Author Archives: Jade

Reader’s Choice: The Final List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games

Posted on 7 August 2009 | 3 Comments

I know I’ve said it a couple of times already, but thanks to everyone who’s commented on this thread. I hope you’ve had as much fun exploring this topic as I have.

Today is reader’s choice day. I’ve put together a small list of recommendations from readers for games they thought should’ve been included but weren’t. So without further ado…

Siskoid suggested:

Arcanum: Set in the ancient world before Atlantis disappeared beneath the waves, Arcanum is the precuror to Talislanta. In contrast to D&D’s high fantasy, Arcanum featured civilizations based on real-world cultures.
Bullwinkle and Rocky Role-Playing Party Game: You remember Rocky and Bullwinkle, right? Now you too can play one of the characters from the TV show or even (depending on the version of the rules you use) an brand-new one in the world of Frostbite Falls.
Critter Commandos: Kinda like Toon for miniatures, from what I can tell. [Correct me if I'm wrong, Siskoid. This is a new one for me.] You play a character like those in Saturday morning cartoons.
Dream Park: Based on the novel by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, in Dream Park you play a player playing an RPG PC. Yup, your character’s character is a PC in “subgame”, which can be from any RPG genre. I know this sounds kinda silly (not to mention recursive), but I’ve found the game to be a lot of fun. I particularly like the fact that you can use the same character in different genres.
StuporPowers!: Tired of those boring, old, everyday powers like x-ray vision, telepathy, and super-strength? A parody of superhero games, StuporPowers allows you to play a character with more … ahem … “unique” powers. What kind of powers? Oh, powers such as “price check anything”, “dust bunny army”, and “b.o. force field”. My favorite is “mail yourself anywhere”.

Luis suggested:

Justifiers: A science-fiction game, you play a human-animal combination “critter” who’s job it to act as part of the strong-arm force for the corporation who made you. Your goal: buy your freedom. But to do that you’re going to need to survive.

Rebecca suggested:

Feng Shui: The Hong Kong cinema of rpgs, Feng Shui focuses on all the things you expect from Hong Kong cinema: martial arts, magic, guns, high-technology, and … oh yeah, martial arts.

Both Siskoid and Rebecca recommended:

Teenagers from Outer Space: A very rules-light system based on the more humorous anime such as Ranma 1/2 and Dragonball. The game setting is just want the name says — aliens from space become fascinated by Earth’s “teen culture” and decide to bring their children here. In this game you play either a normal human or an alien teen-ager trying to fit into Earth culture.

Finally, some further recommendations from me:

Rêve: the Dream Ouroboros: Since Rifts really wasn’t that less-known, this is my replacement suggestion for “R”. Based on the French game Rêve de Dragon, the game is set in a fantasy world dreamed into reality by dragons.
S.L.U.G: Simple, Laid-Back Universal Game: Even if you never play this game, read the rules to your group sometime during a break in your game session. Seriously. In fact, you can read them right now. Go ahead. I’ll wait. SLUG is a free rules system you can get on-line through the link above. The creators claim you can get the entire set of rules on one side of a sheet of paper, but I’ve never gotten it below two sheets and still had the type large enough to read.

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An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 5

Posted on 6 August 2009 | 2 Comments

Here we are at the end of the list — almost. What do I mean by “almost”? Check the end of this post and you’ll find out . Meanwhile, here’s our final five:

Villians and Vigilantes: Like several of the games in this list, this is probably well-known to you if you were gaming in the early ’80′s and not if you joined the hobby later. It’s a super-hero game system which never got as popular as Champions.
Whispering Vault, The: Ever want to hunt gods? Then this is the game for you. Published in 1993, it experienced a surge of popularity in the mid-90′s when occult horror games were at their peak of popularity. Players play Stalkers — people who were once mortal humans but have been granted supernatural abilities — whose job is to hunt down renegade gods who’ve escaped into the mortal realm.
X-Crawl: I’ll admit — I haven’t yet met anyone who’s even read through this game, much less actually played it, including myself. So I’m going by the information on the publisher’s website. X-Crawl is a game based on shows like American Gladiator. In this, players play contestants on a pay-per-view reality show who face the dangers created by the “Dungeon Judge”. The game is artificially created — the character deaths aren’t.
Ysgarth: A fantasy RPG originally published in 1979 by Ragnarok Games. The focus in this game is on skills, not character classes and the whole system is extremely “crunchy” — meaning you have to crunch a lot of die rolls. Granted, it’s not quite as bad a Rolemaster…. You can try out a ‘lite’ version of the game for free at: Ysgarth: 20th Anniversary Edition.
Zombi: Subtitled “The Earth Won’t Hold the Dead”, this game is just what you’d expect. Zombies are taking over the earth and have to survive. Jeff’s Gameblog has a nice writeup about it in his “Five Overlooked RPGs” post.

