Lego Agonica

I bought the Lego Heroica Fortaan set last weekend. It's a bit of fun as a dungeon crawl. I'm experimenting with it to see what can be done with various map arrangements and campaign play. Maybe it'll turn into a Fighting Fantasy kind of game for me.

But while I was messing around with it, I had to turn it into an Agon range strip simply because it seemed so natural to do with all those tiles and microfigs. Behold, Lego Agonica!

My Auscon Experience

The day after RPG Sunday is worth a little time and reflection on my experience of it.

I had the best start to the day because the shirt I'd ordered for the day arrived just in time. Wow. It grabbed attention, and was only a matter of minutes before someone said, "That's an awesome shirt. Where can I get one?"

To get your own, go see Daniel Solis' Cafepress site. Kudos to Daniel for making a version with correct Commonwealth spelling.

I was only at Auscon for the Sunday, but it was a very full day. Starting the RPGs at 9am on a Sunday was something of a challenge. Who's awake and keen to play story games at 9am on Sunday?!? Apparently, about fifteen people. And even though that meant I didn't get to run FU, it did mean that I could be part of a play test for Behind The Screens. Peter's got a great little game idea going there, and I'm keen to see it develop and evolve into a polished game. Seriously, people, watch for that game.

Between that and the 2pm session, I had a chance to wander the floor and see the vendors, the miniatures tables, and get a chai. The venue was exactly the right size for the con, and laid out so very well. Gaming tables in the middle completely dominated the space, but didn't overpower the trade stalls that lined the walls. Most of the product was miniatures-based, but that's not surprising, since Auscon was originally going to only cater for minis games. Ace Comics came through with the goods for RPGs (even including some Dresden Files), and I think that was in proportion to the attendees. And kudos for the staff too. There seemed to be the right number of them for the activities, spread around in the right amount.

After lunch I had the great chance to run Agon. Yes! Finally! I've offered this game at cons before and never had takers. Maybe my elevator pitch was poor, or perhaps I should also stop offering it on the same game menu as Spirit of the Century. Regardless, I had five heroes complete a quest for Hera. As far as my GM effort went, they all seemed pleased with it. I managed to test every ability, except for Music. Maybe next time for that one. I'm sure I also fudged a couple of rules, but everything seemed to flow OK and the story didn't get bogged down or lopsided because of it. Best of all, I have the feeling that even playing the game is something of an Agon, an effort. I say that, not because it's hard going, but because the characters are always getting beaten down by something in order to succeed at something else. The frustration of the characters showed on the players' faces, and that seemed like a good thing.

And in the last session, I ran the best game of Poison'd I've ever run. I was going to say that I'd redeemed Poison'd, but that just seems antithetical. The story flowed smoothly. The characters lunged for their ambitions and were frustrated by the Cruel Fortunes. There were a few things I did in this game that I'll gladly repeat next time, to help make the story work. Special thanks go to the players, for embracing the depravity of being pirates.

My only regret was not remembering that I wanted to try Sagefight. Looking back, we would have had to go outside for it. There certainly wasn't enough space inside for those kinds of shenanigans.

Overall, my experience of one-third of Auscon was positive. Allan and Mark did a marvellous job. Watch out for their next project, whatever it is. I do know, though, that the first weekend in October is going to be another gaming convention. Mark your diaries now.

My games at Auscon

I'm offering three games at Auscon this weekend. This is what I have in mind.

9am - FU
FU looks like a genuine pickup game, so that's what I'm going to do with it. I have no preconceived notions of a setting at all, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the players come up with. I've played in these kinds of games before and will steal a technique from Steve D to set it up. Everyone has two scraps of paper and writes a single idea on each one. We draw two (or three?) at random and start from there.

2pm - Agon
I've owned this game for ages and have hardly played it at all, despite my ongoing wish to do so. This needs the most preparation, so I'm most nervous about it. It's been a while since I really prepared something with this much detail.

7pm - Poison'd
The game of depraved sailors, desperately trying to avoid the governor's gallows and their shipmates' shivs. I've run this badly before, and then I got better at it. And now I cackle at the very thought of it.

Star Wars Agony

It's no secret that I like Star Wars. I've never played any of the RPGs, though, but I've played the WOTC minis game a few times and have several minis. But as I was thinking about what to do with all those minis this morning, I figured that I could use Agon rules to play a good Clone Wars campaign. Substitute the Jedi Council for the gods, the Jedi for the heroes, various Force powers for the weapons, and several other cosmetic changes and it'll work nicely.

