Minotaur Meat Has Arrived!

The long-awaited second module for the Badderlands series has arrived! I can finally check it off my 2009 To Do list!

B2: Minotaur Meat is the next Old Skool adventure from GameWick Games and it's chuck full of fun and adventure. It follows the three chapter narrative format, allowing the game to be played in three encounters.

The module was started in early 2009 and offered as an event for the conventions that we ventured to (Origins, Gen Con, Dexcon, Ubercon). Bit by bit, the module was forged into what it is today. One thing stayed the same, though: it ends with an awesome encounter with a classic minotaur!

The minotaur is depicted twice in the module, once on the cover and later in the third chapter. Both illustrations are drawn by Jim Holloway, a fantastic sword-n-sorcery artist known for his great work during the early days of the role-playing game industry. The module also features the art of Tony Steele and Brian Thomas.

Check it out!

Dreamation Aftermath!

Dreamation was like getting my own stimulus package for WEGS: the energy of the con and all the great games we ran got the creative juices flowing just in time for spring. After a long winter of limited play, it was fantastic to sit back and play one game after another after another. With The Prof as Minion Master, I was able to take the overlord position and sit on high watching the action go down. Mucho gracias to The Prof! From running through the final test of Hobgobble's Eve to throwing down the initial pass at Minotaur Meat, we were able to gather gamers for every WEGS offering on the schedule (with the exception of our Sunday Pirates of Penzantium demo).

We took some chances with new rules, like allowing folks to burn 6% Rank for a Phew! at the Spante*; this made the end game go on forever! This, though, is part of the fun of going full throttle at a con; for the House, it keeps the game interesting and also allows us to test out and tinker with enhancements. I'm all about trying to break the system, giving it too much gas and flooding the engines. The downside of this is that players may get caught in the crossfire and walk away with a different view of what the game is about. One big thing learned: keep the intro games intro (no tweaking rules one jot).

One last thing on Dreamation... awesome location. GameWick Games was given three tables at the hotel entrance in front of a cascading waterfall; it was like being poolside at the Flamingo. Word is that we're in same location for the summer con. It will be awesome.

*"burn 6% Rank for a Phew! at the Spante"... A line that only a Wegshog could comprehend!

Playtesting: Hobgobble's, Chapter 3

We concluded the Hobgobble's Eve playtest with the good folk of the Garden State Gaming Society last night; the final chapter of the soon-to-be-released adventure is going to be a brutal one for players! I jumped in as a player, letting the Professor run the newly revised minions for this encounter. We had four players to face-off against his eight minions; with no Warriors in the mix for us, the odds were stacked against us. It was a struggle all the way to the final inning (14 innings!), but we managed to survive. We missed hitting the eigth inning "sweet spot", but my thoughts are the chapter could have concluded sooner if we had one more player on our side of the table. We're officially sticking a fork in this module, 'cause it's done (from a playtest standpoint)! We ran this adventure twice, as did the Platinum Warlock (thanks for the notes, A!). Time to start layout and design on the pdf. Hoping to publish this sucker before the end of the month for the whole darn Wegsworld to enjoy!

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!

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...

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!