As of today, I've played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying 3rd Edition (the nex big box set from Fantasy Flight) twice. More accurately, I've GMed it twice. I think I've got a somewhat solid handle on the game, and I thought that some people might want to hear some first impressions from me (at least, my Twitter feed seems to be ravenous about it).

Full disclosure: I'm a professional game designer, and I work as a game designer and developer for Wizards of the Coast. I also tend to like more games than I dislike. Lastly, I have ZERO experience with any version of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying prior to this point beyond owning and skimming the 2nd Edition core rulebook. The Warhammer Fantasy world was pretty much alien to me on first exposure to this game. So, take that into account when reading my impressions.

My general impressions can be summed up as follows: This is a pretty standard roleplaying game made very interesting by the way they choose to present their character information. I know a lot of people have dismissed this game as a board game, but it is not. This is a roleplaying game that has chosen to print many of its character traits in the form of cards. I can't stress enough that the information is pretty mucht he same, it's just presented in a different venue. Also, it works. One of the biggest steps forward that the game makes is making referencing the rulebook completely obsolete for the players. Everything you need to know is on a card, with more or less complete rules text on it. As a fan of faster play experiences, this pleases me greatly. I think one of the best things that many of my favorite board games do these days is give the player every scrap of information needed up front. It's not hidden in a rulebook, it's on the table in front of you. For WFRP3, this is a huge strength in many respects. First, it makes for an easy to use system of tracking character abilities for the players. Second, and perhaps a more subtle benefit, is that every time you add a new element to the game (such as more talents or more actions), you don't need to do anything to make it easier to use; the cards are simply added to the stack, which means that, two years from now, I will go to the exact same place for talents that I do today: my talent cards. For D&D 4th Edition, we created a pretty awesome character builder that helps players manage their large collection of powers, feats, etc. WFRP3E makes a character builder completely unneeded simply by virtue of including everything you need to know on a card.If you're a D&D player, imagine this: every one of your powers, feats, or spells is on a card that you bring to every session. You never have to look at a book, or comb through many books, to find your special abilities. That's powerful.

And it's not just limited to the talents and actions. The brilliant thing about putting most of your character data on cards is that you can introduce whole new subsystems incredibly easily. For example, the player kit introduces followers...who simply get their own cards that you lay out in front of you. Sure, you'll need to read the rules once, but after that everything you need to know is kept on the table in front of you, in an easy to reference place. Through our two play sessions, we had no spellcasters...but if we did then spellcasters basically would just get another set of cards. Moreover, you've got some subsystems (like critical wounds, spell misfires, conditions, and insanity) that could very easily become both convoluted and a chore to remember. In this game, they are all their own separate decks of cards, so that if the situation comes up that triggers one of those you simply draw the card and place it in front of you. What's great about this is that it makes old mechanics that can be a chore to deal with (in my opinion, things like critical hit tables) something that can be easily added to the game, and something that is easy to track.

This brings me to another thing I love: after character creation, there's almost no math in this game. You don't track numerical modifiers or figure out which bonuses stack. You don't recalculate damage or to-hit numbers. Sure, most of those things are pretty easy, but I have run two sessions now and didn't need a pen or pencil at all. Damage is tracked by cards, conditions are tracked by cards, etc. so that I spent 0 time bookkeeping and instead spent all of my time adjudicating events in play. It's not a perfect system (see some comments about both dice pools and Gamemastering below) but it does have its advantages, particularly in the area of tracking. Anyone who runs games on a regular basis can tell you that tracking is one of the most annoying parts of in-game play. 4E eliminated round tracking with the saving throw mechanic; WFRP3 eliminates it with its components.

Yet another great part about the data-on-cards-not-scattered-throughout-books nature of the game is that it has a great built-in balancing mechanic. In a game like D&D, you often have all kinds of special rules and conditions that keep you from stacking X on top of Y to create a crazy broken character. WFRP3 handles the stacking issue by giving you X number of slots that can be filled with special abilities...and you never get any more! There are interesting combos to be had, for certain, but the nice part about the game is that you rarely have to worry about ability X stacking on top of ability Y, since you'll almost never have them active at the same time. Instead, as you progress, you gain more of these talents, but the number of sockets remain the same, so that you have more choices of what you can have active at a time, but they don't all build on top of each other to create a convoluted, interconnecting mess. It also does wonders for game balance, as it removes one of the toughest areas of development:balancing special abilities based on how they stack with other things. It means the game developers only need to balance talents against each other, and need have little concern about how they stack on top of each other. Some concern, yes, but since each talent is cordoned off on its own, and each talent can only fit into one of a limited number of slots, there's drastically fewer stacking issues. As a designer, I love this. As a player, it feels like you're making interesting decisions on a round-by-round basis.

