Starting Character, Modern Day Mash-up of Cthulhu, MHI, X-Files, and Dresden using Savage Worlds

Here is a character for a modern day set of adventures where monsters and magic exist (a low scale Cthulhu crossed with information drawn from Monster Hunters International (MHI), Dresden Files, and X-Files). The game is starting out with the players being recruited to work for a government agency.

The characters know they are being asked to investigative cases that other parts of the agency are not working on due to the cases sensitive nature. They are being recruited for the different skills that are not traditional law enforcement, but include skills to create an investigation unit to solve crimes that may not always involve the need of traditional force.

The players have the additional information the supernatural exists. The cases being investigated are sensitive because the investigators need to protect on two levels: protect the populace from the "whatever" and to protect the populace from knowledge of the "whatever." Characters are being built with skills specializing in one area or the other, or both.

The characters may have some knowledge of the supernatural, or not. However, no character is able to start with any capabilities in magic (this may be a possibility as the game proceeds and the characters gain levels).

We will be using the Savage Worlds system for this set of games.

There will be more in later articles, but it will take some time because timing on these articles needs to be worked out with articles scheduled for release in Utah Geek Magazine.

Keynadiid (Ken) Gobey, (current occupation—reporter)

Ken is a refugee from Somalia. He came to the United States while he was in high school and struggled in his new home. His English was poorly spoken and he couldn't read and write. He taught himself English by watching television and reading the newspapers and magazines available at the refugee center. He not only learned the language but learned skills of writing news articles.

Ken has been working for paper of a mid-sized city for several years. He has done well in his career as a reporter, starting out at a very small paper and advancing through a couple of others to get to his current position. Here he has worked in several departments and is being considered for an editor position.

Ken enjoys investigative reporting, but understands those positions (like the Spotlight group) are hard to come by, so he has focused on just being a good reporter with every assignment he gets. He has become known as a team player by giving leads to reporters in other departments instead of trying to take every story that comes along.

Currently he is assigned to cover county politics. This has been enjoyable because it allows him to work with people assigned to city and state. The position has also allowed him to be in both the city and the more rural parts of the county.

Abilities

Agility d4, Smarts d10, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d6

Derived Attributes

Pace 6", Parry 2, Charisma 0, Toughness 5

Skills

Fighting d4, Investigation d6, Knowledge (history) d4, Knowledge (politics) d6, Knowledge (journalism) d6, Notice d8, Streetwise d6

Part of my inspiration for the character

Hindrances

Curious (major), Habit (minor)—tries to listen to other people's conversations

Edge

Alertness (+2 to Notice)

Players were informed not to buy equipment because it would be provided as part of the storyline of the game.

If you have any comments, questions, or critiques please leave a comment here, or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

You can join Guild Master Gaming on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter (@GuildMstrGmng).

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Death of the Bulldog

It's not a good day for Bulldog breeders and owners - but it might just be a good day for Bulldogs.  A new paper in Canine Genetics and Epidemiology from a team at UC Davis documents the eye-watering lack of genetic diversity in the Bulldog - or English Bulldog as the breed is known globally.

The conclusion? The Bulldog is in big trouble because it does not have enough genetic diversity to allow breeders to breed away from the health problems known to plague the breed.

The story is all over the media here in the UK and internationally - with the above headline in the Independent particularly blunt.

The Indy piece also contains this very strong quote from lead author Professor Niels Pedersen.

“The English bulldog has reached the point where popularity can no longer excuse the health problems that the average bulldog endures in its often brief lifetime."

I think it's fair to say that there has been some small improvements in health, at least in the UK, in recent years. But big problems persist - include breathing issues, an inability to cool themselves, skin, eye and joint problems and an inability, often, to mate or whelp naturally.

Bulldogs are also dead, typically, by the age of six (KC 2014 health survey).

The researchers' aim was to assess if the breed retains enough genetic diversity to correct the genotypic and phenotypic abnormalities associated with its poor health.  The answer? Probably not.

To put it very simply: even if there was a will to breed only from the very healthiest, most moderate dogs (and I'm afraid there isn't because, mostly, people like their Bulldogs just the way they are), you'd only wreck the breed further because it would result in even less of the genetic diversity needed to ensure a healthy life. 

The study found many sections of the Bulldog genome that were identical in every dog they looked at. In particular, they found very little variation in the parts of the genome that code for immune function - very likely the reason the breed suffers a number of immune-mediated issues.

Where does the breed go from here given the increasing pressure on breeders to do more to tackle health problems in the breed

The quickest and simplest option is to outcross - and indeed there are now several varieties of outcrossed Bulldogs (none recognised by the Kennel Club) that can boast a more moderate phenotype and improved health (notably the Leavitt Bulldog which sets a particularly high bar health-wise).

Leavitt Bulldogs     ©Jessica Gilmour/Lonsdale Bulldogs

But of course traditional breeders would rather stick pins in their eyes than cross-breed - and the two dogs above would be considered mongrels by many; no matter that they can run and breathe freely.

Another option could be to... nope, can't think of one. If there isn't enough genetic variety within the breed, outcrossing is actually the only solution.

Leading brachycephalic researcher Dr Rowena Packer (Royal Veterinary College) says the study is a game-changer.

"Our previous research at RVC found that several morphological traits that are actively selected for in this and other breeds, including short muzzles and wrinkled skin, are associated with quality of life limiting health conditions. These problems include lifelong respiratory difficulties and painful corneal ulcers.


"We recommended that breeders should move away from extreme body shapes, and instead select for 'moderate' dogs (with longer muzzles, smaller eyes and less wrinkled skin) within their own breed to avoid associated breathing, skin, eye, reproductive and dental problems.


