THe ScrOLl

For those of you who missed last month’s Scroll I apologize. The e-version was sent out-and as it turns out the feature story in the editor’s column turned out to be completely wrong. So the Scroll was recalled and the hard copies never were sent out. So here’s this months Scroll, hopefully getting everyone back into the information loop.

Since I have complete dictatorial control of what goes into this little newsletter of ours (mainly because nobody submits anything for me to include), I wanted to do a plug for a concept known as the “Satellite Con.” After the confusion of Ratik Con (which by the way featured no Ratik events whatsoever), Steve Lugo (old-time DOG) decided it was way past time to reintroduce this proposal which was shot down years ago by an even older DOG who no longer lives on the island.

Basically a Satellite Con is a gaming event that takes place in multiple locations on the island. There would still be a convention coordinator to order the modules and make sure everything is being scheduled-but there are a handful of facilitators (Steve used another word but I don’t remember what it was) who are in charge of finding both a location for an event as well as getting a table full of players there along with a judge. Events could be played in public locations such as some of our friendly neighborhood gaming stores, or at someone’s house if they are willing to open it up. For the most part, groups of players stay in a single location, while the judges hold on to a single event and move to a new site to run the same module for a new group of players.

Personally I’d like to see this given a chance. But before it blows up in our face I’d also like to see it put together with some thought and organization to give it a fair chance, especially so that those who are not online will hear about it.

Here are the pros and cons as I see it:

Pros:
• People wouldn’t have to drive as far, since we could have satellites in Makakilo, Kailua, Pearl City, Makiki, etc… So we’d get more players who might have trouble commuting.
• We’d only need one judge per event.
• There would be fewer problems with noise and overhearing adventure keys from another table.
• We wouldn’t have to pay for the rental of a facility and worry about providing food for the pack of raptors that is DOGS (I propose a pot-luck style arrangment, with everyone providing food for their judge and facilitator).

Cons:
• We wouldn’t be able to socialize in a large group.
• Because the cons are spread out and not as public we’d have trouble attracting new gamers.
  So that’s my 2 coppers. I’d like to at least try this out once this year. And maybe convert a couple of our existing cons into satellite cons. I think we should still have larger game days, but for the most part I’d like to see a lot more in the way of Living interactives, war gaming events, playtesting, painting, new game demos, trading/auctions, and stuff that actually requires large groups of people and large spaces.

  If anyone has any feedback (and based on the apathy field that’s been generated around this island by the warm weather and lack of trade winds-I can almost guarantee that nobody does) please email me, or post a comment to the dogsmail list at yahoogroups.

  ---

  Upcoming Events

  June 16-17: Forgecon
  July 14-15: Aloha Con
  August 25-26: Ubercon

  ---

  3E Quiz Scoreboard

  Scott Hantsch: 1
  Tyler Dodd: 2
  Andreas Cross: 1

  I know a lot of people missed last months quiz, so I’m going to re-print them (with the answers).

  ---

  The Quiz-Lite

  Which numeral is larger: 6 or 8 ?

  I’ve never been so embarrassed as to the quality of our education system. As it turns out, every single answer to this question was wrong. The correct answer is that the 6 is larger than the 8. While 8 is a “greater” numerical quantity, the 6 is “larger” because it is in 12-point font while the eight is cruising at a meager 11-point. Sad.

  The Quiz

  Here’s the situation: Krusk the Barbarian (of PHB pg. 25 fame) is in the midst of a brutal fight

First he begins raging to hack his way through some gnoll warriors. He gets hit with a poisoned dart that inflicts 2 points of Strength damage. He then gets hit by a ray of enfeeblement that drains another 3 points of Strength. Just as his rage ends, the shaman that poisoned and enfeebled him lies helpless at his feet. Although no longer raging, Krusk is still plenty angry and decides to coup de grace the shaman.
What’s the maximum amount of damage that Krusk can inflict?
Krusk, male half-orc Barbarian. Str 18, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 7, Wis 9, Cha 12. Hide armor, Large Shield, Battleaxe. Feats: Power Attack, Toughness.

Once again every single answer to this was wrong, and here I thought that this was an easy one. Krusk has a current strength of 11 (18, -2 poison, -3 enfeeblement, -2 fatigue after raging). This equates to a +0 strength bonus, so the maximum damage he can inflict with his battleaxe is 1d8x3 or 24 points. “What about the Power Attack feat?” I hear you cry. Since the prerequisite for Power Attack is a Strength score of 13, Krusk is not allowed to use it. Sorry.

On May 6th, about 10 gamers got together and played a WWII game of "Rapid Fire." The game was based on the D-day landing by the British at Sword Beach on the Normandy Coast. The British took heavy losses even before they landed-from artillery fire, beach obstacles and mines. The British victory was sunk when both the Divisional HQ and Artillery LCT's were complete losses in deep water. The British managed to secure a "Draw" as they were able to reinforce the glider landed forces at Pegasus Bridge and hold the bridge through the last turn.

On May 12 a half dozen gamers played 2 rounds of Easy Company, a miniatures game featuring the Vietnam Conflict. The first round was a Viet Cong assault on an American firebase where the attackers were wasted. The second round was a more balanced battle with the Americans fighting their way through the jungle to take out a SAM site. In the afternoon the group played a ships game called "Fire as She Bears" with the English attempting to destroy a fleet of French ships. The French didn't see things that way and destroyed the majority of the English vessels and escaped off the board with more than half their vessels. Viva la France!

On June 6 the Americans will attempt to breach the German defenses at Omaha Beach and take the high ground. Game orientation at 8am, game start 9am. Players arriving later in the morning will still have plenty of action. Game location: Bello Residence. Steve A. will be commanding the American forces and Bruce S. the German defenders. Players will be called in early June for assignments.

Interested players should contact an active "Rapid Fire" player to get involved.

June 16-17 con open
July 14-15 con open

Who’s Fed Up With the RPGA?

Create your very own international association of role-playing gamers! Unlike the RPGA we can quality control the modules and pay the authors royalties, so that they are paid based on the quality of their work! Judges earn additional benefits for judging well not just for showing up and distributing the certs! Players who role-play well can earn college credits towards their speech and/or drama degree!

What? That’s too much work for you? You wouldn’t know where to begin? Well for those of you who are sick of the problems at RPGA but don’t want to do anything about it-then you just shut up.

Wish List for the Scroll I know some of you must be getting tired of my ramblings about various stuff, so please please please send me stuff to include in the Scroll. Here’s some things I would like to see:

• Game reviews (board games, new RPGs, game supplements, whatever…)
• Role-playing tips or suggestions (hey, we’ve got a wealth of information amongst us).

Head Dogs
Rick Ankney,	President
Wes Grant,	Vice-President
Chris Garrison,	Treasurer
John Barnette,	Webmaster
Matt Lau,	Scribe
DOGS officers' E-mail.