Review: Queen of Thorns

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Author: Dave Gross
Publisher: Paizo Publishing
Price: Print – $9.99 / PDF $6.99
Pages: 432

Queen of Thorns is the latest novel by Dave Gross in the Pathfinder Tales line from Paizo Publishing.This is Dave’s third novel for the Tales line, along with numerous short fiction pieces that grace the weekly Wednesday fiction blog post on Paizo’s site. In fact Dave’s work kicked off the Pathfinder Tales line with Prince of Wolves and later Master of Devils.

The trio of books has followed the same pair of characters half-elven Varian Jeggare and tiefling Radovan along with their animal companion Arnisant. The first novel found the pair in the nation of Ustalav within the world of Golarion. The next novel found them in the far reaches of Tian Xia.

The Story

This third novel finds the pair having reached Kyonin in efforts to have Varian’s elegant red carriage repaired from a previous misadventure. This seemingly simple task quickly transpires into an exciting journey amongst a web of elven politics through Kyonin in search of the missing druid who originally crafted the carriage.

Opening with their arrival in the elven nation of Kyonin, the reader gets a brief history of the elven race in Golarion as the story gets rolling. During the course of this introduction the reader is introduced to several elves that will play a role as the story unfolds.

Varian and Radovan quickly learn the person they seek is missing, and has been missing, from the elven nation for some time by the human count of years. An assistant to the druid remains behind however and provides a lead to track down the missing druid. With a small contingent of other elves to assist, the pair head off into the forests of Kyonin to search for the missing druid.

Demons have been stirring in the forests of Kyonin plaguing the journey of the search party along the way. During the course of these travels we learn a little more about each of the characters in the entourage that accompany Varian and Radovan.

The search moves from landmark to landmark as the group looks for traces of the missing druid. The search culminates in an area thought to be forgotten by many elves as events come together for an exciting climax.

How was it?

The third novel continues to use the first person form, alternating chapters between Varian and Radovan. This alternating style took me a bit to get used to when I first read Prince of Wolves. In fact I would have even called it jarring to me at the time. This feeling passed quickly and I have come to really enjoy this alternating view. I attribute a lot of this to how the author really captures the feel of each character in their chapters. Each character has their own very unique personality and the author is able to convey this quite well in each chapter through speech style, mannerisms and thoughts. I now find myself looking forward to this writing style in each of the Varian and Radovan books.

As a regular reader of the Pathfinder Tales line, it feels like coming home to pick up another volume by Dave Gross. Varian and Radovan feel very familiar now and I look forward to the banter and mannerisms between the two as the story unfolds. Queen of Thorns continues to deliver in this regards.

The pacing of the story keeps a steady, engaging clip throughout. From gaining insight to the elves of Golarion as we are introduced to the other key players and as the story leads us from Kyonin landmark to Kyonin landmark as the journey unfolds to its culmination.

Overall I would consider Queen of Thorns my favorite of the three Varian and Radovan novels. Whether that is due to the author really hitting his stride with this set of characters or whether it be my eagerness to read more about this pair I cannot be sure. In either case Queen of Thorns is at the top of my list when it comes to novels in the Pathfinder Tales line.

5 out of 5 Tankards

EN World Says RPG Market Shrinking

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Jeffrey Tadlock

EN World posted the State of EN World address today. One portion of the article posted addressed the state of the RPG Industry today. The key portion from the article:

“And what of the RPG industry in general? [ … ] The industry as a whole is shrinking – I say this not because I know it, but because I’ve heard it: first from Ryan Dancey at the end of 2011, who predicted it (“The effects on the TRPG market are now quite visible. At GenCon 2011, the number of companies that were paying full time salaries for TRPG game designer/developers was reduced to a short list”); followed by Mongoose’s Matt Sprange at the end of 2012 who confirmed it (“The current RPG market is miserable. There really is no other word for it…. If the top tier games are selling at these levels, then something is seriously wonky in the market.”)

So with the dominant game apparently changing, and the market itself drastically shrinking, it looks like the environment is a very different one to just a short few years ago. I’m no expert; nor do I have any special insight or data (though if there was the usual mass-layoff at WotC this Christmas, I missed it – maybe that’s a good sign?) but this seems to be what folks in the industry are saying. Let’s hope it’s not as drastic as it sounds!”

I’m sorry, really? First, while I thought the Ryan Dancey series at EN World this year was an interesting perspective into the RPG industry, it was only one viewpoint. Seeing as some of Ryan Dancey’s points in his original articles were that MMOs were breaking the TTRPG social circles and VTTs were failing, I obviously have to take his points with the grain of salt.

