So I am officially recognising my Kickstarter addiction.

However I seem to be very lucky, because of the 130 or so KSer I have spent money on only ONE appears to be a complete failure so far.

There are a few that haven't said much tho, and I will zero in on MORE (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1447560584/more-oldschool-turn-based-4x-space-strategy-game/comments) as being a strong possibility for being the most arrogant KSer I have been involved with.  A response to a request for update (last one was 1/Dec/2012) was as followers...

Hello,

Yes, we know that it would be nice to post some update, but we are so excited and busy on working with M.O.R.E. that we don't want to do anything else ;) In near future we will post update and I think there will be some more info for you.

Yes, we are living, and we are working hard.. and it's still possible to release basic Alpha somewhere in June/July.

 Not the most warming of responses. As I pointed out they could have put that comment into an update and at least it would have been something.

.	Name	Funded	Updates	Due	Completed
.	Wasteland 2	17/4/2012	22/3/2013
.	Dinocalypse Troligy	22/4/2012	03/04/2013
.	Grim Dawn	19/5/2012	03/03/2013
.	Pulse Fate Dice	14/7/2012	14/3/2013
.	Dungeon World	30/6/2012			Yes
.	Mad God	16/6/2012	22/3/2013
.	Ti2 Pen	18/6/2012			Yes
.	ConspiracyX	14/7/2012			Yes
.	Our Last Best Hope	17/6/2012			Yes
.	Disaster Looms	18/6/2012			Yes
.	Embers of Caerus MMO	19/6/2012	01/03/2013
.	Solid Pen	14/8/2012			Yes
.	Sedition Wars	30/6/2012			Yes
.	Sun Boxes in Vermont	07/09/2012			Yes
.	Dwarven Adventurers	25/7/2012			Yes
.	City of Clocks	07/02/2012	07/03/2014	Dec-2012	Yes
.	Rappan Athuk	07/02/2012			Yes
.	Westward Steampunk	07/02/2012	15/3/2013
.	CORE playing cards	22/07/2012	16/2/2013
.	Art Card Sleeves	07/02/2012	22/3/2013
.	Tales from the Fallen Empire	18/7/2012	27/3/2013
.	Hoplomachus	07/09/2012			Yes
.	Defence Grid 2	14/8/2012	03/01/2013		Yes
.	OUYA	08/09/2012	28/3/2013
.	Little Urban Achievers	16/8/2012			Yes
.	Race to Adventure	24/7/2012			Yes
.	Obsidian Apocalypse	09/03/2012	08/03/2013
.	Red Box Games	15/8/2012	28/3/2013
.	Reaper Miniatures	25/8/2012	28/3/2013
.	Hydra Dice	08/01/2012	19/3/2013
.	Axes and Anvils	08/11/2012	27/3/2013
.	Swords & Wizardry	09/04/2012			Yes
.	Necronomicon figs	08/04/2012			Yes
.	Numenera	17/9/2012	13/3/2013
.	Wild Card Creator	09/09/2012	27/3/2013
.	Steamcraft	19/8/2012			Yes
.	We're Having Sex	09/03/2012			Yes
.	Planetary Annhilation	14/9/2012	25/3/2013
.	Horror on the Orient Express	30/9/2012	28/2/2013
.	Perils of the Surface World	15/9/2012	26/3/2013
.	Truth and Lies Wu Xing	09/08/2012			Yes
.	Fate of the Norns	16/9/2012	26/3/2013
.	Geek Love	27/9/2012	29/3/2013
.	Project Eternity	16/10/2012	27/3/2013
.	Nova Praxis	11/10/2012	25/3/2013
