• There are heaps of fantastic small print games out there that I wanted to have an oppertunity to play.
• I thought that the Wellington gaming scene would respond well to an event mid year.

So I stole an idea from New Zealand’s biggest RPG con, KapCon (which is held every January), and based my Day of Games on the Games on Demand room. The deal here is that there are a group of facilitators who each agree to run certain games that they’re really excited about and then people come, vote on which games seem cool and go play. Sounds easy right?

Well as I found out this supposidly easy concept needs (not surprisingly) more organisation that I thought it would. Choosing a date in mid-May which was roughly half way between KapCon and the one of the other main RPG events in Wellington, ConFusion which is held in August was easy. As was picking the old faithful, Turnbull House for a venue. I pimped my idea on the NZRag boards to get people to come and run games and even made fliers to go into the FLGS. I kind of forgot to set up a Facebook event until a few days before but dispite that lapse the day arrived an we had a pretty good turn out, even a guy who was from the US and travelling around NZ. After some discussion I decided to do a slightly different time table. Rather than the traditional 3 hour slot I split the day into two 4 hour slots and four 2 hour slots. This way if you wanted to play in a game that required more set up you’d still get time to play.

This was kind of where my grand idea fell down a little. I had a big white board and session times/lengths all worked out, but I felt there was too much standing around waiting and discussing what would happen next. Also a number of the GMs didn’t get to play in games that they wanted to due to having to run games. So I’ve been thinking about how to smooth out those waits and give everyone the oppertunity to play if they wanted to. So here is what I’m going to do next year, assuming there is interest:

• Get a clear list of games from each GM so other GMs can indicate what they’d also like to play in.
• Set up the whole day’s timetable to begin with so if people finish their session they know where to go next and time isn’t eaten up in the short sessions with arranging things.

In terms of my own Day of Games experience it was good. I ran an awesome game of 3: 16 for three Americans who really got into their roles as Space Marines. Then I “ran” an utterly terrible session of Capes (a game I’d never read, played in or even come across before) which I thought would be an easy supers pick game but confused me and all of the players with it’s unusual conflict mechanic. However I did really like the way characters were generated. Finally I brought out Hot War and actually got to run through game creation. This was my most satisfying game of the day and made me want to play in a multi-session game of this even more.

All in all it was a good day and the comments from others made me think that it could continue to grow in the furture. So I’m thinking that Day of Games will be around for another year yet.

I was very pleased to meet Gregor earlier this year at KapCon when he was in town for a friend’s wedding. A little while later I asked if he’d mind answering a few questions and here are his answers.

Can you introduce yourself for those who may not know you?
Oh, yes! I’m a games creator from Scotland. By day I work for a large Scientific Publisher and in my (any?) spare time I design, write and illustrate role-playing games. I got an honours degree in Astronomy but I’m mildly phobic of the night sky and large open spaces, which is a bit of a problem.

What got you into roleplaying games to begin with?
I liked listening to Lord of the Rings on the radio as a kid, and had loved reading my dad’s copy of the Hobbit (he had all the “usual suspects” including Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros). Gaming kicked off for me when we moved to be nearer my father’s work. This gave me a school-friend neighbour who was a wargamer and role-player — so he got me into it.

What games are you playing at the moment?
I’ve been in a campaign set in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay world, but using Conspiracy of Shadows. We’re picking up for part two of the campaign soon. We’re all watchmen in Nuln.

I’ve also been playing (unsurprisingly) a lot of games of 3:16 at conventions too, and they’ve been good fun. I don’t think I will ever tire of that game.

And the latest is AD 316, which is set in late Roman times.

Can you tell us a little bit about your two most well known games; Best Friends and 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars?
Best Friends is a game where you play a group of tightly bound girlfriends with petty hatreds and nonsense between them. Character creation is unusual because you define everyone else’s character (relative to you) rather than your own character. In turn you get your “stats” from what everyone else thinks of you. It’s also a diceless game, without any random element at all.

In 3:16 you play futuristic Troopers sent from Terra to kill everything in the Cosmos. It’s that Starship Troopers, Aliens, Warhammer 40K and 2000AD vibe and taps into a war theme. You have two abilities (Fighting and Non-Fighting) and your weapons don’t have damage, they tell you how many things you kill. It has some very traditional stuff in it too: levelling up and a macho competitive edge. The game is more than just killing things, though, you end up creating characters in play with “Flashbacks” that let you win or lose in return for giving something to the fiction. It can be powerful stuff. It’s a campaign game that’s also very fun to play as a one-off.