I briefly touched on it above, but I really like how the recharging of abilities works. Basically, instead of having encounter powers or spells that can only be cast once per day, every action (and some talents) have a rate of recharge that is simple to track and remember. Once you get into the rhythm of your turn, this becomes second nature, meaning I can have multiple actions and talents in different states of recharge and still not be confused by it at all. Moreover, from a design standpoint it creates a huge amount of design space, wherein I can balance abilities based on not only what they do, but how quickly they recharge. It also means that you can bend balance on certain powers a long way, so that instead of having basically a toggle of two possible strengths of effect (weak & at-will vs. strong and encounter/daily), you have a much wider ranger. Some powers can be used every round; others take 2 rounds, 3 rounds, or more to recharge. It creates more variety in actions, and makes character building very interesting.

Another thing I like is the way intiative is handled, and story tracks in general. When you roll initiative, you essentially create initiative slots that can be filled, round by round, by any character in a given faction. So, if I roll a good initiative but I want my high elf mercenary to go first, he can...without having to do a bunch of fiddly delaying as such. Monsters do the same, though, so there is a greater chance that beefy monsters get their powerful actions off first. Similarly, their skill challenge/story tracking mechanic is nice, versatile, and visual. While some may find it game, I find that for things like chase scenes and countdowns it works really well. I'm still unsure about how it will work in dramatic scenes (should I let the players see their progress tracker so they know how close they are to intimidating the nobleman into aiding them?), but in many ways it's a nice, highly visual way to track progress in a scene other than by how many monsters are dead.

(As an aside: I really like how thoroughly keywords are used in this game. It makes it so much easier to define something in an unobtrusive way. Keywords should be used much more often in games of this complexity).

Monsters have some interesting things going on. They have their own actions, so they aren't limited to just the same things that players can do (yay exception based design), and their statistics are much simplified from what the players have. Furthermore, their actions are clearly spelled out, with descriptions of what happens when certain dice results come up, making adjudicating monster actions very easy. That said, I find the way those statistics are presented very difficult to read. There's a lot that's sort of in "code" and not obvious from first glance. Furthermore, they don't give statistics they should. For example, the game's damage soak value is Toughness + armor. Well, in a monster stat block, instead of figuring that for you they just have a number followed by another number (i.e. 4(4) or something like that), and you have to add them together on the fly. I mean, that's not hard by any stretch, but it is unintuitive, and I had to reference the rulebook several times during play to remember which numbers added to which other ones in which situations. I really hope Fantasy Flight takes a look at how they present their monster stats again; it's one of the greatest deficiencies in the game (see below).

Yet another area where the game does some great things is in the area of character advancement. The nice part is that you get SOMETHING after every session, and you're constantly improving. I like that you don't track numerical XP necessarily, and that every time I show up at the table I have the chance to be a little bit better at something than I was before, or have a new ability. The career system is what it is (I neither like not dislike it; it's just a system) and there are some fiddly bits that could stand to be ironed out (such as what you can advance when, and making it more clear whether or not you can save up advancement points). The other thing that is nice about it is that FFG has basically created a system whereby they can tell exactly how fast players advance based on the number of sessions they play. I know for D&D there are a lot of times where we've had to examine the rate of advancement, as advancement is one of the key areas that keep people coming back to your game. I don't know that I'd want this exact system for D&D, but at the very least they've created a very solid advancement system that they can use to accurately predict how their own players are advancing.

One mechanic that I both like and dislike is the new "party type" mechanic. Basically, your party as a whole gets a "Career" of its own, that provides special rules that benefit/apply to everyone in the party. I like that it helps explain why the party is together, and helps remove the necessity of the "you all meet in a tavern" session where you explain why you're all together. I like that each party type has different special abilities, and different talent slots. Since you can slot in unused talents into the talent slots of the party, and those talents then apply to EVERYONE, you benefit the party by contributing something that is uniquely yours. Moreover, since you can in turn take talents out of the party slots and slot them into your own talent slots, it means that players can effectively trade talents between each other freely--but only if their party type has that kind of talent on it! So, you party type determines the areas of your party's greatest versatility. Given the relative simplicity of characters, this adds a lot of depth to the party in the long run.