The social media circles I am in are filled with people talking about RPG gaming of all sorts! My twitter feeds are full of gaming related tweets, #rpgchat typical trends on twitter, my G+ circles move too fast to keep up and at least one RPG community on G+ is 3400+ strong and growing. While I know MMO numbers are strong and millions play, I would hardly say MMOs have broken the social networks of Tabletop Gamers. The social scene seems stronger today than it has been for a long time!

Even within Ryan’s articles he acknowledges the evolutionary path is digital for RPGs. Now this I agree with. But a shifting market does not necessarily mean a market that is drastically shrinking.

Next up the EN World article cites Matt Sprange of Mongoose games as another indicator of a shrinking market. Yes, Matt says RPG sales have been, but one must keep reading his post:

“On the other hand, RPG sales among PDFs, spearheaded by DrivethruRPG.com, are fairly booming.”

Matt was talking about print releases of product, he admits PDF sales are booming. This hardly confirms the RPG market is shrinking. It confirms the RPG market is evolving!

I can understand WotC’s sales might be hurting a bit. They are finding themselves in the awkward position of being between editions during an extended playtest of the next version. They also are not offering PDFs of their products even though this appear to be the direction other players in the industry are heading.

Paizo certainly appears to have moved into the heavyweight position for the moment. They churn out steady product and allow people to purchase their product in PDF form.

One only needs to look at Kickstarter to see RPG products are moving in other ways. Dungeon World had 2400+ backers, Fate Core is currently 5,100+ backers, Reaper’s Minis was at 17,000+ backers, and many more examples of RPG related products selling well there.

I think it is a little premature to say the RPG market is shrinking unless one is just not keeping up with how the market is evolving. Basing this on print sales, or even on how D&D and Pathfinder related products are doing is not an accurate barometer anymore. There are many more venues to support RPG products from the small guys and for systems that might not be “mainstream”. If you are a company still producing D&D compatible product it might seem the market is shrinking, but it might be you are missing out on some of the other markets.

The RPG market is likely more fractured than it used to be when WotC was the predominant creator, but I am not quite buying the market has shrunk.

State of the Tavern – 2012

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Jeffrey Tadlock

It is time for the annual look back at the year 2012 at The Iron Tavern as the New Year fast approaches. The end of 2012 finds The Iron Tavern a little over a year in from opening its doors in August 2011. We have covered a variety of topics this year from product reviews, commentary on current gaming issues and releases, interviews, and more. The Iron Tavern also welcomed a handful of guest bloggers to help broaden the spectrum of gaming products covered.

The Iron Tavern changed hosting providers towards the end of this year. This change was to position The Iron Tavern a little better for future growth and a couple of other plans rumbling in the back room. Overall I have been quite pleased with the decision to change hosting providers and it was worth effort to do so.

Before we look at the year ahead for The Iron Tavern let’s look at some of the top 5 and top 10 lists of posts, referring sites, and search terms folks came to The Iron Tavern for.

Popular Posts

These are the five most popular posts during 2012 at The Iron Tavern. It looks like my post on The One Ring that was actually made in 2011 is still quite popular! The Dungeonslayers review was done by a guest blogger Kelly Davis and rounded out the top five list!

Referring Sites

I removed search engine results from the list which accounted for a landslide of referrals in the list this year. Google+ has a strong lead in referring sites as well. I find the G+ gaming community very personable and much more engaged than the other social media networks. Not only does The Iron Tavern get a large number of referrals from G+, there is also a reasonable amount of discussion on blog posts over on G+.

The Paizo and Goodman Games are result of a lot of Pathfinder product commentary and reviews done here. I also post a fair amount of Dungeon Crawl Classics fan generated content here as well.

The Facebook referrals are often from other company’s or gaming entities who link to The Iron Tavern to highlight a post I did concerning their product. Twitter, unsurprisingly, is towards the bottom of my top five list. Though I maintain an active presence on Twitter I find the click-through rate from there quite low. It feels much more like shouting into the wind compared to the other social media networks.

