RPG A Day 2018: Day 18...Art That Inspires Your Game

Since I'm not very good at drawing, I rarely draw my own characters and instead re-purpose artwork and photos as needed. In particular in Roll*20: I search google, find an image that I like, download that, use the Token Tool app, upload to Roll * 20 and there you go for characters. I usually create a cover for the campaign in a similar way. Most of the time I use anime style characters because I'm fine with anime and a lot of the younger players that I end up running for are familiar with the style and usually will pick such for their own avatars. Obviously, choosing art from D&D books and 7th Sea books was appropriate for those campaigns. With the current Cyberpunk 2020 campaign, I've chosen to use real pictures from my end--players can keep drawing style if they like. I use celebrities sometimes, but mostly it's random cosplayers or just normal people I find online. Be careful if you post your pic there as if you look interesting you just might become a game token or background. This prompt lends itself to showing a few pics...so I will:

Ryuutama: 

There's a monster in this game that is a living bamboo statue. I thought this was a fair representation.


7th Sea:

I had need of a haunted light house in game it was named...The Bloody Lighthouse


Cyberpunk 2020:

This is my media NPC, Coco Lopez. Got no idea who she is IRL, but if she's good enough for the Halloween store, she's good enough for my game. I wish more girls took on this hairstyle...it's less than two years until 2020...they should get with it.

I was proud of this when I made it, but I don't know how funny Gallagher references are to a lot of younger people who have no idea how big he was...my whole Prop Comic Wars between him and Carrot Top was probably lost on them.

Loved this screenshot from Bladerunner 2049

Mutant Crawl Classics:

I love the style of Goodman Games books Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics.

Dungeons and Dragons:

I couldn't not put this one up there. You know it and love it.

FYI...I'm not making any money off of this particular blog. If  I were and if I had the time now even for free, I would list the artists/photographer/actor...but this is for personal use only, so it should be okay.

RPG a Day 2018: Day 10...How has gaming changed you?

It's therapy day on RPG a Day for 2018 with the prompt 'How has gaming changed you?'

Before I go into what gaming has done and continues to do for me, I will first give credit to God, my Christian upbringing and my family--mom, dad, and younger brother back in the old days--without which no amount of gaming in the world would have saved me. In spite of the fact that my dad was working all the time, we never a lot of money growing up. He worked all of his life and really never got ahead. However, he did have a successful marriage, and raised two boys who are at least somewhat functioning members of society. Ultimately, Dad was able to retire happily for a few years, before we lost him back in December of 2010. I love him, respect him, and wish that he was still here today, but some of his financial and "career" choices set the family back for years. We made a lot of moves--some lateral and some for the worse--meaning going to different schools in different towns and never getting to form "lifelong friends". Adults from a certain era--my parents were born in the 40's--didn't understand how important it was for a child, especially an introverted one, to develop strong social skills. I'm sure they were more concerned with keeping us in food, water, clothing and shelter, but it didn't make the time any easier. It's hard to go through high school with little or no friends--depending on what year it was. I more or less missed out on everything that an American high school student expects to do aside from the graduation ceremony--and I wouldn't have even done that had my parents not insisted. It doesn't bother me as much now, but I still remember the feeling at age 44 and if I live long enough I'll remember at age 104. So, aren't we supposed to be talking about RPGs...yeah, and here's the abridged version of how they've been around like the "life long friend" I never got to make in Elementary School.

Firstly, lets talk about the preteen years. These were stable times for the most part. I lived in Georgia in the States attending 1st grade all the way to the beginning of grade 7, so as a "kid" kid things weren't so bad really.When I was only nine years old apparently, my interest in Dungeons and Dragons started with the animated series. I was also into the Choose Your Own Adventure books especially a series called Time Machine. I was crazy about the dinosaur one. At some point here my brother and I did buy a D&D book of some kind as I remember it, but since my parents weren't into it and neither were any cousins or anything like that, we had to experiment on our own. I thought it was the AD&D Thieves Screen, but that wouldn't be for another ten years. Damn that Mandella Effect. At any rate if we really had such a thing, we were too young for it. We had He-Man and Visionary toys, but never got any of the D&D ones. Living in the South we did encounter the whole Satanic Panic of the 80's but it wasn't too bad. Mom and Dad were just glad we were reading. CHANGE: You can be a Christian and still be in to fantasy, horror or anything else. It's important that one knows the difference between fantasy and reality. 

