Where Worlds Collide

This is an “actual play” example from my ongoing online game on Dreamlyrics - the actual thread is here. It’s a conflict between Hollis, the psychokinetic human rebel assassin played by Nicki Jett, and an as-yet-unnamed NPC, actually guild security from the Guild of Victuallers. Hollis is searching for clues in the cellar of a tavern - the stakes for the meta-conflict were that Hollis would find a Significant Clue in return for a ‘complication’.

It’s a typical cellar of a tavern; full of beer barrels, some redundant furniture stacked in one corner. Hollis’ eyes are initially drawn to a bloodstain on the floor; enough blood for a nasty wound, not enough for someone to have bled to death.

A little searching reveals two items; a five-glerin coin bearing the head of Sarkan Vorsath of Karmork, and square black object resembling the communicators issued to members of the Karazthan.

“Aha,” Hollis whispered. “A clue. Two of ‘em, in fact.”

She collected the items and after a close perusal, pocketed them, then continued to search. aside for looking for clues, she was also trying to figure out the route the bad guys had employed, as opposed to the one Gath used to escape. She assumed that was they way she’d come in.

“Put you hands where I can see them” comes a male voice from somewhere behind Hollis. “And no funny business from you either, Gath”.

Hollis kept her hands wide and turned toward the voice, taking note of any useful objects in the vicinity as she did so. “No problem,” she said cheerfully.

The voice belongs to a thick-set human with arms and legs resembling tree trunks. Hollis doesn’t recognise the face, but she does notice he’s pointing a seriously large crossbow at her.

“Now, you two are going to explain to me precisely what you are doing grubbing around in this cellar. And that explanation had better be a good one”.

“Just trying to find my cousin Wozzeck,” Hiollis said cheerfully. “He’s not right in the head. Someone told us they’d seen him wandering around down here, so I persuaded this gentleman …” she turned to Gath apologetically, “I didn’t even get his name. Gath, you say? I persuaded Mister Gath to help me look.”

She gave Gath an imperceptible nod, then turned back. “Perhaps you’ve seen him. Stringy brown hair, about forty, with a scar right here … ”

… and with the faintest, harmless-looking flick of her fingertips along side her face, as if demonstrating the scar location, she *snatched* the quarrel right off the top of his crossbow.

Assuming that went as planned, she would flip the quarrel end for end and then drive it right into the big man’s eye.

This is a fight scene. Hollis has Fast-Talk at Fair, and Psychokinetics at Superb. The NPC’s relevant abilities for the encounter are Insight, Perception and Dodge, all at Fair, and Crossbow at Good. This guy is a professional, but nothing like the power level of a typical PC.

I decided to resolve this in two stages - first is Fast-Talk vs. Insight to see if Hollis managed to distract him. If Hollis wins, she can do the PK trick with the quarrel. If she loses, he attempts to shoot her (which would probably be Crossbow vs. PK to actually hit her, so he’d probably miss)

If Hollis wins the first contest, it’s then PK vs both Perception and Dodge - Perception to realise what’s going on, and Dodge to get out of the way.

Fast-Talk vs. Insight goes to Hollis, but only by a narrow margin. For the second contest, Hollis rolls -1 (Great) against the NPCs +3 (Superb) for Perception and 0 (Fair) for Dodge.

“Never heard of him”, he says. His reactions are far quicker than Hollis would have imagined; by the time the crossbow quarrel pierces where his eye would have been, his head is no longer there, leaving the quarrel embedded in the wood.

In the current playtest draft rules, there are two different ways you can combine two skills. In some circumstances you can use either skill, in which case you roll against both and take the best result. In others, you need both skills, so you roll against both skills, and take the worst roll.

I ruled Perception + Dodge as an “either” and used the better of the two rolls. Since his Superb beat Hollis’ Great, that means Hollis missed.

Now, in the context of this fight, I’m wondering if that approach really makes sense. Any opinions?

Heather Findlay

It doesn’t seem like four months since the last time I saw my favourite live band. This may be because I’ve seen more than half the band already this year, either as members of other bands (Breathing Space and Panic Room), or as audience members at other gigs.Gloucester Guildhall is a new venue for me. This gig wasn’t one I’d originally planned to go to, but when circumstances forced me to abandon my planned trip to Devon and Cornwall taking in the Penzance and Tavistock shows, Gloucester turned out to be one I could make as a substitute. It’s a provincial theatre rather than a rock club, somewhat reminiscent of The Met in Bury.

