Three Weeks And Counting

Three weeks to go.

First mock up of the layout.

There are more troops on hand than are needed but those selected will be be inspected and touched up before embarking. 

First priority at the moment is the table. The convention table will be 12" longer and 6" wider than mine so I have to keep that in mind. 

Still lots of work to be done but Saturday is game day in Kingston and this time, I'm just a player.

For Coin & Blood By Alan Bahr, RPG Review

Heroes work diligently to rid the world of evil. It is their goal to make a world that is better for everyone to live in. Well, everyone but those they see as evil. The warlords, necromancers, and cult leaders also have their goals of making the world a better place.

Most role-playing games (RPGs) are focused on playing heroes. For Coin & Blood by Alan Bahr takes the typical format of RPGs and spins it around. The concept of the game is to play an antihero. Those men and women who survive and thrive by swindling, thieving, manipulating, and murdering.

For Coin & Blood is subtitled Grimdark Old School Roleplaying, and that promise is met. For Coin & Blood was designed to explore the underside of human behavior. Giving players the opportunity to be in a world where they are the ones who are despised and hunted down by the heroes. The game deals with mature themes and as such, each gaming group and game master (GM) looking at running adventures in this setting should consider the implications for whom they have at the table. You have been forewarned.

Review

For Coin & Blood was developed using the open gaming license (OGL) and gives a feel of the original style of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. For players who prefer the counting up of AC, to hit, etc., there are also rules for creating an increasing scale instead of a descending one. Like the earlier versions, there is a higher fatality rate expected for the player-characters—you are the evil ones people want to stop by either death or incarceration (those murder-hobos usually prefer killing everything).

The rules are easy to read and understand. With our first reading of For Coin & Blood, 4 of us were able to understand of the game, create characters, and then run an encounter. One of our players has no experience with earlier versions of DnD and had no problems with the information.

For Coin & Blood simplifies some of the rules allowing for a quicker start and faster play. Six attributes are created in the same fashion as the parent system. There is only one saving throw instead of 3 or more. Hit points are the constitution score and go up 1 point a level. During play most every dice roll is done using a d20 and d6s.

Although the game is designed for playing the evil side of humanity, the book doesn't go into anything explicitly. There are no horrific details of what characters can do, nor does the art reflect anything of that nature. Honestly, you could play these characters as heroes instead of antiheroes (villains see themselves as the hero of their own story). You also don't have to worry about leaving the book open with concern about who might see it.

The front half (pages 13–71) of the book is about character creation and general rules. The back portion (pages 74–119) is about designing adventures, descriptions of encounters, treasures, and other information for the GM. Nearly everything presented will be familiar with players who have played fantasy based RPGs.

Character Creation

For Coin & Blood uses a score of 3–18 for 6 attributes. Again, these are the ones DnD players are familiar with. It is designed with only one race, humans, and there are no alignments. After rolling up your attributes you choose a class.

There are 7 classes to choose from: assassin, blackguard, cutpurse, knight, magus, priest, and sellsword. The names when taken with consideration of the general premise of the game provide almost all of the information you need when making a decision. A character's class provides some benefits, restrictions, and a saving throw. Starting wealth for everyone is 3d6x10.

Since the characters are creating a reputation, an additional score for Infamy (1d6) is added. Infamy is a representation of how well known the character's evil acts are known. Its progression is based on the deeds the character participates in.

Different character classes get experience point bonuses for high (15+) attributes and Infamy.

As characters advance, they gain benefits at a slower pace than many of the newer RPGs. They earn an additional hit point and they might gain a spell or a bonus to hit. When characters are a level or two within each other, they are comparable enough not to throw an adventure out of balance.

Flexibility

For Coin & Blood is clear about leaving a lot of room for GM alterations. Don't be shocked by the gaps in the descriptions and tables, they were done on purpose.

The simplification of rules allows for storytellers on both sides of the GM screen to create the adventures they want.

Overall

For players who are looking for a grimdark adventure setting, For Coin & Blood is an excellent choice.

We had fun playing For Coin & Blood. We enjoyed the quick start and faster pace. We liked the fact that we had enough options to create the characters we wanted without so many options that we needed an entire gaming session getting characters ready.

