Doc's Box - The Shared Weave

Over da' Boards Fan Fiction: #1

2012-01-27T21:14:00.001-08:00

In the frigid air my progeny stand on the sacred ice. Heavily armoured and armed with bladed staves they train for future glory.

Is anybody out there?

2012-01-24T21:22:00.001-08:00

Is anyone out there listening? Can you hear me in this digital ocean?

Hello?

My First Love: Dungeons and Dragons - Basic Set

2011-07-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

Hooee... my mundane life is finally removing its needle-toothed maw from my throat, and I can finally start appreciating the finer things again. My apologies, but when you're a daddy and a husband you must do what you must... like cleaning lip gloss out of cat fur.

Now, like Jules Verne before me, I am going to regale you with tales of a forgotten time. A time when it took only five minutes to roll up a character, and about as long for that character to suffer a horrifying and bloody death... a time when you had to roll 3d6 and place them in the order rolled on your sheet, not 37d6, dropping the not-sixes, and placing the totals on your cat's bum if you felt like it... A time when Elfing, Dwarfing, and Halflingery were jobs you could be proud of...

"How's Elfing been so far Bob?"

"The pay sucks, but it's starting to look up now that I've gone freelance..."

I'm talking of course about the original Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set... better known as "The Red Box."

There's been a lot of buzz these days about the New D&D Red Box, and it had me travelling back more than twenty-seven years to the first time I set eyes on the game that would forever change my life. Since hearing the name of my sanguine hued first love I've found myself seeing faces I haven't seen in years, and watching the history of role-playing gaming unfold in the annals of my memory as I recall the clumsy, sweaty, sticky seventy-two hour gaming sessions of my youth, and the many games and gamers that blessed my life since that first moment ( http://tinyurl.com/2gn3sd ) .

I was relishing these memories on the drive over to Scipio's house for game design night, and when I arrived I mentioned them in passing as I was removing my chocolaty footwear (don't ask). Scipio, with a twinkle in his eye and a grin on his face only said two words.

"Follow me..."

His basement was unusually un-cluttered, and he brought me to a cabinet that looked to be older than the two of us put together. He said, "This.... was MINE...", and opened his treasure chest to reveal a classic gaming enthusiast's wet dream...

I responded, and I quote: "GHAARG!?"

Original Gamma World...

Star Frontiers...

HOLYSHITSHITSHITSHIT!!! Red Box right through Gold Box...

Scipio said, "Dan's leaving the wedding early so we can play. Let's roll us up some characters old school..."

And that's when I nerdgasmd.

Dan arrived just before 8pm dressed to the nines. Fucker didn't even go home to CHANGE man! My fingers lightly brushed the cover as I spread the pages open to the character creation section, the familiar bouquet of my first love caressing my nostrils. Only two weeks before I'd found my first set of dice... the ones that came with the Red Box I'd bought during my first trip to the Local Gaming Shop. I remember it like it was yesterday...

"If you're not going to purchase a product, do so and please leave the store. I don't want you hanging around here stealing anything."

The best part of my week was going to that local gaming shop with a pocket full of money to check out the banquet of games on those shelves... and being kicked out before I could make up my mind. How that mean old bastard remains in business to this day in spite of healthy competition (which he didn't have in those days), I haven't the faintest clue... but I digress.

It took all of five minutes to have three characters created. We decided we'd play through the dungeon in the Dungeon Master's guide, and that Scipio would run it. My character was a slightly above average fighter with an Austrian accent whose name I can't remember (keep reading to find out why). Dan created an exceptionally average Magic User named Hugo Dyck, and Scipio rolled a character that was incredibly weak but juuuuust not-weak enough, according to the rules, to justify rolling up another one. We named him Flimszi.

Scipio read the flavour text meant to introduce us to the world. We headed out from the Gold Dragon Inn, met a farmer who didn't seem too concerned about the monsters in the old Keep, and reached our destination in a confident state of mind.

That's when the 8 attacks per round Carrion Crawler handed our first level ASSES to us on a platter. By the third round Hugo was the only one left standing, and used his sleep spell... a first level spell that puts 2d8 Hit Dice of living creatures to sleep without a saving throw, allowing your intrepid band of heroes to merrily butcher their victims in their sleep without having to roll.

We looted the Carrion Crawler's lair, and moved immediately on to the castle. Looking through holes in the wall, we caught sight of ten Kobolds just inside the courtyard. I rushed them and killed one, at which point Scipio rolled morale for them and they all fled. Hooray! We won!