Google+
Paizo
Goodman Games
Facebook
Twitter

Top Search Terms

The top search terms for the year again favor The One Ring RPG from Cubicle 7. Dungeon Crawl Classics pushes its way to the top of the list as well. I have a large amount of DCC RPG content at The Iron Tavern. Pathfinder products fill out the rest of the list with my Midgard Campaign setting review rounding out the list, as well as my look at the Roll20 VTT.

the one ring rpg
dungeon crawl classics rpg
the one ring map
pathfinder beginner box
rise runelord pdf review
pathfinder iconics
dcc rpg
midgard campaign setting
rise of the runelords
roll20

The Look Ahead to 2013

In many ways I feel like The Iron Tavern is still finding its niche, much as I was last year. Finding the balance between getting two to three blog posts up on the site and working on some side-projects, writing queries, and general content creation for the gaming industry continues to be a delicate balance.

Moving forward I hope to continue the trend of getting three posts up per week. Regular followers have noticed I tend to have new posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the week with occasional surprise posts on other days as time permits. I hope to continue that trend in the upcoming year.

The Iron Tavern will continue to focus on the fantasy genre of RPGs. I expect Pathfinder and Dungeon Crawl Classics to continue to be major topics. It looks like Dungeonslayers will get a few more posts and quite likely Barebones Fantasy as well. My interests seem to be drifting back to an OSR feel with less complex systems catching my eye. I am sure there will be the occasional D&D post as we watch D&D Next evolve as well (more if I can find a guest blogger interested in regular posts on D&D). Rolemaster will continue to make an experience as guest blogger UbiquitousRat continues his look at the playtest.

As mentioned earlier, The Iron Tavern did experiment with guest bloggers this year. The results were successful and I liked the different take and broader look of systems that brought to the blog. With that in mind, I would like to pickup another regular guest blogger or two to write regular articles. Interested in guest blogging? Here are the topics I am especially interested in:

Dungeons and Dragons: I tried to keep up with the playtest, but simply have not had time. I would welcome a blogger who can post an article every other week or so with information on how the playtest is going and other D&D events that are noteworthy.

Pathfinder: More frequent posts on Pathfinder products and Pathfinder games would be great. If you are an aspiring blogger looking for an established platform to talk about Pathfinder, contact me.

OSR systems: There are so many great rule-light, old school systems I would be happy to host guest posts on any number of these. Either a look at products, actual play, or commentary on the genre would be considered for The Iron Tavern.

Overall, I consider 2012 a successful year for The Iron Tavern and look forward to bringing even more content to readers this year! Here is to a great 2013!

My Trip to the FLGS

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Jeffrey Tadlock

I admit it. It has been years since I last set foot in an actual local gaming store. In fact, I probably have not had a gaming store to call my gaming store since the late 1980’s. That store was the Drowsy Dragon which was located on the east side of Columbus, Ohio. I guess you might be able to count Young’s Newsstand in Bowling Green, Ohio – but it was more newsstand than a full on gaming store.

About five years ago I made a tour of the local gaming shops in Columbus. I visited Ravenstone, The Guard Tower, and The Soldiery at the time. I was not super impressed on those trips and relented to just shopping online with little guilt. That is how I have been buying my gaming products since. I might pick up something at a con like Origins or Gen Con, but even those purchases were usually limited to dice or something of that nature.

Of the stores visited in my last tour around Columbus, The Guard Tower had the best selection at the time. But the place was cramped, it seemed to have a slight odor to it, and the customer service at the time just did not seem all that. I felt ignored, though to be honest I cannot quite put my finger on why I felt that at the time. But that is the feeling I left with.

Since that time I can be quoted on various message boards in threads dealing with FLGS’ that I wasn’t that impressed with the local selection. I just was not that impressed with the local offerings. Or maybe I was just looking for an excuse to justify my online buying habit.

Fast forward to today. Shortly after the advent of G+ communities I started one for RPG gamers in Ohio. Early on I asked for opinions on local gaming stores to Columbus. I received a lot of good responses and it was looking like The Guard Tower was towards the top of folks’ lists.

Add in that my son has an interest in RPGs and has never been to a real local gaming store and it was the perfect storm to get me back into a local gaming store. Today was the day. Based on the query to the Ohio RPG gamer community, The Guard Tower was first choice.

My son was looking for a hardcopy of the Pathfinder Bestiary 2. He has been saving for a bit and I was torn between him buying it at full price at the LGS or me getting it for him off of Amazon at a 34% discount. My wife, being the smart thinker she is, suggested me splitting the cost difference with him as a way to teach him that buying locally might cost a little more but explain why that was (i.e. store rent, heat costs, lighting costs, etc.). After explaining that to him off we we went.

We showed up early Sunday afternoon and the store was hopping! People were playing in the back room, folks were conversing at a terrain table to side of the cash register, and more folks were coming in as we browsed. It certainly seemed to be a thriving LGS.

