Kingbeast's Lair

-== What is it? ==-

The Armitage Files (TAF) is a campaign framework for use with Trail Of Cthulhu. It was written by Robin D. Laws and published by Pelgrane Press. TAF was released in 2010.

The key component of TAF is a set of 10 handouts. The premise for the campaign is that documents are being sent back through time by Professor Armitage as warnings to the PC. The PC have to make sense out of these chaotic documents to stop the impending Cthuhlu threats that they foretell. TAF includes details on many of the people, organizations, places, and objects referenced in the handouts. It also includes a section on improvising.

The book has a color cover and a three color interior. The interior colors are black, white, and an olive drab color. TAF is 8.5” x 11” and is 152 pages in length. I am reviewing a print copy that I bought. I ran a campaign using TAF that lasted for nine sessions.

-== What I Like ==-

Each of the 10 handouts are roughly 3 to 4 pages in length. Some handouts include taped on items, photographs, or small drawings. The documents go from coherent log entries to frenetic chaos induced rants. Even though TAF is essentially in black and white you can download high-resolution color versions of the handouts in PDF format from the Pelgrane Press site. These color versions are brilliant! They are so much fun to analyze that my players poured over each one using their iPads. They zoomed into each stain, rip, and rant with a fine eye. These handouts are masterful. They were created by Sarah Wroot.

The key to TAF is that it be used in an improvisational fashion. The documents are intended to act as hooks that get the PC moving in a direction. The GM is then to lead the players through various layers and twists leadings to a final confrontation. TAF gives the GM advice on how this is to accomplished during each session. This product design is something that I personally have not seen in any other product and it had a dramatic effect on me. I am a QA engineer who loves lists and a fair amount of session prep. I do understand that no adventure survives contact with the players but I also value prep and the impact that it can have on making sessions memorable, coherent, and fun. Running several sessions without prep made me quite nervous. After the first 2 or 3 sessions I started trying to do some prep for various angles when I saw where the players were heading. This did help but it was difficult at times. In one case the players actually caught something in the text that completely derailed most of my session prep. I rolled with it but I’m sure the players could detect my unease.

During these improvisational sessions I took away something from the book that I had heard Paul Tevis spout off about in his podcasts. Paul used a term from improvisational theater called “negating”. The idea is that you never say “no” to your players. Instead you go with their suggestions and add a “but” to further the scene. For example, “The bar is open so you can take a look but it is seedy and crawling with shadowy faces…” This worked well for me during the sessions.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

As I mentioned above the product really assumes a nearly complete improvisational GM style. What happened with me was that I started off with no prep but I quickly realized that I was having trouble improvising unique plots with detailed clues ahead of my players. As I game with very detailed orientated players (engineers, mathematicians, etc) having detailed clues that are consistent is vital. It was just too difficult for me to do on the fly. To help I started creating small threads that I could pull into adventures. This worked fine at first but quickly got more and more cumbersome.

My players are very detailed orientated but they are also very thorough. Not only did they want to research one thread on a given document they wanted to investigate ALL of the threads on EVERY document. After 9 sessions they had just moved to the THIRD document.

Even though the 10 documents have some threads that connect them TAF does not include any details to help the GM have a strong concrete ending. Instead they let the players and GM improvise this through the course of the campaign. Again this was hard for me to handle at my table.

-== Summary ==-

I was in a seminar with Kenneth Hite at DunDraCon several years ago. During that seminar I asked him if TAF was worth buying. His response was classic Hite…it went something like this, “If Beethoven composes a symphony you buy it; same here.” That is some high praise. 🙂 As a prep heavy GM with detail orientated players TAF was a great experiment but overall it was not for me and my group. For a prep lite GM I can see where this product would be absolute gold. I’m going to give the product 8 out of 10 paws. If you are a prep heavy GM I give it 6 paws but if you are an improvisational prep lite GM I give this 10 paws. 😉

I give it 8 out of 10 paws.

TAF can be purchased at Noble Knight Games at this URL. Amazon has copies for $26.27 at this URL. The book is at DriveThruRPG at this URL for $16.95.

-== What is it? ==-

Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master’s Guide To Session Prep (NU) is geared to help GMs prepare for sessions in a meaningful and efficient manner so that play session run smoother. The book is written by Phil Vecchione and published by Engine Publishing. It was release in 2013.

