Sam the Bartender: Okay, you’re facing a small horde of Disgustingly Cute Furry Things and behind them are a handful of space NAZIs who seem to be driving the DCFT directly at you.
Rufus: Hey Guys! I’m not really seeing a choice here: I think we’re going to have to get through the DCFTs to get to the space NAZIs.
Callista: [Draws a sword]. Right!
Hairy: Aw, but they’re so cute…
Callista: Exactly. Sam, I’m going to cut my way through these critters to get at the space NAZIs.
Bartender: Give me Swing Nasty Pointy Thing roll. They’re all in one big pack, so make it a d6–you can’t swing without hitting at least one.
Callista: Actually, I’ve got Swing Nasty Pointy Thing With Panache. [Rolls d6] 3.
Bartender: You take down several of them with one swipe of your sword.
Callista: Did it do it With Panache?
Bartender: Give me a Look Good At All Times roll, d10.

Tales from the Floating Vagabond is an out-of-print Avalon Hill game that bills itself as a “Ludicrous Adventure in a Universe Whose Natural Laws Are Out To Lunch.” It’s also a pretty good description of the game. In what other game can your character have skills like Mess With Dangerous Goop, Chase Cars, or Make Wiseass Remark? Where else can you fire a Don’t Point That Thing At My Planet-sized gun or use a Guttern Exten-Do-Spear or a Weedeater (yes, the stats for it are in the book. It’s a classified as a Long Nasty Pointy Thing weapon).

In addition to the usual skills and stats, every character  in Floating Vagabond has the chance to get a Schtick. The rules describe a Schtick as “something a character does or causes to happen around him that is designed to add to the comedic content of the game.” Each Schtick has a major effect and may have a minor effect. The major effect is something that can actually help a player, while the minor effect is primarily for comedic purposes. Schticks range from the Schwarzenegger Effect that allows the PC to ignore wound penalties and effects (as long as no one sees him get any kind of first aid) to the John Doe Effect that causes people to mistake the character for someone else they know.

The mechanics of Floating Vagabond are simple: the GM (called the “Bartender”) assigns a difficulty to the task at hand and tells the character to roll a die that corresponds to that difficulty level. The higher the difficulty, the more sides the die has. For example: a Pitifully Easy task requires a d4, while a Nigh Impossible task requires a d100. The player (called a “Patron”) then compares the resulting number to his skill level. If the number is lower than the skill level, he succeeds. Otherwise, he fails. Combat works different from skill mechanics, but is equally easy.

Tales from the Floating Vagabond is a great game for those nights when you don’t have enough players for your usual game. Characters can be created very quickly, or players (excuse me: Patrons) can use one of the sample characters given in the book. The book also contains a short adventure: “Excedrin Headache #186,000.” Avalon Hill also published a supplement (Bar Wars) and a couple of modules for the game.

Heck, the Patrons could even translate their regular characters into Floating Vagabond characters. This game takes the “You’re sitting in a bar” cliched adventure start and makes it the basis for the game. The Floating Vagabond itself is trans-dimensional bar and most adventures in this game start from there. The Floating Vagabond’s owner installed a Random Dimensional Portal Generator on the door of the establishment. Which  means people can go through the door of a bar or tavern in their own dimension and end up in the The Floating Vagabond.

As I mentioned above, TF2V has been out of print for many years now, but it’s currently available from DriveThruRPG.com, as are the supplement Bar Wars and two modules: The Reich Stuff and Hypercad 54, Where Are You? If you act really quickly (before 8 March 2010), you can get all the TF2V items they carry at a substantial discount in honor of GMs Day.

Other From the Basement Posts:

• From the Basement: In Nomine
• From the Basement: Everway

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From the Basement: Tales from the Floating Vagabond is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

In keeping with the Halloween spirit, here’s a list of horror RPGs to check out:

