I am no stranger to cons. I’ve been going to Origins every year since 2000. Because of scheduling conflicts, I’ve eschewed Origins this year for GenCon. I’ve read lots of posts over the years talking about people running or getting into pickup games. In all of my con experience, I have never been offered nor got involved in a pickup game. My questions are two-fold:
I’m weighing in on this whole “what is D&D?” trend. I think this differs pleasantly from edition/OSR wars in that it is a philosophical exploration of a concept, rather than dirt-slinging.
I was recently reading articles about megadungeons. The portion of my brain constantly dedicated to worrying about zombies managed to bring up an interesting proposition: Could one run a modern day zombie apocalypse game like an old-school megadungeon? Here are my points of thought:
I did a precursory scan (read: “I googled it”) and did not find any gritty, simulationist rules of dehydration or starvation. I’m looking for something that is not too complicated to keep track of on the side, but realistic enough to motivate the players to pay attention.
Burning Brightly is a game about playing angels and demons. It is a completely home brew system (although it takes plenty of influence from games that have come before.) In this game players take on the role of spiritually empowered beings that have the means to directly alter creation. read more »
Burning Brightly is a game about playing angels and demons. It is a completely home brew system (although it takes plenty of influence from games that have come before.) In this game players take on the role of spiritually empowered beings that have the means to directly alter creation. One of the goals of this game was to introduce a simple system in which a player could dream up any sort of effect or miracle and there would be a mechanic to enact it with minimal effort. read more »
Completed GenCon registration last night and I’m excited enough about it to post here. I completely forgot about registration on Sunday, and man-oh-man do games sell out fast! By Monday night I was left with slim RPG pickings (made even slimmer by the fact that I needed to find games with at least 2 open seats because my wife is attending with me.) In the end I was forced to pick some games I wouldn’t traditionally pick, which may be a good thing. In addition, I had to fill in a lot of gaps with board and card games. If nothing else, this year will be an adventure! (Say that last word the way Flapjack would say it.)
Carcassonne – board game – I have yet to play this game. I Like Catan, and was told I would really like this.
Bob and Bob Again – D20 Modern - We play clones manufactured by Department 7 for short-term missions. Do I detect a bit of a Paranoia vibe?
Quackery: The Game of Medieval Medicine – card game – Sounds like a fun little game where you apply wacky logic to diagnosing ailments.
Space Junkyard Board Game – board game – A fast, family-friendly game about refurbishing junk to make a bigger, better ship.
Revolution – card game – I’ve been hearing good things from the Steve Jackson guys about this one.
The Pen is Mightier than the Sword – Vampire: The Requiem – I haven’t played in a Vampire game in a long time, so this should be a nice return.
Ergo – card game – Battling philosophers try to prove that their opponents don’t exist!
Cave Troll – board game – I will try any Fantasy Flight game at least once.
Letter of Marque – card game – I know nothing about this game, but I needed to fill an hour. Its description of sailing and trade in the classic days of sail sounded provoking enough.
Unity Underground – Run and Gun Engine – A game still in play testing. It is a dystopian future where we get to play warriors trying to “stick it to the man.”
This is a set of mechanics to represent personality and its change over time in terms of some abstract game mechanics. As it is presented it will function with all editions of D&D, but could easily be modified to fit just about any RPG system. This system is not meant to replace role playing. The idea is to provide a context to define a character’s personality to other players, as well as a way to have a character’s personality have some effect on other mechanical elements in a game. This system is largely inspired by the traits and passions from the Pendragon system. read more »
Pictures of a game of 40K against my wife. I was playing Eldar, she was playing Necrons. read more »
On occasion I get the urge to sit down and mash together favorite bits of rules from different systems. This article covers a mash-up that starts with 2ed D&D and adds in some Hackmaster Basic, Savage Worlds, and 3.5ed/4ed. The actual rules doc is presented in PDF format and a direct link can be found at the bottom of this article. The article itself serves partly as a summary of the rules changes, and partly as a designer diary into my thinking behind the changes. The PDF is a first draft and is just a dump of information–there isn’t much formatting or pretty layout. It was written with the idea that the reader is at least familiar with the 2ed rules set. Since your tastes will likely vary anyways, you might just want to use this as a jumping-off point for adding some of your own radical rules ideas. read more »
