Back from CoreCon!

The convention itself was wonderful, and I truly enjoyed it. There were also some extra's for us - the meeting with Mr. S.M. Stirling and his lovely wife, Jan. Getting to know Kier Salmon, as well as meeting other people who we haven't seen for a year or more. But one of the high points for us had to be when Sam ran the demo game of D6 Epic, set in S.M. Stirling's Emberverse with Mr. Stirling himself taking part.

It was something of a nerve wrecking time for Sam, who hadn't sat at a game table as GM in some years, but after a few moments of nerves he settled down and the game progressed. Not only progressed but went damn well. There was quite a mix of players at the table, from experienced, to returning, to never played before, and not one of them appeared (to me) to stumble or lose their place in the game.

Once the game was over, and it was only a two hour session, Sam stayed behind to talk to a few people. We've now had offers from people who wish to GM games at conventions. Ones from people wishing to write for the system. One other has offered to run a game in his con suite next year! (Thank you Dan of the Fairy Room!!)

All in all it went better than expected and we've returned full of ideas for story lines for the games. Books we need to work on, tweaks for the core rule book, future rule books and lots, lots more. So it looks like there will be more updates about the system and adventures!

CoreCon, for those who don't know, takes place in Moorhead, just across the river from Fargo. It's a fantastic regional con, small but growing. Well organized and lots of con suites!

Zoinks...

Ever watch Scooby-doo? We have kids so the Zoinks is something we hear a lot when they've got Scooby on in the background. Yet the word sums up how we both feel now that the end is in sight for the first of the D6 Epic releases.

First, but by no means the last.

Even as Sam's working on a last minute art piece, and I'm double checking his geek speak, he's already working on books that will follow. Including Magic, and Weapons/Fighting skills. Last time I checked he had the next twenty-one books vaguely sketched out in the back of his mind.

The good thing is there's more work.

The bad thing is - there's more work!

So, thank you for keeping up with us during the A to Z challenge, and I'll be posting updates about the games, new releases, and next weekend - Core Con! We'll be there, enjoying and working at the convention, and we'll have lots to fill you in on over the course of the weekend.

Years...

D6 Epic has taken, so far, two years of hashing out rules, finding they didn't work, rewording them and then turning them into English. It's been both a joy and a nightmare to work on, and has completely changed Sam's teenage dream of creating a game. As one of the early players of Chainmail and Dungeons and Dragons, he, like many before and since, didn't think it would take that long to work out a game.

He now knows better, and is wiser for the learning experience. It's also taught him just how much he truly loves gaming and now writing for gaming systems.

It's also taught him that any game writer needs an editor, because gamer geek and English aren't always the same thing. As such some of the most humorous moments have arisen from editing process. Times when I've looked at him, read out the paragraph long sentence, and asked him what exactly he meant by that... Only to have him look at me, blink and say 'I had an idea and I think it got away from me somewhere in the middle of all of that. Or was joined by five others to create a mutant hybrid.'

Which means that you have to have a sense of humor to work in this industry. Without one, you'll crack before the first three months are over.

So, Monday we'll be touching base on a few things and asking Sam what he has planned next with the system.

eXtra's

Okay, so it's not really an X post, but we're trying!

One of the extra's in D6 Epic is the Advantages/Disadvantages set up in the game.

Terri: Sam, what exactly is the Advantages/Disadvantages thing?

Sam: Advantages are natural abilities that a character has such as being ambidextrous or having a good sense of direction. If you have Advantages however, you'll also have Disadvantages and they have to be 'real' ones that could impact the game. These could things like allergies, a tendency to drink too much when you've been rejected by the one you love, a bad knee that might hinder your skills, etc. They can't, however, be something like an allergy to Polar Bears and you've never stepped into the frozen wastes, and have no intention of ever doing so. Or being afraid of sailing, but you're in a land locked country.

Terri: So, basically, the characters cannot be perfect. But, what happens if a player tries to be sneaky and give himself an unworkable Disadvantage such as the Polar Bear thing?

Sam:It's up to the GM then, who should know the Disadvantages of the characters he's GMIng for. There are two ways he can handle this. He can make it that the Disadvantage comes into play such as moving the group to the frozen wastelands in the midst of the biggest Polar Bear migration in history, or mass break out by Polar Bears who suddenly find themselves wanting to cuddle said player. The other way is the rest of the players get to work out a Disadvantage for the player, with GM approval. They decide the character's 'fate'.

Terri: In other words play nice or the GM and the Players will get you!

Sam: There's one other eXtra I should mention. There will be a full color version of the rule book as well as a black and white. I'm just tweaking a few of the artwork pieces now! I've given Terri two of them to add to the post.

Willpower

Sam agreed to discuss Willpower in regards to D6 Epic

Willpower represents a character's personal effect on others. It includes such skills as oration, acting, and grooming. A character's willpower also represents his ability to withstand mental attacks. Whether they come from situational pressures, like stress or direct assault from magic, or psychic phenomenon.

Willpower comes into play in social interactions and there are several skills under Willpower that cover negotiating with others, bluffing, flirtation and persuasion. All of these skills are used in various types of social interactions. As one of the focal points of D6 Epic is social interaction, having a high die code in Willpower will assist the character with his interactions during the game.

Willpower has one skill that is very helpful for a character; Mettle. This allows a character to resist the attempts of others to interact with him, plus the effects of fear, mental attacks, and the emotional hindrance associated with pain.

Variability

D6 Epic offers a lot of variability for both players and GM's. The setting for the game can be anything from a medieval fantasy through to space opera, urban paranormal to traditional horror, cyber punk to steam punk. The characters also have the option for a great deal of variation as they're not stuck in a specific class. This allows the player to have a character who is a college professor, but is also a daring adventurer searching for relics.

The variation is only limited by the imagination of the GM and players.

Unique

I asked Sam what he thought was unique about D6 Epic...

Sam: One of the things that's unique would be the Epic Die. In most D6 systems the wild dice (which is what our Epic Die are) can continue to be rolled as long as you get a 6 on the roll. The Epic Die isn't open ended and it adds plus 1 per dice roll. So if you roll ten Epic Die you get plus 10.

Another thing that is unique about the system is the focus on social interactions. There are systems out there that include social interactions and romance, but there's not the in-depth focus as appears in D6 Epic. This, in turn, helps build the roleplay side of the game instead of focusing on combat.

There are no rewards, in the way of experience, from simply killing things. Yes,the odds are somewhere within the quest your character will kill something. But that can also come in via social interaction - you might find yourself forced to kill the courtier who tried to poison the queen. But this isn't about hunting down the beast, killing it, and getting the loot.

Tomorrow he'll be talking about Variability - or that's the current plan!