This week marked the return of RPGing to WAGS.
With all three characters one the verge of death, wandering aimlessly in an unknown world they just RIFTED into, the session was understandibly dedicated to finding safe haven and rest.
The strange man from the trailer in the field gave us some salt and rations before we shoved off. After some discussion, we decided to head for the relatively near town of Wichen. On the way, we witnessed a floating ball of light scouring an open field (a probe? a Will'O Wisp?) and witnessed a massive battle between a giant cyclops, various werewolves and goblins and a giant robot.
Skirting around the fight, we found oursleves stuck on one side of a giant river. Behind us, the pounding of footsteps made it obvious that the robot had survived the fight and was heading our way. Lucky for us, it was heavily damaged and collapsed before it reached us. Upon closer inspection, the robot was being "driven" by a human inside! After treating the human, we discovered many things:
We were actually in a parallel or future version of the US. The river was the Mississipi. The human was part of an army patrol who's duty was to scour the "Magic Zone" we were in. The army came from Chitown in the North, a centre of the "Confederation". The Confederation was intolerant of anything magical, paranormal, or "different" in any way. As we hadn't let on that I was a Psychic Sensitive, and since we look outwardly normal, he agreed to take us to a nearby settlement. He also told us that Devil's Gate, a city across the river which cast a large glow even from a distance, was a center for all things magical and was therefore an enemy. We also discovered that the Federation employed "Psi-Units", groups specially trained to identify supernaturals... not a good sign for Stan.
At the small town, we encountered a "doctor" who seemed to be a cybernetic implant surgeon (and a shady one at that). He shot us up with some type of drug which would promote healing, but we were still in rough shape.
It was at this point that we found out that the "Walker in the East" was tearing up nearby villages looking for whoever was responsible for killing the "Walker in the West". Problem was, that was us (it was an accident... a chunk of the temple we blew up in our native world RIFTED with us and crushed him). We still don't really know what a "Walker" is, but it's apparently aligned with the Devil's Gate, so it's likely to be plenty "supernatural".
We stopped since it was getting late and an encounter with the Walker would likely take a while. Shemp commented on how he was surprised that we were so restrained. He shouldn't have been! We were so close to dying we couldn't risk any sort of combat, much less in a world we don't understand against opponents which are several magnitudes more powerful.
For posterity, had Stan been feeling better he would likely have "borrowed" the robot armor vehicle and raced north to the city with Sam and Helmut. I bet that would have led to a confrontation with the Walker much sooner, probably right after the battle with the rest of the army units waiting nearby...
Now that we're getting a feeling for the dynamics of the place, and were not in complete dire straights health wise, I suspect the next session will involve far more pyrotechnics.
(We killed the last 20 minutes with 2 hands of High Society. Kozure won the first and Shemp won the second)
...and no, I'm not going to explain the blog title. It's an amalgamation of missunderstood sentences and poorly conceived plans which somehow came together in a sentence which had us all laughing late in the evening.
Showing posts with label RPGing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RPGing. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Thursday, October 20, 2005
We are the comic police, do not make us use farce
...or, more accurately, "We are the Karmic police, do not make use Force" (with a bad accent, the two sentences sound strangely similar)
The adventure continues for the most hapless trio to ever be in charge of saving the world... Stan McCormick (Psychic sensitive), Sam Buchanan (Nega-psychic) and Helmut von Stauffenberg auf Ulm (Genius)!
Our fearless gamemaster, Shemp, has given us the option of continuing the campaign we had just brought to a conclusion. We all thought that would be a great idea, but we wanted to change systems. He converted our characters from the mostly awful Paladium (Beyond the Supernatural, to be specific) to the Hero system, which he holds in much higher regard. To get our feet wet, we played a sample combat. The scenario was a brief flashback to an encounter which should have occurred in a plane of existence between the world we just saved (?) and the new world we "rifted" into.
As the scene opened, there was a large plain, the three of us, and (in the distance), three humanoids with really big helmets.
I can't remember their names, but they were funny enough that I hope Shemp chimes in with them for posterity. In addition to the funny names, they spoke in a funny accent, which had us misunderstanding many of their comments (se blog title). They were the Karmic Police, and they were here to have us settle our debt with "the force", or whatever. Armed with torn sleeves which gave us glimpses into a universe larger than ourselves (I am so insignificant!), "Cubes of Desolation" and invisible guns, they made for very interesting opponents.
Stanly rushed the leader, demanding to know where the temple they were just standing in had gone too. He was promptly attacked and responded with a quick (but effective) jab to the head. Sam started handling "Big Helmet #2" while Helmut fell prey to the cube of desolation. Soon after Stan knocked out his opponent and Sam crushed one of the cubes, the two remaining creatures regrouped with their fallen comrade and disappeared into nothingness. I have a feeling our debt isn't settled.
I'm happy to say that so far, the system looks promising. It's substantially heavier than what I would expect Shemp to choose, but I don't count that against it. The rules encourage "cinematic" combat, which means that it takes longer but is far more involving and satisfying than a random dicefest. Combat maneuvers are effective and affect future offensive and defensive positions, meaning that they actually get used as characters jockey to gain advantage in combat. It also means that there is more storytelling involved in the fighting, which is great. The fact that this system allows for meaningful character advancement is just icing on the cake...
My only (minor) complaint is with the initiative system. I don't find it very satisfying to act at the same time, every time. Not sure how to improve it without making things any more complicated than they are, but it would be nice.
With some time to spare, we pulled out "Tower of Babel", a recent Knizia release I just picked up. I wanted a few games which were relatively short, strategic and played well with 3-4 players (I also purchased China, and will pick up Ra when it's available). Other than some very positive comments by Chris Farrell at his blog, I didn't know much about it... I guess it was a bit of an impulse buy.
The idea is fairly straightforward: Players are cooperating to build the wonders of the world, each represented by three discs. It's an area majority and set collection game, but the method used to get tokens on the board is odd. On a turn, a player must either draw a card, or offer to build a section of a wonder (one of the three disks). If building is chosen, the disk will indicate a symbol and a number, which represents the number of matching cards which must be played in order for the player to successfully build it. If successful, a number of tokens equal to the value of the disc are placed on the wonder (the method to determine which player's tokens are placed will be described below). This is the crux of the "area majority" part of the game. The acting player normally takes the disc for end game scoring, forming the "set collecting" part of the game.
Of course, there is a Knizia twist:
A player will normally not have enough cards to satisfy the requirement of the disc. When the building action is announced, all other players simultaneously offer cards from their hand to "help" the acting player build the disc. Any, all or no offers can be accepted, but they must be accepted as offered. All players who's offer was accepted place tokens on the board for each card which was accepted, FOR ALL OTHER PLAYERS, A VICTORY POINT IS SCORED FOR EACH CARD OF THE APPROPRIATE COLOUR WHICH WAS OFFERED BUT REJECTED (bluffs are not scored). The majority of the decision making in the game happens here... An offer for lots of cards can help you conserve your own, but it will compromise your majority on the board. Rejecting the offer gives that player a lot of victory points. (A special card, the "Trader" adds another wrinkle: if offered along with other cards, the player is indicating that he/she wants the building disc rather than the tokens on the board as a reward for providing cards).
Wonders are scored "El Grande" Style (1st=points, 2nd= less points, etc, etc) when their third disc is "built". The points are on a sliding scale, however, so the first wonder to be built will be worth substantially less than the later ones. The game ends when all discs of one type have been built. Sets of discs (2 or more) are worth points at the end.
