Gaming over the Christmas Holiday 2018

One of the things I enjoy most about being employed by a University, is that my work schedule is more or less similar to a student's schedule, which means I get a break over Christmas every year.  This is (as reported on in previous years here at Gaming with Chuck) a time for family, friends, and in our house - gaming is one of the ways we spend time together.  This year was no exception.

The gaming we did was of three varieties.  First, there was a lot of board games and card games.   These were done at home, with either the immediate family, the extended family, or with friends so close they are practically family.  More on what we played down below.  Second, there was some miniature wargaming.  With my reduced schedule, I actually got to play some wonderful miniature wargames - I usually try to host one (as the referee) over the holidays, but not this year.  Instead I got to play in a few (again, details below).  Third, there is roleplaying. We did not do a lot of RPG gaming this year over the Christmas break, but did manage to get one day of gaming in, right around New Years, which was a smashing success.

So, first, the board gaming.  There are a couple of board gaming activities that take place at our house over Christmas time.  Every year we participate in the Boardgame Geek Christmas Card Exchange.  This year was no different - we were able to send out some great cards to gamers all over the planet (we signed up for 12 gamers to send cards to, and received random names from a list).  I try to read the profile of the person getting the card on BGG before sending the card, and writing a note about their type of gaming, and any ways it intersects with ours.  Also, every year at Christmas time we try to have a few boardgame days at the house, where we host people with lots of Christmas treats, music, drinks, and boardgames.  A great time.  This year was no different.  We had friends over several times.  Finally, every year around Christmas time, we try to get some new boardgames to play as a family, and spend the spare time of the holiday break playing them together.  Some great breakout titles this year have been Sagrada, Queendomino, and Railroad Ink: Blue.

As gifts there are some games we got but haven't tried yet.  That includes (finally) the Toscany addition to Viticulture, and Anita received Between Two Castles.

For miniatures gaming, chiefly I got to play in three games.  First, I got to play in Saga - the Viking Age skirmish game.  I got to run out my Anglo-Saxons against the feared Jomsvikings.  Great game.  Practically speaking it was a tie, but I hand the victory to the Jomsvikings.  In that game I tried a different commander for my Anglo-Saxon force.  Typically, I use a regular (generic, non-named) Warlord, but this time I used Alfred the Great.  He has some (according to the rulebook) abilities in the game as a playing piece, and I love the history of Alfred, but it just wasn't my playing style.  Second, I got to play in a fantastic game of Shako II - 15mm Napoleonic rules.  The battle was an 1809 battle between the Austrians and French, and I was on the French side.  Loads of fun even though our side lost (as it did in real life).  The third game was a battle of late ancients, with Late Romans fighting Sassanid Persians.  We used the Impetus rules for this one, and it was a lot of fun.  A bit strange with so many new players, but we agreed the rules (now 10 years old) were very good, and deserve a rematch.

Finally, we played an RPG session.  Our last RPG series, which was a dungeons and dragons game set in the World of Greyhawk, saw a big break coming up for the players, as they prepared for the next part of their quest.  Taking advantage of that natural pause in the campaign, we this time played with a new set of players, having a city adventure, protecting a shipment of wine, arriving in the city of Niole Dra during the midwinter festival week of Needfest.  Lots of fun, as invisible thieves, evil knights, and goblins tried to spoil the winter festival.  The new adventurers uncovered a much bigger plot than the simple theft of fine wine, and the game will no doubt continue in the future.

I will end by saying that one of the highlights of the Holidays was getting together with my Brother's family, which is almost always a chaotic affair, but this year it included some gaming.  We taught them how to play the Christmas card game, 12 days of Christmas (not the one pictured above, but rather the one from Dr. Gordon Hamilton, published by Eagle-Gryphon).  It was a lot of fun, and I think my brother's family are almost recruits into gaming.


God bless all who read this, and I hope we all have a great 2019.

Interesting Random Tables for RPGs

Since the earliest days of D&D, random generation tables have been a part of the game. Among other things they would allow a dice-driven random selection of NPC and monster encounters, magic items, and other objects that a group of adventurers might find while moving through the fictional world.  One of the more interesting uses has been sets of tables to generate whole environments.  This has included random towns, cities, dungeons (especially) and whole continents and worlds.

Excellent examples of this popped up very early not only in the original D&D books and supplements, but also in the excellent tables in the many early Judges Guild products (adventure settings and magazines). But the very best may have been Gary Gygax's dungeon generation tables in the 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide.  Still loved and used.

Other very cool examples include the terrain/continent generation tools from the earliest versions of the ICE Campaign Law book (which, along with Character Law, would form the link between their early Arms Law, Claw Law, and Spell Law books, and the later whole Rolemaster idea).  Many, many other type systems appeared in print in the explosion of supplements and magazines in the 80s golden age of RPGs.

In recent years, many similar type offerings have been popping up both in Retro Clone RPG supplements, and the generally excellent sea of RPG blogs that aim at old school style roleplaying and DMing.  One of the most fun is the blog of  Jason Sholtis - the Dungeon Dozen  This a collection of many D12 tables of interesting (and sometimes whimsical) items to encounter in a fantasy RPG.  Jason has followed up the blog, with published collections of the tables (as of this writing, volume one is available in print or PDF, and volume two is coming soon).

One thing about the tables of Jason, is that in terms of topic, they are all over the place. Objects, people, conditions, monsters, locations - he covers it all. A great index has been compiled over at Blessings of the Dice gods by Jeff Russell. This is a great index to Jason's work.

