Tag: roleplaying games

Pat Robertson Warns of the “Evils” of Dungeons and Dragons

Apr. 19 Editorials, Gaming, RPG 3 comments

PatGreat scott! Marty, get my DeLorean and Christopher Lloyd. We clearly need to get back to the future!

The other night on his television program, The 700 Club, televangelist Pat Robertson answered a question from a concerned viewer. The question seemed innocent enough. The viewer asked if it was alright for Christians to enjoy video games that have magic in them, if the person playing the games is not practicing the magic.

Pat spent a few seconds flubbing around for an answer before apparently suffering a stroke and transporting us all 30 years into the past.  He stated:

I don’t know what game you’re talking about. I know there’s one called Dungeons and Dragons that literally destroyed people’s lives. I mean they got into this thing, and they were almost, [sic] it was like demonic.

First things first, this is pretty clear evidence that you should not ask your grandfather for advice on video games.

After that, completely ignoring the point that Dungeons and Dragons is not, in the strictest sense, a video game, I have one thing to ask:

Really? I mean fucking, really?

Someone needs to call Robertson’s handlers and tell them that he’s 30 years too late for this bullshit.

obitgygaxAnyone even remotely familiar with the hobby should be familiar with the hotbed of controversy the mid-80s was for a little game called Dungeons and Dragons. Between Jack Chick, Patricia Pulling, and Rona Jaffe there was no small amount of negative press about the game that so many people have enjoyed over the years. Dark Dungeons, Mazes and Monsters, and the advocacy group Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD) were all born in the first half of the decade, and were all partially responsible for Gary Gygax changing a lot of terminology in the 2nd iteration of his Dungeons and Dragons rule set, changing certain things, such as demons and devils to other, less charged names.

1982 was also the year we saw the made-for-television movie adaptation of Rona Jaffe’s book Mazes and Monsters starring Tom Hanks, a book that was a thinly veiled spin on 1979s “steam tunnel incident” (that, by the way, turns out wasn’t linked to Dungeons and Dragons at all).

But despite all of this (or maybe partly because of this), the game thrived. This might have been a case of “no such thing as bad publicity,” and indeed, while Dark Dungeons and Mazes and Monsters are still around in this day and age, they do so in a very different light. The gaming community has had 30+ years to take the wind out of the sails of these arguments, and even paint them in a satire, like when the website Fecundity.com mashed up the Dark Dungeons comic with the show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Hell, as early as 1989 author and game designer Michael A. Stackpole had published Game Hysteria and the Truth, which took Patricia Pullman and BADD to task.

So the groundwork is there. The research has been done, and three decades of time hasn’t done anything to change those arguments. Today, this should be something that we are able to defend by just being who we are. This game that has touched our lives in one way or another has been around for the better part of four decades. For a hobby, much less a single game within that hobby (regardless of how many rules changes it has gone through) means something.

dungeons-and-dragons-game-mike-graySo, in response to this latest “attack” on our hobby of choice, I would encourage everyone who plays Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Star Wars, Call of Cthulu, Spirit of the Century, Burning Wheel, or any of the multitude of roleplaying games out there to raise your voice. Talk proudly about what involvement in the hobby has done for you. Bring down this ill-informed, fundamentalist rhetoric with the actual truth of the hobby instead of the truth as they would have people believe. I want us to challenge Robertson’s belief that Dungeons and Dragons has “literally destroyed people’s lives.” I’m living proof that involvement in the game (and hobby in general) has done nothing but enrich my life. Not only has it provided me countless hours of entertainment (as well as much needed distraction when real life sucks, as it so often does), but it has done much to increase my vocabulary, but has also sharpened both my reading comprehension and writing skills as well as helped to develop problem solving, team building, and critical thinking skills that are so necessary to get by in today’s world. (Of course, some of these skills may be at odds with the various fundamentalist attacks – people that can think critically for themselves… well, tend to think for themselves.)

Not the hobbies finest moment, but don't judge us by it too harshly.

Not the hobbies finest moment, but don’t judge us by it too harshly.

It has also had incontrovertible ramifications on my social life. I have made numerous friends that I would have never met if I was not involved in Dungeons and Dragons and roleplaying games in general. Some I have lost touch with over the years as is the way with people, but others have become true blue, lifelong friends. These are people all over the world, young and old, married and single, parents and children. Some of these people I have never even actually met in person! But there’s a common bond that we share in our love for the hobby. Hell, if it weren’t for Dungeons and Dragons, I never would have met the woman who became my wife!

So, in closing, I want to urge you that no matter how small, weak, and comically ill-informed the attack may be, it’s important that we as gamers speak up against it. Let them know that we aren’t going to stand for it. We’re the representatives for our hobby and our pastime, and we need to showcase the good that comes of it.

Here’s the video for those of you that haven’t yet seen it.

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Review – Edge of the Empire Beta

Aug. 28 Gaming, Reviews, RPG 7 comments

A couple of weeks ago, Fantasy Flight Games announced at GenCon they would be releasing the beta rules for their new Star Wars roleplaying game Edge of the Empire, selling them for $30. While this caused no small amount of groaning from gamers, a lot of whom didn’t think they should have to pay to test “beta” rules, many more, myself included, plunked down the money and ordered the book.

I’ve had my book for about a week now and have had a chance to read it cover to cover and digest the rules. I, like many people, was tentative at first when I heard how tightly focused the game was going to be. It is the classic era (the time of A New Hope), and the game focuses on the characters working at the edges of the galaxy, in the Outer Rim. Bounty hunters, smugglers, frontier doctors, and ne’er-do-well scoundrels are all represented in this book.

I was also tentative because I, like may not other Star Wars gamers had fallen in love with Star Wars Saga Edition, the d20 roleplaying game released by Wizards of the Coast that officially ended its line several years ago. I didn’t think anything was going to be able to top the cinematic flair and feel of that game.

I’m here to tell you that I was wrong to be so tentative, on all counts.

Edge of the Empire is a game that really puts the focus on the narrative, using abstracted combat systems instead of gridded battle maps and miniatures to help in this. It truly is a marriage of the best things from all the previous Star Wars roleplaying games.

Character creation is quick, but there is a lot of room for customization. You choose your species from one of eight listed in the books, ranging from Bothans to Humans to Wookiees to Gand (yes, you heard me right) to Combat model Droids. Then you choose a “career” which is a broad idea of what your character does. The six careers are: Bounty Hunter, Colonist, Explorer, Hired Gun, Smuggler, and Technician. You then further define what your character is good at by selecting one of three specializations within that career. If you’re a Hired Gun, what kind of fighter are you? Are you a Bodyguard? Do you like to get in close and mix it up in melee combat? Or are you more of a battlefield leader? Each of these specializations gives you access to a list of abilities you can purchase called talents. Many of these talents provide bonus dice on actions you take or eliminate some penalty dice. Others increase your attributes and characteristics. Others yet give you various abilities that you can use during combat or even rerolls you can make during a game session. Your choice of career and specialization also gets you six free points in a number of skills that is determined by each one. This list of skills is cheaper for you to improved during play as well, as these skills are a part of your core focus. You then spend a starting XP budget to increase your attributes and skills, purchase talents, and even purchase a second specialization. You can even choose a second specialization that is outside of your career, it just costs you more to get access to it off the bat.

