Ghost Planet Gaming Guild

RETURN TO CLUBHOUSE

Welcome to the Club

Time to bite the bullet and taking the leap. We are advancing from an open table campaign to a full on Gaming Club. This Club will operate out of the Ghost Planet Games Discord server and is invite only, so if you want in you just need to reach out to an existing member! As long as you participate in a game between solstices and equinox, and pass a vibe check you will be fine. At this point I am sure there are some of you have absolutely no idea what Club style gaming is and how that is any different from a regular campaign.

Come with me as I lay the groundwork to revolutionize your conception of gaming.

First, let’s establish what this isn’t: We are NOT running a group of 3-5 players who meet every week at the DM’s kitchen table; playing as the same characters working in cooperation to experience a story presented to them by the DM. That is called “Conventional Play” and is not the goal. There are several flaws with Conventional Play, first and foremost is scheduling. It has actually been mathematically proven that most campaigns will fail a the scheduling level. Watch the video HERE to see this discussed. At the end of that video, however, Hank comes to the wrong conclusion! The answer is not less players, but MORE, much more.

I am not the only one to think this, let’s look at how many players were recommended in Original Dungeons & Dragons.

FIFTY PLAYERS!?!?! That’s right! Gary, Dave and the gang knew more was the answer, I know more is the answer, and the elite players of the Living Urf Gaming Club™ know this is the answer. Heck, even Shadowdark knows this, referring to it as West Marches style. Now, you will know it too.

I am sure you are incredulous right now. ‘There is no way you can run a game with 20 players, that is stupid.’ That is because you are thinking from a conventional mindset, in the Clubhouse that is no problem at all.

How a Club Functions

Instead of 4 players signing up to experience a preplanned story you will need a very different mindset. Dozens of players who all want to play in the campaign, multiple DMs, and potentially even multiple game systems. Let’s look at exactly what would be required to make such a thing work:

• The DMs, which from this point onward I will be calling Referees, each lay out what days and times they are able to run games.

• These games are open for any of the Club members, including other Refs to join.

• If a player can not be there every week that is fine! Preferably, you want players to join who think they can participate at least 1/2 of the time, but this is not required.

• Players will adventure out of central hubs, starter towns, and must make it back to town by the end of each session as they might not be able to make it to the next one.

• The sessions will be player driven as each person strives to achieve the goals they have determined for their characters. As these goals come into contact with each other a story will emerge, one with the potential for complexity and depth a conventional game can not reach.

• All Refs will do their best to run the system of choice Rules As Written (RAW). This allows players to play the same character with multiple Refs.
  (This is even suggested in the 1978 Holmes D&D.)
  The Refs will all be running games in the same world and interaction between groups is encouraged! Everyone loves a rival party.

• Furthermore it is likely that the actions of powerful NPCs and Faction Leaders will be determined by fellow Club Members, creating a multifaceted living world.

• In order to keep all of these games in sync we will once again turn to Gygax, and a sentence he wrote in block letters within the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide:

YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT.

Running the game RAW allows all players to be on even footing, and jump from table to table. Tracking time not only syncs up all session within the shared world, but equalizes downtime as resource available to all players. It is recommended that a time ratio of 1:1 or one day in the game passes for each day in real life when the game is not being played.

• In the Ghost Planet Gaming Guild we will use 1 Week = 1 Week as laid out in the Original Dungeons & Dragons rules, unless greater accuracy is required.

Modes of Play

Just like there is not one single Referee, game night, game group, or game system. There is also not one mode of play. In the Ghost Planet Gaming Guild there are three primary modes of play that club members can participate in:

Adventurer Tier

These are players who join in one of the weekly sessions. These sessions will have set times determined by their referees and will be played over Voice Chat on Discord. Real dice will be rolled except in instances of PVP, or when large numbers like 15d6 need to be rolled. The digital dice client slows the game down considerably and most of you are adults, so just don’t cheat. No Virtual Table Top will be used, if at all preventable, however the Mapper should share their screen and use dungeonscrawl.com to help keep everyone on the same page.

Extra sessions can be scheduled on an open night, or even IN PERSON as long as at least 4 players and a Ref can make it. This must be done at least a week ahead of time in the #session-scheduling channel. As stated above, all tables are open to new players just give the Referee a heads up. There will be a channel for each regular game in which the players can plan out what they want to do in the next session, and the Ref can answer questions, post XP, and divide loot.

Conqueror Tier

These games are for players who enjoy taking the game up a notch, and do not require the time commitment of the Adventurer. In this tier Club members will play Braunstein-style games over Discord. Order’s will be submitted in private channels made for each player, and communication between players will happen via DMs. Each game will have a public channel for announcements from the Referee, public questions and taunting between players. Time between orders will vary from game to game, from 1/day, to MWF, to 1/Week, with MWF being the most common.

