Just in time for Halloween comes our actual play of one of my all time favorite horror RPG’s: Dread, by Epidiah Ravachol. Dread uses Jenga for all it’s conflict resolution, which really ramps up the tension. Joining us this session is our good buddy Troll, who’s right fond of horror RPGs.

Relevant Links

• Dread
• Epidiah’s Blog
• More to come!

Crunchy Bits!

• Dread Actual Play: 2 Hours 25 Minutes
• Dread Actual Play Part A: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes
• Dread Actual Play Part B: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
• Intro Music “Metroid” by The Minibosses
• Outro Music “Vampire Intro” from Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines soundtrack by Rik Schaffer of Womb Music.

The gang spends a good 45 minutes ranting and raving about how awesome In A Wicked Age… is.

Relevant Links

• Lumpley Games
• In a Wicked Age…
• Sword And Sorcery
• Tanith Lee
• Jack Vance
• Robert E Howard
• Iron Age
• Marvel Comics Conan
• Lumpley Games Oracle Generator
• Misspent Youth
• Duel of Wits
• Emily Care Boss
• Mouse Guard
• Conflict Flow Chart
• The Dreaded D&D 3.5 Grapple Rules
• The Dreaded D&D 3.5 Attacks of Opportunity Rules
• Abulafia
• Silver Age Comics
• GURPS
• Grey Ranks
• Spirit of the Century

Crunchy Bits!

• Discussion Episode 15: In A Wicked Age… Review 50 minutes
• Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

Brandon takes over as GM for our final session of Vincent Baker’s In A Wicked Age… We made a distinct attempt at going for non-violent conflicts this time around, and it worked out pretty well. This session focused around a nomadic remnants of the Uesirans coming to a holy site for their coming of age rituals. Many perils awaited them, from without and within!

Oracle: Blood and Sex

Kevin Chose: The seizure of arcane powers by an arrogant and brutal wizard.
A spirit of the wilds, mercurial in form, sister to gazelles.
The celebration of local fertility or harvest rites.
An oasis of sweet water in a barren wilderness, haunted by the shadows of some vast atrocity committed centuries ago.

Roles

Kevin: Ekurzakir, reincarnated into a new, young body.
Best Interests: To Enthrall the fertility spirit and make her my consort.
I will win the heart of the Head Priestess.
Particular Strength: Spellfire

Dan: Aram, Bravest and Strongest of the Tribe
Best Interests: Prove that I am worthy to marry the Chieftain’s Daughter
I will protect our proving ground against outsiders.
Particular Strength: Strength and Bravery

CJ: Sithara, Fertility Spirit
Best Interests: Find the most worthy Youth and give him my “blessing.”
I must punish those who seek to abuse my power.
Particular Strength: Quicksilver Form (shapeshifting)

NPCs

Gemegishkirihallat High Priestess of the Uesiran Nomads
Best Interests: Protect the Young, for one of them is fated to save our dying tribe.
Particular Strength: Talismen and Rituals of Protection

Uesiran Youths
Best Interests: Complete the ritual ahead of their rivals and return to the tribe.
Particular Strength: Youth

Shadows in the ruins of Kal-Nirar
Best Interests: The city must not be disturbed. Remove outsiders before they become corrupted as well.
Particular Strength: Corporeal forms

Relevant Links

• In A Wicked Age
• Lumpley Games
• Conflict Flowchart
• Fistandantilus
• Weapons of the Gods
• Spellfire
• Wheel of Time:  Rhuidean, Shadar Logoth, Balefire, Aiel
• Prince of Persia (again!)
• The Bedouin
• Fullmetal Alchemist
• Magic Symbol
• Feather Fall
• Wu and Swearengen from Deadwood
• Kukri (the Sihks actually use a Kirpan, oops!)
• Simulacrum

Crunchy Bits!

• In a Wicked Age Session 4: 2 Hours
• In a Wicked Age Session 4 Part A: 57 Minutes
• In a Wicked Age Session 4 Part B: 62 Minutes
• Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

CJ takes the reins as GM this round and much fun was had by all. By this session we’re all pretty comfortable with the rules and conflict flows quickly and freely. This session would prove to be Brandon’s day, as his now-corrupted character from last session wrecks an impressive swath of havoc and madness across two countries, laying low the armies of the Crimson Khan. Despite Dan, Kevin, and CJ all ganging up against him, his dice were too hot and the Maw of Madness consumed all.