A move, a return, a restart, and a resumption

Recently, the staff and adjutants at Gaming with Chuck HQ have undergone a move.  This is a return, in a way, back home.

Five years ago, upon completing my PhD, I went off into the world as a new professor, and after teaching for a few years, and serving as a research professor for a few years, Providence has brought us full circle, and we are now returning back to Newport News.

I will be teaching at a local university, and my daughter will be attending my alma mater, Christopher Newport University.  And, I have fallen back into step with my old wargaming club.  There is also talk of regular game days at GwC HQ, and also (gasp) rumors of regular roleplaying.  Where will all the time come from?  Still it is good to be coming home.

Soldier from the wars returning,

Spoiler of the taken town,

Here is ease that asks not earning;

Turn you in and sit you down.

Peace is come and wars are over,

Welcome you and welcome all,

While the charger crops the clover

And his bridle hangs in stall.

Now no more of winters biting,

Filth in trench from tall to spring,

Summers full of sweat and fighting

For the Kesar or the King.

Rest you, charger, rust you, bridle;

Kings and kesars, keep your pay;

Soldier, sit you down and idle

At the inn of night for aye.

      - A.E. Housman, 1922

I mentioned that I have fallen in with the old wargaming club, Old Dominion Military Society, which is now actively gaming again on a weekly basis.  Our summer convention (Guns of August) is being hosted at the Virginia War Museum.  We have plans underway for the new winter convention (Williamsburg Muster), returning to its regular February timeslot.  The local club is also talking about monthly game days (game nights?) where we rent out or acquire access to a large venue, for some big, serious, miniatures gaming.  Maybe at the Museum?  Maybe at a local community hall?  Still working the details.

Miniature gaming, so far, has been of the Thursday night variety.  Which means, typically, smallish games.  Some ODMS members have hosted great things - (The Rules with No Name, FrostGrave, Wings of Glory, DBA, etc etc), and this week we have some Ancients happening, and next week we have some Napoleonics happening.  All very good.

Boardgaming has been quite fun, and with our new game room (the den, or family room, in our new house is dedicated as a game room, with storage for all our board games, and a nice game table, some chairs, a couch, and a computer desk), we have been playing on a regular basis, as a family, and with some guests.   During the move, the inventory and packing/unpacking experience showed us that we have a lot of games that we really like, but haven't played in a while.  And some that we have never played.  To address those issues, we made a list of "games we have not played lately, but want to" and will be using that to schedule Wednesday night family game night. Several recent games of Fantastiqa have been quite fun, and looking forward to some Terra Mystica and maybe some Archon and/or Tempus.

Roleplaying has been discussed, especially with our return to the old stomping grounds, and so many of the players we love playing with from years ago.  There is talk of "getting the band back together" with some of the our old regulars, in an old fashioned roleplaying game (either fantasy, or maybe sci-fi).  Nothing yet, but details will appear in this fine publication.

Planned upcoming game activities -

Guns of August is going to be in a public place - so it will be a little bit different.  I am treating this as a recruiting and/or community outreach opportunity for both wargaming in general, and for the game club (ODMS).  I will be hosting four (introductory level) wargames, and am in the process of preparing handouts for each, to introduce some history, wargaming, and the rules being used.

1. Introduction to Medieval Wargames - very similar to the games I hosted at Guns of August 2016, with two games going on at once (maybe, Vikings/Saxons, and Crusaders/Saracens).  I'll be using the Neil Thomas introductory rules, and am working on a handout for this game.

2. Wargaming the Revolutionary War - I will probably use a smaller version of the scenario I ran at Thanksgiving 2015, which was a fictional Southern Campaign battle, set in South Carolina 1780.  I won't be using Black Powder for this, because I want it completely friendly to newcomers and kids.  Either some homebrew rules (Patriot's Blood) or Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules adapted for the purpose.

3. Introduction to Renaissance Wargaming - This one will be a lot like the first one, with two battles (four armies), and using the Neil Thomas rules.  One of the battles will most likely be French/Imperialist vs. Italians.  The other might be English Civil War.  Again, similar to the solo Renaissance game I did back in 2016.  The main feather here is the history of the period, and trying to get people interested, so I am working on a nice handout.

4. Introduction to Medieval Wargaming - This one is a conundrum for me.  I have a couple of ideas.  The first is to do the same thing I plan for number 1 above, but maybe with different armies.  The second is to do a 28mm scale game using Lion Rampant, to show what medieval games are like, at that weird mix between skirmish and full army battles (such as LR, but also Saga and some others).  The third idea is to use the Chainmail rules such as my recent games supporting the Lord of the Manor project, and use the handout session to show the connection between miniatures games and the later roleplaying game revolution.  Still deciding this one.

Lots more coming up, including finishing some of the projects here (dark ages wargaming, retro reviews, etc).  Watch this space.

Article at Wood Planet Gaming Lodge on OSR

Jason, over at Wood Planet Gaming Lodge asked me to write an article (very kind of him!) for his gaming web magazine.  I played around with some ideas for an X-Wing campaign, and maybe a variant for Pandemic I have been fooling around with, but in the end I wrote a short piece on my history with RPGs and also why I like Old School Roleplaying systems, and OSR gaming in general.

Check out the other good stuff over at WPGL while you are over there - a great site!

One thing I didn't mention in the article, that I should have, is how much of my memories of gaming 4 decades+ ago involved some of the (now dated, but at the time extremely cool) Judges Guild products.  I could have talked about the current games I have been running (updates at Sword and Potion) in the City State of the Invincible Overlord setting....

Why do I plan game activities?

