Returning to The Bleed.

I'm pretty happy to say I'm starting an Ashen Stars campaign on Google+.  Well more like restarting to the tabletop campaign I set ran last winter.  Ok, more like a reboot, but with some of the same characters and with nods to what happened in the past, but not depending on past information.   Well whatever - Ashen Stars wooo.

I'm going to try to use Roll20 for some of the stuff, especially for rolling dice and adding point spends vi the use of cards.  We quickly found in the tabletop run that using playing cards was the best way to add points to a die roll when doing challenges - especially for ship combat.  It was exciting and fast to for Gm and players to slide out the cards (sometimes other players would slid in an extra one if they were helping) then roll the dice and flip the cards over.  I have made a custom set of cards for this in Roll20 so we will see how it works.  I'm not really interested in using the virtual tabletop for minis or things but it might be useful for bringing up clues and images.

There is no character sheet for Ashen Stars but I did put in a request for one and someone did do a sheet for Trail of Cthulhu so hopefully someone can use that as a spring board.  In the meantime we will be using Pelgrane's The Black Book Gumshoe character creator to manage the sheets and storing them up on Google Plus for me to reference.  Old school  (well new-old school) but it works.

I also managed to get a copy of Accretion Disk which is available now even though they sure don't seem to be shouting about it.  The Pelgrane site  mentions this book is available for is a pre-order but I ordered it and got my copy of the PDF right away - the physical copy is probably still making it's way across the sea.  I really was waiting for this book to come out and it is a good resource.  I was a bit disappointed that there was not more campaign related material however.  The initial pitch mentioned different paths for a crew to take - more info for running traders, or criminals or explorer crew campaigns.  There does not seem to be which is a shame - but that doesn't mean the contents of the book are bad - just that it doesn't have that stuff which I really wanted.  I will try to do a review of it when I finally get the physical book - but quickly say it is well named in that there is good stuff and it adds to the existing rules but it's not an expansion of the rules.

I will be adding in my extra financial rule for lifestyle costs and we will be tracking ship mortgage on a spreadsheet.  I am looking for rules that flesh out Public Relations and Business Affairs skills to manage contracts and reputation, things to make money more interesting in the story without getting into inventory and cost tables.  This includes financial random events, mini jobs and trading and anything that will keep a crew hungry but not counting pennies.  I had some success with this in the previous run and think it adds to the game.

I am also trying to pick which combat rules we can include from the thriller combat rules for gumshoe.  One of the biggest complaints we had from the last time we played Trail of Cthulhu was when a player would spend points for a great hit and then roll a 1 for damage. Not very satisfying after paying for that spotlight.  This isn't so bad in Ashen Stars where there are stun settings and poppers -  but it still sucks.  We are thinking about using a suggestion to add in some of those points to the damage - or using a critical hit rule - or using fixed damage for lethal combat.  Well we are thinking about something anyway.

So much excite and all the good things.  I love this game and it will be good to play again.

Marvel Comics Unlimited

I always liked reading comics.  I was a DC guy myself, and I have a set of Crisis on Infinite Earths and a almost full run of Sandman and a bunch of bagged issues of Legion of Super Heroes.  When comics went digital I was interested in that format and read some on my tablet.  It was great - comics on a tablet are even better than comics on paper in my opinion.  But it was hard shelling out for them - graphic novels were expensive and single issues even more so.  It is possible to get comics online for free, but I really don't like the idea of reading comics without giving something back to the writers - be that feedback or money or whatever.  Without that feedback I feel, the comics I like won't get made, and the ones that did get made would be the gimmicky crap that sells.

I purchased a one year subscription to Marvel Unlimited for myself in December.  Marvel Unlimited is like the Netflix of comics.  You subscribe for around 9$ a month and then you get unlimited reading of a huge part of the Marvel library going back for many decades. This is a fantastic entertainment deal.  I had read Marvel comics before sure - I knew who Iron Man and Nick Fury and Thanos were long before they showed up in movies, but like I say I was much more familiar with the DC line.  Well aside from the Micronauts - I have a long run of Micronauts boxed and bagged still.

Since December I have read the fuck out of Marvel comics and I am really enjoying myself.     You cannot get better value for your money than this   In the last few months I've read about the Avengers Disassembling, about the Ultimate Universe, about the stupid Civil War and the better Siege. I am particularly enjoying reading the 2010 run of Thor right now and the excellent 2014 run of Hawkeye and the also can say enough about The Superior Foes of Spiderman.

