-MacDougall and Jennifer Meyer

There were a couple features which drew my attention to this game. First, it is advertised as a game that works well with kids. My kids have a few years to go before they will be able to grasp roleplaying games, but I'm always preparing for that day, as any eager roleplaying dad should be. Second, the game had positive reviews popping up all over the place, as well as some nominations for various gaming awards. A game this new is only likely to receive this much attention if it is good. The more I read about the game, the more I became convinced of its originality and value. Within the next week or two, I ordered the book.

When this little 96-page softbound beauty arrived, I dove in. After several days of reading in my free time, I had finished the book with a reasonably good grasp of the system and the concepts therein. Because so many of the reviews on the internet give a thorough explanation of the defining mechanics and features of the game, I'll spare you those details and instead focus on what stood out to me, and give you my opinions of Faery's Tale.

Production

One of the first things I look for in an RPG is the production. How much attention was given to the details of presentation? How's the art? How's the layout? Is it easy on the eyes? I was pleased to find that Faery's Tale hit the mark on every count. The credits boast a team of 30-some people who contributed to the project in some way. Why is this beneficial? Because when you have more people involved, you have more give-and-take, more feedback, and more opportunities for imperfections to be discovered and resolved. Such a level of refinement is less likely with a team of only 1 person, or even 5 people.

The first thing that catches the eye is the cover art by Patricia Ann Lewis-MacDougall. This was a big draw for me. I love professional art in RPGs. Back when I was looking through D&D books, before ever playing, I admired the imaginative artwork decorating the pages. The same holds true today, and Faery's Tale passed the test for me. The cover depicts a little scene where a cluster of faeries look at a piece of paper illuminated by their glowing faery lights. When I received the book, I immediately flipped through to see what kind of art it contained. I was pleased to see many wonderful pencil drawings of fantastical faery scenes. I have been most impressed with the artwork contributed by Jennifer Meyer, who perfectly captures the essence of the theme and setting of the game in her drawings.

The whimsical fonts are a precise match for the theme, and the layout is very easy to follow. The greater part of the book is in a clean 2-column format with additional useful notes and references in gray boxes which span the entire width of the page. Overall, the production of this book is excellent. It feels a bit overpriced to me for a small (9" x 6"), 96-page, black-and-white book, but I'm not experienced enough to know how this compares with the rest of the industry.

Content

The book begins with a clean, comprehensive Table of Contents, which I found very useful when looking back for particular sections. Then you get a brief Preface from designer Patrick Sweeney and it's onto the meat.

Every RPG has it's sample characters, and in Faery's Tale it's the little band of four faery friends: a pixie, a brownie, a sprite, and a pooka. These happen to be the main playable faery types as well. At intervals throughout the book, you are treated to four short chapters of a fictional story involving the four sample characters. This story effectively exemplifies the setting and mood of the game, immersing you in the designers' world of faery lore.

One design aspect that I quickly discovered and appreciated was that the game seems to be a great entry level game for players of any age. The whole system is contained in this short volume, including an introduction to roleplaying ("storytelling" as they call it in Faery's Tale), thorough and colorful descriptions of the theme and setting, detailed explanations of what types of characters you can play, a clear presentation of the systems rules and mechanics, gamemaster (Narrator) tips, and three adventures to boot. This team certainly did their homework. They close the book with a sizable bibliography, filmography, character sheet, and index.

When I say "homework", I mean, this team delved deep into faery lore before writing this game. Every few pages, you find a gray box teaching you something about faery lore and explaining how to incorporate these details into your game. Every page carefully keeps you immersed in the faery world, where magic is common and faery beings secretly go about affecting the lives of everyone and everything in the forest called Brightwood. As far as sticking with a theme, this design team nailed it.

The game was clearly created with an eye for children. There are tips throughout the book for working with kids as they learn to roleplay, including a page about LARPing (Live Action RolePlay).

