Killed By Dice

Summer 2025 updates

2025-08-28T12:01:00Z

We've been playing Classic Traveller once a month since the winter and expect to continue playing it, although there was no session in August. I think we will continue in September and will put it up on the calendar when I know more -- although the game is full, so we won't be taking on more players at this time.

In May, we played a very nice game of The Pool, using an Osamu Tezuka pre-historical Dororo inspired backdrop.

I had to skip the planned session of Fantasy for Real in June. However, it is coming back on September 28, 2025 to Foulab. It is a great game for beginners and experienced people alike. It is very easy to prepare and gamemaster. In future months, I will be inviting others to run it.

Site Changes

The event calendar has been replaced with something more dynamic. It can be accessed directly or through the Events link in the site header.

The old version was statically generated using some code I wrote for the haunt site generator. The new calendar is based on gancio. It has all of the expected calendar features and should be easier for me to keep up-to-date. I think their philosophy aligns with mine and I have seen it put to great use for the local punk & hardcore concert calendar.

Winter 2025 updates

2025-03-03T12:01:00Z

On March 23, 2025, we will be starting a game of Classic Traveller. These are the bare bones 1977/1980 rules editions. We'll start with character creation and some orientation for the setting. There are a few spots open for this, please contact me at david AT killedbydice.com if you are interested. This event starts at 4pm.

We will also continue with our gaming nights at Foulab on March 25, 2025 at 8pm. These nights are open to the public. We encourage you to bring your own games to play with the people on hand. There is usually a game of Grimdark Future using Warhammer 40K minis. I will bring Melee and Wizard, classic fantasy war games by Steve Jackson, as well as Battle Line, a quick two player card-based war game set in ancient times.

See the following for more info about our events:

Fall 2024 updates

2024-10-04T12:01:00Z

We're still going. We were playing a little bit informally and casually in the spring and then I took the summer off from hosting events.

On the side, we are doing some casual war gaming at Foulab once a month as well. In particular, we have been playing Grimdark Future from One Page Rules. This is a light and open rendition of Warhammer 40K. We play it using whatever models and miniatures we have on hand. Our next event will be on October 15, 2024 at Foulab. This is open to all who are interested -- bring your minis!

For our Sorcerer in Kowloon game, we more or less resolved the Kicker of one of the characters before we ran into scheduling issues. It was a great game.

After that, we played a game I am working on called Ikons for awhile -- which was very enlightening for me. Thanks Pavel and W. for indulging me.

We have also been playing Three Sixteen at Foulab. This is an ongoing monthly game, and we could use a player or two to fill out the squad. The next session will be on October 27, 2024 at Foulab.

On October 6, 2024, there will be an informal event open house event at Foulab where we will find some RPG activities to do. There is a one page RPG called Crash Pandas that one of the regular attendees would like to play in the evening. I would like to schedule one of these a month for the next while.

Lastly, I attended an event called The Happening in Norrköping, Sweden that was hosted by Ron Edwards from Adept Play. That event was amazing and life changing. I will post about it soon.

See the following for more info about our events:

March 2024

2024-03-01T12:01:00Z

This month we are hosting a one-shot event that is open to the public on March 17th at the Foulab Hackerspace at 4pm. It will be a cyberpunk-themed game of The Pool.

RSVP here:

Killed By Dice - Data Dive: Cyberpunk Role-playing with The Pool

For the rest of the month, a group of us will be playing Sorcerer. This is a closed game -- no remaining spots. The setting for this game is the Kowloon Walled City in the year 1984.

More information can be found on the events page.

To keep with all of the one-shot events, you can follow us on EventBrite:

Killed By Dice - EventBrite

News

2024-02-06T12:01:00Z

We are making a few changes to the format of the Killed By Dice events. We initially started with more or less a walk-in open house format where I promised that there would be a game to play every week. This was exciting and let us play a huge variety of games. However, it has been difficult for me to keep up with curating and learning new game systems.

Though it is worth mentioning that it is and will always be the case that other people are feel to GM their own games, as long as they don't fall too far out of the scope of the Killed By Dice mission statement -- which is mostly to opt-out of the commerce and larger social context of gaming culture and focus exclusively on playing the games themselves.

