The End...For Now!

We played the epic conclusion of our Vanguard Saga campaign this evening. The heroes foiled the Anchorites' plans and, in doing so, got a few teasers for the upcoming Vesper campaign. I absolutely loved the player characters in this storyline, so we'll definitely revisit them in the future. Their main NPC ally was taken captive in the closing moments of the adventure, so they have an obvious next mission to undertake...

Endgame

We're nearing the conclusion of our family Vanguard Saga campaign -- or the first big chunk of it, anyway. After slipping around the Anchorites' battle lines by means of a hidden trail, the heroes have reached the ruins where their foes have taken control of a mysterious artifact.

To get to the artifact, they'll have to fight or sneak their way into the dusty temple where the Anchorites' chief archaeologist is preparing to reactivate this long-dormant device.

Can our heroes stop the Anchorites in time? It's going to be quite the showdown! 

(Oh, and a powerful but unpredictable assassin is going to show up at basically the worst-possible time with an agenda of her own, which is bad news for both the Anchorites and the heroes...)

Battle Lines

Our heroes in the Vanguard Saga campaign are continuing their perilous trek across the arid world of Elysion. They're soon to reach the forward command post of their military allies.

Unfortuantely, some Anchorites -- a fanatical sect seeking to separate itself, violently if necessary, from the rest of the human race -- are encamped nearby in the outskirts of a ruined, ancient city. 

The heroes will arrive just as the Anchorites are mounting an attack. They'll have to assist their allies to repel the charge and then continue deeper into the ruined city, where their foes are now unearthing a long-buried artifact that will determine the fate of the planet.

Plataea Outpost

In our family Vanguard Saga campaign, the heroes have crossed a harsh, arid wasteland and at last have reached a remote military outpost where they will work with the local garrison to undertake their mission here on the planet Elysion. 

They've also caught up with the Demeter, their trusty transport ship, from which they were separated shortly after arriving on this world. That ship is, of course, is a Warhammer 40k Valkyrie. Cheers to 40k for a wide range of models that I can use in roleplaying campaigns -- but jeers to our 3D printer, which crapped out when I really could have used a few more chain-link fence segments!

Cypher Musings

With a new edition of the Cypher System on the way this summer, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on how it's worked out in Front Porch campaigns over the past year. The first thing to note, however, is the small sample size. To date, we've done one in-person Cypher campaign (Vanguard Saga, with three players) and two email-based campaigns (another Vanguard Saga storyline and the revamped Torchlight, each with one player); compare those numbers to decades of D&D -- Druid Cycle, Shattered Realm, and so much more. That said, I think I have enough experience with Cypher to make some general observations about the rules and how we're using them. 

The most important point is that I'm very satisfied with Cypher as the default game system for the Front Porch multiverse. It's fast and easy, very flexible across genres, and well suited for narrative games. Long-running campaigns like the Druid Cycle setting will always be D&D, but at this moment I can't really imagine starting a new campaign that didn't use Cypher. My upcoming Vesper project, for example, is going to be our test run for the new Cypher edition.

So what else have I learned about Cypher from a year's worth of gaming? Below are some observations about how the experience at our table differs from the rules as written. 

• Back when I was just getting started with Cypher, Matt suggested a minor house rule to help ensure that ranged attacks at close range were not unequivocally superior to melee attacks. This house rule has worked out very well.
• In our family Vanguard campaign, Nathaniel created an android speedster whose many ways to ease Speed defense rolls has made him virtually untouchable by conventional attacks. Not everyone is out there trying to break the system, of course, but Nathaniel showed that even with a system designed by the best of the best in the gaming industry, it's quite possible to build unbalanced characters. 
• To help address the aforementioned problem, I created a house rule that enables certain low-level characters (such as troops who are part of a unit) to "gang up" on a single target more effectively. Nathaniel's android still runs circles around everyone, but at least now he has to be wary of large groups of foes taking aim at him all at once.
• No one remembers cyphers. I know it's supposed to be a big deal in the Cypher System, and it's right there in the name of the game, but cyphers still feel like a clunky add-on and not a core part of the game mechanics. 
• I love coming up with nasty GM Intrusions when players roll a 1 on their d20 checks, but all other GM Intrusions feel forced. When should something be an Intrusion rather than just a regular challenge for the PCs to overcome? Maybe I should think about Intrusions as "optional" encounters that players can either take on for the XP, or pay XP to avoid? Well, I guess, but that leads me to the final point...
• Players only use XP for advancement. In Cypher, players can spend XP for rerolls, for Player Intrusions, to avoid GM Intrusions, etc., but in practice, I've found that players don't use XP for any of these things. Only once -- and quite memorably -- did a player spend XP on a Player Intrusion, and that was when an NPC's life was at stake. Similarly, I think we've only had one or two instances when a player spent XP on a reroll. I guess it's nice to have these options in your pocket, but our experience is that players hoard XP for advancement. That realization, of course, has changed how I hand out XP; when players don't use it for all these other purposes, I have to slow down the XP rate or the characters will advance too quickly.