The selection was good and the organization was pretty good as well. The RPG stuff was up front, there was a varied selection of D&D and Pathfinder product. Castles and Crusades, Dragon Age, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Dresden Files, and more were all represented to some degree. Board games, miniatures games and such were towards the back of the store and there appeared to be a good selection of those as well. All of the top ranked board games appeared to be there.

Things that had changed since my last visit some five years ago are that the gaming tables were in a back room. Last time I was there they crowded the front showroom making browsing tough and the store feel more cramped. The layout on this trip was much, much better. There was a terrain table to the right of the cash register and that is where the folks just chatting and passing the time were located. This was just fine as it was far enough away from the checkout area to not make it difficult to actually purchase items. The store cat was there, but the odor of a cat seemed gone.

Unfortunately they did not have Bestiary 2 that my son wanted, but he settled for Bestiary 3. They did have the second printing of the Dungeon Crawl Classics rulebook that included the index. I had been wanting that version and had been afraid to order that online as I wanted the indexed version. And my daughter, not wanting to be left out, found a pre-painted unicorn mini to satisfy her trip to the store.

I was hoping they would have a small used section to find some old treasures. I suspect Half-Price Books is a better place for these purchases now. I can’t blame them for not wanting to consume retail space on what are likely hit or miss products. And I have heard The Soldiery is better for this type of product, so I will have to check them out next.

All-in-all a successful trip to the gaming store. My son had a great time and is already interested in going back. I finally feel like I have a place to pre-order things from in the case of things like the D&D reprints or other items. And when my Reapers Minis arrive, I now have a place to stock up on extra paint at if I need it. I think I have an FLGS again.

Lesson to be learned? Don’t write off your local gaming store completely. They can change. If it has been a couple of years since you have visited the gaming store in your area, give them another shot and stop back by. Maybe they have made some improvements since you have been gone and you too can have a FLGS to call your own again.

Review: Faiths of Balance

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Jeffrey Tadlock

This review is a repost of my original review of this product for the Seekers of Secrets Pathfinder blog. The original review is no longer available on that site and I wanted to preserve the post here at The Iron Tavern.

Price: Print – $10.99 / PDF – $7.99
Audience: Players (and GMs)
Crunch: 3.5/5
Fluff: 4/5
Overall: 4/5 (not an average)

Faiths of Balance is a 32 page book that is part of the Pathfinder Player Companion series of books from Paizo. The Player Companion series of books have a player focus, but have a good amount of useful information for GM’s as well. This book looks at the major neutral gods in the Golarion setting as well as a brief look at some of the minor deities. Also included in the book are new character traits, feats, spells and magic items with a focus on those members of the neutral faith.

The book starts with covering the seven major neutral gods in Golarion – Abadar, Calistria, Gorum, Gozreh, Irori, Nethys and Pharasma. The Green Faith is also included in the major god section. Each god receives two pages in the book that include a brief overview of the god, why adventurer’s might follow them, typical classes that follow them, goals, what identifies worshippers, the type of devotion, how other faiths get along with followers, taboos, two traits and a little about the church of each god.

The next section briefly covers eight minor deities with a short write up. A brief description of the deity is given, including their favored weapon and a new trait for a follower of the minor deity.

Next are organizations that claim allegiance to the major gods, though not officially sponsored by the church. Each major god has an organization covered in this section.

The last portions of the book include new religious feats, channel foci, minor magical items and new spells. A sidebar within the magical item section contains the paladin code for Abadar and the final section of the book covers religious holidays for each of the major deities.

This book is heavier on fluff than crunch, but with two new traits for major deity and one new trait for each minor deity and dedications sections for feats, magic items and spells there is plenty for a crunch-loving player to find in this book and not be disappointed.

Paizo continues with artwork that pulls a reader into a fantasy world, leading with a wonderful cover featuring Imrijka, the half-orc inquisitor, by Lucas Graciano. The artwork within the book is also of usual Paizo quality.

I found the major deity section full of ideas that would help any character have a better feel for their deity of choice. Whether it be more information on how followers of one deity would react to others to the types of classes drawn towards certain deities to information about the church itself. The information would help me play a accurate follower or as a GM help me shape my NPCs and give a more representative feel of the various neutral faiths.

The minor deity section will be useful to those who prefer to follow those deities, though the detail is brief concerning them. The information in this section could also prove useful to a GM that wants to work in a plot involving NPCs or followers of these minor deities.