Oracle:  The God Kings of War

Dan chose: A staff of white wood, summoner of lightnings and the War Magus who wields it.

The very first time that a certain young soldier, impressed against his choice and wanting nothing more than to return to his home, has killed.

A flock of hunterbirds, sharpbeaked, clever, and dreadful, and their master.

A token indicating that its bearer speaks for the high general.

Roles

Dan: Rafa Ban, Genius of flame.
Particular Strength: The complete metaphysical understanding of all forms of fire. (Double Potent)
Best Interests: To persuade the Mouth of the Abyss to consume the lands of the Crimson Khan, my sworn enemy, and burn the enemy army to cinders and scatter their ashes.

Brandon: Zaheil, the Maw of Madness
Particular Strength: Touch of the Abyss (reality bending powers) (Potent) (Far Reaching)
Best Interests: To eat the Storm Magus and release the Old One residing in his Staff. A descendant of an old enemy is near, he will be consumed like his ancestors finally were.

Kevin: Ekurzakir War Mage of the Crimson Khan, Master of the Stormcrows.
Particular Strength:  Staff of Lightning (Potent) Stormcrows (Far Reaching)
Best Interests:  Steal the secret of fire from Rafa Ban, Direct the wrath of the Abyss unto the heretical Uesirans.

NPCs

Adar, Descendant of the mighty Ninja Dervish Darius.
Particular Strength: Wakizashi (Potent)
Best Interests:  Complete my duty and find my way home. Preserve my homeland.

Relevant Links

• In A Wicked Age
• Lumpley Games
• Conflict Flowchart
• “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”
• Plasma Ball
• Ramuh
• Confucius Hat
• Palpatine
• Fables
• Trail of Cthulhu
• Monster Burner

Crunchy Bits

• In a Wicked Age Session 3: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
• In a Wicked Age Session 3 Part A: 50 Minutes
• In a Wicked Age Session 3 Part B: 55 Minutes
• Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

Unfortunately we had a bit of a technical failure when we recorded our “real” session 2. Only an hour or so was saved, so in actuality this is session 3. Fortunately the serial nature of In a Wicked Age stories gave us some considerable leeway. There shouldn’t be any problem picking up with the narrative here. Dan picks up the GMing mantle this time around, and we  start off in the city of Kal-Nirar, where Demon Lord Nirar has been ruling for many generations. Nirar was Kevin’s character in the previous session, he started off as a Merchant Prince who made some sorcerous deals in the name of vengeance. Little is left of his humanity now as unseen forces move against him…

Oracle:  The Unquiet Past

Kevin chose:The son of a great tyrant, born crippled and denied his inheritance.

A scholar and antiquarian, unmindful of danger.

A thick gold ring, torn by a powerful sage from a demon’s ear.

The captain of a foreign troop, sent to collect tribute.

Roles

Kevin: The Demon-King Nirar, formerly a merchant prince of the city now called Kal-Nirar.
Special Strength: Minions of the Pit (far-reaching)
Best Interests: To retrieve the ring containing my soul; To send the Red Horde screaming back to their cowardly masters.

CJ: General Darius of the Red Horde
Special Strength: The Ninja dervishes of the Red Horde (potent).
Best Interests: To survive my negotiations with Nirar and convince him I’m only there for the tribute; To find some weakness in the demon-king’s armor (such as any random phylactery or disloyal heir that might be sitting around).

Brandon: Zaheil
Special Strength: The demon ring, which makes him invisible and silent.
Best Interests: To learn the secrets that power the gate – so other uses may be found for it; To make a blunder out of the Red Horde’s envoy, just like I did 20 years ago when I stole their ring.

NPCs:

Dem Ashur, blind and disowned son of Nirar.
Special Strength: The power to jump through shadows, and see shadows for what they really are (far reaching).
Best Interests: To banish my father and claim my throne; To steal the ring and seal the gate.