Andy Smith

This year they have yet another new lineup. The 2008 bands sees the welcome return of Liam Davidson on guitar and Iain Jennings on keys, and a brand new drummer in the shape of Henry Bourne. In addition, Anne-Marie Helder, who initially filled in as a guest on the short December tour continues on keys, flute and backing vocals. Unfortunately Livvy Sparnenn wasn’t present tonight due to exams (That excuse really isn’t very rock’n'roll, is it?)The performance reminded me of just why I love this band. I’d read reports of a few wobbles and technical glitches on the first date the previous weekend at Bilston, but there were no such problems this time round. All the band were in great spirits and on fine form. With Liam back on second guitar the sound was noticeably heavier, and I was impressed by new boy Henry Bourne’s drumming. On only his second gig with the band his style definitely suits the band. And Heather, four months pregnant, was on fantastic form vocally; especially when the choice of songs had her singing lead the majority of the time.

Heather again

The setlist was much changed from last year. Naturally it features a lot of new material from the forthcoming “Glass Shadows”. It usually takes me a few listens to really appreciate new songs, but “Flowers for Guns” (an MA song you can dance to!) impressed on first hearing, as did “Tearing at the Faerytale”. They’ve also rested quite a few of the regular standards in favour of several songs from “Passengers”, an album they’ve seriously neglected in recent years. I’ve waited a long time to hear “Another Life” and “Simple Ways” live, and it was worth the wait.

Bryan Josh

Only the second show of the tour with a new lineup, and the band is already gelling pretty well, even if they haven’t quite reached “the zone” I’m sure they’ll get to on later dates. This is going to be a great tour, I can tell.

Meme from both HippyDave and Psycho Chicken.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs

• Panic Room - Elektra City
• Mostly Autumn - Flowers for Guns
• Mermaid Kiss - Mermaid Kiss
• Marillion - Script for a Jester’s Tear
• Fleetwood Mac - Sisters of the Moon
• Mostly Autumn - Heroes Never Die
• Panic Room - Endgame

OK, for the last two, perhaps enjoying isn’t quite the right word at the moment, but I’m including them for very strong personal reasons that I don’t really want to explain on a public forum.

Warning! This post contains tech geekery, using TLAs.

Karen Cravens wonders about roleplaying blogs and mailing lists cannibalising each other’s readership, and ponders a possible solution.

In fiddling with the next release of the software that powers the Phoenyx, I’ve been considering how to integrate blogs. A lot of us (including me, on occasion) have roleplaying blogs, and I think to a certain extent that’s drawn conversation that might otherwise go in GAMERS….

What I’m thinking is: if you’ve got a roleplaying blog (or a roleplaying section in a multi-topic blog) that has posts that would be appropriate to post to GAMERS, you register its feed, and when you post to your blog, the Phoenyx magically treats it as though you’ve posted to GAMERS as well. If you provide a comments feed, I might treat that as though the commenters have posted followups, too. (It’s up to you and your software to get the GAMERS replies treated as comments on your version - the Phoenyx can provide the feed, but I don’t know of any blogging software that’s set up to import it. Therein lies one hurdle in my plan)

Thoughts?

My immediate thought was rather than depending on some probably non-existant WordPress plugin to read an external RSS feed and import the contents as comments, it would be better if the The Phoenyx were to ping this blog using XML-RPC with any followup comments.

I would guess there are serious cans of worms involved in a 100% two way synchronisation between the comments thread in a WordPress blog, and a discussion thread on a web forum/mailing list hybrid, quite possibly at a social level as well as a technical one.

Anyone in the wider WordPress world ever tried something like this?

Another iconic NPC presented for comment. This one kills two birds with one stone - he comes from a family of feuding nobles, and hold a high-ranking position in one of the most powerful guilds.

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Alzardol Blerynthar d’n Tardeyn is a noble of Clan Blerynthar, and holds the position of a senior administrator in the Academy of Life, with ambitions to become Guildmaster on retirement of the present incumbent. As a member of the fractious Clan Blerynthar, he hasn’t managed to reach adulthood without making enemies, the most deadly of which is his half-brother Daraseth, with whom he’s feuded since childhood. He’s had to become a good duellist in order to have lived long enough, skilled in both the Nirvork duelling blade, and in unarmed combat. The score for duels with Daraseth stands at one-all; he bears a prominent scar on one cheek as a result of the last one.There are persistent rumours that something deeply unpleasant happened during his late adolescence.

