Hey everyone, Nathanael here. It’s been a while since I last posted, in truth because I’ve been so busy with other projects that I just haven’t had the time. Wanna know what’s been going on, and what’s in the near future? Read on!

The biggest project that has occupied my time is a new site called Awropla (or Awesomeroleplayers.com), which is based on the premise of Campaign Networking. People can sign up for free, without any ads, and upload and host their campaign information. Characters can be journaled, campaigns chronicled, quotes submitted, and all are tagged, enhanced, and cross-referenced with one another to promote an idea of a community based on shared gaming information. Gamers can start their own online forums for their gaming groups, and use them to plan events and discuss their downtimes.

Needless to say, this has absorbed a large chunk of my time and focus, and I’m hoping it will go officially live in the near future. As it currently stands, I’ve just disabled the feature that required all new accounts receive admin approval before being able to post. Now, anyone can sign up, fill out the reg form, log in and start posting. If you’re reading this, head on over to Awropla, check it out, and let me know if you have any suggestions.

After Awropla are three major game design projects, one being Verses, one a LARP, and the third a fan-made (that fan being Me) game based on a fantastic-awesome-stupendous-fabulous animated TV show which I won’t name at this moment. I think our Saturday test campaign of the Verses RPG is coming to a conclusion soon, at which point we’ll be reviewing the system one last time to see if it is indeed worth sharing with external playtesters. It’s been a lot of fun so far, and I’m hoping it can stand up to the final scrutiny. The LARP, on the other hand, hasn’t really been touched much lately, but I’m hoping to give it a second test session after the holidays have passed and folks are all back and ready to game some more.

Yet another gaming project of mine has been the recent establishment of a dynamic gaming group I call the Portland RPG Noob Crew. The extended details can be found at that link, but the basic gist of the project involves finding locals who want to game but for various reasons never really have, and helping them find out if they enjoy the hobby. We’ve had one session so far and it was a whole lot of fun. The next session has just today been scheduled to take place on Saturday, December 8th.

So, what else is going on?

• Last night finally saw the long-awaited end to the Little Fears game we started several months ago. Our last session was 5 months back, and I know we’re all glad to finally have some closure. Perhaps I’ll make a post about it on Awropla - if I do, I’ll link it here too.
• We’ve got a LARP session planned for GameStorm 10, which is coming up in March 2008. More details on that as it gets closer.
• I have decided that after this holiday season, I will no longer run extended gaming campaigns, at least for a good long time. I just don’t think I’m cut out for them anymore.
• I’m debating closing the forums for now. Now that I’ve moved my personal gaming stuff to the new Awropla site, the forums see no use, and are just taking up dead space.
• I’ve started playing LotR:O again. Oh yeah. Like I have so much time on my hands as it is.

That’s it for now. I hope to update a bit more regularly, now. =)

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

Thanks to John for uploading the pictures from Saturday’s playtest. I’ve put them in their own gallery here. Check them out!

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

Yesterday’s playtest session of the new working BMF LARP rules was quite satisfactory. Beer, Pizza, Highlander Jokes, and more, the game was pretty damn fun, and John even took some good pictures of those who could make it. Sadly, several of the originally-listed players were missing-in-action, but there were a few extras who showed up to fill most of the roles, with me taking the reigns of one of the “wild card” faction characters.

The People

Thanks to Robin, John, Alex, Jason, and Tammy for coming over, eating pizza, drinking beer, and having a damn good time roleplaying, playtesting, and dorking out. You guys are my heroes of the week.

I’m pretty excited about tomorrow’s playtest of the BMF LARP rules’ core mechanics. The Screg and I have worked together Shake-and-Bake-style to pen a fairly nifty scenario that should fit the playtest’s needs quite suitably. The scenario is based on the shoulda-been-a-hit TV series Jeremiah, and the premise is a high-stakes negotiation before a full-blown war erupts.

I’m in the middle of writing up the character roles right now, and I am having a blast doing so. Each character for this scenario has three major involvement-defining features beyond the rules mechanics. The character’s Motivation is the goal they’re working towards first and foremost as the scene progresses. Alongside that is the character’s Concession, which sets one or more conditionals which would alter that Motivation, and how. Finally, the character comes into the scenario with an Empowerment, giving them an extra edge over the rest, a hidden trick up their sleeve, or maybe just a good force or power to back up their words.

Anyway, here’s my introductory write-up for the whole scenario:

“Jeremiah is set in a future post-apocalyptic world where, over a decade before, a deadly virus wiped out the world’s adult population sparing only those who haven’t reached puberty. Now in their 20s, the oldest survivors of the pandemic must find their way in a decadent civilization and attempt to create a new world order of hope.”

Sixteen years ago, the Big Death hit. In 2004, this mysterious virus wiped out everyone in the world over the age of puberty, leaving their children to live and suffer in their absence. Over the years since, some folks took to the roads to steal and scrape by, while others gathered together to form power centers great and small. Now, in 2020, two of these powers have brought their forces to bear against each other at Four Roads, and the events that follow this encounter will drastically change the political face of territories which were once the Midwest and Northeast United States of America.

In my previous post, I mentioned a LARP playtest on September 29th. Due to conflicting schedules with hopeful participants, this has been rescheduled two weeks earlier to September 15th, same time and location.

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

I want to give this a second try. I’m looking to run a playtest of some LARP mechanics. The playtest itself will feature a small scenario in a gritty no-mutants post-apocalyptic setting. The mechanics are based entirely upon negotiation and manipulation of one’s qualities and traits. I’m looking to gather at least six people (not including myself), and hopefully 10 to 15. The game will take place at my house, and I will be providing meals for everyone, just to entice you into coming and participating. Maybe pizza, maybe a lot of tacos, maybe even some home-cooked curries or BBQ.

I’m aiming at Saturday, the 29th of September, starting around 3 or 4 PM. I think this is early warning enough.

Let me know if you’re interested. Thanks!

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

This coming Friday night is our second Grind Night. In this gathering, we’ll be continuing where we left off in our first Grind, this time killing off the remaining six Colossi. Interested in joining us? Drop a comment or leave some feedback.

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

This weekend involved a lot of gaming, at least one game (or semblance thereof) per evening. Friday night featured a revisit of our ever-exciting D&D&D game (Dungeons and Dragons and Drunkards). In this game, we take shots as we do various game things, and we kill stuff. Sometimes, the stuff kills us. In this particular session, present were myself, Chris, Alex, Drake, and a brand new gamer Forrest, who has now been successfully converted. This one specific of the night pretty much made the weekend awesome; it’s not every day you get to see (and influence!) the seed of the hobby take root in another’s imagination. She really got into the back-story development of her character, so much that I have decided I will introduce her to better games very soon, before D&D gets in and takes too strong of a hold. I ran them all through a quick homemade scenario, and stuck with a theme of Monster Hunting, which will be revisited each time we return to the hopefully continuous game.