No Quarter - Review

So we have had 4 issues of No Quarter, Privateer Press' gaming magazine, since the release of the Iron Kingdoms RPG. So I thought I should review what we have had in those issues that is specifically for the RPG.

Those new to the Iron Kingdoms may not know of the magazine. It comes out every two months, prices $7.50. It is a full colour magazine, and is part advertisment, part gaming supplement, and part community magazine. Inside you will find articles that show off the latest rules and minis for the table top wargames, Warmachine and Hordes, painting and modelling articles, information on tournaments and conventions, short stories and more information on the world of the Iron Kingdoms, plus gaming articles for Iron Kingdoms. You could compare it in some respect to White Dwarf magazine. But I would say for the price you are getting great content, and a lot of free stuff per issue, compared to the content in White Dwarf.

No onto that free stuff. In particular the Iron Kingdoms content.

In issue 44 we get a modelling guide for making character models for Iron Kingdoms (Iron Kingdoms being and rpg that makes use of minis - not surprising considering what is on offer from Privateer press). We also get, following on from the expanded bestiary section that is a free download on the PP website, a Monsternomicon article, featuring more big beasties for your players to confront.The Gatormen rules are useful as it allows for the conversion of the Witchfire trilogy from D20 to the IKRPG d6 system. We also get a premade adventure, featuring a mission to retrieve a magical text pertaining to lost Orgoth magics, and tackling a possessed Steamjack.

Issue 45 keeps up the quality and quantity. We get a whole new career for the Trollkin, Long Riders. So now our Trollkin have mounts, Buffalo. Plus of course new rules for these mounts and skill related to using these mounts. This of course coincided with the release of the equivalent minis for Hordes. So there is some great setting material about the warriors that rides these beasts. We also get an article that looks at the logistics of Steamjacks. How to move them about when they are not in operation, the cost of fuel for these machine (something that in the main rulebook was broken!), and another Monsternomicon article. This time ghosts! We get shades and spectres (again massively useful for converting the Witchfire Trilogy and of course work a charm with Thamarite rules in Urban Adventures), and Riven - ghosts of Elves dating to the Rivening. Scary bastards. But the best thing is that we now have the perfect set of additions to Iron Kingdoms to run a horror based game in a fantasy setting. Next we get some new equipment, in Foundry, Forge and Crucible. All this equipment is stuff that is useful, primarily for particular tasks, like grapple guns, harpoon guns, acid sprays. But in a pinch any of these make for useful improvised weapons! And to add a cherry on top we have even more about converting minis for the rpg.

Issue 46 doesn't let up. A new career is added - Doom Reaver. F***ing hell! These guys are badass in the wargame, but as a playable character? Well you have a sort of homage to Elric and his black blade. Just that the blades of whispering evil Orgoth blades. We of course get new skills, new rules for the blade, and a painting guide. I can see these being great antagonists, and quite a horrific character to roleplay. They would make for a great bodyguard for a fellow Khador player in the troupe. Monsternomicon comes back with more creatures. Razor Bats, Devil Rats (perfect for the sewers of Corvis - yay more for Witchfire Trilogy revised!), and a massive buffalo. Furthermore we get the first Gazetteer, introducing the mining town of Wexmere. We get a map, some info on the politics of the area, and the lands around it. A great place to visit or run and entire campaign about.

Issue 47, the latest is filled with some great stuff. Yeah, because the last issues weren't good enough already?  We get a modelling guide for converting characters for Gobbers for the rpg. The Monsternomicon (yeah these sections are really useful) gives us more beasties. The Gorax, a sort of big Yeti like ape thing. We get rules for the Argus and White Argus, the two headed wolves of the Circle Orboros. We also have rules for a few types of trolls. This is quite great, because Trollkin can feasibly befriend these creatures. They also mean you can have players face the forces of Trollkin led party of Trolls. The really insightful part of this is that it makes clear that the rules for the wargame and the rpg are almost directly compatible. You may have a few stats to work out, and a few powers to convert. But it does make it clear that if you wanted, that giant dragon beast in the last issue could be used in your games. Just a thought, since they give you its stats in the issue. Foundry, Forge and Crucible returns, this time with arcane, cursed firearms. Again some great weapons with cool story hooks. The Imprecator pistol is a really great concept.