You also choose (or roll randomly) for an Obligation and a Motivation. These are the roleplaying hooks your character has that a GM can use to drive the story. Obligation is measured in a numerical scale, and includes things like debt, addition, oaths, and other things. The total numbers are laid out between all the characters and put into a chart. At the beginning of every session, the GM makes a die roll on a pair of percentile dice. If he hits a certain number, your character’s obligation comes into play. If he rolls doubles, it’s in a big, character changing way. Characters can choose to take on more obligation as the game goes on, or they can choose to buy it off through their actions. Either way, it really lets them feel that they are affecting and are being affected by the galaxy at large.

Fantasy Flight also announced that this game would require special dice to play. These dice are your basic polyhedrals, but instead of numbers, they include symbols. There are seven kinds of dice that this game uses – three of them are beneficial and three that are antagonistic. The seventh is a wild card die and is used in special situations. The positive dice generate “successes” and “advantages” which are directly countered by the negative dices’ “failures” and “threat.”

A player gathers up all the dice he’ll need to perform an action, positive and negative, and rolls them all together. The amount of negative dice is determined by the overall difficulty of the action he is attempting. If it is easy and there is little chance of failure, he may only have one negative die. If the odds are really against him, he may have as many as five. The number of positive dice he rolls is determined by the skill he is using and the governing attribute of that skill. If he has more successes than failures, the action succeeds. Advantage and threat are then spent to modify an action positively and negatively. It’s possible to succeed at an action and still suffer negative results due to threat generation, as well as fail at an action, but get some kind of boon out of it due to advantage. Two other symbols appear on two of the dice, called “triumph” and “despair.” These are essentially advantage and threat on steroids and can be spent to do things that would normally require multiple numbers of either of other. In addition, triumph and despair count as a success and failure respectively when rolled. The final die is the Force Die, and is used in many actions a Force sensitive character makes as well as to define the size of a resource called the “Destiny Pool” at the beginning of the game. The Force Die can generate both light side and dark side points each of these translating directly to a “light side destiny point” and a “dark side destiny point.” Each of these points can be used by either the player or GM to gain an edge on a die roll or impact the narrative, and is then “flipped” to the other side for use by the opposition.

This may seem a little “high concept,” and at first it is, but the more I read about how the dice work in the game, the more it began to make sense to me. The physical dice aren’t for sale from the company yet, but the beta did come with a sheet of stickers that can be used to modify existing dice, and also includes resources for printing off more. They have also released a dice rolling app for $4.95 that can handle all of the dice rolling. I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but from screenshots, it looks very nice.

Combat in this game is handled on a very abstract, cinematic level. It takes place at different “range bands” which characters can move between as they jockey for position and engage enemies. Attacking is governed by weapons skills as well as what range you’re attacking from as well as the general size of the target, called their “silhouette.” If you hit, you deal damage based on your weapon plus however many extra successes you rolled. Damage is reduced by a character’s natural strength modified by armor. Advantage and triumph can be spent in combat to activate weapon abilities like autofire, blast, burn, and even critical hits which can really put the hurt on an opponent. Threat and despair can cause malfunctions or even drain your blaster’s power cells.

Starship combat is handled directly the same, albeit with a few more wrinkles to include things like multiple Defense Zones and fire arcs, though these things are all handled in a very rules light way. Silhouette comes into play more in starship combat than it does in personal combat, but everything else is very analogous.

One thing that I can say from reading through the rules is that combat is a much faster, much deadlier game than it has been in any of the more recent d20 games. Wound points are small and damage numbers are high. It’s possible that a couple of well placed shots could take you out of the fight, but options for healing are numerous and fairly quick, so you won’t be out of the fight for very long (unless the worst case happens and you’re outright killed by a critical hit). This is something that  I really look forward to playing around with as combats in the previous system could take a long time, especially at higher levels of play.

The Force is also touched on in this book, though it is as a dabbler in the power instead of someone with formal training. You can purchase access to the Force-Sensitive Exile talent tree to get access to new abilities as well as be able to purchase actual Force powers. The three that are included in this book are Sense, Influence, and Move. They start out as bare bones powers that you can’t do much with, but are upgraded through experience points to do more and more things. Sense lets you read the thoughts of more people who are further away and lets you modify attack rolls for both you and your enemy. Move lets you move bigger objects at higher speeds from further away.

All in all, this feels like an incredibly solid game. I can’t wait to grab some people and see if the theory stands up to the practice, but I really think that Fantasy Flight took a calculated risk with the tight theme of the game, but in doing so, they may have hit it out of the park.

I’ll be back with more thoughts after some actual play gets done and have more to report then. If you want more information in the interim, you can check out these two episodes of the Ennie award winning Order 66 Podcast. The first one is a live recording of the hosts demoing the game with lead designer Jay Little during GenCon. The second is a full episode they released after the convention where they got a chance to talk with Little more as well as veteran Star Wars designer Sterling Hershey. Until then, remember that the Force will be with you. Always.

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Fantasy Flight Games Releases Star Wars RPG Beta!

Aug. 17 Gaming, News, RPG 3 comments

Calling all fans of Star Wars! All wings report in!

Fantasy Flight Games has officially released a working Beta of the rules for Star Wars – Edge of the Empire at GenCon today. They handed out numerous copies of the rulebook at their panel at the convention and are selling more of them for $30 at their booth.

For those of you not in attendance, do not fret. You can also order your copy off of their webstore for the same price, not including shipping.

From FFG’s press release:

To encapsulate the operatic grandeur of the Star Wars universe, the Star Wars Roleplaying Game will be presented in three epic installments. These take place during the height of the Rebel Alliance’s struggle against the Galactic Empire. Star Wars: Edge of the Empire is the first of these installments, focusing on the fringes of society, on the scum and villainy of the galaxy and the explorers and colonists of the Outer Rim. In this game, players take on the roles of hard-hearted bounty hunters, roguish scoundrels, charming smugglers, or fearless explorers trying to survive and thrive on the edges of civilization. Visit our description page to learn more.

In the second installment, Star Wars: Age of Rebellion, the players take the fight to the oppressive Galactic Empire as cunning spies, cocky pilots, and dedicated soldiers in the Rebel Alliance. Finally, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny, the players become figures of legend; the last surviving Force users in the galaxy. Hunted by the Empire, they must stay alive, and more importantly, stay true to the ideals of their forebearers—the fabled Jedi. Each of these independent game lines stands alone as a unique gaming experience while fully integrating with the others to form a single unified system.