Interestingly, I'd like to change the Oaths to Doctrines in some way. Oaths bind one character to another as a debt of obligation in Agon. The only obligation that a Jedi has is to the doctrine of the Jedi council. It'd be great to see a Jedi compelled to move this way or that in combat as a result of necessarily obedience to the Jedi code.

That's today's Star Wars mashup, at least. Enjoy!

Indie Day

The fine people of Every Gamer's Guild are hosting their monthly game day on July 4th. In America this is Independence Day. In Newcastle, it's indie games day.

This is too good an opportunity to have an indie game with some people I haven't seen since Gencon 08, so I'll be going and running games. The sessions are only 2 hours long, so the games have to be punchy. At the time of writing, I intend to run Spirit of the Century and either Agon or Burning Wheel (perhaps The Sword).

SOTC will get a slight revision, though. I think I'll try it with only 5 aspects per character. I've found that in most convention games, about half of the aspects aren't used. Either they're not great aspects, or there are too many aspects for players to grasp in a short timeslot. I'll figure it out closer to the day.

And lastly, there is the potential for some after-hours gaming with a Secret Project I'm working on. Stay tuned.

Stealing from Agon

I was inspired, whilst driving the car, to steal a conflict resolution mechanism from Agon for one of my tiny games. It shares with Agon a competitive intent, with players working against each other and against a common opponent. I'll hack it a little, of course, and then it's done.

Now, should I ask John Harper for permission, or should I simply make the acknowledgement in the game text?

An Agon Story

So I made it down to Sydney and back, and in between the hours working for my corporate overlords, I ran a game of Agon for Michael & Co (as previously discussed).

Had a great time!  As GM, I find that I get to set the tone for the game right from the beginning.  The kinds of details that I draw from the players (and then reward in some way or other) are the kinds that they often return to because of that reward.  So I adopted the model that seems to fit nicely with my current gaming interests:

1. Frame the scene

2. Roleplay until we reach a decision point in the plot

3. Set the stakes with the players

4. Use the rules to make the plot decision

5. Roleplay some more, working towards the decision made in step 4.

6. End the scene.

7.  Wash.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Wipe hands on pants.

Perhaps step 7 isn't required...

Nevertheless, doing this created some interesting outcomes in the game itself, and my favourite is that the rules became the base for the roleplaying superstructure, rather than the other way around, and that because of this, it felt like a story was being made and told.  Complete with narration, description and dialogue, a story was made together and told together.

Thanks to Michael, Leah, Bill and Freya for a great night of gaming.  Special thanks for the great meal - Greek style goodies to kick off the theme!  

Wish Fulfilment

Courtesy of Michael Wenman, I get to have one of my 2009 Wishlist Items fulfilled. I'll be visiting his part of the world this week and he's organised a game group so I can run a one-shot of Agon.

Hot damn! I'm excited about this. Agon's a great game, full of the themes of deific command, heroic competitiveness and overdone posturing by the players. And the GM is meant to make it tough, since in this game the GM is the Antagonist.

Oh, the evil laughing is already reverberating in my dark, dark soul.

GenConOz: Games on Demand

I think I've narrowed down my list for GOD to just three: Spirit of the Century, Agon, and Don't Rest Your Head. I'd honestly like to run more, but I think I won't be able to practise enough between now and then to ensure that I can run a decent game.

Honestly, I think that DRYH will be the most difficult of all of them for me to run, because it is the least crunchy of the lot. Agon has such a simple heroic premise that it's easy to ensure group motivation. SOTC is similar in that regard, but DRYH is the one that still confounds me a little.

Sounds like a worthy challenge, if you ask me.

How I should have handled the chase in Agon

I've been stewing over this for a few days now and have finally figured out how I should have handled a particular scene in last weekend's game of Agon. This is the situation. One of the heroes (Cronos, son of Gorgos) had been scouting around a village and had set off a trap. The trap wounded him and also raised the alert that he was there, so a conflict ensued. Cronos decided to use Cunning and try to sneak his way out of trouble rather than run his way out of trouble (Athletics).

What I should have done was call for a contest of Cunning and suggested that Cronos find some creative abilities (e.g., Athletics) to add to the roll. As the Antagonist, I should have paid strife for an advantage for the pursuers because of their superior numbers and perhaps increased it to 2d8 opposition.

The second key thing that I should have done was spend more time defining the outcomes of the contest. That is, a Cronos victory should have enabled him to escape whereas a Cronos loss should have resulted in a capture - including disarmament.

And the third thing I should have suggested, but not insisted on, was invoking Hubris when Cronos lost the contest (which he did, and then refused to give up his weapons).

As the Antagonist/GM I didn't handle this very well and the story stagnated for a few minutes. I will take this as a learning experience and should know better for our second game. The guys at the Durham3 are of the opinion that it's not until the third session of a game system that everyone gets on top of the rules and makes them start to sing.

