Playtesting: Hobgobble's Eve, Chap 2.

Me and The Professor threw down Chapter 2 for the Garden State Gaming Society this week. Unlike the first session where we had 2 players, this round we had 7 players (the perfect number of WEGS players in my book). This allowed me to step out of the game as a player and into the role of Kreator (judge). The Prof was fully in charge of the minions and innings. All players were new to the game with the exception of the 2 who returned from Chapter 1. Arkreation took about a half hour, then we plunged into the game. The Arks were:

3 Gnobbit Tricksters
2 Warriors (1 Humnz, 1 Goblin)
1 Elf Mage
1 Elf Ranger

Chapter 2 starts the Arks off in a cave prison, the entrance to which is guarded by 7 Hobgoblins and a Giant Rat. The chapter took about 2 hours to finish, and was wicked fun from the start. The players were a great mix of solid board gamers and rpg veterans; all had plenty of game experience under their belts and took to the game system far too well, far too quick; making the game that much more challenging for the Minion Master. The players were having a rollicking time of it, and the only thing that slowed the game down was the deliberation by the players as to what course of action was best (and that was a blast to watch).

From a playtesting standpoint, I'm considering this one Santa's gift to me! With a table full of new players, a couple who now own book-n-card sets, this was a great way to end the year.

Playtesting: Hobgobble's Eve

Last week, me and The Professor threw down a Hobgobble's Eve playtest for the good folk of the Garden State Gaming Society. We only had two players, so I jumped in on their side as a Sage (imagine that!). The Prof had the job of Kreator/Minion Master and did a great job of beating us down in the first encounter with a trio of fowl turdragons (turkey-dragons). I did my best as the team's Sage, but by encounter's end found myself quite low on spoints; alack, the problems of liberal spell-tossing! All said and done, I had a blast jumping in on the player side, which I don't get to do very often. There's something to be said for this from a playtesting standpoint: it's easy to run the game and be in control, but it's critical to see the game from a player's view. You gotta know how the dice feel on that side of the table, too!

Hobgobble's Eve

Spent the last couple weeks cranking out a mini-venture for WEGS called Hobgobble's Eve; basically a "turkey hunt-in-the-swamp-gone-bad-real bad" scenario. It's been sent around to a couple of the royal Wegshogs to run for their friends (you know who you are), plus I'm running it tonight for a local group. Should be a blast (literally, as there's a weapon in it called the Blunderboomer)! The hope is that I can get the adventure on the site in pdf, so folks all around the globe can download a little bit o' wegs for their year-end enjoyment.

Have a great Thanksgiving folks!

The Wegziotic Triangle

"Had you stepped on board the Pequod at a certain juncture of the post-mortemizing of the whale; and had you strolled forward nigh the windlass, pretty sure am I that you would have scanned with no small curiousity a very strange enigmatical object..." I'm blathering, of course, about the Wegziotic Triangle...

As I was pondering this year's WEGS tour, I've come to realize that we've established a triangular playing zone; from Stony Brook NY to Indianapolis IN to Greensboro NC. The center of this triangle is somewhere in the middle West Virginia*. It's my hope that many gamers start getting sucked into this zone, mysteriously disappearing off the radar of conventional game systems, only to reappear shouting "Spante!". If nothing else, the Wegshogs now know our field of battle and can start conquering the gaming world one geek at a time.

(* It's my suspician that there's some kind of eerie, glowing, multi-sided monolith here... )

Yar?

With the final con of the year hitting this weekend (MACE, North Carolina), it'll be time to get back into the swing of things with the 2009 product offerings. As most of ya know, WEGS 202 Pirates of Penzantium was shelved over the summer due to the sheer bulk of con-hopping we did; there just wasn't enough time to get it all together for a GenCon release. So, that's something to look forward to next year! Also in the works is WEGS 101 House Rules!; a sequel to Old Skool that's gonna include all the tips/tricks/traps that the Wegshogs having been throwing down at conventions these last phew years... Rumor has it that it's gonna include the rules for Dingbitt's Dunge O' Doom, too (insert the sound of a dozen or so WEGS players going wild over this news...). In the meantime, here's some POP art to keep you occupoddo...

Ubercon Aftermath!

Despite pre-convention ominious portent, Ubercon was an uber-blast! Worries that (a) our events were only publically posted the day that player registration closed (two days before the con) and (b) our events were not included in the on-site program, had me concerned that this con was going to be disastrous for us; if no one knew we were going to be there, would there be any players for our games?!? Merrily, the answer was "yes"; if you build it, they will come... It wasn't all "phantom all-stars to cornfield baseball diamond" magic for us; players just didn't materialize out of thin air. Pre-game and post-game, Jason (The Professor) was in full scouting mode for extra players and betwixt-game stragglers to fill in the ranks of the Arks.

We had four games on the sched: one on Friday night and three on Saturday. The Friday night game, Tomb of Horrors, had six players (2 noobs and 4 prior Uber players). This game was so enjoyable that we all agreed to continue the game into the Saturday morning time slot. During this transition, we lost one player but picked up two, bringing the player count to seven. The Saturday afternoon slot, Minotaur Meat!, had a solitary player, but then three players from Tomb of Horrors returned for even more WEGS-ing. This four-player game gave The Professor and El Willy some much needed respite from the prior seven person game. It also gave these players more WEGS action! The day concluded with From Dusk Til Dead, another seven-player game (4 returnees and 3 noobs). All in all, the games were a great mix of new players and experienced Wegshogs. We sold a couple of WEGS 101 sets and a bunch of skill decks.

We played... We sold... We conquered... Actually, the players were the conquerers. We got our butts kicked pretty bad in each game. The dice gods were not favoring our side of the table this time 'round!

Ubercon and Us...

Spent Friday night and Saturday at Ubercon, the "home" con of the mighty, mighty Wegshogs! Considered our home con because (a) it's in our backyard (not literally, just in NJ) and (b) was the con that we officially unveiled WEGS at many a-many year ago. That was in October 2005 (or Ubercon VI), a scant three years ago. We've hit every Ubercon NJ since. Despite this consistancy, I can't say we have a rabid following at Ubercon; we always have strong carry-over from the prior attendance (so folks that played at the last con generally show up to play some more at the next), but there's a big drop-off two cons out. I attribute this to the normal turnover from attendees. I just don't see the same players from two/three years ago at the cons. Ubercon has a tendency to jump around a bit in its location and scheduling; sometimes they've held a fall and a winter con, sometimes they've moved it out to the Great Lakes, and they seem to jump to new hotels every other con. Still, it's a persistant little con with a great home feel. It's small enough to feel like a high school graduating class; you could get to know everybody. That's a good-sized con for our merry WEGS-ish endeavors. (Aftermath notes will follow in next post!)

In Store Demo: Brothers Grim, NY

On GenCon Sunday, a guy named Gil came up to the booth and introduced himself as one of the owners of Brothers Grim Games and Collectibles on Long Island, NY. He had heard about WEGS from the local NJ/NY cons and was interested in having me demo in his store. I actually heard about the store, too, from one of the Jersey Hogs who frequented their booth at Dexcon (and who told them they need to stock WEGS). Thanks, Jason! As fate would have it, I had a wedding to attend on Long Island this month and so coordinated the demo for the day after. I arrived and set-up on a huge game table in the front of the store. The store had many game tables, there was a-plenty of space to play (huge asset to the store). The back of the store was jammed with Yu-Gi-Oh players from the time I got there until I left. The game tables around me were jammed with miniature guys painting their armies and getting ready for a huge throw-down tournament in a couple of weeks. It was great to see a store jammed with gamers all day long, and to hear the banter of a bunch of folks who all are part of the store's energy. As for the demo... I ran one demo that lasted about three hours. Had a total of five players who kicked the butt of everything I threw at 'em. There was nothing I could do to get them on the run! It was hard to show them the system had some bite to it, as they all handily dispatched everything that came their way. I had a great time - just frustrating for the guy who created the game!!! Arrggghh! As I left, I promised to return with more minions...