.	Spears of the Dawn	11/08/2012			Yes
.	Hillfolk	11/02/2012	03/06/2013
.	The Reliquary	11/12/2012	13/2/2013
.	Original Sins	11/01/2012			Yes
.	Storm the Castle	25/11/2012	29/3/2013
.	Nightfall	26/10/2012	29/3/2013
.	MORE	28/10/2012	01/12/2012
.	Borderland Keep	28/10/2012	24/3/2013
.	Second Quest	16/11/2012	03/04/2013
.	Shadowgate	25/11/2012	03/08/2013
.	Apocalyptica Cards	12/01/2012	30/3/2013
.	Star Citizen	19/11/2012	13/2/2013
.	Shadow of the Sun	11/11/2012			Yes
.	Sir, You are being hunted	12/02/2012	22/3/2013
.	TGT Wallet	26/11/2012			Yes
.	Strike Suit Zero	17/11/2012			Yes
.	Elite	01/04/2012	15/3/2013
.	Hellfrost	12/07/2012	17/3/2013
.	Assimilation Alien Host	14/11/2012	03/03/2013
.	Steampunk Playing Cards	12/05/2012	13/3/2013
.	Creature Cards	21/11/2012	22/3/2013
.	Hero-U	20/11/2012	22/3/2013
.	Guide to Glorantha	18/12/2012	16/3/2013
.	Skies over Danbury	19/12/2012	25/3/2013
.	6d6 Core	12/04/2012	21/3/2013
.	Stealth PLaying Cards	23/12/2012	03/09/2013
.	FORCED	12/01/2012	19/3/2013
.	Forsaken Fortress	22/12/2012	21/3/2013
.	UP FRONT	01/02/2013	27/3/2013
.	Dark and Deep	19/12/2012	25/3/2013
.	Sui Generis	29/11/2012	03/06/2013
.	Intuition Pen	29/12/2012			Yes
.	BIGrootcup	01/02/2013			Yes
.	Art of Adventure	12/03/2012			Yes
.	Fate Core	29/1/2013	26/3/2013
.	Guilds of Cadwallon	22/12/2012	26/3/2013
.	DM Familiar Library	01/09/2013			Yes
.	Beyond the Bamboo Curtain	14/1/2013	03/10/2013
.	Adventures of 19XX	21/1/2013			Yes
.	Punktown	19/12/2012	21/3/2013
.	Tomorrow	01/08/2013	22/3/2013
.	War of the Overworld	01/03/2013	27/3/2013
.	Legend of Sinbad	13/1/2013	03/07/2013
.	Project GODUS	21/12/2012	28/3/2013
.	DASH wallet	25/1/2013			Yes
.	PCGaming Wiki	20/1/2013	02/09/2013
.	Grande Temple of Jing	02/12/2013	16/3/2013
.	Interface Zero 2	03/01/2013	29/3/2013
.	Sorceror Upgrade	18/1/2013	18/3/2013
.	Gnomish Adventurers	16/2/2013	29/3/2013
.	Zogars Gaze	02/07/2013	20/3/2013
.	LotFP Free rpg day	20/2/2013	14/3/2013
.	Delvers Drop	13/3/2013	28/3/2013
.	Rox	03/08/2013	24/3/2013
.	Achtung Cthulhu
.	Karma Cards	26/2/2013	20/3/2013
.	Bread	14/3/2013	15/3/2013
.	Busty Barbarian Bimbos	18/3/2013	14/3/2013
.	CST-01	22/2/2013	03/03/2013
.	Mage Tower	16/3/2013	19/3/2013
.	War Stories	04/08/2013	24/3/2013
.	Jamsauce	28/2/2013	21/2/2013
.	Dungeon Roll	20/3/2013	29/3/2013
.	Torment
.	Hoplomachus Rise of Rome	24/3/2013	26/3/2013
.	Deck of Thieves	18/3/2013	26/3/2013
.	EONS	17/3/2013	18/3/2013
.	Hull Breach	17/3/2013	29/3/2013
.	EXPEDITION	31/03/2013
.	Wicked Fantasy	24/3/2013	25/3/2013
.	Zombicide 2
.	Bill the Galactic Hero
.	Dungeons of the Mountain King
.	Crabby Wallet
.	The Raw and the Cooked
.	Walk the Plank
.	Floating Face Dice
.	Tablesmith Online
.	Baldricks Tomb
.	Dungeon Deck	29/3/2013
.	Santa Cruz del Isote
.	Westward Vol1
.	Mind Afire
.	Citizen of the Galaxy

