Rescuing the Oldest Game I Own - Belisha (1937)

A few years back a good friend (and fellow bargain hunter) bought me a Christmas Gift of two copies of an old card game game at an antiques fair in Covent Garden. 

Sadly, one of them was missing two cards and so I rescued it from oblivion.

Belisha - The "Safety First" Card Game

Published way back in 1937 by Castell Brothers Ltd (1878-1983) under the "Pepys" series of games.  Belisha is a reimplementation of popular card game Rummy.  The name "Belisha" was borrowed from the iconic Belisha Beacon introduced to UK roads in 1934 by then Minister of Transport the Rt.Hon Leslie Hore-Belisha.

Belisha - The Safety First Card Game (1937)

  A Game of Thrill

"All the family can play this new and entertaining game. Young and old alike. will find in it many a new thrill and many a valuable lesson, for 'Belisha' teaches the ever-valuable and all-important doctrine of 'Safety First'. 

Played on the same familiar lines as 'Rummy' with new and ingenious variations. 'Belisha' is a game of many interests. As the game proceeds the players are taken on a tour of England and Scotland from London to Oban: many of the cards bearing beautiful pictures in colour of famous beauty spots.

Belisha Card Game Advertisements

Each card bears in the top left-hand corner a familiar safety first symbol; some cards illustrate the dangers of the road; some show how accidents may be avoided. 

There's a touch of humour, a smattering of geography, a new method of teaching 'Safety First' and a heap of fun. 'Belisha' is a game that should be played in every home, for it has the merits of a family or party game with the added attraction of demonstrating again and again the way to ensure road safety for all."

Safety First, the birth of RoSPA and the Tufty Road Safety Club.

Tufty Club Badge

The "Safety First" campaign can trace its heritage back to 1916 and the founding of the London Safety First Council.  A public meeting was held due to an increase in road traffic accidents involving motor vehicles and the reduction in street lighting to aid "blackout" during WWI.  Their first campaign which encouraged people to walk on the pavement on the side of the road facing oncoming traffic reduced pedestrian deaths by 70%.

In 1941 the NSFA patron the Duke of York became King George VI he wished to continue his patronage and RoSPA was born.

I first encountered RoSPA, like many of my generation, when having to perform my bicycle safety exam as a child in the 1970s.   

The Tufty Road Safety Club had been around since the early 50s and I distinctly remember having to negotiate a mock road course which had been det up in my school playground.  Getting your Tufty Club badge was a seminal achievement back in my day.  

Tufty and his woodland friends have been iconic champions of children's road safety education for decades and featured on many educational board games over the years.

Tufty Road Safety Boardgame (1970s)

A masterpiece of marketing before the advent of  Baby Shark, "do doo, dee doo, dee doo" he was rocking the hit parade with an album of nursery rhymes related to road safety. 

Fun times.

Bicycle Road Safety Training and Belisha Beacons

It's Games Master Appreciation Day

March 4th is Games Master Appreciation Day so show some love to those people who make your game happen.

 
I've been a Games Master on and off for well over 35 years and whilst it is a heck of a lot of work it is one of the most rewarding experiences in the hobby. I do it because:

1. I have stories that are begging to be told.  Sometimes it's a funny idea I dreamed of in the shower, sometimes it is a puzzle I want to put in front of my friends to solve.  Often it's just an interesting story idea that I want my players to enjoy.
   
   
2. I enjoy the collaboration.  I feel that GMs who don't feed off the ideas that their players generate are missing a trick.  Tabletop RPGs are a collaborative experience and that comes down to the plot and the storyline.  Many times I am stunned by the creativity of my players.  They will often come up with alternative ways to resolve encounters that I never imagined or they will ruminate on a possible scenario which is may more interesting than I could dream up.
   
   
3. I enjoy the pressure.  GMing can be hard at times, you are juggling a lot of balls most of the time whilst trying to keep your players engaged. 
   
   
4. I enjoy learning from my mistakes.  Even after 30+ years behing the Dungeonmasters Screen I'll admit that I get it wrong.  I love when my players tell me that I did a good job but even more, I look forward to them telling me when I did something that didn't make sense to them.  This gives me an opportunity to try something different.
   
   
5. I enjoy Seeing players laugh and smile.  At the end of the day this is why we are Games Masters.  It's having fun with your friends and getting them to put their ordinary lives into the background for a few hours and just have some fun. 

Check out some of the other Appreciation Days I have added to my Geeks & Gamers Social Media Calendar.  Have a date you think we should celebrate or a story you want to share with the community then pop a comment in the box below.

Why You Should Join a local Tabletop Roleplaying Group

Online is a necessity at the moment thanks to the current year situation.  The internet allows us to be connected whilst being seperated by thousands of miles.

However, being part of your local Dungeons and Dragons group means much more than just playing your favourite Tabletop Role Playing Games (RPG) game. 

A Typical Friday Night at Dragons Keep

Face to Face is Better in Everyway

When Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson invented Dungeons and Dragons back in 1974 (I was 2 at the time) there was no internet and were always meant to be a social experience played face to face.  Those who have played both online RPGs and real world tabletop RPGs will appreciate that face to face interactions have an immediacy and a subtlety which gets lost on a zoom call.  

We are socially programmed from childhood to pick up and interpret body language and facial expressions as part of non verbal communication.  When you are in a video meeting you tend to treat it like a phone call and so your body language reflects that.  Worse still if you have a poor internet connection you can lose video alltogether or it is reduced to a jittering mess of blocky pixels.

