Tag Archives: RPGs

Penultimate Savage Worlds “Legends of Steel” Session Summary Posted

Posted on August 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

In Legends of Steel Part VIII (10 page pdf), some wyvern-riding moo-rons show up and convince the local yokels that pass as the government in this farm town that they should hand us over to the evil empire.  In retaliation, we murder three wyverns and everyone who dares open their bitch mouth to us.  And Manoj gets a crazy psycho stalker girlfriend!

We were pretty confused and frustrated by the RP session after that.  So the hapless city, now that we’ve murdered their prospective new overlords, feels they are probably going to be razed to the ground in retaliation by the bad guys’ army.  This is probably accurate; from what we can see a bunch of Catholic schoolgirls could raze them to the ground.

So then they want someone to take a message asking for help to their King.  We volunteer, if only because it will get us out of this dunghole.  They go to have an Important Council Meeting that they try to get us to come to.  Being averse to boredom, we go get drunk instead.  Then this local elder shows up and makes the following pitch “behind the back” of the local baron.

1.  Some people don’t like kicking taxes upstairs to the king.  But everyone’s scared of acting on this.  And the Baron is scared of asking for help.

2.  So we should delay the King’s forces in getting here.

3.  Because they will then throw off the invading army by themselves, and have enough mojo left over to throw off the King’s army too.  Freedom!

4.  And we should do this because we “owe them” for provoking the bad guys’ wrath.

My rebuttal, admittedly somewhat obscenity-laced, was:

1.  “Sounds like you’re a bunch of scared motherf***ers all the
way up the chain of command. What do you need us for?”

2.  …

3.  “But your farm town here couldn’t fight off a dozen drunken goblins on a good day.  You’re asking for help to fight the one army, but now you think you can take two?”

4.  “I’m sure you mean to say there’s something else in it for us…  Because if we owe anyone for the impending violence, which you brought on yourselves in the first place, you’d think we’d owe the Baron, the actual legitimate ruler of this place, and the King.  And not some random fat f**k like you.”

But no, that was his best offer.  I tried to help what appeared to be the railroad plot out.  “If only you were to offer us positions of power in this new regime…  Or money or booze or something…”  But no.  So I told him he’s better f**k off or else he was going to get three feet of steel rammed through his guts real soon.  The rest of the players all nodded sagely in agreement. He scuttled off.

The elder, and the GM, seemed somewhat taken aback.  But we were getting grumpy and don’t like nonsensical adventure hooks – come to a party with an offer that has an up side.  If we just want to kill people there are a lot of takers – why should we kill for you?

It’s one thing if the hook is what “good” or “heroic” characters should do, which is a mistake in a game where most characters are amoral mercenaries, but in this case it isn’t even the good, or brave and glory-filled, option. It’s the craven and bad option for zero compensation. Huh?

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Fourth Alternity “The Lighthouse” Session Summary Posted

Posted on August 24, 2009 | 1 comment

In the fourth installment of our Alternity science fiction campaign, we rescue the ground troops and sesheyan VIPs off the pirate base before the Void*Corpers pummel it into plasma, and get a turncoat spy in the bargain.

Then the space station command staff, in true Star Trek fashion,  heads to Meribel to investigate a murder at a terraforming outpost, which goes all District 9 on us real quick.  A mad doctor in a big ol’ diving suit gives us problems until we run 1.21 gigawatts through him.  Then, the alien plague!!!

Read the full session summary!

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Indie RPG Awards Are In!

Posted on August 20, 2009 | 3 comments

The yearly Indie RPG Awards have been announced.  I like these awards; you get to learn about  a lot of fringe stuff you may not have heard of, and a lot of it’s free.  I like the way they run the awards, too, they have a judge point system and they list the points each nominee gets so you can see who came in first, second, third, etc. and by how wide a margin.  Here’s the rundown:

Indie Game of the Year

  • Mouse Guard, by Luke Crane and David Petersen.  No huge surprise, this won three ENnies and at Origins!  Burning Wheel mechanics plus licensed comic plus lil’ mice equals goodness.
  • 3:16 Carnage Among The Stars, by Gregor Hutton, also an ENnie nominee, came in second.

Indie Supplement of the Year

  • Don’t Lose Your Mind, by Benjamin Baugh, for Don’t Rest Your Head comes in first.  They got the silver ENnie for writing as well.
  • Magic Burner, by Luke Crane, for Burning Wheel is a very narrow second.

Best Free Game

Best Support

  • Uncoincidentally, two of the award winners in other categories win here.  Mouse Guard comes in first and Don’t Lose Your Mind comes in second.

Best Production

  • The 900 pound gorilla, Mouse Guard, comes in first.
  • 3:16 Carnage Among the Stars comes in second.

Most Innovative Game

  • Being “Most Innovative” in the indie crowd means your game is probably weird enough to give D&D players hives.  That makes me happy.  The winner is Sweet Agatha, by Kevin Allen Jr.  No dice or anything, it’s a story creation game where the players cut up the game book/investigative journal.
  • In second is In a Wicked Age: sword & sorcery roleplaying by Vincent Baker.  Kind of a negotiating player conflict game like Amber.

Congrats to all!

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Cthulhu Resurgent?

Posted on August 17, 2009 | 10 comments

I’m a long time fan of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, owning 62 various products in the line by my count, and have several Cthulhu Master’s tournaments under my belt to prove it.  But pretty much the line has been lagging for a long time.  The last “big thing” that shook it up was the release of Delta Green, back in 1997.  (The 2001 release of d20 Cthulhu sank beneath the waters without a trace.)  Other than that, it’s been a bit of a litany of republishing all the same damn stuff, lightly reworked, as “Dreamlands v7.8” and the like.  Chaosium just about went down for good for a while there and is only barely starting to get back in the saddle.

However, there has been a burst of activity lately, and I find it odd I haven’t heard much about it.  First, there’s the “variant” Cthulhu games, like the True20 Shadows of Cthulhu, the GUMSHOE-based Trail of Cthulhu, and the ENnie-winning CthulhuTech.

But besides that, I was surprised to see actual new third-party classic CoC modules in my FLGS.  Looks like more people are getting into the licensed supplement biz.  Goodman Games has put out Death in Luxor and Madness in London Town.  John Wick has written Curse of the Yellow Sign, Act 1: Digging for a Dead God.  Pagan Publishing, long time licensee, has released The Mysteries of Mesoamerica and plans to release an adventure anthology, Bumps In The Night, this year.  Super Genius Games has Midnight Harvest, The Doom From Below, and Murder of Crows out already and has The Horror At Red Hook, A Peculiar Pentad, and October Surprise in the pipeline.  Even Chaosium got out Terrors from Beyond and appears to be set to release new products, including Cthulhu Invictus (Romans!) and Secrets of New Orleans (THAT’S NOT GUMBO!!!).

This is kinda exciting.  The BRP system used for Cthulhu, being straight percentile, has its flaws but it’s super fast for anyone to pick up; it makes a great con game.  For gamers and genre folks, Cthulhu has become like ninjas, pirates, or sexual repression, a ubiquitous trope shoved into everything.  But the original game was really quite good, and it’s nice to see activity and new products so a new generation of gamers can discover the thrill of being held helpless by cannibals, or shooting an invincible cackling wizard, or going nuts and cutting up your friends…

So yay!  If you haven’t ever tried Call of Cthulhu, pick it up – version 6 is the newest but to be honest every version is mostly the same.  Get whatever your FLGS has and try one of these new adventures!  If you need some investigators generated real quick – well,  you can always use my favorite batch of  CoC characters, the Scooby Doo crew!

Is anyone out there playing some real CoC these days?  Report in here!

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2009 ENnies Winners – Questionable At Best

Posted on August 15, 2009 | 50 comments

The winners for the 2009 ENnies, the yearly RPG awards, have been announced at Gen Con.  Let’s review and see how that stacks up to my picks.

Best Cover Art:

  • Gold: CthulhuTech, Catalyst Game Labs
  • Silver: Pathfinder #19: Howl of the Carrion King, Paizo Publishing

I had picked 3:16 for the win, though the CT art is nice enough.  There were a lot of good covers this year.

Best Interior Art

  • Gold: Dark Heresy, Fantasy Flight Games
  • Silver: Mouse Guard, Kinoichi / Archaia Studio Press

I had actually picked CthulhuTech for this category instead.  I feel like the winners for interior art, cover art, and production values are just assigned at random from the “pretty games,” not sure people really distinguish correctly.  In this case I like Dark Heresy’s production values, but the interior art is sparse enough I don’t think it deserves a win for this subcategory specifically.  What art there is splits between good and “black blob style.”  The good ones are really really good but… Gold is a stretch.

Best Cartography

  • Gold: Pathfinder Chronicles Second Darkness Map Folio, Paizo Publishing
  • Silver: Star Wars: Scum and Villainy, Wizards of the Coast

Exactly my picks in that order.

Best Writing

  • Gold: Kobold Quarterly, Open Design
  • Silver: Don’t Lose Your Mind, Evil Hat Productions

I had picked Don’t Lose Your Mind for the gold.  Nothing against KQ, it’s serviceable writing equivalent to Dragon Magazine of times of yore, but this is an instance where the “D&D popularity” factor overwhelms actually artistically superior work.

Best Production Values

  • Gold: Dark Heresy, Fantasy Flight Games
  • Silver: Mouse Guard, Kinoichi / Archaia Studios Press

Though all pretty, I thought the game Anima was actually higher in this all around area.  But it was a very tight field this year with many very deserving contestants.  Yay to everyone.

Best Rules

  • Gold: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Players Handbook, Wizards of the Coast
  • Silver: A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Green Ronin Publishing

I had picked Dark Heresy for best rules.  Though it’s pretty, I don’t think its art should have won over other contenders, but its rules really are better than 4e’s.  “Of course I hate 4e so I’d say that.”  I like Green Ronin but don’t find the SIFRPG rules really that awe-inspiring; they seem more servicable as the line is more about the setting.

Best Adventure

  • Gold: Pathfinder #19: Howl of the Carrion King, Paizo Publishing
  • Silver: P1 King of the Trollhaunts Warrens, Wizards of the Coast

Of course Pathfinder for the gold, they make the best adventures hands down.  Not familiar with “Trollhaunts Warrens” but I never hear anyone talking about it online (while they do talk about Shadowfell Keep, etc.) so I’m suspicious on that count.

Best Monster Supplement

  • Gold: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Monster Manual, Wizards of the Coast
  • Silver: Dark Heresy Creatures Anathema, Fantasy Flight Games

Oh, major boner here in leaving out Freedom’s Most Wanted for Mutants & Masterminds.  And the MM has been one of the least well received 4e books, definitely no brilliant new monsters that will be part of everyday RPG conversation.  Well, the ENnies got their start coattailing on the 3e release so I reckon you can’t criticize them for sticking close to their roots.

Best Setting

  • Gold: Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, Paizo Publishing
  • Silver: Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, Atomic Sock Monkey / Evil Hat Productions

Golarion, the setting of the Pathfinder Chronicles, is the new Greyhawk.  It’s the clear winner, which is a little bit of a shame since the rest of the field is very innovative too – Hot War and Candlewick Manor I wouldn’t have minded seeing in a three way tie for second…  Setting and production values had a lot of very qualified nominees this year.

Best Supplement

  • Gold: CthulhuTech Vade Mecum, Catalyst Game Labs
  • Silver: Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Wizards of the Coast

I had picked Clone Wars, definitely.  Good for Cthulhutech for grabbing the gold.  I just can’t get into the game, and this is from someone who has a huge shelf of Call of Cthulhu stuff. And I’m an Evangelion fan to boot.  You think those two would combine to make me love it but it just doesn’t grab me.  But I don’t begrudge it a win.

Best Aid or Accessory

  • Gold: D&D Insider, Wizards of the Coast
  • Silver: Kobold Quarterly, Open Design

Spare me.  The most delayed, incomplete, incompetent item on the list gets the gold?  Let’s give Boston’s Big Dig awards for engineering too!   (Well, people have in that case as well…)  I am willing to say maybe the 4e rules could win best rules but Insider is one of the worst things WotC has failed to deliver on.  They still haven’t delivered the stuff they said would be part of it at 4e launch!  You only have to visit any online forum to see people unhappy with their current functionality as well.

I had picked KQ for the win, as a post-rant aside.

Best Miniatures Product

  • Gold: Game Mastery Flip-mat: Waterfront Tavern, Paizo Publishing
  • Silver: DU1 Halls of the Giant Kings Dungeon Tiles, Wizards of the Coast

I gave silver to the Tavern but the E-Z Terrain cliffs are so much neater than both these 2d tiles!

Best Regalia

  • Gold: Battletech: The Corps, Catalyst Game Labs
  • Silver: Art of Exalted, White Wolf Publishing

I refused to pick a winner here because “Regalia” is a totally stupid category that’s a mishmash of totally unrelated products.  (I’m surprised the Gygax posthumous novel didn’t win out of sheer Gygaxity though.)

Best Electronic Book

  • Gold: Collection of Horrors: Razor Kids, White Wolf Publishing
  • Silver: Tales of Zobek: An Anthology of Urban Adventures, Open Design

I liked the other Open Design entry better since it’s by Nick Logue, but different strokes.

Best Free Product

  • Gold: Song of Ice and Fire Quickstart, Green Ronin Publishing
  • Silver: Swords and Wizardry, Mythmere Games

Sad.  There was actually a movement generated by this category; many of the entries were quickstart rules, which should not be in this category.  A company can spend their loads of money developing a game and them at no cost to them clip part of it out and release a “quickstart”.  This category should be only for “real” free games that are full games released for free, not advertising teasers.  The ENnie judges apparently don’t see the wisdom in that even though a lot of the community does.

I like Green Ronin but they don’t deserve a win in this category for this reason.  I had picked S&W for the win.

Best Website

  • Gold: Obsidian Portal
  • Silver: Kobold Quarterly

I like Mad Brew Labs more but these are great sites too.

Best Podcast

  • Gold:  All Games Considered
  • Silver:  Order 66

I don’t listen to podcasts, so have no opinion.

Best Game

  • Gold: Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, Wizards of the Coast
  • Silver: Dark Heresy, Fantasy Flight Games

Dark Heresy was my pick here!  (I am disregarding 4e because it’s a plant, see below.)

Product of the Year

  • Gold: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Players Handbook, Wizards of the Coast
  • Silver: Mouse Guard, Kinoichi / Archaia Studios Press

Mouse Guard was my pick here!  (I am disregarding 4e because it’s a plant, see below.)  But this one is even more egregious.  Mouse Guard is a) a complete game, b) uses innovative rules, c) merges with a rich licensed setting…  The D&D PHB, even if you like 4e, is just player rules and is nowhere near a complete game.

Best Publisher

  • Gold:  Wizards of The Coast
  • Silver:  Paizo Publishing

And this boils down the suck-up nature of the ENnies to a clear point.  The company that bungled the 4e launch, failed to deliver on D&D Insider, pulled all their PDF products off  the market permanently, alienated the industry with the GSL and the fans with website shutdowns and failure (till after voting) to deliver a fansite policy – they’re “best publisher?”  It’s OK to like 4e, but to pretend that WotC has done anything but fuck one thing after another up this year – this ENnie is like Pres. Bush giving the Medal of Freedom to George Tenet, or passing up Metallica for Foghat [edit: Jethro Tull] for a Grammy, it simply degrades the award’s worth in the future.

Conclusion – 2 Strikes For The ENnies

ENnies – you are on warning.  Two strikes this year – allowing quickstarts to win in the Free Games category and in blindly allowing WotC/4e to win categories that they are clearly not contenders in (electronic product, best publisher especially).   How is someone else supposed to feel good about their award when it’s clear so many of the decisions reward the *antithesis* of the award category?

Again, sure, maybe the 4e PHB wins best rules.  But the across the board 4e/WotC wins in clearly laughable categories?  What’s up with that?

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Open Gaming FTW! Pathfinder SRD Already Up

Posted on August 14, 2009 | 4 comments

In all the release hullabaloo it’s easy to miss, but Paizo shows how committed they are to open gaming by putting the Pathfinder RPG System Reference Document (or PRD) up the very same day the game released!

Be warned, it’s really slooooooow right now ass hordes of people are paying their $10 to download the whole 500+ page PDF from the Paizo site.  But if you’re just dying to see how Combat Maneuver Bonus is calculated in the final, it’s there in the Combat section!

To prioritize the extra work required to get this out “the day of” the RPG and PDF release (and Gen Con) is an amazing statement about their dedication to open gaming.   Heck, many OGL games leave it to the fans to create the SRD, or do it months-to-years after they release the game.  It’s great to see that Paizo doesn’t hold any archaic notions of how that will “inhibit their sales.”  They are releasing a free SRD, a $10 PDF, and a $50 book on the same day; the first print run of the book is already sold out and a mob of people at Gen Con are surrounding a huge stack of books trying to get theirs.  Congratulations to Paizo for understanding at a deep level that the open model is not “charity” or a detriment to sales, but in fact is a force multiplier that will bring you even more success!

Somebody give me a “Hell yeah!”

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Pathfinder Hits The Street!

Posted on August 13, 2009 | 1 comment

The final version of the Pathfinder RPG is out!  Some of the people in our gaming group got those via mail order or FLGS today, and the $10 PDF version has been released on the Paizo site.  There’s even errata already (for the print, incorporated into the PDF).

Mine isn’t here yet since I went on the cheap and got it through Amazon for the discount 😛

But everyone says it looks great and is eagerly reading through it.  So far, general consensus is that this is the Dungeons & Dragons we want to play!   Our loosely affiliated and overlapping subgroups are now warring for the rights to run Council of Thieves, the first Pathfinder-rules Adventure Path (also hitting streets right now).

If you didn’t preorder, you may not be getting a copy in the first frenzied rush on the stores.  But don’t be sad, more will come, and the PDF is cheap (though there’s a run on that right now too and the usually-sparky Paizo site is way overloaded; they’ve even turned the forums off).

So you can get the game, start getting an AP (the Council of  Thieves Player’s Guide is a free download, check it out) or just try the Crypt of the Everflame, the first Pathfinder module.   There’s also a free Bonus Bestiary download to get started with some monsters; the monster book comes out soon and there’s a free preview of it!  There’s a free 3.5->Pathfinder conversion guide but I don’t know why you’d need it, we ran a 3.5e AP under Pathfinder Beta just off the cuff.

There’s also third party products coming already; I count five on DTRPG including the Tome of Secrets, an accessory by Adamant Entertainment.  And Clinton Boomer’s patronage project is out soon.  And if that worthless sod Nick Logue ever finishes Razor Coast, he says it’s coming out for 3.5e but followed almost immediately by a Pathfinder version.  Not only can you use your old 3.5e stuff, there’s more a’coming!

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Curse of the Crimson Throne Finale

Posted on August 8, 2009 | 4 comments

Crown of Fangs Part III is the campaign finale for the Curse of the Crimson Throne.  Annata, Malcolm, Thorndyke, and Cayen have to depose the evil queen and then stop her weird blood ritual from killing everyone in Korvosa.

For nine months (realtime and, approximately, game time) we’ve been working towards this moment.  Over many battles we’ve learned our own powers and how to work together as a team in perfect concert.  And it all pays off.  We storm Castle Korvosa and liberate it, only to discover the real Queen has already left for an ancient Thassilonian site for her blood ritual.  But the hounds of war have been loosed and distance and sorcery do not deter us from the pursuit of justice.

When everything has settled, we get the rarest of rare things – a real storybook ending.  You’ll have to read the full session summary for the details!

I personally enjoyed this campaign the most of all the ones you see here, and I think the other guys feel the same way.   Using the Pathfinder beta rules, we didn’t have much in the way of rule frustration that mars some of our other games, and the mix of solid roleplaying along with interesting NPCs, sweet locations, and demented foes came out as a totally solid mix.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our tale of the Curse of the Crimson Throne.  Check out our continuing adventures for more fun!

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Alternity “Lighthouse” Session Summaries Posted

Posted on August 7, 2009 | 4 comments

We’ve completed two more sessions of our space opera Alternity Star*Drive campaign!

Second Session – After warming up with a bar fight against Old Series Klingons (aka Scotsmen) we misjump into a system right as a VoidCorp warship shows up.  Tense diplomacy ensues as they have been “requested” to come quell some local “pirates”.  We send some destroyers with them, and the more scurrilous characters sneak aboard the pirates’ space station to steal things and get glory for their nations!

Third Session – Sadly, I missed this one, but Bruce made it and did a session summary. The party engages in an exciting parallel space combat (with one set of characters) and ground combat on the space station (with the other set).  Without their resident warlion and Thuldan, the guys on the ground are really bad off, but the space combat went really well!

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Wizards Fan Site Policy – What It’s Good For

Posted on August 6, 2009 | 12 comments

The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they turn.  At long last, some six months after a little spate of shutting down Web sites, and a year after they were supposed to come out with one, Wizards of the Coast has published an official fansite policy and you can see it here.  Here’s some analysis for you.

The Bottom Line

Basically, if you follow some guidelines you get to use some images they provide you in a zip file. That’s it.

Is/Is Not

The guidelines aren’t too bad (though you have to have long copyright stuff on every single page), but in the end the payoff is a little pointless – you just get to use some (38, mostly product covers) of their images to use while worshiping them online.  But what it most crucially does NOT allow is any kind of original work or use of the actual content of the D&D game (in my opinion, graphics are incidental content).  I quote:

Please note that this Fan Site Policy does not allow you to publish, distribute or sell your own free-to-use games, modules or applications for any of Wizards’ brands including, but not limited to, Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. If you want to engage in any of these activities related to Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, such use is subject to the Game System License.

So all it lets you do is add graphics to your site, but not meaningfully develop content.  You can then use the GSL, which allows you to develop certain content as long as it’s in PDF (HTML and plaintext are NOT ok).  Here’s more analysis of the GSL to help navigate those waters.  Technically you have to use the GSL to refer to their trademarked terms, rules, etc.

From the GSL:

Licensee may reprint the proprietary 4E reference terms, tables, and templates (each, a “4E Reference”) described in the 4E System Reference Document…

If you want to make a D&D adventure, or new class/race, or variant rules, or whatnot and put it on your Web site, this fansite policy does not help you.  You have to either follow the GSL or do a really good job of knowing your rights to use their content under existing copyright/trademark/trade dress law, which is tricky.  (But doable – Kobold Quarterly and other products have published for 4e without a license.)

(NB: I am assuming that clause could be construed to “override” the GSL clause that “For the avoidance of doubt, and by way of
example only, no Licensed Product will (a) include web sites, interactive products,…”  Otherwise the fansite thing says “See the GSL” and the GSL says “see a cold day in hell.”)

Comparison – Pathfinder

Compare the Pathfinder fan site policy, which allows such use as part of itself –

• You may descriptively reference trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, artifacts, places, etc.), locations and characters from products listed in Section 1 of our Community Use Approved Product List at paizo.com/communityuse/products, provided it is clear that these are our marks.

• You may descriptively reference dialogue, plots, storylines, language, and incidents from products listed in Section 1 of our Community Use Approved Product List at paizo.com/communityuse/products in campaign journals and play-by-post or play-by-email games.

And of course the rules are OGL in the first place, which is why they don’t mention rules terms in that quote.

Comparison – White Wolf

Hmmm, even the quite objectionable White Wolf fansite policy allows  use of copyright/trademarked stuff:

White Wolf trademarked and copyrighted material may be used in the presentation of standard nonprofit, nonrevenue generating HTML World Wide Web Pages, non-graphical MUSHes, MUDs, MOOs, IRC and all similar Chat environments as per the Requirements and Restrictions listed below. If, for some reason, you do not wish to participate in Dark Pack, please understand and acknowledge that you and your site must still fulfill all of the other requirements listed on this page. The same goes for fan projects. They must be nonprofit and nonrevenue producing. No money. You cannot make any kind of money off of White Wolf intellectual property.

Your site should not have Google Adwords. Your site cannot be hosted by a company that inserts banner advertisements or Adwords, even if you do not get the revenue.

Of course that banner/AdWords stuff is pure hateful crap but at least in general you can use the material.

Conclusion

This new fansite policy doesn’t explicitly have any “evil” statements in it, which is a step up for WotC in their first passes at new licenses.  But it is telling in what it leaves out – any “safe” ability to use the 4e rules and content itself.  Is this deliberate?  Or do they think of D&D as a “brand” exclusively now so mentioning what us old timers think of as the “real” part of the game is passe?

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More Legends of Steel Session Summaries

Posted on August 4, 2009 | 1 comment

Here’s a double helping of Savage Worlds goodness.  We have completed two  more sessions of our “Legends of Steel” swords & sorcery campaign and I’m getting caught up with publishing the summaries.

In Part VI, we rally and kill the contingent of bad guys trying to get the Green Sorcerous Rock of Unholy Death or whatever it is.  The main problem is that they have two werewolves with them.  The first one we end up having to kill with a sling juryrigged from an Indian chick’s halter top and silver pieces.  We prep a little better for the second one, and wipe out the rest of the baddies.  As I always like to say, “Wolfman has nards!!!”

In Part VII, the “Witch-Queen of Yar” sends some folks through a gate to ask for the stone too.  Some of the party wants to just hand it over.  But I, having just read Robert E. Howard’s “The Black Stranger,” decided to pull a daring double-cross.  As we were conducting the exchange, I asked “You know, the last group of guys gave us two werewolves to fight. What’s your offer?” and attacked!  Sadly, they got the stone anyway, but we got to fight a bunch of undead thingys and actually see the Witch-Queen in person.

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Recently Returned Roundup

Posted on August 1, 2009 | 1 comment

Hey all, back from vacation and working up a bunch of back session summaries.  Here’s a quick roundup of stuff that I thought was interesting in RPG land from over the last week…

The Plutomancer, a three-level prestige class for Pathfinder, by Erin Palette (I consulted on it some).  I like mini-prestige classes.  Too many existing p-classes seem like three levels of concept stretched out into ten levels of grind.

Public voting is now open for the ENNies.  Go vote, ideally how I tell you to!

There’s a cool new supplement for Mutants & Masterminds, the OGL superheroes game, called Mecha & Manga.  It brings a mess of anime tropes to the excellent M&M system.  Many of the better old manga-ey systems (Big Eyes, Small Mouth most notably) have passed away, so this is a welcome addition to the strong M&M line.  There’s a bunch of previews to look at over at mutantsandmasterminds.com.  Take feats like “Bishonen” or “Kawaii”!  Or even “Ninja Run” or “Sense Murderous Intent,” for your other genres.

There’s also an awesome supplement (though has everything in it to run standalone) for Hero/Champions called Lucha Libre HERO, where psychotronic hits the mainstream!  I liked octaNe and ’45 Hot Rod Retropocalypse, previous psychotronic RPGs which included luchadores as one of their many zany elements.  This one, using the Hero 5th Edition rules, focuses on being a Mexican wrestler and after reading the RPG.net review I have to say it sounds boss.

The short list for the 2009 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming is out.  Dominion (card game), D&D 4e, Jeepform, Mouse Guard, and Sweet Agatha are in the running.

Oh, and a late addition – just went by my FLGS and they had Hard Helix, an adventure supplement for Mutant City Blues, Pelgrane Press’ RPG of low level supers law enforcement, so I snapped it up.

You are now more well informed if not actually smarter.  Congratulations!

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