Changes

May 182011

I find that as I mature in the hobby my thoughts on the way I run and play games are changing. In the begin when I started playing games I was glued to the rules, I cut my teeth on D&D and the role playing in my games was the bits while you were waiting for someone elses turn really. At least in the games I ran. Miryai and Karnath ran some games which did not fit in to that category but they were much later than the period I’m thinking of.

I find now that I’m moving either farther and farther away from the rules or at the very least farther from what I see to be invasive rules, I’m fascinated by Burning Wheel which arguably has more rules than most games but it seems to FEEL like it has far less once the ball is well and truly rolling.

The though that sparked off this article today is the following;

“I don’t feel that the GM should ever roll a social skill against the players”

Now that sounsd frightfully unfair to some and to be honest I’m not sure the players should roll them either. I think thats a large part of what intrigues me about the Duel of Wits system in Burning Wheel. The Duel of Wits is used only when the two parties involved can’t come to an equitable compromise through the roleplay and I see this as a strength of that system.

I understand and accept the valid argument that not all people will be able to orate their point as well as others and I acknowledge the danger that these people could be overridden by a charismatic or forceful PC or GM respectively but I feel that if all of the people at the table understand and respect the system then each persons talents and vulnerabilities could be taken into account and a fair and equitable system could still exist.

Nice mechanics should be used to show the winds of fate, probability and all other names for chance. I don’t feel that a social interaction is viewed in the same way as a sword blow, not in the majority of circumstances at least.

That’s me for today, thoughts?

T.R.S. Burns

How Fantastic Roleplayers kill my Roleplaying Games

Eberron, Gaming Notes, Writing 1 Response »

Dec 032009

How Fantastic Roleplayers kill my Roleplaying Games

By T.R.S. Burns

I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons since 1998 or so and once we got past the teenage hack and slash that our particular group didn’t enjoy and waded into the political webs that would be our later life gaming we encountered the issue I’m writing about today.

I’ve had the privilege over the years to game with some truly phenomenal roleplayers and it saddens me that at the time of my life I’m writing my most intricate plots and stories the people who could truly benefit from them are no longer available to play for one reason or another. However, straying back to the point at hand, each and every one of these people brought to the table deep, rich and nuanced characters.

The distinction here between my roleplayers and the rest of our groups is that each time they came to the table they brought a _new_ character, not a re-badged or rebuilt version of their previous character and this made them terribly unpredictable. I will go into some examples in a moment.

In my current game one of the players decided that the Eberron setting would lend itself well to playing a Wizard/Academic working out of Morgrave University, the rest of the group had settled on an expedition to Xen’Drick motif so his character fitted fine. As is his penchant he intentionally wrote a character who was less useful in combat than he was out of it and yet, the more sessions we play the more the plot and the other players linchpin on his decisions and now three sessions in _his_ goals have become _their_ goals because his compelling and skilful portrayal of his character has convinced the players and thus their characters that he is right and just in his goals.

Which he is not. His character is a bastard whose only real goal is finding something in Xen’Drick which will get him either a position with the university or a transfer to another university with a better reputation. He has absolutely no care for the other characters goals and needs and is willing and able to walk away at the first sign of trouble. But the other players have no idea, why?, because he is hiding it all behind fantastic roleplay.

Will it kill the game when it comes out? Will the interest in his goals fade? Is it just a phase at this early stage in the campaign?

I don’t know. I honestly believe it is possible to play your character too well.

The Khorvaire Courier

Eberron, Writing No Responses »

Sep 232009

This is my first attempt at writing for Eberron so bear with me;

The Khorvaire Courier

In the wake of the last war Houses Kundarak, Vadalis, Sivis and Orien banded together to form a company called the Khorvaire Courier.

In essence a newspaper controlled by its contributing houses the Courier holds a distinction over all other newspapers because of the nature of its patronage. Distribution. The Courier is created in mass quantities by House Sivis who move it into customised House Kundarak vaults which have been enchanted by House Orien to move their contents to identical Vaults in every major city on Khorvaire. From these depots the Courier is collected by the local agent of House Vadalis and delivered to its target audience by couriers on Magebred mounts.

The advantage here is that from the moment that the Courier is printed it can be in a city on the otherside of Khorvaire in seconds and delivered to the local populace within the hour. It also implies that the Courier has informants and information gatherers inevery major city on Khorvaire to keep the information relevant to all readers.