Now, I waffled for a good hour or so before I finally pulled the trigger on this one. $30 is a lot of pay for a Beta version of the game that will still be receiving feedback from the fans, but I personally know  that I will hate myself more if I don’t jump on this and miss getting one. The 224 page soft-cover rulebook is a limited edition release. So if you want one, you had better act fast. It’s the only way that you will be informed enough to make a concrete decision when the game comes barreling out of the gate at full price next year. (Fantasy Flight has always been good at creating mass cases of sticker shock for their products.)

Reports are already beginning to trickle out of the convention, and my Twitter feed and Facebook wall are jam packed with people talking about it. We have been hearing about apparent similarities between this game and Fantasy Flight’s Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game, and we know that the game will require special dice to play. The Beta comes with a sheet of stickers that allow you to turn your normal, polyhedral gaming dice into the dice necessary to play. There has been some grumbling about this, but I for one don’t mind. Strong dice mechanics are something that I really enjoy in my games, and having a set of dice that is made for one game and one game alone really helps you to tie the dice into the themes of the game more than is always possible with your basic polyhedral dice sets.

Sterling Hershey. The man with the coolest name in gaming.

Fantasy Flight has also confirmed that there will be three different games released. It is unsure whether the games will be connected, or if each of them will be a standalone roleplaying experience with it’s own themes and motifs, something Fantasy Flight has been known to do with it’s Warhammer 40k line. This has also led to some grumbling, as it sounds as if the games will be more tightly focused thematically, and limit the player options somewhat. Whether or not this is actually going to be the case remains to be seen, but it is a valid concern. While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea to jump into some stormtrooper armor and blast that Rebel scum for the glory of the Empire, having that option is never a bad thing. And if they do wait to introduce the Force in the third set… well, that does set all sorts of warning bells off in my head. Everyone, and I mean everyone wants to play a Jedi at some point. So, hopefully the option is there in Edge of the Empire, with the greater focus coming in a later set.

We also know that freelance game designer Sterling Hershey worked on this project. Sterling is a Star Wars veteran and has worked on every release of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game that has been released, from the West End Games version of the game in the late 80s and 90s to all three versions of the game that was released by Wizards of the Coast. Podcaster Brev Tanner of d20 Radio said that Mr. Hershey was “surprised that they released the Beta of the game this year, but that he is relieved to finally be able to talk about it.”

The 900 pound gorilla.

Many people are speculating whether or not this game will be able to top the popularity that the most recent release of the game – Star Wars Saga Edition – had with the fans. Speaking as one of the fans that is in love with the tight mechanics and cinematic action of the Saga Edition rule set, it can safely be said that it is going to be a tough act to follow. But the fact that Sterling Hershey was on board with this game and the knowledge that Fantasy Flight Games has traditionally released very solid games helps to alleviate some of those worries (and some of the pain my wallet is feeling after the purchase).

But with all things, only time will tell. I hope to have my copy in my hands early next week and will have a full review of the game for you at that time. Until then, remember to fly casual.

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Kickstarter: Own the Gen Con Mystery Maps

Jul. 23 Gaming, Kickstarter, RPG no comments

Mapmaker extraordinaire Christopher West has just launched a new Kickstarter project for a set of poster maps. This one, however, is a little bit different.

Where we usually see images of his poster maps splashed around the Kickstarter page, this one is hidden from view, and it turns out there’s a very good reason for that.

This Kickstarter project is veiled in secrecy. Why? Well, because the maps I’ve created are intended to be part of a tournament at this year’s Gen Con in which players sit down to play on a map they haven’t seen before. If I reveal the contents, it spoils the fun for those players…

He’s looking to raise a minimum of $3,500 for the Kickstarter in a mere nine days. This will ensure that at least one of the maps used at the tournament will become available to the public. However, if he can double that original goal to $7,000, both of the maps will be released, and we have been told that they link up to form a single giant battle map. West has used this tactic before in several of his other poster maps, but it was never really called out in any official capacity. He would mention it in passing to people who purchased his maps from him in person and speak about it in interviews, but it never really went farther than that.

These are the details that he is willing to tell us about these maps.

• They are very clearly science fiction maps.
• They are double-sided, full color, and measure 22 by 34 inches.
• They feature a 1-inch grid, and fine colored lines to indicate different terrain types.
• They depict an interior location.
• The ship is parked somewhere, not floating in space.
• The ship is modular and expandable.
• The maps are also modular and expandable, so they can fit together in many possible configurations.
• The maps are similarly compatible with another map I’ve illustrated within the last decade.
• The sketches for three of these maps have never been revealed publicly, but they’ve been under development    for *years*.

These maps come with a 1 inch grid on them, making them great for a variety of tabletop gaming uses, such as the Star Wars Miniatures Game as well as the Star Wars Saga Edition roleplaying game, both of which Mr. West did official cartography for.

Let me tell you, I own pretty close to every map that Christopher West has produced in the past few years, and every single one of them is worth every penny I’ve spent on them and then some. If you’re at all put off by the “blind bidding” on these maps, rest assured that you won’t be disappointed with these.

You can take a look at the project here, and you can take a look at some of his other work at his website to get a sense of the treat you’re in for. But I can tell you that the website doesn’t capture the feeling of holding one of his maps in your hands and looking at it.

Make your pledge quickly and help to spread the word! There isn’t much time to act!

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Review: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Part Two

Jul. 11 Gaming, Reviews, RPG 1 comment

Note: This is the second part of a larger review of the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game from Margaret Weis Productions. You can read the first part here.

Dice. They are generally one of the central components of any roleplaying game, and there are as many different dice mechanics out there as there are roleplaying games. Sure, some don’t use dice. They may use cards. They may use coins. Some use a game of rock, paper, scissors. A small handful of them might use a combination of interpretive dance and Pig Latin. (I’m trademarking that particular mechanic. Get back. Those millions are all mine.)

But every game out there has some method of adjudicating conflict. And with a game like Marvel Heroic Roleplaying there is going to be a lot of conflict. So, how does this game adjudicate?

Well, the game functions with dice pools, a concept that is familiar to a lot of gamers out there. You roll a number of dice and look for certain things, be they dice that come up certain numbers or matches. However, Marvel Heroic does things a little bit… differently. Each character has a number of things on their sheet, or “datafile” that are rated at various levels of power, from a d6 to a d12. These correspond to the type of dice you roll together when you perform an action. But the first things first, you have to clearly state your intent. This is what helps you to determine what powers and traits you can tap for that particular action. You then set about building a dice pool out of the various listings on your data ile out of your Affiliations, Distinctions, Power Sets and Specialties.