"However, this recommendation was with the proviso that there was sufficient phenotypic and genetic diversity in the breed, that these new selective pressures would not lead to more problems. This study has demonstrated that the required genetic diversity is unfortunately not present, and thus to obtain healthier body shapes we should strongly consider outcrossing with another, less extreme breed.


"These reforms could allow the Bulldog to see, breathe, eat, birth and move freely, uninhibited by the body shape that we have chosen for them. We need to put health before looks or breed 'purity' to protect the welfare of these dogs. Members of the public who are particularly interested in buying a Bulldog should consider the health problems associated with this breed in its current form, and explore other less extreme breeds with fewer health problems."

I fear, however, that Bulldog breeders will stick their heels in, claiming that their beloved breed is sacrosanct and that everyone is ganging up on them. The researchers will be accused of being secretly funded by PETA; any Kennel Club that acts will be deemed overtaken by animal rights activists and any vet that joins in the cry for reform will be an unreasonable militant who has "got it in for Bulldogs". BVA President Sean Wensley, who appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning highlighting the issues is being widely slated on one Bulldog Facebook group. "He is an ill-informed moron" wrote one commenter. "He needs a good slap" wrote another.

A statement in response to the new study from the UK Kennel Club's Aimee Llewellyn-Zaidi is predictably within the box. First, she suggests that a bigger study is needed in order to get a true picture, saying:

“It would be very interesting to use genomic tools to investigate the bulldog breed on a global level, as it is well-established that breeds that have developed in isolation over time can be utilised to improve over-all genetic diversity and selection for positive characteristics, on a global level.

She goes on to suggest there might be sufficient genetic diversity in the breed in the UK:

"In 2015, a paper published in Canine Genetics and Epidemiology summarised the research undertaken using Kennel Club registered dogs, that estimated the rate of loss of genetic diversity within all 215 breeds of pedigree dog over a 35 year period, and provided information to guide a future sustainable breeding strategy. Latterly in the individual report for the Bulldog the rate of inbreeding declined, implying a slowdown in the rate of loss of diversity, and modest replenishment of genetic diversity which may be through the use of imported animals."

There's a problem with this. All the Bulldogs in the world descend from a small handful of UK founders - and not that long ago either. While it is true that different geographical populations, through a process known as genetic drift, can be a little different genetically it is unlikely to offer much hope in this case. Although most of the dogs sampled in the new study were American, the study did include a handful of dogs from elsewhere (Finland, Canada, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Argentina) and found no significant genetic difference.

That said, I can see nothing to be lost by the Bulldog peeps in the UK getting together to donate blood to a further study to see if there is any more genetic diversity in the UK population. Perhaps this is something the KC could help fund?

Professor Pedersen is doubtful that there is much more diversity to be found - but says he would welcome such a move.

"We have done genetic diversity testing on a number of other breeds and have found in every instance that we could identify over 90% of the known diversity with as few as 50-150 dogs," he says. "The more genetically diverse a breed, the more individuals that have to be tested to encompass the existing diversity and the less diverse a breed, the fewer individuals that need to be tested. We are confident that we have identified most of the existing genetic diversity of the English bulldog, but welcome a much wider screening of dogs around the world to identify small bits of diversity that might remain to be discovered.

However, Professor Pedersen disputes the KC's claims that its research showed that Bulldog might be seeing a "modest replenishment of genetic diversity which may be through the use of imported animals"...

He says:

"The [2015 paper by Tom Lewis] confused inbreeding with genetic diversity. The author concluded that dog breeders in the UK have been doing less inbreeding over the last two decades than in the previous decades. The conclusion was that this caused an increase in genetic diversity, when all that it said was that breeders were being more careful in selecting sires and dams that were as unrelated as possible. You cannot increase genetic diversity across a breed by stopping inbreeding because the amount of genetic diversity in any breed is fixed at the time the registry is closed to outside dogs. Therefore, every breed starts with a known amount of diversity and that diversity will either be maintained or diminished by artificial genetic bottlenecks such as inbreeding to a popular show winning sire. You cannot increase diversity of a closed breed without outcrossing. [Prof Pedersen's emphasis] Therefore, dog breeders in the UK are doing a better job maintaining the genetic diversity that currently exists in their breed by avoiding inbreeding, but they are certainly not increasing genetic diversity."

Indeed. And if the KC data shows otherwise it's likely because it only records 3-5 generations of pedigree info for imports, giving a false impression of unrelatedness.

Tom Lewis is a geneticist working with the Kennel Club. He was interviewed today by the BBC's World Service and, encouragingly, did not dismiss outcrossing out of hand. Have a listen here.

Will add more info/statements/responses as I get them so please keep checking back.

In the meantime, here's a clip from the discussion on BBC breakfast in the UK this morning accompanied with an ever-growing number of angry comments from Bulldog breeders and owners defending their breed. Just posted there is this comment from Dr David Sargan and the "brachy" research team at Cambridge University.

"My colleagues Jane Ladlow, Lajos Kalmar, Nai-chieh Liu, I myself, and others at the University of Cambridge have been working with breeders of UK bulldogs and other short faced breeds, doing both genetic and clinical analyses related to one specific problem, the respiratory distress that many of these dogs, (and dogs of other short-faced breeds) suffer from. Our findings agree with those published by Prof Pedersen and his colleagues in that there is little scope for breeding back to a less extreme skull shape whilst staying within the registered population. This is likely to be true of many other aspects of conformation and temperament as well, as we also find large regions without genetic variation in all dogs of the breed. We would agree that the extreme changes in the conformation and appearance (such as the excessive skin rolls in these breeds) do account for many of their disease problems. 

"Fortunately despite the similarities of appearance, not all dogs suffer from the respiratory disorder and although our studies are not yet complete we now have pretty strong evidence that there are still multiple genetic variations between those that do and those that don’t suffer from the disease. But we do not know whether this is also true for other aspects of conformation and appearance related diseases.  

