Updating Seeds of Doom

I’ve updated The Seeds of Doom with a few things I’ve enjoyed in my games lately.

The Seeds of Doom is a one-shot mystery for Monster of the Week. It’s set in a seaside town, which could be anywhere but is based on my home town of Sidmouth in Devon.  I’ve run it a couple of times before and while it’s been okay, there are a few things I can do to improve it based on recent games.

Changes to the mystery

Stealing from ALIEN: I like the random attacks that the creatures make in ALIEN, as it shakes things up. So I’ve added that to the monster attacks in The Seeds of Doom (although I’ve simplified it by given them three attacks instead of six).

Stealing from Brindlewood Bay: I like how Brindlewood Bay uses questions to help set the scene for different locations. So I’ve done that for The Seeds of Doom: ‘What can you see here that shows that the owners enjoyed gardening and were proud of their garden?’

(Yes, I could just ask those questions anyway, but I find the prompts useful and perhaps if I do it enough then it will become a habit.)

Changes to the playbooks

Monster of the Week is ideal for campaign play, but I find the playbooks are over-complicated for a one-shot. So I’ve made a few changes.

Luck: I found that luck as written didn’t work. I imagine it’s a great doom track in campaign play, but I found it didn’t work for a one-shot. So I’ve changed Luck to being a simple re-roll of the dice (rather than an automatic success) and allowed it to refresh following a refreshment scene (stolen refreshment from Lady Blackbird).

Mark luck to re-roll the dice or avoid all harm from an injury. [] You can refresh your luck by having a refreshment scene with another character.  A refreshment scene is a good time to ask questions (in character) so the other player can show off aspects of his or her PC. Refreshment scenes can be flashbacks, too.

Experience: I’ve dropped experience to three boxes from five, so there’s a chance that the PCs may get two chances to level up. I’ve also limited the experience choices to additional moves and higher stats, to keep things simple.

Amending the playbooks: I’ve made a few changes to the playbooks that I’m using:

• Structure: I don’t understand how MotW’s playbooks are ordered. They make no sense to me, so I’ve restructured them by bringing the ‘Getting Started’ section forward in the character sheet.
• Weapons: As I set The Seeds of Doom in England, I’ve removed some heavier weapons and firearms from the playbooks.
• Curated moves: I’ve removed some moves that won’t be appropriate for a one-shot or The Seeds of Doom, so players don’t accidentally choose them.

I’m not using all the playbooks. For example, for The Seeds of Doom I’m not using The Chosen or The Divine as they have a big impact on the game and are better suited for longer form play.

You can see my playbook changes here.

Questions for team start

I will also use a few questions to help form the team, such as:

• Who founded your team?
• Where is your team’s base?
• How are you funded?
• Are you ‘official’ or ‘unofficial’
• If unofficial, what influence do you have to ensure cooperation with officials?

Did it work?

Yes! I recently re-ran The Seeds of Doom and I was happy with all of the changes. We had a great refreshment scene, and the change to luck worked well.

You can download The Seeds of Doom from my Itch.io page—pay-what-you-want.

And my website contains other RPG stuff--scenarios, larps and more.

Cosmic Encounter and me

Cosmic Encounter is one of my favourite boardgames. It may even be my favourite boardgame, but I probably need to play it more than I currently do to make sure.

(This isn’t a review—you can find reviews aplenty on boardgamegeek.)

Early Cosmic

I started playing Cosmic Encounter in 1981 or so. I had just begun roleplaying (Traveller), and the advert for Cosmic Encounter in Games Workshop’s catalogue caught my eye. Once it arrived, I was hooked. We played it incessantly—both with my RPG buddies (in and around games of Traveller) and my ‘normal’ school friends.

The penultimate week of the school year was ‘project week’. We had the opportunity to do exciting things like youth hostelling or parachuting. One topic, generally reserved for those that couldn’t afford the exciting projects (or weren’t able to get into the popular projects), was boardgames. This was the early 80s and I was miles away from the nearest games shop. Boardgames meant Monopoly, Escape from Colditz, Cluedo and its friends. (Even the Spiel des Jahres was in its infancy and wasn’t something I’d learn about for a few years.) Anyway, I chose (yes, chose) boardgames for two years and brought in Cosmic Encounter for the week. I mention all this because I remember one girl who was clearly not happy to be playing boardgames; but there was one game she would play: Cosmic Encounter.

Which alien is best?

Before I started buying expansions, I tracked the success of the aliens. To my surprise, Philanthropist was the alien most likely to win. This alien lets you give a card to your opponent—which means you give away your rubbish cards and keep your good ones. It also means you draw more cards—something that would become known as ‘card advantage’. So over a decade before Magic: The Gathering popularised the term, Cosmic Encounter taught me the importance of card advantage. Since learning that, I’ve always preferred powers that let me draw cards, and shied away from those who hoard their hands.