• All Flesh Must Be Eaten. An award-winning zombie survival game. Try to keep your brains intact .
• Call of Cthulhu. The granddaddy of horror RPGs. Based on H.P. Lovecraft’s world. Remember, once your sanity score reaches 0, you no longer have to roll…
• Chill. Designed to have the same feel as horror movies, it’s a very flexible system that can handle many different types of horror.
• Deadlands. A horror game set in the Old West. Uses playing cards in poker-style play is used for magical and steampunk effects.
• GURPS: Horror. Another flexible game which can be used to simulate all kinds of horror stories. Even if you don’t use GURPS, this is a great book for inspiration or as a resource.
• Kult. Angels and demons set in a world that’s slowly unraveling to reveal a much darker Reality.
• Ravenloft. An AD&D Gothic horror setting. Can you fight the Dark Powers or will you slowly succumb to your darker nature?
• Whispering Vault, The. Become a Stalker and hunt down threats to humanity.
• Wraith: the Oblivion. The classic version. Really, most of the World of Darkness games are a type of horror game. I chose Wraith because of it’s unique Shadow system. You play your character, but you also play another PC’s shadow side, attempting to corrupt that PC to his doom.

What’s your favorite horror RPG? Have you played any of the games mentioned? What did you like and/or not like about them?

Goolies and Ghosties and Things That Go Bump in the Night is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Angels and demons. The core of In Nomine. If you’ve ever dreamt of playing one of the Heavenly Host or a Satan spawn from the depths of Hell, this is your game. Even if you haven’t, it’s still worth checking out. In Nomine ranks in the top five of my all-time favorite games.

Excuse My French

In Nomine is based on a French game called In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas. But the American version, published by Steve Jackson, is no mere translation of the French game. The folks at SJGames made changes, making the game (according to them) more appealing to an American audience. I’d love to do a From the Basement coverage of the original French game; unfortunately, I haven’t yet been able to get my hands on a copy. If anyone has one they’d like to sell…

God Does Not Does Play Dice With This Universe

One interesting thing about this game is its dice system. Like GURPS it uses d6′s, but that’s where the resemblance ends. In Nomine uses three six-sided dice, one of which should be a different color from the other two. The basic mechanics are straight-forward: roll two sixes and total them. Add in situational modifiers. If the resulting number is lower than the total of the character’s appropriate stat + skill score, you succeed. If it’s higher, you fail.

Then comes an interesting bit — you’re actually rolling all three d6′s. The third die isn’t added into your total — called the check digit, it indicates the degree of success or failure. A low result means a borderline success or failure, a high result means a particularly spectacular success or dismal failure. The GM interprets the check die to describe the results of your character’s actions.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. If you roll a natural result of 111 (a one on all three dice) or 666, things get really interesting. Called an intervention (DI — divine intervention — for short), a roll of 111 means God’s favor smiles upon you. Great if you’re playing an angel; not so good if you’re playing a demon. A roll of 666 means you’ve gained the personal attention of Down There.

Baby, You’ve Got Character

Character creation is simple and very quick. Groups I’ve played with have been able to finish character creation in under an hour, even if they’re new to the game. The steps are as follows:

1. Find out from the GM if you’re playing angels or demons. You may be running a mixed party of both, but that works much better for one-shots than for on-going games.
2. Choose a Choir (for angels) or Band (for demons). Each Choir/Band has different powers, called resonances. These range from always knowing if someone’s telling the truth (Seraphim, an angelic Choir) to being able to destroy things with your mind (Calabim, a demonic Band).
3. Choose a superior — which archangel or demon prince do you serve? Your superior gives you further powers.
4. Purchase levels of the three Forces, corresponding to body (Corporeal), mind (Ethereal), and spirit (Celestial). Depending on the type of character you’re playing, you have between five to nine Forces, which you can spread out as you please among the three types.
5. The level of your Forces determine your characteristics (stats/attributs) scores. You’ve got six characteristics, two for each type of force: Strength and Agility (Corporeal), Intelligence and Precision (Ethereal), Will and Perception (Celestial).
6. Purchase further powers and/or resources from a pool of points. Resources include skills, Songs (like spells), possessions, servants, extra bodies, etc…

Skills are broad and many of a character’s powers are determined by his Choir/Band and Superior. This leaves few choices for the player to make, which has its good points and bad points. On one hand, you can create characters very quickly; on the other hand … well, you have limited choices.

In the Mood

The In Nomine games I’ve played and ran tended to be rather tongue-in-cheek; the game lends itself to a light-hearted mood. But there’s no reason you couldn’t run a serious campaign. Like many games from the 90′s, the setting tends to be dark, even when it’s funny. For one thing, the angels of this game aren’t your fuffy, “sit on white clouds strumming harps” angels. Think Prophecy, rather than Touched by an Angel.