The fact that offers need to be accepted or rejected AS-IS makes the game, in my opinion. If I have three camels and try to build a 5 disc, and the other players offer 1, 1, and 4 camels... what do I do? I could accept 2 two singles and give the "4" player that many victory points, but retain the majority on the board (at the cost of giving away, in a best case scenario, easy third place points to those players). Alternatively, I could take the 4 and play only one card from my hand, preserving those cards to go after another camel disc on the board on my next turn, but giving up the majority on the wonder.
What if the trader is offered? Am I willing to give up the building disc? If i'm behind on the wonder area majority, it might be worth it.
The end result isn't bad at all, but is far from spectacular. It plays in the advertized time (+/- 45 minutes), offers continuous player interaction and offers various strategies worth pursuing. Unfortunately, the play itself feels a little awkward, the graphics are DULL, DULL, DULL, and the theme sets new standards for "pasted on". Also, the bonus cards a player gets for completing the third disc of a wonder feel fairly tacked on.
The session saw us all pursuing a fairly random agenda of wonder building and disc collecting. I tried to focus on picking up the white discs, and managed to get 4. The score was fairly even amongst us right to the end, and Shemp also managed to collect a set of 4, but a 5 point bonus card and a few points for unfinished works put me in the lead.
I wasn't blown away, but I didn't quite have a grasp of the possible strategies either. It's quite possible that this will get better with time (as has been said by others on the net), and the fact that it plays in such a short time pretty much ensures that it will come out again.
Tower of Babel: 7
The adventure continues for the most hapless trio to ever be in charge of saving the world... Stan McCormick (Psychic sensitive), Sam Buchanan (Nega-psychic) and Helmut von Stauffenberg auf Ulm (Genius)!
Our fearless gamemaster, Shemp, has given us the option of continuing the campaign we had just brought to a conclusion. We all thought that would be a great idea, but we wanted to change systems. He converted our characters from the mostly awful Paladium (Beyond the Supernatural, to be specific) to the Hero system, which he holds in much higher regard. To get our feet wet, we played a sample combat. The scenario was a brief flashback to an encounter which should have occurred in a plane of existence between the world we just saved (?) and the new world we "rifted" into.
As the scene opened, there was a large plain, the three of us, and (in the distance), three humanoids with really big helmets.
I can't remember their names, but they were funny enough that I hope Shemp chimes in with them for posterity. In addition to the funny names, they spoke in a funny accent, which had us misunderstanding many of their comments (se blog title). They were the Karmic Police, and they were here to have us settle our debt with "the force", or whatever. Armed with torn sleeves which gave us glimpses into a universe larger than ourselves (I am so insignificant!), "Cubes of Desolation" and invisible guns, they made for very interesting opponents.
Stanly rushed the leader, demanding to know where the temple they were just standing in had gone too. He was promptly attacked and responded with a quick (but effective) jab to the head. Sam started handling "Big Helmet #2" while Helmut fell prey to the cube of desolation. Soon after Stan knocked out his opponent and Sam crushed one of the cubes, the two remaining creatures regrouped with their fallen comrade and disappeared into nothingness. I have a feeling our debt isn't settled.
I'm happy to say that so far, the system looks promising. It's substantially heavier than what I would expect Shemp to choose, but I don't count that against it. The rules encourage "cinematic" combat, which means that it takes longer but is far more involving and satisfying than a random dicefest. Combat maneuvers are effective and affect future offensive and defensive positions, meaning that they actually get used as characters jockey to gain advantage in combat. It also means that there is more storytelling involved in the fighting, which is great. The fact that this system allows for meaningful character advancement is just icing on the cake...
My only (minor) complaint is with the initiative system. I don't find it very satisfying to act at the same time, every time. Not sure how to improve it without making things any more complicated than they are, but it would be nice.
With some time to spare, we pulled out "Tower of Babel", a recent Knizia release I just picked up. I wanted a few games which were relatively short, strategic and played well with 3-4 players (I also purchased China, and will pick up Ra when it's available). Other than some very positive comments by Chris Farrell at his blog, I didn't know much about it... I guess it was a bit of an impulse buy.
The idea is fairly straightforward: Players are cooperating to build the wonders of the world, each represented by three discs. It's an area majority and set collection game, but the method used to get tokens on the board is odd. On a turn, a player must either draw a card, or offer to build a section of a wonder (one of the three disks). If building is chosen, the disk will indicate a symbol and a number, which represents the number of matching cards which must be played in order for the player to successfully build it. If successful, a number of tokens equal to the value of the disc are placed on the wonder (the method to determine which player's tokens are placed will be described below). This is the crux of the "area majority" part of the game. The acting player normally takes the disc for end game scoring, forming the "set collecting" part of the game.
Of course, there is a Knizia twist:
A player will normally not have enough cards to satisfy the requirement of the disc. When the building action is announced, all other players simultaneously offer cards from their hand to "help" the acting player build the disc. Any, all or no offers can be accepted, but they must be accepted as offered. All players who's offer was accepted place tokens on the board for each card which was accepted, FOR ALL OTHER PLAYERS, A VICTORY POINT IS SCORED FOR EACH CARD OF THE APPROPRIATE COLOUR WHICH WAS OFFERED BUT REJECTED (bluffs are not scored). The majority of the decision making in the game happens here... An offer for lots of cards can help you conserve your own, but it will compromise your majority on the board. Rejecting the offer gives that player a lot of victory points. (A special card, the "Trader" adds another wrinkle: if offered along with other cards, the player is indicating that he/she wants the building disc rather than the tokens on the board as a reward for providing cards).
Wonders are scored "El Grande" Style (1st=points, 2nd= less points, etc, etc) when their third disc is "built". The points are on a sliding scale, however, so the first wonder to be built will be worth substantially less than the later ones. The game ends when all discs of one type have been built. Sets of discs (2 or more) are worth points at the end.
The fact that offers need to be accepted or rejected AS-IS makes the game, in my opinion. If I have three camels and try to build a 5 disc, and the other players offer 1, 1, and 4 camels... what do I do? I could accept 2 two singles and give the "4" player that many victory points, but retain the majority on the board (at the cost of giving away, in a best case scenario, easy third place points to those players). Alternatively, I could take the 4 and play only one card from my hand, preserving those cards to go after another camel disc on the board on my next turn, but giving up the majority on the wonder.
What if the trader is offered? Am I willing to give up the building disc? If i'm behind on the wonder area majority, it might be worth it.
The end result isn't bad at all, but is far from spectacular. It plays in the advertized time (+/- 45 minutes), offers continuous player interaction and offers various strategies worth pursuing. Unfortunately, the play itself feels a little awkward, the graphics are DULL, DULL, DULL, and the theme sets new standards for "pasted on". Also, the bonus cards a player gets for completing the third disc of a wonder feel fairly tacked on.
The session saw us all pursuing a fairly random agenda of wonder building and disc collecting. I tried to focus on picking up the white discs, and managed to get 4. The score was fairly even amongst us right to the end, and Shemp also managed to collect a set of 4, but a 5 point bonus card and a few points for unfinished works put me in the lead.
I wasn't blown away, but I didn't quite have a grasp of the possible strategies either. It's quite possible that this will get better with time (as has been said by others on the net), and the fact that it plays in such a short time pretty much ensures that it will come out again.