Con on the Cob Aftermath!

Games, Art, Freaks and Fun! That's how the con is billed on the COTC website, and it had plenty of each (me adding to the freak factor). GameWick Games set our banner up in the corner of the large gaming hall and then hunkered down for some WEGS-ing. The gaming hall was a big hotel banquet room that had about 20 tables set up for rpgs, boardgames, cards, etc. Relatively small, but tabletop gaming is not the primary purpose of the con; there's a whole music, movie, art blend, too. A very eclectic little con.

We had scheduled two demo slots and three full length games (5 events total). We had players for both demos, but only one game ran (Friday night's Dwarf Walks Into A Bar) . When no one showed for one of the games, I hung around the table a bit and managed to round up some players for another demo. Actually, the players rounded themselves up: a lady who played a demo at Origins saw me standing there, asked if I was doing anything and then summoned a couple of friends to see what WEGS was all about. Sad to say, we only sold a single book; but on the bright side, that's one more book sold at this con than we did last year (this being the first year we've attended)... The Cob is a good con to geek-out at, especially for local gamers. There's a good chance we'd do it again next year.

Got Hot?

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the cucina... A bounty of hot peppers from the gardens of El Willy. Assortment of habaneros, cayenne, peanut chiles, hinkelhatz (chicken hearts) and Czech black (which are actually red). This is what I do when I'm not rolling bones. Speaking of which, the fall con season begins. Three cons on the hit list: Con on the Cob (Akron), Ubercon (NJ) and MACE (North Carolina).

GenCon08: Signage at Origins

This is a photo of the Origins booth, the test-run booth as it were (or was...). Not that we weren't prepared for Origins, but it was our first logistical con; we never did this before. You can prepare all you want up front, but until you hit the ground running at the actual convention site, you have no idea what to expect. Heck, yeah, we were nervous about Origins, but it was the same type of nervous actors/directors get the week before opening night. One thing you can notice between this pic and the one below is that, aside from one more Wegshog on our side of the demo table, the WEGS sign in the background is rippled. This was due to the fact that the sign was hung on hooks from the curtain rods at the back of the booth. Not the optimal way to hang a sign, but lots of folks do it. The ripple effect was remedied at GenCon as the pvc standing unit was added and fixed the problem completely. Small, but exciting, victories...

GenCon 08: Signage

Once you commit to getting a booth, you gotta get a sign that let's folks know who you are. Pre-Origins, we only had small 2x4 foot WEGS signs which would not fill the 10x10 booth area very effectively. So, $200 later, I went to print with a 4x6 banner (shown here). And once you have a banner, you have to figure out a way to hang it. Many vendors use pvc pipe for this purpose. I followed suit; it took me the better part of a weekend to cut/assemble/spray paint the frame (about $50 in materials). I designed it so it is free standing, with the use of two picnic table umbrella stands (the ones that anchor the umbrella pole under the table). Found the perfect type at Sports Authority ($15 each), but the stands are flippin' heavy! Sue topped off the whole assembly with two burning braziers (using tissue paper for the fire effect). We framed the signage with copper pots and WEGS 101 Book-n-Card combos. (Yeah, that's me and Fwill running a demo.)

GenCon 08: Pre-Ignition (Origins 08)

At the start of '08, I knew GameWick Games would have a booth at Origins (OH), and decided that that would be the test-run for the feasibility of having a GenCon (IN) booth. The reason I could wait to make my GenCon decision was that GameWick had never attended either of these cons and, as a newbie, could book my booth last minute via the entrepreneurial rates (first-timer discount). Your first time as a vendor at a con is your cheapest (that's the buy-in). The second year you're not so lucky... Booth space at Origins is about half the price of GenCon (around $500 for a 10x10 booth); the catch with Origins though, is that booths come without any dressing: you have to rent tables, chairs, electric, etc from the contracted dresser. There was a rental special: a table, two chairs and a wastebasket for $60. Electric and Internet connections are additional costs. You can see how this all adds up. Luckily, GameWick did not need either; as a small company with a single product ($25), it was pointless to worry about credit card processing and those complications. If we had more product and folks were hitting the $75+ price point, that would be a different story. Long story short, being a vendor at a con is a costly proposition. When you're a company with a single product, it's a dicey proposition: the odds of you selling enough product to cover expenses aren't good. When you're a company with a single product, it's not about that at all. It's about the presence on the floor and the demo, demo, demo.

GenCon 08: The Road To The Geekhouse

The road to GenCon began a long time prior to me packing the car the night before we took off for Indianapolis. It began seven months earlier, at the start of the year, when event submissions were due. In January 2008, I was coming up with the WEGS game schedule for GenCon. At that time I wasn't sure if GameWick Games would have its own booth, so I submitted a somewhat aggressive game schedule which factored in both me and Fwill as game masters (GMs). For the first time at GenCon, the two of us would be running games independently and at the same time. This plan allowed me to keep the number of events submitted high, while allowing some breathing room for the possibility of a booth. It was a pretty solid plan, I thought, at the time. With this task out of the way, I didn't have to think about GenCon for another couple months.

GenCon 08: Getting There, Half The Fun...

The blog journey begins...

Over the course of the next month, I'm going to recount the GameWick Games crew journey to the center of Gen Con. The whole thing was a whirlwind from the moment we backed out of our driveway and got on the road to Indianapolis. And I want to bore you all (I think there's about 8 of you regulars) with a play-by-play, day-by-day travel log. If nothing else this is my attempt to remember what worked and what didn't for us. It might also help those of you out there who are dreaming of doing Gen Con in your own way someday. As this might be some of the most dang boring stuff you'll find on the internet, I'll try to keep the post shorts and the entries easily digestable. Here we go!

The trip, one way, was 680 miles door to door; that is my front door in NJ to the Indianapolis convention center. This was the first time we have driven to Gen Con, and with gas prices as they are, it was a hefty expense (around $200). Still, that's cheaper than airfare for two people. The drive took us on a journey that we were mostly familiar with, as we had driven to the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio the month prior.

All in all, a five state passage: NJ, PA, WV, OH and IN: an 11 hour journey with beautiful, but never-changing, scenery that is broken up a bit by four tunnels in the mountain passes of PA.

Gen Con here we come!

Gen Con Aftermath!

OK... Haven't posted since the last con! That should give you a hint on how hectic things have been and Gen Con was no different. Gen Con rocked from beginning to end (and literally the dice didn't stop rolling at our WEGS booth until the "voice of god" came over the exhibit hall loudspeaker kicking out all non-vendors). Folks were still chucking dice at our table until the bitter end! I'll post stuff over the course of the next few weeks on the GenCon games/demos once I catch up... This con-hopping summer was nutz!!!

Historicon Aftermath!