If that wasn't enough we have a new race and career and rules via some free downloads. Satyxis Raiders! Oh boy. Again a great new playable race, plus along with the Thamarite, Thralls and ghosts, we have a great way of representing the forces of Cryx in the game. Of course the Satyxis would not be complete without rules for ships, and even an example encounter with a Satyxis raiding ship.

So the first 6 months of Iron Kingdoms has been pretty awesome, and bodes well for the upcoming releases. This includes the book, 'Kings, Nations and Gods', and the forthcoming release of the Games Master kit, complete with screen, character sheet pad, and encounter sheets and health sheets (apparently dry wipe pen compatible!).

No Quarter Presents - Iron Kingdoms: Urban Adventure

No Quarter Presents - Iron Kingdoms: Urban Adventure - Review

So the Iron Kingdoms RPG (IKRPG), by Privateer Press, has been out for a couple of months now, and has been met with good reviews and excitement. I personally still have yet to run a session, but I am eagerly writing up a chronicle for my own games. This means I have been digging into the old D20 books while we await this information to be updated and reproduced in new books with the new rules. But Privateer Press has not just sat there doing nothing. Oh no. They provide support from day one. Online the had a free pdf for the expanded bestiary, and there have been some great support in recent issues of their No Quarter magazine. First we got an adventure (a ghost possessing a steamjack) and some more equipment, and in the more recent issue PP addressed the fuel price issues (something which in the core rulebook was handled badly) and also they gave us rules for ghosts, spectres, and the ghosts of the Elves who died during the Rivening. We also have a new Trollkin career - Bison Riders. Urban Adventure (UA) follows this up in some style. It's a mixed bag of fun, all wrapped up disco fudge (kudos if you get the reference).

UA starts off with some nice new careers that focus on life within the cities,  and in particular these careers are aimed squarely at how non-humans live in human cities. We get Ogrun labor workers, Trollkin pugilists, and Nyss explorers. Extra diversity is never a bad thing. Following this up we get a whole grab bag of new skills. Again all focused on life in the cities. Some new unarmed brawling skills, larceny skills, and social skills. New equipment is introduced, such concealed weaponry, fear gas, and spying gear. We also get a whole load of new combat maneuvers, some grab ones covering dirty, unarmed fighting (fish hooking!) and also a load of stats for improvised weapons! Steamjacks are not forgotten in this book. And again we get a grab bag of new chassis and equipment that over the labor jacks that would be found in the cities of the Iron Kingdoms. They may not all be things design for military use but they sure are nasty (harpoon gun and wrecking ball!).

All of this then sets us up nicely for the main spectacle - the City of Five Fingers. Now if you are the types of gamers that I expect you are, you are more than likely familiar with Pirates of the Caribbean. Of course two great locations in that series of films are the pirate ports of Tortuga and Shipwreck cove. Well take all of that, add in the island geography akin to Venice, and you have the IK city of Five Fingers. It's an Ordic city - barely. The city has been home to pirates and mercenaries ever since the Orgoth left the shores of Immoren, and over time the islands that make up Five Fingers (named for the five water ways that the Dragon's Tongue River splits into) have become a crowd collection of creaking buildings, gambling dens, fighting rings, docks, breweries, mercenary outposts, and crisscrossing walkways. If Corvis is the ghostly city based on Venice, that Five Fingers takes the more mercantile and privateer elements and magnifies it by 100. We get awesome maps of all the islands, and detailed breakdowns of their business and attractions and dangers. We learn about the main gangs and forces that live in these chaotic islands, the 5 pirate lords that watch over it all, and the cults that lurk in the caves and tunnels of the islands. A lot of this information is repeated from the old D20 books, but the presentation plus new rules still make this book worth the money.