NU has a color cover and an entirely black and white interior. The book is 6” x 9” and is 132 pages in length. In includes a table of contents and an index. I am reviewing a print copy that I purchased online.

-== What I Like ==-

NU starts by defining “prep” and what makes good prep. It then breaks out the preparation process out into five phases. In sequence the phases are Brainstorming, Selection, Conceptualization, Documentation, and Review. Each phase comprises an entire chapter of NU and is laid out in a similar fashion. The phase is discussed, questions that are answered by the phase are listed, what happens if the phase has too little or too much attention, a self-quiz to determine where the reader stands in their mastery of the phase, and finally how to improve in that phase. This content is the meat of NU and it really delivers. The information is easy to read but forces lots of introspection . I think these sections on phases impacted me the most.

Following the chapters on the five phases of session prep NU dives into chapters on tools, creative cycles, applying the material to your situation, and evolving your current prep process.

The tools section of NU is a great review of the strength and weaknesses of various tools and how to select tools based on the campaign and your GM style. I thought the depth of this discussion was really great.

NU has a fascinating section on how to evolve your prep style based on the material in the book. I think that sometimes self-help or time management books sometimes fall short on material in this area. NU does not skimp on this material and I found the author’s approach of applying his techniques based on your own GM style refreshing and extremely useful.

The section on templates was fine but again not revolutionary to me. I have used templates for my adventures, NPC, etc for quite some time. I did like his suggestions on what type of material is valuable in the templates and how it should be presented so that play during the session can be facilitated. As a suggestion I would love to see some of the author’s templates posted on his blog site for download.

There is a section in NU that the author calls “Prep-Lite”. As you might guess this is a section for GMs who do not like to do any prep. I am not personally one of those people but the section did provide some good advice to help focus the GM on areas where they need assistance. NU provides some nice advice in this area.

The artwork in NU is nicely done and well matched to the material. At times interior pieces are so well suited to the text that it made me smirk. Matt Morrow did the wonderful cover that reminds me of something Storn Cook might create. Matt Morrow and Christopher Reach did all of the interior artwork. John Arcadian did the art direction.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

The chapter on creative cycles was really about time management. This information was not at all new to me as I work as a software engineer. The project management practices that I have learned over the years are reflected in this section. I can see someone who does not have this exposure getting something out of this section but it did not do a lot for me.

The section on references seemed very small and it was really focused on blog articles posted on Gnome Stew which is sort of the blog arm of Engine Publishing if I understand it correctly. 😉

-== Summary ==-

NU is a book that will teach every GM how to improve their prep and thus their game sessions. Even GMs who think they have it all figured out need to read this book. This might be the best book I have read for GMs. For a $9.95 cover price for the PDF NU is a bargain. I would give it more paws but my scale won’t go that high. 🙂

I give it 10 out of 10 paws.

You can get a copy of NU at Amazon for $19.35 at this URL. DriveThruRPG has it for sale in PDF format for $9.95 at this URL. Noble Knight has it for $17.95 at this URL.

During the early 90’s I published a newsletter that I emailed out to anyone who would listen. At the time my audience was comprised primarily of gaming buddies and folks on the Checkered Demon BBS. Each issue is like a collection of mini blog posts. 😉

Topics vary from issue to issue but focus on Hero Games product reviews/rules, video game reviews, comic book reviews, and other miscellaneous news items that would be appropriate for my gaming group. Looking back I think doing the small reviews in these issues whet my appetite for the type of more in depth reviews that I am performing now on this very blog.

You can find copies of the currently posted issues at this URL: https://usandacat.com/thelair/file-downloads/other-files/

Issues 41 to 48 include the following highlights:

• The Kid reviews Lobo Paramilitary XMAS Special and H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu.
• My article on Hero System: Player Friendly, GM Ugly.
• Review of Champions Presents, Gamer Magazine, and Normals Unbound.
• Paladin’s review of the best computer games of 1991.
• The Saga Of Rolf Sanswit by Chris Armstrong.
• My review from Gen Con 25.
• A Hero System trivia challenge!
• More funny gaming quotes!

This is the last set of gazettes. Enjoy! 🙂