As I mentioned before, this system is rules-light. There are some mechanics for resolving conflicts and challenges, creating characters and NPCs, and gaining and spending Essence, which is somewhat similar to Fate points and the like, as seen in other RPGs. These points help to drive the system in many ways as players learn to work with them. There are a few other important mechanics like Gifts (skills), Titles, Boons, and Charms. These features add fun things for players to do in the game. The book includes a good batch of stats for other creatures in the woods as well, which gives the Narrator a solid framework from which to create their Stories (adventures).

I think the system is great for introducing new players to roleplaying. I also think that it would be a gentle system for new GMs to try getting their feet wet. One read-through gives you a solid understanding of the system and it only takes a few seconds to go back and find something you need to review. The system lends itself to ease of use, and I think the freeform and imaginative format will make it easy for GMs to create interesting stories for the players. The system also encourages players to contribute ideas for conflicts and plot points, which I love. Most GMs will probably agree that players often come up with better ideas than the GM, and these ideas can often take the game in fun new directions. Players are rewarded Essence points for doing this kind of thing in Faery's Tale.

The one downside of building a book for new players and GMs is that it includes three adventures. If experienced GMs wish to write their own adventures, these pages may seem like a lot of wasted space: "I spent money on this?!" On the other hand, these adventures are exactly the sort of thing new GMs would give their dice-rolling hand for. The adventures offer examples of conflicts and difficulty ratings, as well as saving new GMs the trouble of trying to create their own Story while learning the mechanics of the game. While I can appreciate perhaps one included adventure, my preference would have been to exclude these pages and lower the cost of the book. But, regardless of my personal taste, I do think it was a great idea to include these adventures for the main audience to whom they are writing.

My only other complaint about this book relates to examples. I find that I often learn best by example. As a result, I find most RPG books seriously lacking in adequate examples for my mind type. Faery's Tale has some brief examples of a few situations, but they are sparse. I would have liked many more examples. I want to know that if I run into any obscure questions, there is an example that deals with that issue. I don't like reading an RPG book and thinking, "What if?" I think any RPG book should answer what-ifs with thorough examples.

I have been very pleased with Faery's Tale and the unique offering it brings to the world of roleplaying. Children and adults who have a taste for faery stories and light-hearted themes should have a blast with this system. Its thoughtful presentation, careful attention to detail, and innovative ideas make it a worthy addition to any collection of RPG books.

Below are some useful resources for fans or researches of Faery's Tale.

Buy Faery's Tale Deluxe:

Amazon.com
Green Ronin Publishing (they have special Faery's Tale dice too)
Firefly Games (they have downloadable adventures for purchase too)
RPGNow.com

Other Faery's Tale links:

Official Faery's Tale forums
Faery's Tale Yahoo group
Faery's Tale information and reviews at RPGnet
Download a free Christmas-themed adventure
Download a free Faery's Tale add-on about Leprechauns
Download a free Faery's Tale Deluxe character sheet
Download a free Faery's Tale Intro Pack
Download a free Faery's Tale preview

Review by Timothy Pinkham

In the player's seat: my first SotC pulp adventure

I never thought I'd want to play any setting other than fantasy. The fantasy theme is what first made roleplaying attractive to me. I'm a huge fan of fantasy and I thought I'd never want to try any other option. But alas, I play with a group who wanted to test the waters of pulp. Pulp is still a somewhat nebulous genre in my brain. The SotC book highlights many examples, and I've kind of got the idea now, but I'm certainly not comfortable with the genre yet. Having recently finished GMing our first attempt at Fate 3.0 rules, AC volunteered to GM something before we continue the campaign I am running. He suggested trying something into which he can incorporate Spirit of the Season. So this is it - my first attempt at something other than fantasy. Fortunately, while learning the Fate 3.0 rules from the SotC book, I learned a lot about playing vanilla SotC and the using the pulp genre.

This time, AC is GMing, and Llama, J, and I are playing. AC is starting off with a small adventure he has memorized from past experience, and then he'll take us on new adventures if we like it when we're done. All of us players have been getting our characters pieced together over the last couple weeks. Today, I will share with you my SotC character. We did not strictly follow the character creation rules from the book, especially when it got to giving our characters novels and co-starring in each other's novels. That isn't happening. We just created our characters with all of our stats ahead of time. So here he is, my SotC character.