Alas, the party mechanics aren't all good.I feel like the party benefit associated with each party type can be easily forgotten. Worse, I think the party tension track might be completely extraneous. I understand generally its purpose, but it's really not clear when I need to use it as a GM. My players today worked together great, but there were some tense scenes. Is the party tension track just a punishment mechanic for players who let their minds wander or bicker too long? If so, that feels very meta, and is something I'm not crazy about having story/mechanical ramifications. In both playtests, the tension meter felt kind of like something that could be abused with a jerk DM, but in our case was mostly ignored. I'm not 100% against it, but I need some more instruction about how to use it for a positive gameplay effect.

I've talked a lot about what I like so far (and there's a LOT to like about this game), but there are a few things that I don't care for. The movement and distance system is one of them. I get it that they wanted to go abstract, but it's painfully obvious that this game would be much better with a grid (even a large-scale one, more like the concept of zones), rather than futzing with the distance tokens. Not only is it annoying to keep track of realtive distance if players go off in different directions, it also has inexplicable complication (why does it cost 2 maneuvers to go from long to medium range when it's only 1 to move from medium to close?) and extraneous distance tracking (I can be at close range with a guy, but not engaged with him, so in truth there's actually an invisible measurement of distance between close and engaged that the game isn't really honest about). I'm in no way suggesting that the game needs tactical movement or a 1-inch grid, but I think just being able to draw the equivalent of a big tic-tac-toe board and dropping the encounter locations into large-scale zones might have been a lot easier. As it is, distance and location is probably the most difficult to track thing in the game, and it feels like they reached too hard for abstraction while not fully embracing it.

Speaking of somewhat extraneous mechanics, the stance system is an interesting and unobtrusive mechanic that is introduced...and I think it might be so unobtrusive that it's unnecessary. In theory, this determines how reckless or conservative you're being. In actuality, players seem to reach for one side or the other and ignore the rest of the track. I guess I appreciate conceptually what it's trying to do, and like the variety it applies to your actions (each action card is two-sided, meaning that the action is slightly mechanically different depending on which side you're on), but in the end it felt like kind of pointless tracking that I didn't want to fool with.

The dice...ah, the dice. I'm of a split mind about the dice pool mechanic. On the one hand, it means no fiddling with math. It's relatively intuitive, and you get very good at it very quickly. Since the possible outcomes of your die rolls are written right on cards, it's easy to resolve...most of the time. At the same time, there are a lot of "hidden" results in the game; sometimes, if you get enough hits, you turn one into a crit. Sometimes Sigmar's Comet means one thing, and sometimes it means something else. Moreover, while I appreciate the rarity of true opposed rolls, trying to figure out anything other than attack vs. defense can be tedious. Why do I use challenge dice sometimes, and misfortune dice others? What's the real difference between expertise dice and fortune dice? I know there are answers, but they are far from intuitive after two plays. When I use a skill vs. a target's skill, my challenge level is determined by a formula that has to be referenced in the book, which in turn references multiple enemy statistics. Maybe I'm spoiled by attack vs. defense, but I felt like, a lot of times, building you dice pool when using a skill vs. another skill was time consuming. Given the frequency with which this occurs in the game, I'm halfway convinced that the dice pool mechanic could do with about two less kinds of dice.

This is sort of leading into my single biggest problem with the game: It doesn't make GMing nearly as easy as playing. Oh, sure, there are a lot of places where it's pretty simple, but there are a lot of places where it's downright convoluted. Monster stat blocks need serious work in becoming easier to read. Figuring out how to build dice pools needs to be easier. Figuring out how to interpret dice pool results on the fly, especially when improvising effects, needs to be easier. I have no idea how to create a new monster. Creating a balanced encounter seems difficult (admittedly, I've only run it twice now). I found that, without the cheat sheets downloaded from BGG, there's a lot of time spent looking in the books. What can you do with a maneuver? When should I add misfortune dice? What happens during the rally step (a very nice mechanic for creating a short lull in the combat)? What are the First Aid difficulties? I sincerely hope FFG considers putting out a GM screen with a lot of the most commonly referenced information on it.