What changes will the new edition bring? I'm eager to find out. Here's to another year of Cypher gaming!

Sanctuary

In our family Vanguard Saga campaign, the heroes have undertaken a new mission to the barren but mineral-rich world of Elysion. After being separated from their transport ship, the companions make their way on foot to the nearest settlement, a ramshackle mining community known as Sanctuary. Here's a shot of the group and their Sanctuary Militia escorts approaching the town...

And now a zoomed-in view of the community. Note the cute little outhouse! Aside from that a few other items, the rest of the stuff was 3D printed and painted by yours truly. Inside, the buildings are all stocked with beds, tables, chairs, etc., and plenty of NPCs for the heroes to interact with.

Here's a shot of Sanctuary from the front...

And a side view...

I wonder if any wasteland-dwelling raiders will attack this place while the heroes are here...?

Gratitude

These days, I'm especially grateful for the opportunity to spend time with my family. We had a quiet weekend at home, and free time enough to play all three active campaigns: the revived Shattered Realm campaign with Matthew and Nathaniel, the Zoom-based Druid Cycle game with the boys and their cousins in Michigan, and finally the Vanguard Saga campaign with the boys and Amy. Any weekend we can get together around the ol' RPG table is a blessing.

Gamebreaker

The Vanguard Saga campaign is moving slowly, but at least it's moving! I'm really satisfied with how the party has turned out. Amy, Matthew, and Nathaniel all ended up creating characters that feel true to this setting and are worthy successors to the original heroes whose epic stories were depicted with 3.75" action figures in my parents' basement when I was in elementary school. 

I'm also pleased with my choice of the Cypher System as the common ruleset for this and any other Front Porch Multiverse campaign. For Tim W's email-based Vanguard Saga adventure, and for any narrative-centric games, the Cypher System is exactly what we need. But...how do the rules stack up against a fourteen-year-old math whiz with a keen understanding of game design? As it turns out, not so well! Sorry, Monte, Nathaniel has broken your combat system. Just as he did with the far-less-sophisticated TinyD6 system, Nathaniel figured out how to create characters that are, for all intents and purposes, invincible against conventional attacks from foes that would be of an appropriate level for the party. The bad guys (and the gamemaster) are now going to need to get a lot more creative...

Stars Aligned

The stars aligned this weekend -- well, a Boy Scout activity got postponed -- so I was able to run the introductory solo adventures for our new The Vanguard Saga campaign. Amy, Matthew, and Nathaniel all got to do their solo adventures yesterday and, as an added bonus, we had time for the first full-party session this evening. And with Tim W already deeply into his email-based adventure in this setting, it really feels like The Vanguard Saga is coming to life. It's my oldest fictional setting -- with characters I created way back when I was in elementary school -- but this is the first time I've ever used it in an RPG campaign.

A New Generation

With a spiffy new Front Porch Multiverse spreadsheet and Cypher System stats for hundreds of characters from over a dozen past campaigns, I'm excited to take the next step and start the first campaign of this new era. Now that Amy and the boys and I have wrapped up the zombie-battling Dark Enigma game, we'll get going with The Vanguard Saga. This setting dates back to when I was a young child and is my oldest fictional universe, predating the Druid Cycle world by a decade or more. Every few years, I update the timeline as well as the major NPCs who drive the storylines. As of today, I have a lineup of twelve amazing characters who will help me introduce this setting to my family and provide us with hours of fun storytelling in the months and years ahead. I've also taken the time to create full-color models of these characters using Hero Forge, so everyone will get to see what they look like in high-res detail!