Going forward there will be two types of events:

One-shot games that people must reserve a slot for (using EventBrite)
Scheduled longer running games with a fixed group

You can follow us on EventBrite to view and RSVP for the one-shots:

Killed By Dice - EventBrite

In the case of the longer running games, they will be organized more informally. But I will post information about which game we are playing, if we need players, etc.

I will be making some changes to our calendar code to faciliate the new format.

In addition to the format change, one of the monthly events will be hosted at the Foulab hackerspace. We will play a science-fiction themed game at the Foulab events to fit with the vibe of the space. We have already played Mothership in December and the original Cyberpunk in January. This month we will be playing Remember Tomorrow.

On February 11, we will also be flexing our role-playing fundamentals by playing The Pool.

Status updates

2023-07-24T12:00:00Z

I have fallen a little behind on blogging although we have done the open houses every weekend since the last post. By my count, there have been thirteen open houses. The next is Sunday, July 30, 2023.

I recently added a calendar (under the Events header) to keep track of upcoming events so that I don't have to post a blog in advance every week.

I am quite pleased with our activities. Over the course of Killed By Dice, nine people (not counting myself) have walked through the doors to play role-playing games. If I am not miscounting, four of the attendees have never played role-playing games before and they all had fun playing for the first time. On that note alone, Killed By Dice has been tremendously fulfilling for me.

We have played the following games:

The Pool
Marvel Super Heroes
Circle of Hands
Murderous Ghosts

We have also played two games that I am designing:

Vampire's Dream
Guns N' Glitches

Our play of The Pool has consisted of one shots. Murderous Ghosts is a one shot by design but we played it three times, rotating GMs. Everything else has been played for a few sessions and they're all open to continuation depending on who shows up and how we feel.

We played Vampire's Dream once. I think it has enough potential that I want to continue working on it. I need to think about the combat system and vampire powers before we play it again though.

The other one of my games we have played is called Guns N' Glitches. It is a cyberpunk adaptation of Tunnels & Trolls 5e. T&T is turning out to be an excellent fit for my notions of cyberpunk role-playing. After a few sessions, the majority of the rules are in a stable state (which is something I can't say about any of my other game designs). We've had fun playing it. I also find it very fun to GM.

With the exception of Marvel Super Heroes, all of these games are indie games (as in: small press and independently owned/produced). I love keeping these games in circulation. I also love introducing beginners to games that are not Dungeons & Dragons or other large commercial brands.

This week I am reading and preparing to run Trollbabe. It will be an option for the upcoming open house.

Reflecting on the sixth open house

2023-06-04T12:00:00Z

Two players showed up today, one was new to the open houses and role-playing games in general. We played Circle of Hands and ate a gazpacho that I prepared.

The session was short due to time constraints but we had one of those "y'know you're playing Circle of Hands when..." moments. In our case, "y'know you're playing Circle of Hands when a mansnake bursts out of an NPC's skull and kills a player character in a single bite."

But death is not the end of that character. According to the rules, that player character will continue on until the end of the venture as a wraith, with some capacity to affect things even if they can't physically interact with the game world in the same way that the living character could.

Circle of Hands is probably my favorite fantasy role-playing game (until I discover a better one, if a better one exists).

I have a strong preference for fantasy role-playing games that are grounded in some historical realism. While this might suggest that I like low magic or low fantasy, the opposite is actually the case. I like gritty realism that is grounded in the day-to-day: survival, human concerns, community, social conflict, etc. Circle of Hands provides this. But on top of that, I also want powerful, horrifying supernatural influences that disrupt this grounded reality. Circle of Hands provides this too. It's a perfect mix of these two things, as we experienced in our short session.

Sixth open house (June 4, 2023)

2023-06-03T12:00:00Z

I will be hosting the fifth Killed By Dice role-playing game open house on Sunday, June 4, 2023.

