Sunday, November 15, 2015

Morgan's AetherCon 2015 Adventures

This free convention is completely online with painting contests, video panels, quiz contests, and of course, online RPGs.  I played in four games and listened to two panels, and one one prize at the quiz contest.

I had a good time, below are a few issues I ran into:

An issue with AetherCon, a virtual convention, is that the players and GM are in different time zones. The schedule is a cryptic GMT-05.  Unless the players or GMs can figure out when events are run in their local time, there's a danger of no shows.


Their website is also a bit cryptic with no FAQ, so be prepared to spend time figuring out where things are and what you might need to download.  Various GMs may use Roll20 or Google Hangouts or Skype, and I've seen issues where players don't have their tech figured out and winds up being a time-suck as the GM waits for the player to solve their tech problems.


Events registration is on the warhorn.net site, but when you click on the "home" link for aethercon on the events page, it takes you to the warhorn.net/aethercon page which has no information as to where any of the conference rooms are.  There's also information about having to use AnyMeeting, but no information as to whether that needs to be installed.  Well, I found the links to the conference rooms on the AetherCon home page.  So navigation is horrible.

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White Out

Friday, 13 Nov, 3-8pm (GMT-05)
Outbreak: Undead (2nd Edition)
The icy chill surrounds you, the quiet and desolate landscape of the arctic Yukon is shrouded by high winds and blizzards pouring through the glacial valley.
Large, hairless dogs were chasing you and your sled dogs throughout the night. Now you, and your dogs are hungry, and you only have a few ounces of gasoline left for the furnace back at camp, what do you do? Can you reach salvation in time?
GM: Christopher J De La Rosa
Minimum Amount of Players: 2
Maximum Amount of Players: 4
Length of Scenario: 4 Hours
Characters Provided for Players: Yes
Newbies Welcome: Yes

This game was actually run at noon local time.  The GM thought it was at 3pm.  I emailed the GM and luckily, the game actually happened at 1:30pm.  I happened to walk by my computer when the GM tried to call us and we actually had the game.  Chris was a good GM and the other player was also pretty good.  So, I had a good time and enjoyed the game.

The system was a bit crunchy and there was a lot of math where you're multiplying numbers and adding bonuses for skill checks.  The system is a percentile system with d5! which was innovative.  d5! = 1d6, but a 6 is equal to a 5 that explodes.  So, if you roll a 6, it's a 5 and you roll another d6 and add to the die roll.  So, you can get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, (5 + 1 =) 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, (5 + 5 + 1 =) 11, etc.  Whereas other exploding dice skips specific numbers, for example 1d6 which explodes on 6's = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, (6 + 1 =) 7, (6 + 2 = ) 8, 9, 10, 11, (6 + 6 + 1 =) 13, etc, skips all multiples of 6 because if you roll a 6, you roll another 1d6 and add it to the previous 6s that were rolled.

What I didn't like about the system was there was a lot of math to add an extra 3 or 6 percent to a skill (out of percentile die roll), it seemed like a lot of work for some minor bonuses.

What was interesting was each degree of success/failure (every 10% on the die roll below/above the skill check = 1 degree of success/failure) can re-enforce or cancel an action.  It is like the adjustments CoC 7th did to fix the "whiff" factor of combat where nothing happens.  So, even if both sides of combat misses, if one side misses more than the other, the degrees of missing can cause damage to the one worse off.  e.g. in combat, person A has 2 degrees of failure, the person B has 1 degree of failure, then it actually means that person B will have one degree of success.

The GM is also allowed to take some successes away (for game balance) and use them later in the game.  This is a cool idea.  e.g. an early death to a PC can be avoided and the threat is saved for a later part of the game when the GM can cash in the successes for more dramatic purposes.



Blessed Are the Damned

Friday, 13 Nov, 9pm-2am (GMT-05)
Call of Cthulhu
The stars are right and the Old Ones walk the Earth again. Mankind teeters on the edge of extinction.
A small band of nuns from St. Teresa's Abbey will attempt the treacherous journey to New Vegas Outpost along the remnants of old Route 66, the so-called Devil's Tail. They will risk cannibals, cultists, and nameless horrors all to rescue one girl - a girl who may just be the key to man's redemption - or his final doom.
GM: Ed Possing
Minimum Amount of Players: 3
Maximum Amount of Players: 5
Length of Scenario: 4 Hours
Characters Provided for Players: Yes
Newbies Welcome: Yes

I had fun in this game.  It was more pulpy (think Mad Max: Fury Road) than scary.  We had a lot of good role playing and good fun.