Not that he doesn’t have the requisite skills for his job; by all accounts he’s a good administrator, well-versed in the minutiae of kandar law, and a good diplomat when it comes to resolving messy disputes with other guilds. Not that he isn’t prepared to be ruthless when the occasion demands; the guild will not expect anything less when its interests are directly threatened.

Lifepaths:
Noble, Guild Administrator

Keys:
Honour of the Clan, Duty to the Academy of Knowledge, Deadly Enemy: Half-brother, Dark Secret: (The exact nature of which is left for individual GMs to specify)

Principle Abilities:
Administration, Diplomacy, Kandar Law, Kandar Social Graces, Nirvork (all at Good)

Connections:
Clan Blerynthar: Good
Academy of Knowledge: Good

I never did get to see the original incarnation of Karnataka live; with impeccably bad timing I discovered their music just at the time the band split. While four members of that band soon regrouped as Panic Room, it would be another three years before they went back on the road for a long-awaited tour, starting at the Town Hall in Lydney, Gloucestershire.

Lydney is not exactly the rock and roll capital of the universe. In the late afternoon, Arriva Trains Wales delivered me to an unstaffed railway station called “Lydney”, surrounded by fields. Before the infamous Dr Beeching this station went by the name of “Lydney Junction”, where you could change to a branch-line train which might have taken you to the town itself. With no sign of anything resembling a taxi to be seen, it meant a lengthy walk through the Gloucestershire countryside to my B&B, which, although only a mile from the venue, turned out to be in the next village, a picture postcard place called Alyburton.

The Town Hall is on the road into the town. I knew I’d come to the right place when I bumped into the No 1 Mostly Autumn fan, Aniel Jangra. One of the next people I met turned out to be Jamie Field of Mermaid Kiss, who recognised me from my MySpace photo! After meeting HippyDave in the pub next door where I’d gone in search of food, we proceeded to the 300-capacity hall.

Support band Mermaid Kiss played what they described as a ‘semi acoustic’ set. The five piece band included keyboards and bass, acoustic guitar and assorted woodwinds, but no drums, and included Panic Room’s Jon Edwards on keys, who was on stage the entire night. The stripped-down arrangements certainly gave lead singer Evelyn Downing’s voice the opportunity to shine. Their confident set, including some songs from their most recent album “Etarlis“, the only album of theirs I’d previously heard, a few older songs, and some new material written for their next album, a concept album based on a journey across a mythical America. With further support slots for both Breathing Space and The Reasoning in the coming months, we’ll be seeing and hearing more of this band, and that’s something worth looking forward to.

When I heard Panic Room’s excellent album “Visionary Position“, one of my first thoughts was “How on Earth will they reproduce that live?”. The album is a rich, multilayered work, with important contributions from guest musician Liz Prendegast on electric violin on several songs. Not that I should have worried; the simplified live arrangements, though harder-edged and more guitar-driven, still do the songs justice. The band were amazingly tight considering this was their first ever live appearance as Panic Room, and Anne-Marie Helder was fantastic as a lead vocalist. While I’d never really had any doubts about her abilities as a singer, this was still the first time I’d seen her fronting a band rather than playing solo acoustic sets or performing as an instrumentalist.

As for the setlist, they played the whole of Visionary Position, with Paul Davies’ guitar taking the place of those violin lines on songs like ‘Apocalypstick’. Filling out the set were two impressive-sounding new songs, “Into the Fire” and “Go”, a couple of Karnataka oldies and a short solo interlude from Anne-Marie while the rest of the band took a break. Final encore was an amazing Led Zeppelin medly, incorporating a groove-orientated cover of “No Quarter” and a few bars of “Kashmir”.

Panic Room have certainly started their live career with a bang. I hope I don’t have to wait another three years to see them again.

In a lengthy post, HippyDave considers the pre-order campaigns from the likes of Marillion, The Reasoning and Mostly Autumn, and ponders the state of the music industry.

Could the labels have become their own worst enemies by not seeing/appreciating that some of these bands, with their established cult followings, might not be mainstream but would be a sound, long-term investment prospect? The industry is often - and rightly - pilloried for just this reason: the major labels have become so used to “firework” acts (one big bang and then it’s all over) that they’ve stopped looking at acts that require nurturing and time to produce their best work. There’s no way a band like Pink Floyd would have made it past their first two albums in the current climate, for instance: the suits would have listened to A Saucerful Of Secrets, decided that the band had lost the plot, and given them the axe. Yet look at the spectacular record sales that Floyd have accumulated over the years since - all because their label was willing to bankroll their development. Now, bands have to deliver the goods instantly or face being dropped. It’s all about sales, not artistry.

