I’ll start with dungeon creation.

How to Host a Dungeon, for those who don’t know, is a solo activity (I hesitate to call it a game, though it is certainly fun) in which you use pens, paper, little glass beads, and random tables to generate a dungeon by simulating its creation and subsequent occupation by civilizations, monsters, adventurers, and evil villains. The game is played out in rounds representing seasons in which each faction currently on the map acts according to a script, and in some cases additional factions are introduced. These factions often have interesting rules interactions that force conflict with other factions, which is handled with a simple die roll.

I’ve only played it once, and I got some of the rules wrong (rules clarity in the game could be better), but I had a great time and I fully intend to play it some more. It’s a fun activity (again, not sure I’d call it a game, as there’s really no condition for winning or losing) that takes a couple of hours (probably faster once you’re familiar with the rules). Best of all, when you’re done you’ve got a fully populated dungeon with a backstory you can call upon.

My particular dungeon started with a devastating earthquake. A society of dwarves delved into the depths in search of gold, but soon stumbled upon a cavern that spelled their demise. Shortly afterward, monsters started inhabiting the dungeon. Among them were a one-headed ettin who preyed upon the villagers on the surface, a clan of duergar, some kobolds, some orcs, and a tomb of undead horrors.

Eventually all these monsters drew the attention of the Thought Lords, mind-controlling abominations from beneath the surface of the world. They slowly insinuated their tendrils of control into the nearby monster clans, as well as the bold adventurers who came to stop them. Eventually, they even took the surface world for their own.

Using the dungeon required a little bit of hand-waving. By the end of the game, there were three factions left: the Thought Lords, an adventuring party, and the surface kingdom. All of the monsters had been wiped out by adventurers, and the Thought Lords had taken control of everyone who remained. I repopulated the dungeon with the monsters that I felt would make for good gameplay, and prepped it for play.

That brings us to Old School Hack, which is a fantastic little dungeon crawling game that encourages off-the-wall awesomeness. Also, it’s free. The adventurers who ventured into the dungeon were a burly fighter who wielded a flaming caber, an evangelical cleric of Hubert the Happy, god of jokes (apparently), a “high class” magic user who could talk to doors, and a vicious goblin with a hatred of kobolds and rats. The party seemed to follow the goblin, whose quest was to find and slay the Ur-Rat.

This required a little bit of improvisation on my part (I didn’t have an Ur-Rat prepped!), but it worked out pretty well. There were some great moments; the fighter flung Grobnar the One-Headed (the ettin) off a cliff, the cleric used his preacherly ways to take control of a tribe of orcs, the wizard spoke to every door she encounters and provided valuable intel, and the goblin wound up riding the body of the Ur-Rat down a hole, Dr. Strangelove-style.

We were nearly out of time toward the end, so I reskinned the leader of the Thought Lords as the Ur-Rat, and made it into a giant, tentacled, psychic, mind-controlling rat-thing. It was pretty great.

That was the only game I played. I did, however, go to the IPR booth and pick up a copy of Dread (a horror game that uses a Jenga tower as its primary resolution mechanic). There I ran into Amanda and Clark Valentine (Amanda edited Bulldogs!), and we got to talking (about games). Tracy Hurley (Sarah Darkmagic), Thadeus C., and Tracy Barnett (Troll in the Corner) also stopped by, and we had a nice conversation.

Shortly after I went to the airport, where I started killing time by reading some of my games.

Zombie Cinema is short to read (took 15 minutes or so, all told), but it seems like it’ll be a lot of fun, especially as a zero-prep pick-up game. How to Host a Dungeon looks like a great one-player game, and I have a hunch it’ll go well with a game that I heard about today called Old School Hack, which I’m going to research tomorrow. I’m halfway through Mortal Coil, and every freaking page is giving me ideas. It’s great.