To me, it is important to plan gaming activities.  This is because of a couple of different reasons, personally, so if I can ramble on for a few minutes, here are a few of them.

1. It gives me goals.  If I know I a want to do a game in the future (solo, for/with friends, at a convention) then planning will give me a timeline to get done what I need to (learn rules, paint miniatures, playtest, write up a dungeon, etc).  Of course, procrastination is always a stumbling stone, but with a plan, at least you can know what you SHOULD have done, on the way down, once you stumble.

 

2. Mental exercise.  Sometimes, my schedule is just too darned full to get in some of the gaming activities I want to do.  For instance, in my current look at 15mm AWI gaming, one thing I would like to do is rebase some miniatures.  Also build some terrain.  But I might not have good chunks of time in my schedule over the next few weeks to do those things - but what I can do is research battles, re-read rules, and maybe get orders of battle and scenarios down on paper.  Why those things?  Because they are all easily doable at the computer, or with a tablet, or with a book and pencil - while doing other things.  Lunch, watching a movie with the family, waiting for response on a work email.  etc.  They are planning activities - not the same as actual gaming activities - but they scratch an itch and keep my mind engaged in the topic.

3. Evaluate what needs to be done for a future event.  If I plan to do a Third Crusade wargame in November (which I am thinking of), then I will start thinking about my miniatures, rules, wargames terrain, scenario - etc.   While planning, I will take stock of what I already have available, and what needs to be developed.

4. Sometimes if I don't plan things, then (since I am interested in so many different gaming topics, and a victim of my own ability to change focus at the drop of the hat) sometimes I don't get anything done, and another year has passed and I still haven't played out the whole Furstenburg/Rumpwhistle 23 Weeks War of 1870. What is worse, is that I haven't recorded it here for posterity on the blog (what would the world do if it did not know the outcome of the 23 Weeks War?).

5. Related to all the above - it is fun.  Planning is a gaming exercise - whether it is the next set of encounters for my RPG campaign, or sorting miniatures and planning a painting project - it is all fun.  And I like to talk about it and share it here on the blog.

Recent Gaming News

I have been doing a lot of travel for work lately, so haven't been able to game too much.  Some things to report, however.

First, Gaming with Chuck headquarters (GwCHQ) is due to relocate just after the middle of the month of July.  We will be decamping from Mossflower, our current location, to larger quarters at Bag End.  Early scouting reports have come back with this photo of the lane climbing up to the new quarters . . .

Approximate map of Andrew Chapel Road, leading to Bag End

Second, there has been a pair of acquisitions in the area of Miniatures for miniature wargaming.  The first of these is a collection of French and Indian War figures, in 15mm, from the Carl Scisio estate sale.  Carl was a member of ODMS, and had recently passed away.  There is a memorial page for him at the Guns of August 2015 website, and there is planned to be a large estate sell off of his (not small) miniatures collection at both Historicon 2015 and GoA 2015.  Prior to that, club members were able to make some donations to the family estate, through purchase of some miniatures.  I selected French & Indian War, which include a number of formed British and French units, and plenty of irregulars.  I plan to run some convention games over the next year, featuring the attack of, or defense of, Fort Carlhouse, and the Springdale settlements, in the forests between the Seneca and Shawnee in Pennsylvania.

Fierce fighting at Fort Carlhouse

The second miniatures acquisition has been the acquisition of a large (over 1000 pieces) collection of Mexican War (1846-1848) miniatures, in 15mm.  Recent sorting and rules reviews have been taking place, but a decent sized Mexican-American War Table Top Exercise (TTX) - meaning a wargame with map based planning, campaign work, and finally tabletop battle execution - is planned for the first serious wargame to take place at the new Bag End location of GwCHQ. 

Mexican American War gaming should be pretty exciting!

Third, several recent Boardgame purchases and acquisitions have taken place, more on that later, but recent board game plays have included some light fare such as Trekking the National Parks, and Dungeon Roll.  Just this evening, however, a game of Vikings took place at GwC, amidst the general chaos of bugging out the HQ and packing up the household.  Vikings is a great Michael Kiesling design, and plays well with 3 or 4 players.  We had a 3 player game, and I had the fun of introducing it to Anita and Heidi - everyone had a great time, in spite of it being a first for them.  I think I owe them a game of something more familiar (Catan or Carcassonne).

Vikings! (bgg image)

Fourth, some upcoming Science Fiction Roleplaying is imminent.  I have been preparing a Star Wars RPG (the WEG D6 version, using the second edition rulebook) session for an upcoming convention session, and simultaneously John D has been preparing a White Star RPG game, for online play (google Hangouts, most likely).  My Star Wars game will feature a band of adventurers on the YT-1300 light freighter "Tumbling Asteroid".  It is set between the battle of Yavin and the battle of Hoth, but the players are not necessarily part of the Rebellion (yet).  John's game will be set in the Solar System (as opposed to interstellar), and the players will be part of ASTRA - an organization dedicated to fighting pirates and smugglers.  Both sound great (as GM of Star Wars, and as player of White Star).

Tumbling Mermaid is a YT-1300FP - combining passenger and freight options

Fifth, in the upcoming (#3) issue of Yaah! Magazine, I should have a couple of Star Wars articles (one for X-Wing, and one for Imperial Assault).  I recently got to play Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures, with Jack H's excellent Monday night group at World's Best Comics, in Newport News.  I had a truly excellent time!  The articles coming up in Yaah are (1) a mini campaign for the Rebels and Imperials to fight over control of a space station, fighting it out using X-Wing Miniatures.  The second article is a fight (inside) for control of the station, once one side or the other projects space control of the area around the space station.  That second battle (inside the station) is fought using Imperial Assault.  I'm pretty excited about the articles, and have started working on several others, and a boardgame design.  Who knows?

