Rogue Review- 9th Level Games Hosted Online Play

Thanks to the connections of d20 Radio’s very own Egg Embry, I played in 9th Level’s Game very first hosted online play. What is this, you may find yourself asking?

9th Level Games is now offering ONLINE GAMES run by our professional Game Masters! Since we can’t gather at conventions, we’re bringing the convention RPG experience to your home! Play in professionally run roleplaying game experiences (without leaving your house)!

Essentially, for a fee, jump into a one-shot convention style game run by a professional GM. They look to have games available Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays utilizing 9th Level published games. All game sessions are about three hours and are scheduled based in the Eastern time zones so bear that in mind (more on that below).

My session was scheduled for 5-8pm Eastern. Paying no attention to that part, I arrived promptly at 445 Central time. The games are played via Zoom so I hop right into the middle of epic action. And by that, I mean, a chicken crossing the road.

The game we were playing was “Kobolds Ate My Baby” which is a very silly game. You play as a Kobold, which are little creatures made up of mostly mouth that aren’t particularly known for their intelligence. In this session, the players were tasked with acquiring BBQ for King Torg. As I logged in, one of the players was faced off with said chicken in an attempt to acquire it for dinner.

The GM, or Mayor, Jon Maness, set a quick break and took a few minutes to get me up to speed. Everyone was very forgiving my tardiness and much kudos to my fellow kobolds. Jon ran me through the basics of how to play and gave me a premade character. If you’re not familiar with the game, which I wasn’t, there’s not a lot to keep track of. You only need d6’s and your goal is to roll under a target number, set by your stats. Turns out I would be playing a very hungry and slippery thief of a Kobold with almost no health but sturdy bone armor. I named him Yummy.

After getting me up to speed in record time, Jon took us into town in search of food for our king. Several of the Kobolds had discovered a long line of wagons lining up at a building that emitted delicious smells of “fried”. Fellow kobolds Huh and Uopar were attempting to steal the bags full of yummy smells from the humans in the wagons. My character, overwhelmed with hunger, couldn’t resist leaping into the window itself. Meanwhile, Slagathor wrestled with a live chicken.

Everyone acquired some food and returned for some victory points. Though, Uopar did get run over by a drunk wagon driver and nearly died. We returned to the village for more. That’s when Huh detected the scents of actual BBQ and ran across town, straight through a chicken coup, and into the restaurant. She found a human baby pre-covered in BBQ sauce and attempted some very unsavory things to escape with said baby. However, she became reckless and it was Slagathor who came home the hero, carrying said baby.

All in all, the game was silly and ridiculous, which is exactly the thing you want for a quick session with complete strangers. It didn’t quite capture the true convention level one-shot feel which they were going for, but that’s just the limit of gaming online. Part of the game allows you to bark like a kobold to reduce your dice difficulty. In a crowded convention hall, that’s hilarious. When Zoom Skypes out in the middle of a player’s bark, it loses some impact.

Jon proved an excellent GM. He knew the system and wasn’t fazed by my tardiness. This was his first attempt at running games in this manner so there were a few hiccups but when aren’t there? Zoom has limited functionality for online gaming, but for a one-shot like this it proved more than adequate. You could see the map and the other players and tab around to character sheets as needed.

Though I feel they could benefit from a die roller. After running a game online for the last few years, everyone being able to see the results come up on screen is a great bonding experience. When the results appear on screen, everyone reacts at once to success or failure. Especially when Roll20 is lagging and it takes upwards of a minute for the results to show up. Really builds the suspense. So, maybe rolling dice yourself isn’t such a bad plan.

Now, the real question, while my session was a press comp, would it have been worth the $20 that they are charging? On one hand, it seems like a high price for such a short game. But then, I’m a firm believer in a minimum wage over $15/hr, which breaks down to $45 and they’re willing to run sessions with a minimum of two players, which is only $40. In that sense, they should charge more. But if it’s worth it is not a question I can answer for you.

I can only say I had fun. If you’re missing gaming, this could be the solution you’re looking for.