Or did we?

Hugo, the un-armoured Magic user equipped only with daggers, gives chase. Flimzi and I, being heavily armoured, couldn't keep up. I was yelling in a nearly incomprehensible Austrian accent,"HUGO VAIT! Hugo vhat arrre you doink? Vait forrr us Hugoooo!"

Holy crap! Hugo scores a hit and kills another Kobold! Hooray! Hooray! Hoo...oooly SHIT! They all turned on Hugo! I started yelling, "Rrrun Hugo! RrrrUN! Oh Hugo no... ohhhh.... ohhh.... oh nooo.... ohhh...."

In a single round the Kobolds did three times more damage to Hugo than he had total hit points. Zere vere piezes of Hugo everrryvear. And that's when they noticed Flimzi and I and it turned into a Captain Hindgrinder TV dinner with a teabag sans cup.

After the TPK was over Scipio handed the reins over to me. We created three new overwhelmingly average characters and in five minutes we were headed out to find out what became of our other characters. We got to the courtyard seeing nothing more on the way than an assassinated Carrion Crawler and the annoying "I told the last idiots it was a bad idea" farmer.

We again saw the Kobolds through holes in the wall. Scipio's Thief sneaks off to check a hole in the wall that's big enough to offer passage while Dan's professional dwarf and my new Magic User, Ned "The Head" Ryerson fiddle with the door.

Scipio takes a shot and misses, revealing himself to the Kobolds. They promptly kill him, and that's when I cast my sleep spell. Now, Kobolds are 1/4 hit dice creatures so even if I roll a 1, I put four of them to sleep, and I roll two dice. They all fall asleep, we butcher them, drag all of the loot back to town (including all of our former characters' stuff), REST, and gather up Scipio's new character.

Huzzah! We finally made it to the adventure, and we've only had a TPK plus a character death. After fighting a giant bat and attacking some invulnerable crates and barrels for a while, we had to pack up for the night.

During the session we'd all had multiple moments where we laughed 'til we cried, and at that moment I felt what I felt when I first started playing tabletop RPGs... the feeling that's kept me playing them for almost 30 years. True, by today's standards the rules were pretty rough, but wasn't that silliness a part of what made the experience fun when we were kids?

We're thinking of finishing off this dungeon. Let me know if you want me to continue the story of Ned "The Head" and his stalwart companions in a future post, and also tell us a story about a memorable tabletop RPG moment.

'Til next time, share the weave...

Doc

A Gamer in Need is a Friend Indeed

2010-12-13T19:30:00.000-08:00

Hey all, Doc here.

There's two gamers in the Manioba Interlake region looking to find an RPG group or an RPG game night to join. I believe they're willing to travel to Winnipeg or an equal distance in other directions to play.

Head on over to The Weekly Session ( http://weeklysession.blogspot.com/ ) and reply to the post there to suggest game days at local gaming shops. If you run a game yourself and have a couple of open spots but don't want to publicly post your e-mail address, click on one of the contact links there to e-mail me and/or Scipio with the details and we'll get you in contact with them.

Post a story below of a time you had it rough trying to find a group to play RPGs with, then go over to The Weekly Session ( http://weeklysession.blogspot.com/ ) and share the weave to help these guys find a game! :)

As always, STW!

Kevin "Doc" Wilson

Are Shooters and Sims better RPGs than WoW?

2010-09-07T19:46:00.000-07:00

Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig on Twitter) recently wrote an article, "The 12-Year-Old English Kid Who Carried Us To Victory" ( http://bit.ly/afk1Aa ), that indirectly supports my belief that multiplayer First Person Shooters and Flight Sims provide just as much, if not more opportunity for role-playing than MMORPGs like World of Warcraft.

Like is says in my Bio, I’ve been a tabletop RPG gamer for almost 30 years. I’ve been a PC gamer for almost that long. Hell, I remember playing pong when it first came out on that 3000 lb. table-like thing that cost about a gajillion dollars. As such, my first multiplayer experience in the modern PC gamer sense of the word was playing Falcon 3.0 ( http://tinyurl.com/2f6b66w ) back in 1991, with two PCs in separate rooms hooked up via a crossover cable . We shot each other down in “instant action” a few times, but we found ourselves lost for hours playing the campaign missions co-op, not even realizing that sometime during the session we’d slipped into fighter pilot wingman personas. Unfortunately, the pots I’d smoken that night eventually got to me. I lined up my sights with his tail, and gave my spacebar a quick, single tap. My guns went, and I quote, “Digga.”

