Darth Thulhu

I'm going to be running a Star Wars game using Savage Worlds [link] and I needed a villain. I knew I wanted to use a Sith lord as the bad guy. I started brainstorming names and came across Darth Thulhu. I couldn't resist. This awesome drawing was done by a friend of mine Chris Moeller. Check out his stuff.

• http://www.cmoeller.com
• http://www.theironempires.com

Scene Economies

There seems to be a lot of new games coming out that have rules regarding scenes. Generally these rules limit the number or types of scenes that your character has. I'm not sure that I like the style of gaming that these rules encourage. My experience with these mechanics are limited to one game--Burning Empires. In Burning Empires the game is divided into maneuvers. In each maneuver a character can have three scenes:

1. A color scene--this allows a player to describe something in the world
2. An interstitial scene--this allows the character to have a discussion with other characters
3. A building scene or a conflict scene--a building scene allows your character to make mechanical roles and a conflict scene allows a character to fight someone

To add one more issue to this mix experience in Burning Empires is done by counting the rolls you make. The only time you make rolls is during a building scene or a conflict scene. A building scene allows for 3 rolls. The conflict mechanics allow for a larger amount of experience to be gained based on your choices within the mechanics. To me it seems that Burning Empires has these scene limit to maintain a balance among characters' experience levels. I can understand this. A character can only have one building or conflict scene to every other character's one build or conflict scene. This creates a balance among character so that one character does not become too powerful and takes over the game. The issue is that these mechanics encourage you to go all the way to your limit in what you can do. You end up using a rolls in a building scene not because they are important rolls but because you want experience. This same logic also extend through other experience mechanics to interstitial and color scenes as well. You sometimes end up trying to come up with ways to use these scenes not because it enhances the plot but because you feel that you need to use all that is allotted you. I can definitely see how this can sometimes create something very cool. In practice for me it doesn't feel that way. It feels much more mechanical and forced. There is another scene model that is found in many "classical" roleplaying games where the GM has full control of the scene distribution. The GM decides who gets a scene when and the action tends to flow from the GM. These games require the GM to balance the scenes himself to make sure that the experience is balanced. To ease this these games generally encourage player character's to stay in a group so that their scenes are shared with the other players. The benefit to this system is that it allows for scenes to flow more organically. It does not force a character to have a building scene when what he wants is a series of interstitial scenes. Likewise this also allows for a character to have a series of building scenes immediately before a conflict scene. To simulate this Burning Empires allow scenes to happen at any point in time--so you can have a series of building scenes chronologically happen just before a conflict. However because of their discontinuous nature they tend not to feel like they are happening in chronological order. There is an argument that since the scene flow from the GM the players loose the ability to drive the story. There is a potential for this--if your GM is not very good. In general I would think that if a player said "I want a scene where I ," the GM will normally agree. So players can still drive the stories in this style of scene economy. Checking with the GM ensures that there remains an experience balance. In games that I have played in it was not uncommon for a scene to be requested but the tabled till after another player had a scene. It just seems that a game the has a scene limiting mechanic forces a character to use that scene. Games that do not have a scene mechanic do not force that scene to happen. They allow for a more organic flow to the scenes. This organic flow is more important to me than a manufactured scene balance.

Gaming Podcasts

There are a lot of gaming podcasts that I listen to and I'm always on a look for more. I thought I would share a couple of my favorites.

• Dragons Landing http://www.dragonslanding.com/dli/
• Dungeons and Dragons Podcast http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/pod
• Durham 3 http://www.durham3.com/
• Have Games, Will Travel http://havegameswilltravel.libsyn.com/
• PulpGamer http://www.pulpgamer.com/
• Sons of Kryos http://www.sonsofkryos.com/

If I find any more in the future I will definitely be updating this list.

Belated Introduction

Perhaps before going further with this project I should tell you more about it. My goal here is to talk about my gaming life. I plan to use this blog as a means for me to discuss games and issues around them. What I don't expect to happen is for this to become a blog about characters in my games. While there is a place for that it is not here. I feel there is a need to talk about that I would me more than willing to create a separate blog for that. What I plan on talking about is much more on the conceptual side of things. By this I mean I will talk about interaction between players, how mechanics affect a game, and general strategies for enhancing games. That is a general list and should not be considered exhausting but it should give you the gist of what I'm planning on discussing. So I hope you'll like what you'll see.

New Group Tonight

Tonight I will be starting a new gaming group. I always find this a very anxious time for myself. There is so much to be unsure of.

Luckily I already know two of the three other people in my group. One I know from another gaming group. He is a great player. The other I know from work. This will be his first time playing pen and paper RPGs. The third person is a friend of the first.

The one uncertainty with this group will be the game that we are going to play. I think my one friend is expecting to play Dungeons and Dragons. I have no idea what anybody else is thinking. Personally, there are so many games that I want to play that I would be up for almost anything.

The game we play will probably depend on who is willing to run it. That is really the biggest question with this group. The friend that I've played with before doesn't really like to run games and since my other friend is new to RPGs he won't be able to run a game either. That leaves the person I don't know and myself to run games.

I have no idea what his gaming experience is. I don't know if he likes running games or how good he is at it. What I do know is how I do myself. I don't mind running games. I'm just nervous that I'm not very good at it.

I expect this group to work out but I'm not sure what game we will be playing or who will be running it.