When discussing non-verbal communication I am always reminded of one of my players Sam, who when negotiating with a Pirate Captain, started reaching out and drawing his hand back towards himself.  After 5 or six of these motions I asked him 

"What are you doing?" 

He calmly replied  

"I'm grabbing my pet turtle before he escapes off the edge of the table".  

I was blown away by this interraction and grateful that my players feel are encourage to role play in this way.

Creating the World Through Play

Most new players these days get introduced to roleplay through Dungeons and Dragons or by watching computer game streams such as The Witcher, Mass Effect, Fallout, Legend of Zelda and The Elder Scrolls.  When you play a computer game you are getting one vision or version of that world as programmed by the team who developed it.  There is no ability to break out of the box even in the biggest MMORPG.

Pre-written tabletop modules designed for online play also suffer from this to some degree.  Your Games Master (GM) may have bought the module or encounter packs for their Virtual Table Top (VTT) and you are going to encounter them come hell or highwater.  

When you meet face to face play there is so much more time for your GM to get to know you as players and therefore create personalised elements which make you much more engaged.  You get to chat as friends about what you saw on TV, read, or saw on the internet.  You find out much more about a person in this non-game chit chat time than it is ever possible to do if you only log on to play a session.

I know that I have often included references to things that my friends enjoy outside of gaming to embellish my games and create much more engagement for them as players.

Roleplaying is a Wide and Varied Hobby

There are ancillary aspects to the hobby which are firmly rooted in the real world rather than online.  For example if you are a fan of the creative arts like painting, modelling or crafting you can turn your skills to collecting and painting miniatures, scenery building, map making, prop and puzzle making.

I am a 3D Printing nerd and a journeyman miniature painter and love to show off my creations to my friends and more importantly use them in my games.  There's no substitute in my book for trying to solve a tactile puzzle with your own hands, or viewing a combat using little tiny plastic toy soldiers.  It brings and extra level of immersion which you just can't replicate online.

Yorky Smith in a life or death fight against the monstrous Doom Turtle

Roleplaying Breeds Community Spirit

Being part of a group means you have shared experiences beyond just the game itself.  At Dragons Keep we host several events throughout the year at weekends such as Games Days, Poker Nights, Karting, Movie nights, Barbecues and trips to events such as Dragonmeet or UK Games Expo.

When you are part of a group you also get to chat about each others games and share your collective experience.

Lifelong Friendships

I've been playing at my local group (Dragons Keep) for nearly 20 years.  I've met people from all walks of life, young, old and of every culture and background imagineable.  

We have laughed, cried and argued with each other and shared many adventures both in our games and outside in the biggest game of all...   Life.

Joining Dragons Keep

If you live in South East London we might be the group for you. Our venue is located in Chislehurst, whithin easy reach of Bexley, Bromley, Dartford, Eltham, Greenwich, Lewisham, Orpington and Sidcup. Drop us a line via our Contact Us page and talk to us about your passion.

If you live in another part of the UK then check out our tips on How do I find a tabletop RPG group near me?.

To Boldly Puzzle Where no Man has Puzzled Before

The above statement is not strictly true as this Star Trek TOS 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle was gifted to me by a friend (Thanks Louise) and I am sure that it has been put together by several puzzlers.

It has been many decades since I've done a jigsaw of this size and I had forgotten how backbreakingly frustrating it was.  I am a recent subscriber to YouTuber Karen Puzzles and used some of her techniques like colour sorting and edgefinding, but it still took the best part of six hours to complete.  

However, once complete there is an enormous sense of satisfaction that your pattern matching skills are still up to scratch and that you pushed yourself through the pain barrier.  Plus it's fun playing spot the character and episode.

Can you find the Lava Monster of Janus IV?

1000 Piece Star Trek TOS Jigsaw Puzzle

What on the D&D Earth is this?

The Dungeons and Dragons movie is 21 years old this year and after a 9 year hiatus there is 4th movie in production.  Hollywood does love a reboot.

However, The thing that has been bugging me for the last two decades is...

What the hell is Phil Cornwell supposed to be?

Phil Cornwell as uncredited Purple Humanoid

Obviously someone spent a whole heap of effort to design the prosthetics that Phil wore (you can't disguise his voice though) but I don't know of any civilised humanoid race which matches his description.  I do think he is kind of cool though. 

Is he supposed to be a triclops? Perhaps he is supposed to be some form of demi-beholder?  What is the purpose of the third eye? what is that vestigial fin on his head? why is he purple?

Answers (and any homebrew builds) in the comments box below.

My favoured explanation is that he is the product of some ill conceived magical experiment fusing the DNA of Mick Jagger with Xanathar?

What if Mick Jagger and Keith Richards ran a corner shop?

Of course this comes several months after the sad passing of John Sessions who was a long time partner of Phil during the 80s alternative comedy explosion.  Mick and Keith's corner shop on Stella Street holds a very dear place in my heart.  He is sorely missed but I will immortalise them both in my RPG campaigns.  Mick & Keef's Magical Emporium & Shoppe of Convenience.

Phil Cornwell (Mick Jagger) John Sessions (Keith Richards) - Stella Street

Judge Dredd Random Crime Drop Table

I wouldn't be much of a fan of the Old School Rennaisance (OSR) of Roleplaying if I didn't love making a drop table every now and then.

How To Use the Judge Dredd Random Crime Drop Table

• Download it and print it out.  
  
