A little behind the times on this but I did want to comment.

I’m of two minds. On the one side, I’m justifiably thrilled that my hobby of twenty five years is pervasive enough that even the Scouts have to recognize it as a cultural force. On the other, I am disappointed that they did so. Gaming, despite the wonderful social interaction one can experience through it, focuses a great deal on the individual sometimes in an unhealthy way. To me Scouting exists in part, to get boys and young men away from their computers, video games, and other aspects of pop-culture. To expose them to the wider world, to help them develop an appreciation of the natural wonders and of their community. To get them away from themselves.

In my opinion the requirements for the beltloop award and the Academic pin do neither and instead smack of a commercial exploit of the scouts.

The three requirements for the Belt loop include the following:

1. Explain video game ratings and why they are important
2. Create a schedule for yourself that includes time to play video games
3. Play video games

I’ve paraphrased them, if you’re curious, here are the official requirements.

Those seem simple enough, right? The thing is, these aren’t aimed at the scout. They’re being aimed at the parents of scouts. Why does an eight year old even care about ESRB ratings, let alone be able to explain why they are important?

It also dodges a lot of questions about what role video games, and gaming in general, play in our culture as well as being gracious in play. Having fun also seems to have escaped the scouts with the way this has been organized for the Cubs and Webelos.

All in all, this is a step forward in recognizing that gaming is an important part of our culture but lacks important cultural contexts that gaming creates for both the parents and for the kids playing them.

Tags: Boy Scouts of America, Cub Scout, Entertainment Software Rating Board, Games, Video game

Item Classifications

For some time now RPGs include various classifications for items and then link them to certain mechanical benefits or detriments in the rules. For example, the GURPS system not only had types of weapons and damage but also Tech Levels, describing the point in history where the game was taking place and what sort of items could be found there. Obstinately, this was to keep laser guns out of the medieval fantasy, but in my experience, it served only to confuse the players and cause trouble. You can see where Tech Levels get silly quickly with the addition of half levels and the +/- which modifies the meaning of a given TL in an attempt to make it more customized.

Another good example can be found in D&D. Here you find weapons classified as either Exotic or Common, slashing/bashing/piercing, and by their damage die. In purpose, these are all present to give players a strategy to work by. Certain types of weapons do better or worse against certain types of foes. In practice, this causes parties to be concerned not with the story and its elements but often with the contents. How many times have you sat down to start a game session and are hit by a barrage of questions? “Are we going to be engaging undead?” “What sort?” “Skeletons or zombies?”

From such, or because of such classification, RPGs have rules which limit what characters can do based solely on them. Proficiencies, Skills, and Talents are layered with caveats giving players access to one or two of the categories but not all. But do these classifications do anything for the roleplaying experience? Do these rules enhance the drama and the player experience or end up restricting Players and their imaginations?

Here are two situations of high drama which Characters can find themselves in.

Situation 1: Your character has been kidnapped and put in a locked room. You’ve been able to escape your bonds. There’s nothing in the room but a chair, the rope the character was tied up with, and a table. Your character hears the kidnappers coming down the hallway talking about how the ransom hasn’t been paid and they’re going to murder them.

Situation 2: Your character is in the middle of a large battle, both sides have people dying all around you. Your weapon is broken and you’re suddenly faced with an opposing champion. Your only choice is to grab a spear-like instrument currently impaling a fallen comrade.

Both of these situations can apply to a whole party, not an individual. Both have the same problem when having rules reinforcing classification systems. Can the Character take up that spear or grab that chair and make good with their life? In both situations they should be able to because it makes sense dramatically. The system should be focusing on the drama of the situation and not the objects lying about the characters. These are not the plot macguffins you put in there. This is a Character in life and death. The drama of these situations does not lie in the materials but in how they are used.

When creating a system of classification for item you create a certain intent. If that intent is to limit or restrict then you have limited and restricted how your players imagine and react to the situations presented. Does that make for good roleplaying or not?

Tags: Classification, Design, Drama, Dungeons & Dragons, Games, GURPS, Items, Role-playing game, Roleplaying

We really need to post more on this… I certainly do.

So, here’s my resolution. I’m gonna try to post once a week.

