The End of Cons

With no more cons on my plate for 2009, I've launched the first annual End of Cons sale on the GameWick Games website. I've slashed prices like nobody's business and will keep these prices in place until we announce our 2010 con schedule. It just seemed like a great way to celebrate the end of the convention season and the end of the year.

What's on sale is the second printing of Old Skool (the first printing sold out at GenCon this summer). The second printing has only slight corrections to it, mostly glaring typos found in the first printing. Typos like Stealt instead of Stealth. Not to mention that ever embarrassing synonymic juxtaposition in the Pirates of Penzance lyric quote, "steal" instead of "steel".

Odd how the two most glaring typos both featured the same word...

Never realized that previously. Must have been the dread Curse of Schwenk for using his lyrics to make a not-so-clever point...

Anyway, for all twelve of you who read this little blog...

The End of Cons is nigh!

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...

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!

Easy Mistakes... Part 4

Too many players! It's tough to turn folks away. At least once at every con, we have a game that gets overbooked. And by overbooked, I mean we keep saying yes to anyone that shows up. We try to limit games to 6 players - that's our comfort zone when we have two GMs (one is the Kreator (me) and the other is Minion Master (Willy the 2 or Shanty Bob). We will reluctantly take the players total up to 9 depending on the scenario. If it's all battle, then it's easier. If it's plot driven, not so good. Believe me, I've been reamed out post-game by the Minion Masters if I go over the limit! It's always my fault for letting people play...

I'm convinced the perfect amount of players for WEGS 101 is 9 (significance due to Tolkien's Fellowship) - but I'd say that 7 is the perfect number, too (just because of craps). In either situation, I'm talking experienced players. And add 2 more players in the mix (for the Kreator and Minion Master). So, grand total is 9 or 11 players 'round the table. And it's this hubris that gets me into trouble...

I've come to learn at cons 3-5 new players are perfect for intro games. If some of the players have some WEGS under their belts, the number can be pushed to 6 or 7. When submitting games to cons, I'm now using 6 as my standard. The only downside of this is at cons where seats are reserved and the players who reserved seats don't show up. We've had sold out games, where only half the players appear... which leads us to allowing folks to be on standby... At the official start time of the game, if folks who reserved haven't appeared, we allow those on standby to jump into the game. Invariably, a few minutes later, the folks who registered appear... And then we're back to square one...

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Easy Mistakes... Part 3

The Cold Roll... Most folks get it. Other folks don't. Rolling 2D6 for a percentile base just isn't logical! The biggest mistake here is the failure to explain it pre-game. And by explain it, I mean demo it. Make folks do a few rolls until they're comfy with it. Then do it again! The problem here is that WEGS uses 2D6 for various rolls. Sometimes they are just counted as pips for a score between 2 and 12 (like Act Fast! tests), sometimes they are arranged for a percent total between 11% and 66% (the Cold Roll). For Blitz, they are used ala craps and compared to Warrior Strength or Ranger Strength (and you can use Spoints to up your odds). Way back when we started demo-ing WEGS, I was very careful to limit the game mechanices in play. For example, Act Fast! and Blitz were non-existant. I wanted folks to come to terms with the key mechanics and not overwhelm. As we played more and more, we started adding on the pieces that eventually became the core WEGS 101 mechanics. In turn, the con games became more robust and a tad complicated for new players. The key thing is to identify the players who look a little lost in their rolls and take a moment to walk them through the purpose. Some won't get it. Some will. You at least gotta try. A lot of the fun in this game is the language of the dice. If a player doesn't get the reason they're rolling, some of the fun is going to be lost in translation.

Easy Mistakes... Part 2

With the 2007 con season behind me, I find myself dwelling on what went right and what didn't over the course of the many games we ran. We're at a point where games have folks familiar with WEGS sitting alongside of folks who are playing for the first time. This isn't a problem as that's what WEGS 101 is all about: easy enough for newbies and crunchy enough for game veterans. WEGS is also about options on the gamemaster's side of the table. It is very easy to whip up new minions and introduce ad hoc rules. I don't think there's a game we run that doesn't have some tinkering going on at this point. From our standpoint, it keeps the game fresh for us. Kinda like game improv. And therein lies the danger... Folks who have played with us before know that this is what WEGS is about and they ride this wave without batting an eye. Not so for folks playing for the first time. To them additional rules that seem "errantly" introduced can make the game system seem thin. The plug/play nature of the game is its strength, but can easily be perceived as weakness.

The other side of this is that our con games, to this point, have been system introductions. These are the basic rules, nothing glossy. We've been doing this now for TWO YEARS - playing an intro game. It's great fun, but when you know what the system can do, you start to itch. Me and Willy the Two have pre-game pow-wows on the new stuff. And we can easily get carried away with cool ad-hoc rules. Easily. For example, AggDam and the Blood Chip are two things we've been adding to all games. Just 'cause they're fun for us and they make the minions tougher to beat. However, in their small way, they are complicating the vanilla. It's a tough balance to keep in mind: introducing the game, keeping it basic and keeping it fresh.

