Reflections on the Lift Bridge Game and Younger Gamers

In the past I have briefly discussed what it was like to play with younger gamers -- fun! -- and subsequently confessed that despite my interest in playing with members of younger generations, my main mission in reaching out to them as a gamer is to introduce them to the Old Ways, i.e., Labyrinth Lord. Well, I am happy to report that via my Lift Bridge Old-School D&D Group, I am getting my opportunity to do just that.

However, with that mission comes certain responsibilities and special considerations.

My LL Referee's Screen is seeing a lot of good use these days.

Young gamers are fun for me to referee because they really get into the role-playing and the "imagine the hell out of it" spirit that I like to see from players in my games. I always favor players who come up with inventive and entertaining solutions to problems -- like Rolland the cleric assaulting skeletons with his backpack to avoid using a bladed weapon -- rather than the power gamers who just want to "win" at all costs.

However, I faced a tricky situation two sessions ago that, in retrospect, I did not handle very well. Two younger gamers -- not even quite teenagers -- showed up for the public LL game at the bookstore with characters already generated. In fact, their characters were ones they had been campaigning with for some time in a 2e campaign. I was so excited to have them on board, especially given their familiarity (via 2e) with old-school-style play, that I permitted them to use their current characters without vetting said characters very rigorously. Sure, I scaled their PCs down a few experience levels to bring them closer to the party average of about Level 4, but I failed -- until too late -- to realize how many magical items and special abilities they had been granted in their "home" campaign. Not only did these two guys end up having characters who were WAY too overpowered for the party, but I continually had to haggle with them over what powers and items they could and could not use in my campaign. THIS WAS NOT THEIR FAULT -- it was mine. They brought in their PCs and I did not look them over closely enough; otherwise, I could have nipped this in the bud. But I didn't. And after the game, there was some chatter between the older players on the Old-School D&D Group's Facebook page that went a little like this:

PLAYER 1: Should there be an age limit to our group? I've got no prob's with ppl being comfy and having fun. I just feel if there's children in the groups we have to second guess most the game

PLAYER 2: I'm fine with whatever... it only becomes a problem for me when we have to hold back [our adult-themed talk] because of certain people being present who may find it inappropriate. That and when their characters outclass ours. Maybe they should create new characters that fit into our game

PLAYER 3: It's not fun to have to censor yourself. I will say though, I'm totally fine with getting 5k EXP this session.

PLAYER 4: The real tricky part is how do we enforce this now that two kids have joined and we never had any such rule in place before? Anyone know if they're planning on returning?

PLAYER 2: The kids said they wanted to come back but that lady [their mom] seemed hesitant I think.. if they do come back we could just make them create new characters within our game.

PLAYER 4: I was thinking of just not censoring ourselves in hope of turning them away with our matoor language but then I thought about what a monster I was at age 13. Won't work.

PLAYER 2: haha we should anyways

ME: That's the ticket!

PLAYER 1: :) Carter's words should be anuf :p

The two young lads did not return for last weekend's session, though I would not be surprised if they come back sometime in the future. I welcome them but I am attuned to my other players' concerns, especially the power gaming issue. I absolutely plan to make those two re-roll fresh LL characters next time they show up.

As for the blue language issue, that is a quandary. Sure, it is a public game in any case, so I do try to somewhat limit how much I use terms like "the goblin violently sodomizes a corpse" and "you sever his testicles and they roll across the floor, trailing semen" in any case. But gamers will be gamers, and since the majority of the group is in its 20s or older, it may be difficult for us to censor ourselves down to a PG-13 level. We may be able to hit a "soft" R rather than a "hard" R, but that's the most I can hope for I think, at least with this particular crowd. But I know I have a responsibility to set the tone and make all feel welcome.

To our credit, we had a different youngster named Alex show up to the most recent game, and he was a big contributor -- his fighter, Joe, was a heavy hitter in melee and was instrumental in bringing down those skeletal spidergoats -- and I think we were able to say some of our raunchy stuff (I know I used the word "buttocks" a couple of times) without offending his young sensibilities. There is probably a balance to be struck here.

Lift Bridge Game Updates

Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, NY.

As I have previously reported, I am currently running an ongoing Labyrinth Lord game at Lift Bridge Books in downtown Brockport. The open-to-the-public group is really gaining momentum, with four or five regular players at this point. Yesterday's game saw record attendance -- seven players plus myself! -- including two new players who hadn't attended before. Word seems to be getting around.