My friend veered off screaming, “Bogey Bogey Bogey! I’m under fire! Break Right And Engage!”

We flew around looking for the Phantom Bogey for a while, and I was laughing my THC-addled ass off so hard I almost peed. I had to do it as quietly as possible though, because my buddy was in the next room, so what came out of me sounded more like wheezing than laughing. By the time my buddy decided that we’d lost the bogey, I’d stopped laughing and we got back into formation. Then...

Digga. WheezeWHEEZEwheezewheezeWHEEZE....

... we were off looking for the Phantom Bogey again. Cursing, wheezing, flying, rolling, turning, diving. We did an even more thorough search this time, going grid square by grid square, but eventually my buddy signaled the all clear, and we got back into formation.

Digga. WheezeWHEEZEwheezewheezeWHEEZE....

“Holy crap... are you SHOOTING me!?!”

WHEEZEWHEEZEWHEEZEWHEEZEWHEEZEWHEEZE....

“For the love a... flaps stuck, rudder’s busted, landing gear won’t deploy. Gonna try and land this puppy anyway.”

And you know what? The magnificent bastard did. I know because I watched him belly land “that puppy” as I flew upside down into the tower at about Mach 2.

Now while I may have lost mindset and shot friendlies occasionally, I always remembered the immersive role-playing experience I got when playing Falcon 3.0 with my buddy. I tried to recapture it, unsuccessfully, until a little game called X-wing versus Tie Fighter: Balance of Power, and the time me and a bunch of buddies took out a Super Star Destroyer ( http://tinyurl.com/27qe8h4 ).

We’d been talking about getting together and trying it for a week beforehand. We joked around, and even gave each other call signs to go by while in game, although we ended up just going by squadron call signs like Green 5, Gold 3, etc., ala “A New Hope”. On the day-of, we spent the time it took to set up the largest LAN party my experienced LAN party buddy had seen up until that point (it was my first LAN party), and back in those days it was a pain to get everything working. When it was all finally up and running smoothly, our anticipation was palpable. I was Gold 2, a part of the b-wing bomber squadron tasked with taking out the Super Star Destroyer’s shield generators, and wingman to Gold Leader. Gold leader was the role we gave to a buddy we’d called “Coop” since junior high.

When we came out of hyperspace, we could see the Super Star Destroyer in the distance. Some of us started goofing around on the mics (my first experience with voice comms in a PC game, ala what would one day become the Sidewinder voice comms program), and Rogue Leader (played by a buddy of ours who was a little older than us, awesome at the game, and who was an actual Air Force navigation officer) piped up in a calm but authoritative voice:

“Cut the chatter gentlemen, orders in 2.”

Holy shit. My mindset slammed into place, and I WAS Gold 2. I could tell everyone else felt that same chill running down their spine as the thrill of it all washed over them, because the radio became silent as death.

Get ready to make your run Gold squadron. A-wing Rogues with me on space superiority, Green squadron X-wings are on bomber detail. Wait for my order, then break and attack. Squadron leaders copy?”

“Copy that Rogue Leader”

“Copy that Rogue Leader”

When the order was given to break and attack, we were like a well oiled machine. Rogue, flying the fast A-wings hit them first, followed by Green Squadron’s X-wings. Being in the slower B-wings, I began seeing green and red blaster bolts, and the telltale reddish orange blooms as unshielded Tie Fighters were exploding from Rogue and Green squadron’s withering fire. My mindset was firmly in place, but what made the whole experience hit home was what happened on our run at the first shield generator.

Coop’s plan was to fly in as fast and low as possible along the Super Star Destroyer’s hull, and pull up when we were close to the shield generator on the right side, and hit it with torpedo fire. This plan would have been awesome against living gunners firing massive, slow moving turbolasers, but against an insta-targeting computer bot bristling with guns this plan wasn’t so good. Our shields were being peeled faster than bananas at an ice cream stand. And that’s when it happened...

“Guys, my shields are gone! We gotta.... AIIIEEEEEEEEEEE” ***BOOM***....

An explosion to my 10 o’clock, and Coop is cut off mid-scream by a strategically muted mic. Silence again over the comms until Green 3 (My buddy Brian) exclaimed:

“Shit... we lost Coop.”

