Ravenous Role Playing

This is a wonderfully put together book that packs in quite a bit of information in a mere 31 pages. Anyone who has never run a game before could pick this up and have a really good chance at running the adventure included. The rules are clearly explained. The combat system explanation is phenomenal and includes information that every single Free RPG Day book thus far has simply left out under the assumption that the reader is an experienced RPGer. Even the pregenerated characters in the back of the book are highly detailed and appears to include every piece of information necessary to run them without referring to another resource.

I had heard of the L5R system of XkY, but hadn’t really had it explained well to me until I read this book. The roll X, keep Y method is very intriguing to me. Basically, this means that the player would roll X dice, but only add up Y of them to find their grand total. Example: 6k3 means that the player would roll 6d10, but only keep the (presumably) highest 3 dice and total them up to find a final result.

There were two downsides I found in the book. The first was that the adventure included in the book left me a little dry. I’m not quite sure why and can’t put my finger on it, but it just didn’t strike any chords with me. The second downside was the really small font that they used in the book. Perhaps that’s how they managed to pack in so much information.

Grade: A

This short 16 page book contains everything a group needs to run through a short adventure. When I say everything, I mean everything! It has pregenerated characters, rules, introductions, equipment descriptions, monsters, bad guys and a plotline to follow. During the course of the adventure, the rules are explained very well and sample skill checks are given to explain what the characters should do mechanics-wise to get out of the tight spot that they’re in. This is a great taste and starter for anyone interested in running the Ubiquity system or Hollow Earth.

My chief complaint about the story is that it starts in New York and ends with the characters being transported to Hollow Earth. I’d rather see more of the adventure set in Hollow Earth. Having said that, the game does capture the flavor and style of Hollow Earth (as far as I know it.)

Will I run out and buy Hollow Earth stuff based off of this mini-adventure? No. As well written as the book is, I just don’t like the Ubiquity system. I love dice pools, but having a 50/50 shot of each die coming up as a success limits the system too much. Sure, I could always hand out more dice, or apply penalties to take away dice, or increase the number of successes required to alter the percentages, but I prefer a d10 dice pool with a target number for each die and a number of required successes. It allows for a smoother curve of changing difficulty for the overall process of dice rolling. Then again, that’s just my personal opinion on the matter. Some of you out there may love the Ubiquity system for its simplicity and ease of use. I can certainly admire the system for those qualities.

Grade: A+

I have family in town right now, so I barely have time for this post. Just links for this week.

Adventure Builder Workshop: Encounters
Get Lamp
Hot Button: Absentee Deaths
Adventure Builder Workshop: Allies & NPCs
Just A Thought…

Like many White Wolf products, this book is a small (very small, actually) part of a larger whole. If you don’t have the larger whole, the smaller part doesn’t really make much sense. I’m sure that there are some Exalted fans out there that would love to have this 32 page book in order to complete their collection. Me? Nah. Not really. I read the first 5 pages, and then started skimming to see if I would get to something that made sense to me. I didn’t find such a thing. In the end, I went through looking for a map or three to tie together all of the locations that were detailed, but I didn’t find such a thing. I’m sure I could have read the book in greater detail, but unfortunately, I can’t run this without investing a great deal of money into their books for the gaming system.

I guess White Wolf just wanted to throw a bone to their faithful Exalted player base and give a few of them the jollies of owning something rare. I just didn’t get the purpose of the book at all other than maybe that one thing.

Grade: D-  (It would have been an F, but the writing for the back story was fantastic and very engaging.)

Bloodsand Arena is WotC’s introduction to Athas, the world of Darksun. The books are already on the shelves, but when Free RPG Day happened, they were slated for a month or three release date out from June. I have not had a chance to even glimpse the innards of any recent Darksun books, and this is because I’ve not made the time. I’ve seen them on shelves, but walked right past them to more lush offerings. Darksun never did catch my interest, and the more I learn about D&D 4e and the more I read the books and the more I play it (which is rare, I’ll admit) the less I like the system or settings. I just have a bad taste in my mouth from the World-of-Warcraftification of my favorite RPG. However, that’s a rant for another day. I’m here to review Bloodsand Arena.

The cover has some amazing artwork on it and some good maps on the internal sides of the cover. My only complaint at this point is that I wish the grid lines on the internal maps were a little thicker to make them stand out more. It’s a cartography thing, I guess.