Board Game session - after RPG session

We had a fun board game night at the Gaming with Chuck secret headquarters location.

Admittedly, this followed a role playing session, which featured the intrepid adventurers in our World of Greyhawk campaign finally escaping the perils of Cannibal Island.  Of course, the means of escape (teleportation from the bowels of an evil castle on the rim of a fiery volcano) led them to a snowy pass in the Lortmil Mountains.  During a blizzard. With dire wolves and yetis closing in.  Oh, and Baba Yaga made an appearance (the first of many, in this campaign).  But they escaped from Cannibal Island.

Back to the board games - half of the group retired after the RPG session, and dinner from a local pizza and subs shop, but the rest of us were in the mood for some light, fun board games.  Here is our play list:
King of Tokyo (I didn't win)
Boss Monster (I didn't win)
Fandooble (I didn't win)
Tsuro (I didn't win)
Fandooble, again (I didn't win)
Web of Power (I didn't win)

There was a theme to those games.  But, of course, winning isn't so very important, especially here at GwC.   And besides, I got to run an RPG that featured octopus-men, yetis, a statue of Kali, and Baba Yaga, all in the same episode.  I really think I won, after all.

As an aside, check out the web site run by the Esoteric order of Gamers, with a list of all the fantastic quick reference sheets they make. Extremely useful.  Boardgame Reference Sheets

Assorted gaming projects and activities - an update

Several things have been going on lately, in the Gaming sphere of life at GwC headquarters.  Here is a rundown...

Cold Wars - I attended Cold Wars last month - it was a touch and go decision up until the last minute, and it wasn't helped by the fact that there was a dreadful blizzard on the day I was supposed to leave.  I left the next day, and still had a great time.
I met up with Chris and a bunch of the folks from Maryland, and further north, who game together at the HMGS shows - I have played with them a bunch in the past, but mostly it was Warhammer Ancients.  Patrick, of course, was there - as were Mike and Gil and some others.
I got to participate, as a viewer/heckler and Referee's assistant (glorified title for flipping a few initiative cards) in some really compelling games of Muskets and Tomahawks from Studio Tomahawk (the fine folks who publish SAGA).  I bought a copy of the rules, and the cards, etc, from Steve at Age of Glory- a great fellow to deal with.

Painting - I have begun collecting some new paints.  I have wanted, for some time, to experiment with using artist acrylics, entirely, for a project - and then assessing what the finished look is like, compared to using gamer paints (like Vallejo or Reaper), or craft paints (like Folk Art or Apple Barrel).  The brand I have selected is Liquitex.  I went with the Basics line, rather than the Heavy Pigment line.  I have used some of the colors from their Heavy Pigment artist line before - notably Titanium White and Cadmium Red (for 19th century Egyptians and British Red Coats, respectively, because I wanted bold bright colors, and I wasn't getting that from the craft paints I was using at the time).  The results for me were excellent, and so I wanted to follow up by purchasing a full palette of colors to use for an upcoming project.  I went ahead and got the 24 color starter set - the additional colors in the 36 color and 48 color sets did not really inspire me too much as being necessary for an experiment in a new medium.  I did wander outside of the Liquitex range for some other colors I will need - notably, I picked a light terracotta color from the Winsor & Newton line, to use as a basis for flesh.  I plan to try this out on a unit or two of Vikings, either for SAGA, or Lionheart, or both.

Boardgames - Many new card games and board games over the past few months, since Christmas, mostly from Kickstarter rewards and a few trades and purchases.  I have begun writing an article about new Train titles at GwC headquarters, and will publish that shortly.  Played a few titles on the week leading up to Tabletop Day, but did not participate in any activities this year (we were on a spring break trip, and returned too late to host a game day, or attend the activities at the local game shop).  Some of the titles played recently included Salmon Run, On the Underground, and Valley of the Kings.  Loads of boardgames on the iPad, but hey - that don't count.

Wargaming - There has been, of late, a resurgence in interest in Wargaming in the Department of Defense, and a number of professional developments for me are underway, where I am participating in wargaming design, the re-purposing of models and simulators for wargaming, and also teaching my Combat Modeling class.  Not really hobby oriented, but hey - steel sharpens steel.

Roleplaying - I have taken up the flung gauntlet from John, in following on his Village of Hommlet game, in the World of Greyhawk.  I have the players investigating the circumstances (which, of course, includes a DUNGEON) around the mysterious deaths of three brothers, who were Knights from Veluna, who came with Prince Thrommel to fight the army of evil at the battle of Emridy Meadows.  The Knights, distracted by the youngest one who fell in love with a Village girl near Nulb, disappeared before the battle of Emridy Meadows took place.  Now, ten years later, the players were traveling through the region, on their way north from Hommlet, and they came across tales and rumors.  The game so far has focused on the upper level of the Dungeon they uncovered in the forest glade where the Brothers were laid to rest - but who killed them?  What happened to the girl?  How come two of the three graves are empty?  The game is going well, although we only play about 1-2 times a month. 

Conventions - I have been helping, and will continue to help with the ODMS conventions in Williamsburg.  Some of the Staff have had medical problems and the remaining crew needs the help.  Also, I plan to attend Fall In next November (I can't wait).  I don't know about Historicon (family travel the week before, and the week after, will leave that weekend pretty tied up), but have been thinking about "The Weekend".  Does that event's name sound like an M Night Shyamalan movie to anyone but me?  Also, planning on attending Congregate in Greensboro NC this summer, working staff for the Con Suite.  Plan to do some heavy gaming while there, as well.