So now GenCon is over, and I’m a little sad. Still, it’s nice to be back home, and it’s not like I won’t be gaming. I’ve got D&D Encounters this Wednesday (new season, new character), and I’m also planning on running at least one demo of Bulldogs! at my FLGS. I may run some other indie games, just to get a chance to play them. Huzzah!

The Story

The next day, PJ, Percy, Debra, and Boop-Boop all met in Bartram Gardens, Boop-Boop’s home. They each discussed what they had learned and compared notes, all coming to the same terrifying conclusion: that the Black Court vampires had to be stopped, and that they would have to do it. They needed help, though.

PJ called the nightclub Babylon and set up a meeting for that night with Gerhardt von Manschafft, the leader of the city’s White court vampires. Gerhardt was influential and often had valuable information, and PJ had a good working relationship with him.

The group decided that they’d leave and wait for the meeting time, then they’d all meet at Babylon. As they were leaving the Gardens, though, they were confronted by five men with guns in the parking lot. The men were a mis-matched lot; some wore business attire, others casual clothing, and one looked like a homeless man. They all, however, had expressions of vacant, incoherent rage on their faces, and they moved to attack.

Percy reacted quickly, darting for the car in the hopes of getting it closer to the group, so they could escape. PJ, wanting to protect Debra, ran for one of the thugs, wrested the gun from his hand, and knocked him out with the but of the gun. Debra followed Percy’s lead and ran for the car, running to the driver’s seat; she was the better driver of the two.

While this was happening, the thugs fired off a few rounds at Debra and PJ; both were grazed, but not seriously injured. Boop-Boop reacted by casting faerie magic, surrounding two of the thugs in an airless bubble that caused them to pass out.

PJ, enraged by the thug who had shot at Debra, turned and fired his newly acquired gun, killing the man. Debra and Percy, in the car, drove straight at the remaining thug, colliding with him and knocking him out cold.

The group started investigating their fallen foes, finding that most of them had identification and money, but that there didn’t seem to be any link between the two. They took the guns, bound the thugs, and dropped one of them in the trunk for later questioning. Then they got in the car and sped off as sirens approached.

The group split up after that. Debra went back to campus, accompanied by Boop-Boop, to get medical attention for her bullet graze. Percy and PJ drove the car to a warehouse owned by Maximillian so that they could question the thug.

In the warehouse, they discovered that the thug was unlikely to talk to them. He screamed in rage, but said nothing; it was likely that he was a Renfield, a thrall of the Black Court whose mind had been shattered so utterly that he was no longer capable of coherent thought. Percy put the man out of his misery, then asked Maximillian to dispose of the body. Maximillian agreed, telling Percy that he would owe a favor for it.

That night, the group went to Babylon to speak to Gerhardt. Gerhardt was very forthcoming and helpful, which was somewhat worrying to the group. He confirmed their theories about the Black Court, and told them how to disrupt the ritual that the vampires would no doubt be performing on midnight on Halloween. He also offered to lend the assistance of two of his associates, a pair of White Court twins, to help manage the Black Court’s mortal muscle.

In return, though, he asked the group for a favor. Papa Leroy, a houngan information broker working out of a bar called Wormdaddy’s, was manipulating the biker gang known as the Warlocks into taking territory from the Pagans motorcycle gang. This territory happened to have a high concentration of out-of-order phone booths, used to access random magical information. If the group could convince Leroy to back off of the turf war, Gerhardt would help them.

Having few options, the group agreed.

The Game

We had our first fight toward the end of the session, and it was educating. FATE combat is pretty fast-paced, and doesn’t take a long time; that fight took maybe ten minutes of real time to adjudicate. It is, however, potentially very deadly; guns are no joke in this game.

We also discovered that the magic system takes a little getting used to. Once we’ve used it a fair bit, I’m sure it’ll be come second nature; however, at the moment, it requires a lot of referring to charts and slowing the action down, which is unfortunate.

All in all, this session was a rousing success. It was fun for everyone, and required very little prep work on my part. I’m a big fan of DFRPG, and FATE in general.