The second most successful alien was the most obvious candidate: Virus. Virus multiplies its attack card, and is strong in challenges. But not as strong overall as Philanthropist. 

Third, I think, was Laser. Last was Clone—I’ve never liked Clone (probably because I like drawing cards). Clone only works if you’ve got an encounter card you want to keep, and it means that you’re rarely drawing new cards and so miss out on Artifacts (or Edicts as they were known then), Flares and other goodies in the deck. I wouldn’t inflict Clone on a new player either—it’s not fun enough and doesn’t sell the craziness of Cosmic Encounter at its best. (It’s okay as a second power in the right combination, which is why I haven’t thrown it out.)

My favourite power, though, is Sorcerer (you may switch cards) as I love the delightful mind tricks it creates. (Sadly I don’t play the new aliens enough to know if I have a new favourite.)

I liked the hex boards—they set Cosmic Encounter apart from the other boardgames of the time. And changing to a regular board was one of several things that Games Workshop did horribly wrong with their version. But as much as I liked the hexes, I prefer Fantasy Flight’s planet design. Definitely the best.

Expansions and other editions

It wasn’t long before I had all the Eon expansions, including the weird hexes. Despite having all the expansions, we didn’t play them much (besides the extra aliens and 5th and 6th players). Moons were too silly and slowed the game down. (I’m not a fan of expansions that slow games down for little return.) Lucre wasn’t exciting enough, and the alternate hexes weren’t that good—although we used the alternate cone and Praw a fair bit.

I bought the awful Games Workshop edition and was disappointed with the mess they made of it.

I didn’t get the Avalon Hill edition, but I bought Mayfair’s Simply Cosmic (which disappointed me as it didn’t have enough of the craziness I craved).

In the deep freeze

Then I stopped playing.

I moved away from home and didn’t get a regular boardgame group until after the renaissance started in the 90s. So while Settlers of Catan and Magic: the Gathering became popular with my roleplaying group, Cosmic Encounter remained in my cupboard, unplayed.

Since 2000 I have probably played more boardgames than ever—but, sadly, Cosmic Encounter has not been amongst them. There have, I think, been a few reasons for this:

• Until the Fantasy Flight edition, the only copy I had that was worth playing was an ancient Eon copy full of expansions held together with sticky tape. Cosmic Encounter had to compete against newer games with their better graphic design, and Cosmic Encounter lost.
• Gameplay has improved since Cosmic Encounter came out. When it was first released, Cosmic Encounter compared favourably to Monopoly and Cluedo. Now it must compete against Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Wingspan and others. Unsurprisingly, Cosmic Encounter sometimes shows its age.
• I have learned that an hour is my preferred length for a boardgame. I normally don’t want to play a single game for much longer than that—that should be enough to give you a good, solid game and still have time to play something else later on. (Also an hour often suits real-life commitments.) Cosmic Encounter, unfortunately, often takes longer than that. Even longer if you are introducing new players. (I don’t mind setting aside longer for a good game, but an hour often works for the casual gamers I usually play with.)
• The learning curve for Cosmic Encounter is steep, especially if you add all the craziness (which is how I like to play). However, without the craziness (and if your new players haven’t got into the spirit of it), Cosmic Encounter can be a bit pedestrian.

Three player Cosmic Encounter—with two players

But I still want to play. 

Unfortunately, Cosmic Encounter doesn’t appeal to Mrs H, but luckily Megan is happy to play. So I created a dummy player for three-player Cosmic Encounter, which we play now and again. It’s not as good as a full player, but it’s better than nothing.

The dummy player always has a mandatory power and draws encounter cards from the deck (it has no hand). I created a deck of cards for the dummy player’s decisions—how many ships to commit, asking for allies, whether to ally when invited, and whether to make a deal. Other decisions (such as where ships are taken from or which planet to attack) are usually obvious and agreed among the players. The dummy player has been known to win before now...

Favourite boardgames

Recently I thought about my favourite boardgames (which currently include Glory to Rome, Dominion, Oceans, Wingspan—and Cosmic Encounter) and noticed that I like games with variety. Games with lots of stuff that let you do different things—I like a game that forces you to make the best of what you’ve got and work for the win.

Do I like Cosmic Encounter because I like those kinds of games, or do I like those kinds of games because I like Cosmic Encounter?

House rules and variants 

Cosmic Encounter has always seemed a game that encourages house rules, and I’m no different. So these are my house rules.