That is all, for now, will report back soon, and hopefully the Train Game article will come around quickly.

Traveller Amber Zone - Sword Dance

There was a good looking Amber Zone contest over at Amber Zone.  Unfortunately, with my travels (real life) lately, I missed the submission date.

Here it is - set inside one of the two super powers on the balkanized world of Margesi in the Vilis subsector of the Spinward Marches.


Amber Zone - Sword Dance (1105, Margesi/Vilis)
Location: Western edge of the Chergen Mountains, in People's Republic of Gome (PRoG)

Patron: Commander Sinew, Imperial Naval Intelligence, contacting the travellers clandestinely, in the Kingdom of Evariidi, or perhaps the Margesi starport.

Mission: Travel to the western edge of the Chergen Mountains, contact some of the local clans of Chergen cossacks, who never fully assimilated into the People's Republic. One in particular, Katrinka the Knife, has agreed to serve as a guide. She knows the location of a Sword World Military cache buried underground, at the old Gram Star-Militia troop site - situated to provide a training cadre for the capitol city of Isenstadt, on the other side of the Mountains. When Gram controlled Margesi for the Sworld Worlders, Isenstadt was the world capitol, and home of the main starbase. The cache has unknown amounts of military supplies buried in protected containers, but of interest to the Imperial Naval Intelligence, are some memory tanks with technical details of a Sword World missile frigate being designed 20 years ago, and now coming into production.

Payoff: The Intelligence officer will offer some consideration in removing past offenses from the records of the travellers, and also agrees that they can keep half of all the military stores they uncover, with the other half going to Katrinka the Knife, and her band of Cossack warriors.

Complications: The location is deep inside a militarized Soviet style country that is still very loyal to the Sword World, even though 20 some years ago, the planet came back into Imperial protection. Also, the location is rural and hazardous (the cache is in a rocky highland valley). Dealing with the Cossacks is not going to be easy, and in fact, to prove themselves the players will have to spend a night successfully carousing with the band (Carouse or Liaison skill test to be successful), and one of the members of the group will have to try the sword dance (Art: Dance, modified by Dex). Three dice rolls are required, of successful harder difficulties (6+, 8+, 10+) representing faster and faster Cossack music. If the player passes all three, the Cossacks are completely loyal allies, lesser results will have the Cossacks being less tightly allied to the players.

Reaching the cache is tough enough (survival and mountaineering may be required), but occasional patrols of PRoG solders (flak, autorifle, hand grenades) may cause additional problems. The extremely rough terrain precludes the use of long-range radio, but after 2 or 3 days the loss of PRoG army patrols will be noticed.

The cache is underground, inside a small bunker complex. Katrinka knows the location of the entrance, but not how to get in. The complex is protected by a series of TL10 security measures. The stash includes the digital memory tanks for the Intelligence officer, as well as dozens of TL10 small arms; cloth armor; ammo; and most important, a dozen each of TL10 communicators and TL10 medikits.

The special challenge for the travellers, will be escaping with the goods. On the way out of the area, with whatever stash they can carry on horseback (or vehicles if they risk it), they (and Katrinka's band of cossacks) will be attacked by another band of Cossacks, intent on thieving the goods. They will be armed with a variety of small arms, but not grenades or armor. They make up for their lack of armor in excellent ambush skills and fieldcraft.

Original Dungeons & Dragons reprint, brings back great memories

So, Wizards finally released the (announced over a year ago) Premium Edition of the Original Dungeons & Dragons set.

New reprint of Original D&D - recently arrived at Gaming with Chuck headquarters (picture from WOTC website)

This is the reprint, in the spirit of the other earlier edition reprints they have been doing, of the original white box version of Dungeons & Dragons, published once upon a time by TSR, thanks to the heroic writing and publishing efforts of the early greats of the industry - Gygax, Arneson, Blume, etc.

The original game came with three booklets:
Volume 1: Men & Magic
Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure
Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures

Book one deals with building characters, and man-to-man combat, heavily dependent on Chainmail

Book two, with (you guessed it) Monsters and Treasures

Book three with campaign and adventure rules and guidelines

Following its release in 1973, there was a flurry of excitement and reprints as the popularity of the game took the fledgling wargaming company by storm, but by 1975, the Supplement train was going strong, and the original release was supported by:
Supplement I: Greyhawk
Supplement II: Blackmoor
Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry
Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes

The new set was received at Gaming With Chuck headquarters during the recent Snowpocalypse, and that gave me some time off from teaching at the university to spend a few hours perusing these little gems of nostalgia.  All the rules, text, descriptions, charts, tables, examples, and interior art is just as it always was (or, at least, as I remember it).  The biggest changes came in - (1) extremely clear typesetting (although that wasn't too much of a problem with the TSR originals), and (2) new cover art for each book. Sigh.  I miss the cover art, but still, as a chance to get this reprint, it is okay that they changed it (I suppose).  Still, they didn't ask me. I would have voted for the original.

The whole thing comes in a really nice dark wood box (with the stylized ampersand from the modernized game logo), with a felt lined well in the middle for the books, and smaller wells on both sides, to hold a large set of polyhedral dice.  I say large, because it also accommodates 4 d6, in addition to the rest.  This is very nice, and I dare say much, much nicer than the dice that I got with the redeemable coupon in my 1979 boxed set of Dungeons and Dragons.