Lastly, the rulebooks. They're pretty, but I found them lacking in the areas of readability, and more specifically in the ease of reference. Lots, and I mean MOST, of the rules are in running paragraphs. When you're trying to look up a rule during play, you end up having to search through multiple paragraphs of text, across many pages. What I wouldn't give for simple things like bullet points, inline headers, shaded text, etc. to make the rules easier to reference at the table. For all the great things the game does with making sure players don't have to reach for the rulebook, there are few similar advancements on behalf of the Gamemaster. The rules are clear, mind you; they're just buried and hard to find.

All that being said, I think there's a lot in this game that's brilliant. I give it a solid B+, and I would play in a campaign of this (and maybe even run one, depending on how easy to run their full-length adventures turn out to be). I think anyone who's a modern RPG designer needs to play this game, familiarize themselves with its strengths and weaknesses, and figure out WHY it does what it does. It's clear that Fantasy Flight put a lot of effort into thinking about how we play games, and though it's radical in some areas, for the most part it is merely a redistribution of data. You get the same things out of this game that you do any other RPG, you just have the information you need given to you in different ways.

Tags: game mechanics
Current Location: Renton, WA
Current Mood: thoughtful

So, first of all, I've finally joined the ranks of the internet's fad-obsessed and am on Twitter. I can't fathom that anyone would want to know what I'm doing all day, but in the interest of interacting with players of the games I work on you can follow me at wotc_rodney (sadly, most of my other usual names were taken, which makes me wonder if the person Twittering as gamescribe is impersonating me). I'm planning on talking about gaming and gaming industry-related stuff on there, so if you have an interest in that feel free to follow me.

Second, I'm finally home for more than a couple of weeks in a row. I went to Tennessee, and then to Ohio for Origins. Then, a couple of weeks ago we took a long road trip down the West Coast to San Diego Comic-Con, with stops in the Redwood National Forest, Eureka, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, Monterey, and Anaheim on the way. Both trips were nice, but I'm glad to be home for a while. Hopefully this means I'll be able to blog a bit more.

So, not dead. Just far-wandering.

Tags: life
Current Location: Renton, WA
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: The Price is Right theme

When I was young, probably no more than 10 or so, my parents got my brother and I an unusual gift for Christmas that, at the time, seemed to come out of the blue. That gift was a Carrom Gameboard, which is still available for sale from the very same company even after all these years. At the time, my brother and I were a bit perplexed by it; I was just getting into D&D and Nintendo, and by extension so was he, and traditional board games were never really on our radar. It was one of those surprise gifts, not something on either of our Christmas lists, and though we played with it some (and lost many of the pieces), for the most part it collected dust behind the headboard of my bed, where it was until about 20 minutes ago.

See, at the time, my brother and I didn't really appreciate the gift; we liked it, sure, and we used it, but it was something we only pulled out once in a long while when the power was out. Flash forward nearly 20 years later, I'm being called into the office of the VP of R&D, Bill Rose, by my Star Wars teammate Rob Watkins. As it so happens, Bill Rose has obtained a very nice Crokinole board, and Rob wants to play. We do, and I have a good time. I'm likewise in the middle of obtaining board game enlightenment as a whole, having my mind opened to new games all the time. Games are now a huge part of my life, both my hobby and now my profession. A faint memory of a Crokinole-like board sparks, but I keep it in the back of my mind.

This week, I'm back home in Tennessee, and I pull out the old Carrom Gameboard from behind my bed. Sure enough, it's capable of being used to play Crokinole, and also dozens of other games. I'm shipping it back to Seattle tomorrow (not that I don't have enough game stuff cluttering up the apartment) so I can have it. I feel like my parents just gave me an awesome gift, one that I now appreciate to its fullest. I think, even way back when, my parents had some inkling that games were a part of my future. I may not be a game designer forever (though that would suit me just fine), but for now games are my life. Did my parents know this, way back then? My brother says he knew, since I used to make up games for he and I to play all the time.

I feel like I just got a Christmas present from the past, like something that traveled through time to a point where I can finally appreciate it. This isn't the first time this happened; last time I was home, I found a great chess/checkers set that they had bought me, which is now doing double-duty as an endtable in my apartment.

So, thanks, Mom and Dad. I probably didn't appreciate it back then, but nearly 20 years later I finally get this present, and I love it.

UNRELATED NOTE!

I'm heading up to Columbus, OH for the Origins game fair this coming week. If you're going to be there, make sure and say hello! I'm giving a few seminars and I would love it if you would stop by.