• Grab some dice 
• Roll up some Crimes
  

SAMPLE CRIMES & SENTENCES

Armed Robbery - As the Judges pass by the Bank / Shop / Truck an alarm sounds and a group of balaclava wearing perps start blazing away with their spit guns.  SENTENCE: 18 to 30 years.

Arson - An eagle eyed judge spots a perp running away from a smoking building / vehicle / vending machine - SENTENCE: Life

Assault - A fight breaks out between some citizens and the PCs need to break it up.  SENTENCE: 1 to 5 years for brawling,  3 to 10 years if anyone is seriously injured.  10 years if someone injurs a Judge or a public figure.

Boinging in Public - The tranquility is broken by screams as a giant bouncing ball careens through the crowd.  SENTENCE: 20 years.

Coercion to Suicide - A Judge spots a citizen about to take a dive and a crowd is urging them to jump.  SENTENCE: 10 to 15 years.

Comic Book Smuggling - A comic book smuggler is peddling his filth to you impressionable juves.  SENTENCE: 6 months for possession, 5 to 18 years for trading.  10 to 25 years for manufacture or smuggling.

Criminal Damage - Venting your spleen against a Building / Car / Vending Machine / Robot / Street Furniture is no way for a citizen to behave.  SENTENCE: 2 to 6 years.

Disorderly Conduct - Covers a wide range of minor public order crimes including queue jumping, being drunk or homeless, begging.  SENTENCE: 1 to 5 years.

Dunking - An alert Judge spots a dunker with their hand in someone else's pocket.  SENTENCE: 2 to 7 years.    

Forgery - Despite advances in modern crypto technology there is still a brisk trade in illegal documents and counterfeit cred sticks.  Your Judges might stop someone for a minor traffic violation and their Drivers License doesn't pass the sniff test.  SENTENCE: Posession 2 to 8 years, Forgery 8 to 15 years.  

Illegal Gambling - There are plenty of sanctioned venues such as Robo-Fighting, Slot Parlours and Bingo Halls but that doesn't stop citizens from indulging in this most destructive of vices. 
Be it a pedwalk game of 3 Shells or a friendly side bet at the Shuggy table your average citizen will bet on just about anything, anywhere, anywhen.  SENTENCE: Attendance at an illegal event 2 to 6 years, organising 10 to 15 years.

Illegal Trading - Many citizens turn entrepreneur to make a few extra credits on top of their welfare checks.  Trading without a license or trading in a proscribed location is illegal.  SENTENCE: 2 to 5 years.  

Jay Walking - Walking on a highway (or in a designated running zone, or running in a walking zone) is an offence.  Better to nip it in the bud Judge.  SENTENCE: 3 to 12 months.

Jimping - There's something funny about those Judges over there.  Their uniforms aren't regulation spec.  Judge Impersonation (or known perp impersonation) is no joke, especially at halloween, comic-cons (because comics are illegal remember) and dinner parties.  SENTENCE: 1-5 years for defamation.  10 years if committing another crime.

Littering (and Spitting) - Statistically speaking one of the most common gateway crimes.  Despite a zero tolerance policy and stiff sentencing millions of citizens every year start out on the long downward slope into progressively more serious criminality.  Criminologists have suggested that once a perp enters into the Justice System that it is the system itself which brutalises and criminalises citizens.  Needless to say those criminologists are behind bars.  SENTENCE: 3 to 6 months.

Parking Violation - There's no excuse for bad parking especially when the cars can do it for you.  SENTENCE: 1000 C Fine or 1 Year.

Rioting - Mega City One is a powderkeg and it doesn't take much disruption to a citizen's life for them to go nuts and start rioting.  Thankfully the Justice Department has an arsenal full of non-lethal weaponry to quell even the most peacefull protests including stumm gas, riot foam and sonic cannon.  SENTENCE: 2 to 10 years

Robot Tampering - Robots are an everyday thing in Mega City One.  They serve you breakfast, clean your apartment, vend your food and many other mundane every day tasks leaving you plenty of time to enjoy your unemployment.  Some Citizens however take to robot tampering either as some form of political statement or as a means to make money.  Sometimes this tampering can have deadly consequences.  SENTENCE: 10 years to Life depending on the severity. 

Robbery - Be it burglary or theft from a vehicle or person, robbery is one crime which never goes out of style.  Usually the preserve of street punks or gentlemen thieves its all the same to the Law.  SENTENCE: 5 to 12 years.

Scrawling - The modern form of grafitti, it is usually the preserve of the young bored juve, scrawling offers a degree of notoriety or infamy for those who can get their tag in the most outrageous or prominent location.  However, it is also a popular way for gangs to mark their territory.  Judges should always be vigilant for gang signs whenever they encounter the work of scrawlers.  SENTENCE: 3 months to 3 years.   

Shoplifting - Low level criminality needs to be treated with a short sharp shock or a day stick to the face.  SENTENCE: 2 to 7 years.

Smoking in Public - Despite tobbacco being a heavily regulated substance and nicotine having long been removed from cigars and cigarettes smoking or vaping is a popular passtime among citizens.  The Justice Department outlawed public smoking many years ago and regulated smokatoriums sprang up in every sector.  SENTENCE: 10 minutes in a smokatorium without a helmet.