They’re pretty different concepts, what inspired you to go down such different thematic paths?
They were written, in their 24-hour form, about a month apart in late-2005 (Best Friends was September and 3:16 in October). The inspirational kick was from the Ronnies competition that ran briefly, and very brightly, at The Forge (indie-rpgs.com) that year. Best Friends was about my sister and her friends – it came together very quickly out of looking at the words “girlfriend” and “hatred” in a positive way. 3:16 was about recreating a very fun period of my gaming life playing SF “marine” game with rules that actually supported it. Each one had its own flavour and the differences between them made it easier to write them.

I then developed Best Friends and released it at GenCon 2006. Unfortunately, I couldn’t work on both 3:16 and Best Friends at the same time – they’re just too different in tone and style. So 3:16 took much longer to develop into its final form. Also because 3:16 had won a High Ronny award there was more pressure and expectation for it to be very good. It took me almost 3 years before everything fell into place and I was convinced the final version was very good and worth releasing.

What plans (if any) do you have for expanding these games?
For Best Friends it’s not going to be developed any more. People really love it (and in some cases really hate it – I know who you are) as it is. It’s currently out of print and I’m putting together a final version of it which will just stay as it is forever.

There are plans afoot for 3:16. I am working on a Roman legion version which will be done soon, a fantasy version called Carnage Amongst The Tribes due in October, and there might possibly be a World War II version. Certainly people have been hacking it to do these things themselves.

What kind of stories do you want to tell?
Oh, all sorts. I never had a “signature” character when role-playing and I’ve come to realise I’m a restless soul who likes flitting from story to story. I like serious stuff but a lot of my gaming has a large part of humour to it. I sometimes get told off by other players not being serious enough. Le sigh.

You’re involved in the Collective Endeavour, how has being part of that group helped your writing and game design? [Sophie edit: Collective Endeavour is a group set up to help small press roleplaying publishers in the UK. Check them out.]
I’m not sure it has. Hmm, that’s a tough question. I hope I’ve helped other people with my time there, though.

What advice would you have for fledgling indie game designers?
Design games you want to play. Have fun. Don’t be too disheartened if you fail to wow anyone else. Be enthusiastic, but also be critical of yourself and take criticism in a positive spirit and with open eyes. Don’t hold things too tightly and don’t get too hung up on theory. What’s the “reward cycle” in a game of tag? Sure is fun, though.

What else is on the agenda for you?
Oh, I’ll be at GenCon Indy on the Design Matters booth again this year (Booth #1834).

Thanks for your time Gregor and I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with next!

So a couple of years ago I bought a t-shirt from Threadless called “Derby of the Damned”. A few months later I went to my first KapCon and came away flush with ideas and concepts for new adventures using many and varied different game systems. One of those ideas was based on the t-shirt, partly because I thought it would be cool to play a Roller Derby girl and partly because I thought Derby of the Damned would be a great name for a scenario.

This idea bounced around in my head for months, every now and then I would try to make it work with an existing system. I tired All Flesh Must Be Eaten (the Unisystem zombie game from Eden Studios), Savage Worlds, True 20 and even Best Friends. But none of them quite seemed to fit with my idea with how this should play out.

It was around about this time that I was introduced to shared narrative games, most specifically 3: 16 Carnage Amongst the Stars. Something about the extremely quick character creation, low-fi stat/ability system and free for all nature of the game totally clicked with my idea of what I wanted Derby of the Damned to be. This minor epiphany also made me think that Derby didn’t need to just be a one off scenario, but possibly a shared narrative game in it’s own right.

I worked pretty hard on it after this change in direction, getting a set of rules I thought I could work with together with the intention of Derby making its debut at Kapcon 18.  However I totally chickened out at the play test stage and decided against it in the end. Since then I’ve pretty much shelved the project, and I think it might be time to pull it back off the shelf.

So I’ve decided to write a series of blog posts on the different elements that I’ve thought about during this design process to try and kick start it again. They will be around:

• Character creation
• How the dice roll
• Creating stories

Hopefully by the end I’ll be back in the head space to finish this off and actually get a game going.

The first post will show up sometime next week, so check back soon if you’re interested to see my somewhat bunny hopping creative process unfold.