My current plan, is to start developing stuff for New World of Darkness games. Today’s contribution, Homebrewed Keys and Manifestations for Geist: the Sin-Eaters

Geist has Manifestations (the sin-eaters special magical powers) associated with 7 of the 9 core attributes. Naturally for me, I would like manifestations for the other two attributes.

Also, Keys bend how a manifestation works, flavoring how the power works. I’ve started work on several new keys, to add new flavor to the powers.

Here’s what I have so far.

New Keys and Manifestations.

Manifestation 1 – Dexterity based – The Fetter – Imposes penalties, binds target
Cold Wind Fetter – Cold disables target, may create Ice to bind
Grave Dirt Fetter – Zombie hands grasp at targets legs – Try to grapple/Trip
Pyre Flame Fetter – Flame Lashes parry, drive back enemies
Tear Stained Fetter – Target is affected as if moving against water.
Industrial Fetter – Conjures rusty chains. Binds and slows target
Passion Fetter – Emotional bindings, Fear and Sorrow
Phantasmal Fetter – Illusory chains
Primeval Fetter – Vines and or other plants
Stigmata Fetter – Open pseudo wounds, no damage (til rank 4) but cause wound penalties.
Stillness Fetter – Locks targets Joints
Widow’s Kiss Fetter – Venom disables target, Shuddering/shakes.
Dirge Fetter – Wraps target in metaphysical bounds of words. Target becomes socially awkward, confused, and says wrong words or odd things.
Phlogeston Fetter – Strangles the enemy with tendrils of nothingness.

Manifestation 2 – Composure based – The Pall – Provides Social Defense, Hides intentions.
Cold Wind Pall -
Grave Dirt Pall -
Pyre Flame Pall -
Tear Stained Pall -
Industrial Pall -
Passion Pall -
Phantasmal Pall -
Primeval Pall -
Stigmata Pall -
Stillness Pall -
Widow’s Kiss Pall – q
Dirge Pall – q
Phlogeston Pall – q

KEYS
New Key 1 – The Widow’s Kiss – Poison focus. Both physical Poison and Emotional poison
Widow’s Kiss Boneyard – Grants additional power and insight over poisonous things in area, works best in poisoned land/wastelands.
Widow’s Kiss Caul – Changes body to be toxic to others, adapt to poisons. Also take on aspects of Venomous spiders or reptiles. (Especially Black/Brown/Red Widows)
Widow’s Kiss Curse – Target gets poisoned by incidental contact with normal things. Salmonella from eggs, Mercury from his fillings, his mail is contaminated with Ricin or Anthrax, Etc.
Widow’s Kiss Marionette – Creates a poison that does will damage. If will <= 0, then subject is bound to the sin-eater’s will.
Widow’s Kiss Oracle – Drink poison to gain ecstatic visions, forsight. Also allows you to ’see’ poison in things.
Widow’s Kiss Rage – Each use creates a single dose of poison whose damage and toxicity is based on successes on activation. Lasts for a length of time based on rank.
Widow’s Kiss Shroud – Bonus defense against Poisons and Disease.

New Key 2 – The Dirge – Tilts all manifestations to the Social, All word related.
Dirge Boneyard – Constant Chanting, Boneyard extends to all in earshot. Extra effects in locations associated with Oratory or Amphitheaters, or where a Eulogy was recently given.
Dirge Caul – Changes the body to become a better orator, more impressive, better manipulator.
Dirge Curse – Target suffers various mental disorders that cause social problems. Especially Aphasia and/or Tourette’s syndrome.
Dirge Marionette – Subject believes the Bounds words are his own thoughts, behaves appropriately.
Dirge Oracle – Automatic Writing, Bibliomancy.
Dirge Rage – Can be used to inflict damage as an area attack instead of single target.
Dirge Shroud – Adds to social defense, confuses others socially(Manipulation).