The organization section of the book is a great resource for GMs who would like to introduce these loosely affiliated organizations into their game. I found The Companies of the Red Standard an order of mercenaries sworn to Gorum particularly interesting and several ideas floating around of how I could work brushes with this organization into a campaign. I am sure several other of the organizations mentioned in the book will provide ideas for GMs for their own game.

Of the new spells, magic items and feats I found myself most interested in the new channel focus items. Channel focus items were introduced with the Pathfinder Player Companion Adventurer’s Armory and is an object that can act as a holy symbol. The special ability of the channel focus item can be activated by the use of a channel energy. I find this an interesting concept and liked seeing more items available for use. For some reason the whip just calls out for a divine follower of Calistria!

All in all I felt Faiths of Balance was another strong offering by Paizo. While geared towards use by the player I think a GM can find plenty of information to be useful to their campaign as well, especially if the neutral based deities were going to play a larger role in their campaign.

I rated the crunch portion of this book a 3.5 out of 5. Between the new spells, traits, feats and magic items there are several options to help get the feel you might want for your character with a neutral deity focus. I feel the book is stronger from the fluff perspective and offers much to both the player and GM to further understand the nuances of the neutral deities. I am rating it a solid 4 out of 5 on the rating scale. I rate the book as a whole a 4 out of 5 – another solid book from Paizo for players and GMs alike!

Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Jeffrey Tadlock

The Iron Tavern wants to wish everyone a Happy Holidays! It has been another great year for the Iron Tavern. I have enjoyed all the discussion on my blog posts throughout the year, whether the discussion is here, on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter. I hope your holidays are filled with gaming and lots of time spent with family!

I will be taking a break from posting for the next week. I have a couple of projects I want to catch up on and sit back and do some reading of my own to recharge the batteries as we head into the New Year! I will be back to posting at the first of the year with a look back at 2012, possibly a full patron write-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics, and a couple of reviews to start out with.

Happy Holidays!

Feat Overload

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Over the weekend Keith Davies posted on G+ that between the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Advanced Player’s Guide, Ultimate Magic, and Ultimate Combat there were 704 feats. Think about that for a moment. 704 feats.

How Many Feats?

I did a quick check over at d20pfsrd.com and a quick check showed 650+ feats. I did not bother to see where our discrepancy was, even if the number had only been 500+ feats the number is a stunning amount of choices.

As Keith notes in his post, a character can only take so many feats over the course of the character’s career. Let’s take a 20th level human cleric. They can only make use of 1.7% of the available feats over the life of their character. You lose access to a feat if you do not play a human. If you play a 20th human fighter you can only make use of 3.4% of the available feats. Nevermind the fact that a lot of campaigns do not even reach 20th level.

I suspect those numbers go down quite a bit depending on the character. There are many feats that are assumed “basic” feats for a lot of character classes. If you want to play an archer type there are several assumed feats that come from the core rulebook an archer needs to have. This reduces the number of new feats the character can choose from other sources. The same applies for caster’s when you factor in metamagic feats and such they will want to pick up.

While we may have a plethora of feats to choose from, a list that seems to grow with every new product release, it does not change the fact the character cannot choose more feats. A typical character cannot gain access to 98.3% of the currently available feats. It does not matter whether a character is trying to add some roleplaying creativity or trying to make a stronger character – the majority of feats are going to be unavailable to a character due to limited slots.

More Options is Better, Right?

Many people will see this number of feats and say more options is always better. I do agree with the premise that more options for a character to choose from during the course of combat, roleplaying encounters or anything else can be a good thing.

However, I think as we see so many feats and mechanical options added to the game we actually limit a person’s options. By defining such specific areas of the game with feats dictating what you can or can’t do without it we have actually narrowed the scope of what a character can do. The GM loses his flexibility to let a player try creative things with his character as there is a greater chance a feat is required to accomplish that task.
Beyond this narrowing definition of what can and can’t be done by adding feats, there is the matter of option paralyzation. A person building a character today has 650+ feats to choose from. This is an overwhelming amount of options to choose from. Where do you see your character in 5 levels, 10 levels, or 15 levels? Making sure you follow the right feat chains early on is important to not hindering yourself later.

Creative Options, Not Mechanical Options

I want to see the option for creativity from players. I do not want to see a multitude of mechanical options that actually define specific areas of the game so much that it in turn limits player creativity.

We need to move the rules up a level and away from this near microscopic zoom on player’s actions. Abilities should be broader to cover more general areas of expertise. Mechanics should be broader and less defined to give more space to play in creatively. Let the player’s say they want to try some dazzling action and let the judge adjudicate how that will happen.

