Playtest 1 report... Finally

Okay I know its been awhile since posting.  Last post I stated I would be running my first playtest for my cyberpunk game.  I'm using the name SprawlWalkers right now but that's just a working title .  I'm really going for a generally rules lite cyberpunk game but I want to have additional rules that can be added to the game to give GMs and Players a bit more control over difficulty and complexity.  The idea being that if a GM doesn't want a hyper lethal experience for their players we have systems in place to scale that without the GM needing to scale all their NPCs.

First playtest went well as far as I could tell.  My players seemed to have alot of fun which under normal circumstances would be more important then how well the actual mechanics affect the flow of the game.  I recorded the session and once I have done a little editing I plan on posting it.

My main goal with the playtest was to make sure the base mechanics worked and there was nothing that was extremely broken.  Which is not to say there aren't improvements to be made.  Combat did seem to run a dad sluggishly and not terribly unique.  The skill system again does not seem terribly unique and will probably need some tweaking.

I have another play-test scheduled for this weekend with a few other players some more experienced then others.  My last play test was made up of primarily people who were fairly new to table top role playing games in general. This was partly based on convenience but getting newbie eyes on it lets me know that the basics of the system were accessible enough for a new player to grasp, which is a goal I have with this project.

I know I've posted this picture before but I need an illustration to show the similarities between my system and world of darkness.  I've been playing world of darkness for nearly the last 17 years of my life so I have to be sure not too much of its influence gets into my game.  Take my character sheet and compare it this mortals World of Darkness sheet.

My system is using the same idea as World of Darkness, take an attribute and add a skill to it then roll the total, then things happen.  This is something one of my playtesters pointed out.  Changing out the skill system will be alot of work but the game will be better for it in the end. 

This week I'll be focusing on adding a perk system, cybernetic implants, and making some tweaks to the combat system.

Cyberpunk RPG Development Blog - Playtest 1 preperations

While it is still early in the development of my untitled cyberpunk game I want to go ahead and plan on running a play test this weekend.  I think its important to make sure the basic mechanics of the games not only work but are actually fun before I go to much further.

So this Saturday I'll be running a one shot game to test some of these mechanics for fun and ease of use.  Just for fun though I'll go ahead and share the quick reference rule sheet and character sheet.

Playtest 1 - Quick Reference Rule Sheet

Rolling Dice –

All dice rolls are performed by combining an attribute and a skill declared by the GM for action you’re character wishes to perform.  Count the combined total of the attribute and the skill then roll that many D6. 

Successes – 5 and 6 (you may reroll as 6 results)

Botch Dice – 1s (if you roll more 1s then you roll successes your action botches and you suffer a penalty as determined by the GM)

Attributes are rated on a score of 1 - 8

Skills are rated on a score of 0 - 8

Combat –

As with other dice rolls in combat an attribute is combined with a skill as well as the damage rating of the character’s weapon.  The player will declare a target to attack then both the attacker and defender roll off to determine the success of the attack.

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Attacker Rolls Attribute + Skill (melee/firearms/brawl) + Damage value of weapon

Defender Rolls Attribute + Dodge (or melee/brawl if close combat)

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For every success over the defenders total success is one point of health damage.

Ties result in no damage but certain weapons may have a special effect

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When all health boxes are filled character has turns = physical resistance attribute to be stabilized before death.  Each turn the player may roll 1d6 and a result of a 5 or 6 will stabilize the character.  Other characters may perform a first aid roll difficulty 3 to stabilize and heal one point of damage.  Each success over the character’s physical resistance stat on a first aid roll will heal another point of damage.

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Turn order in combat is determined by each participant rolling 1D6 and adding the combined value of their Physical and Mental Prowess scores.  Turn order is determined by highest roll + stats first and descending from there.

Apologies for the Radio Silence and an Announcement of a Project

I haven't posted in awhile so I figured it would be time to give some updates on what I've been working on.  I got a promotion at work that will be affording not only more monies but also a more reasonable work schedule so I'll have a bit more time on my hands for my gaming pursuits.  Other good news, and this isn't official yet, but my wife and I are in talks right now with Twilight Creations, the makers of Zombies!!!, to volunteer to help them out at Gen Con 2015.  So with any luck we'll be hanging with some of the nicest people I've ever met in the games industry and seeing the con from a whole different angle this year.