Name: Grey Five
Age: 40
Height / Weight: 6 ft, 170 lbs.

Background Summary: Grey Five grew up in Dartford, England, born in 1882. His given name was Anders Tanworth, son of a public transportation systems specialist. William, his father, offered Anders almost any experience he desired, hoping to open up many doors through which Anders could walk into life. Included among his interests during his youth were hunting, fencing, reading, etiquette, and art.

When he was in his teens, his life changed without him knowing it. A scout from the Century Club happened to be in attendance at a fencing championship, which Anders had won with apparent ease. Impressed with Anders' stunning reflexes and speed, the scout made note and thereafter, the life and goings-on of Anders Tanworth were tracked and observed covertly by the Century Club. They never lost interest.

Anders continued as usual for the next couple years, thriving in all of his interests. The Great War was now a reality. One Saturday, while heading home from an errand, a man pulled him aside into an alley. The man was the scout who had been tracking Anders' progress. He explained to Ander's that the Great War was drawing into itself more people and more resources. "It's only a matter of time before you find yourself registering for the draft like other chaps your age," he said. "But I know you, Mr. Tanworth, and I have an alternate path to offer you." Anders didn't say a word, but continued listening. "My name is Oswald. I've been observing your for the last few years on behalf of the Century Club. We are prepared to offer you a position as a Centurion."

Life was a big rush following this event. Anders accepted the proposition, unable to turn down what sounded like a fascinating adventure. It might be dangerous, but certainly more interesting to him than the soldier's life. Soon after joining, he was placed in Oswald's division, the Grey Division. This division specialized in spy / assassin / operative training. Anders was trained for a short time in England, then transferred to the USA. There are only a handful of Centurions in each Color Division (this is not in the book - I made it up). The Color Divisions strip them of their true identity and instead give them a new name consisting of their Color and a number. So, Anders Tanworth ceased to roam the earth when the Grey Division adopted its new member, Grey Five.

Grey Five stuck with his upbringing. He is a proper gentleman, always wearing a suit, preferring high-buttoning jackets. He wears a bowler hat, black gloves, and glasses. Years down the road found him stationed in Hawaii for a time. While here, he befriended a young man who had adopted a hobby Grey Five had never witnessed - surfing. This young man taught Grey how to surf and it soon became one of his favorite ways to spend time off duty. He approached the engineers serving the Grey Division and asked them to design a small board which would strap on his feet and allow him to slide on various surfaces. It would need to be lightweight, bulletproof, and small enough to fit under his suit coat. The engineers said they could try anything. The final product came out just as Grey had imagined. He named it the Stuntboard and soon began training with it at the Centurion facilities. This and his modified Luger, "Claire," are his main equipment. Here is the sketch I did of Grey Five, scanned from my character sheet.

Grey Five

I think my idea for the Stuntboard goes back to the late 1980s when I had a favorite G.I. Joe character by the name of Muskrat. He came in a 2-pack and got much use. He came with a long blue machete-style blade, a rifle, and a small "swampboard" which could fit on his back or plug into his boot. I also usually gave him a whip, which I think was an accessory belonging to Croc Master. I went looking and tracked down some pictures. Below is a picture of Muskrat, totally decked out. Below that is a picture of his swampboard. This had to be the subconscious inspiration for the Stuntboard. Ah, childhood.

Now, let's get onto the stats. For those of you who are familiar with the Fate system, the following will make sense. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, I will explain briefly what all of these things are.

Aspects are some attribute belonging to your character, usually central to their life or history. Aspects are created by the player and may take any form. For instance, you could give your character the aspect Always Hungry. But aspects are usually more fun, and easier for the GM to use if you add a bit more flavor to them. So, Always Hungry might be more interesting if, instead, you named it "Does anyone else smell food?" Now the GM really has some flavor to work with.