So after running the three players through character creation (one had played 3:16 before and the other two hadn’t) we had 3 marines ready to go. They are:

Sgt Duke McManus (played by Glenn)
Cpl Jehricus (played by Ty)
Trp Rodriguez (played by Jackie)

While they read up on their everyday trooper shit, I did a quick planet creation and got Planet Kandinsky, a desert world inhabited by furred creatures, much like a cross between ewoks and wookies, who had the ability to impair the troopers through a high pitched sonic squeal. They were pretty tough, especially for a first game, with an AA of 7. I also used the 3: 16 supplement in the Collective Endeavour Journal to decide what their sub-mission would be on this planet, and it turned out to be recreation. So with these notes jotted down I opened the game with our three troopers hanging out in their bunks, on the good ship SS Ninja, waiting for the next mission.

I decided early that I would try and force them to get in character straight away and thankfully very little forcing was needed. All three players jumped into their marine roles with glee. I think it helped that I used a piece of advice from a recent thread over at The Forge where Gregor (the writer) talks about what he does to get the game rolling. I read out the orders and quotes for each rank from the book to get people in the right head space. I don’t know if it helped the players, but it certainly helped me.

After sitting on their bunks for a little bit, talking shit to each other I called them to the parade ground for a briefing on their R&R time which was coming up. I decided that I’d make them all do NFA rolls to see if they made it there in time or where the last ones in. Amusingly they failed and the Sarge got a dressing down by Lt. Malan the moment they walked in the door. Things were starting to shape up nicely for this squad of troopers. After a congratulatory speech by the used car salesman of a Captain, and being told the happy news that they’d get R&R on a planet of “beaches” the squad got sent planet side to start working on the pool.

An amusing drop down to the planet with more NFA rolls to see if they kept their lunch (none of them did) ended with them picking up their rifles, grenades and beach balls and heading out into the blistering hot sun.

The squad got to work digging the pool pit with some great uses of NFA by the players (convincing other troopers to help with the task, convincing the Lt to get a mini-digger dropped from orbit, using grenades as baseballs to make the digging faster) lead to some hilarious moments. However life in the 3: 16 isn’t all fun and games and soon (due of course to their initiative and go get ‘em attitude) the LT sent them off to find out why the other drop ships hadn’t reported in.

After a march across scorching sands and with one of the team getting heat stroke (after not being able to get her aircon unit working) they were set upon by a horde of raging furry beasts. They managed to keep them at bay for awhile but the aliens moved fast and before they knew it things were getting tough. It was looking especially bad for Trooper Rodriquez as three aliens ripped of her helmet and were about to do the same to her head when she remembered a time that she managed to soothe a mauling pit bull (made crazy by a female pit bull in heat). Using this strength she managed to overcome the final aliens. It was a great use of a strength and very well timed.

Making it to the other teams drop ships they found the carnage of 3 ships worth of dead troopers. After dispatching the remaining aliens hanging around a blinking box they realised they had a paradise bomb on their hands. After check it out and realising that the thing would go off if any alien got within 500 meters of it they radioed Lt. Malan for further instructions. He told them to hold the 500 meter parameter (with 3 marines) and to not let the aliens get the bomb. With a cunning flash of insight they decided to try and take one of the drop ships up and hold the parameter from there. Unfortunately they didn’t quite have the skill set to make it fly and while they were busy breaking drop ships another horde approached!

Trp Rodriguez and Cpl Jehricus took off in the other direction to get away from the blast radius, but brave Sgt McManus managed to reset the bomb and then walked into the jaws of death throwing the paradise bomb before him, managing to survive thanks to his Mandlebrite suit. The aliens weren’t so lucky and 66 of them went to their fiery deaths. The other two marines got a bit beaten up in the blast but were otherwise fine.

They barely had time to catch their breaths before a transmission from Lt. Malan came through telling them that a Major’s locator beacon had been picked up. They were to track it, find what has happened to the Major and report back.

Being the good troopers that they are they grumbled a bit, but followed orders. After tracking the signal for awhile they found a large cave with the sound of tribal drums coming from the inside. They charged inside and right into an ambush! After fighting of the furry fanged menaces they finally made it to the inner section. There they saw a body laid out on a stone plinth with Major insignia. While trying to decide what to do they were set upon by the last desperate creatures. After a dirty close quarters fight they were backed into a corner, however Cpl Jehericus had a flash back to when he was a boy at the carnival and his mum wouldn’t let him keep shooting the teddy bears to get the big purple unicorn. Yelling out “this is for you mum!” he mowed down the remaining aliens.