"In summary, I believe that the swiftest way to remove these diseases would be to outbreed to a dog type that does not have to the same degree the conformational features that cause the health problems referred to in this programme. This would certainly be our group’s preferred option. But over the last few years there has been a lot of advice available directed at these health problems and attemting to reduce the popularity of these dogs. What there has not been is the expensive advertising campaign that could bring these problems to public notice. Without it the advice has not got through to the public. We are therefore looking at how we might reduce the problem more slowly by offering advice on how to breed for healthier dogs using the remaining genetic variation within the breed."

All well and good but the problem remains that brachycepahlia doesn't just result in respiratory problems.  There is a huge number of other consequences, including eye injuries, skin-fold issues and a mouth full of crowded, misaligned teeth that is a veterinary dentist's nightmare. Extremely unpleasant for the dogs, too. At the end of the day... we need dogs with longer muzzles.

• 14:30pm: strong press release from the British Veterinary Association.

Vets urge revision of breed standards to protect animal welfare

Following the release of new research data by Niels Pedersen from the Centre of Companion Animal Health, University of California, into breed health of the English bulldog, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) has issued the following statement:

Sean Wensley, President of the British Veterinary Association, said:

“The research released today reflects the seriousness of the health problems associated with English bulldogs that our members are seeing in practice. Revision of breed standards, to include evidence-based limits on physical features such as muzzle shortness, and full consideration of other approaches such as outcrossing, are now needed to ensure high risk breeds, such as the English bulldog, do not continue to suffer unnecessarily.

“Vets are reporting concerning trends in dog health and welfare linked to the rise in ownership of brachycephalic breeds, such as bulldogs, and we are unequivocal in the need for all those with roles to play – including vets, breeders, breed societies, the pet-buying public as well as others – to take action to combat the health problems that brachycephalic breeds experience due to extreme conformation. These issues include severe lifelong breathing difficulties, corneal ulcers, skin disease, a screw-shaped tail which is linked to painful spine abnormalities, and the inability to give birth naturally. As part of their pre-purchase research, prospective dog owners should consider the health harms perpetuated in dogs by purchasing brachycephalic breeds and choose a healthier alternative breed, or crossbreed, instead, and local veterinary practices are ideally placed to give this advice. Brachycephalic dogs should not be seen as cute or desirable, rather as dogs predisposed to a lifetime of poor health, and English bulldogs should not be hailed as a national symbol for the UK where animal welfare is strongly valued.

“Vets have a duty to always prioritise the best interests of their pet patients, which, for affected animals, can involve performing surgical procedures to correct conformational disorders.  They have a concurrent duty to be part of initiatives that aim to address the health and welfare of a breed beyond the individual affected animal. This is why BVA promotes the importance of vets submitting data on caesarean sections and conformation-altering surgery to the Kennel Club, to improve the future of dog health and welfare. We recognise and take seriously vets’ responsibility to develop and contribute to all such initiatives that aim to address the health and welfare of these animals and we will continue to work with all stakeholders who can positively influence and improve the health and welfare of brachycephalic breeds”

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Being Told, Make The Game Fun For The Players

The hero facing down a dragon

You've heard it before, "A game master has to make a game fun for the players." But what does that mean and how do you do it?

Game mastering (GMing) with the understanding every player considers their character to be "the" hero is the point about focusing on the characters, or the game need to be fun for the players. In many ways this seems like an obvious statement. Many systems talk about designing your hero, not your character. But the concept needs to be taken just a little further to get the full understanding of the advice of focusing on the players' characters

Role-playing games (RPGs) are a series of events being worked through, the storyline of the game. If the players' characters are not the ones working through events, they are going to lose interest. If the characters are on the sideline while the plot is unfolding, why do you need them? This hit me many years ago with an adventure released for the Ravenloft demi-plane in second edition.

The adventure had some great stuff early on, but ended with the party being intentionally overwhelmed at the end. It was designed with so the party could not accomplish the final combat and a non-player character had to step in. The module had several pages of narrative for the GM to be read to the players. I remember this was to set up for another adventure. In our group that next adventure was never played because most of the players felt cheated by the ending. And the rest were disappointed.

They didn't feel cheated because they didn't get treasure, they felt cheated because they weren't allowed to play the adventure. They felt cheated by a twist ending leaving them as an audience while the action took place. This wasn't a mercy save situation, it was planned. When they were removed from making any further decisions they got bored.

If you're sitting and watching everyone else plays, why be there. I have seen too many players around a table check out, more often mentally, because they weren't being included in the action. This is where a GM has to work at providing a balance for every one of the other players. I say work at because there are encounters designed for a specific class of character, or a specific character in play.

Some encounters are going to be balanced to specific types of characters. High combat encounters are not going to be good for non-combative characters, and vise-a- versa. This also applies to particular types of players. There are people who like to play a specific type of character, or have particular traits. And, if they are not given the opportunity to play their style of game, they are also going to get bored with the action.

I have seen where this has led to players leaving the group, and in one instance when a player was asked to leave a group. I don't think that is what most gaming groups are going for, at least I hope it's not.

Remembering the concept that each person is the hero of their own story helps to provide an encounter, adventure, and campaign fitting to all of the players and the characters they bring to the table. I know there will be encounters focused on a particular character or player. I think most people understand that is going to happen at times. When the game goes that direction, make sure you give a balance of action to the players left out of the encounter.

This can be done by providing action in another encounter to the people who were sitting out, or, if you feel you can do it, provide some other action the other players are working on. A good way I have seen this handled is the combination of the straight up attack while the party is backed up against a trap. The party had to defend one direction to give the thief time to allow for their escape. You can also be running two encounters at the same time. This is harder to do, but it can be done. Shadowrunusually has several levels of action taking place at the same time. (I have added this idea into my writing list for a later article.)