Historicon was last weekend, and like Dexcon, was a full-throttle WEGS experience. This is only our second time at Historicon (first was last July), though we did attend Cold Wars this past March (which is run by the same group). Historicon is a big, well-run con. Kudos to the folks who pull this off. Right down to the published event program, this con is clockwork. This has been my experience each time I have attended. As this is a historical miniatures convention, WEGS is the freak show here with our battlemat and D&D miniatures. As a non-historical game, WEGS is scheduled off-hours; we're not permitted to take up the prime-time slots (totally understandable). WEGS fills in the late-night slots, and that's something we do too well! The good thing about this is that it prevents me from creating a monster schedule and I actually have time to meander through the exhibit hall.

The games. We had five games on the sched: Fri night; Sat late afternoon; Sat night; Sun morning and Sun afternoon. Attendees get tickets for every event at the central Command Booth, a huge wall of hanging tickets that are handed out upon request. This registration may seem archaic, but it works - and works well! Prior to this con, WEGS always had tickets hanging on the wall. By the time I arrived on Friday, most of the WEGS event tickets were gone. Cool stuff! Come game time for any given event, there are usually no-shows, but not this time. Most of the events had folks waiting at the table to grab the no-show slots. Each game (except the Sunday PM) was filled to maximum capacity. All in all, around twenty people played in our games, the bulk of which were new. We did have some returnees from prior cons. By the Sunday game, the entire table was filled with folks who knew the system and knew if amazingly well.

Like Origins, it's a shame Historicon only happens once a year!

Dexcon Aftermath!

Dexcon was non-stop WEGS action from start to finish! We ran four back-to-back sessions of Dingbitt's Dunge O' Doom and each session was rocking. The first three sessions had the maximum number of players. The final session had four, with Willy the 2 and Spointer jumping in on the side of the players, leaving me to reign havoc down on the battlemat for our last session. The games were a mix of experienced WEGS players returning from prior cons and new players (one session was completely filled with new players). I'm finding that games that have experienced players sitting alongside new players accelerates the speed of the game. The game plays entirely different when filled only with new players, turning into more of a demo for us on the "house side". It's hard jumping from one style to the next! Our first two sessions were power-plays, the game had a great mix of returning players and new players. The speed of those games was incredible. The third session slowed down a bit as all six players were new to the system. The final game had four players, all experienced, and it being the last session, it was my task to go full throttle against them. It was a great way to end the con! All in all, about 18 folks played WEGS at DexCon, about half of that number were new players. And only one of them made it out of the dungeon alive....

Dexcon Dunge O' Doom

This weekend is Dexcon, a NJ gaming convention that has a strong indie game presence. Me and the Wegshogs will be there on Saturday only, running a non-stop session of Dingbitt's Dunge O' Doom, the WEGS dungeon free-for-all. We run Dingbitt's at almost every con we attend, and folks seem to love this one. It's one combat encounter after another, but the hook is that Arks progress rapidly during the game; Arks get a 6% Rank Bump for every completed encounter. Another hook is that there is a poker sub-game running; the players need a pair of Jacks or better to escape from the dungeon, and they can only do so when a magical door appears (another machination with the poker deck). The poker game adds another level of complexity to this particular scenario and I'm always a little concerned that players will think the poker element is a standard part of WEGS (which it really isn't). It makes Dingbitt's the Texas Hold 'Em of dungeon delving, though - and, so far, no players have been totally befuddled by the game within the game it creates. At Origins, we ran a six-hour session of Dingbitt's (it should have ended at midnite, but went until 3 am instead...). By the end of that session, no player had escaped the dungeon, but the few that survived were holding Jacks or better. They were just waiting for a way out to appear...

Gotta love Dingbitt's!

Origins Aftermath...

Origins ended five days ago...
I am only just eating the peanut butter and chocolate sandwich that Sue got me for lunch last Sunday. Yes... I brought the sandwich home with me, then forgot about it in the cooler, which I just cleaned out last night. Thankfully, peanut butter doesn't go bad too quick (nor does chocolate)! These peanut butter sandwiches are one of the highlights of going to Columbus for the con; you just can't beat the Krema Nut Company for one of the best peanut butter sandwiches around! The fact that I'm finally getting around to eating the sandwich is just a taste of how nuts (pun intended) things were at the first official GameWick Games booth. It was a blast, but non-stop work. As our work is having fun, there's no downside as far as I can tell. Except exhaustion... More details to follow on the con and the games and the great folks who are calling WEGS home. I'm probably taking my posts down to once a week as there's so much other stuff to get done for the remaining summer conventions and the upcoming Pirates of Penzantium rules release. Back to my week old sandwich...

111

Wacky note... Pirates Of Penzantium is now officially 111 pages (pre-layout). 111 was also the age that Bilbo Baggins handed off the ring to Frodo... Maybe the whole thing is gonna go poof!

The First Con of the Summer...

Welp, Origins 2008 has come upon us too fast!

Aside from being knee-deep in Pirates of Penzantium, the last two weeks have been nutzo getting everything prepared for the con and the GameWick Games booth. This is the first official booth we are running at a con, and we're pretty pumped! We're officially releasing the WEGS 101 Book-n-Card Combo at Origins, too. It's a funky old skool product design: book and card deck in a poly zip bag just like the rpg games of the 1970s. The by-line reads:

WEGS is so old skool it comes in a plastic bag.

We're also busy running morning and evening games, in addition to the in-booth demos. Plus there's a Friday Midnite Game that's pretty much got the WEGS Who's Who lined up to play (from the WittWeggers to the Shroomeaters). That game promises to be insane, especially as they main minion is a mummy named Klattabarraboo, not too mention a relic called Ogma's Orb of Obliteration!

Gonna be a busy weekend! Details to come!

The POP Arkipelago, Part 2

The Pirates of Penzantium (POP) campaign setting is done, and it was a blast to write. The content flew onto the sheets pretty quick, but one idea led to another and to another and so on... I had to be careful not to go overboard, though, as I really want a slender rule book. The only thing left to do is the Bestiary, which is a listing of all the beasts you find in/around the arkipelago (and probably should avoid!). It's an abbreviated description of the minons, not a lot of detail or stats.

I treated the campaign setting as a tropical tour guide. It's written with a breezy and casual style, similar to the WEGS 101 rules, and reveals the must-see, must-do things on the island of Penzantium and the surrounding isles. It's basically telling the players, here is what you can look forward to during your visit. There are so many options for them as there is an area/isle that covers just about every type of adventure possible: if they're looking for an encounter with the undead, head the ship toward the Zombie Isles, that sort of thing.

I'm treating the campaign aspect the way I would the Dungeons Or Dragons Player's Choice games we run at conventions: the bulk of the adventure is left up to the players' imaginations. The big question is what is it that their Arks want to see and do (just like a vacation, really). The players can anticipate the adventure that is about to unfurl, but as the content is up to the Kreator, they don't know what to truly expect. A huge part of WEGS is keeping the players involved at every step of the way. Giving them a campaign setting in the guise of a vacation tour book keeps it fun and accessible. Pick a destination and let the adventure begin!

Lots more on this topic later!

The POP Arkipelago, Part 1

Pirates morning, noon and night... That's what my life has become as I try to wrap up the text on the Pirates of Penzantium. The book keeps growing as I find myself on the shoals of the campaign setting. The chapter that was to include the game info on the island of Penzantium and the surrounding area has split into two chapters now: Penzantium and the Penzantium arkipelago. (Yeah, arkipelago... It had to be wegzified.) The POP campaign stuff could probably fill a full book, and that's something I dread in most other games: world settings. There have been soooo many world settings created and everybody has their favorite flavor. It's hard to introduce something new into this sundae that folks haven't tasted before. I've always told folks that WEGS is plug-n-play. Just keep using your favorite world setting and get the game started. Penzantium, though, screams for it. The Arks need to have a place in the world, just as much as they have a place on their ship. They need a place to start and end the adventure. Penzantium is that place.