The dice I got from the hobby store in Huntington WV, with the coupon from my set of Basic D&D

Rereading it is exciting, and the descriptions of the monsters, spells, abilities, and adventure ideas are all grand.  But, I am struck by how spread out everything is.  Basic monster abilities (descriptions and hit dice) in one place.  Details about how many attacks (monsters can get multiple attacks?  Cool new rule...), and how much damage each does (not everything does the same damage? Cool new rule...), are all in different places.  The release of the canonical spells for Magic Users and Clerics are in different places.  The introduction of the Thief (a player can play a thief?  Cool new rule...) - all this and other stuff, spread out over the different books.

Gathering all this, as well as "official" stuff that came out in The Dragon, and else where, was the reason for releasing the hardcover AD&D books.  It wasn't supposed to change the game (although it did) as much as it was supposed to make it easier for DMs and players to find all the stuff that came out in dribs and drabs over 7 books, and in magazine articles, etc.

In between the release of the White Box set, and the full set of the first three Hardcover books (released, in order, as Monster Manual, Players Handbook, and Dungeon Master's Guide), there was the release of the first box set since the white box edition - the first Basic Dungeons and Dragons set.  This was edited by J. Eric Holmes, and was the set that I first purchased (and played, and played...).  It wasn't fantastic, or extremely thick, but it captured all the rules (mostly) needed to play initial adventures, from the three volume set of 1974, along with some of the additional materials (spells, monsters, rule changes) from the supplements.

I had the 5th printing, identifiable because it came with adventure B1 and a coupon for dice

The edition I bought came with cut out chits for polyhedral dice randomization, and a coupon redeemable for dice (see picture above) from TSR at a local hobby store.  My set came from a small book story in Huntington WV, in the winter of 1979-80, called Nick's News.  There was a hobby store in town, where I had been buying some wargames (I bought both GEV and also the Hinchliffe Guide to Wargaming there, on my first trip), and had gotten interested in medieval miniatures (including some fantasy figures, in the Heritage "Fantastiques" line).  Then I saw the white box set, with the subtitle "Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures". That was what I needed for my small, but growing, collection of medieval toy soldiers (including my first fantasy figures - a pack of beornings, that came with three Beorn-like figures and three bears).  But I also saw the first of the hard cover books, and a TSR rack of products - including some of the first packaged modules, the monster & treasure assortments, the geomorphs - all of it.

The book cover of the rule book in the Holmes box set. I still have a copy, and it is great reading.

It seemed to me that the 8x11 Holmes set would be a good bridge to the  hard cover books, and after all, it came with an adventure.  And - Oh! - what an adventure!  I got the fifth printing which came with B1 - In Search of the Unknown.  I STILL love that adventure.  And I can't think of anything better to teach a DM how to build their own dungeons.  It was a map, with room descriptions, and fill in the blank places for the newby DM to fill in monsters and treasures (complete with space for traps and containers), but the basic dungeon structure was done.  It was fantastic.  I was hooked - along with my two brothers, and anyone else we could get to play.

Best intro module ever made, in my humble opinion.

So, while WOTC has not reprinted the Holmes version of Basic D&D, they have done a good job of reprinting the White Box set, which is even more wonky, and more fun to read.  If they do a version of Basic D&D, honestly, I think I would rather have the Moldvay Version (Basic and Expert rulebooks), or the later B1-B5 version as it eventually ended up in the Rules Cyclopedia.  That was a fantastically complete ruleset, and loads of fun to play.  In the meantime, I think that the Labyrinth Lord game is a great modern replacement, and if you include the supplement Advanced Labyrinth Lord book, it is a pretty good replacement for both Basic D&D and also 1st Edition Advanced (this was the version we played over Labor Day Weekend at friends in 2013 - and my Daughter and Wife played in the same game, along with a pack of some of the best friends of the family who are all gamers).  Good times can still be had with this older version of the classic.

Western Music and Western Gaming

[NOTE: This is the 400th post at Gaming with Chuck.  Huzzah!]

The mythological old west of the United States is a fantastic place, to tell stories, to set songs, and even to base gaming themes on.  First a couple of pieces of classic Western music.

In the fantastic song Ghost Riders in the Sky a story is told about a herd of demonic cattle (red eyes, steel hooves, flaming brands) being chased forever by cursed cowboys.  It is reminiscent of tales like the Flying Dutchman, or the Wild Hunt.  The song was first recorded by none other than the fantastic singer, Burl Ives in February of 1949.  It was then recorded by Vaughn Monroe in March of 1949.  Monroe's version is fantastic, partially because of his incredible basso voice, but also the music is very well done.  In contrast, many other versions that feature (mostly) a single instrument - like Burl Ives', or Johnny Cash's versions - are pretty nice to hear as well.  There is a nice Youtube recording of the Burl Ives version.

This song has been recorded so many times, by so many great artists, it is hard to know which to include.  However, in the (mostly terrible) movie Ghost Rider (based on the much better comic book character), Nicholas Cage gets a modern remake of the skull-and-hellfire cowboy.  The song got a remake as well, with a version by Spiderbait.  Dare I say it - the brief bit with Sam Elliott as the traditional horse riding version of Ghost Rider is 187x more classy than Nick Cage's motorcycle riding version.  But then again, Sam Elliott is a real cowboy.

Famous cowboy singer Marty Robbins did a version as well.  But, if I'm going to include a western song by Marty Robbins, it HAS to be El Paso.  Nothing more to say on that one.  I think verses of it even were reprinted inside the rulebook "Hey You in the Jail" (great range war miniatures game by Peter Pig).