The Story

Later, in a cafe around the corner from Independence Mall called Neutral Grounds, PJ and Percy compared notes after a tacit truce (there was tension between them stemming from PJ’s romantic feelings toward Debra and Percy’s protective feelings toward her). Between the two of them, they had found out that more than twenty people had disappeared from in and around the Mall, and six of those had been found again, as corpses. In addition, of those twenty plus, four of them had been police officers, one of them a member of the Thin Blue Line, the mayor’s unofficial task force for dealing with supernatural threats.

Percy also asked PJ for information on the biker war going on in the city; PJ told him that the best place (though not the safest place) to look would be a bar outside the city in New Hope called the Alomeda Bomb Range, the hangout for the Warlocks biker gang.

Meanwhile, Boop-Boop went back to Bartram Gardens and met with her mistress Lily, the Summer Lady. Boop-Boop informed Lily that something was killing people in the city, and that it was likely vampires of the Black Court. Lily agreed, and told Boop-Boop that they were likely after something in the park.

Boop-Boop then called upon a contact of hers, Grendel, a shape-shifting raven. Grendel told her that there were actually more people missing as a result of the Black Court than anyone realized, and that he suspected what they were after. He agreeed to take Boop-Boop inside the building in Independence Mall, which he did shape-shifted as a police officer. Inside, he took her to the Liberty Bell, which he explained was a powerful magical artifact. Its power was held in check by the fact that it was broken, but if it were repaired, it could grant vast supernatural power to the one who did it.

Later that night, Percy and Debra met for dinner and discussed the day’s goings on, as well as whether or not Debra had any feelings toward PJ.

Meanwhile, PJ girded himself against the Black Court and when to Independence Mall to stake it out. Boop-Boop, at the same time, was scrying around the city, trying to find the Black Court hideout. She found a vampire walking down the street; it became mist a block away from the park and glided gently in, reforming out of sight of the police. Boop-Boop also saw PJ there. She immediately flew as fast as she could toward Independence Mall.

PJ watched as the Black Court vampire approached a homeless man sleeping on a bench, bent over to him for a moment, then straightened. The homeless man stood up and started walking out of the park. PJ decided to follow him.

Boop-Boop also saw this as she arrived. The vampire, she saw, was now heading toward a policeman on patrol. Acting quickly, she flew down to the police officer, lowered her veils, and shouted, “RUN!” The police man ran, Boop-Boop on his tail, and the vampire following quickly behind. Boop-Boop told the man to get to a public place, then to radio to the others in the park and tell them to be on guard, and to stay together. Once the police officer was safely out of the park, she flew up into a tree and, exhausted, fell asleep.

At midnight, Percy met a contact of his, Maximillian, at Babylon, the night club center of power for the vampires of the White Court in the city. Maximillian appeared as a tall, thin black man with vertically-slitted pupils; this was not his true form, however. In his true form, he appeared as a black cat.

Percy asked Maximillian what he knew about the Black Court in town, and Maximillian told him that they were building strength for an attack on Independence Mall, likely to perform some sort of ritual on the Bell. That, he told Percy, would not be good.

The Game

My preparation for DFRPG was considerably different from what I was used to. In D&D, you prepare discrete encounters, usually focusing on combat. This can sometimes make combat the focus of the actual game, as you don’t want to let all that time you spent prepping encounters go to waste.

In DFRPG, I used a different tactic. I statted up all of the NPCs that were likely to come into play, as well as some faceless mooks, and I came up with three situations that were going on in the city. Then I let the players discover what was going on, and allowed them to guide the story in the direction they found most interesting. That happened to be my Black Court storyline, though some focus was also given to the war between the Warlocks and the Pagans.

I deliberately left these storylines entirely skeletal, so that the the players and I could fill in the blanks through play. I knew that I could probably have come up with some pretty cool stuff ahead of time, but I also knew that the players would likely come up with a lot of awesome stuff, too, and I decided to capitalize on that. It worked out pretty well.