The first thing you need to look at is their Affiliation dice. This is based on the group situation that your hero is in: Solo, Buddy, or Team. Each of them is either rated a d10, a d8, or a d6 based on how well the hero operates in a given situation. Heroes are strong in certain situations, but weaker in others. Captain America works best in a team setting, but isn’t so hot when he’s by himself. Wolverine prefers to play by himself but struggles when it’s just him and one other person. Spider-Man really shines with one other hero to play off of, but his style is kind of cramped in a team situation.

A classic team situation

Then you get to look at your character’s distinctions. These are the quotes or traits that really define your hero’s strengths and weaknesses. These are things such as “Man out of Time” for Captain America, “Blind Justice” for Daredevil, “Billionaire Playboy” for Iron Man, or “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” for Spider-Man. If one of these distinctions applies to the character’s situation, they can choose to add it to their dice pool at either a d8, or at a d4 and gain a Plot Point (more on these later).

Finally it’s time to look at your power sets and your specialties. Find a power that fits the situation and a specialty that fits the situation and all of the dice together. This is your dice pool.

This may sound a little difficult to grasp, and granted, it’s a little bit hard to get your head around at first, so let me give you an example. I’m playing Colossus and I’m with several of the other X-Men, including Kitty Pryde, my on again, off again girlfriend, and we’re attacking several members of the Brotherhood. She’s getting the snot beaten out of her and I want to go and help by smashing one of her attackers. I look at my sheet. I’m in a team situation, so I start with the base d10. I see two of my distinctions that could be useful – Ironclad Loyalty and Quick to Anger. I decide to add Quick to Anger at a d4 and take the Plot Point from the Watcher. I add my Godlike Strength at d12 and my Combat Expert at d8 to finish out my dice pool. I end up with a d12, a d10, a d8, and a d4.

You roll your dice and immediately set aside any 1s that you roll. These are what are known as opportunities and are the currency the Watcher uses to grow the Doom Pool (more on that later). Then you add any two dice together to get your total and then assign one of the remaining dice as the effect die.

Your opponent assembles his dice pool the same way, picking and choosing from his data file to build his dice pool and sets his total and effect die, using the same rules as the hero pertaining to any 1s rolled.. If the hero’s total is higher, then his action succeeds and he applies the effect die to the opponent or uses it to create an asset or complication. If the opponent’s total is higher, then the action fails.

There are many, many more things pertaining to dice pools and effect dice and what they can do, much more than I am able to spend talking about here. Assets, Complications, Scene Distinctions and more can all affect your dice pool or dice pools that are rolled against you. For more, I would encourage you to pick up the book and give it a read through. Hopefully I’ve more than piqued your interest a little bit. Stay tuned. Next time I talk about my favorite part of the system – The Doom Pool and speak more on Plot Points.

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Review: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Part One

Jul. 10 Gaming, Reviews, RPG 3 comments

Published on April 17th, 2012, Margaret Weis Production’s (MWP) Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game was released. This game was subject to no small amount of buzz. It was first announced that MWP had acquired the Marvel license at GenCon 2011. This license joined forces with some other incredible licenses, including critically acclaimed television series like Leverage, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica and Smallville. I finally got my hands on a copy as a birthday present.

 

MWP also had a fantastic stable of writers to put together Marvel Heroic Roleplaying including Cam Banks, Rob Donoghue, Matt Forbeck, Will Hindmarch, Philippe-Antoine Menard, and Jesse Scoble. The level of talent shows in the design of the game as well as in the writing throughout the book.

It should be noted that this review is coming from only having read the book (which is one of the few game books that I’ve read cover to cover mind you), but I have unfortunately yet to get it on the table. I do hope to do so very, very soon.

Let’s just get this out of the way right from the outset. I love this game, and it is my firm belief that if you are a fan of the Marvel universe, superhero roleplaying games, or of Margaret Weis Productions, you should get it. You can grab it from Amazon for $13.59 or you can get it directly from MWP’s website for $19.99 with the bonus of a free PDF copy. It clocks in at 227 pages in length and is only the size of a trade paperback, more than fitting for the property.

Right from the outset, it is obvious that this is not your typical roleplaying game. Most games dedicate a large section of the book to creating your own persona, and this one does have a section for creating your own hero and talking about the various powers and specialties. But that is not the primary focus of this game. Instead, Marvel places a much bigger emphasis on selecting an existing persona from Marvel’s impressive stable of characters and playing as them for a while.

Whaddaya mean we don’t need a healer?

And the reason for that is the game is not focused around having a character for a long-term story, but instead to explore various characters for a session or two and then take on another character in the next event. You don’t have to worry so much about character balance or having “the right character for the job” in the group of heroes. Whereas a Dungeons and Dragons party may very well fall apart without a Wizard or a Cleric, there is no danger of this in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, in fact, it might make for some very interesting drama. And with 23 characters in the book, from Captain America to Wolverine, Iron Man to Spider Man, Mr. Fantastic to Ms. Marvel there’s bound to be a couple that catch your eye.

So, just how does the game run? Well, at its core, Marvel is powered by the Cortex Engine, MWP’s in-house game engine, though those of you familiar with any of the previous incarnations of the game might have to take a harder look to notice it right away. It’s the heavily modified version of Cortex from Leverage and Smallville, and is actually modified  a little bit more to focus on the four color action of the Marvel universe, and it does so beautifully. The dice mechanics can take a little while to get your head around, but once you do, it is incredibly intuitive and easy to pick up. In the next installment we’ll get into a discussion on just what dice to pick up and when, as well as talk about my favorite part of the game, the Doom Pool.

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Campaign Journal – Star Wars Saga Edition #4

Jun. 29 Gaming, RPG 1 comment

In this installment, we finally get into the action that I’ve been promising for a little while. So without further ado…

You know how the song goes.

The story begins on the planet of Haalthor, a small colony world in space still controlled by the ousted Emperor Roan Fel. The party is called to the office of the colony administrator and sent on what should be a blue milk run, being sent to a nearby colony to pick up a surplus of foodstuffs and medical supplies. They board their transport, an antiquated Ghtroc 720 held together by mostly string and mesh tape.

Gives you strong bones, and a strong command of the Force. Doesn’t do much for whining though.

The captain of the ship takes them to their destination, but when they get there, they find no signs of life coming from the colony. No communications. Nothing. As they get closer, they pick up a very low powered distress call, but nothing else. No communications they send get any sort of response, and they fail to see many signs of power. They land the shuttle a short distance from the actual colony and head into the area on foot where their fears and suspicions are confirmed. There is no one alive in the colony. The strangest thing is that there doesn’t appear to have been any kind of battle. There are no blaster marks on the walls, no signs of explosion, no signs of struggle, period. The only thing left in the colony are a few droids, who appear to have been tampered with, as they don’t recall anyone besides the party having been on the colony.

Rann takes the group to the administrative building of the colony where further investigation yields the source of the distress call. The colony administrator managed to get the distress signal activated before he disappeared, but something tampered with the power output, be it whatever screwed with the droids or an actual hacker turning it down couldn’t be determined.