The Future of Imber Corvus

Future Developments, Site Stuff No Responses »

Sep 232009

For those of you out there reading this, and I hope someone is I thought I would touch briefly on the future of this site and my own machinations.

ImberCorvus.com and its sister site GatheringStormPodcast.com are about to go through some changes. In order to create the community I am striving for I am splitting the content up between a number of Sub-Sites.

As follows;

ImberCorvus Blog – This is the page you are currently reading where I will blog my thoughts and excerpts from what I’m writing and generally share my news and progress with the reader.

ImberCorvus Press – This is where I will co-ordinate my print on demand store and advertise the various products I have created so that people can read about them. It is also where I hope to list the products of other people who have decided to let us co-ordinate their print on demand thus releasing under ImberCorvus Press.

ImberCorvus Wiki – This is my answer to an ever more restrictive copyright scenario. This is where I will post for free all of the game specific information that is requested to accompany my IC Press work. Stat blocks and Class summaries or the like.

GatheringStormPodcast – This is a project which is requiring more capital than the others for the initial set up. It will be when it is finished a theatrically styled podcast which tracks the progress of a group of adventurers through a fictional universe. Possibly Eberron, we will see about the legality of that.

That’s all for now, any questions hit me up at blog@imbercorvus.com!

GenConOz 2009

Conventions, GenConOz 2009 1 Response »

Sep 232009

Before I begin I will re-state my original point which was that everyone should at least once volunteer at GenConOz because it is an experience I cannot compare to anything else.

We arrived on Wednesday and threw ourselves into unloading the trucks over at the convention centre and I set about the mammoth task of making the conventions network speak to the venue’s network. It took considerably less time than last year and I was able to get over to the pub for dinner by nine.

Thursday brought us the first half-day of the convention and the RPGA/Pathfinder room opened. I didn’t have any Thursday events as I saw complications on the wind with the event registration system. I got what I wanted in that regard but the timely arrival of the man who configured it allowed us to bring it back online in record time. This is also the first day I got to hang out with Jason Bulmahn and Keith Baker where we took it upon ourselves to take our most esteemed American guests to an Australian pub.

Friday was the first day I worked with the guys out the front weapons checking Cosplayers and checking wristbands, it kept me within shouting distance of Event Registration and Customer service which were the hot spots for trouble with the IT systems. I also got a chance to play my first game of the convention Michael Wenman’s Quincunx. Michael is a friend and it was the first time that the game had been run anywhere in the world so I was honoured to play in it. He told us on the last day that the game had undergone some pretty substantial changes since we played it so I’m looking forward to catching it again.

I also did most of my shopping this day I bought a Fox hat, a Rabbit hat, a copy of Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters and a copy of Peter M Ball’s novella Horn which I understand my purchase of put the book into profit. I also bought my copy of the Eberron Campaign Guide which Mr Baker had recommended the night before and kindly signed for me and a copy of his novel the Queen of Stone. I’ll try and knock up some pictures to the post later.

Saturday was the biggest day of the con and left us scurrying like madmen to try and take the throughput of the extra attendees in our stride but the volunteer staff did not falter and I would like to commend them for that. We held up largely due to the work they were doing in event registration. Those guys need medals I swear. I got to play my second and third (and only other) games of the convention. I ended up in my much anticipated Exalted 2e game where I played a (pregenerated) brash and persistant hothead with a black mark against his name and an attitude problem. It was an awesome game made more awesome by the gamers I played it with. I also got to play in Nathan Russell‘s Lady Blackbird game which is a free RPG set in a wonderful steampunk setting where I played the role of the bodyguard.

Sunday was the slowest day for the convention and the day I got the most done for myself. I bought some 4x oversized dice and then hit the seminars. I caught the Warstories of Self Publishing, Eberron through the Ages and Professional Writing for the Gaming Industry seminars before the convention wound down and I helped herd the public out of the venue. The exhibitors took longer and many of them were very kind to those of us who had broken our back for the convention in a volunteering capacity over the four days.

When it all wound down the Event Organisers, the volunteers and Mr Bulmahn hit the town and we visited three or possibly four pubs before we settled in a nice one in south bank where Jason and I traded stories until I remembered I had a flight at six. I will note here that Peter M Ball of Horn infamy is an awesome dude who volunteered to take me to the airport at 5am.