Tower of Babel: 7
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Egypt, We Hardly Knew Ye...
After a somewhat prolonged hiatus (due in no small part to the birth of my new son), we made it back for the final(?) chapter of our Beyond the Supernatural RPG campaign. So, of course, the big question is: Did we prevent the destruction of Egypt? Of the world? Did the supernatural evils cross through the portal and enslave all of humanity?!!!
Can't rightly say, actually.
What I CAN say, is that the horrible die rolling which plagued our characters last session was replaced this time with VERY good luck. When Stan tried to do something, it often actually worked (Highlight: He was trying to hack off a vampire's head with a hunting knife, it turned into a bat and tried to fly away, Stan bit it's head off before it could, and then spit it out at a startled nearby vampire). When Helmut rolled initiative, he often went first (to put this in context, I don't think he had EVER gone first before this night). When Sam fired his gun, he rolled a hell of a lot of 20s.
The session started out with the characters in dire straights. All three were terribly wounded. The vampires were corralling them in a side tunnel while deKoonig, the head vampire, went off to complete the ritual which would open the portal to the big demons from beyond. In a bold, risky and (most of all) desperate attempt Helmut and Sam attacked the vampire guards in order to create a distraction so that Stan could escape with Professor Aziz. Stan and the professor rushed to the site of the ritual in order for Aziz to conduct his own counter-ritual, presumably to either shut down the gate or capture the demon (we didn't know which). Stan did his best to keep the vampires away, but he was quite outmatched (and outwitted. Note to Stan: if you have only a small amount of holy water, don't risk it by holding your hand out and saying "I have holy water here"). Luckily, Sam and a surprisingly quick Helmut came to help as things were getting sticky. Helmut's fire bombs were proving very effective, and Stan was having some luck sawing heads of of the vampires. In a bit of awful luck, when Stan managed to drop the container of holy water directly into deKoonig's mouth, hoping to burn him up from within, deKoonig managed to swallow it completely unharmed!!! (he rolled a 20 on his poison save). Eventually, the creatures did get to the professor and killed him before he could finish the ritual. Helmut, using his genius ability in Lore, managed to complete the ritual on his own, just as the evil ritual was completing and the gate was opening.The heros were surrounded by a circle of white light as a result of Helmut's incantation, and they moved forward and collided this aura with the evil darkness which was spreading.
There was a blast. Then there was darkness.
Then there was a field, mushrooms, a strange man... and no Egypt.
Stan could sense that wherever he was, it was a place with far more magical energy than the Earth he knew. Whatever the outcome of the incident in Egypt, Stan, Sam and Helmut were no longer around to see it. This was a different place, and quite possibly a new beginning.
With a campaign 10 years in the making now at a close, we called it a night for the RPGing. I had a great time playing it, and I want to thank Shemp again for being the GM. Stan McCormick, Auto Mechanic and Ghost Hunter, will always be one of my favorite characters.
We still had about an hour before we had to go, so Luch pulled out his new copy of Bohnanza and we gave it a whirl.
Bohnanza is a card game about planting beans. Players have to plant the most profitable crops possible, and must trade with other players in order to maximize their opportunities. Once the deck of cards is run through three times, the game ends and the richest player wins. The game system is quite clever in a few ways:
1) Players can only plant two varieties of beans at one time (three later in the game). The goal is to collect as many of that card as possible since the payout increases the more cards are in the set. The problem is that the mechanic of the game forces players to plant the first card in their hand every round... if there's no room for the card in an existing patch, one of the them has to be uprooted and thrown away (whether it's worth money yet or not). The only way to get rid of a card from your hand that you don't want to plant is to trade it away. This mechanism leads to constant trade from all players and is very effective at keeping all players involved and interested at all times (no matter who's turn it is).
2) When crops are cashed in, a number of cards from that set are kept as money. This effectively reduces the number of cards of that variety as the game progresses. There are so many varieties that it's hard to keep track of them all, but knowing what's out there and what isn't is a big advantage when planning the crops to pursue.
Although the theme is quite silly, there is a certain level of skill needed to understand what to trade, how to plan ahead and when to negotiate. I thought it was quite a good game, but I don't think I'd ask my sister to play it. As it turns out, beginners luck was on my side and I managed a win, but the game was pretty close and it felt tight right to the end!
Rating:
Bohnanza: 7.5
Can't rightly say, actually.
What I CAN say, is that the horrible die rolling which plagued our characters last session was replaced this time with VERY good luck. When Stan tried to do something, it often actually worked (Highlight: He was trying to hack off a vampire's head with a hunting knife, it turned into a bat and tried to fly away, Stan bit it's head off before it could, and then spit it out at a startled nearby vampire). When Helmut rolled initiative, he often went first (to put this in context, I don't think he had EVER gone first before this night). When Sam fired his gun, he rolled a hell of a lot of 20s.
The session started out with the characters in dire straights. All three were terribly wounded. The vampires were corralling them in a side tunnel while deKoonig, the head vampire, went off to complete the ritual which would open the portal to the big demons from beyond. In a bold, risky and (most of all) desperate attempt Helmut and Sam attacked the vampire guards in order to create a distraction so that Stan could escape with Professor Aziz. Stan and the professor rushed to the site of the ritual in order for Aziz to conduct his own counter-ritual, presumably to either shut down the gate or capture the demon (we didn't know which). Stan did his best to keep the vampires away, but he was quite outmatched (and outwitted. Note to Stan: if you have only a small amount of holy water, don't risk it by holding your hand out and saying "I have holy water here"). Luckily, Sam and a surprisingly quick Helmut came to help as things were getting sticky. Helmut's fire bombs were proving very effective, and Stan was having some luck sawing heads of of the vampires. In a bit of awful luck, when Stan managed to drop the container of holy water directly into deKoonig's mouth, hoping to burn him up from within, deKoonig managed to swallow it completely unharmed!!! (he rolled a 20 on his poison save). Eventually, the creatures did get to the professor and killed him before he could finish the ritual. Helmut, using his genius ability in Lore, managed to complete the ritual on his own, just as the evil ritual was completing and the gate was opening.The heros were surrounded by a circle of white light as a result of Helmut's incantation, and they moved forward and collided this aura with the evil darkness which was spreading.
There was a blast. Then there was darkness.
Then there was a field, mushrooms, a strange man... and no Egypt.
Stan could sense that wherever he was, it was a place with far more magical energy than the Earth he knew. Whatever the outcome of the incident in Egypt, Stan, Sam and Helmut were no longer around to see it. This was a different place, and quite possibly a new beginning.
With a campaign 10 years in the making now at a close, we called it a night for the RPGing. I had a great time playing it, and I want to thank Shemp again for being the GM. Stan McCormick, Auto Mechanic and Ghost Hunter, will always be one of my favorite characters.
We still had about an hour before we had to go, so Luch pulled out his new copy of Bohnanza and we gave it a whirl.
Bohnanza is a card game about planting beans. Players have to plant the most profitable crops possible, and must trade with other players in order to maximize their opportunities. Once the deck of cards is run through three times, the game ends and the richest player wins. The game system is quite clever in a few ways:
1) Players can only plant two varieties of beans at one time (three later in the game). The goal is to collect as many of that card as possible since the payout increases the more cards are in the set. The problem is that the mechanic of the game forces players to plant the first card in their hand every round... if there's no room for the card in an existing patch, one of the them has to be uprooted and thrown away (whether it's worth money yet or not). The only way to get rid of a card from your hand that you don't want to plant is to trade it away. This mechanism leads to constant trade from all players and is very effective at keeping all players involved and interested at all times (no matter who's turn it is).