Given how lazy I have been at keeping up with play reports in general,* it should come as no surprise that I haven't reported the details of that group's adventures. However, Cid, one of the regular players, has done a fine job of chronicling the first three Lift Bridge sessions here, here and here. Thanks Cid!

However, since (real-life bard) Cid has missed the past two Lost City Campaign sessions due to work obligations, allow me to briefly bring you up to date on the party's latest exploits:

7/29 Session
After the encounter with the "corpse-eating ghouls" in the dwarven graveyard between Lupner and Darkoul mentioned by Don Ximen, the group traveled further westward, stopping at the small outpost of Blart for the "night." As they rested, the outpost was attacked by a raiding party of several large fish-men, a regional menace whose lair was known to lie along the northern road leading away from an intersection of four significant underground roadways known to locals as "the Crossroads." After helping the Blartians fight off the fish-men raiders, and looting the bodies, the party set off the next day for "the Crossroads," only a mile away. The group was now within about twelve miles of the sizeable underground dwarven city of Khaz Dargur, yet chose to turn immediately southward, toward the rumored demesne of Zappo the Obscure, a local wizard of some renown.

"Our arcanist, Crimnox, sought to take a diversion from our trog-hunting endeavors in order to find allies amongst the wizards of the deep." -- Don Ximen Fernandez de la Vega

The party made its way southward for several miles, and soon came to where the tunnel opened up into a VAST underground cavern, through which their road progressed along a 12' wide, raised ridge sticking up out of the darkness. They tightened their formation and tied themselves together with long ropes -- all except Jarl the dwarf, who took point and remained unsecured.

They had progressed about a half-mile along the narrow ridge when they were attacked from above by three huge pteranodons! The party made fairly quick work of dispatching these foes. . .

8/5 Session
. . . only to be beset moments later by several amber golems, who moved with uncanny silence and were far harder to destroy than the pteranodons.** But prevail the party did, and then traveled another few miles along the ridge until the road entered an enclosed tunnel enveloped in an arcane darkness their torches and infravision could barely penetrate. Some arcane-looking runes were etched outside the tunnel mouth; Crimnox the Sorcerer was able to read them: You have reached the realm of Zappo. Do not enter here lightly. Of course, the party entered, Jarl, as always, in the lead.

After sneaking around a bit and scouting a couple of different empty chambers, the group made their way south then west into Zappo's cave complex proper, only to be viciously attacked by some skeletal spidergoats at a four-way intersection. This battle raged for some time, and came with great cost: Rolland the fighter was killed during the battle, then reincarnated (via a scroll Crimnox pinched from the dead fish-men in Blart) as a fourth-level cleric!

9/16 Session
The four undead spidergoat skeletons were eventually defeated, in an exciting ongoing melee that included recently reincarnated cleric Rolland doing everything in his power -- attacking with a flaming 10' pole, a lasso, and even a backpack! -- to avoid using his two-handed sword, his former (bladed) weapon. After dispatching the abominations, the group proceeded west then north then west again, into another stretch of passage cloaked in spooky arcane darkness. Entering the dark patch, most of the party (except Jarl and Rolland) fell instantly unconscious, and had to be dragged into the next chamber by their two awake fellows.

That next chamber contained a statue of a wizard, holding a wand aloft. Jarl and Rolland made offerings of gold and psychedelic mushrooms to the statue, and the statue's wand tip glowed and then the statue receded to reveal a downbound spiral staircase hidden underneath. Jarl dragged his companions down these stairs, then he and Rolland waited twenty more minutes for the others to wake up. All awake, they opened a well-polished wooden door with brass fittings at the foot of the staircase and proceeded into the chamber beyond . . .

More to come!

An expert Lift Bridge Books staffer -- also the player of Bobandy the Dwarf.

I want to take the time to thank Lift Bridge Books (especially co-owners Pat and Archie Kutz and store manager Joe Hoffman) for hosting the D&D group and getting the word out really effectively. One of my new players at yesterday's session said his dad saw an announcement of the Lift Bridge Old-School D&D Group in the paper. Way to work the publicity machine!

Thanks Lift Bridge Books!

--
* I am still behind by about five session reports for my "home" Labyrinth Lord group.
** We had some new players that session who helped me, through no real fault of their own, to unbalance the party a bit too extremely, thus the amber golem battle was not quite as thrilling as it could have been; more to come on that issue in a separate, forthcoming post.