The quick character creation means that this game works as well as a series of one-shots as it does an on-going campaign. Given a fairly straight-forward objective, you can easily run an entire adventure in one evening, including character creation.

That’s All, Folks!

Steve Jackson Games — to the best of my knowledge — isn’t putting any more In Nomine material in print, but there’s been some support in the form of PDF material. You can find these at e23, including an introductory adventure called The Sorcerer’s Impediments. This PDF contains 4 pre-generated characters and all the mechanics you need to run the adventure, allowing you to try the game out for free.

If you’ve played In Nomine, please share your experiences, good and bad.

Just remember:

Angels always do more damage.

Other posts From the Basement:

• From the Basement: Everway

From the Basement: In Nomine is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

I’m starting a new feature here in this blog. In “From the Basement” posts, I’m going to dig up an older game and review it. Today’s game is Everway.

I have to admit, when it came out, I paid little attention to Everway. Everything I read and heard about it seemed to indicate it was a game slanted at new gamers and with 15 years of game experience under my belt at the time, why would I need a beginner’s game? Plus, with it’s box and cards it seemed … well … kitschy.  But when our local game store marked their copies down to $3 apiece, I bought a set … just for the collection, of course.

I don’t remember what prompted our group to try the game, but somehow I ended up volunteering to run a short-term campaign. That was when I fell in love with the game.  Everway is great system for groups who want story and character-focused games without a lot of pesky mechanics to get in the way.

Character Creation

Character creation begins with what the game calls “The Vision Stage” — where you come up with a character idea. Before you ever start filling in numbers, you decide who your character is. The game comes with several “vision cards” — fantasy art cards. You chose five of these that appeal to you and write your character around them. Then comes the “questions stage” where you present your five cards and basic character concept to the other players, who then ask you questions about him and the cards you’ve chosen to represent him.

Once you’ve got a basic concept of your character, you move on to the “identity stage”. At this point, you choose a name for your character and decide on a motive — the character’s reason for adventuring. After that, you chose three cards from the Fortune Deck — a deck of cards with a similar feel to tarot or other divination decks — describing your character’s virtue (a special talent, gift, or beneficial trait), fault (a weakness of flaw), and fate (an inner conflict your character has that will shape his destiny).

Only now in the creation process do you start figure numbers for your character.  Each character has four stats corresponding the four classical elements: earth, air, fire, water. Earth covers health, strength, endurance — a character’s physical traits. Air covers intelligence, wisdom, communication — a character’s mental abilities. Fire covers action, combat skills, speed. Water covers feeling, intuition, empathy. Stats are done with a simple point-buy system and each character gets one free special ability and you can spend more points to gain further powers, like the ability to use magic. The numbers stage of character creation tends to go very quickly, since players have already developed their character concept before even reaching this stage of creation.

I found this method of character creation very enjoyable. Frequently I tend to play the same type of character over and over no matter the game system or genre. But this method caused me to come up with a character I loved that was very different from my norm.

Mechanics

To say Everway is rules-light would be an understatement. The basic game mechanics are simple — you tell the GM what you want to do and the GM tells you what happens as a result. It’s a completely diceless system, in the tradition of Amber Diceless. If a GM is uncertain what the outcome of a character’s action should be, she can draw a card from the Fortune Deck and use it’s image or meaning (the game comes with a booklet describing the meaning of each of the Fortune Cards) to inspire her. The character’s stats are used as a rough guide to ability — if a character has a high Fire score, they’re much more likely to win a combat against a character with a low one, for example.

Overall Impressions

I enjoy this game very much. I found the visual input from both the vision cards and and the Fortune Deck helped me immensely when describing both setting and PC actions and outcomes. But it is very GM-dependent and requires a GM who’s comfortable running “off-the-cuff”. The players, too, need be flexible and willing to place the coutcome of their actions solely in the hands of the GM.

If you prefer a more structured gaming style, Everway is definitely not for you. Gamers who like “crunchy” systems will likely find this game a exercise in frustration and the lack of randomized outcome generation does eliminate luck as a factor. Generally, you’re not going to have the incredible successes and wild botches tha gaming stories are made of.

I’ve run Everway games for beginning as well as experienced players and it does make a good introduction to roleplaying game concepts. I wouldn’t recommend it for beginning GMs, however. Still, if you’re looking for a change in fantasy game, Everway could be just what you’re looking for.