All Conqueror’s Games will need at least 7 players. Once the game starts you will be given 2 goals or asked to come up with goals of your own. Non Diplomacy games will use the Ghost Planet Games DICELESS rules that are in the playtest stage. A full write up of the rules will be given once the players have been established. For those who do not know what a Braunstein is I will advise you to read BROZER, but the agreed upon definition is thus: “Multiple independent actors operating in conflict under a fog of war.”

There are 3 potential Conqueror’s games in the Club right now each with their own channel:

• Diplomacy - The board game. Will be played on backstabbr.com with Turn Updates connected to the Discord.

• Rumble in the Caves of Chaos - You will select two of the factions listed you would like to play. You will function as their Chief trying to achieve your goals. Most factions will have a few decades of warriors.

• Thrones of Amber - You will play as one of the Princes of Amber as you compete for the Throne now that your father, Oberon, is gone.

Kingly Tier

This tier of play is only available to Club members who have earned it through participation in one of the lower tiers OR is a member of the fantastic Living Urf Gaming Club™. In the Kingly tier Club members will run Patrons aka Faction Leaders that the Adventurer tier players could interact with. The will be asked to submit Orders 1/Week in a private Discord channel made just for them and check for DMs from other Kingly Tier players. These orders will only cover Spycraft & Warfare, (or anything that requires the Referee to adjudicate due to hidden information.) They will also be asked to keep 2 active Google Docs linked and pinned in their channel. The 1st will contain all “public” information for their faction and settlement that could be found out in one day of observation, the 2nd will be all hidden information only themselves and the Ref would know.

The primary ruleset for this will the Ghost Planet Diceless system, but the system of the game they are playing out of may come into affect for things such as prices of troops and construction, movement rates, etc.

The only Kingly Tier games at the moment is the Dragon Wars of Sav’Mon which I hope to get started after Easter. NOTE: you have played in the Dragon Wars before you are not guaranteed to be able to play again, let alone as the same faction. You must first meet the requirements mentioned above, then Domain Rulers (Faction Leaders) will be handed out in order of Priority. The easiest way to qualify is to play a game of Diplomacy!

New Members

Starting April 1st (this is not an April Fools joke) the Club is open to new Members! If you have a friend you think would be interested, shoot them an invite link. On the solstice or equinox of each season I will go through and purge all inactive members. Those who can’t pass a vibe check may be removed early. That means that they have until June 21st to play in a game at either the Adventurer or Conqueror Tier.

Many of you don’t have gamer friends who are not already in the club, but if you do you might be thinking, “How can I tell if they will be a good fit?” Well, send them this article, but I will once again Gary has the answer:

Those wargamers who lack imagination, those who don’t care for Burroughs’ Martian adventures where John Carter is groping through black pits, who feel no thrill upon reading Howard’s Conan saga, who do not enjoy the de Camp & Pratt fantasies or Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pitting their swords against evil sorceries will not be likely to find DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Ghost Planet Gaming Guild to their taste. But those whose imaginations know no bounds will find that these rules this club [is] the answer to their prayers. With this last bit of advice we invite you to read on and enjoy a “world” where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!

• E. Gary Gygax
  D&D
  1973

Example Club Structure and Schedule

Let’s imagine the Club is up and running at full steam, here is what a hypothetical structure with about 60 members might look like this:
Monday Night - Delta Green w/ Chip
Tuesday Night - Dolmenwood w/ Derrick
Wednesday Night - Traveller w/ Chip
Thurday Night - By Steel or Silver w/ Cas
Friday Night - AD&D w/ Anthony
Saturday - Day of Rest
Sunday Morning - BSoS w/ Kearns
Sunday Night - BSoS w/ Jake
Conquerors Games: Diplomacy
Kingly Games:
-Dragon Wars of Sav’Mon - BSoS - w/ Jake
-System Lords Rise - Traveler - w/ Chip

In this example we see that we have 7 different sessions, 6 different Refs, and 5 different systems. The 3 By Steel or Silver games would be run by 3 different refs but all connected to each other and the Dragon Wars. Chip is running a Play by Post Stargate game with patrons submitting orders once a week, and actual adventuring out of the SGC on Wednesdays, finally a Delta Green game once a month. Tom might be playing in both the Sunday morning game and the Dragon Wars, while Steve is playing in both the Delta Green game and the Dolmenwood game. Meanwhile Kyle is playing in all By Steel or Silver Games, AD&D, and Dolmenwood. With 60 members you will have players who are in one or multiple games. Teach may only be in the Thursday night game and only make it 2/3rds of the time, but there are 6 other guys who can also play most Thursdays so a game is just about always able to happen except on Thanksgiving. If a game were to only have two members show up in a week a Warning would be placed. If that repeated the time slot would be re-opened for new games.