Now on to what I'm working on now.

So I've been searching for a good cyberpunk game with fairly simple but not overly simple rules for some time now.  I think there's things I like about everything I've read but nothing ever had exactly what I was looking for.  Rifts have great fluff but it can be a little intimidating, Shadowrun again great stuff but the world is a little too high fantasy for my tastes.  There are more and all of them have their charm.

So I decided I'm going to write my own game, which is honestly something I've wanted to do for quite some time.  I'm still in extremely early stages right now.  I have some basics written up so far and combat rules started.  I'm hoping by the end of this week to have a frame work to test and see if the rules I have so far are going to work in practice.

I'll be posting the rules as I get them on here and would appreciate feedback from anyone.

When players misbehave - Apocalyptia Play Report

Last night we ran through another round of Apocalyptia. I was terribly unprepared, I had ideas for what I wanted to happen when the players finished their current story arch, but nothing much for what would happen after the last game.  I consider myself fairly decent winging story and thankfully the players that showed up early to the game (my wife, brother, and his girlfriend) seem to really enjoy just exploring ruins which makes my job easy. The group had looted a bunch of buildings returned home to find their home settlement destroyed by slavers.  So they started decking out semi trucks like some sort of mad max fever dream preparing to take the survivors on some grand exodus.

I was fearing I wasn't throwing enough at the players.  My first experience with Apocalyptia was fast paced and brutal, seems there was always raiders or zombies being tossed at us.  That was a game run at Gencon 2014 and the guy running the game just tossed obstacles at us until we got ourselves killed. Fast, brutal, fun. I think I get a little gun shy when it comes to throwing encounters at my players I think I have this fear if I throw to much at the players and wind up with a TPK my campaign goes kaput and I'll never be allowed to run Apocalyptia again.

Ofcourse one player showed up late and let me know the players will due a decent job of killing themselves even if I don't throw hoards of flesh eating undead their way.  You can always tell there's some shady backstabbing silliness afoot when players start handing you folded up hand written notes like you're their middle school crush.

I suppose I could have drawn that myself, not just slap something from a Google image search in paint.  Either way, my player that shows up late starts passing me notes that look alot like what is pictured above.  The tardy player starts rigging traps up to the mad max semi while he was supposed to be watching the group's camp site. Wakes up an NPC and murders him while trying to steal some gear then attempts to run away with the semi.

Now this behavior is not only self destructive but it puts the entire group at risk, and more importantly my campaign. If I wasn't hand holding my party through the first few sessions they would know they have to work together to survive in this game.  So this brings us to our next lessons in Game Mastering. 

How do we handle players behaving badly?  In my groups we've always kind of allowed player in fighting, it takes pressure of the GMs and the players get to mess with each other which seems to make them happy (sometimes).  Parties working against each other and hatching various schemes and conspiracies against each other can pretty much make the GM's job location description. Now granted my group mostly plays World of Darkness games which aren't as hyper lethal and have alot more built in for political back stabbing.  However the post apocalyptic wasteland is no place for such shenanigans.

What do we do with players trying to earn that TPK for you?  Does the GM jump in, hand of God intervenes? I certainly attempted to put some road blocks in the way and let the dice fall where they may but I really didn't feel like letting NPCs kill the rouge player.  In my mind justice for player betrayals need to be meted out by the players themselves. Intervening to keep party cohesion sets a bad precedence and leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.  Sure put some road blocks up, make the player deal with the world's natural reaction to their jackassery but when the hammer really needs to come down, let the players get the blood on their hands. 

Randomization Charts for the unprepared

Anyone who has ever had the audacity to write plot for group of role players should know that 9 times out of 10 this is a fool's errand.  I've been a part of plenty of games where our game master wrote some Shakespearean narrative, beautiful wordy descriptions of neon cities, and lush verdant rolling hills.  Then we, as players, said screw you and your plot we're going in the complete opposite direction and no one can stop us.

Totes a real conversation

GM: "You have to defeat the dragon, its the only way to save Miami."

Players: "Naw, we're going to Orlando."

GM: "You can't be serious."

