Review of Dragon Magazine #3

A latter day RPG gamer takes quick glance over Dragon magazine number 3 (1976!) working out if it's worth buying today.

Cover - a science fiction pencil sketch that I would rate at a 10 year old level. Not the best sales pitch!

Dragon Rumbles - A sardonically amusing defense by the editorial staff of their inclusion of fiction within the magazine. Getting defensive already!

Does anyone remember - Gary Gygax regales us with memories of defunct play-by-mail wargames. Zero use to the modern role player.

Notes on Women & Magic - Gadzooks the world was a different place back in '76. Female PC's should not have Charisma, replace this with "Beauty", and Lawful females may not "use Beauty". Sex as a weapon! This article goes on to lay out a series of feminine titles for the various character levels before explaining how women can use special sex specific charm spells on male opponents. Oh dear, it's somewhat back unenlightened.

The Search for the Gnome Cache - Chapters 3 and 4 of the fiction continue. It opens with smut, dodges past a bar room brawl that offered the chance of some action and finishes up with an uneventful start of a journey. Like the previous unexciting installments, meh.

Birth Tables - This article offers some good options for creating  some background for your character. From social rank of parents, monetary allowances, parental occupations and levels. This is a quickstart for building a character around your stats with a few rolls of dice.

Wargaming World - Entirely useless "current" affairs for wargamers.

Mapping the Dungeons - More names and addresses for DM's, my oh my, how carefree we used to be.

Out on a Limb - Readers letters, yawn. Although I liked the one moaning about the fiction!

A Plethora of Obscure Sub Classes - This is an interesting presentation of some new "unofficial" classes. Namely Healers, Scribes and Samurai. These are really just variants on existing classes, but do give you something to think about and consider for adding flavor to your game.

A new view of Dwarves - An interesting take on the Dwarf character, and presents a series of abilities that transform Dwarf from "poor fighter" to "something useful" to the party. It certainly does that, with new abilities and possibilities presented.

New Subclass, the Beserker - Wowzers, this may the first presentation of the Beserker class, not a lot of abilities associated with being a beserker but many behavior rules. I like this.

The Idiot Class - Errr. A class that specializes in acting goofy, in order to confuse the enemy. Printing this was a waste of paper.

The New Category: Jesters - See above. Only with "funny" spells including at 6th level, the "Die Laughing" spell...

GenCon IX's D&D Elimination - A report about a long gone con'. Useless.

=======================

That is all folks. This edition is better than the previous two ...but not by much. It has some interesting tables and even a class or two you might want to lift.

Worth 12c to a modern gamer.

Mekton II - review

Mekton II is an mecha/anime RPG dating back to 1987. This edition is large A4ish paperback and 94 pages long. Thin card cover, colour illustration on the front with black and white throughout.
Inside, the rules open with the title “Danger! Romance! Giant Robot Combat!” which gives you an idea of what the game is shooting for. The designers have crafted a relatively light game, but by “relative” I mean relative to games of its vintage.

The book jumps straight into character creation with you generating D10 based statistics for Intelligence, Reflexes, Cool, Tech Ability, Luck, Attractiveness, Education,  Body Type and Movement Allowance. There’s a nice table relating to statistics that details what each value for each stats means. For instance a Luck score of 2 indicates “The gods hate you”, and an Intelligence of 8 indicates “Gifted”. This really adds some flavor to the bare numbers.

The next step is to work through a “life path”. This generates details of your characters family and fiends. Are your parents alive? What’s your goal in life? Does your brother hate you, what about your boss? After you’ve worked through these tables you’ll have a whole relationship network set up.
The next step is to buy skills. These are linked to career with each having a set of associated skills. You spend a number of points based on your Education stat. Skills, like stats range from 1-10.
The skill system works by you adding your skill to a stat to a D10 die roll and trying to beat a difficulty level, with all the usual modifiers.

The book now moves into kit and equipment. There's a table of weapons followed by the descriptions  of all the high tech kit you would expect from a any sci fi game, including vehicles and mecha.

The next 17 pages of the book detail the man and mecha combat rules. It’s a tactical combat system based on hexes. Mecha combat works the same as man to man combat but with bigger hexes, which means you don’t have to learn two systems.

The next few pages details the medical rules, so they obviously expect your characters to get hurt!
The really juicy bit comes next. Building mecha oh delightful tech crunch. Pick a size (weight) of mecha, add armour weapons and other bits of kit. I love this stuff.

The final section presents an adventure and default world in less than 20 pages.

I love this game. The character creation is a delight, the skill system simple. Admittedly I don’t use the hex based system of combat as I always prefer the more narrative style. The book looks good with line art on almost every page, it exudes theme and the rules back up that theme without getting in the way of quick game play.

Spell Law (for Rolemaster reviewed)

Spell Law is the magic system that “bolts on” to the Rolemaster. Although it does come as part of Rolemaster, the only reason not to bolt-it-on would be because you don’t want magic in your game.

I’m confused by the layout of this book. It opens with Guidelines for using the book, followed by descriptions of the three magical realms and THEN has the Introduction.  Rather an odd way of doing things in opinion, however it’s no more bizarre than the layout choices in the other Rolemaster books.

Wait, whats this coming up next? Another description of the three magical realms! Odd. Anyway, the book goes on to describe the various types of magic using characters, fourteen of them! What other game covers fouteen magical magic user classes, none I can think of.

Next up are the actual rules for acquiring spells, casting spells, armour vs spells and surviving spell attacks.  Also covered are magical research, magical objects and and wole bunch of edge-case  optional rules. This all totals up to 24 pages of small two column layout. It’s some dense stuff. If your used to D+D simple spell mechanics, you’ll find this a quite overpowering amout of detail.

I absolutely have to quote from rule 8.3 it’s a classic.

[size=18]“8.3 Base Attack Spells.
Base attack spells include all spells which are non-attack spells”[/size]

Ohhhh.....kaaaay.....

Let’s move on before out brains explode.

Next up in the book are spells lists for the “Channeling” realm of magic.  Spells within Spell Law are organised into lists. Each list has up to 20 spells in it. Each list is themed for such things as Detection, Weather, Fire, Light etc, etc. Each spell on the list has a “Level” and this refers to the casters level. If a character has learnt a spell list they know all the spells on the list but can only cast the spells of their own level or lower.

As an example the “Detection Mastery” list has spells on it for every level 1-20 then has spells for levels 25,30 and 50. The spells generally get more powerful.

Not all lists have spells at all of the lower levels, for example, the “Barrier Law” list does not have level 1 or 3 spells.
Mostly the spells are laid out in three columns but this changes to four at one point and the font size drops from small to tiny!
Then the books breaks into a series of tables that refer to bonuses and penalties to various magic based rolls, and more for the attack based spells.  They’re written in a bizarre olde-world font that makes then darned difficult to read.

There are also some full page critical hit charts. These are brilliant, just like the ones in the “Arms Law” book.  These give some great results, like: “Blast burns both of foes arms and all of upper chest. Foe loses use of both arms and is stunned for nine rounds. +15 hits.”
That’s some pretty cool effect.

Then come the spells lists for the “Essence Realm” and those for the “Mentalism” realm.

There are a metric ton of spells in this book. Most of the spells on each list are variations on a theme and can start to feel a bit samey. Yes there are always those critical hit charts to look forward to.

The book, is an awful mess, and I couldn’t bring myself to read all of the lists, there are just too many. I think this is really for the seasoned gamer with time on their hands.

Arms law and Claw Law

Arms Law describes itself as the first "system" to be bolted onto the Rolemaster role playing game.
It gives you rules for combat and...well that it really. 72 pages of combat related rules and data, nothing else!

The text is laid out in a tiny font spread across two columns.

The book starts with some term definitions that will be used in the following rules, nothing too in depth here. What does "Defensive Bonus" or "Orientation Roll" mean, that sort of thing. Then it starts to get meaty. The 9 phase Battle Round Sequence is presented and explained quite clearly.

The thing about Arms Law is that it is a detailed system. It takes some time explaining all of the various things that would effect a characters defensive capabilities , including the 20 differing levels of armour your character can be wearing! Then it moves onto describe a much shorter list of various offensive capabilities, such as "Expertise", "Magic Items" and "Experience".

In the next section it describes how you resolve combat attacks follows that with how to manoeuvre characters within the combat scenario. I really do like the fact that under this system you can attempt to leap from the horse into melee, and a die result indicates you achieve 30% of your task. Interpretation can be fun!

The next two pages cover all of the various bonuses and penalties that can get applied during combat. Bonuses for flank, read attacks, penalties for being wounded, bonuses due to spells, and penalties for using to swords. It's all here.

Then starts the insane craziness (and the beautiful beating heart) of the arms law system. The Charts!

A chart for fumbling your weapon.
A chart for manoeuvring in combat.
Critical wound charts for each of the following: Slashing, Puncturing, Crushing, Large creatures,  Super Large creatures.
Separate attack charts for : Dagger, Falchion, Hand Axe, Main Gauche, Scimitar, Rapier, Broadsword, Short Sword, Bare Fist, Club, War Hammer, Mace, Morning star, Whip, Bola, Composite Bow, Heavy Cross Bow,  Light Crossbow, Long Bow, Short Bow, Sling, Battle Axe, Flail, War Mattock, Quarterstaff, Two-Hand Sword, Javelin, Lance, Pole Arm, Spear.

That's a lot of tables and it's only one per page. These tables are in the smallest printed font I have ever seen, and they need to be to fit on one page. 22 columns, and rows for all of the possible values between 28 and 150!

But we're not done yet.

We have tables for Beak/Pincher, Bite, Claw/Talon, Grapple/Grasp/Envelop, Swallow(!), Horn/Tusk, Ram/Butt/Bash, Stinger, Tiny Animals, Trample/Stomp.

So that covers the Claw-Law part of the title. Phew, I was getting worried. But wait!  There's more!

Tables for: Martial Arts striking, Martial Arts sweeps & throws and one more for Fall/Crush damage.

Strangely separated from the other critical charts we have a few more critical wound charts: Grappling, Martial Arts Strike, Martial Arts Throws, Tiny Animals, Unbalancing

Let me elaborate on all of the critical wound charts. These are where the real fun comes in when using this system.  The results of a critical wound range from "A" the lightest to "E" the most dire, and each has a range from 1-100. Thus a character might receive an "E" Slash critical. This means you turn to the Slash Critical table, roll a D100 and cross reference E and the die roll.  For example if you inflict an "E" Slash on your enemy and roll 66 for the critical, the table relates the following.

"Sever foes arm. +12 hits. Foe expires in 12 rounds, drops immediately, +10% to your next swing."

Everyone of these critical charts is stuffed full of these beauties. This is the bit that people remember fondly.

Following all of these charts are some additional rules, for adapting historical weapons, explanations of how to interpret animal attacks ( and a few more charts to help you out). A special section of rules for martial arts giving differences for the various major schools and techniques.

That's it. Frankly its enough. There is so much "data" in this book it truly boggles the mind. It's a worthy read. These rules are supposed to be independent of the Rolemaster system and adaptable to any fantasy role playing game. I'm not so sure that was true back in 1984, and it would be hard to mash this into modern systems. Having said that, I do think tacking those great critical wound charts onto a D20 system might well be fun!  But beware using the critical fumble charts..

Hand Arms Fumble result of 100: "Bad taste and poor execution. You attempt to maim yourself. Roll a "D" slash critical against yourself."

Character Law & Campaign Law (Rolemaster 2nd Edition)

Let me give a you a little background to this review. I played Rolemaster way way back in the day. I didn't own the books, I wasn't the GM, but I played it and had a great time. Since then played and GM'ed Rolemaster's little brother "MERP" and really enjoyed doing so.

I saw the three Rolemaster books on eBay and snagged them, thinking "this is a great system and going to be a great read".

So here I am to present you with a review of the first book of three "Character law and Campaign law".

This book is split into three sections, RoleMaster, Character Law, and Campaign Law.

The RoleMaster section is about 24 pages (including the contents list). The text is split into two column layout and uses a tiny font.  This first section is also printed on grey rather than white which can make bed-time reading difficult due to the lack of contrast.

The introduction covers the "what is rolemaster" and the "what is roleplaying" sections somewhat poorly.  There are many words but no real clear description and with no example play this wouldn't be a good introduction to a total newbie.

The book makes a strange choice next. We go straight from introduction into rules for healing and death. Stat loss, recovery rates, types of injury, loss of soul are all covered. It's a poor way to start, The reader has no idea what half of the terms mean at this point. Then come Disease charts, Poison Charts, again referring to terminology yet to be explained.

The introduction of rules relating to subjects you don't know about continues with Movement, Encumbrance, walking pace etc, with constant forward references to sections you haven't reached. The problem with these references, is that they are "forward" to things that have yet to be explained and not “backward” as reminders. Without reading the other sections first these rules are somewhat confusing.

Next up are equipment, coinage and magical item rules, again the newbie reader will most likely be totally lost here. The rules are very detailed and exacting.

Then come a series of charts. Charts are the strength of the Rolemaster system, and as reference these are without comparison.  Resale values charts, Purchasing prices, Armour charts, Magical Item costs, Food, Lodging, Transport, Weapons, Herbs, Intoxicants and Poisons.  Lots of detail in each chart and rules for each where applicable. Excellent reference material.

At this point we get to the Character Law section of the book.  This starts out with definitions of game terms such at experience, skill-ranks, action, defensive bonus etc etc etc. Once again someone new to this system is going to have trouble reading through this, there are so many new terms and each is defined outside any context. As an example, defining defensive bonus before even entering the combat section of the rules doesn’t help get it straight in your head.

Finally we get to Character gen. Sadly it’s as incomprehensible at the preceding sections., perhaps worse. 2 pages detailing stats, the differences between temporary and potential, development and non-development, primary stats, stats bonus’ calculating hits based on stats...only at no point in this section does it mention rolling dice to determine you statistics!  The next couple of pages give you statistic based tables for getting bonuses and penalties and utilising stats in contests.

Next we jump into Skills and Ranks. This section fortunately is better composed. The skill rank and development system of Rolemaster is complex, with skill groups, the player having to choose the advancement rates for each before even allocating points to them. Yet I think they’ve managed that pretty well.

The rules spend some pages on using these skills and presents some tables (rolemasters strength). For instance the Maneuver and Movement table is introduced here (one of my favourites) in relation to the movement skills.

The basic skills are covered and explained before dropping into magical skills, including descriptions of the various magical realms that a character may choose from. Sadly in another round of confusing layout choice we drop back into the descriptions of more mundane skills!

Next up are professions. Each is described along with the “magical realm” each belongs to (although fighting professions belong to a non-magical realm). Sadly the layout man has hiccuped again. Having described the professions but not supplied related character gen rules, the book jumps into Experience levels, advancing your character and spending xp.

Now come the various races and cultures that a character can belong to each is descibed and limits and bonuses described. The next section describes the softer bits of generating a character, the background, personality, alignment etc.

Only now do we come to section 10, creating a character. There are 13 steps to the process each of which refers back to the preceding 56 pages. I think the layout guys was trying to introduce you to the  concepts before introducing the process. A nobel ideal, yet a few paragraphs of introduction would have sufficed, followed by bringing in the 13 point process and the associated rules in order would have created a cohesive logical process. It is all back to front here.

The last 14 pages of character law are “optional rules”. This is a list of disparate rules that can be “injected” into the system across all aspects of play. Reading through this list I’m confused as to why they are introduced as optional, they all seems to fit the system and should have been presented in the appropriate place, not as a seperate section.

The final section, is Campaign law, once again printed on a grey background.  

I like this section a great deal. It’s designed for the GM to help through through the production of a game-world and a campaign. It gives you great list of things to consider when building your woulrd and campaign, and by responding to each bullet point you’ll cover most of what you need as a GM to make a complete world.

There are some charts here for such things as weather and animal distribution which can help you fill in the environmental “culture” of the world.  There is much more but it is all “offline” content, not to be used during play. Although there’s nothing outstanding or amazing here, it is a good reference section. The section on developing sentient “cultures” is very good.

The campaign advice is good too, and includes a few gems such as advice to avoid rail-roading although back in 1987 it was called “contrivance”.

So in summary, what do I think of the book?

It’s an awful mess. Disorganised beyond comprehension. Hard to read (small font, grey backgrounds). It would be a crime to give this to a new player. The system too, is very old school and complicated beyond need.

Mekton Empire - Review

 [Mekton II is an Anime RPG about giant fighty robots, written in the 1990's. This review is for an expansion to the original game.]

What we have here is a campaign type book, expanding the default universe from just the single world of Algol to a complete universe. At least that's what the blurb says. I'm not so sure.

The basic: Softback, A4'ish in size. Thin card cover in colour with black and white interior. 132 including index.

Starting with the cover itself. Yuk. It features a multi-coloured Mek that looks like something from Go-Bots, which is not something I like in my Meks. I prefer military colouring, or at least sensible colours. The back cover is black and white image of a battleship, I prefer that to the front cover.

Introduction:

This short section is exactly what it should be, it tells us what the book is about. Nice.

A History of the Bendar Spiral Galaxy:

This made up of a few things. It starts over a descriptive overview of the galactic empire. Very nice and interesting. Then comes a 5 page timeline... but about half the entries are blank. Let me confirm that for you, 5 pages, mostly blank. This is supposedly so that you can fill in the blanks and make the universe your own.  That's an odd concept for such a campaign book. Why did I but it, if I have to make stuff up and write it into the book?

Next is a biographical section, listing lots of NPCs and giving many a head shot. the entries are short, descriptive and good summaries. But again the "this book is a tool box" idea comes into play once again. There are no stats, and no place in the presented universe to place these NPCs, that's for you to decide. It even has space where you can write in the birth and death years of these characters. I ask you, why would you create a dead NPC?

Guide to the Bendar Spiral Galaxy:

This section starts with a list of tables of planetary stats, such as tech level, atmosphere, port facilities etc. Each level is given a number and a code.  Quite Travelleresque, but no system for generating planets.

Next comes a list of planets, each entry has the planet stats and short good description of notable points, such as predominant life form or resources or government. However there is no place for these planets, no galactic coordinates. You have to assign them to the map yourself, more on the map later.

Races of the Bendar Spiral Galaxy:

Nine races, all but two humanoid. One is human, one is manga-people (big eyes) and one is pixies. All in, rather unimaginative.

Next up are organisations, military, political and commercial which span multiple planets and races. Some good stuff here, great ideas and starting points for adventures.

Creatures of the Bendar Spiral Galaxy:

Four pages, four entries each...not many creatures in this galaxy! However they do look good, handy to pull out at short notice.

Technical Guides:

Guns, armour, space suits, kit and some nice looking mecha. Stats for everything. Nice.

Next up space ships. They state here how spaceships in anime are only bases from which to launch plot, and their intention was to creat such plot-ships in these rules. To that end the stats for ships are pretty simple and ships come in just a few basic classes.

I think they've got the rules down here, just enough no build the plot and run through some battles without is becoming a big heavy wargame. bonus points for some wonderful ship art.

Mysteries of the Galaxy:

This section is a great idea, badly presented. These are cool plot hooks for adventures or entire campaigns. They are good ideas! Yet , once again the section has "blanks" for you to fill in. Wasted, white, empty space.

New Rules for Mekton Empire:

The main segment here, and really the best part of the book, it the rules section on Psionics. Based around a new statistic, characters may have trained or wild Psionic talents. Lots of great powers are listed and explained. This section is very well thought out and fun to read. It sparked off no end of ideas for me.

Space Combat is explained next, and how it different from the usual planet side combat. Meks in space, spaceships line of sight etc, are all laid out here

Building the Better Beast:

Two pages of rules for creating new animals to populate your planets.

Next, four pages of Life Path alterations to the basic rules life path. It has the same boxed tables layout, but only shows the new tables, rather than re-presenting the entire life path system. For the new races, you'll need to reference both books.

Then comes the detailed index. But this not the end!

Last but one, comes sheet of starship silouhettes for you to cut out. (Eek! Cut up your book! No!)

The final thing is a colour star map that folds out to double page spread size. Alas, it is again a good idea badly implemented. It was good in its day, I guess. It was printed in 1990, so they didn't have access to the great free public domain art of NASA. A grid is overlaid on a spiral galaxy that looks like it was simply and quickly done with an air brush. Various places on the map are marked with round coloured (and ugly) spots. These are planets. But which planet is which? Well that's easily solved. You have to go through the section that listed a bunch of planets and assign them to the map. They've even left spaces for you to do that at the side of the map.

There you have it. But what do I think?

The designers/writers of this book produced a thing that is not quite sure what it is. A tool box, and/or a campaign book.

I have no interest in the sections where I have to fill them in myself, that's not the point of source book. If it's a tool box, why have they written so much detail in of actual places , people and events?  This leaves me with a galaxy where only half of it is mine. I don't like that feeling.

I've created sectors in Traveller, clusters in Diaspora, I'm not afraid of making my own universe. But this approach left me cold.

I'm really happy with the starship design, the Psionic rules, space combat, guns, armour and kit sections. I will drop these into an existing Mekton game at the drop of a hat.  I may even lift some of the ideas, planets and people, for a game here and there, but those sections will not be automatic reference points.

I am glad I've added this to my collection.

Pandemic

Our little group got together and we played a game called Pandemic. This game has been around for a long time now, must be a few years but I've never played it.  I have made and played a Print n' Play game called Pandemic-Express which closely simulates Pandemic but uses dice instead of cards.

I was looking forwards to playing the game and was not disappointed. There were three of us playing and I got the role of ... er ... the guy who can build research stations. 

There are many roles in the game and everyone gets to choose one role, each of which has an ability that breaks the basic game rules. I like that there are more roles than players, that'll give the game some replayability.

As to the components, I was pretty impressed. The board was very nice, a good heavy weight and richly coloured. the cards were very nice too. Clear text etc, but I was a little a little colour problem with blue/purple. the cards and board colours didn't match too well.

The disease cubes were semi transparent plastic, and I believe that they were painted wooden cubes in a previous version. I'm glad to have played with the plastic ones, I prefer them to wooden cubes.

I glanced through the rulebook and it looked pretty good too. I actually downloaded and read a quick-play guide from the interwebs so I didn't have to refer to the manual for actual use.  the chap who owned the game was playing for the first time too and he didn't feel the need to constantly refer to it, and that suggests that it is well written.

I loved the game, the fact that we lost had no impact on that! the interaction and planning steps were great fun, and the tease of having just lost and then working out that we might have won, if only we'd dome something slightly different was great.  It appears to be a game where you must work together, you must interact if you want a chance of winning. Playing on your own, trying to collect cards and keep on top of the outbreaks is just impossible.

Lots of consideration on your turn and other peoples turns keeps you involved in the game all of the time. Great!

This is a game I'm looking forward to playing again sometime soon!

Settlers of Catan - review of sorrts

On Thursday I played Settlers of Catan for the very first time. I've known about the game for years, but never bought a copy for myself.  Whenever the opportunity came up, I would look around and there was always some other game that looked more exciting or more like it would appeal to my family. Always some other priority.

On Thursday I actually got to play someone else's copy of the game. I was very happy with the look and feel of the game. the components were perfectly suitable. Everything was colourful, the rules were clear and the bits and cards felt good to handle.

I liked the look of the board, although I do have one very minor complaint. I wish that the hexes that make up the main board had symbols on them to match with the resource cards themselves. It's just a very minor niggle.

I liked the way it played, a turn could be very quick. Roll the dice, grab the resources, a quick trade perhaps, then play the resources that you worked out you were going spend while everyone else was taking their turns. Very simple, very straight forward.

But what did I think? I liked it. I didn't love it. I will happily play it anytime, there is enough social and game interaction to make this a game I will always play if someone offers it up. But the theme is not one to inspire me to pick it myself when I have so many other games to play.

Ticket to Ride : Europe - first play

Last night was my first experience of Ticket to Ride: Europe. I've been a player and a fan of the original game for years, but have never been inclined to buy any of the variants and never, until now, had the chance to play someone else's copy.

Stephen turned up to the group with Europe and a copy of Settlers (STILL IN SHRINK!) and as no-one knew the rules to Catan we opted to play Europe.

It was a fun game no doubt about that and very easy to get into, my experience of the original made everything familiar.

Apart from the change in the board and tickets there was a new feature called "tunnels" which I thought was pretty intense.  Playing trains to a tunnel is the same as usual, but you MAY have to play additional cards of the appropriate colour.  You lay out your cards, then turn over three cards from the deck, if any of those three are the same colour as your cards (or an engine) then you have to play additional cards of that colour in order to get your train down on the table.

This means of course that you have to risk not getting your train down, if you don't have any extra cards, or wait and save up additional cards.  I have to say this is a clever addition to the system, it adds extra depth without complexity or fiddliness. 

Another subtle difference is that some routes actually require an engine (or two) in order to play to the route.  The requirement is printed on the board making the situation very clear.  Once again they've created a seemless way to integrate a new feature. Double well done you game designer chaps! I love that you've added to a great game in such a slick way.

There is another new feature, that of stations, which allows you to get past blockages. We didn't play with stations in this game, as three of the players were totally new to Ticket to Ride. I'm looking  forward to trying this option.

In summary, after one play of this variant, I'm sold. it's good, solid, and every bit as fun as the original.

Catan, next week :)

Battlestar Galactica - Review...ish

This review (really just a first impression) is based on a single four player session, where I played another gentleman's game (thanks Gary!).

First off, I can say that it is a rather beautiful game, I would expect nothing less from a Fantasy Flight production.

The board is big enough to hold the pieces and everything seems pretty clear and straight forward. I really like the dials feature for tracking the resources.The standup counters for your playing pieces are a delight, good thick card standing on a solid well thought out base.The character cards were nice. they could so easily have been simple card-size, but having them so large made them feel significant.

The action cards being so-small seemed a bit of a shame. The iconography and text was clear, no problem there, just a bit of shame they are so small when you have to handle them all of the time.The fighter ships were nice to look at and "fiddle" with.

So all in all the components were nice and suited the game play very well.

But how did it play?

I'll be more than happy to play again, I really enjoyed the game. Yet... There is a real feeling of overwhelming pressure to do something, but the something isn't something I could achieve.

I tried firing the guns a few times, but that was very ineffective. I tried to save cards to put someone in the brig, but couldn't do it in time. It kind of felt like the game was playing me. So much went on between my turns, and my actions seemed so pitiful, that I was never able to effect a stratergy, it was just reactive moves.

I haven't played the game without cylons, but I suspect the game would still kick butt.  Add them in and suddenly its a wild chaotic ride!

I can compare the game to two other cooperative games (both without traitors) , Lord of the Rings and Red November.  In those two games there are similar constant complications and at times they are overpowering in the same way, yet I don't get the same feeling of hopelessness from them.

In LOTR you often don't have the cards to do what you want, in RN the same thing, but you can co-operate with the other players. You can make a plan. Perhaps that's what is missing, there's no planning stage.

Well if this all sounds negative, don't read too much into it. It was only one game (which I lost) and I'm really looking forward to playing again.

Play Adaman in your browser.

There is deck of cards called the "Decktet" which was invented by P.D. Magnus.  It's an unusal deck of cards, not only does it have a great art but each card may have more than one suit! There are any number of games that can be played with the Decktet, one of which is called "Adaman". Adaman was likewise invented by P.D. Magnus.

It's a challenging solo game and peaked my interest enough for me to create a version of it you can play in your browser.

If you want to try it out CLICK HERE

What's on the boil

I've got three gaming related things on the boil at present.

I'm close to finishing a web based version of the card game "Adaman" which uses the beautiful Decktet cards.  This is written entirely in HTML and Javascipt.  As a programmer, it's been of quite a lot of use, with regards to refreshing my Javascript skills. 

I have taken the liberty of changing the score system from the published rules.  I don't think the standard score rules work too well on a computer version where you can play so quickly.

I've yet to get in touch with the Decktet designer to see if he will allow me to publish the game on the web.

The next "boiler" is a card game I've been prototyping.  It has a Gandalf/Lord of the Rings theme, which will of course prevent me publishing unless I can interest Fantasy Flight.  It's a solo game using bespoke cards and a few pennies for tokens.  This has been in progress for a month or so now, and I feel it's nearing completion.

The last "boiler" is an RPG designed for one-shot games. I don't want to give away too much about the plot, lest someone with more time on their hands beats me to it.  It will be formatted  using the cool "pocket mod".  Cops vs bad guys... now I've said too much!

Edge of Space - review

"Edge of Space" is a mini Sci-Fi RPG. When I say, "mini" I mean it.  It was initially designed to fit the PocketMod format, which is to say it prints on a single page and folds into a little booklet giving you 8 tiny printed pages.

When you purchase the PDF you actually get two versions of it, one in the PocketMod format and one in standard layout suitable for on-screen or even eReader use (my Sony e-book reader handled the PDF perfectly well).

So what's in here, you ask?

You get the barest hint that Aliens have attacked Earth and a space force is required to battle them. Next it's straight into character creation. This has just a hint of the Traveller feel in that you pick a career and roll for skills (but you'll be glad to hear, there is no death during chargen).

After that you "join" your characters together using "strings" which can be used during play to increase your chance of achieving things. I found this quite innovative, I've not seen this idea before.  It builds relationships directly into the system and allows you to use them mechanically during play.

Beyond CharGen are a few more rules on how to achieve things, teamwork, initiative, advancement, all of the usual sort of things.

The real strength of this game is its portability, and I don't only refer to the fact you can print it and slip it into a top pocket, but also of the fact that it's rules-light approach will fit in almost any Sci-Fi setting you want.

Imagine if you will, that you do have this game in your top pocket, someone mentions a cool film (Aliens/Battle for L.A./Predator) and BLAM(!) you have the game there you pull it out of your top pocket.  In ten minutes you'll have characters and a system everyone will get their heads around in no time at all.

This game can be purchased for 99c at RPGNow.com

Campaign and adventure guidebook for Middle Earth - review

This is an odd product. Despite it's title, it is not a campaign, nor does it include an adventure. Indeed its almost like it's not designed for the role player at all. There are more oddities too.

However let me start by telling you what I'm missing. The original product came with 2 by 3 foot colour map of middle earth. Many people rave over the glory that this map is, however, my second hand copy didn't come with the map, so my review does not cover it.

The book itself feels like a magazine, it is staple bound and 24 pages long. Most pages use a two-column layout.

The front cover uses a image is from the cartoon version of Lord of the Rings, and features no characters or identifiable buildings or landscape. This graphical choice is rather odd, I presume they were trying take advantage of the buzz around the film, although this book came out four years after the film's release. Its quite bland.

Inside the front cover is the contents list, credits and introduction. The introduction has a quite telling line. It reads...

"The entire of ICE's approach is aimed at those who want a foundation from which to work, not necessarily absolutes."

If we take that line as a guide for what they are aiming at with this product, then I will say they have built a base from which you can build, but not a lot more!

On page 1, they give us a list of their reference sources. I have no idea why. We all know the reference materials, its plainly obvious. As this product is not designed for use with MERP I guess this is because the purchaser would not have read LOTR or The Hobbit

Most of the page is taken up by a section called "Definitions and Terms" which defines role playing terms and some of the nouns common to Middle Earth such as Valar, Morgoth, Mirkwood etc. It's here that another oddity comes to the fore. The size of the font used in this section is smaller that the preceding section, and not only is it smaller, it's practicably illegibly small. Capital letters are at most three millimetres tall. I needed a magnifying glass to read this. To describe this text as dense would be an understatement. There is a lot of middle earth general-knowledge here, if you can read it.

A section called Geography starts on page 2, thankfully back at a reasonable size. This section gives you an overview of the continent of middle earth, from bodies of water to mountains and plains. Woven through the text are references to the history of world. For instance it mentions how Morgoth was responsible for the lack of symmetry in the continent.

On page 4 details of Climate and Weather weave together not only weather patterns mentioned in the source material but general real-world climatology.

Page 4 also starts a large section that covers the history of nations and politics. If you have tried to read Tolkien's Silmarillian and failed, then here you will find an extensive blow by blow summary. In fact this section is almost entirely made up of a huge time line running from Eru calling the world into being, right through to the destroying of the ring.

On page 11 is the start of a section that deals with the inhabitants of middle earth, men, elves, orcs, hobbits, balrogs, nazgul etc. Unfortunately this section is once again in the tiny tiny tiny print. It's such a shame that this section, which actually is quite fascinating is printed in a way so difficult to read.

On page 14 starts a section on languages. This section uses another font size, not the smallest in use, nor the biggest. Once again a fascinating read. You'll read about how and who uses the various languages and how the languages evolved.

If you're like me and deciphered the runes on Thorin's map using the guide in "The Hobbit" then I think you'll like this section. Most of one page here is a guide to reading and writing using the Tengwar. This is not the runes from the Hobbit, but rather the curly writing you'll have seen elsewhere (remember the glowing writing on the One Ring in the 2001 film). This boxed panel will have you breaking out the sharpies.

Onto page 17 where a section on "Power" in middle earth begins. This is a reference to the greater magical sources middle earth. Not a lot of information here.

On page 18 is a section on using middle earth in a fantasy campaign. There is nothing specific here, just general hints at how a GM should start, picking a power level and a location.

Also on this page is a section that advises on how this booklet will integrate with the "modules to come", and how to use maps. Pretty much a waste of space.

Page 19 has a BW map of middle earth showing the prevailing winds. Eh?

Page 20 has a BW map of western middle earth showing which languages are used where.

Page 21 has a BW map of middle earth showing the prevailing temperatures and rainfall.

Page 22 has a BW map of western middle earth showing major trade routes.

Page 23 has a BW map of middle earth showing … nothing in particular.

Page 24 has a BW map of middle earth showing elevations.

All of these maps seems a waste of space, considering that the booklet comes with a 2 by 3 foot map of the place in glorious colour. Why have they spent 6 pages repeating the map in not so glorious black and white, and then squeezed in the text in the tiny tiny tiny font?

Inside the back cover, is a suggested reading list that includes not only Tolkien's works but various real world histories and fantasy novels.

I'm really not sure how to rate this book in role playing terms, it's not really one thing or another. I think they have met their stated objectives. They have given a broad overview of middle earth to someone not steeped in its lore. Yet, at the same time, this really is not a role playing aid. A role playing primer perhaps?

I can clearly state that the majority of the text in here is good and will be of interest to a Tolkien fan regardless of whether they role play or not, provided their eyesight is good.

I spent £2.58 getting this via eBay (without the big colour map) and feel like it was money well spent.

Middle-earth Role Playing Combat Screen - Review

I have the old Combat Screen in my collection and have had since the old days. My version consists of only a four panel fold-out piece of card, yet my memory is tingling with the idea that when I bought this there were some paper thingies inside. If that is so , and what the paper thingies may have been, my memory has failed to recall.

As stated, this is a cardboard four panel screen. The card is pretty thin and a little wobbly although it does stand up perfectly well. It is easily creased and does not stand wear very well. Each of the four panels is the size of the core rule book.

First lets have a look at the outside, the players side if you will. 

Panel 1: The back-cover sales blurb.

Panel 2: The front cover, the same art as the core rule book.

Panel 3: The action table, detailing various combat actions, such preparing a spell, loading a bow, melee attacks etc.

Panel 4: The Moving and Maneuver table. This is the full table and list of the usual mods.

Hmmm... not too sure I like their choices for this side. The M&M chart is useful to players, but the Action table not so much. I wonder if the basic combat charts might have been better. The other two panels which formed the front and back cover of the product on the shelf add some "colour", but are wasted in game terms.

Okay, so onto the GM's side.

Panel 1: 1-Handed-Slash/Conc, 2 Handed, Missile attack tables, plus lists of the Crit mods and the usual combats mods such as flank-attack.

Panel 2: Tooth/Claw Attack, Grappling, Movement and Maneuver(same table as shown on the players side) tables.

Panel 3: Action table (same as players side), Animal Weapon stats letting you know what crits Claw/Stomp/Beaks etc do.

Panel 4: This contains the general action chart, for Disarming Traps, Picking locks, Influence,Reading Runes, Tracking etc.

I think they made some good choices for this side of the screen. The product calls itself Combat Screen and they've got all the really important combat charts here. When I use this screen, I can leave the game rules open on the crit charts and I'm good to go.

Obviously the attack tables are a gimme, but the inclusion of the other mentioned charts really allows you to bring the combat environment alive by giving you everything you need as a GM. If you have some guys in melee protecting the wizard who's trying to open a magical lock, then this screen definitely has that covered.

If you don't like or want to use this as an actual screen, it is ideal to leave open on the table for reference during combat, it WILL save your book from half the wear and tare it would otherwise suffer.

Overall : Pretty Good.

Shikishima Heroes - micro RPG

"Shikishima Heroes" is micro RPG, that allows you to play pulp-style Naval Superheroes.

The battleship Shikishima was commissioned in 1900, but disappeared on its its first sortie with no explanation. A year later the ship reappeared. None of the crew had a memory of the lost year, nor did they know where fully an eighth of the crew had gone! Men from every section were simply missing, with no signs of foul play.

Even as the ship steamed back to port the crew realised they had been changed. Every member found themselves to have gained strange super powers.

When the Japanese people realised how changed the crew were, their joy was turned to fear, and now the Shikishima and its crew are kept at sea.

When anything unusual appears, be it super villains, giant monsters or aliens the Emperor dispatches the Shikishima.

Shikishima Heroes is a micro RPG, it is designed to printed on a single sheet of paper and folded into a little booklet using the "PocketMod" system. 

Available for only $0.99 (about £0.60) from RPGNow.com

This is the first of at least three micro RPG's, that I'll be putting out over the next month!

Lovecraftian Shorts story telling game

Announcing my latest release, the "Lovecraftian Shorts story telling game". It's a game for three people and gives them a framework for telling a collaborative story where the protagonists can only defeat the evil foe by sacrifice of their minds and/or bodies.

Currently available as a PDF from Drive Thru and an ePUB at LuLu

Nearly here..and not so nearly here

Today I sent for a POD copy of the gamebook project that I and KA Cartlidge have been working on for a few months.  If it comes back in a suitable condition I'll be opening it up to the world and publicising it like crazy. It's just now at that point when I can almost taste it. Frustration is blossoming in my soul, and 1-3 working days for delivery seems like a life time right now.

I mentioned in the previous post that I would wait on the submission process at BoardGameGeek to admit an entry for my new boardgame before I progressed it to the next level. I wanted to use a round of  play-testing to also help boost the notoriety of the game product. This is becoming frustrating too as its now been well over a month since I submitted the game to their database, and it's still in the queue. Admittedly the queue is massive and the submission process handled by volunteers, still the long long wait is frustrating.

So I have two game related frustrations burning in my chest. ARRRRGGHHHHHHHH!  I'm glad I got that out, I feel better now.

Publicising my new game

My new game design is nearing its play-test stage.  Board and counter art is complete, cards are in-progress, rules, still to be done.

I've been pondering how to approach telling the world about this fantastic game.

I liked the approach taken by the designers of Where There Is Discord. They got the game into the database at BoardGameGeek and started throwing up over a number of weeks a few teaser items, and even posted the rules asking the community to proof read them.

Once that was done they started posting well written and detailed Session Reports, each made of multiple posts made on separate days that really related the narrative of the games story. All in all it was a good way of building interest in the game, it certainly sucked me in, I ended up buying the game (and I'm delighted with it!).

I still have to finish up the little details of the game, but once that done I'm going to start following the model above. I'll register the game, put the call out for play-testers and start posting teasers and rules on the 'Geek. Of course I'll post those same teasers here. It'll be an interesting experiment to see if such an approach works with a print and play game!

Designing a new game

I've been working up a new game design for a few months now.  When I say "working up", what I really mean is that I've been thinking about it. What "thinking about it" means is that when I wake up in the middle of the night stressed out by work and money worries, I try to distract myself by thinking about this game.

I've found that during this game thinking I get into a mental flow. Where ideas build one upon another.  I'm also a bit of a writer and the I enter the same "flow" state when I'm sketching out a stories outline. It's a hard thing to describe, but it is most definitely a different state of mind. I suspect that it is almost meditative, perhaps it is meditative, I've never studied that sort of thing.

Do other game designers do a similar thing? Let me know if you do, I'd like to think that I'm not a lonely weirdo!

So what's going on in my mind during these flowing game design periods? I usually start by reviewing what I'm trying to achieve with the game, what the feel should be, and how the interaction with it should feel. From there I start going over mechanisms that could be used.  There is no order to this, I don't have a list to work from, it's just a random selection. Each one is considered, can I use it, how, where, what for, would it be better than one I've already decided on, which is best, all these questions just kind of whirl around in my head.

For example, if I'm thinking of cards within a game, there are so many uses that can be made for them I usually work my way through them all. Consider this little off the cuff list of possible uses...

Resources ... wood, sheep, computer time, interrupts
Timing .. count down, count up, increasing danger levels
Combat ... collecting combos, take that, initiation
Events ... lose all your items, an ogre attacks, you gain a gold, jump forwards to spaces

That's just a sample of what can "flow" over my mind in the middle of night, along with counters, tiles, dice, figures, tables, charts and every other game crafters tool.

I find myself considering, as I've said, what the feel I want the game to give the players, and so my mind often drifts into art, but this is a dangerous area for me, I'm no artist, and despair lies this way! Where, I ask myself, can I get public domain art, and so what Google searches can I use to find what I need....

But enough of the midnight stuff, what about the actual play testing? Well, in this case I take the ideas I've been pondering in the night and with pencil sketch out a board, then if there are counters in my idea, scissors find their way to a cereal packet, and if cards are in order, a few A4 sheets of paper are cut up.  Then these components are marked with a pencil. and finally the whole laid out on a table.

During this phase I'll put counters on the board, cards in my hand, and shuffle everything around seeing how they fit together. Try different set ups. Consider the juxtaposition of the various parts and how the board might be rearranged.

Then the cat walks across the board, sits on it, gets bored and walks off, and if I'm lucky something the cat did makes this paper and card game work!

In the case of last night, the cat didn't help. But I did rough out a play sequence for my current design and discover that the feel is right, but the game was too easy and needs to be ramped up.

That's all for now.  I just thought I'd share some thoughts about how I'm going about my current game design. Tune in later for more. :)