There is enough structure to give random outcomes without getting bogged down in what rule applies to what activity.

We decided For Coin & Blood is a game we will play again. A couple of our test group already have ideas for one shot adventures and a campaign setting.

You can find For Coin & Blood on DrivethruRPG (link).

Gallant Knight Games website (link).

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

You can also join Guild Master Gaming on Facebook and Twitter(@GuildMstrGmng).

The Dread Rocket Raticate

Mount Moon is an interesting place. Located in northern Kanto, it's notable not only for its wealth of Pokémon Fossils, but also its extraordinary rate of meteorites per year. I spoke with Gym Leader Brock about it before leaving Pewter City and learned that it was somewhat a rite of passage for Pokémon trainers heading out from western Kanto to the eastern plains. There were certainly easier ways to get to Cerulean City and Saffron City, but Brock assured me that if I was serious about Pokémon training, Mount Moon was the best way to go.
Mount Moon is an arduous climb and littered with numerous interlocking caves that weave beneath the peak. It was not for the faint of heart, but it would be a chance to bond with my Pokémon in the wilderness. I used some of the winnings I earned at Brock's gym to stock up on food, potions, and a handful of Pokéballs before setting out down Route 3 toward the famous landmark mountain.
Along Route 3, I battled a very enthusiastic Shorts Appreciation Fan Club. Delightful young trainers eager to challenge Brock and head off on their own through Mount Moon, but mainly obsessed with shorts. It was along this route and among these youngsters that I first heard the name Team Rocket whispered. According to these young campers and hikers, Team Rocket had set up an operation of sorts at Mount Moon and their presence there was deterring a lot of trainers from passing through.
Back then, Team Rocket was an organization to be feared. They had a lot of influence over everyday life in Kanto, and very few people had the courage to stand up to them. However, as a newcomer to the Kanto region, I was truly clueless at the time. I could see that the kids were unsettled by the thought of Rocket grunts lurking in the caves of Mount Moon, but I was incapable of understanding what this threat meant to them, or what it would come to mean to me. I pressed onward down Route 3 hoping to reach the base camp and Pokémon Center at the foot of Mount Moon before nightfall.
Along the way, I managed to catch a Spearow who I gladly added to the team. I named him Shakespear. Shakespear would come to serve me well inside the dark tunnels of Mount Moon. He needed some training before we entered, so I set to work using the base camp as our new base of operations. Shakespear proved to be a formidable bird and was not unlike Kiwi in his ability to grow quickly adept at fighting and training.
While we were training in the shadow of Mount Moon, Lucky developed a powerful psychic attack that had the potential to inflict confusion upon his opponents, and I noticed Nibbles able to inject a bit of poison from the tip of his horn with some regularity. I was certainly impressed in the team's progress. It was time to start our trek through the underbelly of Mount Moon.

The Zubat was one of the easier Pokémon to sketch,
due largely in part to their huge colony within Mt. Moon.

They don't write this on any of the brochures that I saw, but Mount Moon is absolutely infested with Zubat. You can't go three feet without being assailed by another Zubat, and so naturally the next great addition to Team Fox was a Zubat named Vesper. As I'm sure you can imagine, if you are at all familiar with Zubat, Vesper was a bit of a nightmare to train. That might actually be an understatement.
As we methodically made our way through Mount Moon, I was determined to get Vesper up to par with my other traveling companions. He would often open up a battle with other Zubat, or with the occasional trainer we found along those winding paths, only to be replaced with Shakespear who was an absolute terror in those tunnels.
Shakespear earned his place on my team as the number one Zubat deterrent on Mount Moon. He could out-perform them at every turn, pecking them out of the sky and sending a message that we were not to be trifled with by other Zubat. Those other Zubat did not get that message, however, and continued to plague us the entire time.
Among the outer caves of Mount Moon, I ran into a wide variety of trainers. As Brock had mentioned, it truly did seem as a thoroughfare for aspiring trainers to test their resolve against both the forces of nature and each other. In this particular case, Mount Moon served to test young trainers against a never ending onslaught of territorial Zubat. There were young boys and girls, among them a bug catching kid who wandered too far from Viridian Forest, I presume. I passed and challenged the occasional hiker and a science enthusiast. None posed much of a problem for my team and the pain of losing Rascal felt like it was passing somewhat.