Its true you don't get the new stuff with Marvel Unlimited -  they track about 6 months from the current releases so they don't cut into sales.  I get that.  I don't care though - its all new stuff to me and I wouldn't buy it anyway.  This way I actually read it and I do get my updates every week.  And I hope Marvel is doing what Netflix does and tracking what I read.  I hope they are smart enough to use that info and realize that She Hulk as a lawyer is interesting and that although I might read something once - the stuff I re-read is a valuable metric to note.  I hope it influences what books (and characters and movies) they green light in the future.  I hope that is somewhat valuable even if not as dramatic as the money they see from alternate covers and crappy 'Death of X' stories.

Now I just wish that Darkhorse and DC comics would figure this out.

Wood Elf Monk

I'm enjoying the new 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons (notice its got D&D right there on the cover so that this trademark is reinforced). It's not perfect but its really good. The Players Handbook is good, the Monster Manual is well done.  I like the advantage/disadvantage mechanism. I like the way characters level. The three strike death check is interesting. The way different damage works is fun. All in all it's well designed.  Combat is interesting without being a slog and there are a bunch of ways you can punch things up with the simple combat mechanics. Character role playing isn't entrenched in the rules but it certainly doesn't get trampled by the rules either. You can play your character's style in combat without worrying too much about sub-optimal choices. There is a mechanism for helping or hindering enemies without actually attacking which is nice and lets someone play a true support type character without having it hurt the party - the proverbial klutz with a frying pan type. I'm eager to get my Dungeon Masters Guide to see just how the XP and campaign advice is put together, but so far this is top notch d20. I think it's the best version of D&D since AD&D, and probably only coming in second place because of the 'AD&D came first' slash nostalgia factor.

Our group is taking turns running a series of adventures to test out the game and I'm playing a wood elf Monk character (a good synergy) and having fun with it. He's still only second level, but so far it is fun playing him. I figure since the wood elf/ monk combo fits so well together, that in this campaign many wood elves are 'monks'. It's part of the wood elf culture. They would have a lot of Koans and monkish sayings that need to be sprinkled around the gameworld. Here is one:

The story of Crown of Thorns

Once long ago the great king Lonbarath, who was also called Crown of Thorns, came to the forest and happened upon a brook under a mighty oak. As he approached the brook to drink his fill, he noticed a person sitting in the low branch of the tree eating her meal. Lonbarath spoke, "Come down from your branch and fetch my water for I am the King Across the Sea." The person spoke not, but softly chewed. Lonbarath set his face and it was clear why he was called the Crown of Thorns. Again he called out, "I am the Lord of the Eagles and my army marches not an hour behind me, I require water and food, come down from your perch and serve me." Again the person spoke not. Truly angered by this Lonbarath drew himself up to a great size and shook the trunk of the great oak tree and roared, "I am the Keeper of the Eld Stone and rule all lands under the sun, you will serve me! Come down from that tree!" and the forest boomed with his mighty voice. Then, nimble as a squirrel, the person ran across the tree branches and struck the mighty king on his cheek. She spoke, "You will not be thirsty again King Across the Sea". Enraged beyond sense, Lonbarath reached out wildly to crush the person in his mighty hands. Quick as a sparrow, the person flew through the air and stuck him across his other cheek. "You will never go hungry so long as the sun shines O' Eagle Lord" she said. Unexpectedly Lonbarath felt his anger cooling but still he seethed, he reached up his hands to the sky one last time trying to catch the person, but she slipped between his fingers and at last stood in front of him on the ground. Slowly she reached out and put her hand on his trunk. Sleep now Stone Keeper and you will be well served all your days. And Lonbarath slept, his great roots deep in the earth and his great branches reaching to the sun.

And so even today many years after the Kingdom across the Sea has fallen, and many years after the Eagles have cast off their lords, and many years after that person passed into memory, the Crown of Thorns stands well satisfied beside the brook under the mighty oak.

Feng Shui 2 kickstarter starts

The Girl with All the Gifts

I read a review of this book and thought it sounded interesting.  Suddenly just after that I was in a text conversation with my mom and dropped the name of the book.  It was actually my daughter who was on my moms phone just to tell me that they had hit town and were out shopping.  Anyway long story short, they bought the book and my daughter thought it was for her.  She mentioned it to my mom who the thought I wanted her to buy it for my daughter.  So it goes.