Aspects can be used to benefit you. If you roll poorly and want to add 2 to the result, or just reroll all dice, you can pay a Fate point to the GM to gain that benefit. But, your aspects can also be compelled by the GM. This means that he can use them against you, forcing you to make a decision. So, let's say your character is trying to focus on an important task, but someone walks by with a plate of food. The GM could compel your "Does anyone else smell food?" aspect and say, "What are you going to do? You need to finish this task, but someone just walked by with rich-smelling foods. You're having a hard time resisting the urge to follow the man and ask for a bite." Now you have to either go with your hungry nature, or you can fight it. If you goes with it, the GM gives you a Fate point. If you fight it, you have to pay the GM a Fate point.

Skills are 15 things you're best at. You will have 5 levels of skills, from Average to Superb. You have more skills on each lower level, and only one thing you're Superb at. You can make this skills up, or use those listed in the book. SotC has a very thorough set of skills which meet any need for the pulp game.

Stunts are a guaranteed way of doing something well. You can make them up, or use those listed in the book. Stunts are usually related to one of your skills. For instance, if you have a character who is good at the Guns skill, he can choose from several Guns stunts which will give him a guaranteed benefit. For example, the Quick Draw stunt allows a player to draw his gun as a free action. Usually, drawing a weapon counts as a supplemental action, which gives you a -1 to your roll for a skill.

So, here are Grey Five's stats.

Aspects

1. “This will have to do.” (Quick to come up with alternatives, use anything as a weapon)
2. Fine English Gentleman (Proper and gentlemanly upbringing and behavior)
3. “I’ll be in the library.” (Loves to read and study)
4. “Leave me out of it.” (Prefers to avoid unnecessary conflicts and stay out of trifling matters)
5. “Does he ever miss?” (Accurate with guns)
6. Think Fast (Able to process matters very quickly under pressure for reasonably good outcomes)
7. “I’m pretty sure he’s telling the truth.” (convincing speaker, good at deceit)
8. Face to Face (Has a preference for doing things at face value, avoids sneaking and underhandedness if possible)
9. Stuntboard (Qualified to use his Stuntboard)
10. The Grey Division (covert spy / assassin training / athletics skill)

Skills

Superb (+5)	Athletics
Great (+4)	Guns	Rapport
Good (+3)	Academics	Alertness	Resolve
Fair (+2)	Burglary	Endurance	Stealth	Weapons
Average (+1)	Art	Deceit	Fists	Investigation	Sleight of Hand

Stunts

Stuntboard (using gadget as a stunt)
Improvements:

1. Bulletproof
2. Lightweight
3. Shoelocks

Quick Draw (Guns): Draw gun as a free action.

Acrobat (Athletics): Perform complex athletic maneuvers, like shooting while swinging on a rope. The difficulty of the task is decreased by 2 points. Rolls for falling get a +2.

Five Minute Friends (Rapport): Pay a Fate point to increase the chances of gaining good standing with a stranger in a few minutes.

Walking Library (Academics): I have knowledge equal to a library of my Academics skill level.

---

To close this post, I have the first session report for our SotC adventure!

We all sat down in the conference room after several weeks off. This time AC was in the GM seat, easily the most experienced of us all. We introduced our characters: Llama is playing as a young pyro-maniac demolitions expert named Nigel Wickston. J is playing as a big Russian special ops guy by the name of Igor Steel. One of Igor's arms is a gattling gun. J's Russian voice is fun, and a good compliment to Grey Five's British accent.

I'm going to try describing the session in present tense this time, for a change.

It's Christmas Eve. The scene begins with the three of us driving a Centurion car, receiving a radio communication from one of our commanding officers, a man who goes by "Father." He instructs us to go to the scene of a recent crime involving dynamite. The backstory is that our characters are in the middle of a larger mission to track a huge amount of missing dynamite. This recent crime could be a lead in our search. So, we head over to the scene of the crime, which happens to be the front of a pizza restaurant. In front of the building are the remains of a police car, partly blown to pieces by dynamite.