New Key 3 – The Phlogeston – Aethir, Fifth Element, Void. Creates vacuums?
Any manifestation where Elemental Keys function the same, Phlogeston key follows the same functions.
Phlogeston Boneyard – allows them to force other elements out of an area. Works best in area’s that are devoid of most of the classic elements. Works exceptionally well where non-breathable gasses are prevelant, or in outer space (unlikely but hey, it could happen)
Phlogeston Caul – Become an archon of nothingness
Phlogeston Curse -
Phlogeston Marionette -
Phlogeston Oracle – Must suffocate self with smoke or inert gasses to activate.
Phlogeston Rage – Damage from Vacuum Suffocation, causes perception problems
Phlogeston Shroud -

Tags: Games, Geist, Homebrew, NWoD, White Wolf

To supply my Warhammer group with the materials needed to play the next version, over $150 is going to have to be spent. I have five people at minimum, but most of the time I have seven. According to FFG’s official reckoning I’m going to  need the core box set, the adventure’s set, and at least one extra set of dice. While they have said that you can play with as many people as you like with the core box set, this appears to be incredibly awkward to do, so I consider it necessary to get the expansion. This is a tremendous amount of money just to get basic functionality. Because of this, I have been thinking of the value of the new system when compared to the old and other RPGs.

First, the previous version of WFRP was $40 plus tax. It gave all of the careers, all of the races, a starting adventure to play through and a thin GM section. With it I could create everything needed for a campaign, no extras needed. All anyone coming to play need is some dice. This has been the traditional setup for RPGs and it delivers quite a bit of value for the money.

D&D 4th edition is the next natural choice to compare. The core set of books can run you as much as $105 + tax without any discounts. However, looking on Amazon, I can get each one for $23 for a total of about $70 before taxes. And I can check it out ahead of time by going to WotC’s website and getting a free pdf which introduces much of the core concepts and a free adventure to try it out with. In practical terms, a group of five to seven can easily play with just the initial outlay although an additional PHB may be needed. Overall, not bad bang for one’s buck if one is able to get the discounted versions online or even secondhand.

Pathfinder offers a nearly all-in-one tome for $50 that has everything but a monster manual. Much like WotC’s D&D not much more is needed to keep a group of players going after the initial purchase. Currently there’s no free taste but considering it’s built off of the freely available 3.5 SRD one doesn’t really need an official version to try out. Despite this, the amount of flavor put in there by Paizo makes the price well worth it.

GURPS has a two book set, Characters & Campaigns, comprising its core system. Both are listed at Amazon for a total of about $50 before taxes. Together the two have a page count of nearly 600 pages of yummy RPG goodness. Designed for the DIY crowd, the Campaign book goes to great lengths to help the GM get going. Players with a lot of imagination (and more than a little time on their hands) have a dizzying array of options to go with. There is absolutely nothing more needed to play. This is another system that offers a free pdf to give a taste before buying.

In looking at how much is packed into these two books, it is hard not to say that GURPS may represent the most bang for one’s buck. The only drawback is the the amount of time needed for world-building.

These are just the tip of the iceberg. The HERO 6th edition core set is $70 if both books are purchased together. Rifts is currently going for $30. This doesn’t even touch free systems such as FUDGE or FATE. Nor does it address the hundreds of small/independent RPGs, many of which are $30 or less.

So I am skeptical, very skeptical, that the next version of WFRP is going to have a comparable value for my money.

Tags: Bang for buck, Games, GURPS, Is it worth it?, Role-playing game, WFRP

Since I’ve not had a chance to get another post this week so I thought I’d go over the things that have been occupying my time.

Warhammer module writing has been a bit part of it. This week The Rats Below was edited and is now ready to run at the KC Game fair. I’m very happy with it, having brought it down to 9 pages from 11 without losing a single inch of plot. It flows better, it reads easier, and hopefully it should be easier to run. Not that I’ve put it out there for anyone else to grab just yet, but that will be happening soon enough.

The other big thing I’ve been working on this week is a fourth WFRP module. The original idea I had been writing just was not working. Then on Monday I had a sudden inspiration. In writing these, I’ve been trying to introduce different themes of the WFRP world I find interesting. Where I had been going for some steampunk and greenskins, I kept hitting a wall.  The plot was just not working, it felt too contrived. I ended up taking the  “What will you do” moment from the first, placed it in the rewrite and away it went. Shoving the pcs out into an isolated forest village is a much better and more natural fit. That rewrite is half way written and I’m going to try to get the major plot points finished this week so that the details and editing is all that’s left to do.

I like this new plot for several reasons. It got me out of the writing funk that had settled in. And has me thinking about the overall plot for this campaign. There are a few stories I want to follow up with that stem from events in The Rats Below that I think are especially fun in Warhammer. Those should be written up quickly since I have a good feel for what I want to do. However, it may mean missing NanoWriMo because of it.