In the heart of Mount Moon, I finally encountered members of Team Rocket. As I approached in the darkness, I heard them talking. Another young trainer had passed through quite recently and dealt them a severe Pokémon beating that still had them upset. Instead of keeping him out of their operation, he had apparently just blown straight through them and their Pokémon without hesitation. When they saw me lurking in the darkness, eavesdropping on their conversation, well they decided to take out their frustrations on me.
Although most of them were weakened by this previous trainer to a point where they couldn't even muster a Pokémon to participate, there was one trainer in that dark tunnel I will never forget. He was the champion of their little operation under Mount Moon, and he would make me pay for wandering where I wasn't wanted. He only had one Pokémon to face my five, but it was enough. I was lucky he didn't have any more.

This Rocket Grunt had an absurdly powerful Raticate, an evolution of my previous Pokémon, Rascal. I knew I had to be careful and so I threw out Lucky to face him. Lucky had recently learned to harness particles on its wings into powerful toxins, and so I had Lucky blow a debilitating sleep powder onto the Dread Rocket Raticate as I would come to call it. As expected, the Raticate dozed off gently and opened itself up to tormenting psychic attacks from Lucky.
What I did not expect was its incredible resilience to Lucky's powerful psychic ability. This ability had taken down numerous thick skinned Geodude along the tunnels of Mount Moon, but the Raticate was formidable. I could tell it was almost defeated, but just as Lucky was going to incapacitate it, Dread Rocket Raticate woke up. It quickly evaded the next attempt to spread a sleep powder. Then it bit down and it bit down hard on Lucky. It was a blow so devastating that Lucky was indeed lucky to not pass out from the strain. I had to switch.
I took a moment to collect myself with all the other Rocket grunts gathered around to cheer on their formidable leader and his terrible Raticate. I knew his Raticate was on the verge of defeat. It would only take one more solid hit to knock it out of the fight and claim a victory. Vesper was still useless. Kiwi and Shakespear were valid candidates, because of their speed and agility. But of all my Pokémon, Nibbles had the most solid defense with his very thick hide, so I felt if any of them were going to survive that devastating hyper fang it would be Nibbles.

Sadly, I was wrong. Nibbles came out of his Pokéball twitching his long ears and ready to face any challenge. Nibbles didn't even have the chance to see what hit him. That damned Raticate bit down on Nibbles head so hard that he was done in seconds. There was no time for Nibbles to react. His fight was over before it had even begun. I let out a loud wail that echoed through the caverns beneath Mount Moon, but that exclamation of shock and disbelief was drowned out by the numerous members of Team Rocket whooping and hollering at their leader's small victory.
It would be short lived. Kiwi came out and could sense my distress. He launched a brutal quick attack on the Dread Rocket Raticate and ended the fight in a single decisive blow. Team Rocket was not amused, but they were out of Pokémon and wouldn't dare lay a hand on me with my trained Pokémon at my side ready to defend me.
I carefully excused myself from whatever nefarious plot they were hatching in that large cavern. They allowed me to pass on my way without any more provocation. They probably said a bunch of intimidating junk that those gangster types like to say, but honestly my heart was sunken deep into the ground. I wouldn't have heard anything they said. Although probably meaningless to them, I had failed Nibbles and now we would part ways forever.
Speaking honestly, I had high hopes for Nibbles. He was so small and weak when we met, but he had the heart of a champion. I thought Nibbles would be with me on Victory Road, facing down the Elite Four and the Indigo Champion. I thought we would take on the world together, but these foul Team Rocket hooligans put an abrupt end to that fantasy.
I nursed Nibbles back to good health in some quiet corner of Mount Moon and spent our last remaining moments together just appreciating the company. Much like with Rascal, I tried to explain to Nibbles why it was important to me that he lived out the rest of his life here on Mount Moon (and I could truly think of no better place for him) and why I would have to press on without him. I shed a few tears and gave Nibbles a careful hug, avoiding his poisonous horn. He seemed to understand and with a final look at me, he scampered off into the darkness.
I soldiered on for Rascal and Nibbles. I pressed on to Cerulean.

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.