A good example of this blending of broad mechanic with creative play with open spaces in the rules is the Mighty Deed of Arms mechanic from Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. A warrior-type gets a “deed die” to roll along with their normal attack. The die scales upwards as the character levels. A character can declare a “special” action and if a result of 3 or higher comes up on the deed die the character can pull the action off to some degree.

This is a simple mechanic, gives a player some idea of how success will be determined, but does not restrict the player with needing narrowly focused feats to pull things off. Instead the judge and player use the dice roll to help determine the success. This mechanic probably replaces 100+ fighter type feats with one simple to use mechanic. Creativity is restored to the player to solve problems or do cool things during combat.

Find the System For You

I was a big 3.x D&D fan. The system really worked well for me and I feel it provided the framework I needed to run a fun game. Then the option books started coming, and coming, and coming. The system began to bog down for me. There were too many feats, too many builds, too many prestige classes. I started to feel constrained.

Then Pathfinder came along. I loved just having the core rulebook. My energy was back, it was like 3.x was before the ever churning supply of option books. But then Pathfinder started following the same path. More option books, more feats, more spells, more, more, more… It seems the time has come that Pathfinder has started to make me feel constrained again. It has become more about knowing the expanding ruleset than creating fun adventures and characters.

I am not here to change Pathfinder. There are a multitude of systems out there that do fit my changing style of play. I do not need to wage a campaign to change Pathfinder or any other system. I simply need to identify what type of mechanics frustrate me and look at any number of systems that seem a better fit for me. There are many such systems.

RPG Superstar 2013 Voting

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Jeffrey Tadlock

It is the time year again for Paizo’s RPG Superstar contest. The deadline for first round submissions has passed. I’ve participated in previous years, but the inspiration for creating a Pathfinder Wondrous Item was not flowing for me this year and I did not enter.

This year the format is a little different. Usually there is a panel of judges that review all of the items that were entered and choose the top 32. This year the Paizo community gets to vote on the items and the more popular items will go before the panel of judges to be whittled down to the top 32.

The voting screen pops up two of the submitted items in a head-to-head vote. You read both items,decide which you think is best and vote for it. Voting multiple times is encouraged and after you vote you are presented with another two items to vote on.

I’ve been over there a time or two to vote on a few items. It has been sort of fun to see what other folks have come up with! Some ideas are really cool and others are sort of out there. Seeing how much attention is paid to the mechanics and format of the entry is interesting as well.

If you find yourself with a bit of spare time over the holidays, swing on by the voting page for RPG Superstar 2013 and vote on a few items. Make sure to read the FAQ (don’t worry it is short) and see if you pick up any ideas for your own game!

Mini-Review: Decahedron

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Decahedron is the first issue of its free fanzine from DwD Studios. The inaugural issue supports their recent RPG release BareBones Fantasy, a rules-light fantasy genre roleplaying game. Haven’t heard of BareBones Fantasy yet? Don’t worry, we will be taking a closer look at that system in an upcoming post at The Iron Tavern.

Decahedron is a short 10 page fanzine and is available for free. One of the driving goals is to provide a location for fans to get their content published and out to the community.

The first issue weighs in with six articles and a high resolution map on the back cover. The map is a typical dungeon map with 25 rooms for the crafty GM to populate and drop into his campaigns. The inclusion of a map is supposed to be a regular feature for future issues. So even if you aren’t a BareBones Fantasy RPG player or GM, it could still be worth your time to grab a copy of the fanzine just for the map.

First up in this issue is a table of 100 descriptors for use with your character in BareBones Fantasy. A portion of creating your character in BBF is to note a descriptor, or short phrase that describes a focus or trait of your character. Something like “follows a strict diet” or “drinking songs invariably evolve into sacred hymns”. This table has 100 such descriptors to either get your creative juices flowing or to roll randomly on.

A new spell called Commune is included in a feature called Grimoire. The entry contains plenty of crunch to be dropped into your BBF game if you are looking to add new spells to your game.

The next article was Game Options. This article covered the process that evolved into coming up with the rules for two-weapon fighting in BBF. I found this article particularly enjoyable for a couple of reasons. First, I still envision being able to play a dwarven berserker type that wades into battle with two axes. It is sort of a test as to how well a system is going to suit me! This optional feature looks promising, striking a balance between offense and defense. Second, I enjoyed reading the thought process of what discussion went into crafting the crunch for this optional mechanic. Definitely a good read!

