Happy Halodays!

Howdy, everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season. 

The boys got some fun gaming stuff for Christmas this year, including D&D miniatures, a copy of the new 5.5 Player's Handbook for each of them, and the cool new Halo miniatures game. We also played through one of the adventures from the Cypher System Starter Set, which required a lot of deep dives into the rulebook, but it turned out pretty well. We're still a long way from starting a new campaign using this system, but at least it's another step in the right direction!

Imperial Hymn

The boys and I aren't really into Warhammer stuff these days, but this video was just flat-out awesome...

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.

A Stark Victory

With Matthew at a swim meet in Arizona this weekend, Amy, Nathaniel, and I kept busy with a lengthy Game of Thrones board game session that took us a pretty good chunk of the weekend to complete. Nathaniel played as House Stark, Amy was House Baratheon, and I was House Lannister. I was in the lead for much of the game, or at least tied with Nathaniel, and it all came down to the final turn, when Amy seized one of my castles, which gave Nathaniel sole position of the lead in victory points. So I guess Bran Stark ended up on the Iron Throne after all, just like in the show! How it all played out was quite different; for one thing, the standard version of the game omits those pesky Targaryens...

Dark Tomb: Bloodthorn Island

On a quiet Thanksgiving day, my nephew Daniel joined Matthew, Nathaniel, and me for the second installment of the Dark Tomb series of super-tiny cooperative fantasy boardgames. Matthew and I reprised our roles from the first campaign -- a rogue-type for him, a ranger-type for me -- while Nathaniel opted for a warrior-type instead of the spellcaster he had used in the first one, and Daniel chose a cleric-type. In this campaign, we needed to procure a ship, travel to a distant island, and defeat a powerful draconic foe. We got the ship easily enough, but things went haywire soon after we set sail, as we ended up triggering all the monsters too quickly and they came swimming in hot pursuit of our vessel. Thanks to some clever use of items and Nathaniel's character's ability to reflect damage back at foes who hit him, we managed to survive the journey to the island. That final segment started off auspiciously, but the final boss turned out be a handful. Fortunately, it moved very slowly, so we were able to scamper away and come up with a plan. Matthew and I softened it up with ranged attacks, then Nathaniel allowed himself to take a huge hit so he could reflect damage back at the dragon, and finally Daniel finished it off with a powerful harpoon gun we had assembled from items scattered across the island. What a fun way to pass the time until Thanksgiving dinner!

It's a Thing of Beauty

Really digging the Cypher System. That is all.

Dune: Prophecy

Dune: Prophecy debuts this Sunday, November 17, on HBO and Max. Here's to another amazing journey into the "Dune-iverse"!

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.

Legacy of Kain

At long last, my Legacy of Kain Collection for Evercade is on its way. I've never played any games from this acclaimed vampire series, so I can't wait to sink my teeth into them!

Waiting Game

I've been waiting patiently (well, not really) for my latest Evercade fix: Tomb Raider Collection 1 and the Legacy of Kain Collection. In the meantime, I've been catching up on some Warhammer painting projects and planning lots of encounters and subplots for the current Druid Cycle storyline. After years (decades) of campaigns focused on supervillain-type foes, it feels fresh and exciting to be building toward a very different kind of crisis: World War Druid Cycle!

Empire of the Ghouls

As a kind of farewell to "classic" Fifth Edition, I've been playing through Empire of the Ghouls (from Kobold Press) over the past few months and just finished it up last weekend. I used a solo character (beastmaster ranger) and a sidekick (prodigy spellcaster) who were slightly over-level to make up for the fact that there were only two characters (and a faithful animal companion!) in the party. I really had a blast! Empire is a full-fledged campaign, and a first-rate one at that. Highly recommended!

DC Season 3 Championship

Riverton Racers (3rd place) vs. Troya Nova Paladins (4th place)

The Racers hosted their franchise's first home-field playoff game at the Circus in the Bankside district of Riverton. (Tim W's wizard Cathbad helped secure the funding for that facility many years ago -- I hope he found time in his busy adventuring schedule to catch the most important sporting event ever held in that arena!) It wasn't a battle of the league's best teams, perhaps, but a battle of the league's hottest teams. The match certainly did not disappoint. Vico scored on the game's first shot, and the Racers played with the lead for nearly 60 minutes. Midway through the second half, Apollonius scored to tie the game, but Gratian's inexcusable red card put the Paladins down a man heading into extra time. Who would emerge as the hero? Well, it wouldn't be the Racers' franchise savior, Vico, because he reverted to the kind of goonery that got him run out of Prospect and was hit with a red card of his own. Both teams played ten aside, therefore, as the game moved into the second half of extra time. With the minutes slipping away toward a dreaded decision by penalty kicks, Racers forward Mattias tallied the first playoff goal of his career. At the final whistle, it was 2-1 for the Racers, and the league's two-time cellar dwellers had claimed the Thaler Cup in Season 3!

Fort Allegheny

We haven't had much of an opportunity in recent months to play our zombie apocalypse campaign, Dark Enigma, but I was at least able to set up the next location: a remote government facility where the heroes are hoping to find some answers. Everything looks...intact, but what horrors lurk within?