Which leaves editing and fleshing out of the introduction module, The Faire. This is a behemoth of a module and not something I’ve been looking forward to. It currently sits at 15 pages and just under 11k words. Not the biggest one out there but it’s big enough. That also needs to be done and have pregen characters ready, for KC Game Fair.

Hopefully the events submitted will be accepted. I put in three, one session of The Faire and two of The Rats Below. That way people can catch up who haven’t been able to come over and get ready for the next one currently being written.

I’ve also been thinking about my follow up to last week’s expansion of the rpg market article. I’m thinking of trying to get an interview with some marketing departments. Right now I’m looking at Steve Jackson Games and White Wolf. The two of these seem to be a good place to start. But first, I need to come up with questions to ask them. Since this is still mostly a vanity site, I’ll have to be much more prepared to show that this isn’t just for my own edification. Once I have them written, we’ll see what happen.

Beer wise, I wish I could say that more was happening, but there isn’t anything at all. I have two bottles left in the fridge from the ‘make your own six pack’ that netted the beers used in other reviews. I will eventually be getting to them in a future review.

Tags: Beer, Games, Roleplaying, Stuff, Warhammer Fantasy

The amount of money being spent on various forms of entertainment these days is growing, but for some reason, the RPG market remains in its limited scope. Why is this?  Considering that one of the biggest trends in entertainment has been the so-called interactive experience, I find it surprising that RPGs haven’t been touted loudly. The core of RPGs is interaction and the sharing of fun with other people.  However, I realize that these games have had a controversial existence marked with swathes of provocative misinformation and purposeful misunderstandings hounding those who play them.

Perceptions of what these games are and those who play them are the biggest culprit. Not long ago, some umbrage with the images and themes used in the biggest of games, Dungeons and Dragons. Grabbing the headlines, blame for all sorts of horrid and completely imaginary events was unjustly laid at the feet of a mere game. If you look in the right places you can still find this going on today. One of the saddest of these demonetizations came from Jack Chick and his ignorant pamphlets. In it, he unsubtly proclaims that playing D&D leads directly to devil worship, and does so in the most serious of terms. If it wasn’t so sad, all of this would be hilarious. However, since many took them seriously much damage was done to the reputation of RPGs.

To counter these perceptions we must be proactive in advocacy. And to do that we must be honest with ourselves about what we are doing.

Role Playing Games are make believe. Dressed up with esoteric rules and polyhedral dice, we project ourselves into worlds of fantastic designs, supernatural powers, and heroic paragons. But at the very core of this experience is a game of make believe. Couched in these terms RPGs don’t seem very dangerous. Practically childish, in fact.  This is a good thing. It takes a sprained mind to twist such a simple idea. However, there is someone else to consider in terming it this way. Us. It will probably take some time for gamers to become comfortable with these terms, nonetheless, this must happen before progress can be made.

Once the idea of “make believe” has been accepted by everyone, we can build on it to show that it’s not a childish escape. There is intellectual, cultural, and artistic merit to the things we do.  In taking on these alternative personas, we get a chance to experience life from a different perspective. Questions of a philosophical nature are given life in new and exciting ways not easily experienced in everyday life. This acceptance even gives us a chance to explain the iconography in proper context, finally pushing our hobby out of the metaphorical dungeon it has been languishing in.

There is a second perception which needs to be addressed. The perception of ourselves.

I have been to GenCon twice now and have to say that I could not have met and had fun with nicer people. Strangers and friends alike, everyone found themselves enjoying the fun. Everything else was ignored as unimportant. Gender, identity, ethnicity, and the lines which generally divide humanity were all tossed away. It’s hard to explain to those who have never experienced anything like it, but for all too briefly the only important matter was laughter and fun.

So why do we accept the picture of a basement dwelling, misogynistic, agoraphobe drenched in sour smelling stains of sweat as the public face for this particular facet of our lives? Why do gamers, RPG players in particular, allow this stereotype to continue unchallenged?

