Month / June 2023

by guyeatsfood

Trindie Goes Mainstream – Review: Candela Obscura Quickstart

You’ve heard of Critical Role, right? In the wake of the OGL fiasco, they’ve started diversifying – leading to Darrington Press, their publishing arm, putting out Candela Obscura, an occulty trindie-ish narrative game with some interesting DNA. It’s got a fantasy steampunk setting, mechanics that are a drift from Forged in the Dark (FITD), an adventure structure that tips a hat to Vaesen, and a free, high-production value, quickstart you can get here.

There was a flurry of commentary about it on release, about how they’d failed to acknowledge their FITD base (now addressed in a later release), about how loose some of the rules were (I mean, it is a quickstart), and how this will either alienate CR fans or open up a great doorway to more narrative games for them. 

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

But to really judge a game, you’ve got to play it – so I did. And you can watch it soon, on Unconventional GMs – so keep an eye out for that. I ran the quickstart in just over 2 hours with 4 players, and it was – I think I’d speak for everyone – more fun than we expected. So here’s my play-informed review of the quickstart.

The Setting Is Great

Fantasy steampunk stuff, in the shadow of a recent war, gives plenty of scope for exciting occult stuff to investigate. The titular organisation you work for deals with occult threats, so you’ll be sent to resolve them, and there are a couple of rival/enemy organisations that fit together nicely. There’s a big city on top of the monster-infested ruins of the previous civilisation, some other locales to investigate with towns and villages and stuff, and a good mixture of detail and speculation.

There’s also an edge of oppression, with the church, the state, and in particular the police force – the Periphery – very much cast as enemies of the people. I like this, and to be honest even if all it does it put off the “keep politics out of games” mob, that’s a win for me. All in all, there’s loads going on in the setting, and it’s got loads of “PCs do this” ideas in it to make it easy to think up adventures for.

The System is Decent – and Feels Different to FITD

There’s quite a few tweaks and drifts from classic Blades to keep you on your toes – my concern running it was defaulting to rules from Blades (particularly as my group had all played and run a lot of Blades). You have Gilded Dice, Resistances, and Drives which can all be spent to boost – this felt like it might be one too many extra resources, but in play it worked fine. 

The damage system felt good – Marks accumulate in different areas and turn into Scars on the fourth Mark – although it didn’t give as much peril as I’d like – maybe I was a bit soft on them in not doing more than one Mark at a time. Maybe this’ll be revisited in the full rules.

All in all, it felt like it might be better for a short run or one-shot (it’s probably, whisper it, better than standard FITD for a one-shot) – although, again, we’re playing with the quickstart so there may be many more options in the full book.

The Adventure Presentation is Terrible

We played through Dressed to Kill, the quickstart adventure, and this was the strangest part of the game. Its presentation has a really strange approach that makes running it significantly harder than it needs to be. The adventure itself is great in terms of concept, plot and structure – and leads to a satisfying showdown, but it often came up short in terms of what it supplies to GM to help actually run it. 

The adventure is presented as a sequence of broad, open scenes, with a “Reveal” in each one they need to find to progress to the next one. While the overall sequence is linear, the scenes are open-ended and offer a lot of player choice as to how to pursue them – I’m all for this kind of structure in a one-shot, and each scene has a good combination of hook-riddled NPCs to get some juicy roleplay going.

However, in this flexible presentation, they don’t make it easy. When you arrive at the village of Mordant Springs, the investigation is very much like a Vaesen setting – there’s multiple places they can visit, and several clues they can find in multiple places. Because this is presented as paragraphs of text, though, it’s quite hard to parse what these options are without making your own notes, or where each one could lead. GM guidance is often quite passive, “use a clue below or make up your own…” or offering “opportunities” for them to meet NPCs without a clear idea of what those NPCs might do or offer. And don’t get me started on the NPC (one they’re likely to interact with) with no name. Telling the GM they say “you don’t need to know my name” is insufficient, adventure writers – what is their name? Why won’t they tell them? What’s their deal anyway?