United States

On May 14th, 2007, the United States Postal Service eliminated international surface mail as part of its cost-cutting measures.^[2]

And of course that means everyone else followed.

So an old friend of mine started a new game of ConspiracyX. Not overly excited abut the game choice but was excited about playing with the group.  The first session seemed to go well, at least I enjoyed it and two others told me they enjoyed it. Sadly a few days after that session the GM emailed that he wasn't happy with things, that it was more than he could handle and he was giving up role playing - all role playing, so bye.

My first thought was that it might have been my fault, I am a vocal gamer and can be argumentative at times, but after thinking about it for a time couldnt agree with that view.  I eventually spoke to two of the others and it turns out that it was partially their fault. THey were adjusting to the new game and experimenting with character changes and got into a discussion with the GM about some rules and I think that was a final straw.

So looking at it all, thinking how I have been feeling lately, etc etc here is my humble diagnosis: we are all getting old.

Very sad to say this but I am 55 years old and the others are (I think) within 5 years of that one way or the other (except one). Most of us have been role playing since we were 20, so fairly safe to say that we have been doing this for 35 years, or more. None stop.  I cant recall a time when I have not been role playing/gaming since I bought my first copy of Squad Leader and my first copy of D&D (within a year of each other I think).  Recently, as you may have read from previous blogs, I have been having a sort of forced hiatus running games, but I am still playing a regular fortnightly game.  But the stress and challenges I have been facing recently have shown me that gaming requires real effort and committment, especially the later.

I think as we get older our time becomes quite valuable, and strangely less available. I'm not going to propose that time moves at a different pace as you get older (yes I am), but I sure as hell dont seem to have the time to do anything these days. Back when I was twenty I would stay awake till 3am paying a game, sleep till 12mid, wake up and do nothing for several hours, read two books, watch TV for hours, go to a movie, go to a party, play 6 hours of D&D... about 32 hours worth of effort in a 24 hour period.

These days, I crawl out of bed and wonder why my pillow is all wet (apparently I snore and dribble - personally I have no evidence of this). I stagger around getting dressed, have some breakfast, sit down and have a coffee... and BAM! Its goddamn 10am already... what the hell have I been doing for 3 hours. So I watch some TV, read the papers... BAM! its 1pm and somehow I missed lunch. So I do some house work, work in the garden, go shopping.. BAM is 5pm and aren't I supposed to be ready to go to the game. Travel to the game, which seems to take longer these days, sit around chewing the fat... BAM its 7pm and hadnt we better DO something about playing. Bam! its 11pm and I'm tired, go home and go to bed.

Obviously its not quite that bad (honestly... ummm), but you get the idea.  And my point here is that not only is time against me, but we are way more cranky and temperamental than we use to be. I'm not going to go into how less flexible I am (physically). I find it difficult to spend the time that is required to absorb a new game system then play it. These days I rely on previous experience (most games have components that come from earlier games so after reading 100+ game systems I just about know it all), and group gestalt... which is to say that between all of us we have read all the rules and as a group we can stumble our way through the first few sessions.  That actually works fairly well as all of us have different interestes in any one game so most of the time we have read all the rules well... as a composite.

But still, it requires effort these days.  I'm too tired for effort, somebody sold me a story about growing old and retiring (haven't got there yet) and having all that free time was your reward. Yeah sure, by the time I get there I wont have the time to do bugger all.

Which is not to say that I dont enjoy it, because I still do. So I will persist.

The Tyranny of Distance.

I have just got back from a trip to the USA for work, and whilst there I took the opportunity to buy up on games - 24lb worth of games. Weight was the limiting factor due to the baggage limits of the airline.

I bought: Legendary, Eclipse, Mage Wars, Dominion, Fantastiqa, King of Tokyo and a bunch of expansions for those games.  In all it was just less than $400 worth of games.  It was enormously profitable - why? Because the postage on those games would have been another $400 if I had ordered them online as I normally would have.

Postage has become a major concern with games these days. This is most evident for me with Kickstarter, where postage is a big concern. I unwisely committed to one KSer that didnt advertise postage up front and ended up paying as much in postage as the item cost.  I have also seen a number of KSers saying that they are having problems coping with international postage as it is rising sharply.

And the reason - they are all using airmail and couriers. Whatever happened to surface mail?  Years ago I used to get a lot of stuff sent to me via surface mail, it took 2 months to get to me but it didnt cost much.  The usual reason I am given is speed of delivery (I want it now) and damage or loss during transit (we dont trust surface mail).  I suspect it is more of a "we can't be bothered working out" any delivery method other than the ONE method, cause it saves on handling costs.  For me speed is not a concern, COST is a concern. Damage during shipping - wrap it is a few layers of bubble wrap! Gets lost - that what insurance is for - not to mention that is 30 years of shipping I have NEVER lost an item.  I'm not sure if surface mail actually exists anymore - the web sites of the post office dont seem to mention it, so maybe its no longer an option. Ahh for the old days.

Tis the season...

I have joined two new games recently, and both of them are game subjects that I would not normally think that I would enjoy.

The first is Nights Black Agents - a modern vampire conspiracy spies and agents style of game. I dont like vampires and modern weapons, they just dont go together well. If I put enough rounds into a creature that 50% of its body matter is spread over 20 sq yards then I expect it to be dead and gone. If it isnt then that is serious fantasy material, not modern espionage stuff.  Plus these games assume some level of knowing what you are doing in the modern world, either with guns or computers. AND they assume the GM has the same amount of knowledge. There is nothing more annoying then a GM telling you thats not possible when you do it for a living. The games requires you to push the limits of reality while trying to portray things are real, it just grates for me.