It's been a while since I've done a serial piece. To be continued...

Piratical Ponderings...

The last two weeks have been nutzo as I hunkered down to get the Pirates Of Penzantium content complete. The book is at cruising speed now, and I think we're settled in at thirteen chapters. Every day begins with proofing three chapters, then revising those chapters and adding more content. Yes... the book is still growing. I was hoping for a slender rulebook with eighty pages or so. Looks like it's gonna be a hundred. So, POP may end up the same size as Old Skool; the advantage to this is that the book will have a printable spine. Folks and stores just love titles on spines!

The section that has really taken off are the pirate-to-pirate mechanics; what some would call the "role playing" part of "role playing game". POP is doing something unique with the way it's handling player-to-player interaction. Each pirate has a station. There are plenty of lower stations, but only a few upper deck ones. The upper stations get bonuses and abilities that truly make them the top dawg commanders. The lower stations rely on the upper stations for their advancement to the next station. So, players are forced to deal with one another on a social level. There can only be one top pirate position, the one who gets all the glory. This, of course, also puts him/her in position for a mutiny. The effect of all this isn't going to happen over the course of a three hour game. POP takes its time in the character reveal. Just as on board a pirate ship, there's going to be dissent brewing on the lower deck.

And, heck yeah, there's brutal rules for mutiny!

The Real Thing...

Last weekend, I was on my way back to Jersey from Virginia, and stopped by one of those slot parlours in Delaware. Slots is not my casino game of choice, though I often make machine time for video poker. Machine time, keep that in mind. Lately, the slot parlours (don't call them casinos), have been adding video table games such as blackjack, poker and let it ride. These tables have a huge upright video screen on which the simulated dealer (sim) is projected. The players sit side-by-side before the screen and have individual video monitors on the console before them to place their bets, etc. Back to the sims. The sims have the creepy ability to make eye contact with the passerbys. The damn eyes follow you! Kinda like one of those haunted house portraits... The sim dealers are buff or buxom models, sometimes clad in bathing suits (if the background is an island casino, etc). The sim video loops between them looking at the passerbys (while they wait for the players to place bets), shuffling and dealing. Kinda clever, all in all. But it's not real.

I sat down at a $2 Let It Ride table. Can't find $2 tables out in Vegas, so this seemed like a good deal. All the components you would expect were there: Bonus Bet, Three Card Bonus, etc. It was the game as it should be. But it's not real. By the third deal, I was getting bad vibes. First off, I didn't have poker chips to play with. I had no tangible sense of the game. Sure I could look at the video and see my remaining balance, but that was too much like banking. Numbers on a computer screen is Excel to me. It's work. And, what's worse, it's reality. Poker chips have some type of charge to them. The weight. The softness. It just works psychological wonders.

The other thing that was missing was the cards. In the table game, three cards are dealt face down. You pick them up and look at them. You shuffle them as you want. You use them to scratch the table to indicate a bet should be taken down. The sound of a playing card scratching the table felt, it's almost religious. With the sim, all I had was a button to take down my bet. Lastly, the comradery of your fellow players and the dealer was gone. You can't replicate that. Generally, the dealers give you some consolation if the cards are against you. They react to the odds and the gods in the game. With the sims, you get nothing. No sympathy. No humor. No consolation. Just console.

After a few more hands I had to bolt. The sim was starting to make me realize how money-guzzling stupid the game is, especially when you strip away all the physical components: cards, poker chips, banter. Losing against a computer, any game, makes a person feel dumb. Add losing money to that equation and you feel like a flippin' moron.

Sometimes it is about the game pieces...

Of Mice & Minion Masters...

Before...
Right out of the 1954 movie, "Them!". I had high hopes for these two minions. Level 7 Giant Fire Ants with a nasty afterburn from their bites (i think it was D10 Wounds at the Spante for the next four innings). They marched confidently into battle, as ants often do...
After...

And they were quickly dispatched by the Arks, who showed them who rules the checkered mat!

Best laid plans...

Halfway May

Welp, May's half over, almost, and the content structure of Pirates Of Penzantium is done for the first pass. I pretty much know the chapters and have most of the text in place. The cover is done, once again by Kennon, and the roughs for all the art is in. June will be layout and design, and, proofing, proofing, proofing. It will be interesting to see how all the pieces fit together this time. Last year, Old Skool was a complete uphill learning experience. This year, with the page styles already established, a large chunk of the battle has already been fought. I don't want to say I'm more prepared, I'm just on the battlefield a little earlier and waiting for the enemy to rear its head. All this said, I'm hoping to be to print late-June. Aside from the POP work, I've been overhauling that chunky website o' mine and that fills in any extra time I didn't have to begin with! Halfway May. A new website, a new book and another birthday will finish off this month nicely. God willing!

Pirates and Copper...

I've been working like mad getting the content of the Pirates Of Penzantium completed. Right now, the full book is conceptually in place. I've got about twelve chapters (the same as Old Skool) and looking at about 60 pages. These are text doc pages, not layout. With art and formatting that will probably grow to about 75 pages. I am trying to keep this book slightly smaller than Old Skool, but it might end up being the same page count. Hard to say right now. One lesson learned from last year's publishing endeavors is to have the rough text proofed prior to layout. This allows much quicker editing and all the art doesn't get in the way of the proofer (it's easy to be distracted by all cool art and special formatting). It's just as critical to proof again once layout is complete as the manipulated text can easily get messed up. What I found last year was that there was a ton of errors, stupid errors, that I should have caught pre-formatting.

The second bit of news is that WEGS Copper has been shelved until Pirates is complete. Pirates is the priority right now. As all 12 of you who read this blog should know, Copper is the advanced version of Old Skool. While Old Skool has a small and loyal band of followers (the aforementioned 12), I just don't think it's critical to release; from a timing standpoint it has no urgency - yet. Pirates allows me to open another channel into the system while at the same time expanding the WEGS 101 rule set. Pirates has the potential to hook a new type of player and provide existing Old Skoolers a whole new way of playing, whereas Copper is really focused on the experienced Wegshog. The big bonus to Pirates is that I will have two introductory books to sell at conventions, not just one. Setting up at a booth with a single product for sale is very lame. Just ask me, I've been doing it for month's now. Embarrassing, man! My hope is that folks passing the table will now say:

Two products... Wow, that's a game company!

Death and Coffee...

From one of the seminars I attended last week at the GAMA Trade Show in Vegas... There was a discussion of sales cycles... It was pointed out that from a consumer standpoint coffee is something that you can market for daily consumption. Coffee is something that most folks will buy once a day (assuming they're coffee drinkers and your target audience). All that the coffee companies have to do is set up a store and be there waiting. Opposite that is funeral homes where it is estimated that there's a sale once per seven years. Seven years is a long wait. Maybe that's why morticians have that strange, patient, lurking look... And why those coffee counter folks are so damn happy!

Point is that hobby store customers wander in every now and then to the store - and it ain't daily. When they do wander in, you want your product to jump off the shelves and into their hands. The only way to do that is by making sure your product is eye-catching and sells them the moment they see it. This means front cover, back cover, spine, all slanted to sell. It's important too that when they casually flip the pages of the book, that sells them too.