Sponting - Spontaneous Confessors aren't really criminals they just like to waste Judges time and resources by confessing to crimes they haven't committed.  The Justice Department being the caring and considerate organisation that it is made Sponting a crime.  Now everyone is happy.  SENTENCE: 3 to 6 months

Tapping - Street mugging or tapping is an all two common crime of violence.  SENTENCE: 5 to 15 years.

Unlicensed Miming - Whilst clowning around is perfectly legal miming is not.  Unless of course you are carrying a permit and operating with the designated miming zone outside Mitterand Maisons in Sector 55.  SENTENCE: 5 years.

Judge Dredd Random Crime Drop Table - Click to Download

3 Boardgames with a BIGGER Brother

Sometimes a boardgame mechanic or theme is way too good to let it languish in just one game.  Here are just a few boardgames which have spawned big brothers or little brothers.

Ticket to Ride / Ticket To Ride The Card Game

Alan R Moon's classic train set collection game was released in 2004.  It is often seen as a gateway game and an introduction into the world of modern "Euro" boardgames.  

It's little brother was born 4 years later in 2008 and is a pretty neat little 4 player travel version of the original.  It does away with the board and all the little carriage meeples replacing it with the "railyard" and "on the track stack" to represent the cards you have at your disposal and those used to fulfill your route tickets.  

It's a different and faster way of playing Ticket to Ride and makes a nice change.

Ticket to Ride & Ticket To Ride The Card Game

Citadels / Mission Red Planet

Bruno Faiduti really knocked it out of the park when he came up with the action drafting / variable powers mechanism for the game Citadels.  He's used it in a bunch of games since including Mission Red Planet which replaces the city building concept with area control.

These play like two very different games and there's a lot more going on in Mission Red Planet and more opportunities for Player vs Player shenanigans.  The additional secret missions aspect can lead to some surprising end games with noone really sure who's won until the final scores are tallied.

Citadels & Mission Red Planet

San Juan / Race for The Galaxy

Whilst some will say "Hey wait a minute! San Juan and Puerto Rico are brothers!!" and indeed that is a fair point as they are both by Andreas Seyfarth.  I think the similarities in mechanism are much greater between San Juan and Tom Lehman's Race For The Galaxy.  In fact I usually introduce people to Race for the Galaxy by first playing San Juan.

There are so many similarities; the turn order role order mechanism, the action drafting and the concept of playing cards into a tableau and paying for it with cards in your hand make these spiritual siblings.  Race for the Galaxy is one of those rare games where the expansions really take a game to the next level and don't break it.  The inclusion of missions and prestige in the 3 main expansions; The Gathering Storm, Brink of War and Rebel vs Imperium, add so many new combos and ways to win that I now only play the game with those expansions. 

IMHO Race for the Galaxy is the greatest card game ever invented as it has so much replayablility and there are so many different ways to win and strategies to adopt.  It has consistently been high on both BoardGameGeek and The Dice Tower All Time Rankings and having won numerous awards including the Golden Geek and JoTa Best Card Game in 200.  

Infact I've played over 2,000 games of the Race for the Galaxy iPad version and I'm still coming back for more.  The game is also available on Android Play Store, Steam and on BoargameArena.

San Juan / Race for the Galaxy

Carlos Ezquerra Colouring Book

I recently discovered this freebie gem via Slaine and Ro-busters creator Pat Mills website.

Carlos Ezquerra's 2000AD & Judge Dredd Colouring Book includes 5 free sample images of classic 2000AD characters for you to print out and colour in.

You can also purchase a printed book or a PDF copy of the full version of the book which contains 50 of the late great 2000AD art droid's most iconic renditions of characters like Judge Dredd, Judge Anderson, Strontium Dog, Wulf Sternhammer and Durham Red.

Carlos also has a facebook group (Colour like Carlos) where you can upload your completed images for all the world to see.

Zarjaz!!

Colour with Carlos - Judge Dredd, Judge Death & Johnny Alpha

Geeks and Gamers Social Media Calendar

My day job is a digital marketing manager and one of the critical elements of this is social media.  

Knowing what and when to post is a massive help when you are trying to create content and reach new audiences.  This principle is no different when running a gaming blog so here's my Geeks & Gamers Social Media Calendar. 

January 

2nd January - Science Fiction Day - Isaac Asimov's birthday is the perfect day to celebrate all things Sci-Fi.  Have a game of Robo Rally probably the most anarchic robotic fun you can have this side of the Foundation.

12th January - HAL Day - On this day in 1997 the murderous computer HAL 2000 was born.  Interesting fact: take the letters of IBM and shift them down one character and you have HAL.

17th January - Star Trek Day - The Enterprise has the designation USS1701 which makes this the perfect date to celebrate going boldy.

29th - International Puzzle Day - celebrating all things puzzle such as jigsaws, logic puzzles, riddles, mazes, dexterity puzzles, and the sorts of things Chris Ramsay spends thousands of dollars on.

February 

4th February - George A Romero's birthday - celebrate the life of the man who brought zombies to life in Night of the Living Dead with some zombie related memes.  Watch Warm Bodies one of my favourite zombie films and a great love story.

5th February - H.R. Giger's birthday - Without Giger's unique artwork the Alien franchise would probably be just a footnote in pop culture.  His first published collection of work Necronomicon was given to Ridley Scott before filming on Alien began.  He hired him and the rest is cinematic history.

H R Giger Space Jockey

8th February - Jules Verne's birthday - The grandfather of Science Fiction and master story teller was born on this day in 1828.  Who would have guessed that we would stilll be mining his work some 193 years later.