Second, these are my early teen years. I was in fact just turning 13 when one of my Dad's bad moves happened. We left the schools we were used to and moved to Alabama. Now, it's nothing that's like a drive of a few hours, but it was horrible as I recall it and the start of a downturn in my life. My brother and I got into the Fighting Fantasy books and the lesser known Wizards, Warriors and You books from my new school library. The town we lived in called Jackson, Alabama was really screwy. Their high school started with 7th grade, so there were guys my age just turning thirteen, going to the same campus as guys who were eighteen or better. It wasn't a great time by any means. My brother and I also came up with a wrestling game for our M.U.S.C.L.E. toys. These were small pink wrestler toys from Japan. They were relatively cheap and we made a rudimentary RPG with them. CHANGE: Seeing my brother as a collaborator and friend...although he'd outgrow almost all of our hobbies including RPGs. The Alabama experiment lasted for a year and we were back in Georgia, but another different town where I knew no one. I did get to make one nerdy friend and his dad had the first edition D&D we tried to play it, but it was too tough for us. Had his dad been available to teach we would have probably gotten into it. CHANGE: You can make friends through gaming. Things were quiet on the RPG front for about two years when my dad decided it was moving time again. At some point during this my brother and I finally hit the big time. We went to the Atlanta comic-book convention known as Dragon Con. This led to me playing and running games of Marvel Superheroes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other Strangeness, After the Bomb and finally Heroes Unlimited. This was the time that I also bought my first set of dice. I ran for a couple of years sometimes only for my little brother and other times with him and one of his friends. I remember specifically playing a Marvel Superheroes session with the whole family. Of course, Mom and Dad were just humoring us I'm sure--and Dad's actions with Marvel's 'The Thing' from Fantastic Four would have gotten him banned from all social media if he had pulled it nowadays. CHANGE: Gaming can be fun for all ages.

Third of all, a peek at my late teens and early twenties. As far as switching schools was concerned, I finally had enough and as clearly as I could explain, beg, and threaten, I told the 'rents that I would drop out if we switched again. I just couldn't be the new kid anymore. We did move yet again, but I didn't switch schools. Not that I liked my school. In deed I hated it for the most part. No gaming was to be had in those years unless it was my brother and I only, and if I remember, he'd already started to turn at this point. I got my fix through video games. I really enjoyed the game Wizardry on the old NES and I fell in love with reading the strategy guide. I wish I still had it. I would bring it to school almost everyday and one of my classmates started calling me 'The Wizard'. For the most part I muddled through my high school career and finally graduated. CHANGE: In a pinch you can have fun reading about games and systems even if you never get to play them. Video Games are not the equal to a live table top, but they are a suitable replacement if you have no other choice...they're also pretty fun. So, after graduation I ran into one of the few friends that I had made over the years at  a showing of Batman Returns. We got together and through them my gaming hit at what until that point was an all time high. We played: AD&D,  Vampire the Masquerade, Deadlands, GURPs, and more Heroes Unlimited. In addition we were going nuts with the board games like Blood Bowl and Warhammmer (in all its guises including Quest) CHANGE: You can use games to make friends II and there is a great variety of games, systems and genres available. If you can get people to play games with you, then you can expand to other interests and make lots of friends. This went on for years and years throughout my early twenties, and I remain friends with these guys to this day. We're mostly Facebook friends, but we still keep in touch and once in a while we get a chance to see each other, but those chances are few and far between and they usually don't involve gaming.