It's a good read.  My daughter read it an loved it.  I read it an thought it was very well done.  Some where along the line I redlized it was written in third person present tense which was pretty novel for me.  I'm not sure if this is a thing now but it made the prose more immediate in a way I thought worked well with the material.  I haven't been suddenly aware of tense like that since Steinbeck switched to first person in The Winter of Our Discontent so that was nice.  It could just mean I am a bit oblivious but I will take it as a win anyway.
After I read it my wife read it and couldn't put it down so I have to say this book is a real hit in our family.  If we all can agree it is a fine thing then I really have to recommend it.

The Girl With all the Gifts by M.R. Carey.

Full disclosure its last day of camping and the fire is guttering out, everyone's asleep and I'm pretty drunk at the moment.

Good book though.

on Ashen Stars pt3

Ah it's been busy lately, but I have been playing stuff, just not so much writing about it.  I finished my run of Ashen Stars and now we are two session into a Trail of Cthulhu run.  My guy got killed already- RIP Dr. Krombach but I have stated up a new guy to get killed with - so that's all right.

I thought that I should give my final impressions of running a short Ashen Stars campaign before I forgot too much.  I imagine that since it's an investigative genre a lot of Gumshoe games are one off-adventures or con games and so many people might not get into the campaign rules and I wanted to make sure that I did focus on those rules and see how they worked for Ashen Stars.  I ran a very money oriented game because I wanted to have emergent story arise from that mechanical pressure.  I think it worked for the most part.  I did find that when the economic pressure was high the reputation and upkeep mechanics worked better.  There was a lot of arguing about PR and reputation that was undercut with money talk.  I don't think that reputation would have worked nearly so well without the money woes.  I did find that the downtime rolls were a bit too easy to game but this could have been because the players did not generally use their business skill and saved it just for the downtime roll and once they had some reputation built up, this meant very little downtime.  I made sure to provide opportunities for side deals to soak up some of those business points in all adventures, but the players didn't generally follow up on them.  I think that this was because aside from the Cybe player and the player running the ship books, there were no real incentives for the individual players to acquire credits.  Any money coming in went to ship and cybe upkeep and after that there were no worries - no 401ks among the Lazers -  it was assumed that the future was taking care of itself.  Some players might have had a couple big creds* upkeep to worry about but aside from the Cybe player they were banking more than they were spending.  I did try to rectify that later in the campaign by giving one player an economic incentive (blackmail) and another an economic goal (securing breeding rights), but the players didn't act on these - probably because it came too late and events were already rolling along.  I would do this kind of life event economics again, and much more of it, in a future game.  Giving all players divergent economic goals is the way to go here if you want to play an business orientated game.  I think that without either story pressure or money pressure it is too easy for the upkeep and reputation mechanics to become "managed" and they become either a gm fiat 'story of the week' thing or a toothless mechanic.  I don't think it would be good to mistake economic inducement for materialism however.  I do really like the game's focus on large scale economics and not everyday inventory management.  I would rather generate up a big ol' table of Life Events and Social Obligations for Ashen Stars instead of a big ol' table of +1 Swords and Power Armours.

I really liked the Space combat - we used playing cards for the point spending aspect and I think it worked really well overall.  I saw how the point spend added some character to the ship fights - a cautious pilot or a reckless gunner on either side could really change the outcome.  I do kind of wish that the personal combat had a similar feel to it.  Rolling against a hit threshold got a little boring especially since there were not so many options as there would be in a d20 type system.  I would certainly consider an alternate combat system using opposed rolls and hidden point spend like in the ship combat - perhaps not four full axis of attack but perhaps one force/armour based and one agility/dodge based axis for both ranged for non-ranged combat.  It would slow down combat a bit, however it would be more engaging than the simple roll to hit option.  We are looking at using some of the Nights Black Agents advanced combat rules for our pulpy Trail of Cthulhu game and they look pretty good, I'd consider adopting them for Ashen Stars too.  I do think something with more opposed rolls could be interesting as well.