Easy Mistakes... Part 1

In the game discussed below, I noted that there was a slight drag in the game play. When WEGS is played with 7+ players, there's bound to be some bumps, especially with new players. The new player curve isn't always the issue though - folks tend to play the game as fast as they can and there's nothing wrong with savoring your turn at bat... However, there is one thing that I've been slipping on lately - the four dice rule.

WEGS is designed to be played fast. Part of the design is reflected in the fact the game uses only 2D10 and 2D6 for its fuel (that's two ten-sided dice and two six-sided dice for you non-gamers...). I have a strong belief that the fewer dice you have on the table, the faster the game moves. Many other games in this hobby cover the playing field with lots and lots of funny sided dice. There's a built in joy for gamers to collect dice, too. In this hobby, you never can have too many dice. So, very often, folks show up at the game table with dice bags bulging with funky polyhedra. It's almost a status thing... but that's not what WEGS is about. At all.

And that was the one major bump in the game flow the other night. There was one player who had various funky dice set out before him. Often he would select different dice every inning, changing colors and determining the one he would use for highs and the one he would use for lows. This wasn't a showstopper, but it did impact the game flow. Everytime we got to his turn, he had to decide which dice to use. While I can appreciate that thrill, it just ain't WEGS. I think it breaks down one of the ways you buy-in to the game.

I don't mind folks swapping dice for new ones half-way through the game - that's actually really fun. If the set you start out with keep letting you down, there's nothing wrong with digging some new ones out. I think the mental act of committing your actions to four simple dice has some adventurous beauty about it. You're putting your faith in these things - and they may burn you real bad. That's the joy of it all sometimes.

So, it was a small blunder, but an important one to remember. After a month of running game after game, I got sloppy.

2D6. 2D10.

GenCon - Beginning or End?

The last week I've been trying to figure out if GenCon is the start of the "gaming season" or the end. I've been so conditioned by my life in theatre that I think of things in "seasons". Heck, everything has a season - especially sports. Theatre, however, generally encompasses a full year, traditionally with the summers dark. Big opener in the fall, followed another production pre-year end. Second half is a mid-winter show and then a pre-summer closer. Factor in that rehearsals for the first show of the season begins mid-summer and there really isn't a break to speak of. Enough of theatre talk, I gave that life up for my gaming...

So, GenCon... What is it? I'd like to say "end". This is probably because GenCon is so draining with the schedules we run that once that con is over, I don't want to think about gaming or working on games for a couple of weeks following (hence, my lack of postings of late). GenCon also comes hot on the heels of Origins, so the ramping up for Origins is like starting the engines for GenCon. If anything, I use Origins as my final playtesting ground for the games we offer at GenCon.

GenCon definately has that world series feel (and Origins a penultimate feel). GenCon is the big moment that you strive for if you're releasing a product. After the con is over, there's definately a lull until the local cons begin to pick up speed. The fact that summer ends a couple of weeks thereafter also gives it the flavor of an ending point.

So, end it is.

Time to get the new season of gaming started!

Death By 1000 Tangents...

Looking back over all the posts thus far, there are a bunch of unfinished stories.

That's just the way this blog is gonna bounce.

I'm going to try to do a full week of posts this week and follow the trail I start down to it's end.

Unless I see a windmill waving at me.

A 101 Page Delight!

Well, the initial layout/design for WEGS 101 (the first release this summer) is complete.

And, by the gods, it just so happens to be exactly 101 pages!

Must be a sign of some kind...

We're hoping in the second round edit/design phase we don't have to add a page. It would be very cool if 101 is 101 pages when it goes to print.

And all 13 of you heard it here first!

Verities And Balderdash...

The more types of dice you have in play, the slower the game.

Casino craps rocks with only 2 six side dice. You can't beat the sheer simplicity of it. That game can move as fast as the pit people can pay the players. When that game is the slowest, the players are the happiest (unless you're one of those folks who bet with the dice).

Dungeons & Dragons utilizes many dice types - four sided, six sided, eight sided, ten sided, twelve sided and, of course, twenty sided (which is now the crux of their system). The weird D&D dice were a big part of the game's initial success. It was a very cool game gimmick and a fascinating branding point.

WEGS uses two types - six side and ten sided. Players are armed with a pair of each. That's 2D6 and 2D10 for insiders. The game play is definately brisk. It flies when folks have a comfort level with the rules, too. What we lose in cool, we make up for in speed.

There's rumblings that we might include D4 in a future version...

So much excitement in one short post.