Next up in the book is something I really hope to see more of, both in future books, issues of No Quarter, and online - Encounters. What we get are a series of Encounters, things that could occur in the cities of the Iron Kingdoms. You could use them as more random filler to your games, or even use them as the basis for entire plots to episodes or even chronicles. Each encounter gets a brief description, and explanation for how it can be used, and also variations depending upon the experience of the player characters. Rules for characters, thugs, and monsters are provided - the skiggs being a hilarious addition to the game. I really can't wait to see more of these.

Now the next chapter is perhaps my favourite. Thamarites. We get a great discussion of their beliefs and methods, plus a new career - Thamarite Advocate. Now we can either have player characters as Thamarites - even being their own cult - and of course rules for Thamarite NPCs. We of course get new powers, covering necromancy, and also detailed rules on the creation of Thrallls. So with all this we can recreate Alexia from the Witchfire series! This chapter, plus the ghost rules in No Quarter really makes it possible to run horror games in the Iron Kingdoms.

Finally we get some discussion on the laws of the Iron Kingdoms, the punishments that can be expected for crimes, and lastly a new scenario to play out. The adventure is designed the quickly get the players embedded into the complex gang rivalries of the islands, and escalates to a final encounter with a Thamarite sorcerer - something I am eager to use in my own games - and could easily be modified to work for any city setting.

Overall Urban Adventure is a great addition and if anything a must have for IKRPG as it really gives you those extras you need to have a full range of antagonists for your players to fight.

[actual play] Vampire the Requiem- Manchester - The Two Thrones

Story 4: Seed

It had been around two weeks since the mass destruction of Kindred of the Lancea Sanctum and the Circle of the Crone. Emergeny meetings had been called by the Chairman, and the Constable and his bailiffs had been working over time to quell disputes over territory. This had left the resources of the Constable stretched, and considering that Galen owed him, he had drafted in the Mekhet vampire to do some spying on certain more volatile anarch vampires in the city.

Galen of course had been conducting is own research into Persian Jinn, and the demon he was certain was now haunting him. Galen was going through a change of heart, a moment of self realization, that his pursuit of nothingness, of being empty of emotion and care, to be free of his mortality, was the very thing that had brought him to this moment and opened him up to the corruption of this demon. But he now had a name for the monster - Hyaninai. Or was it Hilyaish. He was not sure but the demon names fitted what he had experienced so far.

Galen was now looking for a way to reconnect with his humanity and the world, and so had recently ghouled a university student, a biology student who would be of some use. As for the Mithraeum, Galen never returned, instead choosing to block it up once more.

Tristan was of course more preoccupied with the club. There was a need to have the club up and running again soon as it would once more provide a distraction for the younger kindred of the city, and in turn diffuse the tension between the Carthians and the Invictus. Of course the club was almost finished in the renovations, thanks to the funding provided by the Invictus Judex, Lord Peter Hawkins, Viscount of the North of Manchester.

Tristan's ghoul, Carl, was of course fully recovered, and so together the two were involved in the running of Elysium as the Constable and his men were preccupied with more violent problems.

Given the current problems with the unrest in the city the Constable met with Galen and Tristan. He needed their aid to deal with a potential masquerade breach in the south of the city, in Longsight. A group of anarchs seem to be the same group that are behind a mounting number of disappearances in the area. Worse still is that their territory bordered that of Natalia Kerkoft, the Invictus Viscountess of the south of Manchester.

Galen and Tristan made their way to the haven of these anarchs, and it was a place Galen already knew of, and had noted that in the recent nights had only seen the one vampires coming and going. It was a strange moment to do so, but Galen confessed to Tristan that months earlier he had stolen some money from the club. Tristan brushed it off, that it did not matter, especially now.

Together Galen and Tristan headed to the abandoned office block, a building only 4 stories high, and on the street side hosted boarded up shops at the ground level. The two made their way to the read of the building and made their way in. The place was clearly a place for junkies to hangout, and there was litter, decaying food, the smell of rat piss and the vague hint of old blood. The pair of vampires headed down into the basement, and found the boiler room. Within were over a dozen bodies, all in a range of states of decomposition. They were all brutally mauled and covered in bites. Vampire bites. There were also three vampires among their number, their skin stretch and crumbling over their bones. They had also been drained.