The party decided to head to the landing pad to see if the supplies were still there and at least complete that part of their mission before returning to Haalthor to share this sudden turn of events. As they got there they noticed several stacks of crates that were most likely the cargo they were supposed to have picked up sitting on the pads. As they began to look through some of them, they heard the noise of a ship’s engine overhead, and they saw a landing craft begin to approach the colony. Skai, Niera, Rann, and Kiri all ran for cover, but Jasem decided to see who was aboard the ship and see if they knew anything. As the ship landed, several men in armor came out holding several beasts on leashes. They were followed by a Rodian in an officer’s uniform. They all bore the markings of the Crimson Buzzards, a gang of not quite pirates who made most of their money selling scavenged tech from derelict ships. The Rodian demanded to know who Jasem was and what they were doing here, and the Caamasi related his name and the purpose of their visit as well as telling them they were from Haalthor. The Rodian ordered his men to kill the Caamasi, prompting the rest of the party into action. The ensuing battle and it’s results will be discussed in the next installment as well as commentary on the threats and tactics used.

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Campaign Journal – Star Wars Saga Edition #3

Jun. 20 Gaming, RPG 1 comment

I know I promised that we would get into the action on this post, but I would be remiss if I didn’t take this entry to talk about something that has grown to be super important to me as a GM since I learned of them. Something known as the Three Questions.

GM Chris, host of the Order 66 Podcast came up with these questions, believing that a good answer to these three simple questions can be more important than any amount of back story when looking at a game from a GM’s perspective, because they immediately provide hooks he can use to draw the character, and by extension the player, into the game.

So what are these three magical questions? Well, I’m no bridge keeper, but I’ll ask you anyway.

Not this Bridge Keeper

1. What does you character Love? With a capital L. Even the most reviled, evil despot has something, somewhere they care about a great deal, and would give of themselves to protect – perhaps even sacrificing their life to protect and care for. This could be a friend, family member, or lover. Perhaps a homeworld, a group of people, or a village that once sheltered you. Maybe you have a soft-spot for kittens.

2. What does you character Hate? With a capital H. Even the most benevolent and well-meaning character has something, somewhere they hate, would go out of their way to harm, or would irrationally distrust. This could be an individual in the character’s past, or a group of people. Even a planet. Perhaps the character has a prejudice against Trandoshans, or has sworn to destroy the bounty hunter clan that destroyed his village as a child.

3. Why is your character willingly (and eagerly) working for the [rebellion/empire/guild/organization/order/etc./whatever-group-the-PCs-are-actively-working-with]? Why is your character an active participant in what this group does, and willing to work with the rest of the party? Are they devoted to the cause? Do they have a simple love of credits? Are they devoted to stamping out a threat?

They are three short questions, but there is a lot there a skilled GM can work with and build off of, providing hours and hours of drama and entertainment that the players are going to care about, because their characters are directly involved somehow. But I would go so far as to add in a fourth question just to round it out.

4. Your character has a connection with one of the other characters. What is it? Were they childhood friends (or rivals)? Were they sweethearts growing up? Are they related? Did one help another out of a jam (by saving them from slavers or Imperial troops)? Are they mentoring another character?

This kicks the entire notion of “you meet in a tavern” right in the teeth, something that I am happy to do. Yes, it’s a sacred cow in the world of RPGs, but it’s fatted to the point where it’s well past time for slaughter. This begins the game with the PCs already knowing at least one of the other party members in some way, and already begins building  relationships before the first session and gives the players something to work off of. In fact, this idea is so important, that the wildly popular Spirit of the Century has it as a built-in mechanic during character creation.

I tried the three questions in a campaign, and I haven’t gone back since.

So, to finish rounding out the cast, and to make help make sense of things that are going to be put in motion later, I’d like to present to you the abridged versions of my players answers to the questions three.

Skai Kasian

Directly related to events in his past, Skai has been on his own, and has grown to love the freedom that comes from never knowing where your next job is going to come from. For this reason, he hates those that would prey on others and take away that freedom, be they pirates or slavers, believing them to be the worst kind of coward. His lifestyle has led him to the less regulated Outer Rim where he took a job on the growing colony world of Haalthor.

Kirikinerry-tovante

Holovids have always been an escape for Kiri, and have become his one true constant companion and love through a life of constant upheaval. Kiri also maintains a strict code of honor and has a strong distaste for those who don’t play “fair,” which granted, sounds a little strange coming from someone with criminal tendencies. If you’re going to lie, cheat, and steal, then at least be elegant about it. Unfortunately for Kiri, the law finally caught up with him, and he was forced to sell his ship to get enough bribe money to get the charges dropped. This has effectively stranded him on the colony of Haalthor.

Rann Antilles

Rann still carries a torch for his first love, Seela, a Twi’lek dancing girl. When he left Corellia, they drifted apart, but the peace officer still cares deeply for the spirited young woman. Coming from a long line of decorated CorSec officers, the thing he hates above all is dirty cops and the politics that follow in their wake, catching everyone else in the waves. In fact, this sort of led to him losing his position in CorSec. “Pressure from upstairs” for busting an Imperial loyalists son on a drug charge lost him his job and he drifted away from Corellian space, taking his particular set of skills and knowledge to work on a security detail on a small Outer Rim colony.

Jasem Osar

If Jasem could choose one word to define perfection for himself it would be this. Harmony. His  time with the Revwien and his time studying the way of the Tyia Adepts have taught him that nothing is more important in this world, and the peace-loving ways of his species play to that particularly well. Because of this, he hates being required to perform a violent act. He will do so if the act is necessary, but it tends to push him into a cycle of self-loathing and hatred that tends to lead to further destructive actions and hatred of the person who necessitated the action. After being exiled from his homeworld and being trained as a Tyia Adept, he traveled the Outer Rim, seeking to bring harmony back to those that had suffered at the hands of this new war, moving from planet to planet, eventually leading him to Haalthor.

Niera Kurucz

Niera has always loved droids, more so than even a normal droid technician would. She has always been surrounded by droids and has even gone so far as to take steps to make herself more droid like, putting her at odds with her own people and other organics in general. This has led to a hatred of disrespect, stemming from the disrespect she got from her own people as well as from seeing so many people use and abuse droids as nothing more than simple tools. She was sent to the colony of Haalthor by her company to act as a technician for the colony.

Next time – The First Session.

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Campaign Journal #2 – Star Wars Saga Edition

May. 29 Gaming, RPG 1 comment

In the last installment, I discussed the very inception of the my latest Star Wars Saga Edition campaign. In this installment, I am going to introduce the cast.

The players are all people from the d20 Radio boards, some of whom I have gamed with before, and a couple who I have not. After deciding on some character creation guidelines, I let them cut loose, and was very excited when I saw what they had come up with.