Players: "Yeah screw you and screw that dragon."

Now this is not to say you shouldn't plan, you absolutely should, if you don't do some level of planning your game won't get very far.  The trick, at least in my experience, is to have enough planning done where if the the players aren't creating plot on their own you have something for them to do that feels substantial.  One the major difficulties is having something ready to roll when your players go off the rail. When they abandon the dragons and greater demons you've planned for them to fuck off to god knows what kind of silly shenanigans they dreamed up you have to have something ready to go.

One of the things I'm thinking about doing for my Apocalyptia games is designing a small program that randomizes certain events and NPCs for me.  The rule book has some charts that do this but I don't feel they provide enough variety for my style.  Bellow I've included a sample screenshot of some randomization tables for post apocalyptic suburbs.  

Enjoy.

Apocalyptia Campaign Settings - Joys of MS paint and Campaign Setting Info

So I've decided to start pumping out some content for post apocalyptic settings.  Most of my material will be with Apocalyptia in mind for the rule set but I'll try and keep things simple enough so it can be used with other rule sets with only minor adjustments.
I'll keep posting stuff here then when I have enough I'll compile the setting into a PDF and upload it here.

I've started putting together some setting information together for where my games will be taking place. I've decided to start the game in the midwest and as the players discover more I'll be taking maps and updating them with what the players have discovered.  I don't want to give them too much information to begin with, its the apocalypse they don't have access to huffington post so don't know much about current events outside their immediate area.

Below is a map of what they know so far.

Just a few minutes with google image search and MS paint you can whip up some neat game aids.




Apocalyptia Campaign setting

Time:  5 years after nuclear/biological world war, zombie apocalypse followed.  Five years later zombie populations are beginning to become sparser as their food supply dwindles.  So far no central government has cropped up and survivors have begun carving out their own territories and forming their own “states”.

Cities

New Buffalo Thunder City

Location – Upper North West Michigan (Travers City Area)
Faction – None
Government – Democratic
Current Leader – Kurt Elliot – former city councilman

New Buffalo Thunder City is a hotel, casino, and family Fun Park converted into a stronghold.  Population is right around 50 survivors.  Nestled in northern Michigan close to where Traverse City once stood.  Most of the surrounding areas are sparse mostly rural with smatterings of campgrounds, wineries, and high end summer homes as prewar this was a summer attraction being on the shore of Lake Michigan.
New Buffalo Thunder is a relatively safe territory and currently there are no other organized gangs in this area although there have been roving bands of raiders or scavengers that sometimes pose threats to the citizens of New Buffalo Thunder.

Fort Watterson

Location – Middle Indiana (north of Indianapolis)
Faction – Indiana Constitutional Restoration Militia (ICRM)
Government – Military Dictatorship
Current Leader – James Yost – Former Guitar Teacher/militia member

Fort Watterson is built into what was once Grissom Air force base in Indiana.  The base had received heavy damage during the war but many structures where salvageable.  The territory for the Indiana Constitution Restoration Militia controls quite a bit of territory but their two main power sources are Fort Watterson and a nearby prison. The area surrounding these are claimed but they have some difficulty actually policing such a large radius.




Factions

Indiana Constitutional Restoration Militia (IRCM)

The ICRM has an Army roughly 100 men one of their main focuses is expanding territory which they police in order to guarantee the safety of anyone who reside under their banner.  They attempt to recruit soldiers by promising safety and food but will gang press when they feel necessary.  Another favorite recruitment method of the IRCM is to attack slaver caravans then force the slaves into enlistment to pay for their new freedom.

The Cretins

The Cretins are a gang whose territory lies toward the Michigan/Indiana border.  Their known operations include collecting tolls, extortion, drug manufacturing and trafficking, and slave trading.  Their force is somewhere around fifty strong.

Apocalyptia Play Report - Bonus item

I first learned about Apocalyptia during GenCon 2014 at a playtest event run by Jordan Fannin, who wrote the game.  I really love this game, I can't state that enough.  The rules aren't overly complicated, character creation is a breeze, combat is brutal, and the game has plenty of charts to help randomize events for woefully unprepared GMs like myself.  Best of all the game is free and as Jordan puts it, open source, meaning he's not only giving it away he's actively encouraging people to make adjustments and tinker with it.