When everyone has an opportunity to be involved, you have a good time. When you are unable to get everyone involved to the level they like, let them know you saw it happening. Telling them allows them to know you saw the problem and they don't go away thinking you were planning on ignoring them, and plan on continuing to ignore them. You can even let them know there are plot points coming up designed for them.

Don't worry about covering every player in every session. For me that just leads to additional frustration. Just keep an eye on what is happening and just keep tweaking and adjusting what you are doing. An easy way to tell you are losing a player is when they are doing something else during an encounter, or they stop taking any actions. The plot line of the adventure shouldn't be strict that you can't make adjustments on the fly. You can even just drop in small points where the player has the opportunity of making comments or some sideline interest to keep them occupied.

If you have any comments, questions, or critiques please leave a comment here, or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

You can join Guild Master Gaming on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter (@GuildMstrGmng).

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Have You Heard About Extra Life?

I have worked at writing articles about how to make a gaming experience better. Along with articles about tabletop gaming there have been reviews on movies, books, and events associated with the gaming community in one form or another. This year, at SaltConand Salt Lake Gaming Con, I had the opportunity to meet people involved in an organization that works at allowing our gaming to make other people's experience better.

 

You probably know a family a children’s hospital has helped. You might not even realize it. These hospitals have help many families directly and indirectly. Not only do they keep up on the latest pediatric medicine, they help in developing practices and procedures used in hospitals all over the world. The great work they do is supported through different means. One of those helping to provide support is Extra Life.

Extra Life is an organization works with gamers raising money to support hospitals in the Children’s Miracle Hospital Network, which covers North America. For most of us here in Utah, that would probably be Primary Children’s Hospital; however, if you want to support another hospital you can. I bet there are similar activities happening in other countries. If you know of one, please share the information so more people can be involved.

The gaming community is known for being givers, involved as volunteers in many ways. For example, cosplayers who visit children in the hospital. But not all of us are comfortable doing cosplay. For those of us not so outgoing, Extra Life is a way to add our support. As gaming geeks (tabletop, electronic, sports, LARPing, etc.), we can help children, their families, and the hospitals serving them by playing games.

 

Just go online, signup, and choose the hospital you want to support (here is a link to Extra Life). After that, continue doing what you have been doing—play the games you play with the friends you play them with. You can also be involved with National Game Day on November 5^th.

National Game Day is set aside for a 24 hour marathon. There are national events and live streaming. But not everyone can run a 24 hour gaming session. And, you don’t have to. You can spread out your 24 hours of gaming over a period of time, which means for most gamers there is no disruption to what you are already doing. If you are reading this, I’d be surprised if you haven't played games for more than 24 hours over the past year. With my gaming group we easily reach that goal every month and some in the group usually do it every week.

When you sign up you choose the hospital you want to support, then let people know they can go online and support you in fund raising. It is like doing a walk-a-thon without having to walk 25 kilometers, or miles for some of us who did this back in the 70s. This is also on an honor system, so you don’t have someone calling to remind you to update your game time. And, with it being on the internet, you don’t have to go back around and collect the money and get it turned in by a certain date. Extra Life uses their infrastructure to take care of all of the pledges people make.

Extra Life started in 2008 and has raised over $21 million for children’s hospitals across North America. Locally, Primary Children’s Hospital currently has about 600 gamers registered who have raise over $50 thousand as of 2015. The money is mostly used to help families for charity care. Their goal is to make sure the children, and their families, get the care they need.

Check it out. The support you throw their way helps. Spread the word by sharing the idea. You can use this article, one of your own, or just talk about it.

If you have any comments, questions, or critiques please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

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

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Burgle Bros., Game Review

Careful, now, as you enter the building, you don't want to attract the attention of the guards. We all need to get in here, find the safes, get the loot, and get out. We're not leaving anyone, or anything behind. Like the three musketeers, it's all-for-one and one-for-all.

Burgle Bros. is a cooperative heist game for 1–4 players. The game starts with the first player entering the building. Then, you have to find the safes, crack them, gain the loot, and escape to the roof. The premise is simple enough, which makes the game entertaining to play.

A friend and I sat down with Burgle Bros. and jumped right into the basic game. We decided to skip over the introduction scenario. The rules were easy to understand and we were able to set the game up quickly.

The basic scenario is 16, randomly placed, room tiles making up each of the 3 floors. Each floor has a safe and stairs. Other rooms contain obstacles and hazards you have to overcome, but you don't know what the room is until you peek into it, or move into it. Once you find the safe you have to crack the combination. The combination for each safe are the numbers located on the cards in the same row and column of the safe. This means you have to explore the floor to uncover the combination before you can crack the safe and gain the loot. And, in the base scenario there are three floors you need to cover, then find the stairs to the roof and escape. Besides the obstacles in the rooms, you also need to watch out for the guards.

Some of the rooms

Each floor also has a guard on patrol. After each player takes their action the guard on the floor they finish on moves. This led to some strategy (suggested in the rules) to dividing up a little so one guard wasn't moving too fast in making their rounds. But running into a guard doesn't mean the end of the game.

Every player has three stealth tokens allowing them to hide and not get caught. But if a player gets caught, the entire crew gets caught. This isn't one of the games that has an element of sacrificing someone for your own win. You win or lose as a team.

The team is drawn from nine character cards, determined randomly. Each player can chose one of the two skills the character has for the game. It's good to know who else is on your team for the job and what skill they have. When you chose your actions for your turn other people's skills can be as important as your own.

Some of the characters

On your turn you have several actions to choose from. I've already mentioned Peek and Move, You can also Hack (an alarm system), Crack (a safe), make it easier to crack a safe, or, save a couple of actions to draw an event card.