Fourth, we'll look at my late 20's up to the 30's. So, we were in gamers' paradise there for a bit, but you'll notice that one thing was lacking...girls. CHANGE: Man cannot live by games alone. If you game too much--even today I might add--you are unlikely to encounter romance. For all the Satanic Panic and witchcraft worries this is the real danger in gaming. You are 'investing' lots of time and possibly lots of money into the hobby. People in my day, and to a certain extent to this day, see RPGs as a weird thing. If you look like a basement dweller odds are against any girls following you home to your basement to play, it's just a fact. Nowadays, with Roll*20, streaming games, and the geek is chic thing going on, you may have better luck than guys of my time had. If so, more power to you. If not, you may have to break away like I did. I pushed hard to get a wife--even then in a geeky way having found her via the web browser on my Sega Dreamcast during the infancy of internet dating. She isn't a gamer as far as RPGs go--she doesn't understand a game with no winner--and she doesn't like cartoons, but at least she'll watch scary movies with me. CHANGE: Gaming can get you so far, but not everybody likes it, and that's okay. So, having now obtained a bride I had to start focusing on things to have a successful, continuous marriage. I went back to university and got my teaching degree. In those four years, all I could do was to fall back on video games, but Roll*20 and a great change was just ahead.

Finally, and I should give milestone level up to whoever reads this far, how are things today? I got back into RPGs while teaching because I remembered how much fun I used to have playing and I thought it would be an interesting way for the students to get into reading...it didn't work. As I had already learned, it's not for everybody. I had to drive a long way, but I managed to find a small group to play with in the UAE, eventually got hooked up with the large Gulf Roleplaying Community--which is still too far away, but I check in from time to time, got into Roll*20 where distance doesn't matter, and helped to start up a small group much closer to home that will be entering it's fourth active year. CHANGE: If you think something is worth doing, find a way to do it. Somewhere along there I managed to obtain a daughter who will soon be four years old. I have every intention of introducing her to the hobby and she's already good at Role Playing without dice.

The biggest change RPGs brought to me was self-confidence. I went from a guy who would barely speak--and who to this day would still prefer to be silent--or even look anyone in the eye to making my living by standing up in front of people day in and day out. I try to play a role in every professional situation that I'm in...sometimes I pull it off better than others, but its a skill that I am fairly good at. In social situations, gaming is a very good icebreaker. Once you've gamed with someone, it opens the doors to talking about all sorts of other subjects and enjoying other activities together. Gaming has helped me to think critically, and imaginatively. This is very useful for spending time with my wife and daughter as we think of new ways to enjoy our time and enrich our lives. Gaming certainly isn't the only thing that's gotten me through this life, but with all the positives it has brought to me, I can't help but to preach it when given the opportunity. 

Mutant Crawl Classics: Kickstarter Review

My review of Mutant Crawl Classics from Goodman Games. A couple of weeks ago I received my copy of MCC written by Jim Wampler and containing fantastic artwork by various artists.

This roleplaying game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world closely akin to the old TSR/WOTC Gamma World setting. For non-role-players—and why are you reading my review if you’re not an RPG enthusiast? –it’s kind of like the classic version of ‘Planet of the Apes’ wherein some world-shaking disaster has completely changed the landscape of the planet and its surrounding environment—in this setting’s case it is never revealed to be Earth specifically, and in any case the level of advancement for the society that did exist prior to the great disaster was far advanced from our current time.

I originally backed the project on Kickstarter where 2,311 of us pledged $206,806 against a, relatively modest for Goodman Games, $20,000 initial goal. There were many reward tiers and add-ons for the project including: special edition books, T-shirts, PDF modules, special dice, GM Screen and print versions made available for everything. The game is also fully compatible with Goodman Game’s most famous (?) system Dungeon Crawl Classics.