I decided to allow the characters both a Background and Destiny for this game. The Destiny system was introduced when the game launched. Each character has a destiny they are working towards completing. In doing so, they get a small number of Destiny Points, which allow them to do incredibly powerful things in the game ranging from completely negating a hit to causing an automatic critical hit to changing when you act in combat.

The Background system was included in the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide and was intended to replace the Destiny system. Instead of focusing on where your character is going, it focuses on where you character came from. You choose a defining event, a job you worked at before you became a hero or a different planet of origin for your species. You draw certain abilities from your background, as well as the ability to draw from certain skills that may not normally be in your classes list, a powerful ability to be sure when used correctly.

I also decided that I was going to run a little experiment with this game. Those of you with an ear to the ground within the RPG industry have no doubt heard of the FATE system, which has been generating a lot of talk lately for their intriguing system. The crux of that system is what they call “aspects,” certain phrases, characteristics, or even quotes that describe a character. They can be invoked for bonuses or compelled to make situations interesting. I have decided to try something similar for this game (and so far, it seems to be working pretty well). Instead of Fate Points as FATE uses, the players use and get Force Points when invoking or compelling their aspects instead.

But enough of that system talk. Onto the characters!

We have Skai Kasian, a Zabrak mercenary who suffered a terrible loss at the hands of pirates. He was marooned on a remote planet after pirates shot down and killed the entire crew of the transport ship he was on. He was left alive to be hunted as sport and through skill and a little bit of luck he killed the pirates and was able to escape, dedicating his life to making life as difficult as possible for pirates and others that would prey on those less powerful than them. He is a survivor through and through, and more than a little superstitious, due in large part to a trinket that he discovered while he was being hunted by the pirates. Mechanically, he is a solid fighter, a Scout/Soldier build with the focus on survival, allowing him to avoid some damage as well as push his defenses higher. His aspects are Survivor, Superstitious, and Merc With a Heart of Gold

Next we have Kirikinerry-tovante, or Kiri for short. He is a Squib who was forced into a life on the Outer Rim through his own actions. He had a long and profitable career with the Squib Reclamation Fleet as a scavenger until war plunged the galaxy into chaos again. While the business was still profitable, Kiri was uncomfortable throwing himself in the middle of galactic events, especially those involving the Sith. He took his skills and went into business for himself as a smuggler until the authorities caught up with him. He was able to pay off the officials to look the other way, but it involved him selling his ship and effectively stranding himself on the colony world of Haalthor. Mechanically, he is a pure Scoundrel, focused on stealth and deception. His aspects are Outer-Rim Lifestyle, Caught in the Middle, and Holovid Junkie.

Then we have Rann Antilles, the near-human from Corellia. Rann was a cop, and a good one at that, working for CorSec until he found his commission revoked for busting an Imperial official’s son on drug charges. Finding himself unable to do anything else, he left his former life and bounced around from security position to security position, eventually finding himself signed up on an Outer Rim colony as part of the local defense. Though cocky and smart-mouthed, Rann is an honest cop through and through and actively hates those that give his profession a bad name. Mechanically, Rann is a Scout/Soldier build, another fighter, though this one more focused towards offense as well as some tricks up his sleeve outside of combat. His aspects are An Honest Cop, Chronic Wiseass, and Streetwise.

Next, there is Jasem Osar, the Caamasi Force user was exiled from his tribe after an incident with some slavers. A race that is wildly pacifistic, often to the point of complete and total non-violence, Jasem broke those tenets when he stood up to a group of slavers intent to take some of his people away. Though the results were appreciated, his actions could not be tolerated, and he was exiled from his clan. He drifted for a while before discovering and being discovered by the Tyia Adepts, a Force-using tradition that exemplified harmony and peace, but also showed him how to use his gifts to non-violently handle situations should the need arise. Since then, he has been moving about the Outer Rim, seeking to keep himself out of the war as well as to promote his new doctrine. Mechanically, Jasem is a very interesting character. He is a Noble/Soldier build, and the words used to describe him are “Force Tank.” Despite his lower than average hp, he is built to focus enemy fire on himself and absorb it through various talents and Force powers. His aspects are Peacekeep, Wise Man on the Mountain, and Stubborn Old Fool

Finally, we have Niera Kurucz, the Arkanian Tech Specialist. She always loved machines, and spent more of her childhood with droids and circuits than with other children, tinkering both with a droid that has become a personal companion as well as with herself, going so far as to remove one of her hands to replace it with a cybernetic prosthetic. As she grew, she found herself more and more distanced from her people, she left her homeworld after some “encouragement” from the leaders of her community. She eventually found employment with a very large droid and cybernetics firm that paid her incredibly well to do the things she loved to do. Most recently, they sent her to Haalthor to oversee the installation of several devices that the Imperials had paid the company for. Mechanically, she is another interesting concept. While Force-sensitive, she doesn’t show any signs of it yet, but she is focused on being able to affect the minds of droids with mind-affecting powers which they are normally immune to. At the moment, she is simply a very talented droid mechanic. Her aspects are Uncomfortable Around Organics, Droid-Lover, and Internal Encyclopedia.

So there you have the cast of this adventure. Next time, we’ll finally dive into the story so far. Keep your eyes peeled, and remember – let go of your conscious self, and act on instinct.

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Campaign Journal – Star Wars Saga Edition #1

May. 23 Features, Gaming, RPG 3 comments

It’s always difficult for me to commit to starting a new campaign when it comes to tabletop games. It’s because I usually have so many ideas bouncing around my head that I feel that I am never going to be able to do them all justice.

However, I have had an idea in my head for a campaign for several years now, one I have tried to run several times. Neither of them got off the ground, unfortunately.

So, when I saw that several people on the d20 Radio boards were looking for a GM to run a Star Wars Saga Edition game over Skype, I figured “what the heck,” and tossed my hat in to GM, knowing that several of them were very committed role players.

This time I had no problem deciding what I was going to run.

This particular campaign I have tried to set in numerous eras. It’s first incarnation was in the Old Republic as a one-on-one game with my wife. The second was a Play by Post experiment that existed completely out of the canon timeline, but would have taken place right after the New Sith Wars and the implementation of Darth Bane’s Rule of Two. After doing a lot of thinking on how I was going to pursue it this time, I decided on the Legacy era, having just re-read the Legacy comics from Dark Horse publishing.

For the uninitiated, the Legacy Era is set over 130 years after the events of Episodes IV, V, and VI and shows us a galaxy once again dominated by a Sith Empire. However, this is not the Sith of the classical era. Instead of the Rule of Two, the Rule of One has been instituted – one ruler, one order. There are numerous Sith Lords across the galaxy, pursuing their own agendas, all the while working for the Sith Lord on the throne.