Hacking an alarm allows you to move through the building easier by not setting off a particular type of alarm. There are five different types, each requiring you to do something different to not set it off.

Safe cracking allows you to gain the loot and a tool. The loot you have to get out of the building, and a tool is just that, something that will help you get the job done.

Event cards are unforeseen events that change the play of the game, either at that moment or later. Some of the events are beneficial, while others may cause some serious reworking of your plans.

As you progress through the game, going up in levels of the building and cracking open the safes, the game becomes harder, making teamwork even more important.

Some of the events, and patrol card

Our game lasted about an hour. Adding a couple of more players probably wouldn't have extended the game much longer. The play was well balanced and turns moved quickly.

Replay-ability for Burgle Bros. is high. The unknown layout of the rooms, the characters in play, the location of the guards and their patrol routes, are all determined randomly. It would be hard to come across a game layout that duplicated an earlier one you play. The loot, tools, and events add another level of the unknown. There are also suggested advanced rules and other scenarios.

The components of the game should stand up to the challenge of being played multiple times.

We both enjoyed the game and want to play it again with a team of four. My friend even talked over the game we played with his daughter who came up with a house rule she thought would be fun. The rules use the concept of action taking place like in a movie, when the camera is on you. Her suggestion is when you are taking your turn you have to narrate the action, like it was a movie.

Loot and tool cards

Burgle Bros. is designed by Tim Fowers (and self-published) with art by Ryan Goldsberry. The game is for 1–4 players and should last 45–90 minutes. There isn't a suggested age listed, but based on the cooperative nature and unexpected turns I would suggest 12+.

Thanks to Tim Fowers for a review copy of the game.

If you have any comments, questions, or critiques please leave a comment here, or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

You can join Guild Master Gaming on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter (@GuildMstrGmng).

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Mastiffs: we did this

Sure, I've been a bit unfair in this comparison. If you do a trawl for archive pictures of Mastiffs (or English Mastiffs as they are called everywhere other than the UK), you will certainly find history littered with some bulkier, short-faced dogs.  And, while the dog on the right was shown at Crufts this year, he didn't win (although he had certainly been placed previously in order to qualify for the show).  But just look at the harmony and balance in the 1936 dog compared to the awkward lump on the right.

In fairness,  the French dog that won Best of Breed at Crufts 2016 was a more moderate dog:

BUT... he was less than two years old at the time of his win and if you click here you can see what his parents look like. The bulk will come. 

Here's another comparison - this time a Mastiff from 1931 alongside another dog that was shown at Crufts this year.

Shocking, isn't it?

The 1931 dog is a lift from this video from British Pathé, which landed in my Facebook timeline this morning, hence the random Mastiff post on this fine summer's day.

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Railroading the Game Master

I have seen a number of articles about how game masters (GMs) are railroading their players down a specific path during a game. Players are lamenting how their creativity is being stifled. They are telling stories of how their characters are being forced to do things they wouldn't do because of how they want to play them. How the fun is being driven out of their playing experience because they are not playing, but following directions.

Okay, I can agree with those issues.

However, in many of the articles, not all, the player start out gnashing of teeth on justified ground. Then, they creep to the side, little by little, until the real issue they are wanting to talk about is how they are not getting their way in the game. It really had nothing to do with railroading the characters and more to do with getting their way.

I have played in games where the players were pushed along a specific path without choice. We had a game I was playing in where several of the players started their action with, "What do I do now, GM?" (GM was not their real name.) The session went short, the game fell apart, and the adventure was never continued. In fact, that person never GMed a game for us again.

There is a flip side to this issue. There have been enough articles out about how GMing a role-playing games (RPG) is about ensuring the players have fun. And, this is a serious concern for GMs who want to create the right experience for their group. Then you have the players scattered about who think the only way they can have fun is when everything in the game goes their way. Instead of being railroaded by the GM, the GM is railroaded by the player.

I am saddened to say I did this a couple of times in my younger years. I remember pushing new GMs around (not physically) to get what I wanted to happen in an adventure. A group of us even did this in an AD&D tournament—we killed a lich with a lightning bolt. I knew it wouldn't work, but the GM was inexperienced and we pushed through the encounter at a rapid pace so we could get the result we wanted.

I have also had this experience while running adventures. I have been told I was unfair because I didn't allow the player to do a particular action they wanted to do. Another time players complained I was favoring other at the table (interestingly enough there were two main groups at the table and the accusations was asserted going both directions). These are acts of trying to get a personal agenda approved by the GM without consideration for the other players around the table, including the player behind the screen.

Yes, the GM is also playing the game. They have a different role than everyone else, but they are playing the game as much as every other person around the map. As a long time GM, most of the time I have as much fun running games as I do playing a character. So, when they say it is the responsibility of the GM to make the game fun for the players, they are including you—the person running the game.

When you think the GM is railroading the adventure, please, take a step back and consider what they have worked up for the adventure. Maybe, the series of encounters they have worked up requires certain aspects of the current encounter to happen. When you work at forcing an issue, is it for making the game better, or making your character stronger, and you feel better? Be willing to let the sequence of action go for a bit to see what your GM has created. You might enjoy the outcome.

This also goes for running games. Are you forcing the game a certain direction for self-gratification, or does the event really need to turn out in a specified way? Many times, I have found there are other ways of dealing with a twist I wasn't expecting by introducing another twist the players weren't expecting. Here are a couple ideas I have used.

My antagonist was killed in an encounter which was not supposed to turn lethal for anyone, it was to set up the rivalry. The party was smug that they had figured out who the villain was early in the adventure and were able to thwart them. They didn't know anything more about the villain, at the time I really didn't either. But I soon discovered, as did the party, he had an older sister who was not happy about the party of adventurers who had killed her little brother, which set everything in motion again with some minor alterations.