So there's only one more dodgy session to go. Yes!

The aftermath of Agon

My monthly indie game took place over the weekend and I'm happy to say that we all enjoyed it. For a first game, I spent surprisingly little time flicking through the rule book and I think that's testament to John Harper's work in keeping the concept simple. Of especially good use were the reference tables available for download from the Agon site. They saved us all a lot of time.

I won't go into the details of the first quest, but I feel that I timed it well enough. What I need to do better next time is throw more Strife at the heroes. They were simply too strong for the NPCs and minions that they encountered. With one cautious player and one gung-ho player it wasn't long before the cautious player was using the gung-ho player as a shield.

The only other snag that I feel we hit was with regards to persuasion. In a contest of Oration (seems to be the most appropriate ability), when the heroes win there was no doubt that the NPCs would have to fold. However, if the heroes lose there is nothing to force them to submit to the goal of the NPCs. I think I might need to make it more clear that when the dice are rolled, it is a branching point in the story. I think I also need to frame the scene and the contest better to ensure that the players don't simply say, "No, I'm not going to do that, no matter what the dice have rolled." I will have to be more explicit in laying out the consequences of winning and losing a contest.

Mistakes that I made

• Armour impairments can be removed during an interlude, as with any other ability
• The Shield ability should be used during combat
• Defeated minions are only worth 1 glory, without adding the Strife cost
• I didn't spend Strife correctly

Other things that I will change next time

• NPCs will be fewer and more powerful
• Objectives will be more linear

But there will definitely be a next time. Oh yes indeed.

At Last, the Agon

Today is the day I get to try out Agon for the first time. This should be an interesting exercise since none of the three of us who'll be playing have played it before. I'm especially interested to see how the competitive aspect of Agon plays out. There'll be cooperation, but how much? I'll put a play report up sometime later.

Some thoughts on Agon

I've nearly finished reading through Agon and wanted to put down some thoughts on it.


Format
From the beginning the first thing that struck me is the format of the book. The cover art really captures the mood of the game. It's epic, Greek, legendary and imposing. Even the interior art, done in the style of classical Greek art, forced me to think about the game in ways other than the typical fantasy setting. Even though it's all line art and B&W, nothing is taken away from it.

Concept
Great concept. Agon articulates why we go for characters that level up and level up and level up. We do it for the glory. We do it to become legends. Gaining points for these things is a nice way to focus it. It's better than "experience" because that implies an endless journey, whereas the protagonists in this game are aiming towards something. They have a limited playable life and they need to make sure that retirement is a comfortable and glorious one.

Mechanics
I don't want to say much about these because it's probably been done to death on The Forge. What I will say is that the mechanics facilitate the competitiveness well. Success breeds more success. Failure breeds more failure. There's almost a death-spiral in this game, as well as a life-spiral (perhaps a glory-spiral is a better name). The GM's budget is great too. I had never thought about this idea before, but now I'm keen for it. The GM doesn't actually have limitless resources for obstacles. They must all be paid for from a pool of strife points.

Overall, I like what I've read. I'll put together a game for my gaming group and try it out. I suspect that it will give its best return in campaign play, but I won't know until I play it.

More goodness from IPR

Well, in case you don't already subscribe to the IPR podcast or e-mail, you should know that there is a new episode of The Voice of the Revolution. Go download it and listen to the goodness therein.

In other news, now that my semester has finished I've put my order in for some more games. In no particular order, this is what is currently en route to me.

Agon
The game of competition and high mythos in fictional ancient Greece. The author claims that its his competitive take on D&D but I have the feeling that it could be run very nicely in the Xena world, or even in an epic sense as 300.
http://www.agon-rpg.com/

Burning Wheel: Revised
I've heard many good reports about this award-winning game. Who could resist? Too many people are drooling over Luke Crane at the moment for me to ignore this.
http://www.burningwheel.org/

Brick Battles
I have a moderate-sized chunk of Lego at home. If this means I get to actually use it as a wargame, then I'm sold straightaway. I hope the rules are simple enough for me to introduce my nephew to another great wargame. So far it's just been Star Wars Miniatures, but there's still time. You can download this one if you don't want to pay for the print version.
http://www.blankshieldpress.com/brick.html

Mechaton: Giant Fighty Robots
This game is a mystery. I have no idea what it's about. Must be some kind of political intrigue... I'm especially amused by Vincent's other game: Kill Puppies for Satan. I heard him talking about it once and was sold from the moment I heard the title. Anyone who's been through the Jack Chick years knows why this is funny.
http://www.lumpley.com/games/