Video review - Maquis

This is my review of a free print and play WWII worker placement game

Another Classic Traveller session report

Role players never cease to amaze me with their ingenuity. I had a scenario all set up , and had thought through the possible outcomes, but in the end the players of-course do something unexpected...

It's a space game, classic Traveller. The PCs have a fantastic alien (Aslan) space craft, huge, well armed, armoured, and even a good jump drive. The last thing I ever expected, was that they would abandon it.

I'll admit that things might have looked a little tough...  The ship was being dragged slowly towards a massive mysterious alien ship by a huge inexplicable gravitational force. Asteroids and other space detritus was smashing into their ship as it too was dragged towards the alien. One of the impacts included some horrid space-bugs that tore their way into ship and started tearing apart the already injured Marine contingent in the Med-bay. The Hydro recycling system failed when the room was damaged by the strange gravitational forces. The Quantum Core interface had failed too. The Navigation systems were on the fritz and the jump-drive was smoking and sparking.

While all that was happening they detected the jump signature of a ship turning  up, but they couldn't see who or what it was.

Yeah. Things weren't looking great for them.

Then the alien ship that had started all the problems just disappeared and the gravitational waves along with it. They got the ship under control, but it was still infested with some very tough bugs. They opted to get the survivors into the shuttles and bug out (except for one N.P.C. who was locked up – poor mad Crow Gedes).

The other ship that had jumped into the system turned out to be an alien (Aslan). They used the Aslan shuttle they already had to false-flag their way into docking with the alien. It turned out to be an x-boat like ship, very little room but lots of jump-drive. They used their robots to rip out the air lock and "space" the Aslan pilot. Then fun and games commenced as they welded the human shuttle (they had one human and one Aslan shuttle) to the x-boat and rode it back to civilisation.

And so...next session starts with them on the star port having no ship, no money, and in orbit over a planet where the most powerful "Family" are likely to kill them on sight.  It's not looking good for the ex-crew of the S.S. Hairball.

Hollowpoint - an RPG review

I bought this RPG from LuLu the Print-On-Demand service. The book is 6 x 9 with an interesting two-tone cover in red and black. It features a silhouette of a man grinning insanely and pointing a gun past the viewer. The tag line on the cover really gives the tone of the game itself:

"bad people killing bad people for bad reasons"

That really does present the feel of the game, you might be playing mafioso hit men, hit men for hire, or even an FBI hit squad, going after some the other bad guys. The game is all about short sharp violence and your player characters are as likely as your targets to get taken down, and out of the game. In fact the referee is encouraged to go for the weakest P.C. To take them out!

There are really no good guys presented within these pages (rather like the 40K universe where everyone is atrocious) so pretty much everyone deserves what they get, even your character.

I've described it as an RPG, but the reality is that it's really more of a story telling game. The mechanics support a narrative approach with minimal die rolling. In fact the die rolls are pretty much reserved for conflict, and when you get there it's a dice pool mechanic, but not an ordinary one!

Your character has a number of stats, such as KILL, CON, or TAKE and each has a number of dice associated with it. When you come to roll the dice during a violent scene, you're not rolling and trying to get 5's and 6's to be counted as success' , rather your trying to get sets. A set is any number of duplicate numbers. You can use a single set to take an action. With an action you get to narrate what your character is doing and take a die out of an opponents set, possibly destroying the set.

So if you have a pair of 6's and an opponent uses their action to take one of those 6's, you no longer have a set and therefore can't take an action. If you have no sets for them to take a die from you take a consequence. What I like here, is that the consequence relates to the skill being used to attack you. If they attacked with KILL, you're going to get hurt, if they attack you with TAKE, they've stolen something from you. It's a huge narrative boon.

One feature I really love about this system is its very cinematic. Can you remember a film where the computer-guy is feeding info to the other guy sneaking through the bad guy's lair? This game's mechanism fits that like a dream. If the player is using their DIG (that's digging for info) skill they can use their rolled sets to help the other PC's. Perhaps they lock a security door, guide them onto the diamonds, or warn them where the explosives are.

As the game progresses, players try to inflict consequences on the bad guys and the ref works his hardest to do the same back to the PCs. In this game the referee IS the enemy, she IS playing to take you out. It's right there in the rules. Don't worry about that, the referee is as constrained by the story telling rules as the players, she needs good dice rolls too.

So what happens if the referee does take you out? You narrate an appropriate ending and jump right back in with a new PC. Simple and sweet. This game is not about character progression, it's about story telling in the best possible way.

So back to the physical book. It's novelette sized running to 110 pages, including intro, index, and a "flavour" section at the back. The cover is shiny and it has that new book smell.

I'm really impressed with the game, it oozes with its interesting theme and presents a system eminently matched to this original genre. Buy it now!

Deathwatch RPG – review

After a long slog I finally finished wading through the PDF version the "Deathwatch" RPG. This was produced by Fantasy Flight who have a a bit of a reputation for grandiose productions. They haven't broken the mold here.  The PDF is 402 pages long (far too long in my opinion for any RPG) and lavishly festooned with artwork.  And my-oh-my what artwork. If you're a fan of Games Workshop and their Warhammer 40,000 science fiction setting then you'll love the artwork. Mighty armoured warriors in dramatic poses wielding unseasonably large weapons to fend off the hordes of foes. Great stuff, really.

In this game you play members of the elite "Deathwatch", a secretive group of Space Marines drawn from the thousands of Space Marine chapters and forged into a "Kill team".  You are therefore playing the very tip of the Imperium's surgical strikes. If a jobs too tough or too important even for standard Space Marines it falls to the Deathwatch.. As you read through this book, you get a LOT of information about who and what Space Marines are, how they are barely human anymore and are instead super humans. This game is all about be bad-ass.

Nine percentage based stats form the core of a character. Then you start "tarting" up. Pick which chapter you marine hails from, this will give you a few tiny mods to stats. Then select a specialty, a role within the Deathwatch kill team for your character. Then a few calcs for your movement and wounds.  You also get a few Fate points which don't operate like FATE points, but instead allow you a few get-out-of-jail moments.

A nice touch next, with a die roll you determine some past events for your character, giving the chap a bit of a history.  You also get to add a "demeanor" to your character which can make him an outrageous ass, but also garners some mechanical advantage in some situations if you can worm it into the story.

There is also a long list of "skills" a.k.a. "advances" that can be bought and these generally end up giving your character a +10 here or there. I found it all rather boring to read, overly complex even. Lots of blather and inter-related requirements like a tech-tree all just to garner a +5% bonus when attacked from behind by something that's bigger than you.

...and don't get me started on the skill lists. Sheesh, more boring lists of descriptions for minor adjustments.

Your character also gets a number of "Talents". Which is another was of saying "skills". Again why these are broken out I don't know, maybe they needed more pages?

Once you claw your way free of these endless lists the book actually starts to shine. You start learning about the gear of the marines...lots of cool looking gear. Fascinating.

A big section on spells...I mean warp powered psychic capabilities. Some are interesting but many are well, just a spell list. Some flavour is added by making each marine chapter have different lists.

The rules of play start around page 205 and there are a lot of things to consider. They seem to have gone for the put-it-down-in-writing rather than hand-wavery approach. Combat covers thirty pages of double column. This is a min-maxers dream. With anything this complex there must be a thousand holes to fall through.

The games master section is pretty good, with some neat ideas for creating missions and creating the right "tone" of a 40K game.
Then comes the really good part of this PDF. The background material of the 40k universe. Up to this point all of the background material has been related to character generation and weapons. Now you start to learn about ...everything.  This I.P. Has a huge history and pretty much the whole thing is presented here is gruelling yet wonderful detail.

The endless war, foes on all sides, the apostasy, the constant struggle against the all powerful evils of the universe.  Utterly horrid, yet utterly absorbing and fascinating. A read through this section really brings home the nightmare future of 40K.

So to summarise my thoughts. Crappy system. Brilliant I.P. If you want to play Space Marines from the 40K universe, buy this book, you won't regret it. Just please, for all that's good and sweet in the world, don't punish your players with these rules.  Try another system , perhaps "Three Sixteen, Carnage Amongst the Stars."

A Traveller session report

Last nights Traveller game went well. The PC's were woken by the sound of a near riot. It turned out that one of the children born on the colony was showing Psi abilities. An agitator was calling for the "witch child" to be put to death. The heroes broke it up and got off planet with the child and her family.

The colony ship had been stripped for resources so was not useable. That meant that if they wanted to get away from the planet they would have to take the abandoned alien Aslan ship.

They jumped into the Affran system hoping to find a home for the family. They played safe and broadcast their presence, lest they get fired on by Imperial forces who would only see an Aslan interloper.

They docked at the station were boarded by a Marine contingent who wanted to inspect the ship. Meantime the visited an administrator and made an application for residency visas for the family. It was during this interview that they learnt that Affran is a planet run by "Families" and that the Administrator considered the planet a "hive of scum and villainy." They also learnt that there is likely to be a negative response to a Psi capable child.

They then decided to use their contacts over at the Navy base and got in to see the Head of Station. While sharing a meal and a few glasses of wine, they spun quite a tale. They told of a secret combat mission into Aslan space where thousands were killed, but in the end they, the heroes of this tale, managed to capture the Aslan ship. The Head of Station fell for it!

They found that this part of the galaxy was inhabited by pirates, and that the HoS thought the Killown family down on the planet might be responsible as their ships didn't seem to get hit as often.

So they hatched a plan to pretend to be visiting nobles who just happen to be trying to place the family as they look around at the possibilities of setting up a trade route while secretly they want to find out if the Killown family are dirty.  The HoS has offered help, as he wants to stop the piracy.

Meddling Kids - review

I've just finished my read through of the "Meddling Kids" RPG. This game pitches itself firmly at new and young RPG players. It's tone throughout is pitched for the younger audience, and spends quite some time explaining how to play an RPG.

I like its advice for new G.M.s  this kind of info is what I missed back in the early days of RPGs where I went on a power trip thinking I was king of the work. This book starts out by telling the new G.M. that they are firmly there it make sure everyone has a good time and that it's not an adversarial position.

As you can probably tell from the title this game is aimed at creating a game with that Scooby Doo feeling. The art work throughout backs up that assumption. The player archetypes support that too with Jocks, Fluff, Brains, Goofs, Tempers, Sidekicks, and Innocents.  Your characters have a set of stats in the traditional style, these being Strength, Moves, Smarts, and Health. On top of that you have a bunch of Abilities to pick from. Abilities are skills, and bonuses to certain types of action.

One clever trick of this system, is that the Scooby Doo character in the party is an NPC of sorts run by the G.M. It doesn't have to be a dog, could be an ape, a ghost, a batty professor or anything that's a bit out-there. This character is there to help out the kids/players when they are struggling, perhaps by sniffing out a clue or falling into the trap.

There are three tropes of the Scooby Doo series included in the rules that I think are just perfect.

The chase when the monster appears, the P.C.s will run! They have to escape the beast in the most inventive way possible and the skills and abilities back that up. Instant disguise ability anyone?

You can't just beat up the bad guys here with clubs, you have to trap them. The more monsterous the monster, the bigger and more complex the trap has to be! Players have to devise an outrageous trap to catch the beast.

Finally, no one gets killed, they get "Bonked", which means that they sit out of the game for a minute or two. Simple and straight forward, no player elimination, everyone has fun.

While aimed at kids, I think this will be a fun game for anyone willing to jump into the spirit of the game.

Recommended.

A promo for my 3:16 campaign

Christmas is the time for sharing with your family, the giving and receiving of gifts... or if your me, the time to set up all the family computers as a render-farm for your animated promotion video!

Here's a new little promo video for a campaign book I wrote a couple of years back.

Planning a new gamebook

Having recently completed and published my gamebook "Dwarven Vengeance" I started thinking about a starting another. Despite it being a lot of work, I have really enjoyed the end result, so I wanted to start another one.

This time I thought I'd do a little market research about the subject matter. I went onto Role Playing Game Geek (RPGGeek.com) and posted a poll asking which genre would they be more likely to part with thier hard earned money for.  the poll ran for 15 or so days and got 49 responses.

The options on the poll were:

• Sci fi trading and exploration: 18 votes
• Pulpy noir detective (with tentacles): 9 votes
• Marines vs Bugs: 4 votes
• Dungeon crawl/landscape crawl: 4 votes
• WWII, pilot escaping occupied territory: 10 votes
• Other: 4 votes

I was hoping for Marines vs Bugs, but the omens have dictated otherwise.

This is a new genre for me, especially in gamebook form. It's set me a challenge. A gamebook needs a "system" of rules, those rules should match the expected game play. For instance it's no use having game rules for trading if there is no trading in the game.  So now I'm going to have to spend some time debating with myself what the focus of this new gamebook will be and once I've done that, how to implement a complimentary set of rules that fit the genre without over complicating something that needs to be really simple to fit the book format.

So now I'm collecting ideas and making notes about possible scenarios that could appear in the book. At the same time trying to avoid going too far down one line of thought without considering mechanisms at the same time.

At this point I know there are some limits on story. I polled a bunch of role players and "sci fi trading and exploration" means the RPG "Traveller" to them. The Traveller game has a number of tropes and associated expectations that goes along with the name, so those will be my focus to start with...

Target! Bearing 093 degrees!

I designed and released a card game called "Target! Bearing 093 degrees!" back in 2011 and its been on sale at WargameVault.com since then. Its only in the last week that I noticed that the people at WargameVault have stated that products with an associated video sell better than those without. So with that in mind, I've thrown together the following video promotion for the game.
Enjoy ... consume ... buy ....

Golo - a review of a Golf-dice-game

I saw this for 1.99 in my local corner store I would have passed it by as another piece of junk-ware-shelf-filler but caught sight of a D12 in the bottom. I checked it out and low and behold it had nine D12 in there. My first thought was that 1.99 was great for 9D12, so if nothing else it was worth picking up for that. Actually it turns out the D12s are not normal D12s, so it might not be worth it.

When I got home I pulled it open expecting the worst of Christmas junk-gaming. Not so. inside the plastic tube was a nice golfing score page and a dinky little pencil, quality stuff! The rules appear on the score pad so I was good to go...but wait!

There is also a little cardboard rule book, that repeats the rules and adds in a few pointless optional rules. Pointless to a gamer that is, but I expect a few after-christmas-dinner players will like to try them out.

I was blown away by the quality of the dice cup. Thick plasic, mug-sized and lined inside. I'd be happy with the price just for the cup!

Then onto the dice. Nine engraved dice in three colours. Two red for Par 3 holes, five white for par 4 holes and two red for par 5's. These are not numbered like ordinary dice. For instance a white dice has three number 4's and ranges from 3-8. It's a similar story for the other dice too.

The "par" numbers on each die are surrounded by a square and the 1-under by a circle.

Game play is Yahtzee style. Roll all the dice, lock one or more, roll the rest and keep going until you've rolled and locked them all. Then allocate the dice to the appropriate holes on your score pad.

You do this once for the first nine holes, and then again for the way back to the club house. Add up your final score.

That's it. Simple. Multi player solitaire if you have friends over, or a quick diversion if you're on your own.

Considering the price, I'm really happy with it. A quick round of golf on your table and an excellent dice cup!



Found in "It's a Gift" a corner store that sells toys, cards, small tools, stationary, sweets and garden ornaments.

A cautionary tale for gamebook authors

I write a gamebook a few years ago, and it didn't end well. Here's why.

Creating a character in Diaspora

"Diaspora" is a hard science-fiction role playing game based on the FATE system.  THe video below shows you how to create a character.

Creating a character in Basic Dungeons and Dragons

Here's a run through of how to create (roll up) a character in Basic Dungeons and Dragons...

Monster of the Week - Session report

Last night I played the "Monster of the Week" RPG via Google Hangout and it was a great experience. It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful the internet and instant communication around the world is. Of course you youngsters won't appreciate that as you've grown up with it. Yet, when I was a kid we were limited to maybe sending a letter and waiting weeks for a reply! Last night I played with a group that was spread across Europe... England, Norway and Finland. Wow.

Anyway the game was really fun and exciting. In short the five players were playing monster-fighting heroes working for a secret government organisation and in the business of destroying any monstrous or super natural threats to humanity.

We were led to a remote village in Norway by an ancient prophesy. We were short on detail but it was summed up as "Ooh spooky end of the world thingy. Stop it." Not a lot to go on, as you'll appreciate.

From there we trooped into town, booked a room in the local pub, visited the local church where our suspicions were raised. Never the less the party bedded down for the night in the pub, planning to rise in the early hours and mount an investigative raid on the church.

Alas for the bad guys they beat us to the punch and raided our room! Let's just say there was screaming, clashing steel, puncture wounds, blood and ended with two dead cultists wearing robes. We nicked their outfits and knives, then discovered that there were more bad guys in the street waiting for us. We tried to sneak out the back, but sadly had to behead another cultist we found on the stairs.

Eventually breaking out the back door, we did a runner through the moonlit nights and over a few garden walls, generally making our towards the church. When we got to the church, it was in time to see a parade of villagers leading their willing victims off into the woods. We took the opportunity to scout around the church, find their secret lair, and torch the place. "Q" the flaming church of doom.

One of our number donned some cultist robes and slipped in with the bad guys, and the rest of us slipped through the woods. We were somewhat daunted to discover we were outnumbered by about 10 to 1. As you can imagine, things promptly got interesting. My character led about 10 of them off on a chase through the woods while the rest of the party set to with the bad guys. The chief bad guy with a scarey mask was chanting for all he was worth trying to raise the big bad to doom the world.

My compatriots handled it pretty well. One zapped the masked priest so he couldn't complete the incantation, our disguised party member leapt at him with naked steel and the rest took that for a good idea. Hack, slash, poke, choppy chop and it was all over, the world was saved and the cultists woke from the magic spell that was over them.

The black helicopters turned up and the good guys went home to nurse their wounds.

Playing this game was a fantastic fun experience. The rules worked really well, and suited a pretty narrative style that I enjoyed immensely.

The Hangout experience on Google+ was awesome. It's not just a video chat, but it's also built-in die roller, chat, and document sharing. I'll be looking to play more games this way.

Creating a character in 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars

Here's my run through of how to create a character for the role play game 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars. My fave RPG.

Creating a character in "Monster of the Week"

Here's a little run through of how you generate a character for the "Monster of the Week" RPG. A very original and interesting process.

Creating a character in classic Traveller

In this video I run you through creating a Vargr character in classic Traveller

Video review of : ACHTUNG! Cthulhu

Legend of the Five Rings (3rd Edition) - Review

I'm reviewing the 3^rd Edition of L5R which comes as an A4 size hard back. It is full colour on a good quality glossy paper and runs to 318 pages.

The game is set in a world called Rokugan, with a theme that reeks of feudal Japan, with samurai etc, although it is not set in Japan, it is an entirely new world.

The world as presented in this book is totally enthralling and presented in a depth that I found amazing for a single book. I had expected the book to contain hordes of rules but the majority of the book is background material which I found a refreshing change.

The background contains not only samurai using swords but magic, monsters, gods and spirits all bound up in a cohesive background that is rich and appealing.

When I started reading this book I found it hard going. That's not a reference to the text because that reads very well, but the book opens with a history of Rokugan in seventeen and a half double-column pages. I found it a struggle. There was no introduction or overview to the world, but instead it opens with this detailed year by year break down of history. As I read through it was full of names and places I'd never heard off and I became a little downhearted. My impression was, "I'm reading 17 pages of history, not the current-world I'll be playing in, so what's the point." Only after I had got past the history and into the body of the book did this all start to make sense. When I had finished reading the book I actually appreciated having that kind of history, it gave the world such depth.

This game is not your typical hack and slash. Part of the reason that they have such a rich background is that they expect you to play court politics part of the time. To role play without waving swords needs to have that kind of background depth especially when you start.

And that is a problem with the game. If you are playing an in-court session and players don't understand the intricacies of the Clan relationships, that is, haven't read up on the history of the clans, they might be in trouble. As a games master you might set up a scene of delicate politics and in come your players with no idea of what damage they can do... It seems a little harsh to need your players to have read so much background material.

Let's chat about character generation....it took me a while to realise I'd been reading the char-gen for the previous ten pages. There's a long section in the book that details all of the clans and families there-in. It includes history, details of leaders and relationships. There is also a note about a stat modifier for that clan, it's kind of hidden.

And that explains an ongoing problem relating to char-gen in this book. It's split up across multiple sections, each section is drowned in background information. When you add to that, the simple fact that the section of the book specifically about char-gen does not include a table of these hidden modifiers, it comes across as really confusing. I didn't really know where to start. This is not a book you can hand around the table and expect the players to step through making a character, it's not coherent enough for that.

The rules system itself is very simple, achieving tasks is rolling dice and beating a set difficulty (or opponents defence value). You roll a number of dice based on stats, skills and situation but only get to keep a certain number of the die results ( roll six dice, but only count the best two results). It's a really neat mechanic. Having lots of dice is good, but after the roll you have to pick just a few. It is a neat way to keep a check on power creep.

Alas there is a proof reading oversight here. The book says "here's a table of example difficulties"...but the table is not in here. As a games master, I have no guide to what would be suitable difficulty levels.

There are the other usual items for a fantasy game, including a list of spells for magic users and a rather short unillustrated list of monsters. The game is not focused on smashing monsters and taking their treasure, hence most of the monsters here are intelligent beings. The games focus is on dealing with other humans rather than monster bashing.

So let me wind this up by saying, I want to play in this world, I'm excited about it. However, I don't think I want to do it using this edition of the rules. The poor cohesion of char-gen and the missing table make that too difficult.

De Profundis, a review

Ahhh De Profundis, what art thou? I mean, apart from 110 PDF pages of text with the occasional photo touched up to look like an old photograph.

Simply put it's a Story Telling game where people can use the framework it sets up to create a living story in a Cthulhu Mythos world. Although it does drift off-topic a little to suggest how you can use the same ideas to play in other worlds, such as love affairs in Spain during 1850, that is quite obviously not what they were aiming at. This game is soundly rooted in Lovecraftian horror.

The game presents no rules, no conflict resolution, no list of investigator skills and no list of weapons or monsters to help the GM, because there is no GM. When playing, everyone takes an equal role in helping to tell the story, a true collaborative story telling experience.

A word of warning before I go on. This book is written weirdly and you may find the going a bit heavy. It's written as a series of letters ( an epistolary approach ) . The letters are written in-character by a person that has found a creepy book called De Profundis. As the letters go on this mysterious book is revealed to contain a game about writing letters...which is what the game De Profundis is really about. So it's a bit of a circular-reference and odd.

...and that's all there is to the core of De proundis. You and your pals, write in-character letters to each other. With the preceding sentence I just presented the core of the game. You might now be thinking, "well if that's all it is why should I buy the game?" That's a good question. Yet I recommend that if the idea appeals to you, you should get your hands on a copy of the book (or PDF).

The confusing presentation of the game I mentioned, is actually a mood and an attitude that you need to adopt to get the most from the idea. Most of the text of this book presents the correct attitude and mood required for the game. It suggests how to best approach the letters, how to form your mind into the right receptacle to best appreciate the half-insane letters you'll be sending or receiving. I think it very unlikely that the game will be as good as it could be, if any player has not spent the time to read these rules and appreciate the attitude needed to play.

With the appropriate attitude and approach you will find yourself hand-writing letters on quality paper with a fountain pen, and paper-clipping photos (with a little Photshopping perhaps) of weird and inexplicable things to the letter before posting. Thus you see that the game will take time and effort and a love for the game. It's not a case of turning up on Saturday afternoon with pop n chips. This is a game where you're going to sit at a table in a darkened room, suck on a faux pipe wearing glasses you don't need, just to get in the mood to play your part and write a letter.

If you want to play this game, you'll be setting aside a couple of hours a month for the next few years and really exercising your mind as you get into character.

I give this game-book a big thumbs-up.