There it is: A to Z. At least one game for each letter of the alphabet.

So what with this ‘almost’?

Right. The ‘almost’. Well, several of you have posted comments or Tweeted me about games you felt should’ve been on the list. So tomorrow (Friday, 07 Aug 2009) I’m going to post a “reader’s choice” list of lesser-known games. So if there’s anything that’s not here but you felt should be, please leave me a comment on any of these “A-to-Z” posts.

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An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 4

Posted on 5 August 2009 | 5 Comments

We’re coming into the home stretch of the list. Today we’ll cover Q – U

Qin: A game that looks like it does for China what Legend of the Five Rings did for Japan. It’s set in China’s Warring States period. I love China as an RPG setting and can’t wait to get my hands on this and give it a try.
Rifts: Okay, this is actually a rather well-known game but it’s so intriguing I had to include it. I have to admit, this game’s been sitting on my shelf for years and I’ve not yet had a chance to play it. You want cross-genre? Take just about every genre of RPG game you can think of, throw them into a blender and set it on “puree” and you’ll get Rifts. Oh for more time….
Space 1889: Set in a future that never was, this game bills itself as “Science Fiction Role Playing in a More Civilized Time”. Imagine the Victorian speculations about space were true: Mars does have canals carrying water from the polar ice caps to parched city-states and Venus is covered in thick, steaming jungles dense enough to make those of Africa and South American look like botanical gardens, populated with dinosaurs. Now image that Victorian science could’ve gotten there and you’ve got Space 1889.
Talislanta: Made famous in the the late 80′s for it’s Dragon Magazine ads that promised unique fantasy races “and no elves!”, Talislanta is a high-fantasy game system inspired more by pulp-fantasy than by Tolkein. This gave Talislanta a sense of originality lacking from many D&D alternatives.
Toon: In Toon, you play … you guessed it … a cartoon character. I particularly like the fact that all characters have a “back pocket” (whether or not they’re wearing any pants) that can carry pretty much anything, including an anvil — one of Ace Corporation’s best selling-items available for speedy mail order.
Tales from the Floating Vagabond: Yeah, this makes three “T’s, but this is one of my all-time favorites, so I had to include it. Similar to Murphy’s World, which I wrote about yesterday, the Floating Vagabond in pan-dimensional bar where literally anyone could drop in from anywhere. The system is extremely mechanics-light with an emphasis on humor. It’s a skill-based system which allows you to Mess With Dangerous Goo, Hurt People Badly, Hurt People Really Badly, Swing Pointy Thing with Panache, and Look Good at All Times (actual skills from the game). In addition, each character has an Effect — like a personal schtick — giving them special abilities. But watch out for those Space Nazis™…
Underground: Another satirical game, Underground is set in the year 2021, but this is no Cyberpunk. The PCs are genetically enhanced ex-mercenaries with souped-up powers and a extreme desensitization to violence. And now they’ve got their walking papers and have been discharged into a 21st century dystopia. Good, wholesome family fun .

Tomorrow: the final installment — V – Z (and yes, I really do have at least one game for each letter).

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9 Tips for Running Your First Convention Game

Posted on 5 August 2009 | 4 Comments

Game conventions can be a great way to stretch your GMing muscles, but running a convention game is very different from running even a one-shot at home with your regular gaming group. You never know who (or what) is going to end up at your table and you’re running within a limited time frame, frequently 4 hours. This can be intimidation to a first-time con GM. Here’s a list of tips that will (hopefully) make your game go more smoothly:

Give the PC’s a clear, concrete goal. This may seem obvious, but I’ve played in convention games where the PCs had no clear idea of what they were supposed to accomplish. The ultimate one was an In Nomine game where the challenge was “Chicago. Trouble. Go fix.” Literally. That was our entire mission briefing. It left me feeling frustrated and aimless through much of the game.
If you don’t state the goal at the very beginning, make it clear as soon as possible. The classic con scenario is the “mission” scenario, where the PCs are given clear mission goals by a superior in whatever organization they belong to. This is a great way to begin a con game. If you don’t want to go that route, you can have the goal find the PCs, but make sure it happens within the first 30 mins of game time. An example of the mission finding the PCs: I ran a Trinity game where the PCs were all traveling to new jobs on Luna. That was just a device to get the PCs on the same ship; the real game began when a group of NPCs hijacked the shuttle and the PCs had to capture them while protecting the shuttle’s crew and passengers.
Consider running a “closed-room” scenario. A “closed-room” or “locked room” scenario is one what takes place inside a very limited area which the character, for some reason intrinisc to the plot, can’t leave until the goal has been accomplished. You see this most often in murder mysteries and, indeed, my first successful con games were murder mysteries. Yes, it’s contrived. Yes, it can be constricting. But it makes it much easier to run a scenario when you know the PCs aren’t going to suddenly take a train to Borneo.
Give your game an intriguing title. That will help it stand out from the mass of other games in the con catalog. You want your title to intrigue players into finding out more about your game. Some titles I’ve used:
- Things that Go Bump in the Night (an Everway game)
- Crimes Against the State (an Amber Diceless game)
- Every Now and Then (a Mage: Technocracy game)
- (After)Life is a Caberat (a Wraith: the Oblivion game)
Advertise your games, particularly if you’re a brand-new con GM. Frequently cons have boards where you can tack up game notices. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to put up posters in other places at the con venue, such as lobby pillars — always get permission to put these up first! I like to use 8 1/2 x 11 fliers with an eye-catching picture, the name of the scenario, the name of the rules system (including edition!), the time of the game, the location of the game (if you know), the name of the GM, and a brief description of the scenario designed to pique players’ interests.
Take time to explain. Many, many players come to cons to try out games they’ve never played before. So you may have someone at your table who’s never played any RPGs or someone who’s been gaming since Chainmail was new. Take the first part of your time slot to do a quick run-down of the game, its mechanics, its background and the characters involved. For a four-hour game slot, I reserve the first hour for explanations
Time your game. It’s extremely rude to run over. If you run too far over, your players will miss their next game. I usually aim my games to run one hour less than the available time. That gives me some leeway to deal with plot derailments, lost players, etc.
Use pre-generated characters. Unless you’re running an extremely simple set of mechanics, you’re not going to have time to create characters and play the scenario. And if it’s a new game to a player, most likely they don’t know what they want to play. Also, having pre-generated characters means you can tie them to your plot and to each other. They’re known quantitites, you can plan the scenario around them.
Consider creating player handouts. Along with a copy of the character sheet, I give out a character history/background, a one-page explanation of the game, another 1-2 pages of “cheat sheet” for mechanics, and brief summary of any important background information the player will need to know for the scenario. Don’t bog them down with details or mechanics that aren’t crucial for that session. Important: don’t photocopy the books unless you have specific permission! This is plagerism. I give my players “crib notes” — something they can refer to during the game, but is basically useless without the rest of the rules.

This post is part of the RPG Blogger‘s August Blog Carnival.

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An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 3

Posted on 4 August 2009 | 4 Comments

I’m really glad people are enjoying my list. Here’s the next part:

Lace and Steel: A game set in a fantasy version of the 17th century which uses a card-based combat system. You can even play a centaur without pesky level penalties . BTW — if anyone’s looking to get rid of a copy of this game (either edition), let me know. I’m definitely in the market for one.
Murphy’s World: It’s called Murphy’s World for good reason — the game is set on a planet where Murphy’s Law is more reliable than gravity. The PCs are, like most of the world’s inhabitant, reluctant immigrants searching for a way back home. Which means you can create a character from nearly anywhere. After all, what other game would let you play a Giantish Lemming Herder or a Troll Tree-Hugger?
Macho Women with Guns: Yeah, I know this is a second “M”, but I really couldn’t leave out this (in)famous gem. The feminist side of me is horrified, but I’ve tried the game at a con and it’s a kick. In it you play, well … a macho, skimpily-clothed woman with big guns. No, not those guns … well, okay, yeah, those guns. But you get massive amounts of artillery and firepower, too. And you need it, if you’re going to hunt down and destory the forces of Drunken Frat Boys and other such dangerous “critters” (as non-female NPCs are known).
Nobilis: In Nobilis, you don’t really play a character that’s a person — you play the personification of a concept. What kind of concept? Well, any concept, from love to fire to puppies or small print. But this isn’t a humorous game. In Nomine players will find this easiest to grasp, since it’s similar in idea to the concept of a Word.
Over the Edge: One of the earliest games to use the dice pool concept. The game setting is more-or-less modern, taking place on a mysterious island in the Mediterranean called “Al Amarja”. If you like conspiracy-focused games, chances are you’ll like Over the Edge.
Pandemonium: Another humorous game, this one set in a version of our world where all the tabloid news stories are true, though most people still don’t believe them. PCs are among the Elightened, the people who know better. The game gives you a choice between E-Z rules, using pre-generated characters, or the Very Complicated Rules designed for experienced role-players. Even if you never play the game, the rules make entertaining reading.