Forgone Conclusions

The name I long ago gave the Campaign in which the Ghost Planet Gaming Club will operate in is Forgone Conclusions, as in your deaths are a forgone conclusion. This campaign started in 2009 and within a year had 2 groups running simultaneously. We had our first major event in 2011 when Lucas and I both Ref’d the two groups at the same time as they competed to clear a Lich’s tower. Meanwhile, Branded the Falconi teamed up with the dragon under ‘Castle Perilous’ to betray the party, taking the castle for his own.

The central game takes place on the ringworld of Breye which contains four known continents on which multiple BX based systems can be run. In addition there are the other Forgone Planets in the cosmos allowing for a variety of different game systems, all connecting to each other for potential crossovers.

Club Members, are not only allowed, but encouraged to run their own games as long as there are players and time slots available. The list of Planets and associated Club games are as follows:

• Breye: The primary planet, a ringworld flowing with magic bestowed by the forces of creation and the world stone shards. Dark evils and the forces of chaos are locked away behind ancient seals forged in the last apocalypse.

  • Games: By Steel or Silver, ACKS II, Dolmenwood w/ race as class.

• Krieglok: Inspired by Mars, Barsoom, Dune, and Dark Sun, this red planet is home to Red Martians, Thrark, Man Gore-iors, Psycho Slizzards, Blister Priests and Coolant Clerics. The remaining magic it has left is locked within great crystalline structures or the very plant life of the planet.

  • Game: Dungeon Crawl Classics

• Kaybal: A post apocalyptic wasteland neighboring Krieglok. It pulls inspiration from properties such as Mad Max, Fallout, etc

  • Game: Mutant Crawl Classics, Boot Hill

• Iynova Station: A large asteroid on the edge of the belt, hosting a sizable colony. Inspired by things such as Cyberpunk, Blade Runner, Akira, etc.

  • Game: CY-BORG

• The Bozman Belt: An asteroid belt surrounding the inner planets full of space mining, primarily inspired by Alien (Movie), as well as a little of the Expanse

  • Game: Mothership

• Bauch & Nibiru: Binary planets whose orbit creates temporal shadows between the two. Both are alternate Earths. Nibiru pulls from the Cthulhu mythos and the current timeline is similar to our 90s. On Bauch superheroes and pulp adventure is the name of the game with their present aligning to our own. The shadows of both are set in their respective 1920s.

  • Nibiru Games: Delta Green & Call of Cthlulhu
    Bauch Games: Ascendant & Spirit of the Century

• Walaka - Vancian Fantasy, meaning the magic is powered by nanites and would not function the same on Breye. Uses the maps of Greyhawk, and Outdoor Survival. Inside of the planet is filled with tubes and tunnels

  • Games: AD&D, or Chainmail with 0D&D/Swords & Wizardry

• Drasil: This is just Middle Earth set between the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

  • Game: The One Ring

• Aitian Nebula: Multi star system within pocket space. Has starships, possibly mechs, FTL travel, and aliens. Inspiration of Stargate, Firefly, Gundam.

  • Game: Classic Traveler

Accepted Games: I would much prefer you run one of the above games, most of them already have precedent, however if there is another system you would like to run I will consider it. These are the ones I might allow, in order:
Mork Borg, Stars Without Number, Worlds Without Number, Shadowdark, Cyberpunk 2020

Absolutely Banned Games: WotC D&D(3.X,4th,5e), PbtA games, MCDM Games, Monte Cook Games, Critical Role Anything, Paizo Games, Green Ronin Games, Steve Jackson Games, FATE, buying Evil Hat Games including Spirit of the Century. (I have copies/pdfs)

Suggested Club Media: LoTR, Conan, Nine Princes in Amber, Princess of Mars, Call of Cthulhu, Shadows over Innsmouth, 3 Hearts 3 Lions, Ill Met in Lankhmar, Thieves’ House, Dying Earth, Stargate, Evil Dead II, Alien, Blade Runner, The Mummy, Mad Max II, Kung Fu Hustle, Berserk*, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, AD&D DMG, Arbiter of Worlds, BROZER, Emerald Sword by Rhapsody of Fire.

*Warning extremely graphic

Well that is all. If this interests you and you want to join send me a message. If you are a Club member and found something unclear, let me know.

End

~ Read a book, hit the gym, have a great week.
Jake