Time: 3pm
Location: The El Pro building at 642 rue de Courcelle, H4C 3C5 (in Saint-Henri)

We will meet in the lobby or just out front. We will wait around for about twenty minutes for people to show up. Any late-comers can contact me via email (david AT killedbydice DOT com) to be let into the building.

Dice, pencils, paper, and other materials will be provided.

We have some ongoing games of The Pool and Marvel Super Heroes that we can pick up on depending on whether the regular players are present.

Last week we played a game I designed in 24 hours called Vampire's Dream. I have made many improvements over the last week and what started as a retro-fork of a well-known game about blood suckers now truly has its own identity. We could play that if people are interested. I didn't write a reflections post about this game as to let it breathe a little.

Alternately, we can pair off and play Cold Soldier, play a different scenario in The Pool. I have prepaped some other games as well including InSpectres and Circle of Hands.

Beginners are welcome and encouraged, as always.

I will prepare some healthy vegan food for the break.

Fifth open house (May 28, 2023)

2023-05-26T12:00:00Z

I will be hosting the fifth Killed By Dice role-playing game open house on Sunday, May 28, 2023.

Time: 3pm
Location: The El Pro building at 642 rue de Courcelle, H4C 3C5 (in Saint-Henri)

Dice, pencils, paper, and other materials will be provided.

We have some ongoing games of The Pool and *Marvel Super Heroes" that we can pick up on depending on whether the regular players are present.

Alternately, we can pair off and play Cold Soldier, play a different scenario in The Pool. I have prepaped some other games as well including InSpectres and Circle of Hands. It all depends on who shows up and what we feel like.

Beginners are welcome and encouraged, as always.

I also set up a chat system for discussing things between events. I will share the details with attendees.

Lastly, due to some concerns about the food situation, I will make a giant nutritious vegan pasta salad. People are also welcome to bring snacks.

Reflecting on the fourth open house

2023-05-24T12:00:00Z

We played Marvel Super Heroes last Sunday, continuing with the Concordia University game. We also welcomed a new player to the group. We were five, including myself.

I was still a little groggy from the flu so I wasn't at my best. But we managed. I don't have many public reflections other than to say that I am continuing to learn about the game system, even after many years. I have a little more insight into some game stats like Popularity and Intuition and a new technique.

Prior to the event, I prepared some material for another game called Circle of Hands that we could play any week depending on who attends and their level of interest.

Some administrivia

We're skipping supper to play and eating junk food to compensate. That's not really sustainable. I would like to brainstorm with other attendees about better options that are not costly to people. Saint-Henri is a food wasteland and food deliveries to the building can be a little complicated (and they are costly). I really appreciate that people are bringing snacks. We're not starving or dehydrated but skipping supper is not great.

For people who have never attended: we have a microwave, toaster, and fridge/freezer. There's also free coffee, energy drinks, tea, and a water cooler. I usually have a jar of peanut butter and bread on hand too.

For the next event (Sunday, May 28), I will prepare a giant vegan pasta salad. From there, we can discuss options for the following events.

Indie Game Reading Club Con Spring - 2023

2023-05-14T12:00:00Z

I had a blast at Indie Game Reading Club Con - Spring Edition 2023.

I ended up playing three different games: Lavender Hack, The Pool, and Mothership. This was my first role-playing game convention. It was three for three, and I got to play with some people I have missed playing with.

Lavender Hack - Hot Springs Island

I played Lavender Hack on Friday with the designer, Phil Lewis. Me and the other two players did some exploration of Hot Springs Island. This is a published campaign, with many points of entry. Published campaigns are normally not my thing but I enjoyed playing Lavender Hack using this material.

Lavender Hack bills itself as a grand strategy fantasy RPG with: "rules for getting lost, going broke, losing friends, and making questionable assumptions about magic."

The game mixes lighter systems such as The Black Hack and The White Hack with some inspiration from games such as Fate Core, Apocalypse World, and Burning Wheel. These were not observations I made from playing it, they're spelled out in the text. I love that.

The grand strategy aspects of the game are expressed via the rules for exploration, travel, sea adventures, factions, court, and downtime. In our game, we did a little sailing, some overland travel, and a tiny bit of dungeon exploration.