At that moment, everyone got that chill again, and we actually felt a tug at the ol’ heart strings. We also thought what Coop did was really cool, and we all made the decision unanimously, in unspoken man-telepathy ( http://tinyurl.com/2cbq8xj ), that if the time came, we’d die like that ourselves. Though lady victory favoured us with her smile that day, the cost in computer sprites was high, allowing many of us to die in style. I myself died destroying the second generator in a kamikaze attack.

Since the advent of the high-speed interwebs, I’ve occasionally been able to find these immersive role-playing experiences again. Notably, in Tachyon: The Fringe Base Wars, Delta Force: Land Warrior, Mechwarrior 4, and even more often now in the new popular co-op games like Left 4 Dead, Borderlands, and most recently (for me) in Left 4 Dead 2 realism mode.

I’ve tried 3rd person sprite driven grinding games like WoW, but I wasn’t able to suspend disbelief like I can with first person shooters or sims. I wasn’t able to LOSE myself in the character like I’m able to do during tabletop role-playing or LARPing.

If any of you like to role-play while playing FPSs or sims on computer and would like to play with ol' Doc, my Steam ID is Black_Doc_McGurk. If you have some other kind of online play account and you’d still like to play games with me online, you can direct message me or mention to me in Twitter (@DocDraconis), or send me an e-mail by viewing my profile on the right, and clicking the "Contact" link.

Doc

The way I roll...

2010-09-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

I'm a regular visitor to Will Wheaton's blog. My article today is basically a cop-out because again, life happened when I wasn't expecting it. It's nothing more than a transcript of a reply to one of his articles. In the article in question, he sounded down because tabletop role-playing wasn't feeling like it used to. I figured I'd try to cheer him up (and others who may feel the same way) and let him know that it can still feel the same as it did way back when we were 12:

Hey Will,

You and I are the same age, and I remember playing every edition but fourth (going to try it very soon though), and most of the other RPGs that were around then. I also remember that time as a golden age of imagination.

Over the years, I spent most of my gaming time as DM/GM/Storyteller/etc. The one thing I kept in mind was that no matter how many charts and tables, and how much calculus was needed to compute the results of an action, my job was to create an immersive story with engaging characters, well improv'd dialogue, voice acting, and even mood lighting.

I steered away from minis and maps to help my players visualise during combat, and to force me to visualise right along with them and describe things in a way where they could "see" what was going on in their mind's eye.

This has worked wonders for me over the years, and I've never lost that magical feeling of being whisked away to strange and wonderful places when I play, and my players (whomever they are at the time) seem to come right along with me.

It's been harder to find the time to game being a husband and a father of 3 young children (no more 72 hour sessions I'm afraid) , but I still ensure I make time to unwind, to escape from my worldly duties and responsibilities, and dive into magical places that I hope to share with my kids one day.

I hope you find this kind of game again, if you haven't already. May all of your hits be crits.

The article in question can be found on Will's +6 blog of amazingness (indredosity? uncanness?): http://tinyurl.com/ykm9wgw

Can't believe I haven't embedded a link to his blog before now. *facepalm*

Now to figure out how to do that...

Doc

For @Tarpo and My Dad

2010-09-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

Almost every post after today's is going to be PG-13 gaming-related humour, and I'll be posting on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night. Today, however, is for my Twitter friend @Tarpo, and my dad.

@Tarpo lost his dad recently, and asked if it gets any easier.

It does man, it honestly does. Weeks of crying will turn into days, and days into moments. These moments will probably happen throughout the rest of your life, but it's in these moments that those lost are closest. Talk to them. My moment was on my dad's birthday two days ago, and today, on the anniversary of his death.

It was a year ago today I was standing over my father in emergency, saying goodbye and reassuring him that I'd take good care of his grandkids. It's been a year since I lost my dad.

Two days ago it was his birthday. I went to his gravesite to visit him, and let him know that things are going pretty good, and promise him I'd visit my sister's grave for him every year on his birthday.

A year ago since you died, and your thirty-seven year old former soldier of a son still cried like a five year old watching his daddy fly away to a conference. A year ago, and tears still fall as I type.

My dad was worried about me when he died. It was still up in the air as to whether my own life would be cut short, and even if I lived, it was a pretty sure thing at that time that my job was going to be out-sourced and my family and I would be in dire straits. Things are much better now, but my dad died worrying. It is this one fact I've kept in my head as I've coalesced from the ashes of 2009.

I'm smarter dad. Stronger. I'm striving to be the elder you did your best to train me to be. Your training's paying off. You don't have to worry.