The Great Northern Expo Award For Games Design 2108

Big Congratulations go to our nominees for Games Design in the
'The Great Northern Creative Expo' awards 2018.
Peter Dimitrov,
James Moorby and
Jakob MacDonald were nominated for their creative excellence and passion for their subject.

AND......really well done to Jakob MacDonald, the final winner.

Also see the video of the award ceremony in the link below.

Battle For Boulder Badge

After the devastating loss of Rascal, I went back to training out on Route 2 with Lucky. There was no way a mere Metapod was going to stand up to Gym Leader Brock. I had confidence that Rascal, Nibbles and Kiwi would help me earn the Boulder Badge, but without Rascal my confidence faltered. It took us a few days, but eventually Lucky sprouted wings and evolved into Butterfree, a significant improvement over the lovably little lump of a Pokémon he was as Metapod. I did not neglect Kiwi and Nibbles during this time, either, but their progress was a bit less important.
Once Lucky had evolved, I spent what little money I had on a couple of potions at the PokéMart. Although they were expensive, I would not let another Pokémon fall in the Pewter City Gym. I absolutely would not. My nerves were shot as I stepped into the gym for the second time. I remember I was sweating and shaking just thinking about facing Brock. I saw the Junior Trainer who had bested my poor Rascal. He gave me an approving nod, but it did little to improve my disposition. Brock stood at the far end of the gym and beckoned me forward. He had seen my fight with the Junior Trainer several days ago and was eager to face me.

I clenched my jaw tightly as I threw out my first Pokémon. Kiwi met Brock's Geodude face-to-face in the gym's arena. We wasted no time kicking up as much dust as possible to obscure Geodude's vision. Brock had Geodude spend most of its time curling up into a defensive ball, but every now and then it lashed out with a tackle that it simply couldn't land on Kiwi. When I felt it's accuracy was sufficiently incapacitated, I withdrew Kiwi and used Nibble to wear down the Geodude slowly but surely. The Geodude was powerless in the dust Kiwi's sand-attack had kicked up and against Nibbles relentless tackling.
Then Brock threw out his champion, the Onix. I tossed Kiwi back into the ring hoping to repeat our earlier performance on Geodude. Kiwi kicked up as much sand as he could, but Onix still managed to land a lucky strike on him. It hurt Kiwi enough to discourage me from keeping Kiwi on the field any longer. Nibbles was sent out while Onix merely bided his time. I knew immediately that any attacks on Onix while in this defensive state would be unleashed twofold onto its attacker. Your only choices are to crush it swiftly, which is difficult against a rock hard Pokémon like Onix, or to wait it out.
Nibbles began to stare down his opponent while it remained in its defensive posture. Slowly this would lower the Onix's defenses and leave it vulnerable to a massive strike. Eventually, Nibbles was exchanged for Lucky who covered the Onix in its string shot while it continued to wait for our attacks. Feeling safer, Kiwi returned to the battle to continue whipping up sand into Onix's face. Then as soon as Onix released its defensive posturing, Kiwi slammed it with a gust from his wings and knocked the Onix to the floor.
That was how I won my first badge in the great region of Kanto.

Brock was impressed and clasped me firmly on the back with a great slap of his hand. He knew about Rascal, of course, and was pleased at my stance on training. He liked how patient and defensive I was and as a reward not only gave me a handsome sum of PokéDollars, but a Technical Machine that would teach certain eligible Pokémon his Onix's signature technique of biding time and waiting for the counter strike. This strategy didn't really work out well for Brock that day, so I wasn't sure how I would incorporate it on to a team that I intended to take as few hits as possible. I didn't want to be rude, though, so I graciously accepted the TM #34 and the Boulder Badge.
I was now officially on the road to challenge the Indigo Plateau League. I really hadn't come to Kanto expecting to do something quite that dramatic, but I was slowly being pushed in that direction. Professor Oak had prompted me to take this journey and running into Wolf made me question what the journey really meant to me personally. The encounter with the snarky trainer in Viridian City helped me shape my personal goals and encouraged me to challenge the gyms to seek reputation and understanding in the world of Pokémon training. Now, I had my first badge pinned proudly to my backpack and I was on my way to the next adventure — with considerably more money to spend thanks to my winnings.

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.