The Haunting

Saturday, 14 Nov, 3-8am (GMT-05)
Call of Cthulhu
Boston is a city steeped in history, And one house in an affluent neighborhood seems to be cloaked in a shadow of mystery and misery. The investigators are hired to put a final end to bad mojo surrounding the home so the landlord can finally rent the home out again.
Open and shut case. What could go wrong?
GM: Jon Hook
Minimum Amount of Players: 3
Maximum Amount of Players: 6
Length of Scenario: 4 Hours
Characters Provided for Players: Yes
Newbies Welcome: Yes

This was an expanded and revised version of "The Haunting," a sample scenario available in most versions of CoC.  For CoC 7th edition, they replaced the scenario with two new scenarios and put "The Haunting" in the Quickstart rule book.  I read the scenario when it was in the 3rd edition and it was called "The Haunted House."  it's been years if not decades since I've read the scenario and since everybody I know has either read the scenario or played in it, I've never had a chance to play or run the scenario.

I thought this would be a good chance for me to play in an official CoC 7th scenario and see if I'm running the system correctly.  I had playtested CoC 7th and contributed to the kickstarter.  I had been waiting for the hard copy before reading the new rules as the Core book is 448 pages and the Investigator's Handbook is 283 pages.  But I'm currently running the new version of "The Horror on the Orient Express."  So, I've been spot reading the new rules as needed and found that some of the rules from the playtest were either changed or made optional.

Jon Hook runs a great game.  We also had a good table of players.  Afterwards, Jon asked how many people had played in "The Haunting" before and only Shannon had.  But it seemed at least half the players including me had read the scenario before.  So, it is a tribute to the players that there was little metagaming and we did some stupid non-metagame stuff to stay in character.

For me, this was the best game I played in at AetherCon.  And one of the best overall convention games I've ever played in.  Jon was masterful and I hope he gets to update the existing Quickstart scenario with his new extended and revised version.  It gave new life to such an old creaky, scenario.

It's pretty ironic that I find "The Haunting" a fresh and fun game.

Oh yeah, we had a TPK.  Also we ran out of time, so Jon had to narrate the ending.  This was a first for me, having a GM narrate a TPK -- this blew my mind.  But he was right, if you look at what was happening, it was most certainly going to be a TPK.



Live Publisher Q&A in The Coin and Quill with Chaosium

Saturday, 14 Nov, 3-4pm (GMT-05)
Reserve your table at The Coin & Quill and talk with the minds behind Chaosium about everything Call of Cthulhu.
Guest: Mike Mason
Guest: Jeff Richard
Guest: Michael O'Brian
Guest:
Moderator: Ron Blessing - Ron and his Amazing Friends
Well, the the panel started late and there were technical difficulties and one of the panelists didn't show up.  There were lots of dropouts and audio problems.

The panelists mainly pitched their products and it was mostly a waste of time.


Silva Nigre ("The Dark Forest")

Saturday, 14 Nov, 9pm-2am (GMT-05)
Cthulhu Invictus
Trouble is brewing in the dark forests of Germania, again.
Gangs of barbarian bandits have begun savagely attacking travelers along the Accius Path. The survivors are few; usually a single person is allowed to escape by the bandit chieftain. The survivor always carries a message to the Roman authorities, often in the form of taunts and defiance. The bandits have declared that the Black Forest is now a free kingdom, and they are demanding outrageous tributes of silver to allow the Empire use of its own road! Sergius, the local Roman prefect would give them steel instead!
Your group, elements of the 21st Rapax (or predator) Legion are being sent into the Black Forest to gather intelligence. A combination of Roman legionnaires, local auxiliary troops, and barbarians, it is your job to see what this business is about. Is this a small band of upstart bandits, or a host of hundreds starting open rebellion? Have they occupied the old campsite inside the Black Forest, which the legions used during the previous campaign? From where in the forest are these bandits striking? How many troops are needed for total victory?
GM: Shannon MacNamara
Minimum Amount of Players: 3
Maximum Amount of Players: 5
Length of Scenario: 5 Hours
Characters Provided for Players: Yes
Newbies Welcome: Yes

Shannon enjoyed "The Haunting" so much he decided he wanted to run this game as CoC 7th vs the original 6th edition.  This was a playtest and we gave some useful feedback to Shannon.

It was a fun game, but a bit too much combat for me.  As Shannon said, this was a Sword and Sandals game, more combat than investigation.  We had some great players and some fun role playing.

Two of my characters were killed and the last one survived but went insane.


Themed Panel in The Philosopher's Conundrum - Save vs Insanity: Masters of Horror

Sunday, 15 Nov, 1:30-3pm (GMT-05)
Grab a chair around the hearth in The Philosopher's Conundrum and take in the wisdom of the sages.
Guest: Shane Hensley - Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Guest: Mike Mason - Chaosium
Guest: Eddy Webb - Onyx Path Publishing
Moderator: Garrett Crowe - Threat from Galifrey

This panel was a lot more interesting and there were only one or two audio dropout issues.  Panel also started late because they waited for a late panelist.

This one has more content and has some interesting things worth listening to. Recordings of these sessions are available online. (I have no idea where, otherwise I'd link it -- again more bad navigation on their home website).