Relevant Links

• In A Wicked Age
• Lumpley Games
• Conflict Flowchart
• Ptolus: City by the Spire
• Hardcore History Podcast
• Radiolab Podcast about Genghis Khan
• Marvel GI Joe comics
• Vincent’s rules hack to play Conan in a Wicked Age.
• Tom Bombadil
• Prince of Persia again – but Sands of Time this time.
• Sword +5, Holy Avenger
• The Mouth of Sauron
• The Wizaaaaaard

Crunchy Bits

• In a Wicked Age Session 2: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
• In a Wicked Age Session 2 Part A: 54 Minutes
• In a Wicked Age Session 2 Part B: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
• Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

We’ve all been champing at the bit to dig into Vincent Baker’s games, and due to its popularity as a one-shot party game, the crew decided to go with In a Wicked Age first.  These sessions were an absolute blast, and everyone came away a pretty big fan. For IAWA, we changed up our format a bit: we all GM’d one session each, starting with Kevin.  Check it out!

Oracle: God Kings of War

A cask of honey wine, tribute to a fierce bandit queen.

The arrival of unexpected and improbable allies, in darkness.

A genius of flame, imprisoned within a brass mirror.

The campsite of a traveling army, not long deserted.

Roles

Dan: Rafa Ban, Genius of flame.
Forms: Covertly d4, Directly d12, For Myself d6, For Others d6, With Love d8, With Violence d10
Particular Strength: The complete metaphysical understanding of all forms of fire.
Best Interests: To get free of the mirror. To burn Eric’s twisted soul to ash.

Brandon: Kadashman-Enlil, leader of a destroyed army, holder of the brass mirror.
Forms: Covertly d6, Directly d10, For Myself d4, For Others d8, With Love d6, With Violence d12
Particular Strength: The last of the divinely infused royal bloodline, who can draw from the strength of the people to Inspire, Lead, and Overcome the worst odds.
Best Interests: To remove Eric the Bitter from the land.  The bandits will take advantage of my defeat; I must end the bandit-queen’s tyranny when she shows her face.

CJ: Zahir the Blade, the Bandit-Queen’s Champion and lover.
Forms: Covertly d6, Directly d6, For Myself d8, For Others d4, With Love d10, With Violence d12
Particular Strength: The Training of the southern assassins.  A series of complex meditations culminating in a single strike.
Best Interests: To convince Kadashman-Enlil that we will help him. To steal the mirror and trade it to Eric for our safety.

NPCs:

Ku-aya, the Bandit Queen
Best Interests: Kill Kadashman-Enlil while he is still weak.  Use the foolish noble remnants to drive Eric from the land.

Eric the Bitter, icy warlord, with his warhammer Gutar-Mag
Best Interests: To smash the prison of Rafa Ban, sundering his spirit.

Relevant Links

• In A Wicked Age
• Lumpley Games
• Conflict Flowchart
• Cadash
• Story Games Names Project
• Planescape: Torment (Ignus)
• The Darksword Trilogy
• “A little too close to Narnia”
• The North Wind from Fables
• A Song of Ice & Fire
• Wheel of Time
• Final Fantasy X (Auron)
• “Kirk shoulder grab”
• Green Lantern: Blackest Night
• The King-Priest of Istar and the Cataclysm
• Prince of Persia (the new one)

Crunchy Bits!

• In a Wicked Age Session 1: 2 Hours 26 Minutes
• In a Wicked Age Session 1 Part A: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
• In a Wicked Age Session 1 Part B: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
• Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

Kevin gathered up Shaun Hayworth from This Modern Death and Robert Bohl from the Independent Insurgency to talk about how much roleplaying is done in a usual session. Rob had recently been listening to some podcasts that seemed to at time discourage roleplaying in some situations, and that surprised and baffled him.  He started a thread on Story-games.com and this whole topic flowered forth from there.  I had a great time talking to these two, and look forward to many conversations in the future!

Relevant Links

• Robert Bohl – The Independent Insurgency
• Shaun Hayworth – This Modern Death
• Misspent Youth
• Greaser Ghouls from Outer Space
• System Does Matter
• White Wolf
• D&D
• Storygames Thread Robert Started
• Burning Wheel
• The Gamers/ The Gamers 2
• Prime Time Adventures
• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• 3:16
• In A Wicked Age
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• Millennium’s End
• GURPS Vehicles
• No Exit
• Zombie Cinema

Crunchy Bits!

• Discussion Episode 14: 45 minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Kevin sits down with CJ to regale him with tales of his exploits at GenCon. There are several games explained, and a fuzzy recollection of Kevin’s booze-soaked Saturday adventures at the Podcasters Meet and Greet.