The Jedi Order is once again a shadow of it’s former strength, and Jedi are hunted mercilessly due to a large standing bounty placed on their heads by the Empire. The Sith Empire is in a state of near constant warfare with the Empire in Exile, the legitimate rulers the Sith betrayed to take power in the first place after helping them in the last great war. The Sith Empire is also forced to deal with the remnants of the Galactic Alliance, the government that existed before the last Empire was established by the Fel dynasty some 80 years previous.

As you can see, the Legacy era puts a lot on the table and in the toolbox of any aspiring GM. All the major pieces of previous eras are taken, put into a blender, and set to “frappe.” It gives a lot of opportunity for both the players and the GM to take the Star Wars sandbox and build what they want with it, and for this particular reason is becoming a fan favorite.

At the time this campaign begins, the galaxy is in a state of turmoil. The Sith Emperor, Darth Krayt has supposedly been assassinated by a Jedi of the name Skywalker, and a series of deadly power games is taking place within the ranks of the Sith Empire. The Empire in Exile as well as the Alliance Remnant have stepped up their pressure on the Sith Empire as well, even going so far as to set aside their differences after the last war and fight as allies.

It is into this mess that five strangers take the stage, working to uncover a sinister plot from an unknown faction deep in Imperial space. Hailing from the Imperial colony world of Haalthor, their story is about to begin.

Be sure to keep checking back as the story of this campaign is told. I want to give you all a peek behind the GM screen. I plan on speaking a little bit about my thought process on encounter creation, house rules that I’m implementing, as well as general system thoughts. But most importantly, I hope to entertain you all with the story of six people who come together for a few hours every couple of weeks and play make believe over the internet.

Next time, you will be introduced to the main players on this stage. Until then, remember to fly casual, and may the Force be with you.

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Rumor Mill – Baldur’s Gate

Feb. 29 Gaming, RPG, Video Games no comments

Baldur’s Gate. This name immediately invokes a powerful sense of nostalgia in many members of the gaming population, be they video gamers or tabletop gamers. Baldur’s Gate I and II were released by Bioware in 1998 and 2000 respectively for the PC, utilizing the Infinity Engine to create one of the most immersive experiences that many gamers have ever had. You took on the role of an orphan child and through the game’s expansive storyline, went through a quest of self-discovery as you battled your way across the Realms, meeting numerous colorful characters, enemy and ally both.

Character creation screen

Utilizing the then current rules set of Dungeons and Dragons, Baldur’s Gate let you create your character and play him as you chose. Though your moral choices lacked the far-reaching consequences that many of today’s games have, it was still an incredibly rich experience for the time.

Now that you’ve read that, click this link.

Take a few minutes. Look at the page. Let the theme music wash over you.

And once you’ve done that, let the rumor mill start turning.

Just what could this splash page mean? We have the logo from the wildly popular computer RPG series set in the Forgotten Realms setting along with the text from the same.

“The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny, chaos will be sown by their passage.”

-So sayeth the wise Alaundo

On the one hand, this could signal a re-release of the games from the developer. But that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense given the time-frame. We are coming up on the 15 year anniversary of the first game next year, but I don’t think we’d be seeing something so soon in the year. And 15 years just doesn’t carry the same weight as say, 20 or 25.

Some believe it to be an announcement that the games will be releasing on Steam, the wildly popular distributor of digital computer games.

Fighting a dragon

My personal hope is that we’re looking at the teaser page for a new installment in the franchise. I spent many a night in high school and college getting lost in dungeons, fighting (and oftentimes losing again and again) against  overwhelming hordes of monsters and other bad guys, and laughing my ass off at Minsc and his dialogue. I never did finish the games, but it’s been on my to do list for some time now (along with any number of other games). A new game for the current generation of Dungeons and Dragon’s players would be amazing.

And with the announcement made a while back of a new edition of the role-playing game, that’s where my money is.

Keep your eyes on the site, guys and girls, and keep those dice bags handy. You never know when you’re going to need them in a hurry.

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Dragon Age Set 3 Open Playtest Rules Published

Feb. 22 Gaming, RPG no comments

I’m not sure how I missed this announcement Monday. That’s what I get for napping when I come home from work.

Will Hindmarch, freelance game designer and writer, announced on Green Ronin’s website yesterday that the day fans of the company’s Dragon Age Roleplaying Game were waiting for had finally come. The open play test for the third boxed set in the wildly popular game had begun.

A little bit of history for those of you not familiar with this game or why this is such huge news.

Lead developer for Dragon Age and president of Green Ronin

Back in late 2009, Green Ronin Publishing announced that they had secured the license for and were developing a tabletop roleplaying game for EA and Bioware’s Dragon Age dark fantasy video game. It was originally slated to be released in four sets, each of them covering five levels of play. Chris Pramas, founder of the company was behind the inception of the game and the first two sets. Set 1 became available for preorder at Christmas time in 2009, and the materials were published in February of 2010, with word that subsequent releases were going to be about a year apart.

Fans went a long time without news about Set 2. Then information started coming in dribs and drabs and we found out that it was going to be pushed back due to issues with the game design. Then, one day, a curious thing happened. A set of rules appeared on their website. These were the bare bones, no frills, still unpolished rules for Set 2. Pramas had decided that he was going to have the fans help him.

He loves riddles

Tricksy hobbit!

They were going to give the rules a litmus test at their own tables, give him feedback within a certain period of time, and the final rules would be tweaked before final publication. The final product was published in September of 2010 and it was announced that due to the delays with Set 2, they had decided that they were going to publish Sets 3 and 4 together in one product, spanning the last ten levels of play.

Freelance game designer and writer

Then, in late 2010, it was announced that Pramas was no longer writing Set 3. Instead, the company had brought on board well-established freelancer Will Hindmarch to handle it. And then Monday, February 20th, he provided us a link for a good portion of what we’ll probably see in the final version (with some added polish of course).

From Green Ronin’s Website:

Inside you’ll find an assortment of new components for the Dragon Age RPG, from talents to specializations, from spells to monsters. This all represents a sizable portion of the Set 3 manuscript—but still only a portion. Features such as our full-length adventure and our many pages of background lore are not contained in this play test package. A few components, still on our workbenches for development, are also not here. So don’t fret if you something you were looking forward to in Set 3 isn’t in here—we’ve got a few surprises in store.

Inside you’ll also find text at various type sizes and adorned with manuscript tags and layout notes. This is a manuscript in flux, a molten thing. We’ll get it tightened up while you’re playing.

Remember, please, that only play test responses emailed to the address in the package, with signed release forms, can be considered. We can’t count forum posts, blog posts, tweets, or similar messages as official play test feedback. We’d appreciate it if you sent your serious critiques to us directly and remember that this is a work in progress.

Thank you!

So why are you still reading this? Get on over to Green Ronin and break out these new rules and let them know what you think! (But come back later. We have more cool stuff to talk to you about. Promise.)

You can download the open play test rules here.

Good gaming.

