Death Star Trench Run for X-Wing Minis

I recently got super hooked on the X-Wing Miniatures Battle Game by Fantasy Flight Games. I got it for my bro almost a year ago, and he eventually played it and loved it. He was hooked. Then he and I played together at GenCon and I got the bug. Now I have a decent collection.

Between X-Wing and Edge of the Empire, Fantasy Flight has rekindled that sense of wonder about the original trilogy Star Wars universe. 

I had to get other people hooked, so I could ensure ample play opportunities. So my regular RPG group now has the bug. Last weekend I ran them through a homebrew Death Star Trench Run. It was great fun. During the last round of play, Luke (with R2 on board) blew the thermal exhaust port and saved the day. There wasn't such an uproar in my game room in months, if not years.

Luke, Biggs, and Jek all decked out for their run.

So, I uploaded my take on rules of the iconic Trench Run to X-Wing Mission Control. I hope you like it. I searched for some others out there. Here's another good one. What do you think about 'em?

Confessions of a Failed MMOer

Yeah, I played an MMORPG once.  My brother called me up, said he bought it, and thought we could play together. Fair enough. I dropped the $49.95 and thought, “What’s the harm?”  Physical, emotional, and marital strife is the answer we’re looking for, folks.

Having played pen and paper RPGs for years, I thought the game was about experiencing a cool story and enjoying cooperation towards common goals.  This game shook me out of that illusion with the gentleness of an industrial paint mixer. 

One night, my new wife gently said, “Come to bed, honey,” at approximately 11pm.  “Just a minute,” I said. Then my stomach roared. It was 3am. I had lost time, like an alien abductee, and the game was as fun as the associated probing would have been.  But I had to play on, killing spiders alone in this forest, because some jerkwad with a yellow exclamation mark told me to.  And I needed to gain on my brother, who I couldn’t quest with because he was four levels above me and somehow that precluded our teamwork. 

Anyway, back to my stomach.  I was wrapped around my spine, screaming for food. So, I mashed a bunch of number keys—so my Orc warrior would defend himself for a minute against these eight-legged fools—and sprinted to the kitchen.  My bride had bought groceries that day, so I had so many choices. But I had to act quickly, because my kick/stomp combo in the forest would soon run out and my Orc was too dumb to raise a shield against spider fangs.  Idiot.

I snagged a handful of deli-sliced salami, like a crackhead raiding a Salvation Army change bin. No order, no decorum, no chewing. I had insect glands to collect…or something.  I finished five slices of salami before I made it down the hallway. My warrior was still alive, although assailed by three arachnids while some other players stood there refusing to help me. Apparently teamwork only happens in a 40-man raid. Douche tools. I logged off and went to sleep.

Morning, and a new day. Eight hours in a cubicle thinking of how I’m going to ruin my perfectly good sex life with digital adventure tonight.  Then suddenly, pain. I felt a sharp stab just south of my stomach.  It last a couple seconds, and subsided.  An hour later, it was back, but in a different spot, lower. I was doubling over at work, and coworkers thought I was being exorcised. Again, after lunch, It was on the other side of my abdomen. I was certain I’d be getting an appendix out that day.  It repeated throughout the day, the pain moving throughout my GI tract, until I had a swell BM that evening. Before I flushed, I peeked (you always gotta see how you did, amirite?!). 

Blood! I stared into the bowl at the string of blood, going through a mental checklist. It’s not a xenomorph, or it would have come out my chest. I haven’t eaten glass. Nobody punched me in the kidney. You know, the obvious. Then it hit me. The red stuff wasn’t diffusing in the liquid like it should. I got a closer look, and saw it wasn’t blood.  It was the plastic ring around the salami that some deli meathead didn’t take off before slicing it (and that some gamer meathead didn’t notice as he choked it down).

Yes, I ingested plastic and risked bodily harm in order to save my Orc avatar from having to resurrect at a fictional graveyard.