Waiting is the hardest part:
Depending on how much of my stuff you read, you know I’m an English teacher out in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Although I’ve been out here for eight years now, I have always—and will always—realize that this is not a permanent situation. In fact, this year—my ninth—I plan to document in blog form my efforts to look for different—if not greener—pastures, but I digress. The point is that I’m far from the States and even within the UAE, I’m out in the sticks. The couriers in these parts are…let’s say…interesting.  In spite of this fact—and the understanding that I’ll have to move all of this stuff eventually—I love physical print copies and the swag that comes with it.

The project funded almost exactly two-years ago today, but Goodman Games are indeed very good men…and women, I assume…when it comes to updating and giving samples of the process and progress along the way. If you haven’t backed a KS project, I suggest you find one you like and do it. Depending on the creator you back, you can learn a lot of behind the scenes information, and at least for the projects that I’ve chosen it has been very interesting. Grant me one more aside—group fund within reason as it is addicting, make sure you back trusted creators, beware of backing video-games, and remember it’s not a store and you do have to wait for your reward. KS is probably going to be your best bet if you do take the plunge because they at least have some policies to hold creators accountable.

In the case of MCC, we have had the PDF versions of the game since at least Sept. 17th of last year. As I said however, I’m not really a PDF guy so I gave it a quick browse anticipating the eventual arrival of my hardcover copy. A lot of backers who are better men than me, helped to playtest and proofread the PDF. That’s a couple of thousand sets of eyes catching errata before the book goes to print. That’s brilliant, and one of the big perks of KS and the like for these types of projects: the backers get early access and the creators get feedback before the product ever goes to market.

On a slow boat from somewhere…
Fast forward to April 2018 and the first books start heading out the door. This is where I hit a little snag. I find out at this point in the process that an outside company from the UK will be distributing books to overseas backers. I’m not too worried yet because I’ve backed many things before. I just prefer that the package be sent via standard postal services because in my area of the UAE it’s all P.O.Boxes.

May 2018 comes around and the KS update touts 97% shipped…and I’ve got nothing. A short time later I received an e-mail from the UK company stating that the order had been shipped, and a tracking number was included. Not surprisingly—to a guy who’s lived out here for eight years—the tracking number didn’t function. Sometimes our couriers may have a famous name, but it will be up to the man in the truck on the ground as to whether or not he will decide to live up to the lofty expectations—that is to say what would be considered minimally acceptable service from the States and other western countries--associated with said name. A week passes before I’m told that this courier will not deliver to a P.O. Box. Supposedly he would be willing to drop it off at the post office itself and have me pick it up there.

In June the KS updates with 99.9% fulfilled, and I get to welcome myself to the .01% --a very exclusive club. New contact from the UK middlemen confirms that my shipment has been lost to this world. As a make good, Goodman upgrades my pledge giving me all the print goodies beyond the core book—Hooray!!—but, it still needs to get to me. To that end, the UK group goes with the more expensive, super-deluxe, we don’t use these guys except in special circumstances courier…numb to my request that they send it via regular international post.

Two weeks later we head into the middle of June and I’ve still got nothing. Goodman Games was off touring the convention scene and couldn’t answer me directly, while the last communique I received from my pals in the UK was to say that once they sent the product to the courier it was out of their hands. Of course, I was ticked off by this point as I had been preaching since the first hint of trouble that regular postal services were the way to go. Happily, good fortune smiled on me and for whatever reason in the middle of the following week a regular post office truck delivered the package to me at my job. It was in the packaging of the second, expensive courier by the way. Nobody knows how it turned out that way and I really don’t care. I was just glad to get the books.

So, how are the books?
They are just as excellent as I had hoped they would be. The artwork is stupendous. If you’re an oldskool guy like me, then you’ll like the art style even more. Goodman really took care of me when they gave me the upgrade as all of the modules are up to the same quality as the book and have a feel to them that you can’t get anywhere else. As to the system—which I won’t go too much into, it is D20 modified to use the “weird dice” made famous by the sister product Dungeon Crawl Classics. I had mentioned earlier that DCC is completely compatible with MCC, but I think MCC is a bit easier. Maybe it is my familiarity with DCC—meaning I didn’t go into this completely cold--or maybe the creators worded things slightly differently, so that I could understand them more easily. In either case, it is fun to read about all the strange powers and locations. A nice map and GM screen came along with it, so I felt like a kid in a candy store…or else like a kid when the book fair used to come to elementary school.