 

Have you checked out the Kickstarter page for “A CON-voluted Story”? Our very own Word of the Nerd team is involved with this awesome project!  Show them some love!

 

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The ORE You Know (Part Two)

Feb. 09 Gaming, RPG no comments

In my previous post, I talked a little bit about Greg Stolze, and how I discovered him and the One-Roll Engine (ORE). In this post, I’ll talk a little bit more about the ORE as a game system and it’s impact on roleplaying in general.

Cartoon of the cartoon

Luckily, we weren't playing this campaign...

The ORE, for lack of a better turn of phrase, was a revolutionary thing for me at that point in my life. Growing up in the days of West End Games Star Wars and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, I had never seen anything like this. This was something completely different. This was something that I could really flex my budding game design muscles around. This was something that I had to get on the table immediately.

At its core, Greg Stolze wanted to accomplish a couple of things with the ORE:

  1. He wanted to speed up gameplay by removing extraneous dice rolls
  2. He wanted to do this without sacrificing detail. And
  3. He wanted to let the system fade into the background when it was not needed.

The Core Mechanics

It’s so simple in scope and in practice, that it’s a wonder this kind of game wasn’t put forth a long time ago. Like the Word of Darkness projects he had worked on in some capacities beforehand, the ORE is designed to use a dice pool. What this means is that you add two different numbers on your character sheet which is determined by the action you are attempting and you roll a number of ten sided dice (d10s) equal to that total. However, unlike a lot of games that used this idea before, instead of looking for dice that show a certain number or higher to determine success, you are instead looking for dice that matched. And because of that slight difference, you never roll more than ten dice.

Go ahead and ask anyone who ran a World of Darkness game back in the 90s about the monstrous size of some of the dice pools that were thrown around by higher powered characters. And while the math worked itself out into a sort of equilibrium with that system, the sheer amount of time spent gathering and rolling these dice could really begin to slow down the game. The simple change of what constituted a successful action threw the doors wide open.

Just go with it.

You need to roll HOW many dice!?!

In the ORE, your success is measured not only by the number on the successful dice, but also by how many of those dice have that number. There are two more terms I need to teach you for this to make sense to you. Height and Width. The Height of a successful match is the number shown on the dice. The Width is the number of dice showing that number in the match. So if I roll five dice and have two of them that show an “8,” I have a set with a width of “2″ and a height of “8,” more commonly written as 2×8.

Height matters when figuring out how well you’ve performed an action. Width is important when you need to know how quickly you’ve performed an action. A 2×8 on a test is better, but slower than a 4×2. There are some variations to these rules within each book, but that’s the basic mechanic. Figure out how many dice to roll, roll them, and look for matches.

Reign Cover

Since it’s release, the ORE has been modified and used for darn near everything, by both Stolze and other people. He released Wild Talents in 2006, which updated the rules using GODLIKE as a base and making the system more generic. The next year saw the release of Reign, a fantasy game that uses the ORE as it’s base. The critically acclaimed Monsters and Other Childish Things by Benjamin Baugh released as a full game in 2008 uses a somewhat simplified version of the ORE. 2008 also saw the release of A Dirty World by Stolze, a film noir game that uses the ORE (I have yet to get this one on my table yet, but it sounds fantastic). 2010 saw the release of Progenitor, a radically different take on the Vietnam War and the decades following using the Wild Talents rules. Heck, people have even taken the ORE and done Star Wars with it (another one that I mean to get on the table at a convention soon). A buddy and myself have even kicked around the idea of modifying and using it to run a Fallout game.

Progenitor Cover

 

With each new game, new ways to use the ORE come to light. Reign came up with ways to use the dice that weren’t matches in a successful set. Progenitor includes charts to come up with the entire Global Climate and generate adventures from that on a single roll of 10d10. Every time there is a new release, I’m blown away by the ingenuity that is shown.

The fact is that Greg Stolze scored an absolute beast of a homerun with this rules set. Incredibly versatile and quick to resolve, this is a go-to set of rules for many people who know of it. Sadly, I find that far too few people know about it. So GMs out there! If you’re looking for something different to throw at your group for your next session, consider the ORE.

You can pick up a complete set of the rules over at RPGNow with the Wild Talents Essential Edition PDF for a measly $5. Believe me when I say you could do a lot worse. Give it a shot, and I would be surprised if you didn’t fall in love with the system as much as I have.

 

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The ORE You Know (Part One)

Feb. 08 Gaming, RPG 1 comment

Ask yourself a question.

If you could play the games of only one designer for the rest of your life, who would you choose?

It’s a tough question to answer, isn’t it? If you were to ask me that question, I might think about it long and hard, but no mater how long and how hard I thought about it, I would always wind up giving you the same answer.

Greg Stolze.

aka "The Man"

If you don’t know about Greg, you’re missing out on one hell of an experience. He’s written numerous games and pieces of fiction, all of them with a deliciously wicked bent towards the very weird and macabre.

But the real reason that I would select him over anyone else in the industry isn’t because of what he’s done for tabletop gaming. No. It’s because of what he’s done for changing my perceptions of what tabletop gaming can be.

Stolze wrote a lot of fiction, as well as some of the rules for Whitewolf’s World of Darkness releases in the 90s, before the overhaul of their de facto setting. But he really came into his own in the field with the 1998 release Unknown Armies, a game of “transcendental horror and furious action” released by Atlas Games. He wrote this game with John Tines.

Cover Image for UA

And while it was a very good game (and was my first experience with the man), it is not what he would best be known for.

In 2002, he helped bring the world of GODLIKE into being with Dennis Detwiller. GODLIKE bills itself as “Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire” and it does this beautifully with a fantastic alternate timeline of World War II onward if superheros had been present during the conflict. And I’m not talking superheros like Superman or the Green Lantern, or anything like that. I’m talking about normal humans, possessed of certain powers that may or may not have helped them to turn the tide of the war. Men that could turn into an ape. Men that could fly, but were still shot down as easily as planes being tracked by anti-aircraft fire. Stuff like that. As the back of the corebook states:

No bright spandex, no pulp machismo. In the face of a world on fire, ordinary men and women emerge who possess the Talents their times demand – but who are still as vulnerable, and eventually expendable, as the troops in the foxholes. You can be faster than a speeding bullet, as long as you don’t step on a landmine.

The One Book

I picked this book up on a whim at one of my local gaming/hobby stores in the discount section. At the time I didn’t put the name on the cover together with the one on my much loved copy of Unknown Armies sitting at home. It simply looked really interesting. So I picked it up, took it to the register, and brought it home with me. And I’m so very glad I did.

This book is the one that changed it all for me. It’s not because of the writing, though it is fantastic. It’s not because of the subject matter, though I throw it on the table at conventions every chance I get. It’s not even because it’s a game that features my kind of superheros.

This is the first game released to use the One-Roll Engine. But more on that next time.

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