Yeah, I played an MMORPG once. And I don’t do that anymore.

1kXP2M: Prime Gamer Space

I just moved into a new house, and I have an unfinished basement.  I'm now embarking on the long road of creating the ultimate gamer space. 

First, I need to frame the room, and put the walls up. 

Then I want to cover an entire wall in IdeaPaint. 

There will be a projector which can either shine onto the game table and/or the wall.

Flooring choices are still up in the air.

I want medieval style sconce lighting with dimmers.

Also there should be sound dampening tiles in the ceiling so we can get as loud as we like.

Framed pics of the AvatarArt commissions of my favorite characters shall adorn the walls.
I want a sepia tone Faerun map framed and hung, too.

Any other ideas?

Fresh Meat!

Did you ever get that 'sense' about someone?  You know, that feeling that they game? 

I got it when I met some dudes in high school.  They had that same feeling about me.  And when we broached the subject, it was a huge confirmation that our internal geek sensors were working.  And I'm still gamer buds with those guys to this day.

It's like gaydar, but for gamers.  Perhaps it's gamedar?

Well, we got a new intern today.  And looking at him, I just got that sense.  More to come...

Weapon Speed Factors and Floating Initiative

Lance and I talked a while back about weapon speed factors, and I still haven't quite shaken the idea that weapon speed factors are a great idea.  Although he and I don't agree exactly on the implementation of them, we seem to agree in principle that they can serve to add a dynamic feel to tactical round-based combat.

I read some viewpoints on this variant.  One staunch detractor was Sean K. Reynolds.  His post was interesting, and I get where he's coming from.  But he took a 'case closed' approach that I don't feel was justified.  He seemed to feel that introducing a speed variant justified revisiting other combat rules.  Well, it does, if you want to.  Heck, you can do whatever you want in your own game!  But it doesn't have to.  Attempting to bring in one factor of realism to combat doesn't require bringing in ALL factors of realism, lest we have to account for the efficacy of piercing/slashing/bludgeoning weapons versus leather/chain/plate armor, just as an example.  We don't want to do that; we want to reflect the dynamic, unpredictable flow of combat (while rewarding quicker characters with a very slight edge) without bogging down the game.

I propose something light and simple as a solution:

Weapon                          Initiative Penalty


Unarmed, spells                          0
Finessable weapon                    -1
One-handed weapon                 -2
Two-handed weapon                 -3

Now, I do agree with Mr. Reynolds in the greater body of his article that weapon speed factors become a moot point after round one.  At least they do when using the standard initiative model.  Sean says that weapon speed factors still result in 10 attacks by side A and 10 attacks by side B in 10 rounds (assuming low level characters).  Heck, almost everything about initiative is a moot point after round one.  Improved initiative is a waste of a feat, at least.

The point of this post is, then, two-fold.  I wish to justify weapon speed factors (and hopefully coax comments about them), and propose a floating initiative system, which resolves the aforementioned mootness of weapon speed factors.

I've done a floating initiative system before, in which initiative is rolled every round.  While this CAN slow combat down, it doesn't have to.  Just about every game table I've seen in the last five years has a laptop at it.  Why not open up a spreadsheet program with a random number generator formula? (E.g.,  =RANDBETWEEN(x,y) in MS Excel).  Hit F9 to recalculate every round, and use an auto sort macro to put it in top-down order each time?  A proficient user could recalculate initiative every round in a second or two.

What does this look like at the table?  Round after round, the quicker character (i.e., the character with higher dexterity, lighter weaponry, and the improved initiative feat) gets a chance to go first more often.  But there's always a chance that your foe gets two full rounds off before you get yours.  I liken this to the dynamic flow of exciting battles in novels and movies. 

Thoughts?

Great Old One Candleholder

This candlestick holder is exactly what I need for my new basement gaming haven.

I can see it right now...black candles dripping wax over the suction cups, as the party delves into a howling cavern...

Want!