The vast majority of us aren’t represented by this view. For some unknown reason, we tolerate it, and it keeps people away. I’m beginning to think that deep inside we are all elitist assholes. That we don’t want other people to play if it’s not someone already approved. I hope this isn’t the case because it couldn’t be further from how I feel. I like including more people, new people, in my sessions. I like new faces because it means we get new views on the story. There will always be a few outliers that do live in their parent’s basement, eschewing greater social contact for the insulating glow of 20 watt bulbs and the screen of their computers, but that does not mean we accept it as the face the rest of the world judges us by. It by no means is me, my wife, or my friends.

A few years back Wil Wheaton gave the keynote at PAX. In it, he goes through why he continues his gaming and why he exposed his kids to it. In the end he give some sage advice to those who want to spread the word. Don’t be a dick. I cannot think of a singular, simpler way to express what must be done to get more people to join in the fun.

Play. Have fun. Include strangers. And don’t be a dick.

Tags: Dice, Don't be a dick, Dungeons & Dragons, Games, Role-playing game, Roleplaying, Roleplaying in Society, RPG, Wil Wheaton

Gencon 2009 was very fun. While there were a few disappointments they did not detract from the overall experience. My wife and I went in well prepared, having learned from our first experience in 2007 and from going to DragonCon last year. Snacks, backup breakfasts, and various supplements came along. Left behind were all of the rpg books that are dead weight. Laptops were kept locked in safes back at the hotel, and only what we needed each day was taken along. It helped.

Wensday night brought the first disappointment after passes were picked up. The swag bag, a long traditional greeting of many a gaming convention serves both as an advertisement for the various vendors and companies attending, but also as a way for those running the con to thank all of those who paid to attend. This year’s consisted of several handfuls of postcards and single page fliers, an anemic coupon book, and finally a six pack of M:tG cards. There was much grumbling as people walked away from that line. In contrast, 2007’s swag bag had a starter deck of World of Warcraft’s CCG latest expansion, two full packs of M:tG cards, a pack of Axis & Allies minis, hundreds of flies, and a hefty coupon book.

However that did not diminish the fun. Thursday came too quickly and not quickly enough as we were up at the crack of dawn to get going. Friends needed to be at the con by 7:30 am and I had an 8:00 am seminar to attend. My time in seminars was split between writing ones and game design this year. I was able to get into the dealer’s room around 10:30 in the morning and it was a great feeling. Being there and in the middle of this wonderful gaming environment gave me goosebumps.

Of course that didn’t last very long. I shortly found out about the new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The dice and cards and everything was put on display.

I need to put this out there: I am doing my best to keep an open mind about this new version of the game. However, I am disapointed in the lack of information about it. Likewise there is a absence of outreach to the many WFRP communities. Fantasy Flight, to their credit did hold several seminars at GenCon and has put those on the web for the curious. Hopefully those in charge will be relenting on the information hold and will soon allow those that have participated in the development to speak more about it.

The highlight of the day was getting to meet another gaming blog group, the Brilliant Gameologists. They were recording a podcast in one of the seminars. When it goes up, I’ll set a link here.

Friday was likewise busy with more seminars and a little bit of shopping. Saturday was the final two seminars and the L5R interactive. Unfortunately with the way events unfolded that day, I was unable to get to the costume parade or contest. So no pictures of that this year. By this point, everyone I was there with was exhausted. We passed the last few hours of Saturday with a bout of the new Pathfinder. It was nice to spin a few d20s before heading back to the hotel for one last night. Sunday morning was a slow affair. It started with a trip to a restaurant discovered on Wednesday night for one last meal. We did not reach the dealer’s hall until close to 11 that morning.  A couple of hours was spent running around picking up last minute buys. Dice, a new map grid, and a few games. Once upon a time, a storytelling card game published by Atlas Games, the Pathfinder core book, Forbidden Kingdoms, the d20 version and finally The Prince by Phalanx and Kragmortha (a Rigor Mortis game) published by Mayfair games.

Tags: Collectible card game, Conventions, Games, Gaming convention, Pathfinder, WFRP, WFRP 3

I am not sure whether it is my getting older or if it is my understanding of the world getting more mature or some combination of both. Of late I have found myself getting tired of seeing my favorite games being mismanaged. I have seen some of the best computer games I ever played get half-ass sequel treatments and then watched as the whole franchise goes down in flames. I have watched the launch of a new iteration of a classic RPG fail to revitalize the aging line while simultaneously the controlling company alienate half of the people and all of the companies who supported it not less than a year ago.