It’s all workable, and I made a few notes (Patrons let me know if you want a copy and I’ll send it out to you) – but for a quickstart that presumably will have CR fans new to running more narrative games reading it, it’s not terribly helpful. A more structured approach would have been easier to grab I think, or alternatively a wholly looser kind of thing where the mystery is presented much more like it would be in a FITD game.

I think it stands up because the overall quality of the adventure shines through, but I do  worry this is how they plan to present all their adventures, and they’re designed to be read, not GMed. We’ll see, I guess – if Darrington Press are reading this, please reconsider!

Overall I’m really excited to see Candela come out, and like I said, it played well. Merging some of the narrative / trad approaches is something I’m really into, and I’m excited to see more games embrace this. If you want to see it in action, there’ll be a link here when Unconventional GMs goes live with it. In the meantime, what do you make of it? And are there any other trindie classics you’d like to hear about here?

by guyeatsfood

Lonely Fun, Or What To Do When You’re Not At Expo

We’ve all been there – a convention you couldn’t make, or just didn’t fancy, and the FOMO that sometimes hits when you see the pictures of the happy gamers on your social media. Even worse, sometimes you see the swag they’ve bought! For a number of (happy) reasons, I wasn’t at UK Games Expo last weekend, and although it’s not a con I hold in much affection (it’s just too big – and it’s not really about the games), I did get a few wistful feelings about it.

So I did what every self-respecting gamer does – some game stuff, and then I felt better about it. Feel like you’re missing out on game stuff, either through cancelled sessions, a missed convention, or a spare evening you could have been gaming? This sort of stuff used to be called “lonely fun,” which I think sounds a bit too sexy, but here’s a few things to do to cope with not being at a convention.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Get That Back Pocket Game Prepped

I’m a great exponent of everyone having a few back pocket games ready for when a game night gets cancelled, or when you’ve got to fill in a convention slot. For this you’ll need pregens, a few scenes, and a sketch of the start and end. If you’ve nothing but a game idea, start with pregens – if you can get a solid set made, you’ve already done the hardest part of prep. If you aren’t quite up to that, try an easier set-up – a DCC one-shot with the character generators at Purple Sorcerer, or read through a quickstart and make some notes. Myself, I was getting the new Candela Obscura prepped to run a YouTube game of it – watch out for it soon!

Do Some World Prep

If you’re not ready to prep a whole one-shot, why not get some prep done in a game setting. The original lonely fun (to a certain definition of fun) is, I guess, rolling up Traveller worlds, but there are so many random generators out there it’s a great opportunity to get a setting sketched out – and maybe then an adventure will come from that!

Notable resources that are well worth digging out to do this include Stars Without Number (or indeed any of Kevin Crawford / Sine Nomine’s stuff – most are available in free or deluxe versions), Tome of Adventure Design, or any number of old-school procedurally generated stuff (1e DMG, anyone).

Alternatively, why not dive into a rich, detailed setting? I often don’t have enough time for this, but Glorantha, the Forgotten Realms, or even Dune offer lots of options to dig into a setting. A proper setting sourcebook should spark a bunch of adventure ideas, which you might or might not come back to – who knows?

Play a Solo Game

I’ve got more detailed posts coming about solo gaming, but in case you’re curious, you could check out Ironswon or Starforged for a way to play solo that embeds the game into this approach. Alternatively, try the Mythic GM Emulator with your system of choice (you might still need pregens, mind). There’s been a real explosion of solo games recently – and some will give you a really close approximation of a traditional game. I found this interview from the Grognard Files with Jon Cohen, the host of Tale of the Manticore really useful to picture how a solo game of a more trad game might look.

Watch Some Actual Play

Okay, I’ve said what I’ve said about Actual Play, but there are some good ones. I’m planning to be contributing to the good ones soon with Unconventional GMs, but in the meantime try Jason Cordova’s youtube channel for some great demos of PBTA games, or the One Shot Podcast.

Or, as I did, you can spend yet more time trying to learn some basic photoshop and video editing to get yourself onto the AP scene. Still a way to go there.