We meet up with an officer on the scene by the name of O'Malley, who happens to be an acquaintance of Nigel's. He gives us a rundown of the scene: some people with guns and dynamite are inside and there are possibly hostages. Looking through the windows we see a few figures. One shaky fellow is near the front door. He opens the door quickly, shows us a lit stick of dynamite and warns the police to stay back.

Grey Five walks up to the door carefully and prepares to talk to the shaky guy, but instead asks for a little help from Nigel - after all, dynamite fans are better at talking with dynamite fans. So Nigel pulls out a stick of dynamite and shows the guy in the doorway: "Look, I have one too!" Achieving a lucky roll on Rapport, Nigel draws the guy out the door and engages him in conversation about dynamite. While the crazy guy is standing there holding his dynamite, Grey ever so carefully reaches over and pulls the lit fuse from the stick of dynamite, rolling it up and stashing it in his coat pocket. He then slips quietly behind the guy and into the pizza parlor.

Inside there is a really big guy who points a gun at Grey. On Grey's heels, Igor also enters the parlor, gattling arm hidden from view within the sleeve of his big military coat. There is also a commanding lady behind the counter, yelling and holding the pizza parlor employee by his shirt. The big guy threatens Grey and Igor, telling them he'll shoot if they try anything.

Igor says something to the big guy. At the sound of Igor's Russian accent, the big guy stiffens up and yells: "She has agents everywhere!" Then fires a shot at Igor, which misses by a good margin. Igor then raises his gattling arm and fires a single shot at the big guy's arm, knocking him down behind the pizza counter and disarming him.

Grey runs at the counter and uses his Acrobat stunt to vault over the counter while drawing his gun, landing safely on the other side, gun pointed at the demanding lady, ready to grab the big guy's gun. The lady swings the pizza guy around and pushes him toward Grey, keeping herself hidden safely behind the pizza guy's body for a moment.

This is where the session ended. Igor and Grey are in parlor trying to deal with the criminals, and Nigel is out in the front talking shop with jittery dynamite guy. A couple guys will be out for some of the upcoming sessions. I'm not sure how we'll deal with that. We're also adding one more buddy of ours to the group. We also decided as a group to sit down when we're all available and figure out ways to tie our backstories together. J was pushing for this because it is built into the 5-phase character development as presented in the SotC book. We all agreed this would be fun, so that's coming up before too long. Who knows - maybe I'll change some of my aspects.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Miniature painting: my first attempt

A few weeks ago, in the Hot Deals forum on BGG, there was some discussion about the closing of The Game Castle - a FLGS in Anaheim, California. They were selling almost everything for 75% off. I noticed this announcement pretty early and informed my friend, AC, who you will recognize as one of the players in my roleplaying group. AC is a very serious RPer, but is also into every other kind of game. I told him about the closing sale and he went over multiple times to nab roleplaying books for himself. I asked him to look for some Reaper Dark Heaven Legends miniatures for me, and cited specific examples of the types of figures I like.

Travel back in time with me a few years:

I had recently joined an AD&D 3.5 campaign for which the DM wanted us to use miniatures. I took a trip out to The Game Castle, when the store was still located in Fullerton. I was looking for a miniature for the D&D game. While browsing the minis, I found that I preferred the style of the Reaper Dark Heaven Legends series. I found three minis representing three totally different types of characters so that I would have a selection when it was time to create our characters. These minis included a thief with a grappling hook, a bard, and a wizard.

I ended up using the bard mini for the D&D game. A few months went by and we were moving out of our apartment to a new home. Somewhere in this move, the thief and wizard minis were lost. I had the bard in my dice bag apart from the others. To this day, I have no idea what happened to the other two minis.

Back to the present:

I wanted to acquire a few more minis because they're both:

A. cool to look at
b. useful for fantasy roleplaying

So, Adam came back from a trip to The Game Castle with a load of discounted minis, most of them the exact figures I had used as examples. Talk about an attentive friend. Among these miniatures was a replacement for my lost thief figure. (Off topic: while AC was at The Game Castle, he also nabbed me a handful of Nodwick comic books I was missing. w00t!)