The character cards that come with the game are excellent and well put together. I can imagine that it would be a breeze to simply shuffle the cards and hand them out to the players at random, or toss them in the middle of the table and have them fight over it (or bid on them like Amber?)

The large fold-out map that comes with the game is excellent for miniature combat situations, which is what I imagined they intended the large maps to be used for. Instead of breaking out the battlemat and markers, it’s possible to just use the maps provided as-is. I like this quite a bit and I wish more games included features like this. It would be worth the extra $5 to $10 dollars to me.

Lastly, the 24 page book gives a brief on the world, setting, environment, geography and socio-political make up of Athas. After reading this, I remember now why I never did like the world. It’s too brutal for my tastes. No. I don’t like everything wrapped up in a pretty little package with a bow on top, but I do want my players to have a chance to live to see second level. Ok. Sorry. Enough of that rant.

Once Athas and the immediate surroundings are laid out, the adventure starts. In typical WotC fashion, the adventures are very well put together, outlined for the GM and players wonderfully, described clearly and the monster stat blocks are immensely useful. It took WotC a long time from purchasing TSR to finally get this down and get it right. I hope they continue to do well in this area.

Both adventures (yep, there are two!) seem to be very fun to run and play in, but not in the world of Athas. At least, not for me.

One final thought is that you need the D&D 4e books to run these adventures. This is not a stand-alone book to entice new players to join the game like most other Free RPG Day offerings. I’d rather see Free RPG Day stuff bring in new players, not try to get existing players to buy more stuff.

Grade: A  (Though, I’m still not enticed to buy any more D&D 4e stuff or Darksun materials.)

Jumping to a Rules-Light System

I tend to gravitate towards the rules-heavy games. That’s just my instinct, I guess. However, I also enjoy the rules light games where the GM gets to make up things on the fly. This does put a heavy load on the GM to be fair, equitable, quick on his feet, and creative. A good GM can make a rules light game great. A poor GM can make the same system miserable and hateful. However, if the system is a rule heavy one, it hogties the poor GMs a bit and forces them into a mold that should be at least passable to most role players. If you’re one of those people moving from a rules heavy system (like GURPS/Hero) to a rules light system (like Fate/Ubiquity) then there are some things that you need to keep in mind. Head over to Gnome Stew to see what those are.

Why D&D Can Provide a Realistic Experience

Realism in D&D? Actually…. I agree that realism should be a core part of any role playing experience. It helps ground us in the make-believe world and helps to suspend our disbelief at the events unfolding before us and happening to our characters. Seems like this is another “rules heavy” vs. “rules light” post that I’m linking to this week. Do systems that use less rules provide for more realism or is it the other way around? Food for thought….

Be Prepared

I love the premise of the game and scenario that is proposed in this post. That’s why I’m linking to it. Zombies, WWII, Nazis, French Revolution, deadly combat and role playing all rolled into one. What a brilliant idea! I hope that the game is successful enough to not only entertain his group, but I hope it grows and swells and gets published so that I can buy it!

World Building 101: The Best Laid Plans, Part One

I’m a software engineer by day and role player by night. When I saw flowcharts in an RPG post I experienced a variety of immediate reactions. I was curious as to what was going on. I was horrified that my profession and major hobby had been merged into one thing. I was excited to see something I am very familiar with. I was also wondering if I was at the right web site. Regardless of my reactions, what is proposed here is to use flowcharts to plan out an adventure or campaign. I would use flowcharts for maybe an adventure, but not a campaign. Flowcharts are time consuming to create properly and all experienced GMs know that their plans for the flow of a campaign rarely survive first contact with a group of players and their whims. I’d suggest mind mapping instead of flowcharting because it’s more free form and allows for variance from the specified path.

DM’s Guide to Jumping Dimensions and Planes of Reality

I love this article. It breaks down all of the major planes and comes up with ways to traverse them. It’s just spectacularly done. If I say any more about it, the excitement you’ll experience upon clicking the link will diminish ten-fold. What are you waiting for? Go click the link already!

This “book” was actually a magazine preview for a new publication, which threw me off at first. Once I realized what was going on, I started judging each article on its own merits and then the magazine as a whole.