The initial player races are: Pure Strain Human, Mutant, Manimal and Plantient. In the oldskool fashion only the Pure Strain Human gets a class. We can say his power comes from his class. The classes are Sentinel (fighter), Shaman(wizard), Healer(cleric) and Rover(thief). The other sentient beings get race specific powers. Mutants are mutated humans,  Manimals are sentient animals, and Plantients are sentient plants. All the character types—save PSH—can devolve to their non-mutant form. The mutants just become PSH, but the Manimals and Plantients will  become base—I can’t imagine still playable—forms of animals and plants.

The module included in the core book is a take-off on a very famous family from the future. It took me far too long to “get” the joke, but once I did it was obvious and very funny. One of the unique features of DCC and MCC is the level-zero character funnel. The included module is one of those. The concept is for players to create 3-4 of these fragile characters each. They take the whole lot of them—using the highest of their character’s initiatives or other traits to speed things along—and try their best to survive a dungeon—er, areas of ancient ruins--that’s sure to make them drop like flies. Characters that survive get to become level 1’s and also have a backstory to tell wherein they almost certainly lost a few comrades. In the MCC scenarios, the funnel is a ‘rite of passage’ to adulthood and full member of the tribe. These newly minted heroes graduate from their previous tribal roles of ‘hunter’ or ‘gatherer’ to become a prestigious ‘seeker’ from which point the normal adventuring and campaigns can begin.

Closing:
I’m currently on a Cyberpunk 2020 kick over on Roll 20 while my live-table—which is usually D&D focused—will be on hiatus while we’re on summer break. Unfortunately, that means that I haven’t been able to run or play in an MCC game yet. That hasn’t stopped me from reading the books over and over nor from watching a couple of playthroughs available on YouTube. The plan is to at least run the included funnel as a one-shot for my live-table when school is back in session in September. With that being said, I would give the game my highest recommendation.

Scores:
Game System: 5/5: All the oldskool fun from DCC except easier and a relief from the doldrums of a tired strictly fantasy setting

Presentation: 5/5: For me this is the selling point. If I never get to play—I sure hope to—I would still call this a worthy investment because the art, the lore, the style of the presentation are all just so good. I have come to expect this quality from Goodman Games and they didn’t disappoint me here.

KS Campaign: 4/5: Ultimately, I was taken care of. Unfortunately, I must take a point away because Goodman should have specified how the product would be delivered before taking my pledge. I had previously received material in my P.O.Box from Goodman with no middlemen and no problems. So, I assumed I would be getting the package direct from Goodman to me. We all know what happens when we assume. I've backed many projects--so many that my wife is making me retire--and this was the only one to give me shipping trouble. The designation that the product ships “Anywhere in the world” should mean anywhere in the world…which in the end it was for me...but, none of the parties involved know exactly how that came to be. I could just as easily be sitting here empty handed.

Customer Service: 5/5 from Goodman Games. They were always quick to respond to my complaints and in the end they delivered to me more than what I had paid for. Had they listened to me and went with the regular post, they would have saved us all a lot of time—but then I would have only gotten the core book, so a winner is me. That being said, I would have to be leery of ordering other products from them until such a time when I’m no longer in the UAE…or else find a buddy with a physical address.

3/5 from <Redacted> Games from the UK: The communication with them wasn’t so great. They truly are middlemen and I was an annoyance to them. I won’t use their company name because it ultimately worked out. Had the result been different the review would be even worse. They gave me extra jobs to do—virtual legwork that very nearly became physical legwork—to track the package when my only job should be to making sure the cheque clears.