Most parties never make sure all of the rivals are dead. I wanted to keep a certain personality so he stabilized and didn't die. Another group found him "robbed and dying," so they helped him back to health. They even supplied him with some basics to get him back on his feet. I stole this idea from the Clint Eastwood movie "Hang 'Em High."

There are times when GMing you really need something to happen in a certain way. You may have to nudge the encounter some for the outcome you need. I have seen it work, if you work with your players to give a short narrative. I have had complaints. A little diplomacy and a promise for future satisfaction is usually enough to get people to go along.

I have noticed when doing this sort of action in favor of a character, or the entire party, no one complains. The party is on the verge of defeat when a patrol from the nearby city shows up to save them.

Of course, the story is about how the party and the characters on the adventure. Nobody wants to keep hearing a story about how the heroes all died. But, at the same point, it becomes a much better story when it is told how they were on the verge of defeat, and then succeeded. Or when they thought they had an easy win, which turned out to be the catalyst for a greater and grander encounter.

Railroading a game from any perspective, is a selfish move to gain advantage for one or a few people over everyone else involved. Keeping that in mind might grant some insight to how others are playing and why they are doing what they are doing. Keeping it together as a group, party and GM, can lead to some greater sessions of role-playing and combat. You might not get the great magic, or experimental starship you think you deserve, however, give it time and let it develop. There is probably a good reason why the lure was thrown out. Be okay with chasing the bait for a while and see where it leads you.

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

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Viceroy, Game Review

Every kingdom is only as strong as the people. Having the right people in positions of power make the kingdom even stronger. To build your powerbase you need to recruit the right people to fit into the right positions. Their placement in the scheme of things creates a stronger base to grow your power into a formidable kingdom. It is about how much power you control that will make you the king of kings.

Viceroy puts you in a position of building your kingdom's power. A strategy game with multiple ways of earning power points (victory points).

Four of us sat down to learn and play Viceroy (we had no previous experience with the game). We had a few problems at the start of the game because of the number of strategy options, but the mechanics were easily picked up. By the end of the first game we were moving through the turns without any problems

You start with a few characters and laws you can play, but the first phase of the round is bidding on recruiting more characters. This phase has a silent bid strategy, but you don't have to be silent about it. You can pass a bid, and you can also lose your bid and gain nothing.

When placing characters into play they can start on the first level or higher. But to place them in a higher level they must be supported by two characters already in play in the level below them. Depending on the level they come into play, they have different benefits that may come into play now, during the rest of the game, or during the scoring at the end. Placing a character into your pyramid becomes more expensive the higher they are placed, but the benefits become better.

Placing a law cards work very much like the character cards, but you don't have to pay for them. They are placed in your pyramid in the same manner as characters. Laws also have different benefits that can come into play in the same manner as the character cards. One difference in the playing of a law card is the timing during the game. Some of them have advantages to being played early while others later in the game.

An early pyramid

Scoring is done from different action, placement of cards, and collection of tokens during the game. What I found while playing was the strategy of the game isn't in how quickly, or tall, or wide your pyramid is, but how you recruit and the particular placement of the cards within the pyramid. Depending on how your strategy is developing you may do better placing a late level card lower than higher in the structure.

The strategy of play is based on focusing on the building of your kingdom, your pyramid. Although there is some need to follow what others are doing, your focus is on what you need and desire to complete your strategy in building and collecting your power points.

Replay-ability is high with Viceroy. With the number of characters, the order they become available, and how they are played all leads to altering your strategy. The bidding also can affect how you play. During our first game I missed out on a bid cycle which required me to look at how to make up for the lost ground.

All four of us enjoyed playing Viceroy. There was a uniqueness about the game giving it a fresh feel, and a fresh look. I am sure when we are sitting with a smaller group at our game night table, this will be in the consideration for playing.

Viceroy is from Mayday Games (English version) licensed from Hobby World and was designed by Yuri Zhuravlev for 1–4 players of ages 13+. It is designed to take 45-60 minutes.

Thanks to Mayday Games for the review copy.

If you have any comments, questions, or critiques please leave a comment here, or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

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Halo 5: Guardians Review

Halo 5: Guardians

Publisher: Microsoft Developer: 343 Industries Platform: Xbox One Release: 2015 Genre: First-Person Shooter Rating: 8.8 / 10.0: Fantastic

Above is Locke battling a Promethean Knight

Halo 5: Guardians is a tough game to review. As a first-person shooter, it's a must-have for all Xbox One owners, but as a Halo title, it's a disappointment. Having become a huge Halo fan shortly after this game's reveal, I was incredibly excited as new announcements were made. What the Halo fanbase got was a title that, while still very solid, did not live up to the hype generated by intriguing trailers, a TV series starring centered around a new main character, and a web series that described the events leading up the game.