I'm hoping WEGS sales teeter more toward coffee than death.

Right now it's sure hard to tell!

Last Week... This Month...

Last week...

Las Vegas.

A whirlwind of gaming activity and business stuff and some gambling, too! The Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) held their GTS (Gama Trade Show) at Bally's in Las Vegas. WEGS 101 was featured for the evening gaming as part of the Play With The Creator series. It was a great time. There were lots of great seminars and workshops, the best of which was a focus group session where 6 industry folks sat down with me and WEGS 101. Without allowing me to speak, they took the book and deck and assessed it on face value. It was a great reality check. After assessing it, they started asking questions as to what the game actually was - questions generated from their cold reading of the front/back cover and paging through the interior a bit. They basically gave it the "once over" that any customer walking into a store would. Then they hit me with all the questions that a shopper would have about the product - the stuff I didn't include on the covers. I had great feedback on the pros and cons. This seminar alone was the value of the $125 registration fee. There's lots more to discuss on the GTS - but that'll have to wait...

This month...

May!

I'm going to do short blitzes on the blog. My energies are pouring over the summer Pirates of Penzantium release at this point. So, luckily for all 9 of you who check this blog, the blogging will be shorter and to the point. Random thoughts... Strange short rants... Production updates and worries... The odd pic or two... Quick hits!

Minion Of The Month-Column Golum

All fear the column golem!!! It's been a while since I've posted a minion of the month, but we threw down a new minion last month that caused quite a stir: the column golem. This is a bizarre rubber toy that is composed of roman columns!?! Figured you'd find this guy protecting a temple - so he appeared for the From Dusk Til Dead scenario at Wittcon. As an 88, this hulking minion of stone reduced all Damage Die by 2 points. He was limited to walking in straight lines and would take a full action just to pivot in square. He would automatically pivot any time he entered the same "line" as a target, then he would march toward them and crush them with two attacks per inning. His fists would do 12xD6 Enchanted Wounds (so an Ark had to rely on their Stealth score alone for protection)! The wizard you see behind him was armed with the fabled "chainsword". She kept hitting him with wicked failures and so spent a lot of time behind him in Lost Action Phase. So, the dice were on his side (but that's what you would expect when you are attacking stone!). Gotta love the WEGS dice when they behave like gods!!!

A Wow Moment...

At Mepa, our first game went off a 9 pm and we had a table of six players. This was our Dungeons Or Dragons scenario where the players get an introduction to the system and then get to choose what type of adventure they want us to create. Big part of this game is to show folks how easy it is to make up the minions on the fly. So, players get to see both sides of the system. At the end of this game, one guy bought a book and two decks and said he would be running WEGS the next night at the con - and, damned if he didn't!!! He went online and printed off all the Ark Kards from our website and then ran Dwarf Walks, the intro adventure in the book. Not only did he run the adventure as written, he included the full cast of characters right down to Borkfu's Cousin's Twin's Wife and Gurt the Body Snatcher (with zombies)! Cool, cool, cool!

Our Mepacon Excursion...

Last weekend, me and Spointer headed over the river Delaware and across the mountains to Mid-Eastern PA (MEPA). The drive was much less harrowing than our prior weekend's trip under the river Hudson. In both cases, Friday night traffic sucked. The joke about Jersey being the parking lot for NY, CT and PA... painfully true.

It was our first time hitting Mepacon, so had no idea what to expect. We weren't there but five minutes and we knew we were going to have a rocking time. I think it was the hotel, a Holiday Inn, perched on the mountain overlooking endless mountains (not that we would actually have time to enjoy the view). The other cool thing was that, like the Luxor in Vegas, all the hotel rooms opened up into the center atrium, inverted pyramid style. And the final cool bit was that a prominent feature of the hotel was the indoor pool and jacuzzis at one side of the atrium (so they whole interior lobby smelt of chlorine - and this would be a big plus to counter some of the gamer funk that would be building after three straight days of gaming!). If we knew this place had a cool pool we would've brought our bathing suits. Heck, we could've run games poolside. Dice float, don't they?

Most of the WEGS games went off with full tables. When games didn't run, we could retreat quickly to the hotel room and relax. Having a room just a short elevator ride from the game table is great. I'm beginning to really appreciate the "self-contained" convention where you don't have to pack stuff up between games, load your car and then drive to another place to sleep...

Yeah, that's the old man in me talking...

And he's talking louder and louder these days!

From NY to PA...

Last weekend it was Icon, this weekend it's MEPAcon. First time going to this con, but word up is that it's a good rpg con. Details to follow next week!

Shroedinger's Cold Roll...

So does the cat live or die (or simply implode)?

Find out here

Meanwhile, at another college con...

Some of the rockin' Witthogs took WEGS over to Wright State for Glory Con!

Platinum Warlock's Post-con Wrapper Upper

An adventure where you eat the remains of your minions?

Sweeeeeet!

(And check out Shroedinger's Cold Roll...)

Our Icon Excursion...

Last weekend, me and Spointer headed to Icon, a sci-fi con at Stonybrook University on Long Island, New York. Icon is heavy on the "science" part of sci-fi, but has a gaming arm, too. There's lots of folks wandering around in costume. As it's on a huge college campus, there's the whole student body mixing in with the con-goers.

We ran three out the four games on our schedule. Friday night's Pirates of Penzantium game started off with a bang, as a returning player from last year arrived full of enthusiasm for WEGS. He brought a friend who he had run through a WEGS game a couple of nights prior, so both had experience under their belt. As noted in the post below, this greatly adds to the speed of play. Also, because they were so dang good at the game, I was able to layer in the pirate spills (Spante Skills). Unless players know what WEGS is about, these skills will slow down the play. Not so here, the skills added to the awesome. The game ended when the college kicked us out at 2 a.m. Nice! Thankfully, the Saturday a.m. game did not get off the ground, leaving us some down-time. By noon Spointer was running a demo for some folks, then we plunged into our 2 p.m session of Dingbitt's, where we created a new twist called Dingbitt's Roundhouse where the position of Minion Master rotates with each new encounter (i'll post details on that later). The con concluded with a full table of gamers for a traditional Dingbitt's.

Icon has been hit/miss for us in the past, but all in all, this was a great weekend - saw some friends, met some new ones, gamed like mad and had a blast. This upcoming weekend is MEPAcon, the Mid-Eastern Pennsylvania Con. First time going there. Details next week.

Arks In Action!

Another scene from WittCon

From Dusk 'Til Dead

(j. benton, photographer)

"What we have here is a sit-cheee-ay-tion, laddies!"

Foreground-Ethercreepers (Level 5 as per the five purple chips under each) closing in on a group of Arks who seem to be surrounding their Sage.

Center: The Arks! Sage (pink chip) who has a spell ready to blast (pink pawn); Mage with two red chips under (second red chip is a spell marker); Ranger (green chip) who has Sure Shot on (green marker); Trickster (yellow chip); Warrior (orange chip).

Background: Three 88 Enchanted Warriors (each with 8 orange chips). The two yellow chips represented some special move I think... Way in the back, sitting on a mighty stack of pink is the Level 88 Sage who was leading the warriors to the attack.

That's WEGS in multi-color, folks!

Speed Of Play...