Apocalyptia pay what you want on DriveThruRPG

I ran the game tonight for a small group, my wife, my brother and his girlfriend, and my buddy Rob. The game went exceedingly well and I'm planning on making some content this game.  My next few posts will likely be adventures, scenarios, settings, and play reports.  Download the game for free and play along at home.  The game really deserves a look.

Play Report

My four players took on the role of citizens of New Buffalo Thunder City, a hotel and casino converted into a stronghold five years after a nuclear and zombie apocalypse in northern Michigan. The players were sent on a trade mission to an air force base converted into another stronghold in mid Indiana to trade food supplies in exchange for replacement parts for New Buffalo Thunder's various mechanical equipment.

The group set off on the highway south after failing to secure a map.  There was only enough gas to make the trip about half way so the party decided to first scavenge for gas.  One player was gathering gas.  One of the players decided to loot the nearby hardware store despite the other players cautioning against it. After breaking into the hardware store he found a zombie and discovered killing it wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. Two of the other players joined in and through some lucky rolls no one but the zombie got killed.  The players looted the gas station and the hardware store then continued on their merry way. The players also looted a burned out farm house where they met a preacher looking for food.  After some discussion they agree to transport the preacher down air force base with them so he can spread the good word.

Next the players game across a blockade along the highway forcing them off an exit ramp where a gang called "The Cretins" were collecting tolls.  The players being ever so brave sent the preacher to go negotiate the terms of their toll.  After a little discussion the group gave up an extra gun in exchange for passage or entrance to city for bartering.  The group decided to pass by the town and continue down the highway.

Right before sunset the group was forced off the highway into a small town called Brixton.  The group decided to do a little looting while there and once again split into two groups.  One group went to raid a pharmacy the other went to loot the fire station. The group in the fire station found a lone raider who they got into a shoot out with and managed to kill and only sustain minor wounds themselves.

The group at the pharmacy met a scavenger who was willing to peacefully walk away but my wife decided to kill him and take his stuff.

As the two groups made their way back to the RV they discovered four raiders wearing Cretin gang gear were looting the RV and had murdered the preacher.  The group ambushed the raiders and through some extremely lucky rolls managed to kill the raiders before the raiders could even fire a shot. At this point we wrapped up for the night.

As an added bonus for reading about our adventure I'll throw in a bonus item that isn't book.

Snake Skin Jacket
Armour Rating 2/2 Cold Rating 2 Fire Rating 1 Covers torso and arms and provides a +1 bonus to Leadership, Socialize, and Entertain rolls because it is a symbol of your individuality and belief in personal freedom. Below Nicholas Cage will explain.

Dystopian Toy Story Hellscape

Today has been a rough day for me.  Trying to quit smoking with a toddler running around raising all sorts of toddler related hell is tough task.  My strategy has been simple just spend most the day reading and ignoring the crashes coming from my son's room.

I've spent the better part of today looking through the wide variety of games being offered for cheap or free on Drive ThruRPG today and I've found several gems.

One of these gems is Toypocalypse, a game by Trevor Christensen.  The game was originally written for a 24 hour RPG writing contest in 2011. The game describes itself as being a cross between Lord of the Flies and Toy Story, a combination that has no room to be anything but awesome. The game seems to be light on the rules front, which after reading the 18 page PDF rulebook I think is to the benefit of the game.  Simple rules make it easy to pick up play and get new players up and running quickly. I really like rules lite systems for short burst games while your group's normal GM refreshes their creative batteries.

Players take on the role of children's toys that come to life suddenly to find all of their human masters mysterious absent. Now with the toys left as inheritors of the planet they have to keeping themselves filled with stuffing and batteries while dodging wild dogs and toys who have started oppressive regimes to control their territory.

Character's have four attributes which are rated by different modified dice rolls: Average attributes will give the player a 1d12 to roll, next rank up the player will get 1d10 +2, next 1D8 +4, and finally pinnacle of toy achievement gets 1D6 +6.  So you can see the better your attribute rank the less that is left up to random dice rolls on any skill checks.