9th February - Frank Frazetta's birthday - The maestro of mucled men and scantily clad warrior women was born today in 1928.  His art pretty much sold a gazillion Conan paperback books and his collaboration with Ralph Bakshi on the cartoon Fire & Ice (1983) is the stuff of legends.

March

4th March - Gamesmasters Appreciation Day - Show some love for your gamesmaster and send them a nice meme.  They put in an awful lot of work behind the scenes so you can have a great adventure.  Want to become a Gamesmaster? Read some of my Gamesmastery articles.  

6th March - Dude Day - Put on your cardigan, don your sunglasses and raise a glass of White Russian to The Big Lebowski.

The Dude raises a glass of White Russian in The Big Lebowski

17th March - William Gibson's Birthday - The father of Cyberpunk was born on this day in 1948 and he is still churning out great stories which capture the zeitgeist of humanity dealing with an every changing digital landscape.

25th March - Tolkien Reading Day - The grandfather of Fantasy literature.  JRR Tolkien literally wrote the rule book on epic fantasy storytelling.  "You shall not pass" until you have commemorated his work.

April

2nd April - Hans Christian Andersen's Birthday - Born in 1805, Danish author Andersen wrote many of the fairy tales that are ingrained in our cultural heritage.

5th April - First Contact Day - The date that Ephraim Cochrane successfully achieved Warp 1 in the Phoenix and humanity was visited by the Vulcans. 

28th April - Superhero Day - What is more heroic than supporting your community and protecting the lives of innocents?

May 

4th May - International Star Wars Day - Surely everyone knows this one. Show your appreciation for the Galaxy far, far away and May the 4th be with you.

5th May - Revenge of the 5th - Because one day is just never enough to celebrate Star Wars.

25th May - Towel Day - Douglas Adam's The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy says that a towel is "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have".  Aside from its purely practical uses, a towel has immense psychological benefits for the user.  A hitchiker should always know where his towel is. This is also Geek Pride Day so what better way to celebrate both by sharing a photo of you and your towel.

June

1st June - International Table Top Day - The one day on which everyone should dig out a boardgame and enjoy the simple pleasures of gaming with friends and family.

18th June - Clark Kent's Birthday - Celebrate Superman's alter ego and the archetypal everyman.

29th June - Ray Harryhausen't Birthday - The master of stop motion animation was born on this day.  Celebrate the man who brought mythical monster tales to life on the silver screen such as Jason & The Argonauts, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Clash of The Titans

July 

2nd July - UFO Day - I know they don't exist, but they are a Sci-Fi staple from The Invaders to The X-Files the world would be a much duller place if we didn't have UFO Conspiracies

4th July - Independence Day - Is a double holiday when we can celebrate the day a rag tag band of survivors banded together to defeat an alien invasion and raise a glass to yours truly as this is also my birthday. 

27th July - Gary Gygax Day - Gary Gygax was born on this day in 1938 and alongside Dave Arnesson created the phenomena which is Dungeons & Dragons and spearheaded the popularity of Role Playing Games.  RPGs have been part of my life since I first discovered them aged 7 so I for one will be toasting Gary and the many years of joy his creation has brought to me over the years.

August 

19th August - Judgement Day - The day that Skynet becomes self aware and humanity is brought to its knees by our new robot overlords in The Terminator (1984).  This is also the birthday of Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry so there's another thing you can celebrate.

20th August -Lovecraft Day - Celebrate the master of Eldritch Horror born on this day in 1890.  H.P. Lovecraft had a tragically short life but managed to change the face of literature with his many works.

September

8th September - International Literacy Day - Reading is a life skill that unlocks worlds of possibilities.  Read something, anything. Philip K Dick, Terry Pratchett, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, William Gibson, Peter F Hamilton and Raymond E Feist all come highly recommended.

19th September - International Pirate Day - Your chance to share pirate related memes shout "Avast Ye Landlubbers" and celebrate this Pastafarian Holyday because all pirates are divine beings.  What better way to celebrate than to play one of the many pirate themed boardgames you can find on boardgamegeek.  rAmen.   

21st September - Batman Day - Why? Because "I'm Batman!".

October

1st October - Dave Arneson's Birthday - Celebrating the other half of the team that brought us Dungeons and Dragons.  Read an RPG Book in Public and let everyone know that you are an RPG fan.

13th October - World Zombie Day - Go for a slow walk in search of brains.

21st October - Carrie Fisher's Birthday - Everyone's princess was born on this day in 1956.

November 

17th November - Life Day - Immortalised in the terrible Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), Wookie Life Day is yet another opportunity to get your Star Wars geek on and pretend that your local woodland is the wookie homeworld Kashyk.

23rd November - TARDIS Day - The first episode of Dr Who (An Unearthly Child) aired at 5:15 on Saturday the 23rd November 1954.  One of the longest running TV franchises in history everyone has their Doctor (mine's Tom Baker) so show your love for timey wimey wobbly walls sci-fi fun.

The Doctor explains how easy it would be to exterminate the Dalek race

25th November - Gazpatcho Soup Day - Fans of Red Dwarf will know exactly what I mean.  Celebrate with a bowl of tomato soup served piping hot naturally.

December 

16th December - Arthur C Clarke's Birthday - A prolific sci-fi writer, futurist and the inventor of geostationary orbits which made global satellite communications possible.  You probably wouldn't be reading this without his contribution.