Back to Lift Bridge Books on June 3

I have checked in with Joe, the manager at Lift Bridge Books, and confirmed a good start date for my public Labyrinth Lord campaign there: Sunday June 3rd at 1pm.

Here is my promotional flyer:

I am so excited to be getting this going again, and am most grateful to my current local players and to Lift Bridge Books for helping me make it happen!

Outta my way! I've got to get to Lift Bridge Book Shop!

UPDATE: Thanks to Joe, here is the announcement of the June 3rd game on the Lift Bridge website.

Return of the Lift Bridge

My long-term goal of running a public Labyrinth Lord game is, at long last, coming true. Yes, this May, after my current teaching semester winds down, I am moving my currently-on-hiatus Brockport Campaign back to the original locale I intended for it: Lift Bridge Books. I am certain that three or four of the current players -- the regulars -- will likely make the move there with me, plus I have it on good authority that I may pick up a couple of extra players at that time.  I will likely start the group off right where they left off, in the Underground City beneath the Step-Pyramid of the Cynidiceans.  From there, they can pretty much take off in any direction they wish.

Public gaming rides again!

No-Show Leads to Change of Plans

Well, I showed up for the initial orientation meeting of my proposed Labyrinth Lord group at the local bookstore, but sadly, nobody else came. It may be that I have not yet established enough of a web of contacts in the local gaming community to attract prospective players. Or maybe there simply aren't enough local tabletop RPG'ers in the immediate area to sustain a local old-school D&D group at all, at least not on Sundays at 1pm at Lift Bridge Books. At least not yet.

In any case, this means a re-assessment of my next step is called for. I may re-attempt an Old-School D&D Group at the bookstore again in the future, but I need to regroup and re-prioritize a little bit first.

As I recently reported, there are a number of local game shops I have not yet set foot in. So that seems the next most likely avenue for exploration.

Especially promising in this regard is the recurring Retro Games Night at Pair-A-Dice Games. Maybe I'll just show up there on October 1 with Labyrinth Lord rules and The Lost City in hand, and see what happens.

The Cynidiceans want to kick your ass.

But most immediately, my plans include getting a ConstantCon game started. I will make an "official" announcement of this soon, and will advertise the first virtual meetup on this blog and on Zak's Wednesday "bulletin board" immediately thereafter.

 "Tales from the Hotel Kaladarian" is coming!

Pound-O-Dice Revisited

I was just reading Spawn's great pictorial account of the arrival of his very own Chessex Pound-O-Dice, and found myself particularly impressed with his shot of the lb. split up by die type. It had not occurred to me to depict my own lb. of dice this way, and since I have to gather those dice together for the first orientation meeting of my FLBS D&D group tomorrow, I thought I would pause long enough to take just such a shot or two.

Here is my Pound-O-Dice still in the bag, next to the case I plan to store it in for travel to Lift Bridge Books tomorrow.

Bird's eye view of the Pound, separated by die type.

I won't bother to do the whole mathematical breakdown, but it does look like the set strongly favors d6s and d20s, with a decent spread of d8s, d10s, and d12s, but I got short-changed on d4s:  I only got two d4s in the whole set!

 My two pink d4s.

Here is a pic of a few of the smallest d6s I got, with another d6 in the frame for scale. Are these the tiny ones you other guys are complaining about?

My menagerie of small d6s, plus their big brother for comparison.

And lastly, a couple of pics of my array of materials for tomorrow's meeting:

My dice in their case, including my special DM-only "Theo set" on the right there.

Adventure awaits the boldest and bravest of Brockport!

Mobile DM'ing Equipment - Dice

With my public FLBS Labyrinth Lord game getting started soon, it strikes me that I may need to invest in a few more dice than I currently own.  I recently revealed how many dice I possess, and it is not really a giant collection: 

 
What I have now is enough for myself and a few players, but maybe not quite enough to go around if I get a large number of dice-less neophytes arriving at my gaming table later this month. 

When it comes to new die purchasing, I immediately think of Chessex Dice. Look, for example, at these:

Or these:

 

Or perhaps it is finally GameScience time.  I have read the posts about their quality and accuracy, and I am intrigued by some of the "oddball" selections like the d7 and the d5.  Yet for my present purposes -- bulking out the collection for general, public use -- maybe Chessex is the way to go?

