Apathy Games

What Was Your Most Anti-Climatic Fight?

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/07/23 – 00:00 -

To some extent, this post could be categorized under Savage Worlds, because they system is a little notorious for anti-climatic boss fights. In fact, the very story I’m about to tell is an illustration of this problem.

I’ll also preface this story by saying that climatic boss fights are a staple of many, but not all games. Sometimes, the expectation really is that even the big bad can’t take a bullet to the brain-pan. But, this story is from Slipstream, so a climatic battle is part of the genre.

There my players were. They’d fought bird men and solved challenges. They’d made it all the way to the prince who they must defeat. The prince had minions. The prince had weapons. The prince had a mobile arena with spike traps. This last bit was pretty awesome, as the whole arena did different things based on the prince’s initiative card.

All in all, this was shaping up to be a dramatic fight. The players entered the arena. The prince gave his lengthy monolog about how he was going to destroy them. He stepped out into the arena, raised his weapons and…

…the party leader pulled out a laser gun, aced on his damage a few times, and dropped the prince before he could even act.

Sure, I ran the rest of the fight, and it was alright, but the drama of the scene had already been shot. Literally.

These days I know a bit more about the game, so I could probably come up with a boss with more staying power that didn’t frustrate the players, but there is always that chance. Many threads have discussed this challenge, but I think that’s a topic for another day.

Now Your Turn:  What Was Your Most Anti-Climatic Fight?

Leave your story in the comments, and next week we’ll post the best story.  If you have any questions you’d like us to answer in a future Behind the Bar, let us know.

Last Week’s Winner Is:  Cripple X

The best “loot” I’ve ever received was from a Fantasy Campaign I played using the Hero system, and it was The Holy Sword of Saint Anslem. To understand its significance requires a little background, despite the length below its the digest version:

In most fantasy games people play epic heroes powerful mages, devout priests, tough warriors, and cunning rogues. Our group had it all, and I wanted to break the mold, so I decided to make a down to earth, run of the mill stable boy who happened to be lucky from time to time. His name was Berilo. Berilo was from a country, Mesal, that had been conquered by a second country which was slowly dismantling its culture and replacing it with their own. He got inadvertently mixed up with the adventuring group that comes to his town and for most of the campaign he’s content with running around with those guys playing “Adventurer” while trying to keep up with his job at the stables. At one point in the campaign though he does something pretty heroic to save the adventurer’s lives and barely scrapes by, nearly getting killed in the process. Apparently the GM was impressed, because he threw me a screwball at that point. Poor Berilo who was up until this point a happy-go-lucky stable boy keeps having dreams of this sword and a strange booming voice. Eventually the stable boy discovers the sword is one that is supposed to have belonged to the founder of Mesal, Saint Anslem. Berilo visits his tomb, which the public is banned from thanks to the oppressive regime of the conquering country. Berilo finds his way into the tomb and eventually comes upon the sarcophagus of Saint Anslem, which opens on its own and a skeletal warrior with glowing eyes rises from it wielding a plain looking sword. At this point Berilo is sure he’s done for, but instead of attacking him the skeletal warrior forces him to his knees, knights him, and hands him the sword before collapsing back into is sarcophagus.

The sword, despite its plain appearance, was a fairly powerful item which burst into holy flame in the presence of demons. Much of the rest of the campaign for Berilo was spent coming to terms with the fact he had been picked to use the sword to protect Mesal (against demons no less), make them aware of their culture which was being lost and that despite all his doubts about himself, he could, in fact, do it. It was just so interesting to try and roleplay that change from happy-go-lucky-kid to someone who was confident enough to believe he could do something so monumental and then do it. The sword of Saint Anslem was a catalyst for that change in Berilo, and that’s why it was my best loot ever. The Holy flames smiting deal, wasn’t half bad either though.

Tags: Behind the Bar, boss fights, cripple x, jeff carlsen, Savage Worlds
Categories: Behind the Bar |
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Playing Cards: My Emergency Gaming Kit

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/06/02 – 00:00 -

This weekend I was at a multiple day family function and couldn’t get my gaming fix. It was day two and the shaking had gotten so bad that I was considering knocking over convenience store so I could go buy a Monopoly board. That’s when I decided that I would have to put a game together. Fortunately, I had paper, pencils, and a prime audience for creating a new gamer: a fourteen year old boy. What I lacked were dice.