The campaign begins several years after the events of Halo 4, and much has happened since the Didcact was defeated by the Master Chief. After a brief prologue taking place in Dr. Halsey's lab. While this opening cut-scene contains a  subtle nod to the Halo novels, things don't get interesting until you're introduced to Fireteam Osiris. This squad of Spartan IV soldiers comprising of leader Jameson Locke, Halo newcomers Olympia Vale and Holly Tanaka, and fan-favorite former ODST Edward Buck, has been sent to rescue Dr. Halsey from the clutches of Jul M'Dama, the leader of the Covenant Remnant. This first mission kicks of with a bang, starting with an action-packed cutscene that seems to be heavily inspired by the Avengers films. Right off the bat, you'll notice a few significant additions to the gameplay.  First off is Smart Scope, a feature for all weapons that is the equivalent of the aim-down sights mechanic that most modern shooters use. Scoping while midair allows you to slowly hover periodically, allowing you to line up shots with precision weapons more easily. (You still have a reticle when unscoped, so Halo veterans will fare just fine if they choose to ignore this feature). You can now clamber onto ledges and slide by crouching during a sprint as well, which brings up more comparisons between Halo 5 and your garden variety modern shooter. Guardians also ditches Armor Abilities in favor of a handful of Spartan abilities that you have access to all at once. These are boost, which allows you to travel faster or move to side in any direction to avoid projectiles; Spartan Charge, which can be used to slam into enemies send them flying; and Spartan Slam, which enables you to bring death from above without risking fall damage. I initially thought that these agility-centric abilities didn't fit the Halo franchise, and while I had a hard time getting used to these changes, I soon found myself boosting across the battlefield, scaling small cliffs, and sending enemies flying with well-placed charges and ground pounds. The default controls have also been tweaked to resemble (insert title of currently popular FPS here), so I recommend that longtime fans change the button layout to the Halo 4 setting, which is as close as you'll get to traditional Halo.

After completing the first mission, you're placed in control of Blue Team, which consists of the ever iconic Master Chief and his lesser-known teammates Frederick, Linda, and Kelly. Chances are you've never heard of these Spartans, but as someone who's read the majority of the official Halo novels, I was super excited to see them in the game. Halo 5's campaign includes a lot of fan service, but those who have only played the games will learn next to nothing about the Chief's teammates. They met each other when they were abducted into the SPARTAN II program at the age of six and they're practically family, but only a few scenes in the entire game even imply such a bond between these soldiers. I'm glad Blue Team is in the game, but it's a shame that they only serve to give your co-op partners unique characters to control.  Speaking of co-op, this is where Halo 5 begins to get ugly. It was revealed awhile before the game's release that Guardians would not feature splitscreen play for the campaign, matchmaking, or even custom games. If you wanna play with a pal, it has to be over Xbox Live or via system link. I had a blast playing through the game with my friend online, but I had another friend without a copy of the game that was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to play the latest Halo game with me. The lack of splitscreen would be nothing more than a nitpick in other games, but depriving a beloved franchise of a feature that has allowed my friends and I and many others others unforgettable gaming experiences is inexcusable.

Now, to continue my summary of the story: Midway through the mission, Blue Team is ambushed by a pair of hunters who destroy the bridge upon which the Master Chief is standing, causing him to plummet to the bottom of a large pit. While unconscious, he sees Cortana, who tells him that she in fact alive, and tells him where to find her, draining all the shock value from the previously heartbreaking ending of Halo 4 (millions of tears were shed in vain!). This is where the plot, which is usually a strong point of each Halo title, starts to get a bit dull and confusing. When the Chief awakes, he orders that Blue Team abandon their mission and search for Cortana, and, being his close friends, they are fully willing to oblige. What follows in the campaign is a decently lengthy series of levels with some excellent setpiece moments that's dragged down by a overabundance of missions where you play as Fireteam Osiris and a few extremely brief ones where you simply walk up to a character and trigger a cutscene.

There are still plenty of positives: While the story certainly isn't the greatest the franchise has ever seen, things do get more interesting towards the end of the game, and while I won't spoil anything, there is a scene involving Cortana that's almost as heart-wrenching as Halo 4's ending. Additionally, despite all these modern features, Guardians also goes decent lengths to appeal to longtime fans; the Covenant once again speak English, and there as many well-hidden humorous lines as there were in the original Halo trilogy, and as with the earlier games, the 13 gameplay altering skulls aren't available to use right off the bat and must be tracked down first.

When it comes to presentation, Halo 5 is great. While industrial environments are more common than I would like, the graphics are still well-detailed, and the missions taking place on the Elite homeworld of Sanghelios are visually stunning. It's also worth noting that this is the first Halo game to run at a silky-smooth 60 FPS on a console, and while I certainly appreciate this change, I'd gladly play at 30 FPS if split-screen was a possibility. The game's orchestrated soundtrack is fantastic as well thanks to Halo 4's underappreciated secondary composer Kazuma Jinnouchi, whose work with that game was much closer to traditional Halo than Neil Davidge's arrangements. Snippets of classic Halo tunes are also included to further please longtime fans.

Despite the lack of splitscreen, the online matchmaking is the most polished aspect of this game. The mutiplayer playlists are divided into two categories; Arena and Warzone. Arena is a mix of all the gamemodes you know and love (Slayer, Infection, Grifball, etc.), while the Warzone modes are new to the series. In Warzone, two teams of 12 Spartans face each other in a battle simulation in which they must gain points by defeating a variety of Covenant and Promethean bosses and capturing territories. If one team holds all three capture points, the shields protecting the enemy base will be disabled, giving them a chance to destroy the core within and win instantly.

Warzone heavily implements the new Requisition system, which is the equivalent of the Supply Drops in Call of Duty: Black Ops III and the Loot Boxes in Overwatch, two other currently popular shooters. By logging in daily, leveling up, winning matches, you receive Requistition packs (REQ Packs for short). These packs award you with random gear. Reward packs usually contain little more then single-use weapon, a vehicle, and boost cards, but you can buy more valuable packs using the REQ points you acquire from finishing matches (Or you could use real money, though I strongly discourage this). Inexpensive Bronze Packs are practically useless, but Silver and Gold Packs have a chance of containing permanent unlocks including Spartan armor, emblems, armor mods, and upgraded loadout weapons, the latter two of which can be used only in Warzone. These REQs can be be used in both traditional Warzone and Warzone Firefight, a refreshing spin on the fan-favorite wave-based survival mode. Rather then being tasked to simply kill enemies, your team of 8 Spartans (a step up from one to four players) is given five minutes to complete an objective in five increasingly difficult waves. (Warzone Firefight, sadly, cannot be played in a custom game) Although the Requistition system isn't very balanced, Warzone is a lot of fun.