Any comments?

P.S. Note to self: I should also look up where the local game / hobby shop is in the Rochester, NY area, so maybe I can buy these dice from a FLGS.

FLBS Game - First Meeting Materials

To prepare for my new public Labyrinth Lord gaming group's initial orientation meeting on Sunday September 18 at Lift Bridge Books, I have started gathering together some introductory materials to share with prospective participants who show up that day. The stuff I plan to bring along for show-and-tell and distribution to potential players includes:

- Examples of the game itself, including copies of the Moldvay-Cook B/X books (to show where we came from), plus two hardcover copies of Labyrinth Lord Revised, for show-and-tell only. Yes, I ordered a second hardcover copy of LL from lulu.com just for this group, that way I can keep one copy behind the screen and have another copy out on the table for player use. As I have stated before, hardback gaming books are the only way to go for me, partially for bibliophiliac reasons, yes, but mainly since they lie flat when opened on the game table.*

- A sign-up sheet asking for participant email addresses 

- Handout: Meeting agenda including my contact information and links to Finch's Primer, the LL pdf download, and the Grognardia blog.

- Handout: hard copy of Matt Finch's Old-School Primer -- player section only (i.e., pp. 1-7).

- Handout: CDs with the LL no-art pdf and Finch's Primer pdf on it

That's it! I may also bring along some dice to that first meeting, we'll see. In any case, I should have enough stuff there to provide a basic intro to the game and to make neophytes as well as old hands feel welcome. At least I think so. Any thoughts or suggestions?

--
* Another solution to this dilemma was presented to me at OSRCon, when Marc brought a spiral-bound photocopy of the art-free downloadable pdf of the LL rules to my Friday morning game. I subsequently borrowed his spiral-bound copy for player use at my Saturday afternoon game. Thanks Marc!

Mobile DM'ing Equipment - Minis vs. Card Tokens

Image copyright 2011 by Kelvin Green

I got some great comments on my recent post about possibly investing in minis for Con / public game play. One of the ideas that got suggested was that rather than going for 3D minis at all, I could simply use card tokens (like that pictured above) on my new battle mat instead.

There do seem to be a number of advantages in going this route:

- card tokens are surely cheaper than 3D minis, yes?

- card tokens travel easily and take up far less space than minis

- Kelvin has some here for free download

- At least in theory, one could prevail upon (or literally hire out) artists from the OSR blogosphere (Hi Kelvin!) to create custom tokens for specific monsters and PC types (e.g., rodians) one needs

Is this line of thinking blasphemy, as Christian suggests?

As a counterpoint, here is EGG on the subject of minis:

USE OF MINIATURE FIGURES WITH THE GAME

The special figures cast for ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS add color to play and make refereeing far easier. Each player might be required to furnish painted figures representing his or her player character and all henchmen and/or hirelings included in the game session. Such distinctively painted figures enable you to immediately recognize each individual involved. Figures can be placed so as to show their order of march, i.e., which characters are in the lead, which are in the middle, and which are bringing up the rear. Furthermore, players are more readily able to visualize their array and plan actions while seeing the reason for your restrictions on their actions. Monster figures are likewise most helpful, as many things become instantly apparent when a party is arrayed and their monster opponent(s) placed. Furnishing such monsters is probably best undertaken as a joint effort, the whole group contributing towards the purchase of such figurines on a regular basis. Be very careful to purchase castings which are in scale! Out of scale monsters are virtually worthless in many cases. As a rule of thumb, HO scale is 25 mm = 1 actual inch = 6’ in scale height or length or breadth.

Figure bases are necessarily broad in order to assure that the figures will stand in the proper position and not constantly be falling over. Because of this, it is usually necessary to use a ground scale twice that of the actual scale for HO, and squares of about 1 actual inch per side are suggested. Each ground scale inch can then be used to equal 3% linear feet, so a 10’ wide scale corridor is 3 actual inches in width and shown as 3 separate squares. This allows depiction of the typical array of three figures abreast, and also enables easy handling of such figures when they are moved. While you may not find it convenient to actually use such figures and floor plans to handle routine dungeon movement, having sheets of squares for encounter area depiction will probably be quite helpful. If you do so, be certain to remember that ground scale differs from figure scale, and when dealing with length, two man-sized figures per square is quite possible, as the space is actually 6 scale feet with respect to length. This is meaningful when attacking a snake, dragon, etc. if characters are able to attack the creature’s body length. With respect to basically bipedal, erect opponents, scale will not be a factor.