Tristan felt something slick under his foot, and lifted it. The bloody membrane stretched up of the floor. It was partly translucent and smelt of bile. A streak of yellow-brown mucus led to the plumbing room, and within they found a uncovered manhole and the body of a further vampire. His mouth had been wrenched open, and his neck had a huge bite upon it, made up of concentric circles of teeth marks.

Rather go into the tunnels without support or some sort of information on the area, Galen called the Constable to arrange a cleanup, and together with Tristan they headed to the canals and to take their normal route through undercity to the meeting chamber, and to the Nosferatu mayor of the undercity, Nails.

Within the chamber, illuminated by drums filled with burning wood, numerous outcast vampire were gambling, bartering and chatting. Some were feeding on some homeless person they had dragged into the darkness. While waiting for Nails to finish his business, Tristan had a tap on the shoulder. He turned to find before him, the ragged goth, and ex-coterie member, Thessaly. She was not alone. With her was her grand-sire and master, the almost goblinoid looking Nosferatu, the master of the Cult of Cernnunos, Magus Gregor. The vile ancient being conversed with Tristan and Galen, listening to their issues, and explaining that he was worried that there those among the Carthians seeking to see the Chairman ousted. While he has no love for the Chairman, he would like to see the Carthians remain in power as any collapse would see the Lancea make a run for power. Tristan and Galen were happy to hear this support from one of the oldest vampires in the city.

Speaking with Nails revealed that similar vampires had been spotted in the sewers, and that one area they had made their haven stank of death and decay. He had so far asked others to keep away from those vampires until he had figured out what they were doing. But  Nails had noticed their auras were different, something Galen had spotted some few nights back with the other coterie. It was that they were confused, and desperately hungry.

The One Shot

The One Shot is a game that last typically for one or two sessions, and is a self enclosed story. For White Wolf games these often present a great opportunity for trying out a new game, or system hacks, or, of course, introducing new players to the game, to the gaming group, or to roleplaying in general. So in this brief blog I am going to look at the types of things that you can do in a One Shot that often a chronicle is not the place for.

One of the things that players often enjoy about ongoing games is that they get to see their character grow and evolve and overcome many different struggles. But in the horror genre, be it slasher films, stalker monsters, or survival horror games like 'Silent Hill' and 'Resident Evil', the excitement is that your character - or the one that you are invested in, in the case of a film - could die at any moment.

In the case of a tabletop game this scenario is a perfect bit of short run fun. The players go into the game knowing that their character can potentially die before the end of the story. This foreknowledge allows for players to not worrying about 'winning', but instead focus on the story, the roleplaying, and just having fun and watch the story unfold.

For new players this is a great ice breaker. The playing field is level, and if they mess up, then it doesn't matter in the long term. It can also be a learning experience that fun can be had in putting their character into danger. The same lesson can also be important for more experienced players. Often players can be too careful when playing, leading to prolonged moments of indecision. A one shot is certainly not the time and place for that type of play, and so it is the perfect chance to teach players about 'playing to lose', and being proactive, even if that means the player knows their character is going into danger. What do i mean by this? Well it is something that Eddy Webb has discussed in relation to LARP, and for tabletop games it is similar as well. Essentially 'playing to lose' means that players should be come to a sort of agreement, that if they put their character into danger, knowingly, a danger that is obvious to the player but for the story would push forward the plot and add drama, then in return they will be rewarded with some chance to roleplay something dramatic, and in turn get the limelight or some form of in game reward. Such dangers could involve the character getting possessed, haunted, seeing visions and driven mad, suffering a gruesome injury, or, if the time is appropriate in the story, then death.

Now that we have considered the way the players of these games can run their characters, how should the ST for this game run the story?