2) When crops are cashed in, a number of cards from that set are kept as money. This effectively reduces the number of cards of that variety as the game progresses. There are so many varieties that it's hard to keep track of them all, but knowing what's out there and what isn't is a big advantage when planning the crops to pursue.
Although the theme is quite silly, there is a certain level of skill needed to understand what to trade, how to plan ahead and when to negotiate. I thought it was quite a good game, but I don't think I'd ask my sister to play it. As it turns out, beginners luck was on my side and I managed a win, but the game was pretty close and it felt tight right to the end!
Rating:
Bohnanza: 7.5
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Karnage @ Karnak
The Scene: The temple of Amun at Karnak. Helmut and Aziz hid away in an inner compartment. Buchanan and McCormick were hidden in the shadows near the Great Hypostyle Hall, surveiling the approach to the temple.
All was quiet in the temple for several hours, but at 4:05 AM Stanley McCormick sensed something ominous, and whispered into the two-way radios.
"They've arrived." As soon as the shadowed figures were spotted, though, they were lost again, amid a wind, a rustling, and a flapping. McCormick believed that they had penetrated deep into the temple, to inner chambers hidden in darkness.
Tension continued mounting with little action until roughly 6:00 AM - at this point there was the sound of a vehicle, slamming, and then an entourage entered the temple, along with the first rays of light. Two cloaked figures, and 18 others, some burdened, and some apparently unburdened. They purposefully headed to the inner sanctum, and minutes later a small grouping headed back to the main entry, where the lead hooded figure loudly chanted an invocation. Wind whipped up, howling, resulting in a sandstorm that blackened the sky. There was more movement amongst the most recent arrivals, and 6 individuals were left on patrol, while the rest returned to the interior.
Buchanan agitated for immediate action, but the others vetoed that idea, preferring to wait for Noon, preferring to strike at the presumed climax of the ritual, and the presumed summoning of the Elder God Mun'Mut'Kunzu.
At 10:00 AM a slow procession began down the main axis of the temple. Stan and Sam kept tabs, and at one point Buchanan braved the sandstorm to loop around a sentry from the outside. He would later regret plunging into the sandstorm, as it seemed to result in repeated jamming of weapons later on, when he most needed them.
The procession was headed by a cloaked figure (presumed to be O'Brien), followed by four torch bearing cultists, two bearing the stone artifact, and six bearing a restrained figure on some sort of board. By 11:52, they arrived in the area just in front of the inner chamber, and it became apparent that a sacrifice was to take place. A human sacrifice. Buchanan and McCormick were watching, Helmut and Aziz were readying to do their part to stop this from happening.
McCormick slipped away to ready his weapons.
At 11:52 AM things went to Hell.
A stumble, a stubbed toe, and an oath by McCormick drew attention, and subsequent gunfire. Chaos erupted, and Fearg chanted. McCormick threw himself to the ground at the feet of the cultists, drawing gunfire. Buchanan attempted a distraction, and joined in the gunplay himself. Helmut von X realized his attention was needed, and moved to the main hall. Fearg chanted. McCormick let double shotguns blaze. Buchanan cursed his luck and bled. Helmut loosed some arrows. Fearg chanted. McCormick was grabbed by four cultists, and was presented to Fearg. Fearg chanted. Helmut dodged. Buchanan fired scavenged rifles. Fearg chanted and Stanley McCormick foresaw that he was going to die.
At 11:53 AM things were the darkest.
Buchanan’s rifles jammed. Stanley, despite his brute strength, was immobilized. But Helmut's arrows made their mark, while Fearg chanted. Buchanan's shots once again hit their marks. The cultist's numbers were reduced to those holding McCormick. Fearg chanted, and raised his ceremonial dagger. Helmut drew his katana, and dispatched McCormick’s captors. Fearg brought his dagger sweeping down to McCormick’s heart. Stanley McCormick, finally, dodged.
At 11:54 all that was left of the cult was Fearg O'Brien, and piles of meat. Fearg took several rifle shots without blinking, but finally was forced to break his chant. The demon took a couple of last swipes, transformed to a serpent, and was tossed aside. Aziz joined the other three adventurers in the main room, and they caught their breath. McCormick opened himself to the Supernatural, attempting to get a fix on O'Brien.
He didn't get a fix on O'Brien. But he did get one on DeKoonig!
The Vampire and minions materialized and thanked our bleeding protagonists for "dealing with" O'Brien. DeKoonig offered the honour of being a first meal in his forthcoming Vampire Kingdom.
At 11:55, dawn had not yet arrived.
(previously)
All was quiet in the temple for several hours, but at 4:05 AM Stanley McCormick sensed something ominous, and whispered into the two-way radios.
"They've arrived." As soon as the shadowed figures were spotted, though, they were lost again, amid a wind, a rustling, and a flapping. McCormick believed that they had penetrated deep into the temple, to inner chambers hidden in darkness.
Tension continued mounting with little action until roughly 6:00 AM - at this point there was the sound of a vehicle, slamming, and then an entourage entered the temple, along with the first rays of light. Two cloaked figures, and 18 others, some burdened, and some apparently unburdened. They purposefully headed to the inner sanctum, and minutes later a small grouping headed back to the main entry, where the lead hooded figure loudly chanted an invocation. Wind whipped up, howling, resulting in a sandstorm that blackened the sky. There was more movement amongst the most recent arrivals, and 6 individuals were left on patrol, while the rest returned to the interior.
Buchanan agitated for immediate action, but the others vetoed that idea, preferring to wait for Noon, preferring to strike at the presumed climax of the ritual, and the presumed summoning of the Elder God Mun'Mut'Kunzu.
At 10:00 AM a slow procession began down the main axis of the temple. Stan and Sam kept tabs, and at one point Buchanan braved the sandstorm to loop around a sentry from the outside. He would later regret plunging into the sandstorm, as it seemed to result in repeated jamming of weapons later on, when he most needed them.
The procession was headed by a cloaked figure (presumed to be O'Brien), followed by four torch bearing cultists, two bearing the stone artifact, and six bearing a restrained figure on some sort of board. By 11:52, they arrived in the area just in front of the inner chamber, and it became apparent that a sacrifice was to take place. A human sacrifice. Buchanan and McCormick were watching, Helmut and Aziz were readying to do their part to stop this from happening.
McCormick slipped away to ready his weapons.
At 11:52 AM things went to Hell.
A stumble, a stubbed toe, and an oath by McCormick drew attention, and subsequent gunfire. Chaos erupted, and Fearg chanted. McCormick threw himself to the ground at the feet of the cultists, drawing gunfire. Buchanan attempted a distraction, and joined in the gunplay himself. Helmut von X realized his attention was needed, and moved to the main hall. Fearg chanted. McCormick let double shotguns blaze. Buchanan cursed his luck and bled. Helmut loosed some arrows. Fearg chanted. McCormick was grabbed by four cultists, and was presented to Fearg. Fearg chanted. Helmut dodged. Buchanan fired scavenged rifles. Fearg chanted and Stanley McCormick foresaw that he was going to die.
At 11:53 AM things were the darkest.