Details of preparation and painting of miniature figures for the game are not germane to this work. Your hobby supplier will have an assortment of small brushes and paints for such purposes, and you may inquire there as to the best techniques of painting.

Dungeon Master's Guide pp. 10-11

Any thoughts anyone?

First FLBS Game Meeting in One Month

Well, summer has quickly slipped by, and today marks the one-month countdown to the first meeting of my FLBS Labyrinth Lord game at Lift Bridge Books here in Brockport, NY.  The store's manager, Joe, has kindly posted an announcement of the Old-School Basic Dungeons and Dragons Group's initial Sept. 18 meeting on the store's website, and just today I put the finishing touches on a paper flyer to post around the town and at various locations on the nearby college campus.  The flyer, with acknowledgement for the helpful input provided by Il Male, looks like this:

Now I'm working on my first-meeting pitch along with some visual and textual aids -- I will post about those developments soon.

My FLBS Game's Promotional Blurb - Help!

Today I met with the owner and (subsequently) the manager of my FLBS*, Lift Bridge Books. Wow! Such pleasant and welcoming fellows. Both gentlemen were totally open to my running Old-School D&D games in the store on a once-a-month (or even every-other-week) basis.

Joe, the manager, helped me nail down some specifics. We decided that Sunday would be the best day of the week to hold the sessions, since the store closes at 8pm weeknights (a bit early if we presume a post-dinner or after-work start time) and Saturdays are already booked up with other public events. The store's regular Sunday hours are noon-5pm, so we figured 1pm Sundays would be a good start time -- that gives the group up to four hours per session if we want to game that long.

[As a reference, my "home" gaming group meets for four-hour sessions every other week, which works really well for us. We will see if the locals who attend the public FLBS game are as gung-ho as my private group.]

Joe and I agreed that the first step should be to hold an organizational / orientation meeting, to see what the interest level is like. We went ahead and set the date for that initial meeting: Sunday September 18 at 1pm.

Thus it begins.

In a move emblematic of how gracious and helpful Joe was throughout today's process, he volunteered to post an announcement of the first meeting on the store's website ASAP, and said he would also post flyers around the store and at the coffee shop across the street.

[Interestingly, Joe told me that my visit today wasn't the first time an attempt had been made to lure a regular RPG'ing group into the store. A couple years back, Joe was approached by a then-active D&D group from the nearby College, but negotiations eventually fizzled.]

Anyway, my immediate task is to compose a brief blurb for the bookstore's website, in order to give prospective attendees a flavor for what is to come. My goal is to write something that is welcoming to the general public (i.e., embracing players of all ages and degrees of RPG'ing experience) and makes clear that we are playing Old-School Basic D&D (i.e., Labyrinth Lord), NOT 4e- or Pathfinder-style D&D.**

This is what I have so far -- remember that I am trying to keep it short:

Play the Basic Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game as it was played back in 1981! Very easy to learn and great fun to play. All ages and skill levels are welcome.

Any suggestions? How can I make this as succinct, welcoming, clear, and FUN-sounding as possible?

--
* Favorite Local Book Store.
** As I made clear to Joe, my foregrounding of the Old-School nature of the group is NOT about promoting Edition wars but is meant to avoid disappointing those who might otherwise expect 4e as a default. Since this is a public game, I plan on being the consummate pro as a DM and host, and will keep my anti-4e opinions to myself, especially since the store does sell 4e products.
On a quasi-related note, Joe revealed to me that the store's sales of RPG products noticeably tapered off during the 3.5e period. Joe is not an RPG'er himself and has no horse in the race, but he nevertheless posited that the expense of the books and the rapidity of Edition changes (3e to 3.5e, then 3.5e to 4e) had turned off buyers. I found that observation interesting.

More Public Gaming Options

I've really had public RPG'ing on the brain lately, as I prepare for my first-ever public GM'ing experience at OSRCon in Toronto in August, then for the inception of my ongoing FLBS* old-school gaming group in September.

I have therefore been reviewing the available wisdom on the subject, including Jeff Rients' post on game store games, which says that:

The biggest thing you can do for yourself is to make nice with the store owner and/or manager. Get a date set with them a couple weeks beforehand and ask them to help recruit. Briefly explain the kind of game you have in mind and ask them to steer good folks your way while discouraging the turkeys.