The one lesson my dad's life taught me: if you don't love what you're doing, it's not worth doing. I have a considerable amount of business acumen and my new line of business looks like it's going to make me a positively disgusting amount of money, but it's not what I truly love to do. Once it's up and running I'm going to train Danielle to take over the reins and hand over the daily operations of that business to her, because that's what she would love to do.

I listened dad. I took care of necessities before doing my artsy-fartsy stuff, but I'm still going to end up doing what I love.

I told Danielle that any proceeds from the new line of business that aren't needed for its health and expansion, or to provide a worry-free lifestyle for the family, are going to go toward supporting my love of writing and game design. As someone who wants to see me happy (and who has started to love tabletop gaming herself), she enthusiastically agreed.

Goodbye dad. I'm doing what I love, but I'm still making enough money for my family to live comfortably. I'm going to try to make a noise loud enough so you can hear me, so you won't worry anymore. See you next year.

Wierdness in 140 characters or less.

2010-08-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

Twitterites!

Uh... no...

Tweetonians...

Eeg.... worse...

Twirps? Nope...

People With Twitter Accounts!

I don't take tweeting seriously. 90% of my tweets are silly, grammatically incorrect, crass, full of puns and/or profanity, and are generally in poor taste. The remaining 10% are about my love of playing games and my love affair with gamers of all stripes but may still contain any of the aforementioned... uh... qualities.

If you feel like laughing (or groaning in pain), I'm @docdraconis.

May the Gawds have mercy on your soul,

Doc

My Christmas, ala Facebook updates.

2009-12-26T09:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at 2:50pm · Kevin Wilson I gave my sons dart guns for X-mas against my wife's better judgement. They both shot me. She laughed.

Yesterday at 2:59pm · Kevin Wilson Did I mention that the boys laughed too?

Yesterday at 3:50pm · Kevin Wilson My daughter Brooke looked like she was going to stand up for me... but then she went back to playing her new DS game.

Yesterday at 4:07pm · Kevin Wilson There's a lot of people liking this post. You're all sadists.

Yesterday at 4:28pm · Kevin Wilson At least I'm not seeing any members of my family liking this post. Yet.

Yesterday at 4:29pm · Kevin Wilson It's because they've borrowed the guns, and now THEY'RE shooting me.

My Winter, As I Sit Here

2009-11-25T15:14:00.000-08:00

Exhausted Fall, it's work complete, puts down it's scythe with blistered hands and lies down to rest. Slumbering Winter wakes and tucks Fall in with a pristine white blanket, its tiny diamonds waiting to sparkle in the morning light.

It's been a tough year.

Normally I dread the biting cold of winter in the Canadian prairies, but this year winter signals the end of one of the worst years of my life, and the beginning of a new year that's already beginning to show a lot of promise.

As I sit here at my keyboard, I reflect on 2009 with teary eyes in remembrance of loved ones lost, an awesome job outsourced, and the six months I spent not knowing if I was going to live or die. I think on the people who I'd believed were friends who laughingly kicked me while I was down, and on a troubled young man whose trials are only just beginning. I think on my practical and moral failures and mistakes, and not just those I made over the course of this year.

As I sit here, I take a deep breath in a moment of catharsis, and I am renewed.

I think on my wife and how wonderful and supportive she's been through these troubled times, never wavering. I think on my beautiful children who love me more than I've ever been loved. I think on my achievements, no matter how trivial some may think them. I still cry as I type, but these are new tears now.

As my tears stop I dry my eyes and think of the future. I think of my new well-paying job working alongside old friends. I think of games published, and the fun of the upcoming convention circuit. I think of new things to write, cool games I want to play, and people I want to meet. Most of all, I think of who I was, who I am, and the better person I want to be.

The year two thousand and ten is MY year.

Doc

Passing of an Ordinary Man

2009-09-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

My father passed away this last Friday, September 4th 2009. I'm moving back the design schedule for now, but when I'm recovered I'm going to aggressively work toward design and release timeline goals. Until then, a little about my Dad.

He was an ordinary man that accomplished some extraordinary things. Not the least of which was being involved in the collaboration that resulted in fibre-optic technology being able to be deployed in cold climates.

Those of you who live in areas with long, cold winters, and in areas with permafrost who like playing online games, downloading/uploading files, and watching web series like "The Guild" and "The Legend of Neil" can appreciate what this means for us.

I love you and miss you dad...

Shared Weave Games & Shared Weave System trademarked today!

2009-08-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

Myth Weaver Consulting and Publications Inc., has trademarked the Shared Weave Games brand and Shared Weave System today!