24th December - Christmas Eve - The night before christmas is of course an amazing Tim Burton movie but it is also the day that John McClane single handedly defeated Hans Gruber and his gang of Terrorists. Yipee Kay Yay Motherlover.

28th December - Stan Lee's Birthday - Probably the greatest thing to ever happen to Superhero comic books.

Inspired by Swedish Dicks?

A bit of a click-bait title I admit, but if you haven't seen the Netflix detective comedy Swedish Dicks then you are missing out.

Specifically I am referring to the plot of the episode "Floyd Cal Who" in which Ingmar (Peter Stomare) and Alex (Johan Glans) are hired by internet dating app millionaire Dave (Haley Joel Osment) to find the hitman he hired to kill him.  

Years earlier, before his dating app went viral, Dave was depressed and decided to end it all but couldn't face doing it himself, so he hired a hitman.  Now a succsessful tech entrepreneur he has millions of reasons to live so he wants the hit called off.

I thought this was a really interesting plot line and one particularly well suited to the sci-fi genre.  It would easily convert to any cyberpunk / modern game and promises interesting play on a number of fronts:

• Potential "hit attempt" encounters.
• Investigatory encounters
• Chase encounters 
• Lots of tension

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention that Swedish Dicks features both Peter Stormare and Keanu Reeves who were last seen together in John Wick 2 (2017) and one of my favourite movies Constantine (2005).

Ingmar (Peter Stormare) and Tex (Keanu Reeves)

When the Bad Guys Win

When the Bad Guys Win is the December 2020 RPG Blog Carnival theme kindly hosted by Rising Phoenix Games.

Losing is a quintessential part of Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey in fiction. 

It's right there at the bottom of the circle.  Our hero must enter the Abyss or face a challenge in which he metaphorically is destroyed and reborn a hero.  It's something that every hero must go through. 

Some Cinematic Bad Guy Wins Scenarios

Judge Dredd (1995) - The bad guys win when Dredd is framed for the murder of journalist Vartis Hammond and his wife Lilly.  Incontravercial forensic evidence in the form of DNA encoded bullets is presented giving Dredd the death penalty.  Judge Fargo steps down and in his final act as Chief Justice commutes the sentence to life imprisonment in the Aspen Penal Colony.  He is on his way to the Abyss before a chain of events is set in motion by the notorious cursed earth cannibals the Angel Gang.  

The Lord of The Rings - There are quite a few moments during LoTR that are bad guy win scenarios but the one that always springs to mind is when Boromir falls to the

The Empire Strikes Back (1982) - Things look pretty bleak at the end of Empire.  Han is frozen in carbonite and on his way to Jabba the Hutt.  Luke has lost a hand and found out that his father is Darth Vader.  Lando has lost Cloud City and the rebel fleet are on the run.  Does it get any worse?

Rookie GM Mistakes

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a GM is to reveal your bad guy too soon.  Your heroes need to get a few wins under their belts against minions, they need to foil some minor schemes to bring them to the attention of the big bad.  They need to be filled with a false sense of their own abilities and greatness before you drop the hammer on them.

The hero's journey circle above is divided into two halves, the upper being the known world, the world that the heroes have familiarity and can exert some control over.  The second half is the unknown representing the world that the big bad has demense over.  The conflict with the threshold guardians is a pivotal moment in this crossing over to the unknown world where things are not in their control.

But hold on we aren't ready just yet.  You need to put their backs up against the wall, you need to take them to the edge.

NPCs are Destined to Die for a Reason

I always recommend having at least one NPC in a party for a number of reasons such as channeling DM hints, filling skills gaps or for introducing plot or story knowledge.  I particularly like using the NPC as a patron or leader who joins the party on their quest. 

However, one of their greatest uses is to be a casualty of war.  Having a beloved NPC die can be a pivotal moment in a story which makes it real for the players.  This is particularly effective if the NPC performed a vital function in the group, such as the healer or their guide.  Making the players genuinely feel a sense of loss is just one of the ways you can ramp up their stress levels and make their futures seem genuinely uncertain and perilous.

Death and Rebirth 

We've all been there rolling our death saves whilst the rest of the party finish off the ork horde.  How many times have you been healed from near death and just carried on as normal?

This is a great opportunity for the GM to impart some wisdom or knowledge to the "dead" player which will give them an advantage in the final battle.  How many times have you watched a death dream sequence?  It's a popular trope for a reason.  

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Thanks of course go to Of Dice and Dragons for continuing to promote the RPG Blog Carnival.  This is my 6th entry and you can read the rest by clicking the RPG Blog Carnival tag below.

 

 

       

Amoebaman - A Plantman PC idea for your RPGs

I came up with a silly idea and had to post it otherwise I would forget I'd had it.  Clearly too much cheese was consumed that day.

Ameoeboids

These complex vegetable organisms are humanoid in shape and come in a variety of heights and classes.  they have all the same stats as humans.  Their one distinguishing feature is that they reproduce asexually.

Yes every time they level up they immediately split into two distinct life forms with the same stats, skills and memories.

Go forth my Son (or daughter)

Of course whilst it sounds like a fun idea, it presents a problem for the party if they keep on their new recruit.  If this lappens every level by 4th level (assuming that they all survive) their will be 8 versions of it and the party will keep growing exponentially.  The player will have to decide which to put to the sword and which of his children to cast out into the cold unforgiving wilderness.  Tough love indeed.

In hindsight perhaps to prevent this getting out of hand reproduction should be capped at twice per lifetime.

