Mystery Reading

I have been thinking about mystery gaming recently. I am not usually much of a mystery reader, I loved Sherlock Holmes as a kid, but I tend towards science fiction. Obviously, as a lawyer, I have read many real life mysteries. I am not a criminal lawyer, and have no interest in practicing criminal law, but you don't get through law school without reading an awful lot of criminal cases. 

Even though I do not have an interest in criminal law, the single best piece of advice I have ever read about being a lawyer came from a criminal law story. In Helter Skelter, Vince Bugliosi stresses the importance of a lawyer doing his/her own investigations. I try to follow this advice as much as possible in my professional life, and have yet to regret it. I consider Helter Skelter to be the best book about the legal profession ever written, it is a study in the application of rational thought and elbow grease. 

As I have been thinking about a mystery game, I realized that I am not well versed in mystery fiction at all. I am not familiar with the tropes and the short-hand. In fact, I don't even know where to turn for good mystery fiction (or even true crime outside of Bugliosi). 

So here is my request kind readers. What are your favorite mystery books? I don't want books that cheat, as that would not be helpful for writing a game. All of the evidence used to solve the crime has to be available to the reader. 

Guest Post at The Geek Parent

I recently got to write a guest blog post for The Geek Parent about getting kids interested in science.

Gaming with Kids Again

This week I have had a chance to game with my nephew again. It has been a couple of years since the last time we played D&D and he is 10 now. Obviously, his ability to understand and play the game has improved greatly since the last time we played. In the past we have played a very loose game of D&D, the Lord of the Rings Introductory Adventure Moria Box Set, and a few games of Descent. This time I broke out the Mentzer Red Box and adapted the solo game in the Players' Book for his use. 

I added a little depth, I made the magic mouth be the spirit of a wizard trapped in the wall, the wizard's body was turned into the statue in the entry room. The statue's eyes had been made of diamonds, but the goblins living in the cave stole them.

In his first, solo, foray into the dungeon he had a brief encounter with some goblins where he got surrounded and badly wounded. He managed to kill all but one of them and made it back to town with a bit of gold. When he started flashing his loot around in the tavern, a young theif, hoping for fame and fortune, asked to join him.

My nephew and Randal the Theif made their way back to the dungeon for another fight with the goblins. They handily defeated the group and even let one goblin live and healed him. After some discussion, Rat Tail, a goblin shaman, decided to join the group. As they explored the dungeon, they came across the room with the magic mouth. The imprisoned wizard, Xander (possibly Fred), explained his plight in a booming voice. My nephew decided to help Xander and sought out the two missing diamond eyes. One was with a final group of goblins, and the other was hidden in a secret treasure room. After he located the diamond eyes, he pulled the statue to the room with the magic mouth and Xander got his body back.

My nephew was disappointed to learn that Xander's real voice was actually pretty nerdy, and that he had lost the ability to cast all of his spells but one sleep spell a day. Xander joined the group and the cleared the rest of the dungeon, including an expensive encounter with the rust monster.

Where we had played free form in the past, my nephew was interested in using miniatures after playing Descent and the LotR game, so I broke out the battlemat. He adapted well to using miniatures, and quickly figured out things like flanking to get the backstab bonuses. 

We still played a fairly loose version of the rules. The only character with full stats was hsi fighter, the other party members just had HP, AC, skills, and damage stats. This worked pretty well and kept it from getting overwhelming. He had no trouble managing a four character party. We also used a simplified I go/you go combat system with d6 for party initiative instead of the missile/melee/magic phase system in the Red Box. I find this works better with miniatures anyway.

I used two iPad apps for the first time during this game, Hex Map Pro, and the Old School DM app. OSDM was especially useful as I entered all the encounters ahead of time and used it to track hp, attacks and XP. I will continue to use this program in my old school games, especially at a convention. 

Delay of Game

I am going to have to delay the AGE Star Wars playtest due to gaining a life level this week, along with it comes the level title of "Parent". Our daughter threw us all a curve ball by coming at the very beginning of her due date period. I am not cancelling the playtest session just moving it back a week, possibly two (I work a schedule that gives me every other Friday off). I will have more information over the next few days. Everyone is healthy and adjusting well.

Star Wars AGE Online Playtest

Quick update. I am still aiming for a game on Thursday the 26th using newbieDM's Star Wars AGE hack. The game will be set during the time period of Episode IV and will be a one shot. Players will not have to have knowledge of the rules, and pre-gen characters will be provided. I am planning an adventure that will be about two hours long to give us plenty of time to get the rules straight. I will be submitting my game proposal to ConstantCon either tomorrow or Wed.

EA is Confusing

I don't understand EA. They have in their possession, one of the most  infuential RPG developers in history, Bioware. I would say that in the history of computer RPGs (actual RPGs not Diablo-likes) the timeline basically flows from Origins to SSI to Bioware. If I were to pick a fourth, it would be Bethesda. EA not only owns Bioware, but also the Ultima series, probably the most influential RPG series in history. But EA does not seem to know how to make this all add up for some reason.

While I was concerned about EA buying Bioware, since they have ruined so many great developers before, I was excited by the prospect that Bioware might bring us an Ultima game. It seems like the logical thing to do, Bioware is the clear heir to the style of gaming found in the Ultima series. Their games are about more than combat, and the choices you make really matter. But, of course, this is not what EA has done. Instead we got Dragon Age, now I realize that Dragon Age was in the works before EA bough Bioware, but it is hardly the most inspired game in history. The gameplay is good, and I enjoyed playing it, but the world and the story are almost painfully generic. This frustration was compounded by the release of Dragon Age 2, again this was a fun game, but set in the same bland world.

But of course we are getting this. Don't let the name fool you, Bioware is not making this game, Mythic is. The company that brought us the snooze-fest PVE in Dark Age of Camelot, and the flop Warhammer Online. They are now turning Ultima into a clickfest Diablo-clone.

Getting an actual Bioware Ultima would have been like getting a Peter Jackson directed Star Wars prequel for me. Sadly we are getting whatever the heck Mythic is cooking up, and probably another Dragon Age. 

I only hope they let Bioware off the leash at some point to pursue real original properties, not just D&D stand-ins. Jade Empire and Mass Effect have shown that when left to their own devices, Bioware can knock it out of the park. 

Online Space Opera Gaming Update

Based on my research and some comments I have received, I am going to use Google Hangout to run a game. I also found Roll20, a virtual tabletop that claims it integrates with Google Hangout that I would like to try. I am pretty sure that I am going to run a one-shot the first time, just to try things out. I am currently leaning towards using newbieDM's AGE Star Wars playtest for that game (but not necessarily for the ongoing game). I will provide pre-generated characters so we don't have to waste any time on character generation for a one shot. You will not have to know how to play AGE to play in the adventure. My current plan is to run the game on the evening of July 26th, Eastern Time. I plan to use ConstantCon to run and setup the game (thanks for the tip David). I will finalize my plan and make arrangements this weekend. The goals of this game will be to 1) have a good time, 2) meet some players, 3) test out the online gaming setup, 4) possibly test AGE Star Wars.