If you’ve got a vacant planet in your system (ie, completely empty with no colonies), then you can colonise it for free when moving your ships (from the warp, or returning from a successful defensive alliance, or whatever). I’ve always played this way—because it’s always more fun to have the use of your alien power than not to have it.

I don’t use the Fantasy Flight rules for the cone (or gate). As per the original Eon rules, defensive allies always go on the ring on the cone, while offensive allies sit with the attackers in the mouth of the cone. (Okay, that’s not really a house rule, just me refusing to move with the times.)

One thing I don’t like about the new edition is the scoring tracker. Partly that’s because it can take up so much space, especially if everyone is on the same score (although I could put the scoring tokens on top of each other). Also, I don’t always remember to move the scoring track as colonies are won and lost. Mainly, however, I remember the delight (or frustration) of winning (or losing) Cosmic Encounter because we had not paid attention, and a player already on four colonies was asked to ally with the attack. The scoring track makes it much easier to keep an eye on who is in the lead, making those delicious sneaky victories much harder.

Cosmic Encounter and the future

So I think that’s about it—Cosmic Encounter and me.

Going forward, one thing I haven’t explored is playing Cosmic Encounter online using Tabletop Simulator. Perhaps that’s something to explore.

Aiding in RPG combat

So we were playing The Troubleshooters and were in the middle of a fight. We had four PCs, but one of them had already been taken out. We faced a formidable NPC bad guy and her mooks. And it wasn’t going well for us.

Unfortunately for us, only one character was good at combat. As it wasn’t me, I decided to take a leaf from FATE’s book and help our fighter, somehow. So I asked the GM if I could distract the bad guy by picking up a trifle and throwing it at her.

Not to do damage (I already knew that would be hopeless), but to give my friend a bonus when it was his turn to attack.

Unfortunately, nothing in the rules suggested we could do such a thing. We were in combat, and my options (from the rules) were:

Move

Free actions

• Say something
• Pick up something
• Drop something
• Ready a weapon
• Change weapon
• Break cover
• Fall Prone

Main actions

• Sprint
• Attack
• Catch your breath
• Reload
• Take cover
• Survey
• Delaying your main action

Alas, throw trifle at someone to distract them, wasn’t on the list. Not even a generic some other action or distract enemy or help a friend, which might have allowed such nonsense.

(Quick aside. While I play and run lots of freeform larps, I have only played actual-combat boffer-larp once or twice. I don’t like sword fighting, and I’m not good at it. But I remember I was most effective when I attacked enemies that were already engaged in fighting. They couldn’t focus easily on two opponents (Darth Maul is a force-boosted exception), particularly if we attacked from opposite sides. So even though I was rubbish, by flanking I either had an unprotected side or back to attack, or I distracted my opponent for my more-skilled colleague to deliver the killing blow.)

The GM’s role?

Now, you could argue that’s what the GM is for—to mediate the player’s chaotic ideas.

But I’ve noticed that detailed rulesets tend to inhibit such improvisation. I don’t know why that should be, but I’ve seen it both with GMs ruling and with players simply rolling dice to hit. (As a player, I’ve been inhibited myself as this story about D&D shows.)

In my example above (with the trifle), the GM agreed and gave the other PC a bonus to hit. 

(It didn’t help, unfortunately—and even had he hit, the NPC would have had a dodge roll followed by rolling damage. I so much prefer FATE—I would have created an advantage which my PC could have used to not only improve his chances of succeeding but also increase the damage inflcted. Ah well.)

Aiding in combat

Putting aside the challenge of improvising while playing/running detailed rule systems for a moment (or another post), are there other games that let you help in combat?

Picking some games from my small library…

In FATE, even if you have no combat skills, you can create an advantage that someone else can invoke during the fight. You might flank them, throw sand in their eyes, distract them by throwing a trifle at them, shine a light in their eyes, upset them with insults or whatever else you can think of.

Mongoose’s Traveller has a catch-all miscellaneous action in combat. It would be nice if the examples included helping another PC, but it’s better than nothing.

ALIEN and Liminal both include rules for helping or assisting others in a task, although neither includes that in their list of combat actions.

One of the basic moves in Monster of the Week is Help Out—which gives a bonus to another PC’s move (and is exactly what I was doing with that trifle).

While Cthulhu Dark has rules for helping, it also rules that if you fight the monsters you die!

So in summary, a mixed bag.

Improvising in detailed systems

For me, much of the joy of roleplaying comes from improvising and doing all those things you couldn’t do if you were playing a computer RPG. And yet I still find myself inhibited when faced with a detailed rule system—if the rules don’t say you can do it, you can’t do it.

And yet, you can.

You just need to ask.