I decided that I wanted to try my hand at miniature painting. I like painting in general, although until now, my experience has mostly been decorating home-made didgeridoos and custom islands for Pirates CSG. I also did some custom tile mods on a few Maelstrom tiles. Now it was time to try miniatures. They look cool as they are - detailed metal figures. But with paint, they can look even cooler and more realistic. Also, if other players have colored minis (AC uses pre-painted D&D minis), the metal looks out of place.

So, I decided to do my first experiment using the thief figure. This figure is called Kurff the Swift and was sculpted by Sandra Garrity, who seems to do most of the best Reaper minis I've seen. I like this figure because he is wearing a cloak and carrying a grappling hook. It looks like he's out in the shadowy streets preparing to scale a castle wall or something.

I took pictures at every step of the painting process to share with you. The first thing I had to do was prime the figure. The only product I could find at the local craft store was a can of gray spray primer. I sprayed all the figures at one time, all in a row. Here's what Kurff looked like after a couple coats of primer:

When I paint, I use relatively inexpensive acrylics. They're easy to mix and dry quickly. Here are the brushes I used for this project:

That one in the middle was the most important one. I picked it up new for this project. It's finer than all my other brushes - a size 10/0. It seemed to do the trick.

Since the most prominent feature of this figure is the cloak, that's where I decided to start. I don't know a lot about miniature painting theory, but this seemed like a reasonable way to begin. I mixed up a dark gray and applied it to the whole cloak. It was tricky to get back into the crevices beneath his arms. I had to use my finest brush. Here he is with his cloak painted:

Next, I gave him a brown shirt with gold trim and pants his pants an even darker brown for some variety.

It was tricky trying to maintain a balance between dark colors (he'd want to avoid attracting attention) and variety of colors to make him interesting to look at. I didn't want to make him wear all gray, so I used browns. When I moved onto his boots, I used yet two more shades of brown. I'm not sure exactly how I blended each brown, but they were each different enough for my taste. I gave him a black belt with a gold buckle, a brown knife sheath, a sandy-colored money pouch, a reddish knife-handle, and a blue sapphire on the end of the knife handle. I would go back do alter some of these colors slightly with shading later. I also added a tiny reflection on the sapphire by creating a very white blue and carefully placing a single miniscule dot. I also colored and shaded the grappling hook at this time.

Now it was time to paint the rope. I mixed some colors together to form a yellowish brown color to give the rope a hempish look. You can see that I also darkened the gold of his belt buckle during this time.

The next phase included a lot of detailed steps. First of all, I used a very dark gray to shade the folds of the cloak, both front and back. It gave the cloak just a bit more character. Then, I used a light sand color mixed with some pink (and maybe something else, I can't remember now) to arrive at a suitable skin tone. I carefully painted his face inside the hood of his cloak, and his tiny fingers. I mixed up a reddish brown which I applied to the bit of hair sticking out the top of his hood, then dabbed his eyes with a super small dot of brown. Then, I created a dark reddish color to thinly line the crease of his mouth, creating the appearance of shadowed lips. Finally, I had to deal with the brooch holding his cloak closed. Here, I decided to spice things up by adding color. In my imagination, I decided that this was one feature he wasn't concerned about, but was pleased to display. The brooch was a golden item of value which he was proud to have possessed by his craft - complete with a sapphire in the center, to match the hilt of his trusty dagger. I dabbed a tiny reflection onto the jewel in the brooch, as I had with the dagger earlier. I may have done some other shading during this phase, but here is how he looked at this point:

All that was left now was to paint the base. I decided it would be cool to have him standing in a bed of gray, pebbly ground outside the castle wall he was preparing to scale. I started with a black or really dark gray. Then, I used lighter and lighter shades, dry brushing over each previous layer with a lighter color, until I was down to a few sparse light gray highlights. So, now he was pretty much done. I verified that I was pleased with all the shading and that there weren't any really obvious splotches or goof-ups.

Now that he was finished, all I needed to do was coat him with a protective layer of sealer. Fortunately, I already had some landscape glue/sealer which is designed for use with miniature terrains and such - I had used it to seal my Pirates islands. So, I took Kurff outside and sprayed him.

