Star Wars Wednesday - A Big Map Game

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Last weekend's Midwest GameFest was a success. The new venue and setup worked well, and though there are always things to improve upon, it went very well. I kept very busy, as I was slated to do something every slot. It didn't always happen - they had the D&D Adventurers League tables covered so I didn't end up running AL. That wasn't a bad thing, though, since I was still putting aspects of my other games together. I'd been derailed by work, a freelance deadline, and the Royals great playoff run. I ran a session of Numenera, a couple of Savage Worlds The Last Parsec, and a couple of different Star Wars RPG adventures. I also participated in a couple of panels and wrapped up with an Aethercon panel on Sunday. More on that later. For the Star Wars RPG games, though, I tried a few new ideas...
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Star Wars Wednesday - Games and More Games

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Good news for my non-baseball and/or non-Royals loving twitter followers: my feed should be a dominated by a lot less baseball for awhile. It's been a great postseason and an exhausting few days between the end of the series and yesterday's epic victory parade, for which I had a front row seat. Fortunately, there has been a sudden surge of Star Wars tabletop games news the past few days. First up is the just-announced Star Wars Force and Destiny Nexus of Power sourcebook, of which I'm one of the writers. 
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Star Wars Wednesday - Game On

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OK, so I'm writing this during Game 2 of the World Series, so it will be brief. How so? I started to do this after the 1st inning. It's now the start of the fifth and here we are still at the intro. After Jason Fry's visit a few weeks ago, it has turned out that its the Royals vs Mets, so both of our twitter feeds have more than a little baseball right now. The Royals won last night in an epic 14 inning game. The Mets are up at the moment by one run. Beyond these games, it has been a week for Star Wars gaming as well. 
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Midwest GameFest - Event Signup

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Midwest GameFest opened its event registration to Kickstarter backers, and should be open to all in the near future. I'll be running Star Wars, Savage Worlds The Last Parsec, D&D Adventurers League, and Numenera. The D&D AL events aren't posted yet. There will also be panels on Saturday afternoon.

Events will continue to be posted until the con, so check back for more or to see if space has opened up on a full event.

Aethercon IV - One Small Step: Giants in Space panel

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AetherCon is a free online game convention, complete with games and panels. I've been invited to participate in a panel called One Small Step: Giants of Space. My fellow panelists are Katrina Ostlander of Fantasy Flight Games (and one of the developers I've worked with) and Jason Walters of IndiePress Revolution and Hero Games. d20 Radio's GM Chris is the moderator. 

AetherCon happens to fall the same weekend as Midwest GameFest, so this panel will be my only chance to join in this time around. 

 

You can find more information about participating on the Aethercon site, but here's a brief rundown:


AetherCon is a free to attend, free to partake, non-profit initiative. Thoughout the weekend there will be a plethora of tabletop RPGs on offer for all to play in. Among those will be three, three part tournaments taking place over the three days of the event with final tables to be played on Sunday. 

All games will be run on the free, browser-based virtual table top Roll20. This program will allow GMs and players alike to simply click on a link and enter the playing area as opposed to needing to download and install the software to participate.

In addition to the collection of independent RPG playing opportunities and those run by RPG publishers, there will also be Q&As and themed panels as well as speedpainting duels using the free, browser based conferencing program Anymeeting. 

Star Wars Wednesday - A (not so) Random Email

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Last week, Star Wars: The Weapon of a Jedi author Jason Fry dropped by KC to take in a Royals baseball game. Jason is an avid Mets fan, and blogs about the team. The Mets weren't in KC (but they will be Opening Day next year....because baseball). It turns out, Jason is on a quest to visit every Major League Baseball park and found an opportunity to knock a couple off of his list. He dropped me a message the week before, or as he later called it, a random email. 
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Star Wars Wednesday - Using Maps

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Maps are great tools for RPGs, both in play and as sources of inspiration. Following on from last week's Maps of Mastery Stats post, here are a few ways to use those maps in RPGs. As it happens, Fantasy Flight Games posted a new preview of Star Wars Age of Rebellion Strongholds of Resistance, highlighting Rebel bases in the book. I had a great time with that section.

Deck plans and bases are among the more common map types in Star Wars games, so both make good starting points for map based adventures or encounters. Maps can be great sources of inspiration.

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Star Wars Wednesday - Maps of Mastery Stats

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Quite awhile back....like several years ago....I posted some Star Wars RPG ship and vehicle stats for some of Christopher West's Maps of Mastery sci-fi maps. First in Star Wars RPG d20 Saga Edition stats, then a few in Saga and West End Games d6 when the RPG license was between companies. They are still on the site, and have remained reasonably popular. I've been wanting to do an update for the Star Wars Edge of the Empire / Age of Rebellion / Force and Destiny RPGs for the longest time, and never could seem to find the time.

Well, now I have.

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Star Wars Wednesday - Force Fri...is that X-Wing?

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So, last week's Force Friday was a pretty spectacular event in some realms. I had friends that I never expected to go to a midnight opening at a store for Force Friday tell me they went and stood in line outside of a local Target (only to discover there was actual queuing space inside). I saw part of the unboxing live stream (see last week's post). I split my efforts between Amazon and a local Barnes and Noble, which turned out to be unexpectedly a good thing, but not for the reasons I thought. And, there's been a lot of talk about the new stories. No spoilers here, btw. 
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Midwest GameFest 2015

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I'll be a guest at the new Midwest GameFest in November in Overland Park, KS (Kansas City metro area). I'll be running games, of course. My schedule is yet to be determined, but it will include Star Wars RPGs, The Last Parsec (Savage Worlds), and likely a couple of others depending on a few other factors, mostly time. D&D and Numenera are high on the list. 

There is an ongoing kickstarter with a few days left for those interested in getting a bit of a deal on pricing and swag. There are still stretch goals to meet. 

 

Star Wars Wednesday - KCCC and Star Wars Day at the K

in ,
This past weekend wrapped up the busiest and most condensed span of conventions I've ever dealt with. It was fun, but hectic. Kantcon followed by GenCon followed by Kansas City Comic Con and wrapping up with Star Wars Day at the K (Kaufman Stadium, home to the Royals MLB team).  I ran three different Star Wars RPG adventures in seven sessions, The Last Parsec twice, and D&D 5e twice (plus one non-convention session). 
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Star Wars Wednesday - It is Your Destiny

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It may or may not have hit stores just yet - these releases tend to be a bit nebulous - but it exists, and here's my copy that arrived Tuesday. The Star Wars Force and Destiny RPG Core Rulebook is (almost) now available (probably). I had a great time on this. It it the third of the 3 core rulebooks, and I'm happy to have been involved in all three, and many other FFG Star Wars products over the past several years. 
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