The setting was very good and it flowed very well.  I was a little nervous my first real run of a sci-fi setting since it is hard to establish a common understanding when dealing with so many unknown social and technology cues - but with the Ashen Stars Lazer framework and a few establishing proclamations, the players quickly fell into the swing of things and were able to make logical projections.  I did have to establish that there was no communication while in trans-light and that there were no ubiquitous galactic networks, just a collection of planetary and corporate systems.  This was important because investigative games need to be active not passive and having universal access to cameras and personal files and history records has to be curtailed or the game will suffer.   The first couple of games there was a natural tendency for players to want to lean on the technology and call in Ossa One troops for every traffic offense, but I made it clear that they would have to prove their suspicions and that there were privacy and legal protocols that had to be followed.

The Lazers for hire nature of the game was very interesting and was a great setting conceit. I wanted to be in the background as much as possible and feed different players different information so that they would generate their own motivations.  I did send players informational emails between games, including the aforementioned economic incentives, but also little nuggets of personal mail or advertisements they could really take up and own as characters.  At one point this lead to a whole off-screen story about a character's cat going missing and the players all had different perspectives on what had happened.  I made sure that I only presented the "Bagger" character with the options for jobs and had them decide how to choose which to take - even  if that meant informing the other players or not of all their options.  I really tried to have the players run the game as a business.  It thought it was important for buy-in to have them make choices about which jobs they were taking.  Sometimes I was hard pressed to know ahead of time which adventure I was going to have to prepare, and in a couple cases I had two different adventures prepped and waiting.  It worked very well from my perspective, however it was a shorter campaign and I'm not sure there was enough time for much of that to get acted upon.

I also had a bit of a disconnect when I was trying to populate the setting with interesting worlds.  At first I found it hard to see how I would balance having a star map of places and work that in with the downtime travel mechanics, especially when I wanted players to decide which cases they were going to take next - something that involved travel.  This played less of a role than I thought it would since they looked more at the case than the location and they didn't chew through the adventures as quickly as I thought they would.  As for having a comprehensive star map - well I didn't need it.  It really did resolve down to 'world as a problem' as outlined in the Ashen Stars book. The simple map of the Bleed and the travel time rules were a great building block and I managed to build a map of event/locations as the campaign progressed.  Over time the character of the different worlds was built up so having the spartan map and slotting in planets as the story progressed worked much better than trying to fit the story to a fuller and established starmap.  I had to let go and wing it more than I was comfortable with at first but it really did work out better.  I did carefully note where things were afterwards so the setting gained coherence.  Knowing that the ice planet of Ijiraq is in the Medusa Outzone is now important and I want to make sure that the stories can emerge from those relationships.

This was probably one of the most fun campaigns I have run.  I think Ashen Stars has a lot to offer in a campaign type setting as opposed to one-shots and I'm looking forward the supplemental book that's coming out with more material.  I'd run this again certainly.  I'd even pick up the same campaign.  I would have to add in some more work on economic inducements and probably try to get a better handle on some of the business skills that effect downtime, but all in all it was a very satisfying game experience.




*bC

Krombach's final letter

My good friend Glen,

I know that that we have embarked on a dangerous path and I am older but not perhaps wiser than a few years ago, so I am preparing for the worst.  If you are reading this then something has happened and I am dead.  I think that you will have landed on your feet however.  Do not be sad for me.  I have had an extraordinary life.  These adventures we undertake are very exciting and the potential for learning is great, however I think that one of the greatest rewards has been your friendship.

I have left my affairs in good order in preparation for boarding the plane tomorrow.  I did not wish people to know but I tell you now - most of my money has been spent testing my theories on shared memory, and I have had many setbacks.  I have few beneficiaries, most notably my brother and his wife, die Möwe.  I have never liked her.  Fitz will inherit what little money I have and what income I make on this adventure.  I am also leaving them the only investment I have left - 61 shares of Abbott Laboratories preferred stock.  Perhaps they can use it to line a birdcage.  

I am leaving you my Durant.  Never drive it to Toronto.  I also leave you what things you may wish to have from my apartment before it is all auctioned off.  There is a lock box in my desk which contains my notes on the lotus and what little remains of it.  If you see Dr. Peasley, please return his silver cigar cutter which he must have dropped at some point.  Also you will find the pocket watch you lost some years ago.  I had found it and had been meaning to tell you.

Abschied und gute Nacht meine feiner Kerl!

-Wilhiem