Characters also get to pick from a list of various toy traits such as what kind of mobility your toy has, what kind of condition it is in, do other toys resent it for being a hot item over the Christmas shopping season, and magic toy powers.

Most dice rolls in the game involve the GM naming an ability to roll on and a number that must be rolled over for whatever that task is to succeed.

One thing I notice is there isn't much room for advancing character stats, the author even warns against giving players anymore then the initial ranks in abilities for character creation.  With their only being four ranks for four abilities it wouldn't take much to make a character pretty much bad ass at everything.  With no additional skills or merit systems there isn't really anyway for player characters to improve over the course of a long campaign, which could turn off some players.

All in all the game has everything you need to run a great game but I don't know if the system has enough meat to hold player's attention for more than a handful of game sessions.  The game is free and interesting enough to merit a download.  I'm already planning on running this for my group.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/94301/Toypocalypse

World of Darkness Dark Eras Kickstarter

I don't usually go out for kickstarter projects. Occasionally I'll browse it see what people are working on but that's usually the end of it. Today there is a kickstarter project I can get behind. Not only will this be the first kickstarter project I spend money on but this book will easily be the most expensive source book in my collection.

Dark Eras will be breaking down which each of the various creatures that inhabit the World of Darkness setting were doing through various points of history.  Great Depression, 1970s New York City, Age of Enlightenment, and others.  The project is already over it's funding goal and they have some pretty cool stuff for backers.

When the project is finished the book will be available on DriveThruRPG.

Its worth checking out if you're a World of Darkness fan and are hungry for some new material.

The Joys of House Rules

Today should be my wife and I's first official entrance my buddy's Vampire the Requiem game.  Last Friday we played a quick little game to introduce our characters to the city the game is being played in. There were supposed to be other players there but as we get further and further into adulthood gathering up four or five players in one room to play a game is becoming a larger task.  Assuming  tonight's game actually happens I'll probably start posting a bunch of World of Darkness stuff in my excitement.

*trigger warning: A lot of what follows assumes you have a working knowledge of the New World of Darkness game systems*

During the course of the game last week our story teller had made some interesting house rules I felt like posting about.  Throughout the course of the game he rewarded exceptional role playing by granting characters free one dot merits he madeon the fly.

 For instance in one scene my character, a Lancea Sanctum spy, had to introduce himself to the Prince of a Carthian controlled city. Despite the bad blood between our two covenants my character behaved himself and apparently made a good enough first impression that the story teller saw fit to give me one dot merit entitled Gentleman's Repose, which will grant my character an extra dice when rolling social rolls for first impressions.

Now normally in the New World of Darkness games the system for rewarding good role playing is an extra experience point at the end of the game. I rather like the free merit dots especially as it gives me something to do with my super fancy four page character sheets.  We've always had a house rule in our games that story tellers could award a dot in a merit if the character does something to earn it, for example awarding a character a dot in resources for moving out of their mother's basement and getting a damn job.

House rules can add a lot of fun to the game, or as in this case provide players with an incentive for role playing their character.  They can also break a game if not used sparingly. Game Master bribery used to be a widely accepted practice at our game tables. When Game Masters pay their players for cigarettes, snacks, booze, and other illicit contraband you could find yourself with low level characters decked to the nines in magic armor, bejeweled crowns, +6 talking swords that are also tamagotchies, and your game master just took an 8 ball of blow to the dome. 

tldr: house rules are awesome/using sparingly or your gaming group will become a dystopian hell hole.

Obligatory Introductory Post

Welcome to Danger House Hobbies.  What we're planning on doing here is posting all manner of things that appeal to those with certain nerdy sensibilities.  I'm planning on discussing video games, table top games, movies, music, and whatever else I feel like. 

I've been playing video games since my father shoved an Atari 2600 joystick in my when I was a toddler because no one from his generation had any idea what the possible ramifications of giving a toddler video games. So naturally games of all sorts have been a cornerstone of my life.

I typically partner with like minded folks to produce content.  We used to run a podcast called "You Might Also Like A Podcast" in which we reviewed movies that were available through streaming services. We were kind of funny and unprofessional, I hope to do the same here.

We play a lot of board games, Magic the Gathering, miniature war games, and we do other things too.

So strap in and enjoy the show. 

DC