Houses of the Blooded is the new roleplaying game by John Wick. I had hoped to buy it at Origins but it wasn’t available.

Following the usual argument (I don’t need new RPGs. I’ve got plenty), I had decided a while ago that despite the cool looking previews that I’d seen for the game I just wasn’t going to buy it without looking at it first. This has saved me several times in the last few years from buying a game that just didn’t suit my tastes, so it’s a policy that I try to follow.

Then I watched the design videos that Mr. Wick put up on YouTube and one of them reached out and grabbed me. I don’t even remember what it was that did it, but I preordered the game within minutes.

So, the benefit of the preorder is that I got a PDF of the game in my email inbox when the book went to print. This is a good feature. Now I’ve been reading the PDF while I wait (somewhat more patiently) for my book, which will arrive in about two weeks.

I’m about 70 pages into the game, I’m really enjoying the setting material, and I haven’t even made it to the mechanical sections yet. This is unusual for me. I have a tendency to read the mechanical bits of a game first and then read the rest of it if I find the mechanics interesting. I’ve been trying to break myself of that habit lately.

In addition to being pretty damn cool, HotB has also reminded me what a total fanboy I am. Reading over the setting makes me want to run the following games: an Amber game, a game set in the Courts of Chaos, a game set in the One Hundred Years After period of Stephen Brust’s Dragaera world, and there were others but I didn’t get them written down before I forgot them.

The interesting thing is, though, that I haven’t even gotten to the rules yet! I want to run these games based entirely on setting similarities, so I’m kinda hoping that the mechanics really work for me, because I’m getting a group together to play this thing.

I’ll tell you how it goes.

Categories: Gaming
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Today we’re celebrating the 4th of July and America’s Declaration of Independence. History says that on this day two-hundred thirty-two years ago a group of men representing the colonial population signed a document that declared this country a separate political entity from Britain.

Considering my vague recollections from my few, and inadequate, history classes, it seems like a worthy day to celebrate and reflect on the nature of our country. I’m willing to bet that a large number of people are just celebrating that they get an extra day off from work, which for most of us is just as worthy.

I didn’t have a choice about being an American. I was born in Texas, my parents were both born in the Midwest, their parents were born in America, and, to the best of my knowledge, their parents were too. Somewhere along that line, someone in my genealogical back-story made the conscious decision to come to this country but I don’t know who it was.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that they made a bad choice or that I don’t like being an American. Honestly, I’ve never really thought about it much. As I said, I didn’t have much choice in the matter, which is the crux of my thinking this morning: nationality is largely an accident of birth.

There are, of course, exceptions. Many people move to countries that they weren’t born in and work to become citizens of those places. Generally, they do this when they’re an adult and they make a conscious decision about the matter. I think that’s pretty cool.

I really have to wonder, though, how many people (like me) take their nationality for granted. I mean, it’s not like I think about it very often and I’m not the most patriotic person that I know. Would I be happy if I were Canadian or French or Tibetan? I’ve got know way to know.

I think my point here is that we’re all human. As a species, we’re really good a drawing lines on a map and saying that the people over on the other side of the line are different than the people on this side of the line. Even when it’s just an accident of birth, people get caught up in divisions when we should all be thinking about how we’re similar.

I live in America because this is where I was born. I might as well have drawn a colored flag out of a barrel for all the choice I had in the matter. Instead of focusing on the colored flag and how that makes us different, let’s focus on being human and how that makes similar. That’s what I’m thinking about today.

***Bonus points for those that get the barrel reference. I borrowed it from someone smarter than me.***

Categories: Rants
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This idea has been taking shape for a few weeks now. It started with the premise that player characters could not directly or overtly perpetrate violence without incurring dire results.

The players take the roles of divine beings (gods, demons, spirits, etc). Long ago, these beings formed The Compact which laid out in specific language rules to end the continuous wars between them and allow them to interact peacefully.

Those that agreed to The Compact believed that it was possible to compete with each other without resorting to the terrible conflicts that were so damaging to their mortal followers. Those that didn’t believed that only through conflict and the destruction of the mortal believers of their enemies could true supremacy be found.

Those that agreed to The Compact were larger in number and collectively more powerful than those who refused The Compact and, thus, the holdouts were exiled from the mortal realm under strict penalties.

The mortal realm, Earth, was declared by The Compact to be neutral territory, viewed as a divine Switzerland, a place where the divinities could go to meet and negotiate with their peers without fear.

Now there are factions within factions and subtlety and intrigue abound. Exiles seek to destroy The Compact and initiate the End Times. Those that follow The Compact pursue their own goals while strengthening their own power in preparation for the inevitable End Times.

—–

Okay, so originally this started as a straight Christian mythology deal with the players playing angels and demons but I thought that was an unnecessary restriction so I opened it up to all sorts of divine creatures.

The idea is that on Earth the players are immensely powerful, so powerful that if they were unrestricted they could pretty much do anything that they wanted but they would be in constant conflict with other similar beings over critical resources: mortals. So, they’ve signed this agreement to prevent outright war and resource destruction in exchange for restrictions on their actions.

Due to the restrictions of The Compact, players must work primarily through a mortal network. This network is made up of various levels of operatives, from insignificant temps to powerful adjuncts that have been gifted with divine powers. The hitch is that a player’s network is also what anchors their divinity to its mortal shell. If ever the connections between the divinity and its network are completely severed, the divinity will be banished from the mortal realm until it can make new connections.

During character creation, I want to use something similar to the process in Spirit of the Century by which players pass around their character sheets for the other players to build connections between each other’s characters. Shared history is going to be an important part of the game.