The Story

Later, in a cafe around the corner from Independence Mall called Neutral Grounds, PJ and Percy compared notes after a tacit truce (there was tension between them stemming from PJ’s romantic feelings toward Debra and Percy’s protective feelings toward her). Between the two of them, they had found out that more than twenty people had disappeared from in and around the Mall, and six of those had been found again, as corpses. In addition, of those twenty plus, four of them had been police officers, one of them a member of the Thin Blue Line, the mayor’s unofficial task force for dealing with supernatural threats.

Percy also asked PJ for information on the biker war going on in the city; PJ told him that the best place (though not the safest place) to look would be a bar outside the city in New Hope called the Alomeda Bomb Range, the hangout for the Warlocks biker gang.

Meanwhile, Boop-Boop went back to Bartram Gardens and met with her mistress Lily, the Summer Lady. Boop-Boop informed Lily that something was killing people in the city, and that it was likely vampires of the Black Court. Lily agreed, and told Boop-Boop that they were likely after something in the park.

Boop-Boop then called upon a contact of hers, Grendel, a shape-shifting raven. Grendel told her that there were actually more people missing as a result of the Black Court than anyone realized, and that he suspected what they were after. He agreeed to take Boop-Boop inside the building in Independence Mall, which he did shape-shifted as a police officer. Inside, he took her to the Liberty Bell, which he explained was a powerful magical artifact. Its power was held in check by the fact that it was broken, but if it were repaired, it could grant vast supernatural power to the one who did it.

Later that night, Percy and Debra met for dinner and discussed the day’s goings on, as well as whether or not Debra had any feelings toward PJ.

Meanwhile, PJ girded himself against the Black Court and when to Independence Mall to stake it out. Boop-Boop, at the same time, was scrying around the city, trying to find the Black Court hideout. She found a vampire walking down the street; it became mist a block away from the park and glided gently in, reforming out of sight of the police. Boop-Boop also saw PJ there. She immediately flew as fast as she could toward Independence Mall.

PJ watched as the Black Court vampire approached a homeless man sleeping on a bench, bent over to him for a moment, then straightened. The homeless man stood up and started walking out of the park. PJ decided to follow him.

Boop-Boop also saw this as she arrived. The vampire, she saw, was now heading toward a policeman on patrol. Acting quickly, she flew down to the police officer, lowered her veils, and shouted, “RUN!” The police man ran, Boop-Boop on his tail, and the vampire following quickly behind. Boop-Boop told the man to get to a public place, then to radio to the others in the park and tell them to be on guard, and to stay together. Once the police officer was safely out of the park, she flew up into a tree and, exhausted, fell asleep.

At midnight, Percy met a contact of his, Maximillian, at Babylon, the night club center of power for the vampires of the White Court in the city. Maximillian appeared as a tall, thin black man with vertically-slitted pupils; this was not his true form, however. In his true form, he appeared as a black cat.

Percy asked Maximillian what he knew about the Black Court in town, and Maximillian told him that they were building strength for an attack on Independence Mall, likely to perform some sort of ritual on the Bell. That, he told Percy, would not be good.

The Game

My preparation for DFRPG was considerably different from what I was used to. In D&D, you prepare discrete encounters, usually focusing on combat. This can sometimes make combat the focus of the actual game, as you don’t want to let all that time you spent prepping encounters go to waste.

In DFRPG, I used a different tactic. I statted up all of the NPCs that were likely to come into play, as well as some faceless mooks, and I came up with three situations that were going on in the city. Then I let the players discover what was going on, and allowed them to guide the story in the direction they found most interesting. That happened to be my Black Court storyline, though some focus was also given to the war between the Warlocks and the Pagans.

I deliberately left these storylines entirely skeletal, so that the the players and I could fill in the blanks through play. I knew that I could probably have come up with some pretty cool stuff ahead of time, but I also knew that the players would likely come up with a lot of awesome stuff, too, and I decided to capitalize on that. It worked out pretty well.