I was lamenting this fact and working on ideas in my head for flipping coins, or fabricating some sort of die, when I spied a couple packs of playing cards. Salvation was at hand!

I took one deck apart and separated it by suit. From the spades, I removed everything higher than a ten; from Hearts, everything above an eight, and so on. Thus, I had a d4, d6, d8, and d10, rolled by drawing a card. I helped them build novice characters from memory, which meant that I didn’t have a complete list of edges or hindrances, but I could wing it. Essentially, you get a benefit if you take a detriment of some sort. It wasn’t really very important to get it right.

And thus we played. I ran a pulp adventure with a tropical island, savages, and Nazis. Pretty basic stuff, but it went well and fun was had by all.

And best of all, the card-based dice work rather well. It was a little slower than normal, but acceptable. So now you know. If you can’t keep dice nearby, try to locate some playing cards and all is well.

Do you have any tricks that worked on the fly? Maybe you have an actual gaming emergency kit. Let your fellow readers know in the comments.

Tags: Cards, Dice, jeff carlsen, Savage Worlds
Categories: Game Masters, Roleplaying Tools |
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Savage Mondays – May 10, 2010

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/05/10 – 00:00 -

It’s a Savage World out there, and Apathy Games provides the tools to survive it.  First, check out our Savage Worlds Primer. If you’re looking for more up to date news, here’s what’s happening now:

Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Trail Guide: South o’ the Border | Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Pinnacle’s support of Deadlands seems to be never ending, with the new release of Trail Guide: South o’ the Border that takes you deep into Mexico.

Jump into a grinding, three-sided civil war and face the dark powers using it as a breeding ground for terror and destruction on a scale unimagined in her neighbor to the north. Fans of the Explorer’s Edition product may notice that the Trail Guide PDFs come pocket-sized for handy totin’ on the sunny, muddy byways.

Clint on “Super, Super, Supers!” | Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Clint Black is showing up on the May 7 podcast of The Game’s the Thing.  Listen in while they talk about Necessary Evil, and the Super Powers Companion.

Necessary Evil Savage Bennies | Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Speaking of Supers Pinnacle has now released new Necessary Evil bennies.  You can find them along with many other Savage Worlds bennies at the Studio 2 Store.

Tags: deadlands reloaded, forums, games the thing, hellfrost, necessary evil, savage bennies, Savage Worlds, silver gryphon games, star wars, super powers companion, trail guide south of the border, triple ace games, tyson j. hayes, wellstone city
Categories: Savage Mondays, Savage Worlds |
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How I Lost My Sense of Game Loyalty

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/04/16 – 00:00 -

Back in High School, I met this game.  She was called Dungeons & Dragons: Third Edition.  You’ve probably know her; she got around.  She and I had a long and committed relationship.  I never strayed.  All other games were pale imitations of my love.  Okay, sure, I spent some time with her sister, d20 Modern, but it was a one time thing.

Sadly, she let herself go.  I mean really let herself go.  She got bloated, and confusing, and perpetually more expensive to keep, and so my eyes started to wander.  What follows is a chronicle of the games that tempted my heart.

Shadowrun: Fourth Edition

Shadowrun and I were friends when I was young.  Nothing intimate, mind you, but I always carried a small torch for her.  Then one day she shows back up with a new sense of style and some…  really exiting assets.  To say that I was attracted to her dice pools is an understatement.  But alongside her mechanical features, she has a deep and developed history.  A sordid past that always keeps me guessing.  I’ll be honest, if I ever decide to settle down with a single game, It’ll probably be Shadowrun.

Dungeons & Dragons:  Fourth Edition

I’ll admit it.  By the time 4e hit the scene, I was looking to ditch 3.5.  I’d had enough of her, and 4e came with so many promises.  She promised to be everything that 3.5 wasn’t–to shore up all her flaws.  I was captivated.

