Gary Gygax, creator of the Dungeons & Dragons and various other games, has passed away at the age of 70. I first played First Edition of D&D when I was probably seven years old, led by my half-brother who was visiting from college. In the next two-plus decades I played a variety of role-playing games, including every edition of AD&D from FE on.

To say that Gygax’s game had an impact on my life is a gross understatement. I have made (and lost) friends due to RPGs, and have spent countless hours telling stories with my gaming group. I would like to think that my ability to bullshit — I mean, think — on the fly is partially due to role-playing. There really isn’t much difference between trying to con your way past a troll guarding a bridge or a high-level executive that can bless or burn your pet project.

Rest in peace, Gary.

My Year of the Zombie game ran last Tuesday. The group decided to break out from the Magic Kingdom’s underground utilidors and try to find more survivors at nearby Epcot. They then proceeded to go above ground and play tag with the undead in a park full of tens of thousands of zombies.

I always enjoy watching what the players decide to do, especially when a plan collapses. Last session was no exception. I would like to think we’re just playing a game, but a part of me believes that the campaign amplifies normal human responses. Perhaps YOTZ may be used as a model in a real disaster situation, the presence of animated corpses notwithstanding.
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It’s been a little over seven months since I re-started my Year of the Zombie campaign. Year of the Zombie is a D20 Modern ruleset put out by UKG Publishing. With the help of Fantasy Grounds and Skype six of us have been playing on and off since the early part of November 2006. I thought I’d post a little recap on where the campaign is right now, but mostly about what it has been like to run a online zombie game, and where I think things are headed for the rest of the year. Gibberish gets a lot of search results for various zombie things, so this information might help others start games of their own.
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Until last year, I played massively multiplayer online role playing games for the better part of six years, starting with EverQuest during its launch in 1999. I spent the bulk of my time in Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft. I also played quite a few other MMOs, including Shadowbane, City of Heroes, Lineage II, EVE Online, and the beta for Star Wars: Galaxies.

Besides being online, these games had a few things in common: they kept me busy, and they kept me from feeling socially isolated. Whether I was living in a small mountain town in Oregon or working from home in Virginia with a very small meatspace social circle, MMOs were a way for me to jump online and adventure with friends. While MMOs are a significant commitment and aren’t always fun, I will not deny their entertainment and social value. Not only have MMOs allowed me to keep in touch with friends across the country, but they have helped me make some very real friends in “meatspace.” For some, like Alexa and Fathir, their real-life relationship started in-game.

I felt like online games were keeping me from doing other things, like writing for Gibberish. So I hung up my avatars for good last July. I haven’t regretted this decision, although Lady Jaye and I joke about rejoining WoW. After almost a year off, I’ve noticed that something strange has happened to me and my video gaming: console games are not nearly as compelling as their online role playing counterparts.
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Our virtual Year of the Zombie game takes off again tonight after nearly a month’s hiatus due to the holiday. Unfortunately we lost one of our regulars when we shifted play from Tuesdays to Wednesdays — don’t worry Markie, I’ll take good care of you. So far the group has fought down to the lowest deck of the ship, all the way back to the very top, and are now poised to retake control of the bridge with the stoic Italian captain and the rest of his Nepalese ex-special forces security detail.

If you’re interested in some of the game mechanics and gameplay discussion, check out our group’s Year of the Zombie forum. And if you’re interested in playing, the group needs one more …. ;)

I started a forum for our zombie RPG game. You have to be registered with the forum to view the forum, and you must be approved before you can post. This will allow the participants (who will all be playing remotely) a chance to hash out details and discuss the campaign. I don’t expect it to be terribly active, but if anyone is on the fence about joining or just wants to peek through a hole in the fence, you are welcome to drop by.