Buchanan’s rifles jammed. Stanley, despite his brute strength, was immobilized. But Helmut's arrows made their mark, while Fearg chanted. Buchanan's shots once again hit their marks. The cultist's numbers were reduced to those holding McCormick. Fearg chanted, and raised his ceremonial dagger. Helmut drew his katana, and dispatched McCormick’s captors. Fearg brought his dagger sweeping down to McCormick’s heart. Stanley McCormick, finally, dodged.
At 11:54 all that was left of the cult was Fearg O'Brien, and piles of meat. Fearg took several rifle shots without blinking, but finally was forced to break his chant. The demon took a couple of last swipes, transformed to a serpent, and was tossed aside. Aziz joined the other three adventurers in the main room, and they caught their breath. McCormick opened himself to the Supernatural, attempting to get a fix on O'Brien.
He didn't get a fix on O'Brien. But he did get one on DeKoonig!
The Vampire and minions materialized and thanked our bleeding protagonists for "dealing with" O'Brien. DeKoonig offered the honour of being a first meal in his forthcoming Vampire Kingdom.
At 11:55, dawn had not yet arrived.
(previously)
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Just because you rub it doesn't mean something will happen...
So, we're still in Egypt.
Apparently, despite my earlier prediction, more things happen ON THE WAY to Egypt than IN EGYPT.
This week we resumed our monthly RPG "Beyond the Supernatural". We are approaching the climax of the adventure, which we have technically been on for 10 years (real time), but only because we resumed after 8 years of inactivity. As is often the case with grandiose story arcs, the ending feels like a really big deal. Unfortunately, because we are in a horror game system (which by definition means we are outclassed and helpless most of the time) and because we are particularly useless (the party consists of a gun happy, somewhat crazy psychic sensitive, an otherwise mundane genius, and a nega-psychic who mostly wants to arrest the psychic sensitive), we find oursleves at the end mostly stumped.
It's funny, because the one thing we SHOULD be good at is information gathering! We have a lore egghead, a psychic sensitive and a member of interpol, dammit! In the end, all our reconaissance abilities have lead us to the place we already knew we were going to, with an artifact we are only guessing how to use, and a plan to ... fight the bad guys when we get there. Now, I'll be the first to say that a good fight is usually more fun than endless research, but I expected more from us!
So this particular episode of the ghostbusters found the group split up, with bucannan staking out the ennemy's current hideout while Stan and Helmut drove out to meet some guy who could hopefully perform the ritual we need to perform at the "big dance which will bring upon us the end of the world". We were attacked by vampires, and then let go as they informed us through a vision that one of our so called ennemies actually shared some of our goals... to stop the ritual.
Shaken, and with a busted up rental car, we returned and assisted buccannen with his stake out. On Stan's shift, he witnessed the baddies leave their hotel and attempt to high tail it out of there. Of course, he acted rashly and ran out guns blazing. He was too late and they started getting away. This led to a high speed car chase where gunfire was exchanged and baddie vans were overturned and exploded. Hoping to have done enough damage to the crew, our heroes left the scene before things really got ugly.
Off we went to Karnak, with two days before the big day. We scoped out the site and came up with a plan. Helmut put his signalling mirrors to good use as a way for us to communicate with himself and the man who will perform the ritual for us (should they get into trouble, or should we be unable to prevent enemies from heading towards them). We layed rope traps to try to slow them down. Stan and buccanen split up and hid overnight to hopefully knock of the scouts where they are dispersed and work our way inwards and bust up the ritual.
Only next session will tell whether we manage to stop the end of the world, or indirectly cause it. I'm betting on the end of the world, considering our ability to do simple things like prevent our wallets from getting stolen.
(previously)
Apparently, despite my earlier prediction, more things happen ON THE WAY to Egypt than IN EGYPT.
This week we resumed our monthly RPG "Beyond the Supernatural". We are approaching the climax of the adventure, which we have technically been on for 10 years (real time), but only because we resumed after 8 years of inactivity. As is often the case with grandiose story arcs, the ending feels like a really big deal. Unfortunately, because we are in a horror game system (which by definition means we are outclassed and helpless most of the time) and because we are particularly useless (the party consists of a gun happy, somewhat crazy psychic sensitive, an otherwise mundane genius, and a nega-psychic who mostly wants to arrest the psychic sensitive), we find oursleves at the end mostly stumped.
It's funny, because the one thing we SHOULD be good at is information gathering! We have a lore egghead, a psychic sensitive and a member of interpol, dammit! In the end, all our reconaissance abilities have lead us to the place we already knew we were going to, with an artifact we are only guessing how to use, and a plan to ... fight the bad guys when we get there. Now, I'll be the first to say that a good fight is usually more fun than endless research, but I expected more from us!
So this particular episode of the ghostbusters found the group split up, with bucannan staking out the ennemy's current hideout while Stan and Helmut drove out to meet some guy who could hopefully perform the ritual we need to perform at the "big dance which will bring upon us the end of the world". We were attacked by vampires, and then let go as they informed us through a vision that one of our so called ennemies actually shared some of our goals... to stop the ritual.
Shaken, and with a busted up rental car, we returned and assisted buccannen with his stake out. On Stan's shift, he witnessed the baddies leave their hotel and attempt to high tail it out of there. Of course, he acted rashly and ran out guns blazing. He was too late and they started getting away. This led to a high speed car chase where gunfire was exchanged and baddie vans were overturned and exploded. Hoping to have done enough damage to the crew, our heroes left the scene before things really got ugly.
Off we went to Karnak, with two days before the big day. We scoped out the site and came up with a plan. Helmut put his signalling mirrors to good use as a way for us to communicate with himself and the man who will perform the ritual for us (should they get into trouble, or should we be unable to prevent enemies from heading towards them). We layed rope traps to try to slow them down. Stan and buccanen split up and hid overnight to hopefully knock of the scouts where they are dispersed and work our way inwards and bust up the ritual.
Only next session will tell whether we manage to stop the end of the world, or indirectly cause it. I'm betting on the end of the world, considering our ability to do simple things like prevent our wallets from getting stolen.
(previously)
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Things That Happened In Egypt
Last week saw the further adventures of Helmut, McCormick, and Buchanan, as they raced against the calendar, and evil demons, in their quest to save the world, continued from one month previously.
(Further background can be found here)
This month was highlighted by, uh, research. Maybe not the most exciting of sessions, but very, very necessary to our heroes, who were able to make some educated guesses about why they have been running around two continents like mad people. Helmut the genius proved his worth yet again, and fancy driving by both Buchanan and McCormick staved off enemy attackers and threw some wrenches into Fearg O'Brien's evil plans.
Chronologically:
Buchanan, Helmut, & McCormick (BHM) decided against taking the artifact back from O'Brien by force, and instead watched O'Brien and his cultists leave at dawn.
Buchanan tailed the cultists across Egypt's Deserted Highway, through a vehicle change, and to a roadblock outside Luxor, more than half a day away from Alexandria.
Meanwhile, H&M poked around the cultist's hideout, sensed that O'Brien may have been dabbling in Necromancy, and hit the University for some research.
As stated above, Helmut discovered lots of arcane arcana, er, stuff. After that, H&M headed along the deserted highway themselves, narrowly escaping a drive-by assault limo, driven by someone who knew our protagonists!
Meanwhile, Buchanan, having disabled two of the cultists three vehicles at a roadblock, chased O'Brien and other into a building. Being extremely lucky, he was able to avoid an ambush in the basement, but in the act of retreating lost his quarry.