Another new gamemode is Breakout. This is a fast-paced battle simulation where death is permanent, and teams of Spartans must work together to eliminate the enemy soldiers or win instantly by securing the flag loctaed at the heart of each arena; think of it as if Counter-Strike had a Capture the Flag mode.

An update to the game unexpectedly added an all new Custom Game Browser. This great new features allows you to browse and download user created content easier than you could in Halo: Reach and also enables you to host and join customized matches. Some fun player-made modes I played included Jenga City, in which half the players must survive as the other half ram into the fragile towers upon which their enemies stand with ships; Death run, which will be familiar to anyone who's played Garry's Mod; and Demolition Derby, which places players into an arena filled with Warthogs and has players push each other into fiery pits.

While the online gameplay is very entertaining, your Spartan customization options are very mediocre. While the last few main series games have allowed you to customize every armor piece of your Spartan from chest pieces to knee pads, Halo 5 limits you to just helmet and body armor. Additionally, you must unlock premade emblems from REQ packs rather then being able to make your own. Being forced to level up to unlock emblem foregrounds and backgrounds in Halo 4 was aggravating enough, but this is ridiculous.

My only other complaint is that this game's Forge mode is much less accessible then before. This is made up for by the vast selection of tools available to Forge users that have alllowed them to create the incredibly impressive aforementioned custom modes.

I had a lot of fun playing Halo 5: Guardians, but it doesn't even come close to fulfilling the hype generated by the marketing. Despite the flaws, this game is a great addition to the library of any Xbox One owner, whether they've played Halo for years or never played it at all.

Ups
New Spartan abilities are fun to use
Great visuals and soundtrack
Nostalgic callbacks to the original Halo games
Entertaining new Warzone gamemodes
Custom game browser

Downs
Mediocre plot with underdeveloped characters
No splitscreen mutiplayer
Customization is limited

ESRB: T Content: Blood, Mild Language, and Violence Price: $59.99 (Retail / Download)

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Getting Adventure Ideas from Other Media, GM Advice

Some of my game books,

I was talking with a woman who told me she wanted to start a role-playing game (RPG) campaign in a science fiction setting, but she didn't want to have it based on any of the movies, television, or books already out there. That is a tough call when you are writing something new, because so much of what we do is influenced by everything we come in contact with. Eventually, we got to an understanding that she already had a design on the campaign she wanted to run, she was looking for a system that didn't push her game into a preconceived setting. For that, we were able to come up with several ideas. Our conversation got me thinking about being influenced, or overly influenced, when developing an adventure or campaign.

When you are writing something for publication, you have to be careful you don't draw too much from an existing work. I am not talking about plagiarism, which is bad and a whole other topic. What I am talking about is coming up with something that is influenced so much by another person's work that your work comes across as a blatant copy. Luckily, when you are writing for your own enjoyment, or your own game, you have a lot more leeway.

some more,

Because you are writing adventures for you and your group, you don't have to worry about the copyright laws and royalties. Those are for works you are trying to make money on, or, you are putting out into the public setting for self-promotion. If you do put anything out there, remember to give credit where credit is due.

Dive into your library of stories and see what you like. Also find out what your group likes. Most of the RPGs have sections with additional reference areas, especially for games focused on some of the "smaller" genre areas (like Big Eyes Small Mouthand Lucha Libre HERO—link to review). They give these reference lists to help you come up with ideas. You can even lift one and write it up for your group.

If you are running a space opera and you want to do a train robbery, why not draw off Firefly to flesh out your ideas? That was a great episode of cross genre work. Even if you write your adventure to follow the same storyline as the episode, your adventure is going to turn out different. You have different characters than they had in the show. Even if you are running the same characters, you have your players running them. More than likely, they are not going to do the same things. People, players, are great at coming up with something new.

more,

I remember a writing assignment where a group of us were given the same topic, and the same source materials to create a document. This was a technical writing exercise, but even then, everyone came up with something different. The same thing is going to happen to you when you work on developing the same plot for your group. It's going to be different. This happens with the storyline you are creating because of new twists and turns you put in, or there is going to be differences because of your players.

Any game master (GM) who has been playing for a period of time has ran the same adventure more than once, usually with a different group of players, but at least with a different group of characters. These reran adventures turn out differently. When Top Secretcame out with their GM Screen it included an adventure, Rescue the President. This adventure is designed for one or two characters. Because of the limited number of players I ran that adventure over twenty times to get everyone in our gaming club at the time through it, who wanted to. Every game was different.

I've done this in more recent times, rerunning old adventures for new groups of players. If you have some old adventures you liked GMing, offer to run them—it is a lot of fun to do them again. If the games are older ones your group played, most people remember the ideas but not the specifics. Even this last week I offered to run a group so a friend could introduce his children to RPGs.

If a published adventure is going to go differently when it is ran with new groups, and by different GMs, your adventure will not be the same as what was originally created by someone else.

and more.

You can give credit to where you have gotten your ideas from. If your players liked the adventure, they will probably like the source material also. This gives you another link with your friends you are gaming with.

If your players already know the source material, you can tell them up front what you are doing. I have seen this work really well because the players know the basic storyline, but they usually want to make the corrections they thought. This can make for some fun gaming sessions.

Don't be shy to give it a try. If you think someone in your group is going to steamroll the adventure because they know it, add a twist to the plot. Let them think this is where negotiations are going to work, just like in the episode you watched, then, have commandos bust down the doors and kill the lead negotiator. Now they have something new to deal with. RPGs are about having fun. Creating adventures can be fun. And, when creativity feels like it's running low, let others help with what has already been created.

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

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