For all of the things we did, there was much we didn't get to try out. Because I enjoyed the game and I am curious about the parts we didn't try, I would play Lavender Hack again or use some of its sub-systems to play something like the old Oregon Trail video game. Not necessarily in that historical period. Rather, I'd like to play a caravan doing treacherous overland travel in a more fantasy-inspired backdrop.

While I don't like to advertise, I do like games that are freely available and very much in the spirit of our About page. A free PDF of Lavender Hack can be found on DriveThruRPG.

Phil's other game, Wrath of the Autarch, also seems like a lot of fun.

The Pool - Demon Slayer: Cherry Blossom Village

On Saturday, I played The Pool with someone I have already enjoyed playing that game with. The situation was based on the Demon Slayer anime series. I have no familiarity with that series but the game material had enough information to get me up to speed.

It was a more heavily prepared situation in The Pool than what we have been playing at the open houses. The game also featured a custom health level mechanic to add a little granularity to combat. I think it worked pretty well but we noted some improvements that could be made. The Pool lends itself to such customizations while also playing very well with little to no customization. It's a game system that has a lot of range.

That's another thing I don't normally do: play games in pre-established settings from comics, novels, TV, movies, etc. But the GM knew how to pull this off without introducing the problems I have observed in the past when playing in games that try to do this.

Mothership - Requiem for Aquarius

Sunday's game of Mothership was enjoyable. I've played other games with this GM before and it is always a great time playing with them. Mothership is a sci-fi horror role-playing game in the style of Aliens or Saturn 3. I played an android who survived until the end, only to be captured by the fanatical religious organization we were sent to assist in destroying. The other player lost two characters to the aliens and their last character ended up converting to the fanatical religion to save their hide.

I think Mothership is pretty good for playing the type of fiction that inspired it. It is not amazing but I did find it quite playable and I would happily play it again. I will add Mothership to the list of options for the open houses. It's easy to get into and in my experience, it is well-suited to one shots or possibly even longer play if the characters make it out alive.

I didn't get around to playing a solo RPG in the normal Killed By Dice timeslot as Mothership tired me out. But it was a good kind of tired, so absolutely no regrets.

Fourth open house (May 21, 2023)

2023-05-12T12:00:00Z

I will be hosting the fourth Killed By Dice role-playing game open house on Sunday, May 21, 2023. That's right, we're skipping a week since I am ill and I am isolating myself.

Time: 3pm
Location: The El Pro building at 642 rue de Courcelle, H4C 3C5 (in Saint-Henri)

Dice, pencils, paper, and other materials will be provided.

Next week we have three ongoing games we can pick up on:

The Pool by James V. West, the situation revolves around a bunch of plane crash survivors on a tropical island run by a powerful billionaire
Another game of The Pool revolving around ghosts, machine guns, a secret government agency, a shady corporation, a bawdy house, a book store, a mafia collector, and some goobies
A game of Marvel Super Heroes Basic, set in and around Concordia University

Alternately, we can pair off and play Cold Soldier, play a different scenario in The Pool. I have a few other options in my portfolio too.

Beginners are welcome and encouraged, as always.

There are still openings for some games if anybody wants to join...

I will also play an undetermined solo RPG this Sunday and report on it, as to not miss a beat.

Reflecting on the third open house

2023-05-10T12:00:00Z

There was five of us last Sunday, including two new players.

We ended up playing a new situation in The Pool that we created on the fly based on a short brain-storming session. The game was set in the modern day and we narrowed it down thematically to "machine guns and ghosts". Modern day, but anachronistic.

I will write more words about it later on, as right now I am supposed to be making a Lavender Hack character for a free, online RPG convention this weekend.

This was one of my favorite sessions of The Pool. Ironically, one of the players brought Hunter: The Reckoning to do an interest check for a later occasion. Without intending it, the situation we ended up playing in our game was quite similiar to what might be played in that RPG. Shady corporations, a secret anomaly containment bureau, supernatural monsters, organized crime, spell books, and of course machine guns and ghosts.