Not at all Thought Through

I cannot be held responsible for my creation if you should choose to use it in your game.  It could be an interesting Invasion of the Body Snatchers style plot hook though if you use it as a benevolent monster NPC type which can also assume the visage of an unwilling party member.

DC came up with the Amoeba Man idea first - dangitt!

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - Q is for Qadim

Q is for Qadim, Al-Qadim

TSR brought out many different campaign settings during the 80s but the one that really caught my attention was Al-Qadim The Lands of Fate.  The premise is simple it's the world of exotic Arabian adventure. Think Aladdin, Sinbad and the 40 thieves or Prince of Persia.

Why Al-Qadim is Worth Your Time

If you are like me and have been running games for the best part of 35 years, I am sometimes weary of the standard quasi medieval fare.  Your players know the monster manual like the back of their hand and there is no mystery any more.

Al-Qadim is a rich and spicy setting which is both familiar and completely alien at the same time.  The protagonists are often humans hell bent on acquiring power through strange magics and the use of elemental forces.  The strange and unfamiliar monsters range from the plethora of Djinn (Genies) to the smelly mishapen Yakmen.  All of them will be unknown to your players and therefore genuinely mysterious, intimidating and scary.

Your players are going to have to use their roleplaying skills of guile, cunning and persuasion rather than putting everything to the sword.  Trust me they're going to love it.

Need More Inspiration?

There are a ton of classic movies out there which will whet your appetite for some sun, sand and sorcery.  

• The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1953) - A Ray Harryhausen classic with
  
• The Golden Voyages of Sinbad (1973) - Caroline Munro and Tom Baker star in this epic.
• Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) - My favourite Sinbad movie starring Jane Seymour and Patrick Troughton 
  
• Arabian Adventure (1979) - Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Mickey Rooney and John Ratzenberger what more do you need.
  
• The Thief of Baghdad (1940) - The definitive and classic version
  
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) - Jake Gylenhall, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley
  

Unloved and Unwanted

TSR pumped out a huge number of settings during those heady days of 2nd Edition AD&D.  Like Birthright, Mystara and Spelljammer it didn't have much staying power and it got shelved like the rest. 

I was lucky enough to pick the majority of my collection up at the height of their unpopularity when my FLGS was clearing out.  Prices are significantly higher now but investing in Al-Qadim has a solid and fun payback.

My Collection Includes

The Land of Fate	Arabian Adventures	City of Delights
Corsairs of the Great Sea	Ruined Kingdoms	Assassin's Mountain
Secrets of the Lamp	Golden Voyages	Caravans

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: N is for Northern Militaire

N is for Northern Militaire

Wargaming was a part of my childhood in the 70s/80s.  I would willingly be dragged to conventions like Sheffield Triples, FIASCO in Leeds or my favourite Northern Militaire in Manchester.  

I have particularly fond memories of one participation game I must have played for hours called "Kamikaze" where you piloted 1/72nd scale WWII Japanese torpedo bombers attacking a US Navy Carrier.  It was a lot of fun and very simple.  

Each turn you chose the height your plane was flying at and the carrier would fire its guns at you.  If you survived long enough you got to launch your torpedos and if you got close enough you could attempt a "Kamikaze" attack and fly directly into the carrier. 

The planes had verticle holes cut through the fuselage so they could be threaded onto a metal rod (a scientific stand if I recall) and you adjusted the height of the plane using a small bulldog clip fixed to the rod.  Damage markers were white red and yellow coloured rings and of course if you caught fire you would get the obligatory cotton wool smoke trail attached to your plane.  

My memory of the carrier was that it was huge and fairly basic in design.  To an impressionable 7 year old, detail didn't matter, it was the mutts nuts.  I'm fairly sure that the PC brigade would have none of it today but it was accepteable in the 80s.

If anyone reading this has any photos of the Kamikaze game from back in the day please leave a comment in the box below.  I would love to talk to you.

My Family (circled) at Northern Militaire circa 1979
(courtesy of The Wargaming Megalomaniac)

Special thanks to the following blogs for sharing their photos and memories.

• The Wargaming Megalomaniac
• Dear Tony Blair

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - P is for Pondsmith, (Mike! where's my flying car?)

As some of you are aware I am based in the UK and I've blogged before about how the roleplaying scene differs in Blighty to that across the pond (and probably that over in the Eurozone to boot).  Here's an attempt to pick out some of the highlights of what it was like to be a roleplayer back in the dark days of Thatcher's Britain of the 1980s (cue the V for Vendetta trailer)...

In 1988 R Talsorian released Cyberpunk, set in the dystopian near future imagined by the likes of authors William Gibson (Neuromancer), Bruce Sterling (Mirror Shades) and Walter J Williams (Hardwired).

Designer Mike Pondsmith did a great job of amalgamating the disparate source material into one and with the release of CP2020 in 1990 the game really took off.  I was one of the early adopters of the original boxed set.  It could usually be found languishing at the back of the dark and dingy gamestore (trust me some were) among the RIFTS and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books.  The black box set had minimal artwork just a cool looking negative line drawing of a punk with a big gun... I had to have it.

The three skinny books were:

• View From The Edge: The Cyberpunk Handbook (48 pages) - The "Players Handbook" if you will, detailing character generation, the net and netrunning and cyberwear.
  