American Cowboy (the website of the cowboy lifestyle) has a great list of the top 100 western songs.  Lots of great songs there.  But if I think of some of my favorite western movies, and some of the songs from them, I have to include the rendition of "My Rifle, my Pony, and Me" by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson, from the fantastic John Wayne piece, "Rio Bravo" (1959).

Okay, moving from what is a HUGE topic of music, to an equally large topic of gaming, I would like to start with a relatively recent (2002) offering - the card game Bang!.  This has been a great hit for Emiliano Sciarra, spinning of a bunch of expansions and variations.  There is even, now, a dice game.

The game is about gun fighting in a classic Hollywood, or Spaghetti Western, style town.  There are different roles for the players - Sheriff, Deputy, Outlaw and Renegade - and classic actions (shooting, hiding, etc).  Here is the text from Board Game Geek, which is mostly from the original game's box back...

"The Outlaws hunt the Sheriff. The Sheriff hunts the Outlaws. The Renegade plots secretly, ready to take one side or the other. Bullets fly. Who among the gunmen is a Deputy, ready to sacrifice himself for the Sheriff? And who is a merciless Outlaw, willing to kill him? If you want to find out, just draw (your cards)!" (From back of box)

This card game recreates an old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out, with each player randomly receiving a Character card to determine special abilities, and a secret Role card to determine their goal.

Four different Roles are available, each with a unique victory condition:

• Sheriff - Kill all Outlaws and the Renegade
• Deputy - Protect the Sheriff and kill any Outlaws
• Outlaw - Kill the Sheriff
• Renegade - Be the last person standing

A player's Role is kept secret, except for the Sheriff. Character cards are placed face-up on table, and also track strength (hand limit) in addition to special ability.
There are 22 different types of cards in the draw deck. Most common are the BANG! cards, which let you shoot at another player, assuming the target is within "range" of your current gun. The target player can play a "MISSED!" card to dodge the shot. Other cards can provide temporary boosts while in play (for example, different guns to improve your firing range) and special one-time effects to help you or hinder your opponents (such as Beer to restore health, or Barrels to hide behind during a shootout). A horse is useful for keeping your distance from unruly neighbors, while the Winchester can hit a target at range 5.
The Gatling is a deadly exception where range doesn't matter - it can only be used once, but targets all other players at the table!
Information on the cards is displayed using language-independent symbols, and 7 summary/reference cards are included.

A great game.  Another western themed card game that has loads of period flavor is the fantastic Mystery Rummy spinoff Wyatt Earp, based on the original series design by Mike Fitzgerald.  The game also has Richard Borg listed as a designer, so perhaps he added the unique elements to this title. The game has the players in the role of Sheriff's attempting to bring in dangerous (and famous) criminals of the old west.  It involves collecting and playing sets of cards.  Lots of fun, and a ton of theme.

Another card game, that is quite popular, but not one of my favorites, is Munchkin.  There is (yes, of course there is) an Old West themed version, called The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin! It, itself, even has expansions.

 On the boardgame front, there is a lot to choose from, including the classic man-to-man shooting boardgame from Avalon Hill, Gunslinger (1982). It is a great hex based man-to-man cowboy combat game, with a number of cool scenarios you can play out of the book, and is easy enough to create any situation you want, from novels, movies, or your own imagination.

A nice modern re-doing of the man-to-man cowboy game (and there have been a number over the years) is the 2007 release of "Cowboys: Way of the Gun" from Worthington Games.  Other than different mechanics, one of the big differences is the reliance on square grid vs. hex grid for the map structure and movement, etc.

Another nice theme for board games is Western Expansion.  Two that I can immediately think of, other than the many, many different railroad games set in the old west, are Oregon, and Settlers of America: Trails to Rails.  There are many, many titles in this category as well, but those two come to mind immediately.

Oregon is all about building up buildings, mines, and other features to help construct a territory in the west. It is a lot of fun, pretty well balanced (typical Euro in that regard), and great art/theme. It is a settling game, and appropriately, it is based on Area Control and placing Tiles.  Great game, however.

Settlers of America: Trails to Rails is a Settlers of Catan based game, with a fixed map of the United States during the Manifest Destiny period, and it is a great economic game about western expansion. And it features typically high quality components and quality control from Mayfair Games.

There are also a lot of western themed RPGs that I could mention (Boot Hill, Deadlands, Western Hero), as well as some western themed Miniatures Rules (The Rules With No Name, Hey You in the Jail, Pony Wars).  After all of this, however, I am again faced with the thought that the Old West (in myth, if not in reality) is a fantastic theme for music, games, and movies.  And I didn't even mention too much about the movies...

Great reviews of old Amber Zone articles

The blog Deep in the Stacks has had some really good reviews of old Amber Zone articles.  Amber Zones were articles (first in the Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society, then elsewhere) that detailed the outline of an adventure.  They would describe the situation, the patron, the payoff, and the basic activities that the players would have to go through.  As well as, often, a series  of possible complications or outcomes. In short, it is an outline for a game scenario. for the GM to use to run a self contained adventure.

What the author of Deep in the Stacks (one of my favorite blogs - combines gaming with orthodox Christian philosophy and other stuff, like a love of books) has added to his reviews is some additional information that might be relevant to the GM of today who is going to pick up the adventure and run it.  Like in the article reviewing the adventure "Ticket to Swords" by Robert Camino.  The blog author has crafted a very nice map of the setting for the adventure (which features the players serving as officers of a mercenary unit that gets hired to train some locals to defend against a rebel uprising). 

I can recommend two things - first, follow Deep in the Stacks, and second, never give up on the goodness of those old adventures.