So, four options for your lonely fun. What does your coping-with-con-absence prep look like? Comment below or catch me on other social media.

by guyeatsfood

Actual Play Is Rubbish

There, I’ve said it. Like many gamers of my generation, the fascination with, and success of, Critical Role leaves me cold. Or rather, if I’m honest – it leaves me disappointed, fruitlessly flailing at something that I should really enjoy, but don’t. If we’d had recordings of games available in the 1990s, I’m certain we’d have evolved roleplaying into a more interesting direction quicker than we did – and maybe we’re starting to see that evolution now – but often, streamed shows leave me wanting more.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Don’t get me wrong, I think the streaming revolution is overall a massive positive for the hobby – we can watch games played easily now, and access different styles of play and learn and improve our own games. Or can we? I think there are three things that can spoil actual plays for me.

They’re Too Slow

I like a bit of pace as much as the next gamer, and while I can deal with some slow-burn investigating, a bunch of D&D PCs sitting around in a pub (which is what most of Critical Role seems to consist of) isn’t my kind of fun. I’d cut all those scenes in my game – or at least trim them down to some short interactions to add flavour and stakes to character interaction – so I’m going to tolerate them even less as a viewer.

There Aren’t Enough Rules

I like a decent bit of game in my RPGs – whether they’re narrative-driven or more traditionally minded. I want to roll dice within the first half hour of a game, or I’m wondering why I’m there, so if I’m a viewer I’m even less interested. Even worse, some APs fall into the worst kind of “rulings not rules” nonsense which actively irritates me – “just roll a 1d20 and get high” – which is just lazy GMing. If I’m watching a game played, I want the table to make a decent bash at playing the game, because I’m watching, in part, to get an idea of how to run the game myself.

They’re Too Long

Most AP streams go on interminably long, and we’re often looking at 3-4 hour online sessions repeated up to 10-20 times for a campaign. As a player, 3 hours is an absolute maximum I can tolerate online – and I’m happier with 2 – 2.5 hours as a rule. Online play, in particular, should focus play so there’s less dead time, and so more stuff can be covered in it. So, I’d like some punchy 2 hour sessions – or even less, if they can be trimmed down and I’m looking to see how a game plays.

They Don’t Help Me Be A Better GM

In fact, there’s a fair bit of internet discourse that CR might be making DMs worse as they try and imitate Matt Mercer’s style – to be clear, I don’t think it’s fair to blame CR for this, but there’s an opportunity missed that we never get to see players review the sessions with stars and wishes, or the GMs discuss the decisions they made, prep they did, or what they thought went well or poorly. There’s a wasted opportunity here, and it’d be brilliant if when we read about, e.g. giving players narrative control, there were a set of videos of different GMs demonstrating this.

Is It All Rubbish Though?

Well, of course it isn’t. I’ve learned a lot about running Carved from Brindlewood games from Jason Cordova’s youtube channel, the One Shot podcast does a great job of showcasing games. I’ve been in a few APs too, so I’d hope they aren’t (check out me running 13th Age in Glorantha for some context around a lot of the content on here). But overwhelmingly, the most popular channels seem to exist as a parallel to what happens at my table.

So What To Do About It?

Well, this is what I’ve been leading up to (and, readers, part of the reason why it’s been a bit quiet here for a couple of weeks). In the next month or two, I’m launching a new project – Unconventional GMs – with Gaz from The Smart Party and a star-studded array of TTRPG talent. We’ll be looking at short-form campaigns, and one-shots, and trying to showcase punchy, rules-engaged play supported by blog posts (on here) and podcast discussions (over on The Smart Party) about what worked and what didn’t.

We’re currently at the stage of getting sorted with the tech required for this endeavour, and making sure we can get a quality product out – but the first session has been recorded and will be ready for release when we’ve got a few more in the bag and our OBS skills are sorted. Stay tuned and follow me (@milnermaths) and Gaz (@the_smart_party) on twitter for further announcements! And if there’s any requests or games you’d like to see, send them in.