So in attempt to try and correct these mistakes and keep others from happening I propose the following. We gamers of all stripes, need to own part of the companies who make these games. We would form a group, a union of sorts, and pool our monetary resources to start buying the stock of these companies.

In looking back at the last thirty years, very little has been accomplished politically or economically when people protest something or boycott a product. Companies simply rename themselves or find a new brand to use the old product under. Mismanagement is forgiven because it is effectively forgotten. New customers are made because they don’t realize it is the same thing under a different name.

The way I see it, the only way to get their attention, to get them to stop screwing up gaming is to get into us into boardroom.

This will not be an easy thing to accomplish. Most of us gamers really only want to have fun. Running corporations is not fun. Getting involved with a group whose only purpose is to do just that? Probably not very high on any Gamer’s to-do list.

Assuming that this proposed group even gets the money to buy enough shares, there is going to be a fight to exert that influence. Those who are already involved are not going to give up their positions easily, if at all. Communicating to Gamers about these political subtleties will be an investment in a new language. I’m not sure how many FPS or RPG metaphors can be used to describe the politicizing that goes around in such places.

And that is just for the publicly held companies. Those who are in private hands create a different set of complications. It is usually considered to be an aggressive act to buy the banknotes of a company without their permission. It is considered to be less than sporting to buy privately issued shares from former employees to gain a stake. There are a multitude of reason why people keep companies private. Not having to deal with outside influences is one of them.

Why should Gamers own the companies that produce their games?

So we can make sure that all of us continue to look forward to great gaming content. Personally, I am tired of being on the sidelines. I am tired of being looked at as a pocketbook with legs waiting to be exploited. Voting with my dollars is no longer enough with so many others acting like battered spouses or addicts by continually going back to those who cause these problems in the first place.

Look at one of the big dust-ups of 2009, Hasbro pulling all pdf versions of their past and present D&D games without any announcement until it happened. I wonder if it could have been avoided. If there had been anyone in their boardroom saying “This is a bad idea”. Maybe it wouldn’t had happened or had happened with clear warnings going out giving people weeks or months instead of 24 hours to get one last copy of the books they’ve paid for. While there were plenty of howls for the heads who made this asinine decision, it was all hot air and nerd-rage. No one who purchased these materials had any legal recourse.

Hasbro is not the only one to have missteps this year. Activision last week announced that LAN play isn’t going to be included in Starcraft II. Instead they have decided that all multiplayer games are going to go through their portal, Battle.Net. A piece of software that is well known for instability and abounding with cheaters and greifers of all types. Many have wondered, myself included, how well their servers will hold up when the game releases. Or how well the competitive leagues will take to it after the first time the global servers are hit with a DOS attack in the middle of a tournament.

Would a gamer have made a difference if they had a seat at the big table in either of these cases? I don’t know. I like to think that it would.

Tags: Gamers Playing United, Games, Multiplayer video game, Role-playing game, Video game

Hello, and welcome to MY first post on Brew N Games. I suppose I should have done this sooner, but I’m a bit lazy. Ah well.

So, the two main topics of this site are Beer and Gaming, and I’d like to talk to you today about both of them. Sort of.

Or, to be more specific, I’d like to talk about a Beer I haven’t started brewing yet, and a new board game that isn’t out yet that I haven’t actually played. No! Wait! Come back! It will make sense, I promise. Maybe.

So, let’s start with the Game. On Thursday Nights at the local (if you count 50 miles away as local) game store, they have open board gaming night, and I and my wife like to go to this fairly regularly.
Last Thursday, the second, there was a guy from Steve Jackson Games on his way back from Origins who had stopped at the store to demo a couple new games, Revolution! and The Stars are Right.

The Stars are Right is a Cthulhu Mythos themed card game, which the guy demoing described as a “competitive puzzle game”, but it never actually hit the table, so I don’t really know anything else about it.