  
• Friday Night Firefight: INTERLOCK Man to Man & Weapons Combat System (22 pages) - The combat manual containing all you needed to know about melee and missile combat, wounds damage and recovery and a whole heap of guns and armour.
  
  
• Welcome to Night City: A Sourcebook for 2013 (44 pages) - The dark future sourcebook containing all you needed to know about Night City (the primary urban setting) and the rest of the world including, corporations, fashion, weapons and transportation.

Now don't get me wrong I absolutely love Cyberpunk, but if it were released today no-one in their right mind would buy it, but not because there's no market or appetite for a dystopian near future subculture game.  Compared to todays slickly produced, source material heavy books, its just a skeleton of a game system really, there just wasn't enough source material in there for you to run a convincing game.  This is probably why only two years later it was completely revamped and flung another 7 years into the future with Cyberpunk 2020, and to be honest this is the game I play, even now.

No Source Material, I'll give you Source Material

It wasn't until you teamed up the boxset rules with one of the sourcebooks published the year after the original release, that the game came together.

• Hardwired - An alternate reality sourcebook set in the world of Walter Jon Williams 1986 novel of the same name.
  
  
• Near Orbit - Focusing on the corporate expansion into space and it's exploitation in the wake of nation state collapse and the failure of US and Russian space programmes.
  
  
• Rockerboy - Expanding upon the Rockerboy character role from the basic game.
  
  
• Solo of Fortune - Expanding upon the Solo character role from the basic game.

Hardwired	Near Orbit
Rockerboy	Solo of Fortune

Time for Predictions

Cyberpunk has taken quite a lot of flack in the post internet years for its lack of foresight, but I think that this is unfair criticism, infact William Gibson said "As soon as a work is complete, it will begin to acquire a patina of anachronism." in his recent interview with BoingBoing.  There are plenty of games and a whole genre of science fiction which has done the same whilst trying to imagine a vision of a dystopian near future.  You only have to look at Bladerunner's vision of 2006 or Mad Max's vision of an  Australia after a Third World War to see that others also got the future spectacularly wrong. 

Let's dig a little deeper into that source material and see whether or not any of the ideas and concepts from the game and genre actually came true.

Global Data Network - ARPANET had been around since 1972 and a lucky few may have been on BBS or USENET on a computer via a modem and the game acknowledges that history. But in 1988, when cyberpunk was released, Tim Bernes-Lee hadn't yet invented The Internet and no-one knew what a browser was, so instead we had this bizarre virtual reality construct which you interfaced with.  This came straight off the pages of the novels which inspired the game (and I noted with interest that Walter Jon Williams is credited with playtesting the game).  The global data network which we now call the internet did arrive and thank god it was not entirely dominated by the corporations although we did have the likes of AOL and GeoCities.  8/10 - "Not Far off" 

Virtual Reality - The interface of the dark future was direct injection, without the 2D visual interface of a monitor to hold them back, the aspiring netrunner went all 3D virtual reality on us.  This vision of the future is still some years away, and it is now the movie and games industries which are driving the development of 3D technology and it is only a matter of time until the web and 3D merge.  The advances in mobile computing and telecoms have spawned another potentially far more interesting technology which Cyberpunk did predict in the shape of Times Square Marquee, a form of Augmented Reality (AR) where a virtual layer is superimposed on the realworld.    5/10 - "Still waiting for my neural plugs"

Aerodyne Vehicles - The transport of choice in Night City was always an AV of some sort or another and thanks to the relentless self publicity of Dr Moller and his Sky Car this has always seemed so tantalisingly close.  Cyberpunk is in good company when it comes to flying cars alongside many futurists, tech journalists and sci-fi authors but sadly this is still just a dream - 3/10 - "Dude Where's my flying car??"

Cybernetic Enhancements - Putting the cyber into cyberpunk were the mechanical and neural enhancements you added to your characters just to let them get through a tough day in Night City.  Everyone had them, from rockerboys to cops, and street vendors to corporate execs, so where are they?  A little ways off it seems, the plastic surgery and body sculpting fetishes are most definitely with us but those spearheading the field of limb and organ replacement are still the same war veterans and disabled of 50 years ago.  Although advances in material science have given us the likes of athlete Oscar "Bladerunner" Pistorius and in cybernetics, Prof. Kevin " Captain Cyborg" Warwick the world has yet to turn to the elective surgery seen in the game.   2/10 - "Still just plain punks"

Rise of the Mega-Corporation - Another dark them in the game was that of the collapse of nation states and their replacement by Mega-Corporations.  There are undoubtedly dark times ahead still for the world as it blunders its way through this latest global recession and todays corporations seem to be lacking in their resolve to take over everything just yet.  5/10 - "There's still time for this one"

Mobile Computers - No self respecting Netrunner would have been seen dead without his portable deck and trodes ready to jack in from a public data term, a household line or a dead suit's deskphone in Arasaka Towers.  However, the rise of the internet and the desire for mobile data all the time has led to the invention of the smartphone instead.  The mini wifi terminal most of us now carry in a shirt pocket or handbag, capable of handling data, voice and video was not on cyberpunk's or any other tech radar.  Need proof? just check out Harrison Ford in 1980s "Bladerunner" making a video call to Sean Young from a public phone booth.  2/10 - "The future's now, the future's iPhone"

Addendum

Most of this post was written many years ago and was languishing as a draft utnil very recently.  We are all on tenderhooks waiting for the full edition of Cyberpunk Red to be released and I for one am glad that Cyberpunk is gettting the love now that it deserves.