This sounds like a very good piece of advice, so I am planning to implement it forthwith. Time for me to meet the owners of Lift Bridge Books!

Which means I should also start looking more closely at the Labyrinth Lord Demo Team requirements as well.**

In related news, I blogged recently about a teen D&D group that meets weekly at the local public library; in that post I note that I enjoyed meeting them but ultimately decided that their weekly meeting schedule and penchant for playing D&D IV were "deal-breakers" for me in terms of joining that group and subverting it to the Old Ways.

Then, just this week I was talking with one of my summer school students about video gaming, and the subject of D&D came up. This fellow was familiar with some of the D&D based PC games and had played both AD&D 2e and 3e in pen-and-paper format. I asked him about existing RPG'ing clubs on our college's campus, and he said he thought that while there is a student computer gaming club, he had no knowledge of any extant RPG'ing club. By the end of our conversation, he came right out and said that if I started such a thing, he would very likely participate.

Interestingly, I know of at least one other friend, a faculty member in another department, who has expressed a similar sentiment. This faculty friend of mine has never played D&D, only Vampire: The Masquerade and other White Wolf games, but he has told me he would jump in if I started an Old School D&D group. So that's two players onboard already, and I haven't even started the club!

So maybe my plan for a once-a-month public game at the bookstore in town will be supplemented by the institution of every-other-week "Old-School RPG Club" sessions somewhere on campus. It seems like I might be able to easily attract college types to such a game, if the data so far is indicative of future trends.

The bookshop game will be geared toward the general public, i.e., an all-ages crowd including extreme novices, and will likely favor one-off adventures (e.g., Tim Shorts' Knowledge Illuminates and other forthcoming entries in his "One-Shot Adventure" series).  The college club could meet more frequently (every other week maybe) and adopt a more campaigny feel -- if the latter plan pans out, I know exactly which module I would use to kick things off for that particular group. 

Anyway, lots of options are presenting themselves here. Let's hope I can embrace them without driving myself too crazy or running out of time and energy.

Onward!

--
* Favorite Local Book Store.
** I have checked out the LL Demo Team regulations and have come across two that may require my immediate action:

Identify which convention(s) you plan to attend, and be sure to note event submission deadlines. Report the convention to the Society Organizer, and when/if possible a link to the event schedule.

And then:

After each event, we ask that you submit a brief electronic report to the Society Organizer. The main purpose is to report in general how the game went and how you were received by your venue. Include any suggestions, things that were a challenge, or your plans for your next venue.

I had best report my planned participation in OSRCon to the LL Society Organizer ASAP!

Strategic Control, Tactical Chaos

It is possible that I share with many DM's a penchant for slight control-freakishness, especially at the strategic or world-building level. Like most DM's, I like to create a big container (a "sandbox") in which others may come and play. While I am extremely flexible about what goes on at the tactical level -- I like chaos, surprises, and lack of control in the heat of the game session -- I nevertheless like to be the "holder of the container" for the gaming group as a whole. I enjoy providing the base content for the game-world, I enjoy refereeing, and I enjoy setting a general vibe which provides context for the group's interactions.

I mention this because in the wake of my confession yesterday that I am having doubts about hijacking that local teen-oriented 4e group in the name of Labyrinth Lord, I have realized that there is more to it than simply a resistance to playing 4e. In fact, there is an even more important reason why I am wavering from my original plan to convert that group to the Old Ways: because there is another, more appealing public gaming venue opening itself to me.

I mentioned a month or so ago that I have been in dialogue with a staff member at my town's local bookstore about possibly hosting some monthly LL games there. Every indication is that the owners are into it -- they host multiple reading groups and community activities there already -- and I admit that I am much more excited to start something from scratch than I am to convert the preexisting teen group to my will. Why?

1. The teen group meets way too often, i.e., weekly. My preferred meeting frequency for the public LL group would be monthly, or, at most, semi-weekly. Starting a new thing at the bookstore would allow me to set up the schedule to best suit my needs and capabilities.

2. The world-builder / container-holder in me likes the idea of a blank slate. At the bookstore, I can create my own announcement and flyer and set the proper tone for the group from the get-go. I could advertise the group specifically as an old-school gaming group, and might hopefully obtain support materials (Posters? Retail editions of the LL rulebook to stock in the store?) via my official participation in the Labyrinth Lord Demo Team.