As noted earlier, one of the amazing things during our Krystal Keep / WittCon games was the speed of play. These games, jammed with 12 players each, did not suffer from much mechanic-lag. A big part of this was that about a quarter of the players all did some WEGS-ing with us before, and these folks were coaching their friends and other players. A lot of the rules explanations were being handled by them, instead of us. It was great to watch somebody else explain the rules to a new player. It allowed me and Willy the 2 to focus more on our side of the table. Good stuff.

This also had a big impact on the "split table counter-rotational" minion mastering that we were attempting (see notes below). It drew a line in the sand between the players and us (the house). They weren't relying on us for the help with the rules, they were relying on the senior players. It galvanized the players as a team, which was great to see. Another great thing, which we're seeing more and more of, is players coaching each other on skill use. As folks become more familiar with the rules, the level of strategy is rising. It might just be me, but Level 88s ain't so tough any more...

Time to break out the Double 88s!

WEGS @ WittCon '08
From Dusk 'Til Dead
(photo by j. benton)

Lots o' rats, zombies, ether creepers, spoint frogs (on copper pot).
A Level 88 Dark Mage can be seen on that mighty stack of red chips.
Lower right is a Goblin Mage with Sense Magic up (red marker).
Level 88 Dark Mage is also about to blast a spell...

What Happened In Vegas, Part 2

In May 2007, I blogged about how the concept of WEGS was born early one morning after a late-night stint at a craps table in Vegas. Many times that feeling I set to recreate with WEGS reverberates down the dice. When WEGS is at its hottest, it's like a huge craps game with folks shouting, feverishly throwing down spoints and bringing the game to life. Another key part is walking away cheerfully exhausted right down to your wallet (god, that's true on so many levels in the game publishing business!). This feeling happened twice at our recent Wittcon weekend: the first at Krystal Keep and the second at WittCon. Both of these games ran about four hours - and could've gone a little longer if both places hadn't closed at midnite! In both instances I had Vegas flashbacks. And it was good.

A few blogs back I mentioned that there was a down-side to running the larger games (8 players+). It's not the same game from a player's standpoint. This was apparent at Cold Wars when we first stumbled upon the "split table counter-rotational" method of dual Minion Masters. (this method warrants its own post!), but basically two minion masters split the table into two mini-games, running clockwise/counter clockwise around the players. The Minion Masters work in concert with each other well, but from a player's perspective the right side often doesn't know what the left side is doing.

This works incredibly well for mass-combat scenarios and our Yawl games and actually increases the crazed/frenetic spirit of those games. For games with story elements, it's not the best. Wegs Wife I (WW1) was playing in the first game where this occured and she complained afterward that she didn't have a clue what the other side of the table was doing. I voiced my concerns with Willy The 2 that it was our fault for not keeping the game together. There was more to it, though - the noise in the room was ungodly. Our game was in the middle of a huge ballroom surrounded by table after table of shouting war-gamers. We were on the event horizon, as it were, about to be sucked into nothingness. Thus, it was our survival instinct that lead us down the path of the "split table counter-rotational" method. The simple fact was one central Minion Master could not hear everyone at the table. So, we split the table into audible areas and, thus, we stumbled upon a new method for running bigger games.

Who's the muther of invention?
(More details to follow on this thread. Far too long at this point!)

An Early Depiction of WEGS in Rome?

Suffering the price for bad Minion Mastering...

The Ides Of WEGS...

As it fell during the Ides of March, the Wittcon theme this year was "Alea Iacta Est", or "The Die Is Cast". Caeser's famous line about dice and life. Little did we know how much this would apply to the weekend WEGS games we had scheduled. Ya see, the ides are the 13th or the 15th depending on what month you're in. By some strange machinations of the gaming gods, we ended up with between 13 and 15 people surrounding the WEGS games for two of our games. We have never run games of this size or intensity before - but as luck would have it, we were ready for such an undertaking.

The week prior, at Cold Wars, we had a game with 8 players. When a game gets over 7 players, the job of the Minion Master gets strained, so the Kreator usually pivots in/out for player interaction. At this game, Willy the 2 and I decided to split the players into two groups (left side and right side). He would handle the players clockwise starting at the first player to his left. I handled the players to my right counterclockwise. We would meet invariably at the middle player in the 12 o' clock seat. This style of game-mastering gave WEGS an amazing craps game feel with folks throwing spoints into the center of the table from all sides. There's a price to be paid for this, though (details in later post).

When folks kept showing up to play WEGS at our first store demo this weekend, we just kept saying "Sure! Jump in!". Before we knew it we had nine players. Then some more showed up! Wt2 and I debated over splitting the game in two sessions - but I just didn't want to. It would be too much work to split the poker chips and the cards to two tables. Plus we only had one WEGS mat. So, we hunkered down on our side of the table. The game went from 8pm until midnite. And it was non-stop, over-the-top WEGS goodness.

Little did we know that we were about to repeat this method in a matter of hours...

Professer Wick Explains...

...the difference between a Chainsword and a Boomstick!

(Wittcon 2008, J Benton, Photographer)

Eat! Drink! Play! Sleep! Rinse! Repeat!

March madness! From Cold Wars to Wittcon, the last couple a weeks have been non-stop. Wittcon, hands-down our favorite college con, is only a one day con with three sessions. We sandwich-ed our appearance at the con between in-store demos, turning last weekend into a whirlwind WEGS experience. Add to the fact that we played the largest games ever (12 and 13 gamers in a session) and you get a sense of the game scope. Eat. Sleep. Game. Rinse. Repeat.

Friday began with demos at an amazing store called Krystal Keep in Kettering, Ohio. This is a gamer's nirvana - the size of the store is unbelievable (compared to the standards we have here in NJ). It seems designed so you could use a shopping cart, and its luxuriously roomy. The amount of merchandise is amazing and it's all neatly arranged. It's obvious that the owners care about their business. But that's only the beginning... There's a second half to the store that is equal in size to the front. This is the gaming arena and is equipped with about 14 gaming tables and some of the most comfortable cushioned stools in ample supply. The walls have a racking system with a ton of gaming supplies (mostly terrain) - again all organized in categories, neatly arranged. I've never seen anything like this! And, oh yeah, there are private gaming rooms off of the arena. There are restaurant booths up front placed in a row in the front of the store for painting minis or small game sessions. There's concession machines in the back. This place is unbelievable. It was no shock that the store was full of gamers the whole time we were there.

As two Jersey boys, me and Willy the Two were in awe. And it was here that we ran one of the biggest WEGS game ever... Details on that will follow later this week...

Con Crazy...

The last couple of weeks have been con crazy! I'm not talking of actually attending conventions, but of attending to all the details associated with each individual one (the event schedules, the hotel details, the airfare/transport, booth research). All this is amplified by the number of cons we're considering. Some cons only have a month or two lead time (like the local cons), others want info 6 months in advance. What ends up happening is that March is madness, as the local April/May cons want your info and the June, July, August cons want it, too - pretty much all at the same time! Business suff, man... Anyhow, we're off to WittCon this weekend and doing some WEGS store demos, too - then we have a wee break until April where we have one con every weekend. The wegsite will be updated with all this info in a couple of weeks. 'Til then!

Well... She floats!

WEGS was the freak show at last weekend's Cold Wars. All the other games had ornately painted armies, WEGS had spray-painted minis (copper and gold). All the other games had fantastically-detailed terrain, WEGS had a black/gray battle-mat with a wooden boat on it. All other games were sold out in advance, WEGS had tickets to spare!