I would suggest a story that has a slowly growing tension. A ever growing threat that leads to an intense few scenes where many, if not all the player characters die. The initial scenes should establish the characters quickly, and their reason for being involved in the story. Perhaps they are the tenants of the block of apartments they are now trapped in, or for some reason they are all drawn to a quiet rural town in the wilderness of Wales. But it is critical that almost all the characters have a reason for being there. The next key scene should establish the threat. Either it is done directly, such as shadowy attack by the slasher, or the monster tries to attack from above before slinking off. Or the threat is done indirectly, to a character's loved one, friend, or group of people that parallel the group (another group of campers is found dead or missing).

With the threat established then the next few key scenes heighten the tension. The characters are allowed to investigate, to be proactive against the threat, and then, at the right moment, remind the players of how dangerous the threat is. Given the scenes where information can be uncovered - and the trick here is not to hold back information that moves the players towards the final confrontation, but make it difficult for the information to be found that saves them - taken together this information will push the story to the finale, where a series of scenes now present the player characters mortal threats, where any number of them will die, and leaves us with a small number of player characters left for the final confrontation and conclusion.

The conclusion should be something nice and dramatic, and given the survival horror nature of the story then all the player characters can in fact die. But there must be some sort of conclusion, so sort of epilogue, that bookends the story.

With the above advice what books are out there that we can make use of for one-shots. Well ideally I would look at using mortal characters for the games. So for cWoD look at the Sorceror book for Mage the Awakening. That book is all about mortals, and mortals who use magic - but not Awakened powers. For there you have a great basis for these types of games. For nWoD, of course there is the main core rulebook, but then there are plenty of other great books to use. Second Sight can allow for the use of players being magic users or psychics. Ghost Stories, Mysterious Places, Glimpses of the Unknown, Reliquary, Midnight Roads, Book of the Dead, Book of Spirits, and Slashers, offer a whole host of options for games for simple mortal characters, perfect for one shots. Building upon this games like Hunter the Vigil, and Hunter the Reckoning, are easy for players to get into, as the game goals are clear and simple. For Vampire, in either incarnation, the classic scenario is playing newly embraced vampires and their first night of survival. For Changeling the Lost it could be the first few nights of escape from the hedge that provides the plot to a one shot.

What types of one shots have you run?