The Battle of Ellicott Ridge

Some real-life challenges had prevented Amy, the boys, and me from playing Dark Enigma for the past month, but today we managed to convene for a special two-part finale to wrap up this zombie-themed campaign. There was nary a zombie to be seen in this climactic battle, however, because the heroes were facing off against government forces seeking to silence them and obtain the secret formula that had turned the residents of a quaint town in western New York into ravenous undead. In a classic siege battle, the player characters and their NPC allies unleashed withering fire on agents advancing up toward the clifftop compound where the heroes were holed up. There were some pretty epic moments, and all three of the players got a chance to shine: Nathaniel's cleverly placed traps slowed down the advancing agents, Amy saved the life of a major NPC with a critical healing roll, and Matthew took down the leader of the foes after hiding in the brush and ambushing him once most of his men were already well on their way up to the compound. I hope we return to these characters for a new storyline at some point in the future, but next up on the agenda is my long-gestating Vanguard Saga campaign. I just hope it isn't another month before we can get it started!

Phase 2 -- Stat Blocks

I now have a pretty comprehensive spreadsheet compiling the names, places, factions, etc., from non-5e D&D campaigns of today and yesteryear. These campaigns include:

• Alien 
• Cyberwars (with all of its prequels, sequels, and spinoffs)
• Dark Enigma
• Doctor Who
• Earth Commanders
• The Ladder
• The Other World
• Project Descartes
• Tales of the Ternion
• Torchlight
• The Vanguard Saga

Putting the spreadsheet together was the main objective of this phase of my project. However, in order to create a true multiverse where characters from various campaigns can cross over and interact with each other, the characters all need compatible game stats. The list above reflects a wide range of rules systems, from the Alien RPG (Alien) to TinyD6 (Dark Enigma) to 4e D&D (Torchlight). As I noted in a previous post, I've opted for the Cypher System as the common platform for the Front Porch multiverse. As such, my last step for Phase 2 is to assign a Cypher System level and stat block to all the characters in the spreadsheet. The core rulebook is a huge help, but I also picked up a copy of the Cypher System Bestiary, which looks like it will give me enough examples to balance characters from such wildly different genres.

Phase 1 Underway!

I mentioned last month that I've elected to use the Cypher System for my upcoming Vanguard sci-fi campaign and, ideally, all new campaigns in the Front Porch Multiverse going forward. (Side note: Big thank-you to my good friend Matt for really diving into the Cypher System rules!) One of the advantages of this system is that it's genre-agnostic, so it can be used for fantasy, modern, cyberpunk, or whatever. With a single ruleset, it will be super-duper easy for PCs and NPCs alike to cross over from one campaign to another. 

That got me thinking that I should pull together my notes from various campaigns -- names, places, storylines, adventure summaries, and the like -- and put them all into a single spreadsheet like the enormous one I created for the Druid Cycle campaign world. I have really great documentation from campaigns of the last few years -- Dark Enigma, Doctor Who, Tales of the Ternion -- so Phase 1 of my project is just to grab all that stuff and put it into one file. That's the easy part. 

Phase 2 is to go back to the not-so-well-documented campaigns of yesteryear, such as the Cyberwars series, and comb through my remaining notes for all the relevant info I can find. (Tim W, prepare to have your brain wracked!) The goal isn't to track down every last NPC name or obscure location, but essentially to mine those disparate records for anything that might help enrich future Front Porch Multiverse campaigns. 

Phase 3? I don't even want to think about it yet, but the final step is surely to merge the sheet created in the first two phases with the existing Druid Cycle spreadsheet to create one definitive repository of campaign data.

Cypher System

Recently the boys got me thinking about running a campaign set in my Vanguard universe, a sci-fi setting that has its origins in my very early childhood and has remained with me to this day. Most of my modern-setting campaigns -- from the cyberpunk Cyberwars (early 1990s) through the superheroes of Tales of the Ternion (2022) -- are essentially prequels of the Vanguard story. 

I've been looking around for an appropriate game system for this campaign, and gave the Alien RPG serious consideration, along with some d20-based systems. The boys, Nathaniel in particular, have broken the TinyD6 system (damn their incredible math skills!), so I needed something a bit more robust. I landed on Monte Cook's Cypher System, and now I'm kicking myself that I didn't find it sooner. This would have been the perfect system for all non-fantasy campaigns in my Front Porch multiverse. We could have used it for Tales of the Ternion, Doctor Who, Dark Enigma, and so many others. Well, better late than never! The Cypher System is now the official game engine of the multiverse.