A short adventure from Matt Jackson makes its way into the pages. Only taking three pages of print, a map, adventure hooks, and encounter descriptions are all included. It looks like a fun adventure to drop in as a side encounter for an ongoing BBF campaign or perhaps as a one-shot to demo the game for folks at a convention.

And finally the issue closes out with a new creature from Larry Moore and a new character race by Mike Wikan. Both are one-page articles that seek to add more options to the BBF game.

The art in this fanzine is excellent. DwD Studios is picking up the tab on the art contained within to help keep the fanzine free for people.

Check the fanzine out even if you are new to BBF. Even if BBF isn’t your game, the map at the back is sure to be useful. The adventure within could always be adapted to your game of choice as well.

Interview: Quinn Conklin

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Jeffrey Tadlock

The Iron Tavern recently interviewed Quinn Conklin, one of the driving forces behind the Toys for the Sandbox series from Occult Moon. In addition to writing the weekly fantasy series he also has a role in the post-apocalyptic and science fiction flavors of Toys for the Sandbox as well.

Because keeping a weekly series churning out is not enough to keep the man busy, he also has taken up writing some adventures for new to the scene, BareBones Fantasy, a rules-light fantasy RPG from DwD Studios.

Quinn also has a couple of side projects that he picks up as time permits. Between all of this he still manages to squeeze in some time for gaming!

And with that, let the interview begin!

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The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the name Quinn Conklin is the Toys for the Sandbox weekly series you write for Occult Moon. Can you tell us a little more about that series?

The core of the series is a simple idea. Develop a location that a GM can drop into their game when they need to add a bit of color. But a setting is just a place to make it come alive it needs history,people and a bit of bustle. So each issue of Toys has a bit of flavor text covering the history of the place and what it looks like, four NPCs that could be encountered there, six plot hooks with three twists each to serve as a launchpad for an adventure and a few (usually magic) items that the party might find there as well.

For readers unfamiliar with the Toys for the Sandbox series, are they written with a specific system in mind or are they system neutral?

They are system neutral which presents its own set of challenges, I can’t describe a magic sword as +5 I have to use phrases such as gives a significant bonus to damage.

Which issue is your favorite in the series so far? What makes it stand out for you?

That is a hard question, when I am writing one I am very excited about it, but that fades as I move on to the next. A few do stand out, The Dormant Volcano comes to mind mainly for the character of Jeremy, a young man who drank from a cursed pool and is now stuck in the body of a flying squirrel while the squirrel is running around in his body. The Weeping Widow has a lot of plot lines started that have spread out to other issues, and the recent arc I have been working on, The City by the Sea, has been fun as well and has let me explore some issue about race and politics.

You have a print version of the first 18 issues of Toys for the Sandbox coming up. How has that been coming together? Do you have an anticipated release date for this print version?

Honestly it has been slow. The series has gone through a lot of growth since it started back in January. We started with a four page product and now are up to around 13. Some of that came from great NPC descriptions and back story and that meant going back and updating some of the old text so each would have a standard feel. Also when I started writing Toys and was trying to keep things to the four pages I tended to have ideas that did not fit so they wound up posted on the Occult Moon website. In doing the print edition we decided to make room for those posts as well.

As to release date, I have the proof in hand now and so does my editor, we have come across a few last minute changes that need making and then we will be putting it up for sale. My hope is that we can have it go live on the 26th.

There are two spin-offs of the Toys for the Sandbox series that cover the sci-fi and apocalypse genres. Those are a little earlier in their lifecycle. What has been your role in those lines?

These two series have always been planned as a limited run project. The target was 10 issues of each but as usually happens we had more to say then we thought and the Post Apocalypse Toys line wound up going to 11. Sci Fi is still going on and publishing monthly rather than weekly. I have not been that active in Sci Fi Toys line other than creating the flavor text, character, and hook format. With PA Toys I co-wrote it with Gary Montgomery and did the design and layout.

The publication schedule you adhere to for these series is what many would consider quite aggressive. Between writing the product, getting it through layout, and published for sale, how do you keep up?

The key for me is having a process. Monday after the new issue goes on sale I know it is time to start working on the next issue, I need to have the flavor text and characters done by Tuesday night so I can send them off to my artists so they have time to work. That keeps the momentum going and the rest of it just flows.

By now the layout is not that hard to get through, I have a template I work from and it is really just a matter of plugging the pieces in.

Do you have issues already written and in the queue? Or is the issue you work on this week the one you will be publishing on Monday of the following week?