Eventually BH&M met up in Luxor, and, in furthering some cockamamie plan, convinced local authorities to allow some of the captured cultists to escape.
Buchanan trailed the cultists, and has O'Brien's presumed HQ under surveilance.
Meanwhile, H&M have travelled to an archeological site outside Karnak, attempting to secure the aid of parapsychologist Prof. S. Aziz in the upcoming confrontation with evil. The meeting went well, but upon leaving, McCormick sensed something...Supernatural Evil!
It's March 15th, 1995, approx. 10:30 PM, and for this group, the clock is ticking.
(Further background can be found here)
This month was highlighted by, uh, research. Maybe not the most exciting of sessions, but very, very necessary to our heroes, who were able to make some educated guesses about why they have been running around two continents like mad people. Helmut the genius proved his worth yet again, and fancy driving by both Buchanan and McCormick staved off enemy attackers and threw some wrenches into Fearg O'Brien's evil plans.
Chronologically:
Buchanan, Helmut, & McCormick (BHM) decided against taking the artifact back from O'Brien by force, and instead watched O'Brien and his cultists leave at dawn.
Buchanan tailed the cultists across Egypt's Deserted Highway, through a vehicle change, and to a roadblock outside Luxor, more than half a day away from Alexandria.
Meanwhile, H&M poked around the cultist's hideout, sensed that O'Brien may have been dabbling in Necromancy, and hit the University for some research.
As stated above, Helmut discovered lots of arcane arcana, er, stuff. After that, H&M headed along the deserted highway themselves, narrowly escaping a drive-by assault limo, driven by someone who knew our protagonists!
Meanwhile, Buchanan, having disabled two of the cultists three vehicles at a roadblock, chased O'Brien and other into a building. Being extremely lucky, he was able to avoid an ambush in the basement, but in the act of retreating lost his quarry.
Eventually BH&M met up in Luxor, and, in furthering some cockamamie plan, convinced local authorities to allow some of the captured cultists to escape.
Buchanan trailed the cultists, and has O'Brien's presumed HQ under surveilance.
Meanwhile, H&M have travelled to an archeological site outside Karnak, attempting to secure the aid of parapsychologist Prof. S. Aziz in the upcoming confrontation with evil. The meeting went well, but upon leaving, McCormick sensed something...Supernatural Evil!
It's March 15th, 1995, approx. 10:30 PM, and for this group, the clock is ticking.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Things that happened on the way to Egypt
This Wednesday we turned the clock back and played a good ol' fashioned RPG. It is called "Beyond the Supernatural", and we participated in the continuation of a campaign started some 10 years ago (which was started as a pen and paper adventure, but eventually turned into play by email until it fizzled).
The cast of characters comprised of:
Stan McCormick, psi sensitive who calls himself a "Ghost Hunter and Auto Mechanic".
Sam Buchanan, a nega-psychic member of Interpol.
Helmut von Stauffenburg auf Ulm, a genius at math, science and lore (but otherwise mundane)
For background on the story and the characters, go here.
The start of the session saw the characters on a boat crossing to Egypt. We were promptly assaulted by a giant demon from the water (but not "of" the water). Stan did what he does best, which is shoot at stuff. Hemlut did what he does best, which is think of a rational way to overcome the situation, which in this case was to take advantage of the fact that he knew the thing would be weaker out of the water and catch it in our nets. Sadly, Sam also did what he does best, which was to ignore the whole situation and therefore wind up in the worst possible situation (in this case, dangling from the mouth of the creature). Lucky for us, teamwork(?) prevailed and we survived the encounter (the boat wasn't doing so well, however).
Upon arrival on land, we immediately got into trouble again. Supernatural evil was waiting for us and took advantage of our jaunt into town to get supplies! We came back to our damaged boat moments after leaving to find one our old enemies, Fearg O'Brien (a demon that Stan encountered in the past) stealing the stones we had worked so hard to collect. To everyone's horror, he surrounded himself with a nightmarish assortment of flying snakes and bats... unable to shake the fear, we were mostly ineffective in getting them back. We didn't let them get away easy, however! Stan and Sam worked together to drop the anchor on the boat to prevent Fearg from using it to get away. Stan managed to get his shotguns and Sam turned the boat so that it crashed into the docks. Meanwhile, Helmut detained a Irish punk who tried to distract us earlier by picking our pockets.
From the punk we discovered where Fearg and the rest of them were staying, and we generally spent the rest of the evening coming up with a series of improbable plans to get the stones back (Even though Stan wanted to just blow them up and be done with it... cooler heads prevailed). We'll see what happens in a month!
The cast of characters comprised of:
Stan McCormick, psi sensitive who calls himself a "Ghost Hunter and Auto Mechanic".
Sam Buchanan, a nega-psychic member of Interpol.
Helmut von Stauffenburg auf Ulm, a genius at math, science and lore (but otherwise mundane)
For background on the story and the characters, go here.
The start of the session saw the characters on a boat crossing to Egypt. We were promptly assaulted by a giant demon from the water (but not "of" the water). Stan did what he does best, which is shoot at stuff. Hemlut did what he does best, which is think of a rational way to overcome the situation, which in this case was to take advantage of the fact that he knew the thing would be weaker out of the water and catch it in our nets. Sadly, Sam also did what he does best, which was to ignore the whole situation and therefore wind up in the worst possible situation (in this case, dangling from the mouth of the creature). Lucky for us, teamwork(?) prevailed and we survived the encounter (the boat wasn't doing so well, however).
Upon arrival on land, we immediately got into trouble again. Supernatural evil was waiting for us and took advantage of our jaunt into town to get supplies! We came back to our damaged boat moments after leaving to find one our old enemies, Fearg O'Brien (a demon that Stan encountered in the past) stealing the stones we had worked so hard to collect. To everyone's horror, he surrounded himself with a nightmarish assortment of flying snakes and bats... unable to shake the fear, we were mostly ineffective in getting them back. We didn't let them get away easy, however! Stan and Sam worked together to drop the anchor on the boat to prevent Fearg from using it to get away. Stan managed to get his shotguns and Sam turned the boat so that it crashed into the docks. Meanwhile, Helmut detained a Irish punk who tried to distract us earlier by picking our pockets.
From the punk we discovered where Fearg and the rest of them were staying, and we generally spent the rest of the evening coming up with a series of improbable plans to get the stones back (Even though Stan wanted to just blow them up and be done with it... cooler heads prevailed). We'll see what happens in a month!
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Role Playing Game Systems - A Look Back
I had originally put these comments in another forum, but I thought you gents might be interested as well.
RPG systems.
I'll be the first to admit I'm pretty finicky when it comes to RPG systems. I've designed three (well, the first two got rolled into the third) and I'm pretty happy with the final result. It's still amateursville compared to most complete systems, but I like it better than most.
I'll just run through the systems I've tried and run through the pros and cons of each. For fun, I'll list them in the order that I played them.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
My first ever, at age 10. Was completely at sea, since our DM was 10 as well. I think this is a fair to middling system, but it's popular.
PROS: Great for fantasy play - lots of spells and magic items.
CONS: Poor combat, action and skills systems, even with recent d20 make-over, plus my personal nemesis - hit points.
Star Frontiers
I played maybe three sessions of this game. I can hardly remember anything about it, other than the name of the bad guy Sathars, and that the other alien races seemed interesting.
PROS: Nice diversity of species - humans didn't seem like the be-all and end-all.