Turns out, I’ve never met a more demanding game.  It’s her way, or no way.  And her way doesn’t make any sense to me.  Plus, shes loud and always violent.  I can’t have that.

Savage Worlds

As fate would have it, I met this supermodel of a game called Savage Worlds.  She’s thin.  She’s flexible.  She’ll do anything I ask of her, and she’ll do it quickly.  She stays out of my way and costs me almost nothing.  And I love her.  So why?  Why are my eyes wandering to Pathfinder?

Pathfinder

This is my old, cruel mistress again.  Sure, she’s cleaned up her act a bit.  She’s made efforts, and she’s dressing better than ever.  But the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing but expecting a different result. I know she’ll burn me.  I tell myself that I just want to play a little.  A little fun on occasional weekends.  Rationalizations, all of these.  I simply can’t get her out of my mind.

Oh well.  At least I know my friends like her.

Tags: dungeons and dragons, jeff carlsen, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, shadowrun
Categories: Behind the Bar |
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Savage Mondays – March 15th, 2010

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/03/15 – 00:00 -

It’s a Savage World out there, and Apathy Games provides the tools to survive it. First, check out our Savage Worlds Primer. Then if Portuguese is your native language, check out Retropunk.net’s translation. If you’re looking for more up to date news, here’s what’s happening now:

Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Space 1889 Announced | Pinnacle Entertainment Group

It’s been hinted at for a while, but we have formal confirmation that you and your breech loader will soon be on your way to Mars.  The book, Space 1889: Red Sands is on its way to the printer for a summer release.

Savage Worlds Licensees

A New Wellstone City Adventure | Silver Gryphon Games

Last week we mentioned the release of the Savage Worlds conversion of Wellstone City.  Two-Bit Thugs is an additional adventure, fresh and new, for you to enjoy.

Sundered Skies Adventure Collection | Triple Ace Games

It’s been some time since we’ve seen support for Sundered Skies, so it’s nice to see this collection of short adventures.  It’s called Within the Skies, and it’s available now.

Savage Community

New Podcast of Might! | Smiling Jack’s Bar and Grill

It was a great disappointment when Smiling Jack’s decided to go quarterly.  They do a fine show.  But the spring edition is now out, and is two hours of Savage Worlds discussion.

Do you like Savage News, but want it more than once a week? Subscribe to our Twitter. We won’t promise to drown you in a flood of news, but we won’t promise not to, either.  As always, if we missed something, let our readers know in the comments.

Tags: jeff carlsen, pinnacle entertainment group, Savage Worlds, silver gryphon games, smiling jack's bar and grill, Space 1889, sundered skies, triple ace games, wellstone city
Categories: Savage Mondays, Savage Worlds |
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Savage Worlds Rule Guidance: Bennies Part 2

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/01/08 – 00:00 -

Yesterday, in Part 1 of this article, we covered what bennies are and how to use them as a player. Today we provide a system for Game Masters to handle giving out bennies, and various related house rules.

Game Master Advice

As a Game Master, you can help prevent player hoarding or overspending of bennies by carefully managing the number you give to players, but at the same time they are a great reward to give players. Here are some tips for keeping a smooth benny economy:

• Use physical tokens to represent bennies. Sure, you could just mark them down, but all the advice that follows is reinforced when you have to actually hand the benny to someone, or recieve it from them when it’s spent. Poker chips work very well and fit the feel of the game, but cards, glass beads, or polished stones would be nice as well.
• Give one benny per encounter to each player. As a rule, give this at the end of the encounter. The same advice holds true for any non-combat scene that involves a lot of rolling, because bennies may be spent. This ensures that the players have a steady flow of bennies that they can count on. Of course, if the encounter turned out to be easy and few or no bennies were spent, then don’t give out bennies at the end, lest the players wind up with enough to make future encounters too easy.
• Take pity when bad luck strikes. Sometimes the dice really hate your players, and the only way they succeed or survive is to blow through their bennies. If this happens, give everyone some extra bennies. In essence, you can use bennies to help balance out bad streaks and keep the game fun. Still, don’t do this until it’s obvious that the players are struggling. This should never be a common occurrence.
• Use your GM bennies, especially to soak damage or have wild cards recover from shaken on their turn. This helps remind players that they can do the same thing, but it also allows you to raise the difficulty of a challenge when the dice truly love your players.
• Give extra bennies as a reward for behavior you want to reinforce. Often, this is good roleplaying, but there are other reasons. Every campaign has it’s own tone. In a lighthearted game, you might give a benny for a witty remark, but in a gritty, serious game, you should reward someone who plays the tone to the disadvantage of their character. Other reasons to reward bennies include playing up a character’s hindrances, clever planning, or just doing something that adds positively to the game.
• Don’t hold every player to the same standard. A long time role-player who always gets into character should have to work harder to get a benny than the newcomer who you want to convince to stick around. Rewards don’t have to be equal so long as you’re giving out a steady minimum of bennies. Rewards are to encourage improvement in players and in the game. Make them earn them, but then overtly give the reward when they do.
• Limit bennies for hoarders. It’s alright for players to be frugal with their bennies, but if a character starts to amass a pile because they aren’t using them, subtly avoid giving them reward bennies. If they wind up with too many during the big boss fight, they’ll be able to outshine the other players at the very point where you want all of them engaged.
• Take Edges and Hindrances into consideration. A player who took the Lucky edge, with grants an additional benny each session, should see a reward for that in the form of an extra benny every once in a while. Similarly, a character who took the Unlucky hindrance should occasionally be denied a benny when everyone else receives one. In both cases, do this approximately a third of the time, and make sure to mention why you are doing it to reinforce the effect of the player’s build choices.

Common House Rules

Bennies are one part of the rules that people seem to love to play around with. but several house rules seem to crop up regularly.

• No Re-rolling Snake Eyes. This is probably the most common rule variant, and it probably speaks ill of humanity, but many groups do not allow bennies to be spent to re-roll Snake Eyes, seeing this as the price wild cards suffer for having the wild die. Alternatively, you can allow a re-roll of Snake Eyes, but require that it cost two bennies.
• Give a benny when a GM benny is used. Essentially, when the Game Master spends a benny, he gives it to another player, usually the one it most directly affects.
• A true benny economy. As an extension of the previous idea, player bennies, when spent, are given to the Game Master to use. In this setup, there are a finite number of bennies in the game, and they simply pass back and forth among the players. If someone hoards bennies, he is actively denying them to others, but spending bennies empowers your enemies.
• The Golden Benny. This is a special player benny that can be given to another player at will (this normally can’t be done without the Common Bond edge).
• The Super Benny. This can take many forms, but essentially there is a single benny that does something very powerful, such as an automatic success with a raise. The Game Master can reward this to someone, or perhaps it gets passed to a new player when spent, or is handled like the true benny economy above.
• Cookie Bennies. Use cookies as your bennies. When you spend it, you eat it. This will prevent hoarding, but there are other consequences.

Have we missed anything? Got a killer house rule you can share? Let us know!

Tags: bennies, Game Masters, jeff carlsen, pinnacle entertainment group, Savage Worlds
Categories: Savage Worlds, Savage Worlds Primer |
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Savage Worlds Rule Guidance: Bennies Part 1

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/01/07 – 00:00 -

I asked the great folks over at the Pinnacle forums for advice on using bennies, and they blew my mind with the amount and quality of their discussion. I can’t thank them enough. They’re all brilliant.

In this part we’ll be discussing:

1. What bennies are and why they matter.
2. As a player, how best to manage your bennies.

And in Part 2 we’ll be discussing:

1. A system for a Game Master to handle giving out bennies.
2. Various house rules for bennies.

Bennies: Making your own luck

For the uninitiated, each player starts a session with three bennies (and the game master gets his own), which can be spent at any time to do one of three things:

• Re-roll any test. If you roll a test and don’t like the result, you can roll again and keep whichever result is better.
• Recover from being Shaken. When a character takes damage, he is shaken and has to recover before he can act. This usually takes a Spirit roll, and can eat up an entire turn. Not with a benny.
• Soak damage. Getting hurt sucks. A benny lets you roll to reduce the number of wounds you take from an attack.