Tags: gaming, life
Current Location: Chattanooga, TN
Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: Boston -- Something About You

In an attempt to fend off a morning energy crash, I'm going to update my journal for the first time in way too long. Various and sundry topics abound:

• Last night we finished up the 5th level adventure for my Monday night Forgotten Realms game. This campaign has been running for almost a year, but due to my lack of discipline and our tendency to kind of screw around on Monday nights we usually only get about 2 hours of play time in. Since we added a new member last night (and we'll be adding a sixth person next Monday), I've become determined to ensure that we actually start on time and get in a good 3 1/2 to 4 hours of play. Last night was a big session for the heroes; they killed the bad guy, saved the girl, liberated the town, and hit 6th level. I've also set up an Obsidian Portal site for the campaign, which you can see here, so that my players have a central place to keep their notes. Obsidian Portal's a great site; if you're a DM, I highly recommend you check it out.
  
• I've got four books I worked on nominated for Origins Awards this year: Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition Core Rulebook, Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide, Buccaneers of Freeport, and D&D Player's Handbook Fourth Edition are all books I worked on (though the first three more than the 4E PHB). It's nice to have so many nominations this year, as I've only been nominated for an OA once before (for the Stargate SG-1 Roleplaying Game). Seeing as I'll be on hand this year at Origins, I hope I get to accept at least one award.
  
• Days of Wonder just put out a new board game called Small World, which I picked up on launch day. Saturday, I had people over with the express purpose of getting to play Small World or the new Uwe Rosenberg game, Le Havre. Sadly, I didn't get to play either one, partly due to no one seeming interested in Le Havre and partly due to having the wrong number of people to play anything else. Thankfully, Tammie took pity on me and we tried out the two player version of Small World. It was...great! In fact, it may be the best two-player game I've got. All the guys that did play Small World on Saturday night also loved it, so it looks to become a regular staple in our game nights. I can't wait to try it out with 4-5 players. I also have to say kudos to Days of Wonder for putting out a game that is not only an excellent game unto itself, but also for having the foresight to A) include a 2 and 3 player board without forcing people to go out and buy a 2-3 player version, and B) for including everything you need for storage inside the box.
  
• Speaking of Le Havre, I haven't played it yet, but it seems like a solid game. That said, I really was not pleased with the value of the game. I paid about the same as I did for Agricola, but Le Havre doesn't come with wooden bits (except for a few player tokens), doesn't have a plastic tray in the box, has far, far fewer components than Agricola, and generally feels like I paid the same amount for about 1/3rd as much stuff. That's probably not going to affect my opinion of the game itself, but it feels like kind of a kick in the wallet.

And now, back to work.

Tags: campaigns, gaming, writing
Current Location: Renton, WA
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Chalkdust Torture--Phish

So, the new version of the GSL came out the other day. I tend to shy away from any kind of controversial topics so I don't want to talk about its merits/flaws (and, frankly, no matter what I say I'll be labeled "corporate shill" so it's no-win for me). I do want to say that I'm pleased to see the way it turned out, and hope lots of awesome third party products come out of it. I have no reservations in saying that I think a strong third-party content stream is a Good Thing for everyone.

That said, there's one complaint I've seen lodged that I have to respond to, but hopefully my response will be helpful. See, Wizards didn't put any of the full text of any of its game mechanics in the 4E SRD, so you can't reproduce monsters for adventures (or powers, or magic items, but that's not really relevant). A lot of people are saying this hamstrings third party publishers who want to make adventures because they can't include the monsters from the MM.

To that I say: make your own monsters. Here are my reasons:

1) Monster creation in 4E is vastly faster than you might think it is. I was able to create nearly every stat block for every creature in my Scales of War adventure, Den of the Destroyer, over the course of about a day's work. That's a lot of new monsters, and while they did generally use a theme (gnolls) there was a lot that was unique. I also wrote the adventure before I became a 4E developer, and was much less seasoned in the ins-and-outs of the system. Still, I was able to design a whole adventure's worth of monsters in a relatively small amount of time. Plus: we have a handy-dandy monster creator on our website, if you want it to crunch the numbers for you. I wrote an Excel spreadsheet that does the same thing, but it's easy enough to do by hand anyways.

2) Your adventure doesn't need the 4E monsters out of the MM. Since 4E doesn't have the concept of a "base" monster in most cases, you're going to have multiple varieties of everything. Your "goblin creep" is just as valid as the "goblin cutter" from the MM. You're not losing any kind of "validity" by making up your own monsters. Which leads me to...