Is it greedy of me to want my own "virgin" territory in which to set up my first open-to-the-public gaming group? Might I be screwing up those teenaged kids' souls forever by abandoning them to D&D IV?

Obviously I melodramatize a bit here: that group seemed perfectly happy playing 4e.

And I feel myself more strongly drawn toward initiating my own LL-based setup at the book shop in September.

So there's the second reason for my waning interest in the extant D&D IV group, and here is my Joesky payment:

Globe of Immersion
This powerful magical item looks like a perfectly spherical, 9" diameter, light-blue crystal. It is surprisingly weightless given its size and its hard, crystalline surface -- it is as if the object were hollow. The Globe of Immersion may be thrown at a single sentient target up to 20' away; when so thrown, it flies toward the target at lightning speed, completely surrounding the target's head (or whatever portion of its body contains its brain and/or eyes). The Globe shrinks to fit small heads and expands to fit big ones. After affixing itself around the target's head, the Globe causes the target to believe that he/she/it has been teleported to whatever location/plane/world the Globe's user describes. In reality, the affected creature is still in the same physical place as before, but under the spell of a powerful full-sensory hallucination. Nothing short of disabling the Globe via Dispel Magic will permit the target to break free of the Globe's hallucination. The target will feel pain or damage if attacked while under the spell of the Globe, but will believe that the damage comes from some source within his/her/its hallucinatory world. The Globe of Immersion is usable by arcanists only; its effect lasts 1 hour per caster (user) level.

Playing D&D IV With Teenagers

This past Saturday I visited my local public library in order to sit in on an ongoing D&D IV game. Of course, I am not super-thrilled with the established group's rule system of choice, but I am trying to build up my network as a public rpg'er so I felt it was important to make an initial connection with this particular gang. I am very glad I did.

The facilitator / DM, a really cool dude named Brandon, warned me ahead of time that he and I would be the two oldest people there -- I think Brandon may be in his 20's and I turn 40 this August. Indeed, the weekly event is listed on the library's website as "Dungeons & Dragons (Grades 6-12)," so its intended demographic primarily encompasses adolescents and teenagers.

The group's descriptive blurb on the Public Library "Programs" website says:

"Be a part of this amazing story-creating game. Join the group, build your character and set out on a fantastic quest or adventure. Play D&D with other teens instead of on your computer!"

Well put!

To be super-clear, my participation with Brandon's younger RPG'ing group is intended as a SEPARATE enterprise from the monthly public Labyrinth Lord game for which I am currently laying groundwork at my local bookshop. I will keep you updated on my progress with THAT project in separate future posts.

No, this group has already been playing together for a couple of years. In fact, I am in some ways being brought in as a ringer: Brandon wants me to take over the DM'ing reins at some point so that he can spend some time in the group as a player.

The group itself was a real kick in the pants. Funny and smart young people ranging from maybe 13 years old to 16 years old (that's a guess, though one guy actually told me he was 13). They know the 4e rules quite well, so I will (as usual) lag behind them a bit in rules mastery. But they won't care -- they are there to role-play and have fun.

Brandon is a very good DM -- he has invented a unique campaign scenario (involving all the reptilian and insectoid races uniting against all the mammalian ones) in which the players seem quite invested. They relished bringing me up to date about their campaign, telling me whose character hated whom, and which of the NPC villains were the party's worst enemies. It was great fun.

I did not even technically enter play at last Saturday's session. It took me an hour to generate a character -- a human cleric named Brother Zod -- and the current PCs never finished the encounter penultimate to their running into me and another new player. So I will join in "officially" next week. But I still had a blast watching these younger players get immersed in the game.

As for my future plans with the library group, I will play along in the 4e campaign for awhile, until we get to know each other, then when Brandon is ready for me to DM, we will actually switch rules systems. There is no way -- and I warned Brandon of this going in -- that I would be willing to run anything but an "old-school" rules system like Labyrinth Lord or Mutant Future. (Like ChicagoWiz says, I am allowed to say "no" and set limits on what I'll do.)

In fact, now that I have met the players, I am particularly tempted to expose this group to Mutant Future. I think MF's gonzo style and randomness will keep the library group's interest piqued. Plus it is the same basic mechanic as LL so if they want to swap over to straight fantasy, it will be a gentle transition to my preferred rule system.

We will see -- baby steps. But I am excited to have found a group of younger gamers to potentially introduce to the Old Ways.