Tomorrow: Games Q – U

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An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 2

Posted on 3 August 2009 | 2 Comments

Here’s the second part of the A-to-Z list of games:

Gangbusters: Another of TSR’s non-D&D game systems. Published in 1982, it’s an RPG set in Prohibition-era America.
HoL (Human Occupied Landfill): Not a family-friendly system. The players play characters who’re trapped in a penal colony located on the Confederation of World’s trash dump planet. While it’s playable (and can be a lot of fun if you’re in the right mood), HoL is also a satire of other RPGs and often pokes deliberate fun at them.
It Came From the Late, Late, Late Show: Another humorous RPG. In this one, players play actors acting in a Bad Movie. Not a B-rated one, a bad one. The group of Actors (players) and the Director (GM) work together to create movie. A great game to pull out if you’re missing the requisite number of players for your regular game session. My favorite part of the game is that the Director can give out experience to players acting Appropriately Stupid.
Jorune: Yes, I know, it’s official title is Skyrealms of Jorune, but I wanted to showcase a different game for “s” and it’s most commonly referred to as simply “Jorune”. If you ever want to game on a truly unique and alien world, try this game. It takes a while to really get into the swing of this game — the players have a lot of background information to learn — so plan on making a long-term campaign if you choose to play it.
Kult: Like World of Darkness, Kult is set in a darker version of our own world. It’s based real-life magickal occultism and draws heavily on Kabbalism and Gnosticism.

Tomorrow — Part 3: L – P

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An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 1

Posted on 31 July 2009 | 1 Comment

Here’s the first part of a list of 26 lesser-known roleplaying games, one for each letter of the alphabet. Some of these you’ve probably heard of, others you may not. Many of these are out of print, but can frequently be found from used game outlets or on PDF reprint sites like Drive-Thru RPG. Maybe you’ll find something new that sounds fun to try:

Aria: Really a game more about making a world than playing a character. Based on the idea of the “monomyth“, Aria drew on ideas popularized by Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth.
Bunnies and Burrows: No, I’m not making this one up. Yes, it is a game where you play a rabbit. Inspired by the novel, Watership Down, the game (published in 1976) is known for being the first (to the best of my knowledge) to introduce martial-arts and skill systems.
Chill: A horror RPG system. Though never as popular as Call of Cthulhu, it did have a loyal following in the late ’80s and early ’90s (including myself).
Dr. Who: Published by FASA in 1985, and based on the British television series, players played renegade Time Lords and their companions working for the CIA — that’s the Celestial Intervention Agency, an illegal Gallifreyan organization set up to protect the universe from threats such as the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master.
Empire of the Petal Throne (Tékumel): Originally published in 1976, Tékumel outshone the other games of its day when it came to sheer detail of a fantasy world. It’s creator, Professor M.A.R. Barker created a world of astonishing complexity, including an actual language and written alphabet.
FUDGE (Free Universal Donated Gaming Engine): The first (to the best of my knowledge) widely-available free game system, Fudge offers a universal, rules-light system designed to be adapted to any setting the GM desires to run. It’s still available and still free. You can download it at Grey Ghost Press, Inc.

On Monday, I’ll post part 2 of this series: G-K. Until then, happy gaming!

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“I hit him with a BoAF*… I mean Fireball!”

Posted on 29 July 2009 | 3 Comments

*Ball of Abysmal Flame

One of my all-time favorite RPGs is Ars Magica. I love the fact that it doesn’t try to impose game balance limitations on mages. I also love the troupe-style play where everyone gets to play a magus/maga and something else. As a Storyguide, I love the fact that the group as a whole works together to create at least some of the NPCs (grogs).

But something else I hadn’t expected when I started playing Ars was how much it would improve my D&D characters.

I’d never really played many magic-users in D&D 1st ed., mostly because (and my current DM and fellow players are going to laugh at this) I couldn’t figure out how to use spells effectively. Seriously — beyond Magic Missle, Lightening Strike, and Fireball, I’d look at my spell list and my brain turned to jelly. Nothing MUs were able to do seemed to compare to the ability to pick locks, do massive amounts of damage with a two-handed sword, or lay hands to heal people.