After the first coat, I decided he needed more. I couldn't tell if he was completely coated. So, I took him outside a few days later and sprayed him again. After this, I considered giving him another coat, but he looked pretty good, and I didn't want him to look too shiny and thick with sealer, so I chose to leave him with two coats. I can only hope that holds up. The ultimate goal is to keep it from getting the paint scratched off easily. We'll see what happens.

So here is the completed Kurff, finished drying and ready for use:

And for kicks, here's another pic - an outdoor shot of Kurff in action:

All in all, I'd say the final product is a big improvement over the original metal look. I'm pleased with the outcome. Next up, I'm working on a sweet-looking elvish archer.

Thanks for reading!

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #12

It was our last day of work before Christ's Mass vacation, and it was a Friday (roleplaying day), so we filed into the conference room for one last session before the new year.

Last session, the party had finally defeated the monstrous spider after a long and tense battle. Today, they began by resting up. Leo and Elros had sustained some minor injuries, which Rwake was determined to heal. Pulling a bowl from his hide-sewn travel bag, Rwake began cooking some herbs in the dead spider's lair. Purple smoke filled the room and the other party members cringed as Rwake rolled up wads of spider web silk, coating them with his pungent herbal concoction. He then placed one makeshift web-bandage on Leo's wounded arm, and one on Elros' side. Rwake also took time to investigate the spider's dead body to see if he could locate a storage cavity for the spider's venom. Succeeding with +3 on his Anatomical Knowledge roll, he found the venom and soaked it up with more wads of spider silk. He then coated the poison balls with leaves from his bag and stashed them away.

Leo was eager to leave the room, so they agreed to go back to the central chamber where they rain was dripping through a hole in the ceiling. Here, they pulled out food and chomped while regaining their strength. Rwake pulled out a flattened banana-potato vegetable thing and offered some to the others, which they declined. Elros, weirded out by Rwake's food, shared some bread and dried meat with the tall jungle dweller. Rwake in turn handed Elros a handful of small nuts, which Elros accepted and found that he actually enjoyed. Elros listened in the quiet for signs of the storm dying, but thunder could still be heard above them.

After recuperating for a spell (and erasing all stress boxes - no one had any consequences), the party headed for the last unexplored corridor, just off the entry chamber. Rwake headed stealthily down the passage . . . then rolled a -3. Suddenly he managed to dislodge a large stone with one hand on the wall. The stone tumbled down, causing a loud thud and the hissing sound of many falling pebbles, kicking dust up all around them. Waiting quietly, they heard nothing in response. So Rwake, throwing caution to the wind, lit up a torch and proceeded into the room at the end of the hall. On the far wall of the room, they see an upright sarcophagus with a strange winged head.

The head of the sarcophagus began moving, in an instant revealing long tentacles and flying toward Rwake, swinging a tentacle at him. Below, the party enters the last room of Hightower Tor:

The creature was recognized by Leo (using his Academics roll of +2) to be a gronuluk. This was fun for me because the gronuluk was a creature I had created long ago, when drawing creatures for an RPG game I was creating for fun. So this was my first chance to actually use the gronuluk for something.

Rwake rolled a +3, dodging and rolling to avoid the gronuluk's suction-cup-covered tentacle. Rwake then loaded his blowgun (-1 to his action), firing a dart at the hovering creature, rolling a +4. The gronuluk rolled a +5 for flying and barely dodged the dart as it whisped by.

Elros, ready to deal some damage, drew his sword (-1 to his action, -1 for the spin earned on the gronuluk's defense) and cast some energy magic, hoping to squash the gronuluk to the floor. He rolled a +3, which the gronuluk defended against with a Flying roll of +4, resisting the force of Elros' spell. You can see Elros below, casting his energy magic, Leo at his side:

Meanwhile, Leo had pulled out a dirk, launching it at the gronuluk's open mouth. Leo rolled a +4 against the gronuluk's defense of +0. The gronuluk attempted to shrink itself, but was caught too quickly by Leo's dirk, dealing 4 stress. The gronuluk returned to its full size and shook the dirk from its mouth, swinging a tentacle now at Leo, attempting to grab him. It achieved a +1 on its roll, which Leo dodged with a +3. He had been ready for the gronuluk's retaliation and made his move flawlessly.