“What do the players do, though?” one might ask. My vision of the game is manifold in this respect. I see characters as interconnected mythology but, at the same time, self-interested individuals. Divinities are strongest when they are part of a pantheon. To put it bluntly, the GM would create situations (solely or with the input of the other players) for the characters to interact. Perhaps Loki, or one of the other tricksters, is causing trouble again and it has fallen to you to reign him in. Perhaps a prominent mortal (one of your operatives?) has gotten into trouble with another divinity and you must negotiate to resolve the situation.

I agree that the “What do the players do?” aspect of the game needs some focus, but that’s what I’ve got right now.

Categories: Design, Gaming
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Yesterday I spent getting back into a normal routine and recovering from the convention, which makes it sound like the convention was difficult (it wasn’t) and tiring (it was).

Going to Origins requires a lot of driving, walking, and a complete change in scheduled behavior. Suddenly I find myself staying up later than usual, sleeping funny hours in a strange, small bed, sharing a room with people other than my wife, and completely altering my diet for five days. These factors tend to throw my system out of whack and require a few days to get back to normal.

So, yesterday, I ran some errands, took care of a few chores around the house, took care of a little Cracked Mirror business, and generally got used to the fact that I wasn’t at Origins anymore.

Today, I’m back to work at the bookstore.

Categories: Gaming, Real Life, Travel
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Britt and I got back from Origins last night around 8:45pm after spending the majority of the day driving. The convention was good as we got to spend three days doing little else but playing games, meeting new people, and hanging out with friends that we don’t get to see much anymore.

We drove out Wednesday with James, one of the guys from Rockford that we currently game with. The trip was uneventful but filled with the usual construction and accident delays that I’ve come to expect when traveling by car in the summer. We left around 7am and checked into our hotel at approximately 6:30pm on Wednesday, so a little over ten hours on the road. After we arrived we went to dinner at BD’s Mongolian Barbeque with two of our friends from Ithaca, Amy and Zach.

The Mongolian Barbeque was new to all of us but turned out to be pretty tasty, which isn’t surprising since the whole point of the place is that you’re picking out your own food to be prepared, salad bar style. It was an interesting experience, and the food was good, but I felt it was a little expensive for what we got.

For the convention this year, Britt and I got Board Room passes and I decided to play in the Powergrid and Puerto Rico tournaments. For those unfamiliar, the Board Room is a big open gaming area run by the Columbus Area Boardgamer Society. They’ve got a huge library of games that folks can check out and play all weekend. A Board Room pass costs $16 but is totally worth it. We got four new games from their boardgame give-away and won two more from the Saturday raffle. That on top of the weekend of boardgame play: awesome!

Thursday, and Friday I played a lot of Powergrid and Puerto Rico in the tournaments. As expected with convention play, my opponents were generally pretty skilled and games were mostly friendly. I got into the semi-finals for both games and then discovered that the semi-final matches were being held at the same time on Saturday night. Not cool! I ended up playing in the Puerto Rico semi-final and coming in third, mostly due to seating issues. (I noticed a lot of seating issues with Puerto Rico during Origins. Something I’ll have to think about further.) Sunday morning, I played in the Puerto Rico finals because one of the second place semi-finalists couldn’t make it. It was a close match all around but I ended up coming in second place.

Friday, we visited the North Market for the first time. North Market is a big indoor shopping area with a variety of food vendors selling at a reasonable prices and only a couple blocks from the convention center. When going to Origins in the future, that is definitely the place to get a great warm meal. Also: ice cream!

The Origins dealer’s room seemed a little sparse this year, especially without White Wolf or Wizards of the Coast in attendance. I walked through a couple times and, though there were several shiny tidbits of interest, there just wasn’t much I was interested in buying. Our boardgaming at home has been so sparse for the last year that it just didn’t seem worthwhile to get a lot of new games (though I’ll probably pick up Thurn & Taxis in the future). Sad.

I did not get into a 4E D&D game at the convention, due entirely to my slacking and absent-mindedness. I think that’s my only real passing regret from the con. Someday it’ll happen, someday.

Overall, I’d say that Britt and I had another great Origins trip. James seemed to have a good time too, of which I’m glad as it was the first gaming convention he’s ever been to. From the sound of it, he’ll be going again next year. I know we will be.

Categories: Gaming, Travel
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In fiction, magic is mysterious. Regular folks just don’t understand how or why it works and that creates tension of various sorts that you can’t get in a roleplaying game that is concerned with mechanical balance.

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Categories: Gaming, Theory
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Friday we drove up north to visit Britt’s parents, who live on the Mississippi. Saturday, we spent most of the day in their truck hauling furniture to our house before returning to their house. Sunday, we came back. It was a whole lot of driving.

I’m generally pleased with the result. We’ve now got a spare bed for the guest bedroom, a new couch in the living room, and a new table for the kitchen. The house is really starting to fill up.

Today, I’m back to work.

Categories: Real Life
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The fourth edition of D&D came out two weeks ago. From the previews, I was looking forward to it. The mechanical bits that WotC had released looked like an interesting amount of streamlining had been done and, supposedly, they had focused on making it easier for DMs to prep for a game.

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Categories: Gaming
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I was going to write something about the Nemesis game I ran last night but yesterday WotC released the GSL.

Now, I’ve got to read it.

Categories: Cracked Mirror, Gaming, Real Life
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I didn’t know what to write about today, so I thought I’d talk about my commute to work.

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Categories: Real Life
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