Enter Ars Magica.

Ars has something of steep learning curve. Its magic system is definitely very different from D&D. It threw me for quite awhile, but after several game sessions of watching my fellow magi at their best, something clicked. I started to be able to see different uses for my Arts and Spells. I came to love Ars’ Sponteneous Magic. To this day, I rarely use formulaic spells.

Then I came back to D&D. I decided I wanted to give magic-users a try again, hoping my experience in Ars would help me. It did. I had a little difficultly refocusing my mind on formulaic spells, rather than spontaneous casting, which led me to prefer the sorcerer over the wizard class. Yes, I was still constricted to a spell list, but at least I could use any spell I knew any number of times. Truthfully, though, it wasn’t so much a number of spells or the amount of times I could cast one that made the decision for me: it’s the idea of the sorcerer as a natural caster that appeals to me.

I admit, when I create a new magic-user in D&D now, I think of them in Ars Magica terms first, then translate that into D&D as closely as I possibly can. For example, I’m currently play two different sorcerers in two different games. I’ll break them down into Ars concepts, then show the translation to D&D

Galen Gerhardt: In Ars Magica terms, Galen would be a member of House Jerbiton. He’s a court sorcerer and bard (and spy, but that’s neither here nor there…) of a powerful prince, with a Gentle Gift and an Animal Affinity. His specialty is Rego Mentum magic, though he’s got a strong amount of Rego Animal in there, too. In D&D terms, that translates into a human sorcerer heavy on the charm magics and people skills. His favorite spells: Eagle’s Splendor, Charm Monster, Charm Person, and Touch of Idiocy.

Feynan Starshadow: In Ars Magica terms, Feynan would be a rather stereotypical Flambeau, except his magic focuses on electricity rather than fire. Still, he’s heavy on the Creo Ignum magics and has faery blood. In D&D, he’s a half-elven sorcerer of the blaster type. His favorite spells: Lightening Bolt, Electric Loop and Lesser Orb of Electricity (from the Spell Compendium), frequently combined with Web.

By thinking of my magic-user in Ars terms, I’ve managed to create two completely different characters. I haven’t yet tried it with other game systems, but I can image it would work for them, too. And I’m sure this thinking would work for characters other than magic-users. How about you? What other systems have you drawn on to create D&D characters?

Oh — and for those of you wondering:

ArM Code 1.5 4- Ca+ R H++ L- G+++ Y1995 T– SG P++ HoH Cr+ Tr+ Ty++ J+ FZ C+ Cd

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D&D: the Future

Posted on 27 July 2009 | 3 Comments

Predicting is always a tricky prospect. Where will D&D be in five years? 10 years? 20?

While I would love to sing D&D’s praises to the highest, I’m afraid that five years down the road, I won’t be playing it. What I mean is, that it’s unlikely I’ll be playing whatever the current edition of that time is. Most likely, I’ll still be playing 3.5 ed with the occasional “beer and pretzels” 1st ed game.

You see, I actually left the D&D fold completely after the introduction of 2nd ed. After playing (pretty much exclusively) D&D for almost 10 years, I got far more intrigued by other games: Amber, GURPS, Ars Magica, Trinity, World of Darkness, Traveller, various home-brew systems, including my own. I’d gotten frustrated with 1st ed’s limitations — that a thief always had the same skills as every other thief, etc., not to mention the whole alignment controversy (which I won’t go into here).

It was 3rd ed. that brought me back. The addition of skills and feats meant that I could have a thief that was more of a highway man, or a magic-user who was a “people person” and not a high-powered blaster. But despite the new additions to the system, I felt it still managed to keep the flavor of D&D. Now don’t ask me to quantify why — I can’t. It’s just to me it still, for some untangible reason, “feels” like the 1st ed. D&D done better.

Now 4th ed. doesn’t do a thing for me. To me, it feels like an MMORG brought to the tabletop. Not a bad thing, if that’s what you’re into and I can see how it would be very accessible for brand new players. It looks like, from my read-throughs, that it’s a good game in it’s own right. It’s just not my cup of tea for a number of reasons. And, to me, it doesn’t feel like D&D. Again, that’s an emotional, gut-reaction and I can’t put my finger on why. But because of it, I’m very unlikely to buy anything from the line.

Will there be a D&D in the future? I think there’ll still be something called “Dungeons and Dragons”. It’s staying power has been proven. Will I be playing it? That all depends on what the game does between now and then.