Gaming weekend in Clemmons

The entire staff of Gaming with Chuck (except for the two Battle Cats, who stayed behind at GwC headquarters, to defend against the encroaching hordes) took a journey from Columbus GA up to Clemmons NC, to engage in a weekend of Bacchanalian Ludo-Revelry.  The games played included a variety of board and card games, as well as loads of roleplaying.

Roleplaying Games

The roleplaying consisted of two sessions of Labyrinth Lord, and one session of D&D Next.  Yours truly ran the sessions of Labyrinth Lord (on Friday evening, and also during the day on Saturday).

Dan Proctor's wonderful clone game, that copies early D&D so very well

The Friday night session followed a character building session for folks who didn't have characters.  That included two GwC staff members (Anita and Heidi) as well as.  It was to be the first RPG session ever for Heidi, although she has grown up playing all sorts of games, and hearing her parents and all the friends of the family talk about the RPG aspect of the hobby.  She chose to create, and play, a 1st level Gnome Thief.  The session involved a bridge crossing (with a goblin ambush), some outdoor encounters, and was going to culminate in a short dungeon adventure, but the evening ended before the gaming did.  The action was loosely based in the Gran March of the World of Greyhawk.

Section of the phenomenal Darlene map for World of Greyhawk

Heidi's character, the Gnome Thief (named Trixie) was not the only newly created character for the evening,  the other players all had new 1st level characters - including Anita rolling up a 1st level female Dwarf fighter named Badb Bigaxe.  Carol had a half elf Ranger called Dil (her name was much longer, and extremely elven, but Dil is a nice nickname).  Marcy played an Elven Druid called Glengaraeth.  Rachel also played a Druid called Aerilyn.  John played a Magic User.

The Saturday day session, featured an installment in the ongoing Greyhawk campaign (detailed, moderately, over at the Sword and Potion blog) that I run.  This featured four of the five regular weekly players being present face to face, as well as one player being present via Google Hangouts (he couldn't travel to Clemmons).  In addition to the Wednesday Night All Stars, we had some additional players.  Heidi and Anita had their characters, Trixie the Gnome, and Badb the Dwarf, upped to 2nd level (for survivability reasons) and they joined the fray.  Also, Dil and Aerilyn joined the group, allowing Carol and Rachel to join the game (they were also bumped to 2nd Level).  John and Marcy are regular players on Wednesday nights, so they switched over to their regular characters (John plays a halfling thief named Flinders, and Marcy plays an Elven cleric named Rhysgil).

Saturday's adventure was a continuation (and part sidebar) of this much larger group, along the main campaign quest, to investigate a curious dungeon located inside the Rushmoors.  The Rushmoors is a swamp that lies over what was once the heart of the Occluded Empire of Vecna.  One of the most noteworthy locations in the Rushmoors is the Black Tower (or Rotted Tower), which was once the capitol of the Empire.  The characters in this campaign, however, are seeking a curious spot inside the fetid and evil swamp, where a curious dragon ship has crashed into the heart of a huge and ancient cypress tree.  This ship has opened up a portal to another world, and is called "The Ship between the Worlds" - also the name of the adventure path the players are following.  This sidebar adventure is inside the Rushmoors, but the dungeon is one where a curious little tribe of fishmen (not too different from Kuo Toa) have an underground temple.  The players invaded, began investigating, and disrupted the nest of evil.  The adventure wasn't finished, but it was a fun time for a long Saturday afternoon of gaming.

A different version of Greyhawk, this time showing the Rushmoors, lower left.

Sunday's gaming was run by John, and was a short adventure using the latest playtest package of D&D Next.  I made up a character - hailing from the city of Dyvers, at the northern edge of the Gnarley Forest, named "Robin of the Gnarley Wood".  The character has a heavy Errol Flynn influence and was quite fun to play as a swashbuckling bravo!

Robin of the Gnarley Wood

There were all new characters around - Steve with a wizard, Rachel with a Druid, Marcy with a Cleric, Heidi repeating her Gnome Thief, Rowdy with a Monk, and Carol repeating her Elven Ranger.  It was fun to play, but it still doesn't feel like AD&D (or D&D) to me, yet.

Board Games

A wonderful weekend of gaming, that also included some board and card games.  We played a game of Eight Minute Empire.  This is turning out to be quite a fun little game, I can't wait for the release of the successor (which I backed) to come out - Eight Minute Empire Legends from kickstarter.

We also played a game of When Zombies Attack. This is a new dice game based on the players trying to survive a zombie attack.  Slightly different than the (superior) Zombie Dice game from Steve Jackson Games, where the players are themselves Zombies, trying to collect Brains.  This game has the dice representing Zombies, and the players trying (through dice rolls) to get rid of the Zombies.  If a player survives a whole round being zombie (dice) free, then they are the winner.  In one or two respects it is superior to Zombie Dice, but in general, I think it will not surpass the original.  The biggest advantage, is not having to keep score.  But, I have heard that it is easy to keep score in Zombie Dice, if one uses little plastic brains or skulls (or similar) instead of writing the score on paper.  Must try.

Finally the group played a round of The Resistance.  This was a fun game as a filler between the long Labyrinth Lord session on Saturday, and the evening activity (which was a ctered BBQ dinner and a group viewing of "The Avengers" at Steve's wonderful home theater at his house in Greensboro).  We had a great time playing Resistance, even though it was a new game to most of the players.  Everyone fell into it right away, with lots of accusations and paranoia out of the gate.  It was a seven player game, and the Government Spies won!!  Treachery!