One of the characters was played by a first-time role-player who drew one of the best maps I have used in play. This map really grounded us in the action. I have attached it for reference. Their character was the owner of a bawdy house named Maison Foufounes whose main attraction is a ghost from a bygone era. The implied 3rd dimension really made this map pop for me, the rare role-player who has difficulty working with maps.

Regarding the Lavender Hack game, I will be playing it this weekend at the Spring edition of the Indie Game Reading Club online RPG convention.

https://igrcon-spring-2023.web.app/

There are still openings for a number of games including a game of The Pool entitled Demon Slayer: Cherry Blossom Village on Saturday that needs players at the time I am writing this post.

Soon, I will also announce the next open house, occurring this Sunday, May 14, 2023.

Third open house (May 7, 2023)

2023-05-03T12:00:00Z

I will be hosting the third Killed By Dice role-playing game open house on Sunday, May 7, 2023.

Time: 3pm
Location: The El Pro building at 642 rue de Courcelle, H4C 3C5 (in Saint-Henri)

Dice, pencils, paper, and other materials will be provided.

This week we have two ongoing games we can pick up on:

The Pool by James V. West, the situation revolves around a bunch of plane crash survivors on a tropical island run by a powerful billionaire
A game of Marvel Super Heroes Basic set in and around Concordia University

Alternately, we can pair off and play Cold Soldier, play a different scenario in The Pool. I have a few other options in my portfolio too.

Beginners are welcome and encouraged.

Reflecting on the second open house

2023-05-01T12:00:00Z

We had a new person join us for the second open house, making us a group of four including myself.

Instead of continuing with our game of The Pool, we played one of my favorite out-of-print games -- Marvel Super Heroes Basic from 1984.

I had nothing prepared. In cases such as this, I like to choose a city that one least one person knows well and play in the modern day. Between that and the random character generation rules of this game in particular, I could prepare enough to play a few scenes and figure out the rest later if we decide to play again.

The players created two super heroes and a super villain who were based around Concordia University in Montreal. The two heroes are part of a university wrestling club that is a cover for a secret multi-generational super hero society that has a base of operations under the Norman Bethune monument in Montreal. The super villain was unconnected to this group, but they ended up cooperating with the heroes to defeat a threat (while still advancing their own agenda).

The threat in question first manifested as a poisonous pink gas cloud that emerged from a science experiment gone wrong in one of the buildings on the Loyola campus. The pink cloud is a sentient being, birthed by the experiment. It was trying to flee the site and accidentally poisoned occupants of the building while trying to get free. The heroes (and villain) co-operated in subduing the cloud, reasoning with it, and leading it to safety. The super villain deceived the other player characters at the end, leading the cloud back to their research lab to conduct experiments on it. That's where we left off.

I often joke that Marvel Super Heroes is weaponized for children due to its simplicity. It came about in the midst of the satanic panic, in a period where the publisher TSR was sanitizing Dungeons & Dragons to be less threatening to concerned parents and religious groups. They were producing coloring books, cartoons, and toys to better market it to children. As a result, Marvel Super Heroes looks very safe in its presentation and surface. (Abandonware copies can be easily found by an enterprising person with a search engine.) When I read it, and it is a joy to read, I see it speaking to two different audiences. The first is parents and people who want to play super heroes. The second is people who want to play villains.

The parent/hero text says: fight crime, and take care of your family and friends. The villain text says: rob banks, wreck stuff, recruit goons, and kidnap super heroes. But very interestingly: also take care of your friends and family. The penalties for failing to do so are even doubled for super villains. I will repeat that -- villains are held doubly accountable for failing to maintain their relationships with friends and family. Wow!

The game mechanics in play are far more enticing to me than something as crude as an alignment system. And like the comics of this era, they look like they are for kids, but end up being a great instrument for social commentary and exploring issues of morality.

The rules never actually say: players can be villains too, and it is fun! The villain rules are presented as guidelines for the GM. But when I read them, they look awfully player facing. It is surprising to me that more people haven't picked up on this cue and run with it.