3) Your adventure will be better for having its own monsters. Not only will DMs be able to throw monsters at their players that they have never seen, but DMs that aren't even planning on running your adventure will pick up your adventure just for the new monsters. Most adventures from the 3E era have some monster customization anyways--it's going to be about the same amount of effort.

Monster design is pretty easy in 4E. I think 4E-compatible adventures will be much better for having original monsters in them.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to tell you what to do. Just offering advice based on my own adventure design experience.

Tags: game mechanics
Current Location: Renton, WA
Current Mood: allergic

Since I'm taking a short break to let my lunch settle, I thought I'd share a little story with everyone from my past that I tell from time to time to friends but have never really put down in writing (at least, as far as I can remember). The reason I'm reminded of this story is because of this story about Anthony Daniels, the actor who played C-3PO in the Star Wars films. Mr. Daniels is, to put it mildly, a total class act, and a very funny guy to boot.

When I was in high school my family went to Disney World in Orlando Florida every year. One of the rides they have there is Star Tours (a motion simulator with a Star Wars theme), which, at the time it debuted, made me feel as close to being in the Star Wars films as I could possibly get. Eventually, Disney World started doing what was called Star Wars Weekends, where actors from the films would come down to Florida and meet the fans. Obviously, I made sure Mom and Dad scheduled our trips around those dates.

The very first year they had this event we just happened to be there, and had no idea it was going on until we got into the park that day. As we approached the Star Tours ride, I noticed that an autograph area had been set up and that none other than Anthony Daniels, the man behind C-3PO, was signing autographs. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to get his autograph, but we learned that he'd be doing another signing at around 2:00 and that the line was already forming (it was around 10:00 AM at this point) and was about to be cut off. I asked my parents to let me get in line, and they let me, warning me that 4 hours was a long time to wait, but already being a teenage Star Wars fanatic I absolutely had to meet him.

For the next 4 hours, I sit on hot asphalt in the blazing summer Florida sun. It was probably close to 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside that day, and while I sweated it out in the line my family was riding other rides, stopping by to check on me after each one. As the time for Mr. Daniels to come back out approached, one of the Disney cast members started up a Star Wars trivia contest. Not wanting to lose my place in line, I, of course, could not join in. Little did I know that my brother, darthxavien, was over there, participating in the contest and winning. Keeping in mind that I was probably 15 at the time, this puts my brother's age at about 11. Fortunately for him, he was almost as big of a Star Wars geek as I was, and we'd spent a large chunk of the ride down to Disney World quizzing each other on trivia out of Bill Slavicsek's original Star Wars Encyclopedia. Needless to say, my 11-year-old brother goes on to win this trivia contest, beating out grown men for the prize.

I didn't know any of this was going on until, a few moments later, my Dad came up and told me that he won. I was happy for him, but noticed that the cast member was still standing there with him and my Mom. Curious why they didn't just give him the prize, I was trying to puzzle it out when there is a tapping on my arm and a very polite, English-accented "Excuse me" from behind me. I turn to step out of the way, and was shocked to see myself face-to-face with Anthony Daniels. Rather than walking directly to his signing chair, he made his way through the line, greeting everyone while pretending to be fighting his way forward. Score one point for the guy who realized that his fans had been boiling under the sun, waiting on him, for four hours.

Around the same time he reaches the front of the line, I notice that the Disney cast member has taken my brother up onto a small stage near the line, and when Mr. Daniels steps up onto the stage I get a distinct sinking feeling in my gut. For the next 10-15 minutes, Anthony Daniels stands on this stage with his arm draped across my brother's shoulders, chatting with him, joking with the audience, and giving a short show for everyone. Not only is he incredibly funny (very quick-witted, and of course a master of that snappy British humor), he's also charming, and he involves my brother in everything. He even feigns a long-suffering look when my brother, who is incredibly nervous at being center stage with Anthony Daniels for nearly a quarter of an hour, accidentally addresses him with a "yes ma'am" instead of "yes sir" as us good Southern boys have been raised to do.

After spending 15 minutes or so chatting with my brother and the audience, he leads my brother down to the signing area, autographs not only a photo but also a T-Shirt for my brother, and congratulates him again on winning the trivia contest. This is all before he signs any autographs for the people in line, but honestly he's so friendly and charming none of us care, and he's got us all in stitches laughing. My Dad is, of course, snapping tons of photos of this event, while I continue to bake in the sun.