So thats my experience of GenConOz 2009 as a Volunteer and I will be headed back next year.

Seasons come and Seasons go…

Conventions, Fiction, GenConOz 2009, Musings, Writing No Responses »

Sep 092009

Its been some time since I last posted here and in that time I’ve been far from idle.

I spent a night in the hospital, got a new gaming group, organised my trip to GenConOz 2009, attended a funeral and lost all of my inspiration. Its coming back to me slowly now and I’ve decided to work on some short fiction.

The new gaming group necessitated the creation of a new fictional world for those self same characters to inhabit so I’m working on an island nation for that and its all in the “in my head” stage currently. I’m tossing up chronicalling my worldbuilding on here for all of you so that you can take something away from it. I’ve been looking at Campaign Cartographer for my mapping recently but it looks too… generic for me at the moment.

I’m trying to light a fire under my creativity by doing some short fiction work and some character development. There are a few stories I need to tell and I’m working on easing those out. A steampunk tale of gearworks and blood magic, a samurai tale with a twist and the rest of my Gillis Svend story.

I’m flying to Brisbane a week from now for GenConOz 2009 and I’m getting more excited about that for every day that passes, it’ll be good to hit up some writing seminars and bury my head in the joy of volunteering at a convention that large.

Till then I’m out.

Rally forth for GCO

Musings No Responses »

Jul 222009

I’ve been thinking about this for a long while now and I think its not enough to just turn up at the Con play some games or whatever it is you came for and then wander on home.

The GCO staff are going to put on another awesome Con just like last year in less than two months time and I figure its up to us to pack the place out. So my challenge to everyone who reads this is, come to GenConOz 2009 but more than that, bring a friend, or two friends or fifteen friends, bring everyone you know who might be interested.Because the bigger this years convention is, the better NEXT YEARS convention will be.

Register for your Event Badge soon so that the GCO staff know that we are coming and then descend with me as a black cloud over Brisbane and show the Organisers, the Exhibitors and the Community that we support our Convention and that It and Us are here to stay.

GenCon Oz 2009

Conventions, GenConOz 2008, Musings 1 Response »

Jul 102009

So its coming up on GenCon time again and this years convention looks to be just as awesome as last year.

The dates for the convention have moved to September 18-20 to better align with the global convention scene and the Australian calender but it all sounds very promising. As last year I have been added to the throng of volunteers though unlike last year I hope to be added to the smaller throng of senior volunteers.

Games I hope to catch this year are Quincunx, Pheonix (4th Edition Shadowrun) and Homecoming (2nd Edition Exalted) if I can fit them in to the Volunteering Schedual. You may note with some surprise that I wont be looking to play any D&D this year and the reasoning on that is? I play enough D&D at home!

I thought I might take a moment to reflect on last year’s GenConOz experience for those of you who did not make it to the Convention;

We flew up the day before the convention, Wednesday, and met up with Tom who I’d been talking to on the GenCon Forums and he showed us around brisbane a bit, it was somewhat ironic being shown around an Australian city by an American tourist. We got the train from the airport into south bank which is where the convention and our accommodation were.

I’d had a shop around leading up to the convention and decided on Brisbane Backpackers Resort, a lot of people stay at Hotels during a convention but I don’t really see the point, all I used the room for was sleeping and I was going down at midnight and getting up at six in the morning anyway. We booked a six bed dorm for the six of us so we didn’t even end up sharing with strangers and locked our valuable valuables into steel security lockers down stairs for the five days we were in QLD.

BBR does not pretend to be anything other than what it is, a Backpackers Hostel. The beds in the room were bunks with foam mattresses and one somewhat thin blanket, but again I didn’t really mind as I was only in it six hours. What it does feature is a bar and kitchen downstairs with reasonably priced counter meals and cheap drinks where we spent many a night with happy hour pitchers of Strongbow.The hostel was situated about a ten minute walk from the Convention Centre and there were a number of places to get breakfast situated between the two.

I reported bright and early on the first day for my volunteering stint and took up my position as an informant and sentry guarding the entrance to the trade hall until it was time to open it and allow the throng to rush in for their purchasing frenzy. I also got to know the retailers a bit and recognise the people I was supposed to let by me.