These are not just tacked onto the system, either. Management of your bennies is a critical part of Savage Worlds strategy and character power. In fact, there are hindrances and edges that can give a character more or fewer bennies.

It is also expected that the Game Master will give each player somewhere from three to five additional bennies throughout a gaming session.

Common Problems

Most experienced role-players aren’t used to having a system like bennies be integral to a system or their characters, and thus several problems occur.

• Players hoard their bennies. Some players are afraid to spend their bennies, thinking that they may need them later, but in doing this, they make game challenges harder on themselves and more frustrating. This can make the game less fun for them.
• Players run out too quickly. Lets face it, players like to succeed. Often, a player will blow through all his bennies re-rolling failed tests, and suddenly not have one to soak a death dealing blow, killing their character and ruining their fun.

How to manage your Bennies

Guidance for how to spend your bennies really isn’t complicated. It follows a fairly simply progression.

1. You may freely spend one benny per encounter or scene. You’ll probably receive more from the Game Master at this rate.
2. Be cautious spending a second benny in the same fight, but do so when you believe it’ll make a significant difference.
3. Never spend your last benny except to soak an attack.

Come back tomorrow for part 2 on our suggestions for managing your benny economy!

Tags: bennies, economy, jeff carlsen, pinnacle entertainment group, Players, Savage Worlds
Categories: Savage Worlds, Savage Worlds Primer |
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Start Teaching ‘em Young

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/01/06 – 00:00 -

At what point do you start teaching your kids how to game? It’s a question that I found myself pondering while reading a blog post by NewbieDM. In the post he discussed how he was teaching his four year old how to game.  She had been watching her father play for some time and wanted to play to.  So the ever thoughtful father and game master he whipped up a simple game to give her the rpg experience.

The system is simple; you choose a role, sword, magic, bow and arrow, and attack thusly by rolling opposed d12s.  Whoever rolls higher won and hurts the enemy.  Two hurts and you’re knocked out. Roll some dice, hurt some bad guys, and get some treasure.  It was quintessential dungeon delving. The rules are simple, the game is straight forward but it’s deeper then Candy Land.

What I marvel at with this game is simple rules Newbie crafts to confine the make believe the children are partaking in.  As adults we need rules, we’re hard wired to have them.  Games were the most fun when you were a child when you didn’t have rules bogging down the fun of the game.  Remember the game of hot lava? Where the ground was this molten hot lava that you couldn’t step in or you’d be burned?  The game itself was an excuse to climb all over things and engage in physical play, but had to be one of the funniest games ever.  Unless of course you were coming in late, then you likely didn’t have a way to get to the safe zone.  With no way to the island of safety how did you play with the other kids?  The brilliance of this game is that Newbie takes a rule based game, like D&D, and distills it down into something young kids can play.  Essentially he is building a bridge over the lava to engage the kids in a game of make believe.

The simplicity of the game is part of the attraction to me, much like how Savage Worlds attracts me as a game designer.  It’s a simple method to tell the story and share in the action.  This is why it surprised me slightly when people were suggesting that Newbie make it more complicated by adding in a skills system. Why complicate the matter further by making more rules to remember and further bog down play? While I do agree with the logic and thought behind it I say keep it simple, when they want something more from the game they will let you know.

So what did Newbie miss? Would you put something else in the game? Or remove something?

Tags: dungeons and dragons, kids, newbiedm, Savage Worlds, tyson j. hayes
Categories: Game Masters |
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Savage Mondays – January 4th, 2010

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/01/04 – 00:01 -

It’s a Savage World out there, and Apathy Games provides the tools to survive it. First, check out our Savage Worlds Primer. If you’re looking for more up to date news, here’s what’s happening now:

Pinnacle Entertainment Group

• John Goff has been appointed to the position of Showdown brand manager. Showdown is a revision of the Savage Worlds ruleset for large scale miniature combat. It strips out some of the more RPG specific rules, streamlines magic a little more, and basically brings Fast, Furious, Fun to the world of war-gaming.
• Brides of Dracula is a new Showdown scenario taking place in a graveyard. The enemy? The many rising undead brides of Dracula and their jealous husband.