CONS: Forgettable
Gamma World
I'm a huge sucker for post-apocalyptic settings, especially in a sort of Mad Max future. This one was different in that the apocalypse happened about 75 years in the future of our time, which made for very interesting lost technologies.
PROS: A whole system for figuring out how to work pre-war gadgetry was a nice touch. The mutation system was extensive and interesting. The game world was pretty neat - my 2nd edition rules had a great map of post-war North America
CONS: Suffered from most of the same problems as D&D, since it was based on the same system.
Middle-Earth Role Playing (MERP)
One of the most complex and detailed RPGs I've played, which sort of fits the whole Tolkein mystique.
PROS: Great diversity of skill advancement and roll modifiers. Fantastically funny critical hit tables. Interesting that critical hits are divided by type of damage.
CONS: Super-kludgy character generation and skill advancement, thought I'll probably revisit it now that I'm not 11 and know a lot more about RPGs in general.
Top Secret
I liked being a superspy, what with the gadgets and the cars and the near-death.
PROS: Nice theme. It was a lot grittier than most RPGs, which meant it was easier to get hurt or die. The luck point mechanic helped out a lot with that.
CONS: Too many tables. When you've got a table for escaping death traps and torture, there's a problem. Also, the background info provided in the basic game set didn't provide a good framework for getting campaigns off the ground, unless you know a lot about world espionage and politics, which I didn't at the age of 12.
Robotech (Palladium RPG system)
Ahhhh... megadamage. A kludgy way to deal with the fact that you've got some things which are small and puny, like humans, and big and mighty, like veritechs.
PROS: set in an interesting and pre-made universe, with lots of depth and variety of enemies, especially with the multiple expansion rule books. Plus, any game where you can fly a veritech and fire off salvoes of AP missles is supa-cool.
CONS: Palladium level-based skill/percentage plus combat systems is clunky, with the need to cross reference a lot of abilities that affect skills, and skills that affect abilities. This is a cross-the-board criticism of Palladium games, not a specific swipe at Robotech.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
PROS: Mutating animals with BIO-E is cool.
CONS: See Robotech critique above.
Call of Cthlulu
Super creepy. Insanity sucks.
PROS: Very atmospheric. Super easy to die. You had to really ROLE-PLAY to stay alive. H.P. Lovecraft world is great to muck about in.
CONS: Sometimes TOO easy to die or go mad.
Star Trek (FASA version)
This was actually the second role-playing game I bought, but when I first got it, I had no idea of how to figure out the character generation system, so it sat on my shelf for several years until I could figure it out. When FASA lost the license, a lot of the modules and supplements went for super-cheap, so I've got a lot of books for this game.
PROS: One of the best character generation systems around - it really feels like a Star Trek character career. I cribbed this system for use in the home-made Aliens RPG mentioned above, then modified it until it wasn't quite as derivative in the Void Angels iteration. Once we got a campaign going, it felt like we had our own ship and familiar cast and crew which made for some fun evenings.
CONS: Action point movement system never really worked. Playing "goody-goody" Fed types can be very limiting, as can the resources available to a big Fed starship. I don't really comment often on manual and module artwork, but FASA had a really poor artist for a lot of the illustration and manual work.
Twilight 2000
More post-apocalyptic goodness - basically role-playing as former soldiers in the wake of WWIII Europe trying to get home to North America. Poor GDW, we barely knew ye.
PROS: Fantastically realistic post-war world. Great character creation system. Excellent volume of supporting modules and supplements. The vehicle guides and attendent colour plate explanations were excellent. Every module that I bought was well thought out and chock-full of great NPCs, settings and plotlines. Just about the grittiest game I can think of - any game where typhus and dystentry is covered as a real danger in the rules just about wins for the blackest sense of doom category (with Wraith: The Oblivion a possible contender)
CONS: Piece of crap combat and ammunition system. The only thing that seemed to make sense was the range and penetration values - damage and ammo were based on some weird burst/grouping method. A combat round took a long long time to resolve. Vehicle combat was better done, with component specific damage, but also a lot of time to figure out.
Star Wars
Everyone knows the Star Wars universe. You can role-play in it.
PROS: Great cinematic feel - very fast paced and very role-playing oriented. Star Wars universe is a fun place to beat on Stormtroopers.
CONS: Sometimes dice-rolling got a bit much. As easy as addition is, adding more than 8 dice slows down the game. Character templates ease character creation, but more options for custom design should be given.
Marvel Superheroes
Also familiar to most.
PROS: Super simple task resolution chart. I stole it, with modifications, for all three of my homemade games because I liked it so much. Super powers and character generation well thought out and fun to play. Surprisingly, this is probably the game that I have fewest beefs with - it's simple, easy to play and goes quickly. Character generation is easy.
CONS: I'm not a huge superhero fan, so this game didn't really have a lot of appeal for me. I don't recall at all the advancement system - which probably means it wasn't anything of interest.
Shadowrun - 1st Edition
This is the best RPG setting ever in my opinion, with the possible exception of Twilight 2000 and the "World of Darkness" series. Cyberpunk meets fantasy, with a lot of other influences thrown in.
PROS: Fantastic - literally and figuratively - game world. Art - layout, graphics and illustrations were fantastic, with the very rare exception of the one FASA artist from Star Trek (I guess they kept him on out of pity or something) who wasn't very good at all. Fortunately, he didn't get many pictures in. Very interesting spell system, which brings us to the cons...
CONS: In its first edition incarnation, Shadowrun had to have the most klugdy ruleset I've ever encountered. It improved in 2nd (and 3rd, I think, though I haven't looked at it) editions, but by that point the damage had been done. Combat was clunky, spells were very interesting but took a while to figure out and opposing skill checks were arcane. I had only the briefest of looks at 2nd Edition rules, but they looked much improved. I'd like to try this one again some day, if only for the game world.
Ninjas and Superspies
Another Palladium offering - Shemp cobbled together elements from this game and Beyond the Supernatural to make a very interesting game world.
PROS: Interesting concept - sorta Hellboy/Buffy idea.
CONS: Palladium system.
Traveller 2300
Picked this up cheap after GDW went under. Like almost all of the GDW games I ever looked at, this had a very "real" feeling universe, with really "alien" aliens that weren't just humans with forehead prosthetics.
I guess for my own games I grabbed elements from a number of games that I found interesting.
From Marvel, I took the task resolution chart.
From Twilight, Star Trek and MERP I grabbed the concept of developing the character from childhood through a career to present times.
I drew inspiration from Traveller 2300's take on the future, if only because it seemed the most likely of the many futures I've seen presented thus far.
From Star Wars I took the cinematic mechanic of FPs, which are very helpful in a high-fatality setting like the Void Angel universe.
The main thing I've learned from three attempts at RPGs (plus one or two others which were never really completely baked) is that the temptation is to make things over complex, when in fact, simplicity while still maintaining the flavour is what makes a game shine. If your game has too many mechanics, it collapses under its own weight - you're spending all your time looking up charts, modifiers and tables.
RPG systems.
I'll be the first to admit I'm pretty finicky when it comes to RPG systems. I've designed three (well, the first two got rolled into the third) and I'm pretty happy with the final result. It's still amateursville compared to most complete systems, but I like it better than most.
I'll just run through the systems I've tried and run through the pros and cons of each. For fun, I'll list them in the order that I played them.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
My first ever, at age 10. Was completely at sea, since our DM was 10 as well. I think this is a fair to middling system, but it's popular.