That became my morning routine and my afternoons and evenings were dotted with the games I could manage to fit in;

I got a chance to play in three Role Playing Gamers Association Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (RPGA D&D 4E) events and this was the month after the game was released and featured a lot of play test content. Because of the way I’d booked the events I got to play at a table entirely comprised of my friends from home which really made the game shine.

I also got to play the 4th Edition Revision of Shadowrun again with my friends from home and it was a most interesting game. The Game Master acting as an agent for Catalyst Game Labs who are the current liscencees for the Shadowrun Franchise had created a deep and rich story set in central Australia including such characters as a Frill Neck Lizard Shaman and a Maori Troll.

The Seminars I attended in no particular order were Anatomy of a Duel, which was an intimate demonstration of Japanese swordplay by an Iaido master, Writing in Someone Else’s Sandbox, about writing in an established setting and a round table discussion including Ian Irvine and Kylie Chan on creating worlds and characters.

I will be returning to GenConOz this year for another round of amazing memories, anyone thinking about making the journey from interstate, inter nation or even locals I will be staying at the same hostel and would be more than happy to roll you in to our little group.

Below I’ve included a few photographs I took during the convention in 2008;

[nggallery id=1]

Here Be Gamers

Here Be Gamers, Musings, Podcasts No Responses »

Jul 092009

I was recently a guest on the Here Be Gamers Podcast who are friends of the blog. They had me on to talk about 4th Edition D&D and to discuss the diferences if any to the previous editions. For those of you intrigued that podcast can be found here.

Article Exerpt: Anti-Relgion

Gaming Notes, Musings, Writing No Responses »

Jul 082009

This is a small excerpt from an article I am completing on Dwarves;

Anti-Religion

The Dvergar are a post-theistic society who while believing in divinity and the greater forces that direct the flow of the world are at a stage beyond the worship of a deity or deities. Occupying a similar role in their culture is the veneration and respect for their ancestors and the earth from which they came.

Dvergar are naturally suspicious of magic having progressed to a point in their culture where they place far more emphasis on the creations of the individual through labour and time than through the manipulation of magic. This intellectual and spiritual suspicion of magic in its many forms makes the Dvergar highly resistant to its effects.

Ancestors

The Dvergar celebrate their ancestors and their actions and draw from their lives the teachings of the next generation.

Each Clan and Family venerates its own direct ancestors and exarchs as well as the communal ancestors of the Dvergar who are drawn from antiquity like Vigdis the Battlemaiden who fell at the last stand of Iron Hope.

The stoneworkers and metal smiths of the Dvergar call out to their ancestors for guidance when they ply their craft and in doing so work their tools with the experience of a hundred lifetimes which allows them to create works that are not possible for other smiths and masons.

Some Dvergar called Skalds can tap into this broad spectrum of racial memory and summon up the talents and songs of their ancestors.

The Earth

The Dvergar are by their nature creatures of the earth born from stone and mineral in the beginning of it all, they are drawn to the earth and connected to it in a fundamental way.

This very tie to the earth makes them uniquely talented artists and crafters because many Dvergar can “see” a creation in the raw materials they work from.

This also gave rise to the earth shapers;

Earth Shapers

While resistant to magic and beyond the need for divinity the Dvergar are still moved by the masterful skill of the earth shapers who draw their power not from the gods or the universe but from the very earth beneath their feet.

Gifted with the power to shift and change the world around them with their hands and their minds the Earth Shapers are the natural evolution of the link between the Dvergar and the earth and their paradigm shift towards creations made by the hand and the mind alone.

The Dvergar are not forward in their post-theistic beliefs and acknowledge and respect the existence of deities and the importance they play in the lives and societies of other cultures.

Older Entries

ImberCorvus Blog

Changes

How Fantastic Roleplayers kill my Roleplaying Games

How Fantastic Roleplayers kill my Roleplaying Games

The Khorvaire Courier

The Khorvaire Courier

The Future of Imber Corvus

GenConOz 2009

Seasons come and Seasons go…

Rally forth for GCO

GenCon Oz 2009

Here Be Gamers

Article Exerpt: Anti-Relgion

Anti-Religion

Ancestors

The Earth

Earth Shapers

Categories

Archives

Links

Meta