Okay, I got some good feedback in the zombie rpg v2.0 thread, and I am willing to try a remote game via the Internet. Thanks to some research and playtesting, we’ve decided on using the Fantasy Grounds virtual table top gaming software platform. It allows for all sorts of neat stuff, and comes with the AD&D 3.5 D20 ruleset. Registered users can download the D20 Modern rules for free. I’m leaning towards using D20M for the zombie campaign, mostly because my Year of the Zombie source material is also D20M.

Fantasy Grounds allows a lot of flexibility. Not fond of the D20 rules? You can import other rulesets, or write your own. You can also import any image in JPG or PNG format as a map, create custom “tokens” that represent characters, monsters, or items. It is possible (and expected) to write backstory and item descriptions that can be shared with the players.

And speaking of sharing source material: any ruleset material that is part of the module (say the D20M sourcebook) is shared with the entire gaming party. No more having to tote around fifty pounds of RPG books, or having to buy them in the first place. The GM makes sure the appropriate source material is in the module before starting, and the content is downloaded to the players before the gaming session starts.

Fantasy Grounds runs $35 for the GM license, and $19.95 for a player license. However, you can get a discount for multiple copies. The GM client and four player clients is $79, or a savings of $36 on single-unit pricing. If we get five folks together, we can split it to $16 each, which is pretty damn cheap considering that some people drive from Maryland to play now. There is a free demo you can download, but the demo is limited to two clients in a networked game, the AD&D ruleset, and an non-editable starter adventure.

We plan on using Skype to do voice chatting, leaving the built-in Fantasy Grounds text chat interface for player-to-GM conversations.

The reason I bring this all up is that we already have two people who want to play, with two more possibles. I’d like to buy a stack of licenses so I can start building the campaign with the GM tools. I’d like the limit the game to six people maximum, including me. I would like to play at least once every two weeks to start. I’m not sure how long the gaming sessions would last, but I reckon four hours or less. We can work out more details once we have an idea of who wants to play.

Interested? Send me an email or drop a comment in below.

I can’t get away from it: the idea of running a zombie role-playing game. I gave it a shot over a year ago, and the group fizzled out. Admittedly, I was rusty on running a game, but I also think the zombie/apocalypse genre is pretty fucking bleak and is best matched with experienced role-players. Many things have re-ignited my interest in running a zombie game in the last six months. Dead Rising on the Xbox 360, the new World War Z book by Max Brooks, and re-reading the entire Year of the Zombie source book in preparation for a possible NANOWRIMO topic this year.

Now, there are a few issues blocking me from running another campaign. Well, besides the whole “it’s-been-awhile” GM issue. We also have a bi-weekly AD&D gaming session that takes place at my house, with a fairly stable and competent group of people. I know that The Accountant™ wouldn’t mind acting as a player sometimes, but I’m not sure if the rest of the group would be up for my genre — like I said, it’s pretty dark, and most of the group is looking for an escape, not an end-of-the-world simulation. Assuming the AD&D group doesn’t want to get in on the action (and that the group stays together beyond November), there’s the issue of scheduling. I could alternate weekends with the zombie campaign, but that runs completely afoul of Lady Jaye’s work schedule. She’s normally home on the weekends, and it’s just too much to ask her to accommodate a houseful of gamers every weekend of every month. I could run the game during the week, but that puts the kibosh on my out of town players, most notably The Accountant™, who lives up north.

All of that being said, I’d be really interested in getting a second-chance game together. If anyone’s interested, put in a comment or send me an email.

I guess I purchase so much stuff online that I am bound to have more shipping problems than the average consumer whore. My debacle with modchipman.com being the worst example, I’ve also had bad RMA experiences with other online vendors. Ridegear.com took over a month to process my return after receiving it, for example. But that’s not the reason for today’s post.

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Well, not really, but close — I’m spending a small part of my amended tax return on Evil Hat Productions’ Don’t Rest Your Head. Don’t Rest Your Head is a pen and paper roleplaying game about what happens when insomnia is stretched to the edge of insanity, and then some. Characters have crossed over into a land of nightmares, and they will now live and die by one maxim: Don’t fall asleep. Don’t rest your head.

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