Relevant Links

• Bear Swarm
• Podgecast
• Trapcast
• Brilliant Gamologists
• Action Castle
• Do You Worship Cthulhu / Mafia/Are you a Werewolf
• Rob Bohl
• Kevin’s twitpic
• Siggraph
• Michael Stackpole / The Pulling Report
• Mechwarrior PC game / intro cinematic / Battletech Classic / Battletech Pods
• Storn A. Cook / Sons of Kryos
• Indie Press Revolution
• Paul Tevis: Voice of the Revolution / Have Games Will Travel
• All Games Considered Podcast
• Penny for My Thoughts
• Sean Nittner / Narrative Control Podcast
• Paul Czege / My Life with Master
• Tony Lower-Basch: Capes and Misery Bubblegum
• Games on Demand Games: Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, In A Wicked Age, Houses of the Blooded, Spirit of the Century, Misspent Youth, Primetime Adventures, Escape from Tentacle City, Dogs in the Vineyard, Mouse Guard, Polaris, 3:16, Cold City, Hot War, Shock, Amber, Inspectres, Shab-Al-Hiri Roach, Carry, Shooting the Moon, Annalise, Penny for My Thoughts.
• Coma White (what Kevin actually meant was “Soma” from Brave New World. Oops)
• Burning Wheel / The Sword
• Christopher Moeller
• Games Workshop
• Heinlein’s Starship Troopers
• Forge Midwest
• Willow Palecek
• The Forge
• Ron Edwards / S/lay w/ Me / Spione
• Steve Long
• Theory from the Closet
• Ryan Macklin / Master Plan Podcast
• Pulp Gamer
• The Jank Cast
• Diagonally Through the Woods
• D&D “Moldvay Basic”
• Tony Dowler / How to Host a Dungeon
• Dungeon Keeper / Dwarf Fortress

Crunchy Bits!

• Discussion Episode 13: 1 Hour
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Promos and Bumpers:

• This Modern Death
• Have Games, Will Travel
• Spooky Outhouse

Kevin, Misha, Sabe and Jason talk about their experiences with Blazing Rose.  It was the first GMless game for Misha and Jason, and we discuss how it resulted in a different play experience for them. The conversation then continues on to many differences between traditional and story games, and wraps with a bit of talk with Sabe about his inspirations for Blazing Rose.

Relevant Links

• Blazing Rose Page/Sabe’s Blog
• Diagonally Through the Wood
• Grey Ranks
• Shab-al-hiri Roach
• Agon
• Czege Principle
• Weapons of the Gods
• Dynasty Warriors
• Burning Wheel
• Burning Empires
• Willow’s Blog post about Burning Empires
• Exalted
• In a Wicked Age
• Riviera the Promised Land
• Primetime Adventures
• Lulu

Crunchy Bits!

• Discussion 12: Post Blazing Rose 44 Minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

I met Edward “Sabe” Jones at Forge Midwest 2009, and we’ve kept in touch ever since. A few weeks back he was in town and we sat down to play his game Blazing Rose: A game of romantic rivalry. Joining us is Sabe’s girlfriend Misha and fellow local podcaster Jason Grabau from Diagonally Through the Woods. This was Jason’s first experience with a GMless storygame, and he had a great time with it. This is a full session of BR, covering setting, beloved, and character creation and then one round of narration. After a bit of discussion, we decided on a Fables/American Gods “mythical creatures in the modern day”. After the session we talked about how Blazing Rose was different from games Jason had been playing (mostly 4E). Stay tuned for that next week!

Relevant Links

• There’s Something About Mary
• To Heart
• Grumpy Old Men
• The Village of Hommlet
• Poison’d
• Mutiny on the Bounty
• Amistad
• Harem Anime
• Fables
• Neil Gaiman
• Mayan Calendar “Doomsday”
• Piers Anthony
• Bruce Campbell
• Burn Notice
• In Nomine
• The Sword in the Stone
• Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog
• Metatron
• Mists of Avalon

Crunchy Bits!

• Blazing Rose Actual Play: 3 and a half hours.
• Intro music by Oh Possum, Outro Music by Chitlins, Whiskey, and Skirt: “Increased Chances”

Broken down into 3 parts:

• Part A: 1 Hour
• Part B: 1 Hour
• Part C: 1 Hour 30 min