Darker Days Radio - A Retrospective on the Last 2 Years

It has now been almost 2 years that I have been podcasting as a co-host on Darker Days Radio, and in that time a fair bit has happened. I first found Darker Days Radio around episode 4. That was back in July 2009. Listening to Darker Days Radio was something to listen to as I was starting my first job after PhD. I had of course moved city, and so I did not have a new gaming group gathered. It was also at this time I was writing my Venice setting for Changeling the Lost, and so why DD #11 was quite a favourite as I got to nerd on on the forums about it. Darker Days was really filling that void in my life at the time, as well as keeping me sharp ready for when I would start running a new chronicle.
In many respects Darker Days Radio is pretty much the same now as it was then. The main show, hosted by Mark and Vince, had new and classic World of Darkness segments. And in these segments is was exciting to hear how ideas from books could be ported between systems, and between versions of games. It was also great to hear people talk so enthusiastically about new World of Darkness. Furthermore the Secret Frequency was always a great listen, and really was close to the type of research I would do for my own games. Mark and Vince should be given a lot of praise, as in the almost 4 years the show has been going the format has remained, and not stagnated. Mark and Vince always came across as having a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the topics and books they were reading, and covered a broad range of the games.
The show of course has had a change of hosts, with Vince leaving the show, Mike joining, myself joining, and then Mark leaving, the show has retained the same energy. You see that's what is great about going back and listening to the old shows. They still seamlessly fit with the new shows. Many podcasts it's quite clear when they hit their stride and then from then on retain that style, or go through further iterations. But Darker Days from the start had the right formula. And for it to remain still the same slick operation with the same production values is also incredible. While a good many gaming podcasts are more irreverent, and some often come across as 'Dude bro roleplayers talking about stuff', I think Darker Days has always benefited from always remaining on topics, and also benefitted from having hosts who were on different continents. I think that is actually why Darker Days works. The hosts are not meatspace gamers, and not in the same room recording. Less of the 'dude bro' atmosphere. Darker Days has always come across as quite 'high brow', with the in depth knowledge of Vince and Mark for the games and for horror, myths, folklore and storytelling advice.
One of things that has added energy to the show, yet not messed with the formula were the Darklings. These were in some ways born out of the rapid fire game discussions sent in by listeners. They allowed for a form of conversation with the listeners, and provided more interesting topics of discussion for the forums. Ah the forums. Yeah, once I found the show I was pretty active there, suggesting Secret Frequencies and discussing the games. All of these things were what gave the show the energy, yet meant the main show format did not change.
I think Mike starting being a regular contributor from Darkling #9 onwards, as he is a big Vampire the Eternal Struggle player, and so it was his chance to rave about his favourite game. My own contributions first started back with DD #14 when I suggested the Demon Dogs Secret Frequency and the ghost story about my hometown.
Of course DD went through a pause as Vince left, and in that gap the Darkling episodes filled the void. Mike and Mallius made contributions in those shows, and it cemented Mike as a co-host with the show. It was at this time I thought why not go for the chance at being a co-host too. Part of what led to that was the rapid fire synopsis that listeners were asked to send in. These recordings covered each game. I saw a gap, and so covered Geist and Changeling. And of course this led to Darkling #17.
Darkling #17 was all about ghouls. And while they had a listener submission for cWoD ghouls, they need someone to talk about ghouls for Requiem. I was the big Requiem nerd, plus I had run a whole lot. It was all the show that basically let me show of my wide knowledge of nWoD. And what with Mark being off an on again episode #23 was my first show, and was also a chance to geek out. I got to interview David Hill Jr. which was a great first interview as David is a good sport, and really has written many of the more recent things I like in Requiem that have pushed it further from Masquerade. Plus I also covered the Secret Frequency, and also we talked about David's own game, Amaranthine - which was also my first freelance writing gig as I wrote the Venice city description for that game.
So 2 years on and of course we lost Mark as he took up his position as a content writer for a MMO, and Darker Days in some ways has grown. We mourned and suffered as we lost our forums, and Facebook never really worked as a replacement for interacting with the listeners. But Google Plus has really been the dream, and I'm quite glad at initiating that community and seeing it thrive - it being the most active WoD community on G+ while only being half the size of the largest WoD community. We've also seen the addition of the Rogue Council as we have put out more Darklings and now a fanzine. It really has grown into it's own beast and gained legs and arms, but still the core show is essentially the same. In that time I've had the privilege to interview some of the greats of White Wolf, as well as getting to review all the new releases. It is also excellent to see cWoD gaining brand new books, and being a living game setting once more, and of course see the birth of Onyx Path and how that is creating a new era for White Wolf
Darker Days Radio really has been a brilliant experience, and has offered some great opportunities and allowed me to make new friends. It still is a hobby for me, but one now fuels itself as I feel compelled to stay on top of the new releases and to find the best in all books, even if I am playing just nWoD.
If Darker Days could be summed up in one word, it would be immortal. It is as good as it was from the beginning. A testament to what Vince and Mark started, and Mike's professionalism to keep the show as fresh and well produced. Me - I'm just the guy with a brain that oozes everywhere when we do the Secret Frequency.

Q&A

So I have a lot of posts here about my own games and the chronicles I have run, and a bit about what I will be running, so why not throw me some questions about them? Specifics or more general questions. Go Wild!

Darker Days Radio #44

http://darkerdays2.podbean.com/2013/...io-episode-44/

The Art of Death

Starring C. A. "Sleepless" Suleiman and Sam "Corpse-in-the-Fridge" Araya

Mike, Chris, and James sit down to chat about Mummy with developer CAS and artist Sam Araya. But before they get started there's plenty of Onyx Path discussion, shout outs to the listeners, and an update regarding Forgotten Lore #4. First the group tackles the storytelling elements and setting that Colin developed for Mummy the Curse, including a few player spoilers, so watch out! Next they discuss the hanging dolls of Isla de las Muñecas in the Secret Frequency. Finally, the hosts discuss Mummy's fine art with Sam, and learn a bit about gaming in Paraguay along the way.