Revolution! however came out for a demo play. I, however, didn’t actually get to play. I did watch the game however, and it was very interesting. I look forward to it coming out so I can play. The boards were very nice, with high production values. Each player got a bidding board listing a dozen important townsfolk to influence, a screen to hide there bidding board until the reveal phase, and a number of little cubes to use a markers on the large town board to represent who had the most influence in different areas.
At the start of the round, each player gained an amount of Gold, Force, and Blackmail tokens based on their previous turns actions, which they spend to try to influence different people. Everyone can be influenced by gold, but some cannot be blackmailed, such as the spy, or intimidated by force, such as the general.
After the bidding, players compare bids to determine who won the support of each of the twelve townsfolk, and then they gain bonuses based on the individual. For example, if you got the spy, you could replace an opponents cube on the town board with your own, stealing points. If you have the support of the aristocrat, you gain 5 support(points), three gold to use next turn, and put an influence cube on the Plantation on the town board. And so on.
All in all, a fun and interesting looking game.

Now on to beer. I am in the process of making a nice homebrew oatmeal stout. Very early in the process. As in, still working on the equipment. Because, you see, I am going to make this beer from all grain, not a kit. No extracts, no malt powder. Whole malted barley and flaked oatmeal. So, I’ve had to construct a mash tun. A mash tun is a large tub used to steep the grain in order to extract the color, flavor, sugars, and enzymes that you need to make beer. There are two ways to go with a mash tun, because you have to keep the mash warm for over an hour to fully extract the sugars and enzymes.
1> You can make one that you can heat, i.e. a large metal pot with a spigot in the bottom that sits on the stove and heats while it sits.
2> What I did, you can make a Mash tun in a Cooler or other insulated vessel, so it holds the starting heat in.

So, I took a big 15 gallon cooler, and I pulled the spigot out, replaced it with a copper tube and valve, and made a filter out of copper water pipe. More detail on that later.
The filter isn’t what I’d call 100% finished, but it’s done enough to be functional, and I’m tired of waiting, so I’m going to do the first batch with the filter as it is. At the moment, it’s running through the dish washer, while a little water sealant is setting up in the mash tun itself.

More details as work progresses.

Tags: Beer, Games, Oatmeal, Revolution!, Steve Jackson, Stout

In a perfect world a book with supplemental material for a given game system will have all of the material needed by every GM and player. A book like that would resemble an encyclopedia in the number of volumes and would not be cheap. Which leaves us with our imperfect world and the imperfect supplements that get published, lacking in many different dimensions.

I would like to present my opinion of the sort of topics which should be included in supplements and a short justification for them.

The structure of a supplement revolves around what I call the “Three Pillars”.

The first is the Story part of the book. This is the part of the supplement which gives background information for the topic of the supplement and any available insight into the social structures or daily life as is applicable. It serves the purpose of presenting narration material to the GM and players. It presents story hooks. It is there to answer the questions of “Why” and “Wherefore” when it comes to the supplemental material. It gives justifications. Examples abound; Why do the elder gods want cults instead of going mainstream? How do they create their cults and what sort of people are attracted to them?

The second pillar is the the “How-To” part of the supplement. This section revolves around the numbers and statistics. It gives lists of spells or talents and the like. It gives specific instruction on the “How” of how it all works in the game world. It has any new rules, changes to the old rules, and any reconciliation necessary between the two. If possible, it gives examples of the sorts of common encounters that the GM should now be able to build and how to make them tougher or easier. Idealy, it has all sorts of instruction on how to build from scratch encounters for your players based on the new material. This gives all GMs an insight into the design of the rules so as to be able to give their players the best encounter suited to them.

The third pillar is the “Instant-Go” part of the supplement. It should not be confused with an included adventure or module. This is the part of the supplement where an encounter has been written and is ready to drop in any given adventure. It does not serve the purpose as an example of the material in the supplement but it is the new or changed rules prepared and executed. This gives a busy GM a place to go when they do not have the time needed to create their own encounter with the presented material.

The proportion of each of these sections in a given supplement is not a hard and fast thing. Some supplemental materal, such as a world book, is there to introduce GMs and players to a setting more than to new or changed rules. In such cases, there is going to be far more of the Story Pillar than of the other two. But by no means should the other two be dismissed or ignored. If anything in such situations there should be more attention paid by the writers and publishers to make sure that what How-To and Instant-Go writing is included should be of the highest quality and usefulness. Other hand supplemental material like a bestiary is going to require much of the page be given to the second and third pillars. Again just because it is that sort of supplement does not excuse it from not using the best story possible.

Tags: Games, Idealized, Supplements