DC Season 3 Playoffs

Semifinal 1: Prifddinas Golden Dragons (1st place) vs. Troya Nova Paladins (4th place)

The Dragons were flying high coming into this game, with the league's best goal differential (+14), offense (2.36 goals per game), and defense (1.36 goals against per game) as they sought to defend their Season 2 Thaler Cup championship. The Paladins, meanwhile, had slipped all the way to fourth place primarily because of their defense (1.93 goals against per game, vs. last season's 1.30). Perhaps it was memories of their epic extra-time victory over the Dragons in the Season 1 championship game, but something certainly brought out the best in the Paladins, who played a nearly flawless match and cruised to a 3-1 victory on the road. Superstar forward Belisarius went a long way toward expunging his reputation as a playoff choker by scoring his first two career postseason goals. The only downside for the faithful of Mithras was that key midfielder Theophilus picked up two yellow cards and thus will have to sit out the championship game.

Semifinal 2: Troya Nova Imperials (2nd place) vs. Riverton Racers (3rd place)

The Imperials were runners-up for the Cup last year and just completed their best-ever regular season. Their offense was barely league-average, but they won a lot of close, low-scoring games thanks in part to a stellar 1.43 goals-against per game, which was tied for second in the league with their first-round opponent, the Racers. It was Riverton's solid offense (2.21 goals per game), however, that allowed them to leap over the Paladins and the Prospect Pioneers in the final regular-season game and claim a playoff spot for the first time in franchise history. This game started off quietly with a scoreless first half, but the teams combined for four goals in a wild second frame. Early in extra time, Racers midfielder Haelmoren scored from long range to make it 3-2, and the side from Riverton managed to kill the clock and secure their place in the Thaler Cup championship.

5.5 in Hand

Our copy of the new PHB arrived today. Nathaniel has been exploring the changes and has already identified some pretty broken character options. I foresee him wanting to switch over our existing campaigns to 5.5 sooner rather than later. Not so for poor Matthew, whose artificer has no 5.5 equivalent...

DC Season 3 Awards

We'll hand out the individual hardware before the playoffs begin. Belisarius of the Troya Nova Paladins won his second consecutive scoring title with 12 goals in 14 games. Through three seasons, he's the game's all-time leader in goals with 27. The MVP award, meanwhile, went to a member of the Riverton Racers. After finishing in last place in Seasons 1 and 2, the Racers made a trade with the Prospect Pioneers to acquire feisty forward Vico, whose penchant for penalties almost outpaced his prodigious scoring talents. Vico behaved himself in Riverton, and his team-high 9 goals (tied for third in the league) boosted the Racers into the playoffs.

Dark Tomb: The Ice Chasers

The third game of the pocket-sized dungeon-crawler Dark Tomb launched on Kickstarter this morning. It was funded in about five minutes! 

The boys and I played through the original Dark Tomb during our trip to New York this past summer. We'll probably dive into the second game when we visit my in-laws for Thanksgiving or Christmas. The third one should arrive just in time for next summer's travel!

Halftime

I've reached the midpoint of Season 3, and it's shaping up to be a three-way race between the Golden Dragons (4-1-2), the Racers (3-1-3), and the Paladins (3-1-3). The Imperials and Pioneers will likely contend for the fourth and final playoff spot, with perhaps the Defenders in the mix as well, but it would take a miracle for the Gauntlets or Navigators to climb out of the cellar. 

The biggest story so far is the meteoric rise of the Racers, who finished in last place in the league's first two seasons. This year, they're tied for the best goals-against per game (1.29) and boast the second-best goal differential (+7). Can the Racers sprint from worst to first? To do so, they'll have to run past the first-place Dragons, who score a league-leading 2.57 goals per game and have the top goal differential at +8. 

Whether they finish first, second, or anywhere better than dead last, the Racers can thank striker Vico, whose 5 goals are tied for second in the league behind the Paladins' Belisarius (6). Vico, a talented but penalty-prone star, wore out his welcome with the Prospect Pioneers and was traded to the Racers in the offseason. Now he's the frontrunner for MVP as he leads his team on a race to the playoffs.

DC Season 3

I've been having so much fun with my Druid Cycle league in Sensible Soccer that I've started Season 3 well ahead of schedule. Two new squads join the league as expansion teams, bringing us up to eight total franchises across the three main human nations of this campaign world. 

Team Name	City	Nation	Season Joined
Defenders	Caer Eurfryn	Teyrnas	3rd
Gauntlets	Riverton	Southern Principalities	2nd
Golden Dragons	Prifddinas	Teyrnas	1st
Imperials	Troya Nova	Troya Nova	1st
Navigators	Liminia	Troya Nova	3rd
Paladins	Troya Nova	Troya Nova	1st
Pioneers	Prospect	Southern Principalities	2nd
Racers	Riverton	Southern Principalities	1st

The Paladins won the coveted Thaler Cup in Season 1, followed by the Golden Dragons in Season 2. Who will claim this year's prize?

DC Season 2 Championship

Prifddinas Golden Dragons (2nd place) vs. Troya Nova Imperials (4th place)
With an all-time record of 3-0-1 against the Imperials, the Dragons were confident, but also wary; they had come this far last season, as well, only to suffer a heartbreaking loss in extra time. In this game, in front of their roaring fans, the Dragons jumped out to a 2-0 first-half lead authored by Niall and Luaran. The real story of the game, however, was the Dragons' midfield: Huwcyn, Daithi, and Ederyn absolutely dominated the center of the pitch. The Imperials found themselves unable to break through and get clean scoring chances, and a frustrated Agrippa even picked up his first-ever yellow card. It was more of the same in the second half, and midfielder Huwcyn put the game away with a goal that made it 3-0 for the home side. Huwcyn, the heart and soul of the Dragons, had atoned for his ill-timed red card in the Season 1 championship game against the Paladins. There would be no such mishap in this contest. The Golden Dragons played a nearly flawless game and have won their first Thaler Cup!