From the Basement: Everyway is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a big fan of 4th ed Dungeons and Dragons.

But there are many, many of you out there who are. So here’s your chance: leave me a comment about why I should try 4th ed. What do you like about it? What incites you passion for it? Is it the party roles, the new races available as “core races”? Let me know. What in your mind makes this game so good. Try to convince me.

Leave me a comment about all that’s good with 4th ed. As an extra incentive, I’ll make it a contest. I’ll throw the names of everyone who leaves a comment in support of 4th ed, into a hat and choose one name at random. The winner will receive a set of 10 piece Hybrid Tanslucent Red Dice from RPGShop.com. The deadline for this contest is Sunday, 23 August 2009. I’lll draw the name of the winner on Monday, 24 August 2009.

What’s Good About 4th Edition? is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

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.

Reader’s Choice: The Final List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

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.

An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 5 is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

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).

An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 4 is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

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

An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 3 is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

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

An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 2 is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Here’s a count down of the 10 most popular posts and pages since Evil Machinations went live April 2009

10. What D&D Character Are You?
9. “I hit him with a BoAF*… I mean Fireball!”
8. Edition Wars
7. GM Tools: Story Worksheet
6. “You Want to Do What?”
5. D&D: the Future
4. Character Questionnaire
3. Wormy’s Back!!!
2. An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 1

And the top post of Evil Machinations history:

1. “Where are we again?”: Creating Unique Fantasy Cities and Towns

Top 10 Most Popular Posts Countdown is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

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!

An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games: Part 1 is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

*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

“I hit him with a BoAF*… I mean Fireball!” is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

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.

This post is part of the RPG Blogger’s July Blog Carnival.

D&D: the Future is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle

Edition wars. Where would D&D be without them? Even when I first started playing D&D back in 1980, there were already edition wars. Members of my first gaming group would argue the merits of Basic D&D vs. Advanced D&D vs. “the little brown books” (the boxed set of Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and Underworld & Wilderness Adventures).

My contribution to the Edition Wars topic is a little different. I haven’t really had a chance to try out a new addition of D&D, but I’m hoping to by the end of the month. If I get a chance, I’ll write a post about it.

D&D isn’t the only game to go through multiple editions. If you’ve read my post on upgrading to new editions, you know I’ve got a lot of older editions of games on my selves. Instead of rehashing the “which D&D edition is better” debate, I decided to list my favorite games that have multiple editions:

• Dungeons & Dragons. The granddaddy of all RPGs. To date, I’ve played Basic D&D, AD&D (1st ed), D&D 3.0 and D&D 3.5. I played 1st ed for so long I still remember that the saving throw chart was on pg. 79 of the DMG. That’s without looking at the books in almost 20 years (except to verify that saves were on pg. 79 ). I loved that game and played the books to tatters. Even with that, I have to admit that 3.5 is my favorite edition so far. I love the skill system and feats which allow me to customize my character so I don’t have the exact same skill set as every other character of my class. I haven’t really played 2nd ed or 4th ed, so the jury’s still out on them.
• World of Darkness. 2nd ed, hands down and straight across the board. Granted, I haven’t actually played the newest editions (I’m still reading through them) but I don’t care for what’s been done to the game’s setting. I’ll freely admit it’s probably due to old-fogeyness and I’m not above stealing material from other editions to use in my current game.
• Ars Magica. 4th ed. I haven’t yet seen a copy of 5th ed, so I can’t really make a call on it. But I like Atlas’ take on the game better than White Wolf’s or WOTC’s. I feel that 4th ed has the most flavor of being truly medieval-based and historically inspired.
• Traveller. Marc Miller’s Traveller (T4). I found (despite the horrible copy editing job of the book) this edition of the rules much easier to pick up and play than the original Classic Traveller. I haven’t played any of the other editions beyond these two, but T4 is definitely my favorite so far. Plus, I like the early Third Imperium setting.

Those are my preferences. But, as I mentioned above, I tend to take a little here and there from other editions of a game and shape them into my own house rules version of a game. So I’m curious — what edition of these games do you play and do you “borrow” from other editions. If you do, what do you use and how do you incorporate it into your game?

Edition Wars is a post from: Evil Machinations
©2009 by Cherie Arbuckle