I would love to try and have issues in the queue and I have managed to make it happen a few times but it never lasts. One of my first paid writing gigs was working for Patch.com writing daily news. So coming out of an environment where I would get a call at 7 a.m. saying there was a protest going on at such and such a place and having the story in by noon, a weekly schedule is not that insane.

In addition to writing volume you also have the pressure to come up with a new idea every week. How do you come up with that many workable ideas and turn it into a product week after week?

Again I do it by having a plan in place. I try to alternate issues between wilderness and city locations for starters. The other thing I do is set up large locations and explore them, The Hermits Island, The Pirate Island and now the City by the Sea are good examples. When I have these series within the series going I don’t want to beat people over the head with them so I usually work on those every other issue or every three depending on the scope of the place.

But sometimes ideas are hard to come buy, if I really hit a snag i will take requests on G+ for things that people want to see, The Hamlet Under the Waterfall and the Wandering Wells of Mistomore are issues that started that way.

Other times it is just a matter of asking the world around me the right question. Issue 49 The Salt Mine is a good example of that. I was sitting down to brunch with my character artist, it was Tuesday morning and I had no idea what I was going to write about still. I looked at the table and started thinking about the condiments and asking them where they were going to take me today. We are probably lucky the salt shaker answered before the hot sauce.

Tell us a little about your gaming background. What were the first games you played?

I started off on AD&D and the original Red Box in the early 80’s or perhaps the late 70’s, it was 3rd or 4th grade. Champions, Gamma World and Star Frontiers were other games I had early but did not play much. FASERIP Marvel was the game we played through half of high school then we moved our supers world to the Palladium system.

What games are on your current playlist?

The big ones for me at the moment are Dungeon World, BareBones Fantasy, and Fate Core. My home group has really loved the Dresden Files but then people moved and syncing schedules got rough. The writing schedule does not give me as much time to play as I like.

We’ve talked about Toys for the Sandbox and associated projects. As we begin to turn the corner to a new year, what else do you have in store for us?

A few other things on the Toys front, we are planing to get the rest of this year’s back issues collected in two more omnibuses in the first quarter of 2013. After that the PA toys line will get its own collection and when the first run of Sci Fi toys is done it gets an omnibus. Also year two of toys will be rolling out at the same breakneck pace.

I have a few irons in the fire and it will be interesting to see where they go, I have been working on a pair of systems that I hope to have ready for release in the next year. One is a story game called Agents and Champions that is more in the vain of DO or Fiasco but crunchier than both. The other is my own fantasy RPG called Whack Pack Adventures, that one started to see a lot of feature bloat and I needed to walk away for a bit.

I am also working with DwD Studios and writing adventures for BareBones Fantasy.

Can you tell us a little more about Whack Pack Adventures?

WPA is sort of my answer to the OSR scene but rather than trying to create a game that models the rulesets I loved in high school I am working on something that models the feel of those games. We, and by we I mean my gaming group when I was growing up, would play these pick up games that we just called Whack Pack. It had an anything goes mentality with people playing monsters and the dice falling where they may.

It is hard to say more without getting into specifics of the game you know 20 races, separation of race and culture in character creation, spell customization, every things is combat, blah blah blah…

BareBones Fantasy from DwD Studios has been on my radar. You wrote A Bigger Problem for them, right? Tell us a little more about writing adventures for the BareBones Fantasy system.

Yep I wrote A Bigger Problem and the follow up The Children of the Giants Fist. Currently I am working on the last part of that story arc.

Writing adventures is weird for me because I am the guy who never ran a module, well almost never. I tried to run one canned adventure for Brave New Worlds and wound up literally throwing the thing over my shoulder as the party saw a solution that was logical and so far off the rails of the printed material that it was useless to me at that point.

This is something that I have kept in mind as I have been writing for BBF. Make the players choice count for something, though that might not be obvious in the first two installments since those are about the players reacting to problems in town but even then there are opportunities for real choices by the players.

The system is easy to write for but does not feel too simple. A lot of rules light games, at least for me do not offer much in the way of room for characters to grow, that is not something I feel with BBF. The world feels big and the people in it feel real and the system has let me write some complex skill challenges that are more interesting than pass or fall to your death.

The guys over at DwD are great to work with as well. Larry Moore is always encouraging me to expand their world, add monsters and magic and all that good stuff. And Bill Logan is good about asking the right questions to put the polish on things.

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The Iron Tavern wants to thank Quinn for taking the time to answer my questions. It was a pleasure interviewing him!