I have run another game of Marvel Super Heroes for the last year where we have explored many of the implications of villain play. The premise for that game (titled Halfway Heroes) is that the characters would start on the day of their release from prison and that we would play through their experiences either re-entering society or returning to their criminal ways. That game taught me that villain play is very fun and just as profound as I hoped it would be. (A long series of posts and discussion about Halfway Heroes starts here.)

I am quite pleased that we saw some more villain play during this session. Villain play is a criminally underlooked and underplayed feature of this version of the game, which is also criminally underlooked and underplayed despite a long and continuing tradition of playing the later Advanced version and retro-clones such as FASERIP.

For the next open house, we could continue to play this game, or revisit our game of The Pool or even play something else. That's the promise of the open house -- show up and we will play something. I always have a few things that I can run. I also invite people to bring their own games (on the condition that they are willing to run them).

Second open house (April 30, 2023)

2023-04-27T12:00:00Z

I will be hosting the second Killed By Dice role-playing game open house on April 30, 2023.

Time: 3pm
Location: The El Pro building at 642 rue de Courcelle, H4C 3C5 (in Saint-Henri)

Dice, pencils, paper, and other materials will be provided.

This week we will either continue with last week's game of The Pool, play another game of The Pool, or pair off and play a free two-player game called Cold Soldier. It depends on who shows up and what they want to do.

Beginners are welcome and encouraged.

Come play some games made by people who won't send Pinkerton thugs to your house!

Reflecting on the first open house

2023-04-24T12:00:00Z

Two people joined me last Sunday to play a session of The Pool by James V. West. This is an influential, free RPG from 2001. I have included a link to the original PDF at the bottom of the post for people who are interested.

We played a modified version based on my play experience and things I learned in a course I took with Ron Edwards called Playing with the Pool (which I highly recommend if it is offered again). His other courses are stellar too. More information can be found on Ron's site Adept Play.

The scenario we played was something like the TV show Lost. The player characters were stranded on a tropical island after their flight from Montreal to Cuba was redirected into the Bermuda Triangle. I won't spoil the content too much since we plan to play again and we left off in a place where new players could easily join. In this session, we saw an unremarkable accountant with ESP and a tongue-in-cheek anarcho-capitalist computer security consultant help organize the food, water, and shelter situation for the survivors of the plane crash. We also learned that the plane crash was orchestrated and that the island has other inhabitants, including a billionaire and a giant centipede.

Since this was an open house, I had no way to predict how many people would attend, who would attend, what their experience level was, or their interests. So I prepared a ensemble situation that I thought would work for a small or a large group. In my opinion The Pool is a great choice because it is tends to meet people half-way. There is no fixed setting, genre, and preparation requires input from the players, who have a lot of latitude in the characters they will play. Therefore, I find it easy to adapt on-the-fly when certain variables about the group are unknown. We ended up having a blast. One player took a copy of the rules home with them because they were so enthralled by the game system.

I plan to host these open houses every Sunday, at the same time and place. I will post an announcement soon for this Sunday, April 30th, 2023. We have the option of continuing to play this scenario or I have a few other options in mind in case the original players are not present or we feel like playing something different. That's the spirit of these events: come as you are, we will find something to play.

The Pool by James V. West: thepool.pdf

First open house (April 23, 2023)

2023-04-09T12:00:00Z

Killed By Dice is a Montreal-based role-playing game group. The name is a riff on the series of punk rock rarity compilations called Killed By Death.

Killed By Dice is focused on playing small, indie, free, and/or out of print games from across the 50 year history of role-playing games. In particular, the sort of games that have no other venue online or locally. As such, the emphasis is on play rather than consumerist activities.

I will be hosting the first Killed By Dice open house on April 23, 2023.

Time: 3pm
Location: The El Pro building at 642 rue de Courcelle, H4C 3C5 (in Saint-Henri)

Dice, pencils, paper, and other materials will be provided. Games will be short-term (one to a few sessions) to accommodate different levels of commitment and availability.

I have prepared some free games that we can play.

There is enough room to accommodate two gaming groups. Ten people is about the maximum that the space can host comfortably.

Beginners are welcome and encouraged.