But the drama wasn’t over. After making their way down the tunnels to the Major’s side Trp Rodriquez realised that she recognised the prone form. It turned out to be none other than Major Jose Rodriquez her husband, presumed dead these last 6 months! They frantically get him med-vacced out and then wait impatiently for their own transport off this rock. They make it back to the ship just in time to see the planet bombarded from orbit, reduced to a smouldering heap of rubble.

They are also met by the Captain, Lt. Malan and a mystery officer who later turns out to be a Colonel. They are told to clean up and report to the Captain’s office in 2 hours. Trp Rodriquez spends the time trying to find Jose, but he seems to have disappeared again. While the others shower and take bets on whether the Major is still alive.

They have a tense meeting with the Captain where they are showered with medals (but interestingly no promotions) but which nearly ends badly with Rodriquez demanding to know where her husband is. The game ends with the Colonel telling her that “The Major is above your classification rating.”

So there you have it, thanks for reading this far (I got a little carried away)! A great game with more hilarious moments than I could put in here and open to being picked up again soon. After all will the Sarge ever overcome his anger issues? Will Jehricus get his hair to be just right? And what happened to Jose??

3: 16 – as a game of kick arse space marines doing what they do best, it is excellent. As a game of moral conundrums and difficult calls it forces the player to do more than just kill aliens. The system is simple, elegant and ultimately easy to learn and use. I also love the fact that character gen really only takes 5 minutes.

Hot War – I’ve talked a lot about this game and a large part of what appeals to me is the alt history setting that is much a character as any of the PCs. It is dark and difficult and allows the telling of stories that don’t always go the way you think. The collaborative nature of the game play means that as a GM unexpected things happen which just adds to the richness. Also the use of traits and relationships instead of skills makes for really well rounded and complex characters.

However since I wrote this I have actually brought another game which I think I’d like to add. Mongoose Publishing has gained the licence for the classic Sci Fi RPG, Traveller and I think have done a damn fine job. I’ve never read any of the other versions of this game but I’ve found this version excellent. I’ll be writing up a full review soon.

Due to it’s extremely fast character creation and use of a rather abstract range map, 3: 16 lends itself very well to ‘distance play’. I have a number of friend’s in far off lands (and when you’re in New Zealand that isn’t hard) who I would love to play this game with. Enter the joy of Skype, a virtual game table tool called Maptools and the creativity and ingenuity of fellow 3: 16 fans. These coupled with the before mentioned friend’s give way to the opportunity to play a table top game like an multi-player PC game. Though to be honest, more fun!

Hopefully we’ll be able to kick off this weekend, so look out for actual play reports to come in the following weeks.

I’m not sure where I first heard of this game. Either it was on the NZRag boards or perhaps Story Games. Where ever it was the premise grabbed me immediately.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about this is a game about Space Marines. Space Marines who are members of Terra’s Expeditionary Force, the 16^th Brigade of the 3^rd Army to be precise. An army whose main directive is to go into the stars, find life and kill it. However the subtleties and possibilities open to a gamer with a bit of imagination and willingness to do things differently is huge.

While I haven’t been able to play this game properly yet (I’m planning a Skype game, but more on that later) I have read the pdf from cover to cover and love what I’ve read.

It is a game about conflict. Players vs bugs, players vs shitty COs, players vs each other and the mechanic that drives all this is simple, effective and devastating. Unlike many games in which combat is one of the main elements 3: 16 doesn’t want to know how much damage you do to one enemy. Oh no, if you hit (using the oh so well named FA or Fighting Ability) you roll to see how many enemies you kill. Not just one, but many. It’s almost as if the designer of this game, Gregor Hutton (http://boxninja.com), thought that just one person to kill wasn’t quite ambitious enough.

As I’m talking about the use of FA I might as well touch on the lightening fast character creation. You choose a name, a characteristic and split 10 points between FA and NFA, or Non-fighting Ability. If you try to kill things, then it’s FA for everything else there’s NFA (to rip of a well known credit card company). That’s it, you’re done! Now it’s time for the GM to randomly roll for the planet and it’s aliens and you’re done.

There are more rules around levelling and gaining rank, as well as different weapons and gadgets that you can eventually get as well. All this is standard and I might even say necessary fare for a sci-fi game. But the thing I like most about it is that if you never want your Trooper to walk the halls of officer-hood then you can still be damn kick-arse! If you want to try your hand at choosing the planets and the missions as a Captain or even the terrifying Brigadier then you can do that as well.

While it seems at first glance like this game is just about killing aliens it actually appears to have the scope for a far richer experience, if of course you think there needs to be more than just shooting bugs.