Savage Worlds Licensees

• Daring Entertainment has announced it’s 2010 publishing plans. Up first is a 52 week adventure series for Zombie Outbreak called The Armageddon Virus. It will be followed up by a setting book called War of the Dead. The rest of the update included information about the Daring Action Block, a new figure flat series, and the eventual release of Daring Supers.
• Adamant Entertainment has released a new Thrilling Tales adventure, The Malay Coins. Your players will search for seven mysterious coins that will reveal a lost treasure. And that’s just the start of their troubles.
• Plain Brown Wrapper Games has released Bedlam City: Savage Worlds Edition Bedlam City: Savage Worlds Edition. This super hero setting is the darker, grittier brother of your standard super metropolis.
• White Haired Man has revised all of their Fantasy Grounds II adventures for Savage Worlds. If you’re more interested in their D&D3.5/OGL versions, they will be updated soon.
• Savage Mojo has been showing off some of their upcoming Suzerain stuff over at the Pinnacle Forums. Go partake in the conversation, and perhaps check out their fancy editable character sheet

Savage Worlds Community

• There are some new additions to the unofficial Hindrances and Edges over at Savagepedia.
• The Chaos Grenade is a gaming blog that recently fell in love with Savage Worlds. Check out the posts Compairing Healing Surges to Bennies, Savage RIFTS, and his soulful confession of Giving into the Cult of Savage Worlds.
• No community post would be complete without a trip to the Pinnacle Forums. The people there are fantastic, friendly, knowledgeable, creative, and a bunch of other great adjectives.
• User Cryonic has created a editable version of the Sundered Skies character sheet. It really is very well done, and looks just like the origional.
• There is a healthy debate going on as to how to make combat more dynamic than two people standing around slugging it out.
• Shield and spear was the classic load-out of your Greek warrior or Roman legionnaire, but many people have problems with the rules surrounding spears and shields.
• Lastly, EruditeDragon and others are working on a detailed psionics power list that’s worth a look.

As always, if we missed something, let us know in the comments. You can follow us on Twitter for more news and commentary.

Tags: adamant entertainment, chaos gernade, daring entertainment, dungeons and dragons, jeff carlsen, pinnacle entertainment group, plain brown wrapper, savage mojo, Savage Worlds, savagepedia, sundered skies, white haired man
Categories: Savage Mondays |
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Ringing in the New Year with drinks and games

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2009/12/31 – 08:00 -

As the year winds to a close and our second month of blogging comes to an end we here at Apathy Games find ourselves a little celebratory.  So when you hunker down to game find yourself a worthy drink to go with it.

Dirty Martini – The perfect adult beverage, it has class poise and says that you are awesome.  Combine with a prop pistol, a Savage variation of a Bond game, and then shake to taste.

Arrogant Bastard – You are not worthy of this drink, it’ll come right for you kick you in the balls and shag your mother before you have a chance to get back up.  Take a tankard of this, the Super Powers Companion and punch it right back.

Captain Jack Sparrow– With this drink in hand you’ll be swashbuckling across the Spanish Main.  Once everyone is liquored up you’ll be plundering and ravaging the nearby neighborhood. Just remember, your car is not armored to ram other cars, please don’t try it.

The Six Shooter – Start exploring the weird west with this drink.  While it’ll get you some funny looks in Deadlands you’ll be able to gun them down before they get to ask why your drinking such a sissy drink.

Blue Champagne Cocktail – This alien looking drink will blend in perfectly with a Slipstream campaign.  Have the characters attend there favorite bar and serve them this blue bubbly drink. For added giggles have the characters be actors in a 1950′s sci-fi show.

How do you plan on celebrating the new year? Did we miss a drink that should be on the list?

Tags: arrogant bastard, deadlands reloaded, jack sparrow, james bond, pirates of the spanish main, Savage Worlds, slipstream, tyson j. hayes
Categories: Behind the Bar |
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