Rwake sprang back into action, blasting another dart at the floating creature, rolling a total of +4. The gronuluk, rolling a +5 on its Hide skill, shrunk quickly to the size of a small ball, tentacles wrapped around itself, still hovering. The dart flew past, doing no damage.

Elros, fed up with the size-shifting gronuluk leaped forward once more, slashing out with his sword. Both Elros and the gronuluk rolled a +1. Elros spent a fate point to gain +1, finally dealing 1 stress to the creature.

Leo followed Elros' attack by drawing and flinging two knives at the gronuluk's face. Again, both rolled +1s. The knives swept by the gronuluk as it dodged with its mad flying skillz.

At this point, the gameplay was beginning to feel stale. Long ago, they had defeated the "boss" of the dungeon - the dagwir zombie. Then, they faced an even tougher foe in the spider's lair. Now they were rolling poorly against this goofy little floating octopus creature. We were out of time, and weren't going to meet again until January. I had to think quick. Here is what followed:

Me: Suddenly, the gronuluk starts to shift and shrink again. It begins glowing, blue, then purple, lowering to the ground. It slowly floats down, still glowing, until it touches the ground, forming a new shape. When the glow dies down, you see a Lufan man standing before you. He coughs for a minute, then says, "Thank you! You have freed me! I was trapped in the body of that gronuluk by a magic spell and you freed me by attacking the gronuluk spell!"

[shock and laughter from the players]

"What year is it? I've been trapped here for, I don't know how long..."

J (as Leo): "How did you get like that?"

Me: "I remember I was exploring the tor for treasure. I came into this room and a wizard of some sort was there. He cast a spell on me and I've been a gronuluk ever since, mindlessly hiding out in the head of that sarcophagus. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Renk."

[more laughter and joking]

"Are you coming or leaving? Can I go with you? Are you able to heal me? I'm hurt."

[The party takes to treating his wounds from the short battle.]

AC (as Elros): "Yeah, we're leaving as soon as this storm let's up."

Me: As you are treating Renk's wounds and chatting, you hear the thunder stop. There is no more pounding of hail. Everything becomes quiet. The storm has moved on. J, tell us how you convince the others to join you as you head for our next adventure. (I had told J before hand what was coming up and that he would need to convince these guys to come with him.)

J (as Leo): "Well, I'm heading for the city of Gryborn to attend the Craftsmen's Convention. It only happens every few years. You're welcome to come with me."

[Elros and Rwake agree]

Me (as Renk): "Do you mind if I come with you? I need to get of here. I have no idea how long I've been trapped here."

[They accept his company. He gives them a ring from his hand and tells them it's a Translator's Ring. It allows the wearer to understand the languages of Mrug, Noggit, and Dagwir. They comment on how that would have been useful earlier. They exit through the main entrance to the tor and behold hail piled at the base of the hills. Leo's cart is slightly damaged and filled with hail as well.]

So that ended our little learning adventure. We all gained a better understanding of the new Fate 3 mechanics, as written in SotC. Next year, we will take a break from this campaign to play a SotC adventure using the recent released Spirit of the Season. AC will be GMing. When that is done, we plan to continue this campaign as the party heads northeast to the city of Gryborn for the Craftsmen's Convention.

For fun, here's a scan of my original sketch of a gronuluk:

And here are the special item cards I created. When the PCs found these treasures, I handed the players these cards. They are a combination of the original adventure's treasures with my own mods. The sketch art is my own. The drawings were scanned, then modded in Photoshop to create the cards.

There was much joking about this one, no one wanting to wear it for "style" reasons.

May you enjoy much good roleplaying and gaming of all other sorts during the Christmas season. Until January, it's going to be mostly board gaming posts, but keep your eyes out because I plan to write a little something about a recent RPG system discovery. Thanks for reading!