On the other hand however, and my reason for playing, is the Gumshoe system. I really like where this system is going in its methodology - cinematic moments with doses of random chance, less reliance on stupid dice rolls and more getting into the story and moving it along. Getting the facts when the facts are there to get and not stuffing around with perception rolls to notice what is required to progress the story.  Its a really neat rules system that attracts me.

The second game I have opted for is ConspiracyX v2.  I went into the Kser for this so I have the rule books but hadn't got around to actually looking at them. Its sort of like the above game, only throw in aliens and paranormal stuff - ie magic by another name. So again we get this combination of essentially fantasy with modern technology. I want guns and fireballs, and I want them now!

The only problem with that is that using guns and fireballs (explosives) is awfully good fun in Hollywood, but the reality of them is so totally different. This is where your GM can have problems, moving back and forth from "in Hollywood" to "this is reality" modes. SO one session you are firing hundreds of bullets and kgs of c4 and your characters laugh it off, then the next session where the GMs carefully constructed scenario is falling apart under your explosives/autofire overkill, and they 'adjust' - or take a 'reality check' -  to try to bring things under control, and you all die.

But yet again parts of the game appeal to me - the "Base" rules and the equipment rules seem quite neat. You get to form your own cell and make your own secret batcave hidden HQ, and then equip it with mod cons.  Thats always fun.  Like good crafting in an MMO.

The other attraction will be that it brings me back into playing with some people I used to play a lot with ages ago, and that will hopefully be fun also.  There are other issues with that, like the GM actually likes killing you, but I can live with that for now.

And what is it with games that kill then and then penalise you by making you start all over again. Everyone else has 80 xp and you have none... oh dear I died again, and again, and again because everyone else can survive that stuff.  Or you hide with the next dozens sessions. Thats not fun.  The answer is of course to make sure you take everyone down with you ...  oops did I say that out loud?

Dungeon World first session. Looking at Tools.

Well we had our first session of Dungeon World using Maptool and went reasonably.  Only 3 people showed up but that was enough to start with, seeing as this first session was exposure to the rules and the tool.  Of course, after telling them all to read the rules for weeks I ended up with one person having read some of the rules and the other 2 not. Par for the course.  It didnt take long however to sort of get into the rhythm of the game, which encourages free form expression and the GM interpreting what they are doing.  However it also didnt take long for the players to fall into the trap of mechanistically using the action tags to describe what they were doing, will have to work on that a bit more.

Maptool, apart from some macro bugs I over sighted, worked reasonably well.  We had some lag moments now and then but that was mostly because everyone was trying to do something at the same time. One habit you have to try to get your players used to is restricting the number of people moving tokens at one time. There are tools for locking out players moving their tokens, which I used in my Savage Worlds module, but I have yet to do so in this module, might have to look into it.

The session ended with the players taking the worst possible path (danger wise) and going up against the EyeLord, the main monster... its really amazing how players can make a bee-line for the monster they are supposed to run into last. They managed to handle it, although it was close, which is good.

As one of the players will be having a baby in the next week and one other is her husband, we have put off the next few sessions.

In the meantime I have been thinking about what other online tools you might use for running a game. One that occurred to me was using a Minecraft world to display the world in 3D, giving them a nice visual element to their exploring. When they run into monsters you simply jump over to whatever combat/encounter tool you are using.  In the Minecraft world encounters would be indicated by simply laying down a marker of some kind.  I might do the first dungeon as a trial and see how it goes.  The benefit of using Minecraft and Dungeon World is the map as you go, create on the fly, method that DW encourages. Converting this to Minecraft is simple as you simply carve out an expanding world as the players reveal it. So you dont have to craft a huge world map to begin.

The other tool I have been looking at is the Roll20 VTT. I am a big fan of Maptool VTT simply because it has fog of war and vision layering, which no other tools had. Well Roll20 now has it, although it is a subscription based feature. It is very much like Maptool, a new layer on the map with tools to lay down vision blockers, and lighting effects.  It seems to work quite well. It needs some more tweaking but it a big plus in their favour.  With this feature Roll20 compares quite well with Maptool. Maptool still has a much more extensive macro language to automate things with, but Roll20 is much more user friendly, plus it has a 3D dice roller which players like.  I'm gonna have a play around with it and come up with an opinion.  Certainly the other big thing in their favour is that they are actually working on their tool and upgrading, whereas Maptool seems to be stuck at the moment with updates and trying to move to a 1.4 version.

Ninja