But, did we have a great time?

Hell yeah!

The games that did run were just amazing. AMAZING. These were the first full play-tests of our Pirates Of Penzantium rules with folks who never played WEGS before (that's a bit of a lie, we had fans return from last year's Historicon). I was worried at first that folks wouldn't get it because they were not familiar with the 101 rules. Instead, I was amazed at the level of play and the absolutely wicked use of the new skills. The new rules were tested so thoroughly that I have copius notes on what to fix. Some skills were over-powered and some were too weak. We tweaked the skills as we went along - so it was a great test for the system. With skills like Harpoon O' Doom, Chum Chopper, Yawlbatross and Phibe's Phish Phry, how can a game go wrong - right? Plus, Borkfu and friends made a guest appearance in one of the scenarios (and got their butts kicked heartily, mates)!

More details to come...

The S.S. Borkfu

Cold Wars is this weekend and we have a special prop to fit right in with their pirates theme: the S.S. Borkfu. We will be running Pirates of Penzantium events non-stop at the con, and we're going to try to use this prop in every one (if possible). We have a new version of Dwarf Walks Into A Bar (or Barge for that matter) and four brand new pirate scenarios. The Sunday Yawl is Escape From Yawlcatraz. The Wegshogs were even going to go as far as to wear pirate costumes, but didn't want to scare off potential players (plus, our fan base of 12 would lose all respect for us...). See you later, mateys!

Pour, Oh Pour, The Pirate Sherry...

The first official play of Pirates of Penzantium (202) happened on Sunday, and it was a rollicking good time, halted often by rule disputes. It has been so long since we've been in playtest mode that we forgot the frustration of not being able to play full throttle (especially after two consecutive sessions of pedal to metal Dingbitt's). Plus, we were up against a time factor: we were trying to run two 2-hour scenarios in four hours (with a new product). To make things fully pressurized, I jumped in as a player, so Will the 2 was stuck all by his lonesome running the game. At the time we thought this wouldn't be an issue as nothing on the Minion side had changed. As we got into the game, Will's head was spinning with all the new skills/spells being thrown at him. As usual, he rose to the occasion, giving me "I'll kill you when it's over" looks every now and then. We had five players:

Dwarf Sage / Don
Elf Mage / Jason
Gobling Warrior / L. Willy
Elf Ranger / Martin
Gnobbit Trickster / Chris

As you see, the Arks haven't changed. All the system stuff is the same. It's the skills and spells that are all new. Plus we have Spante Skills and Pirate Stations, both of which add new elements to the game.

Each Ark has a specific Spante Skill (aka "spill")that can be played on the Spante. These skills heighten a stat associated with the specific Ark, and benefits all those surrounding them; however these spills are expensive. Spills cost 8 spoints to use. This prevents any one Ark from using them solo, so players "buy-in" for the group benefit. Only those who buy-in get the benefit.

Pirate Station is the Ark's pecking order in the pirate crew (eight levels from Deck Skum to Dread Pirate). Stations establish the pirate's Notoriety level and grant bonuses at the higher levels (the Dread Pirate can "borrow" skills from lower crewmen). Pirates can only advance stations when those above them perish, or if the Dread Pirate promotes 'em.

These two mechanics definitely add a level of vibrance to the game. While it plays exactly the same as 101, the extra layers add a distinct learning curve for noobs. That's why we're calling the Pirates version "202". 101 is about getting into a dungeon asap and having a blast hacking. POP 202 is about establishing a group of cut-throats who rely on each other, while keeping an eye out in hopes of advancement. The new mechanics are all about getting the crew established and ready for adventure on the high seas of sorcery!

More on the playtest coming soon!

A Sunday Dingbitt's, Part 3

And the game just kept getting better. Last Sunday, we ran Dingbitt's again at the same locale. Of the 5 players from the previous week, 2 returned to do more dungeon diving: Don/Dwarf Sage and Nick/Elf Ranger. 4 new players joined them: Jason, Will, Martin and Kristen. The party was now 6 Arks strong.

Dwarf Sage
Elf Ranger
Elf Trickster
Elf Ranger
Goblin Mage
Goblin Warrior

The week prior, the party made it to Level 4. Last Sunday, we started the party back on Level 1 (so the noobs stood a chance). We added a new rule, too - you can only get a Level Bonus (6%) for levels you've never been on. So, the Dingbitt veterans from the prior week had to "assist" the noobs on the "lighter" levels. Actually, this rule has always been in play, we just never had a group of mixed Arks (noobs and vets). It made it very interesing play as the vets were forever hounding the noobs to go down deeper. The party quickly cleared Levels 1, 2 and 3. They then decided to skip Level 4 and plunge down to Level 5. Perhaps the cockiness in their ability to clear that level went to their heads, the party decided to go full throttle to Level 8 - and therein awaited their unraveling.

The final battle was brutal: five Level 88's Ogres awaited them there (one of each Arketype: Warrior, Ranger, Trickster, Mage, Sage), plus a trio of fiercely ravenous zombies! The battle was a non-stop wegsified last stand, rife with spoint madness, phew popping, wicked failures. One Ark bit the bullet (the Mage), two fled from combat (sacrificing their exit card). The battle actually ended with a draw - neither side won. If the game had gone on longer, a few more Arks would've been added to Dingbitt's heap! Oh well, next time...

A Sunday Dingbitt's, Part 2...

You know a game is good when you have a lingering feeling for it to continue, and you find yourself thinking about the game play a full week later; the "afterglow", as it were. There were a couple of reasons why this demo rocked: (1) three brand new players; (2) two players with books; (3) one player who just happened to be in the store and decided to jump into the game on a whim; (4) two Wegshogs in attendance: Spointer Don and Willy the 2 (Minion Master); (5) I was free to loom above the table helping the players with questions and running lesser level minions; (6) two spectators who sat in on the game and pumped energy into the players with their questions and comments. All in all, a good, solid demo that ran like a full-fledged game. It didn't feel like a demo at all. It was us power-playing WEGS.

At about 3:30 pm, we were wrapping up the fourth encounter. Arks had already sprung a few leaks: Phew! were being blown, spoints were being conserved, the Warrior had a Wicked Invulnerability Failure). It was up in the air if all the Arks would make it out of the encounter alive. There was one Minion left on the battlemat: the 66% Undead Sage who had only five Wound Chips and one Blood Chip. For those of you who don't speak WEGS, that meant the enemy had anywhere between 60 and 150 Wounds. The Blood Chip strength isn't revealed until it is tapped. (I'm sure that explanation was even less helpful for the Unwegs.) Anyway, the Undead Sage (who was holding the bottom of the inning) successfully cast a spell. He would be blasting it the next inning.

Top of the inning. Players go!

With the breath of the Undead Sage's spell breathing down their necks, the players needed to take him out fast; hopefully before the spell went off. The Warrior charged up to him and took a whack. He reduced the Undead Sage to 1 Wound Chip and 1 Blood Chip. The Gnobbit Trickster ran up and jumped into the Undead Sage's square. This would cause the Sage to suffer an Invulnerability penalty the next inning. No other Ark's were close enough to help (or none wanted to get within the Undead Sage's spell range...).

Bottom of the inning. Minions go!

The Undead Sage launched Clash of the Spheres. This instantly paralyzed the Warrior, who was now a sitting duck. Unfortunately, this did NOT paralyze the Gnobbit who was in the same square as the Undead Sage. The spell has a ground-zero benefit. The safest place to be when this spell goes off is exactly where the Gnobbit was! This was the first time we ever saw this maneuver - ever. Moments like this solidify the afterglow.