After he begins signing autographs, it takes a while for me to get up to the front of the line. Not only is Mr. Daniels very friendly, he also takes the time to chat up each person, never making anyone feel rushed, and always showing a lot of interest in them (the few times I've done book signings, I've always tried to do the same thing for everyone; Anothony Daniels is definitely my role model in that regard). Finally, I make my way to the front of the line, explain that it was my brother he spent time on stage with, chat with Mr. Daniels for a moment, and then get his autograph. I'm sun-burned, dehydrated, exhausted, but I finally got what I came for.

When I approach my parents with the autographed photo, my Dad has a somewhat ashen look on his face. All those photos he took of my brother with Anthony Daniels had used up all his film, so he didn't get any photos of me with Mr. Daniels. There's almost no evidence that I was even there, except for the autographed picture I took away from the day. My brother got time on stage with Anthony Daniels, T-Shirts, autographs, and lots of photos, and I got...sunburn.

I just can't say enough good things about Anthony Daniels. He's a classy and genial guy who has never been anything but excellent to me, and I hope that if I ever get to meet him again I can tell him this story and we can share a good laugh over it.

Tags: life, star wars
Current Location: Renton, WA
Current Mood: sick

"I tend to think of the 30th level abilities of epic destinies sort of like Paris Hilton getting out of a limo, and as she exits she tosses a grenade back into the limo. Sort of like, 'Well, I had fun, but now I've got to move on.'"

--robheinsoo, aka Rob Heinsoo, on the creation of Epic Destinies for 4th Edition

Tags: game mechanics, work
Current Location: Renton, WA
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Jethro Tull -- Aqualung

So, over in his Blogspot blog, mearls posted some photos of our Monday night Forgotten Realms game. You can see all the hot, nonsensical gaming action over there, as he took the photos during the big, climactic combat encounter of the evening. This fight was the latest in a tough series of battles as they storm the Scepter Tower in the ruins of Spellgard Keep, breaking into the well-defended tower through long-forgotten passages built by the ruins' Netherese masters.

I'll get around to updating the FR story hour soon (I've been kind of holding off since I wasn't sure how to handle spoilers from the Scepter Tower of Spellgard adventure), but as they draw closer to the adventure's conclusion I'll probably just put everything behind a cut.

In case you're wondering, in those photos it's me at the head of the table in the gray shirt. Clockwise around the table, starting on my left, is Logan Bonner, then kabael, then mearls taking the photo, then Chris Tulach, and finally Greg Bilsland to my immediate right.

Tags: campaigns
Current Location: Renton, WA
Current Mood: groggy

Speaking of reflections of gaming realism in different media

For Christmas I received a copy of Game Night by Jonny Nexus (an internet pseudonym, of course). I'd been wanting to read it for a while, but had put it on my Christmas list since, frankly, I usually just buy most things I want and needed something for friends and family to give me for Christmas.

In short, if you are a fan of roleplaying games and humor you will like this book. Though the premise of the book is that six gods sit down to play a roleplaying game, that's not really what the book is about. Rather, the book is about the social dynamic of the gaming group, and all of the familiar archetypes are there. Chances are, you've played with The Warrior, the Lady, the Dealer, the Jester, and the Sleeper before, and their actions throughout the book will have you saying, "Yep, that's just like Larry from our L5R game," or something similar. Just as poignant is the depiction of the All-Father, who takes on the role of the Gamemaster, and though I think most of us are sympathetic to his plight there are many times when the author takes good-natured jabs at world-building, control freaks, and simulationists alike. Johnny Nexus clearly wrote the book as a treatise on the gamer archetypes we've all played with over the years, taking the familiar and turning it into a fun story that I will likely give a second read (simply because I know there are many subtle jokes I may have missed on my first read through). The final "reveal" of the campaign in the book is brilliant; it's a thinly-veiled metaphor for one of the most frustrating things that game designers must deal with (which I'll talk about more behind the cut below).

Do yourself a favor and pick up the book. It's a fast read (I read it in about 2 good, long sessions) and very funny. It will warm your heart to see that the trials and tribulations faced by your own gaming group are part of the larger system of the gaming lifestyle that this book illustrates.

And now, spoilers. BEWARE!
( Spoilers for Game Night behind the cut! )

Tags: life, toys
Current Location: Renton, WA
Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: AC/DC--It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll)