The first Lunchtime Poll asks: What is your favorite historical period for RPGs, and why?
I haven't had much time to play in or run games set in historical periods. I ran short campaign based on The Voyagers! TV show in GURPS years ago which I had a lot of fun doing. I also played in a couple of Supers games set in historical periods. One was set in the late 1960s and the other was set in the early 1930s. I also ran a supers game set during WWII.
I have played in and ran a few games that were fantasy worlds based on different historical Earth periods.
The historical period that interests me the most is the 18th Century, particularly colonial and revolutionary-era America. I based a fantasy world I ran off it once, complte with flintlock rifles, and the game was very successful. I've wanted to run a historical game set in this period for some time and have come up with a few ideas, including a game where the PCs are all the "founding fathers" who have gathered for one of the Continental Congresses.
However, this historical period is not very well represented in the RPG industry and the best I could ever hope to see is a GURPS: War of Independence supplement.....which is probably only a matter of time.
Out of the time periods traditionally covered by RPGs, I like the 1920s to 1940s the best. I particularly love the Pulp Noir feel. Bloodshadows, a "Fantasy Noir" game, is one of my favorite RPG settings ever and was one of the inspirations for The Dreaming City.
(via Arref)
1. What is the first RPG you ever played?
Heroes Unlimited (Palladium)
2. What RPG do you currently play most often?
Hero 5th edition
3. What is the best system you've played?
It really depends. For simple systems, I like the Unisystem used in the Buffy RPG. For "crunchy" systems, I like Hero or GURPS depending on the setting.
4. What is the best system you've run?
I currently would have to say Buffy/Unisystem. Another possible answer is Bloodshadows/Masterbook.
5. Would you consider yourself an: Elitist/ Min-Maxer/ Rules Lawyer?
None of the above.
6. If you could recommend a new RPG which would you recommend? Why?
Out of the new games I have tried, I would recommend Savage Worlds for anyone looking for a good alternative to D&D. I'm very curious about the new World of Darkness system and if it turns out as good as it sounds, I'll be recommending it.
7. How often do you play?
I have a Champions group that tries to meet once a week, a Buffy RPG group that meets once-a-month and I attend one or two Ambercons a year.
8. What sort of characters do you play? Leader? Follower? Comic Relief? Roll-Player/ Role-Player?
Whatever catches my fancy.
9. What is your favorite Genre for RPGs?
I like good multi-genre games. That is the main reason I like Amber so much.
10. What Genres have you played in?
Superhero, Horror, Post-apocalypse, Fantasy, Film Noir, Swashbuckling, Historical, Children's (Pooh, Oz, etc.), Science Fiction, Space Opera, Cyberpunk and multi-genre (Amber).
11. Do you prefer to play or GM? Do you do both?
I enjoy both, but I prefer being behind the screen.
12. Do you like religion in your games?
A little bit. Most genres are incomplete without exploring a bit about how religion affects the world and the characters.
13. Do you have taboo subjects in your games or is everything "fair game"?
Not really.
14. Have you developed your own RPG before?
Several.
15. Have you ever been published in the Gaming Industry? If so...what?
Nothing, besides publishing on the internet. (Does making photo-copies of a game rulebook and giving to my friends count?)
The Wednesday Weird returns! I'm making an attempt to return to this blog after a period of time where I just did not feel like blogging. In celebration of the return of the long missing meme, my first new Wednesday Weird in some time is this:
Someone or something has gone missing. It's a basic scenario that has jump-started the plot of many gaming scenarios as well as many works of fiction. As the protaganists piece the cluse together to try and find where a missing friend or item has gone, some of the clues could be completely weird....but when the mystery is solved it all makes sense. This is the weird challenge of the day: In the setting of your choice, something or someone has disappeared and there is something weird about the way the disappearance occured or where the missing item or person has disappeared to. How does it get weird?
Where does the princess of Amber keep disappearing to? The King is getting disturbed by constant unexplained disappearances. Sometimes, he looks for her in her quarters and he finds his daughter gone. He has the castle servants look all over the castle for her with no luck. When she shows back up, she asks her about this but she gives no answer. He eventually assigns guards to guard her and stand outside her door but when he goes to visit her she has somehow alluded her guards.
Where is the princess going to? A rave. This rave is a party that meets at regular at different places each chaosian night in different parts of the multiverse and the only way to get in is to come with someone who has been there before or get your hand stamped with the rave's trump handstamp. There are teens from Chaos, Amber and everywhere in between in this rave.....a rave of which all other raves are but shadows. The rebellious young princess is much like her father, Random, was at a young age and when she gets bored, all she need to do is touch the hand stamp and away she goes to party the night away. Of course, she won't tell the king where she is going because he would probably want to send a chaperone that could ruin all the fun.
This Christian Science Monitor opinion piece puts forth the idea that the government should start taxing violent video games. As one might expect this is the usual crap that blames vioent video games for all sorts of the problems in America and as usuall it is complete bull.
With so much violent media fare, why single out video games? Despite growing evidence of the psychological harm of these games, few would claim that they are the sole cause of family or community violence. But in a nation where 92 percent of children grow up playing them regularly, violent video games aid and abet a popular culture that champions even the most extreme brutality through games like the "Grand Theft Auto" series, self-described studies in "hedonism and violence" that encourage players to kill prostitutes and hijack cars.
First of all, this article tries to make the link that 92% of children are playing games like Grand Theft Auto.....games that come with a mature rating and are not allowed to be sold to minors. Technically, what it says is that 92% of kids play video games. I am sure they'll find that even a higher percentage watch TV, but they shouldn't be watching shows like The Sopranos any more than they should be playing Grand Theft Auto. Second, this article makes one of the statements about the GTA games that bugs the heck out of me. It seems that all any of these people know about the game is that its about killing prostitutes which has almost nothing to do with the game....but that is what the media latched on to. The games do not incourage you to kill prostitutes. They allow you to. You can choose to kill anyone in the games. I'm not saying its better that way. I'm just annoyed at how many people only seem to know this one thing about the games.
Last year in Ohio, a teenager obsessed with "Grand Theft Auto" stole his friend's car and then bludgeoned her to death with a bedpost.
Let's make it clear. Almost anyone who plays a GTA game could be called "obsessed" with GTA. The games are some of the best video games made. This is why I play them even though I do not like the themes of the game. They are well-designed. Yeah, I wish they would make a similiar style of game that has you fighting zombies or aliens rather than being some criminal. However, these games are so large and open-ended that give you a huge virtual world.
As the sales show, there are millions around the world who are playing and getting obsessed with these games, yet one stories gets plastered all over the news as to why video games are bad. However when some homophobic christian beats and kills a gay man, does anyone talk about taxing religion to pay for programs to fight hate crimes? No. For every case they can name linking violent video games to a murder, I'll bet I can find 10 of murders inspired by religious obsession.
This kid in Ohio had issues beyond an interest in a certain violent video game, but society always wants the easy scapegoat. It used to be rock and roll. These days its video games.
Teenaged sniper Lee Malvo and the Columbine High School killers used highly realistic first-person shooter games as virtual training grounds for their murder sprees.
I don't know anything about the Lee Malvo case, but the Columbine killers had Doom installed on their PCs. If you ever played Doom, you know how silly this is to describe the game as a virtual training ground. At the time this game out, almost everyone who had a PC had a copy of Doom and believe me, noone considered it a simulator. I have no idea what game Lee Malvo was playing but I can't think of a single game out today that would even come close to simulate the reality involved. Clicking a mouse is not a good simulation for real life, no matter how realistic the graphics might look. (I've been playing City of Heroes for months now, but I'm pretty certain I'm still not ready to put on tights and prowl the street for criminals to arrest....)
How will we know video-game violence when we see it? Conveniently, most video-game makers already comply with a voluntary ratings system that includes descriptors for violence.
Once again, this rating system is to stop kids who should not be playing the Mature rated video games from buying them. If parents are buying these video games for their kids than bad parenting is to be blamed. Perhaps an additional tax on people with kids is needed but since I have no plans to have kids, I see no reason why I should be singled out to be taxed every time I buy a video game with violent content to pay for the bad parenting in our society.
I'm OK with additional taxes that are charged to everyone if they are needed to fund important government programs. You won't catch me grumbling as often as many Americans about the amount of my paycheck that goes to taxes because I know that it is paying for roads, public healthcare, schools, libraries, police and many other programs that I'm glad our society has. However, when you start singling me out to pay more taxes based on the type of entertainment I enjoy, then I'll get upset.
(For the record, I don't actually play too many violent video games. James Bond games and Grand Theft Auto are the only games I play that are fairly violent. It's the idea that bothers me.)
What's next? An additional tax on cable users that get HBO because of shows like Sopranos? Perhaps they should start taxing violet movies. Think of the amount of taxes The Passion of Christ could have brought in!
Scientists have declared that Superman is too super a role model.
"Fans of the man from Krypton unwittingly compare themselves to the superhero, and realise they do not measure up. And as a result, they are less likely to help other people."
I can only speak for myself and I'd say this is bull. I know I can not physically measure up to the Man of Steel and I don't ever think I will. However, that wouldn't stop me from trying to be as good a person as he is. That is where I think he works as a role model and is someone a person could measure up to.
Doc is retiring his gaming blog. I'll be sad to see him go. I know it is tough to keep enthusiasm high for blogging and with a specialized topic like gaming it is even more difficult as the topic appeals to less people so you attract less readers and the comments and feedback is part of what keeps up the enthusiasm of bloggers. It has been fun, Doc.
I decided to check the Guardians of Order website to see if there was any news on their new version of the Amber DRPG and I found a few things:
1- They have released the Amber DRPG in a downloadable format. You can now buy both the main rulebook and the Shadow Knight for a fraction of the normal cost.
2- They are releasing a new Tri-Stat RPG called Dreaming Cities. Its an urban fantasy setting. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I am slightly angry becuase Mark and Jesse attend the conventions I have been running the Dreaming City games at. It might be an honest mistake and I'd like to think so. Sadly, I was recently thinking of looking into their Magnum Opus set-up for self-publishing RPG and using that to publish my Dreaming City RPG. I have no interest in changing the name of my RPG and I believe copyright laws will be on my side for this. I've emailed them and will hopefully hear something shortly.
So, I'm back from Ambercon Northwest and figured I should write up a review.....
Before the Con: We flew out with Jarrod, Patrick and Matthew on Tuesday, getting to spend several days at the hotel and the surrounding areas. We went to the beach on Wednesday and then had the pre-con dinner at a seafood place in downtown Portland. We got to meet a bunch of great people that we would be playing games with over the next couple of days and things looked good. On Thurday morning we went to see some waterfalls. Jack, Kristen, Matthew, Kris and I climbed to the top of one of them and my legs were sore most of the weekend from this. We went to drive back to downtown Portland before the con started but got caught in a traffic jam and had to return to the hotel.
The Hotel: Besides the people, the coolest thing about Ambercon Northwest was the hotel. The Edgefield is more of a bred and breakfast than a hotel and has several cool bars and restaurants attached to it. There is a distillery, a winery and a brewery there, so if you like to drink, there is good drinks available. Also, all of the halls, rooms and doors have murals painted on them, making each area of the hotel and each room unique.
Slot One: The House at Pooh Corner Chapter XI- GM: Me
IN WHICH Sir Pooh de Bear, Tigger, Owl and the rest of Christopher Robin's friends in the Hundred Acre Woods realize that Christopher Robin is not going to return. The Hundred Acre Woods gets smaller. Rabbit organizes a search party and Piglet meets a Heffalump. Growing up can be a scary thing, especially when your best friend grows up and leaves you behind. Will the Hundred Acre Woods survive without the very special boy who brought it to life?
This was a dark, twisted game.....based on Winnie the Pooh. Jack, Kristen and I came up with the idea at dinner one night when joking about horrible genres that never should be mixed. The game turned out to be quite successful and was talked about through the rest of the con. It certainly is game that people who played in are likely to remember. From, Pooh blowing the stuffing out of the brains of a woozle with his cork-gun to a stoned Tigger and Roo searching for munchies, there were so many moments that were so.....wrong. I won't say anything more about the "Poothulhu" game in case my co-GMs and I decide to run it again someday. (Unlikely, but possible.)
Slot Two: The Wonderful Pattern of Oz- GMs: Amber Cook and Melissa Kocher
We’re off to walk the Pattern, the Wonderful Pattern of Oz, You'll find it is an emerald one! If ever a prettier one there was. If ever a One True Realm there was, the Realm of Oz is one because, Because, because, because, because, because, Because of the marvelous place it is. Oh, we’re off to walk the Pattern, the Wonderful Pattern of Oz!
This game was a twisted version of The Wizard of Oz and Nine Princes in Amber. I played Dorwin (Dorothy/Corwin), a young girl growing up on a farm in a world of black, white and grays. Her and her bratty little brother, Todem (Toto/Random), is about to be taken away to an oprhanage, she chases after him and sees the house of her sister, Flowers (Flora/Scarecrow). Seeing the house, she realizes that she is missing memories on goes on an adventure that eventually leads her, Todems and several lost siblings on an adventure to Oz. The game was very clever but what really made this game was how well everyone played kids. From the ways that we picked on eachother and squabbled to the ways we dealt with the problems that arose, we felt like real kids.
Slot Three: Pools of Red, Flashes of Amber- GM: Me
There is a pool of blood on the floor and the night has just begun. What started as a joy-ride through shadow to escape your overbearing family turns into a life-or-death struggle. The elders warned of dangers that could be found in deep shadow. If only you had listened.....
This was my Amber game using The Pool system. It seemed to work out very well and some very clever actions by the players made me stay on my toes. The Pool system was not used to its full potential, I believe and I will try to write up a more in-depth of the game at some time and explain why. While I thought that the Pool was a perfectly suited system for Amber, I'm not as sure now. Still, I think the system was a lot of fun and I look forward to running it again sometime.
Slot Four: The Courts of Tigger - GM: Jeremy Zimmerman
But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is...
I'm the only-- Hey, who are you guys?
This is a long-running series of games at ACNW, a somewhat silly mixture of Amber and Winnie the Pooh. I joined the game this year as Lion, a stuffed animal who believes that he is the King of the Hundred Acre Woods. When he and several of the gang stumbled upon a castle, he naturally assumed that it was built for him by Pooh and moved in. Unfortunately the many-colored Tigers that lived in the castle objected. The tigers claimed to be Tiggers of the Courts of Tigger, but Lion knew better. There is only one Tigger.
Some quotes from the game (courtesy of Amber Cook, the player of Tigger):
Jeremy as GM: "The Blue Tiggers are fleeing in the face of the Orange Glitter Tiggers."
Kiergan: "This is not the Dark Pooh (game)!" (referring to the Poohthulhu game)
An Orange Tigger in the Courts of Tigger while arguing with the Pooh characters: "You can do what you want in your little One Tigger Town!"
An Orange Tigger: You can't be here. This is the Courts of TIGGER and only tiggers can be here."
Lion: "No, this is MY castle. Pooh just built it for me."
the Orange Tigger: "No. This is the Courts of Tigger. And we are the tiggers."
Lion: "But Tigger's the tigger. And he's the only one."
the Orange Tigger: "He's been lying to you the whole time."
Tigger: "No, I've been a tigger, not a Lion!"
Slot Five: Mars Ascending - GMs: John Schleick and Kristen Gibbs-Schleick
The corporations run the schools. They own the militaries. They are the governments of the Inner Planets. They can buy and sell people like cattle, controlling every aspect of their lives.
In the Outer Rings it is a different story. A lucky few escape the corporations. These are thieves, rogues, pirates. They live on the edge of the territory, picking the bones of those less fortunate, getting by any way they can. Most of the time, the corporations don't care.
They do now. One unlucky crew has found something the corporations want, bad. They only question now is what the crew does with it. Will it be honor among thieves? or will the rule of honor become more of a guideline?
This game used a clever auction for creating characters that gives a lot more background for the characters. Unfortunately, it took up a big chunk of the games time and left a lot less time for the actual play time. The scenario was pretty interesting and there was some fun roleplaying in the game. (I knew there would be since there were some excellent roleplayers. I ended up as the ships First Officer... an ex-smuggler who cared greatly for his crew but had a penchant for mean practical jokes. The game was a lot of fun.
Slot Six: Brave New Krypton -GM: Me
It has been almost 20 years since the aliens arrived. A few hundred survivors of a doomed planet many light-years away, they escaped the destruction of their planet in giant space arks. At first these aliens, who looked so much like ourselves, seemed to be a blessing as they shared advanced scientific knowledge with humanity, but it soon became a nightmare. The Earth's environment made the newcomers exceptionally powerful. Under the leadership of General Zod, they set themselves up as Earth's new masters and began changing the planet into a replica of the world they had left, a planet named Krypton. Recently, the resistance has learned that the Kryptonians have a weakness: radioactive crystals from their homeworld. Can the resistance use this information to finally end the alien occupation?
Well, I allowed more players than I should of for this scenario and it got a slow start but by the time the plot started moving, everyone seemed to be having a good time and I got a lot of compliments on it. It was originally going to use the Marvel Universe System but I decided over the course to scrap the system entirely which seems like it ended up working pretty well for how the scenario turned out. The players spent a lot more time in the early planning stages of the game, so I ended up putting aside some of the early action scenes. All in all, it was a success and has cemented my plans to run another "Elseworlds" game at ACUS 2005.
Slot Seven: The Butterfly Catcher's Society GM: Jeremy Zimmerman
Into every great society, every principality of great power and influence, there inevitably comes the first sign of decay. Amber is no exception, and the Butterfly Catchers' Society is a prime example of the decay. These young men are in the prime of their lives, will some day inherit the money, and sometimes titles, of their families, but are somewhat lacking in the wits department.
The members of the Society are meeting for a First Annual Meeting of the Minds, in which they enjoy food and wine and share tales of their mighty exploits.
This was the Baron Muchausen Roleplaying game with an Amber twist. I played Count Basil, a young noble from a rich family that deals in rare spices and herbs throughout shadow. We told stories, interrupted the stories of others and generally had a great time. We learned the best way to deal with the Giant Owners of the Giant Cats of Ghanesh, how Sir Reginald was able to stop a civil war that was started over the careless use of a Silver Spoon, how Martin's enjoyment of Broccoli turned Llewella's hair green and who actually created the Primal Gorillapotomus. We amused ourselves greatly.
Overall: This was the first time I have ever been to a con and enjoyed every slot I have been in. Kudos to all the great GMs and players. The atmosphere was amazing! I can't wait until the next time Carla and I can go to the con.