This is not a new argument - it’s been rehashed over and over since the late 70s, when disco - and then punk - arrived. However, as genres of music have increasingly fractured over the past two decades, so we have now arrived at a point in time where the music produced is more diverse and - in my opinion, of course - interesting than ever before - and yet the labels are playing Lowest Common Denominator. Just occasionally an atypical act - like Muse, for instance - will attract the attention of a major, having built up substantial groundroots support. Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater are both now reaping the rewards of a 15+ year-long struggle against the mainstream tide, having both signed recently to Roadrunner, one of the rare large labels with an independent attitude towards their roster. But for every band like them, another couple of dozen are waiting in the wings - some with sizeable fanbases who are more than happy to bankroll the band’s next release before it’s even recorded.

When people prophesy the death of the established music business accompanied by the sound of wailing and gnashing of teeth, my response is ‘bring it on’. Just about everyone producing worthwhile music will not suffer a great deal if most of the big record companies, along with the rest of the ideological infrastructure of the axis of mediocrity (such as the appalling NME or the dreaded Brit School) were to be flushed down the toilet of history.

On the subject of pre-orders, some people have been critical of the prices some bands are charging, with cries of ‘rip-off’. While I’d have to say that twenty-five squid is a lot to pay for ‘just a CD’, I prefer to think of it in terms as an investment in the band. What matters is not whether or not the CD alone gives value for money, but whether or not I get a return on that investment over the next year or so. In my case, that has included seeing those bands live multiple times, and making quite a few new friends though the fan communities. I certainly think I got my return on that investment last time round.

In Rob Donoghue’s design blog post what I want from setting, he lists three things he likes to see, one of which is faces:

Faces are what they sound like - NPCs. I am not proposing a need for stat blocks or detailed backgrounds, and most of my needs can be satisfied with a sentence or two of background. The NPCs I’m talking about are not important for who they are but rather for the purpose they serve. I cannot meaningfully interact with a government, nation, ideology or conspiracy, but I can meaningfully interact with a person who represents that group. Maybe they’re a person of authority for the group they represent, maybe they’re just an iconic member of that group, but that character _is_ that organization so far as my game is concerned. If I can put a face on the important ideas of the game, then they will mean more to my players.

Here’s one face for Kalyr. He does have a detailed stat block, at the same power level (four lifepaths) as the default level for PCs, using the current draft of the playtest rules. I’ll most likely drop him (and others like him) into the appropriate section of the settings chapter - in his case it will be the the section entitled “Religion“.

Zarvendol isn’t a very nice person. I would hope that the majority of games would see the likes of him used as a villain.

Name: Zarvendol d’n Areyn
Race: Kandar
Sex: Male
Appearance: 6’6” tall, copper-coloured skin and green eyes, hair dyed in purple and black streaks, prominent scar on cheek.

Lifepaths
Guild Background
Knight (three times)

Gifts
Extra Damage
Toughness
Talent: Quick Reactions

Keys
Duty to Temple of Kardak
Servant of The Guardian
Extremely Intolerant
The Only Good Enemy Is A Dead One

Abilities
Armed Melee Combat (Broadsword): Superb
Fast-Draw: Good
Kandar Fu: Good
Zarandar Riding: Fair
Dodge: Fair
Strength: Fair
Willpower: Good
Perception: Fair
Endurance: Good
Kandar Religious Lore: Good
Reading and Writing: Fair
Area Knowledge (home city): Mediocre
Streetwise: Mediocre

Connections
Temple of Kardak: Good
Guild of Victuallers: Mediocre

Weapons and Equipment
Fine quality Narvork sword +4 damage (includes +1 for Extra Damage Gift)
Hardened Ulsoghir hide armour, +3 armour (includes +1 for Toughness Gift)

Zarvendol is an archetypal Knight of Kardak the Defender. A xenophobic, bloodthirsty religious fanatic, he embodies all the traditional virtues of the holy defenders of the kandar race. To any human that encounters him as an enemy, he represents the very definition of the worst kind of kandar. If there’s a bloody pogrom taking place, expect to find him in the thick of it. When humans get in the way of his Narvork, he doesn’t recognise the concept of ‘innocent bystander’.

The Point in Cardiff is under threat!

According to this thread on The Reasoning’s forum, somebody who recently moved into a nearby property long after the place has been a rock venue is trying to get the place shut down because of the noise.

If you don’t want to see yet enough rock venue being forced to close, go and sign the online petition.