Next inning. Top. Players go!

I'll cut to the chase here - the Gnobbit Trickster has one shot to kill the Undead Sage, and so he takes it. He only does 40-something points. He destroys the Undead Sage's last Wound Chip and so everything hinged on the Blood Chip total... Willy rolls and scores...

1

The worst possible roll for him... The Undead Sage perishes! The Minion Master groaned. The Arks cheered. The game ended on a high note - kinda. After all, the players were still trapped in Dingbitt's Dunge O' Doom!

A Sunday Dingbitt's Demo

This past Sunday, we ran a demo at Time Warp Comic & Games in Cedar Grove, NJ. Had 5 players (Don, Nate, Nick, Todd, Joel). Three players were brand-spanking new to WEGS. Willy the 2 was Minion Master. I floated about as Kreator. Scenario was Dingbitt's Dunge O' Doom. The game was fluid and the new players took to it like fish to water. Arks were:

Dwarf Sage
Goblin Warrior
Elf Ranger
Gnobbit Trickster
Goblin Mage

This list also represented their batting order. They started and ended each inning with a spellcaster action (Sage/Mage). The group plunged down four levels, picking up speed with each passing encounter. All in all, they completed four encounters in three hours - which is great for this scenario. In the final encounter on Level 4, they faced one 88 Warrior Lord, one 66 Undead Sage and three 33 Zombies. The group perfectly divided themselves to fight this three-front battle. The Ranger took on the zombies. The Mage and Sage focused on the Undead Sage. The Warrior and Trickster engaged the Warrior Lord. The field was covered with mini-battles. Stuff that was great:

Top of the Inning was in effect. We normally don't push this rule, but the speed of play warranted it. The Arks were able to start at the bottom of the inning and hack their way to the top by eliminating the minions of higher stat percent.

Trickster Blitz (page 45, WEGS 101). We tend to leave this rule out at conventions as it's one of the extras. Two players had their rulebooks and called it into play. It allows the Trickster to move+attack. Being that the Trickster in this game had found a pair of magic boots that added +3 Move, he was able to fly around the field of combat. Great stuff!

More to follow!

Crackin' Copper, Part 2

Spent some time this week trying to organize WEGS Copper. I have two versions: (1) the actual text document in MSWord, and (2) the layout in InDesign. Trying to wrap my mind around the differences in the two docs and get them back in sync. As all 12 of you who read this blog know from prior posts, Copper was near-ready for print. At that point in the publishing process, I cut the strings that bind the two versions together and finish all the loose ends in the InDesign layout. The docs generally don't get too far out of sync. This weekend my plan is to get both versions to jive, then begin edits once more. I also have a Pirates of Penzantium playtest with the home Hogs and an in-store demo at a local store. A WEGS-ish weekend all-in-all.

Crackin' Copper

As I sit here typing, WEGS Copper is spitting furiously out of my printer... This is the first time I've printed Copper in over 10 months! This copy is just for proofing purposes, so I set my printing options to "Draft Quality", then pushed print. When the printer is set to this mode, it rapidly spits the pages out, off the tray, and into a unsorted pile on the desk... I sit here with one eye on the chaotic, anti-paginated pile that is mounting. One page just got caught up in the feed, almost a jam, but luckily averted by my Eli Manning-esque printer-jam diversion play. Just ran out of paper at page 23 (Chapter 3, On Arks & The Ark Kard). Resume printing. Crazy gear-grinding noise. Pages a-spitting again. {INSERT ART - DUNDWELL} note on page 2... Done! Now I just have to sort the pages in their proper order... 209 pages in all. My weekend plans are to compare this document to the pdf master version that was completed in April 2007. It was at that time that I pulled the plug on Copper and put all my attention on getting WEGS 101 Old Skool to print. Gonna be a fun weekend.

On a different note, I just got a shipment of plastic card cases today that fit the WEGS 101 Skill Deck perfectly. The Skill Deck just went on sale on the website this week (though I did sell a couple of decks at Dreamation). These decks have already brought a whole new perspective to WEGS 101 game play. Players can use these decks to build multi-class Arks and take the game to a new level. The thrust of Copper is similar in that it strips away the regimented Ark skill list (i.e. only Mages get Mage spells). The skill deck allows players to explore multi-classing on their own, before cracking Copper.

(There's an FAQ on the website that briefly details this concept)

WEGS at Dreamation 2008

Well, the first con of 2008 has come and gone, and it was good. Of the 5 WEGS games we had scheduled, 4 of them ran: Dungeons Or Dragons, Dingbitt's Dunge O' Doom, Reservoir Dwoirves and Sunday session of Dingbitt's. We canceled our "midnite quicky" session of Dusk Til Dead ('cause we were bordering on being undead by that point). We ended up not running our pirate rule set (more details on that later this week).

This was the first con that we had an official WEGS booth at, and although this was a small con, it was a critical step for us to figure out "booth-ing". Up to this point, we've just run games at cons, and haven't had the responsibility of a booth. It will be a very real responsibility at the cons this summer. This con was a baby step in that direction and we learned a lot from this test run. We know that we need a box with booth supplies, and were partially prepared there. What I wasn't prepared for was the in-booth demos that Will and Don began to run. I hadn't thought of game supplies at the table (like Ark Kards and dice and minis). At the next con, we'll have a mini-game set for this.

All in all, we learned a lot and had a blast. It was a balance between business and pleasure. We had two outright amazing game sessions (the first and last) - so, we began and ended the con on a high note. A good con.

The Green Notebook

Like four years ago, I bought a green composition notebook. Interior pages were graph paper (perfect for dungeon designing) and the inside back cover was a "Useful Information" page with conversion charts and a multiplication table (that covered up to 12 x 12 = 144). Initially, one of my design concepts for WEGS Copper Players Notebook was to have the cover/back cover look like an old-fashioned school notebook. The back cover would be complete with a multiplication table for Damage Die results, as well as other WEGS-based charts/lingo. I would still love to do this for some future release, but I think the novelty would be short-lived. Plus, when folks saw a multiplication table on the back of the book, it could lead them to think the game mechanics utilized "big math" (the DD multiplication table would need to cover at least 20x20). Only the first three pages of the Green Notebook have actually been used:

Page 1 has random notes from the movie Reservoir Dogs. When I was designing the scenario Rez Dwoirves, I watched the movie to get me inspired. Rez Dwoirves was a game that was going to be heavy on the role-play, so I needed to come up with some mechanics for that element. One concept was a mechanic for props - like guns. In the movie, guns are an extension of a characters personality. They are used to heighten their negotiation skills.

Page 2 has a random hit location chart, which is powered by 2D6. I'm hoping to get this into WEGS Kreators Notebook with a DaVinci-esque feel. I always liked the critical hit locater in Warhammer. This type of play borders on excessive detail, but its a fun add-on. It would be an in-play chart reference, and I tend to stay away from that at all cost.

Page 3 is some random starter notes for WEGS Spopera, the space opera setting. Can't wait to start coming up with lazer beam blast rules!

This notebook is kinda a file folder, too. Aside from those three pages, the notebook is jammed with loose sheets of paper. Any random thought on WEGS that hit me was scrawled on a piece of paper and put into the book. Now, I'm starting to convert all these loose notes into a working document. Just one more thing to fill in what little free time remains these days!