PROS: Great for fantasy play - lots of spells and magic items.
CONS: Poor combat, action and skills systems, even with recent d20 make-over, plus my personal nemesis - hit points.
Star Frontiers
I played maybe three sessions of this game. I can hardly remember anything about it, other than the name of the bad guy Sathars, and that the other alien races seemed interesting.
PROS: Nice diversity of species - humans didn't seem like the be-all and end-all.
CONS: Forgettable
Gamma World
I'm a huge sucker for post-apocalyptic settings, especially in a sort of Mad Max future. This one was different in that the apocalypse happened about 75 years in the future of our time, which made for very interesting lost technologies.
PROS: A whole system for figuring out how to work pre-war gadgetry was a nice touch. The mutation system was extensive and interesting. The game world was pretty neat - my 2nd edition rules had a great map of post-war North America
CONS: Suffered from most of the same problems as D&D, since it was based on the same system.
Middle-Earth Role Playing (MERP)
One of the most complex and detailed RPGs I've played, which sort of fits the whole Tolkein mystique.
PROS: Great diversity of skill advancement and roll modifiers. Fantastically funny critical hit tables. Interesting that critical hits are divided by type of damage.
CONS: Super-kludgy character generation and skill advancement, thought I'll probably revisit it now that I'm not 11 and know a lot more about RPGs in general.
Top Secret
I liked being a superspy, what with the gadgets and the cars and the near-death.
PROS: Nice theme. It was a lot grittier than most RPGs, which meant it was easier to get hurt or die. The luck point mechanic helped out a lot with that.
CONS: Too many tables. When you've got a table for escaping death traps and torture, there's a problem. Also, the background info provided in the basic game set didn't provide a good framework for getting campaigns off the ground, unless you know a lot about world espionage and politics, which I didn't at the age of 12.
Robotech (Palladium RPG system)
Ahhhh... megadamage. A kludgy way to deal with the fact that you've got some things which are small and puny, like humans, and big and mighty, like veritechs.
PROS: set in an interesting and pre-made universe, with lots of depth and variety of enemies, especially with the multiple expansion rule books. Plus, any game where you can fly a veritech and fire off salvoes of AP missles is supa-cool.
CONS: Palladium level-based skill/percentage plus combat systems is clunky, with the need to cross reference a lot of abilities that affect skills, and skills that affect abilities. This is a cross-the-board criticism of Palladium games, not a specific swipe at Robotech.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
PROS: Mutating animals with BIO-E is cool.
CONS: See Robotech critique above.
Call of Cthlulu
Super creepy. Insanity sucks.
PROS: Very atmospheric. Super easy to die. You had to really ROLE-PLAY to stay alive. H.P. Lovecraft world is great to muck about in.
CONS: Sometimes TOO easy to die or go mad.
Star Trek (FASA version)
This was actually the second role-playing game I bought, but when I first got it, I had no idea of how to figure out the character generation system, so it sat on my shelf for several years until I could figure it out. When FASA lost the license, a lot of the modules and supplements went for super-cheap, so I've got a lot of books for this game.
PROS: One of the best character generation systems around - it really feels like a Star Trek character career. I cribbed this system for use in the home-made Aliens RPG mentioned above, then modified it until it wasn't quite as derivative in the Void Angels iteration. Once we got a campaign going, it felt like we had our own ship and familiar cast and crew which made for some fun evenings.
CONS: Action point movement system never really worked. Playing "goody-goody" Fed types can be very limiting, as can the resources available to a big Fed starship. I don't really comment often on manual and module artwork, but FASA had a really poor artist for a lot of the illustration and manual work.
Twilight 2000
More post-apocalyptic goodness - basically role-playing as former soldiers in the wake of WWIII Europe trying to get home to North America. Poor GDW, we barely knew ye.
PROS: Fantastically realistic post-war world. Great character creation system. Excellent volume of supporting modules and supplements. The vehicle guides and attendent colour plate explanations were excellent. Every module that I bought was well thought out and chock-full of great NPCs, settings and plotlines. Just about the grittiest game I can think of - any game where typhus and dystentry is covered as a real danger in the rules just about wins for the blackest sense of doom category (with Wraith: The Oblivion a possible contender)
CONS: Piece of crap combat and ammunition system. The only thing that seemed to make sense was the range and penetration values - damage and ammo were based on some weird burst/grouping method. A combat round took a long long time to resolve. Vehicle combat was better done, with component specific damage, but also a lot of time to figure out.
Star Wars
Everyone knows the Star Wars universe. You can role-play in it.
PROS: Great cinematic feel - very fast paced and very role-playing oriented. Star Wars universe is a fun place to beat on Stormtroopers.
CONS: Sometimes dice-rolling got a bit much. As easy as addition is, adding more than 8 dice slows down the game. Character templates ease character creation, but more options for custom design should be given.
Marvel Superheroes
Also familiar to most.
PROS: Super simple task resolution chart. I stole it, with modifications, for all three of my homemade games because I liked it so much. Super powers and character generation well thought out and fun to play. Surprisingly, this is probably the game that I have fewest beefs with - it's simple, easy to play and goes quickly. Character generation is easy.
CONS: I'm not a huge superhero fan, so this game didn't really have a lot of appeal for me. I don't recall at all the advancement system - which probably means it wasn't anything of interest.
Shadowrun - 1st Edition
This is the best RPG setting ever in my opinion, with the possible exception of Twilight 2000 and the "World of Darkness" series. Cyberpunk meets fantasy, with a lot of other influences thrown in.
PROS: Fantastic - literally and figuratively - game world. Art - layout, graphics and illustrations were fantastic, with the very rare exception of the one FASA artist from Star Trek (I guess they kept him on out of pity or something) who wasn't very good at all. Fortunately, he didn't get many pictures in. Very interesting spell system, which brings us to the cons...
CONS: In its first edition incarnation, Shadowrun had to have the most klugdy ruleset I've ever encountered. It improved in 2nd (and 3rd, I think, though I haven't looked at it) editions, but by that point the damage had been done. Combat was clunky, spells were very interesting but took a while to figure out and opposing skill checks were arcane. I had only the briefest of looks at 2nd Edition rules, but they looked much improved. I'd like to try this one again some day, if only for the game world.
Ninjas and Superspies
Another Palladium offering - Shemp cobbled together elements from this game and Beyond the Supernatural to make a very interesting game world.
PROS: Interesting concept - sorta Hellboy/Buffy idea.
CONS: Palladium system.
Traveller 2300
Picked this up cheap after GDW went under. Like almost all of the GDW games I ever looked at, this had a very "real" feeling universe, with really "alien" aliens that weren't just humans with forehead prosthetics.
I guess for my own games I grabbed elements from a number of games that I found interesting.
From Marvel, I took the task resolution chart.
From Twilight, Star Trek and MERP I grabbed the concept of developing the character from childhood through a career to present times.
I drew inspiration from Traveller 2300's take on the future, if only because it seemed the most likely of the many futures I've seen presented thus far.
From Star Wars I took the cinematic mechanic of FPs, which are very helpful in a high-fatality setting like the Void Angel universe.
The main thing I've learned from three attempts at RPGs (plus one or two others which were never really completely baked) is that the temptation is to make things over complex, when in fact, simplicity while still maintaining the flavour is what makes a game shine. If your game has too many mechanics, it collapses under its own weight - you're spending all your time looking up charts, modifiers and tables.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