The “Dead Things” mini-game was actually quite impressive in its layout and how quickly someone could pick up on the rules. The game is very similar to the popular Zombies! tile-based game that I’ve played a few times. The general premise is the same: Make your way from the start to the finish while traversing a field of zombies. The rules appeared to be smooth and well thought out, but that’s hard to say without playing it first. Since I already have a decent amount of cash sunk into Zombies! and know those rules, I’ll probably stick with the people that have already cornered the market.

The next article detailed six spells for creating monsters. The spells were intended for use in Labyrinth Lord or Mutant Future, but could easily be ported to D&D 3.0/3.5 or maybe even Pathfinder. The spells themselves were pretty good and seemed to me to be fairly balanced.

After the spells came a two page article about quarries. I would have picked a more exciting topic to give away in order to entice a greater number of purchases of their book that contains similar articles. The quarry piece was well written, well researched and clearly stated. I may get online and see if I can find more previews for their City Builder: A Guide to Designing Communities to see if it’s worth purchasing.

Next came a monster entry featuring the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. The cat was fairly balanced, well written and quite usable in a D&D 3.0/3.5 or other OGL system even though the intended audience is Pathfinder.

Following this was a two page article that I just could not bring myself to read because of the strange font that was used. Due to the font, everything on the page was fuzzy and unclear. I did look closer. This was not caused by misprinting or a bad run at the printer. It’s definitely the font causing my issues. I’d recommend to the publisher to pick a standard font that is clear and legible and stick with it throughout their publications.

It seemed to me that the folks at Skirmisher Press are trying to attract a large crowd from a wide variety of games. I’m afraid they’re going to miss the mark on all of them. Most people are fairly fanatic about their systems and only want supplements dedicated to their cause. By targeting multiple game systems, the people that they’re going to attract are going to be limited in nature, I think. I wish them all the luck in the world and great success, but I don’t see it happening because of the “jack of all trades” approach.

Grade: B-

The introduction to Deathwatch from Fantasy Flight Games has an incredibly high production value for being a free module. The paper was thick, the artwork fit the theme and mood of the book and was well done, the printing quality was very high, and over all, I was quite impressed with what I held in my hands.

The first part of the book is a brief introduction to the theme of the game followed by some pre-generated characters for use in the module that fell at the end of the book. Pages 8-21 held the basic rules of the system and then the remainder of the book was a well-thought-out and well-written adventure for the system. Basically, this is everything a group needs to play the system, game, characters and adventure presented. That, in my opinion, makes this a great freebie to give out and entice people to run off and buy the Deathwatch game. This is very much like the Rogue Trader game that was part of the Free RPG Day from last year.

However, the content, material and concept behind the game left me cold. It’s all about playing Space Marines in the Emperor’s military forces that have been elevated to the elite troops of the Deathwatch. This just doesn’t grab me. It sets up the game to be a run and gun type of science fiction game instead of one in which the players are making cool discoveries and exploring strange new worlds. I can imagine that the game could be played in the vein that I would appreciate, but that’s not the core focus of the game. If I were to pick up either Rogue Trader or Deathwatch, I’d probably lean toward Rogue Trader. However, there are groups out there that want the run and gun style of playing and this system and concept are tailor made for those groups.

Even though the ideas presented in the book didn’t grab me, I still see this as a high quality game.

Grade: A-

I’m actually on time with this post for the first time in three weeks! I’m barely under the midnight deadline, though.

Cheap Alternatives to Miniatures

Tired of shelling out good money for pre-painted miniatures or spending hours painting them yourself (but still spending a good chunk of dough?) Make some pogs! The idea originally came from NewbieDM, but it’s worth linking to again.

Risk and Reward In Gaming

Should RPGs be very hard, very easy or somewhere in-between? I’m all for the in-between. Some things provide a great reward, so they should hold great risks. However, pushing the players to the edge because their characters are performing mundane actions is just plain ridiculous. Find a happy medium, I say.

Adventure Builder Workshop: The Villain

How do you build a good villain? Well, entire books in the fiction writing arena have been dedicated to this large facet of quality writing. The same truths that hold for novels carries into the world of RPGs. Wimwick gives some good pointers and covers the basics. If you can’t afford the time/effort/cash for a full book on making villains, at least take the time to check out his post.

Add Immediately, Build Later: A Wiki Approach to Prep

Ah… Wikis. They’re wonderful things for capturing spur of the moment ideas and quick thoughts. I’ve used one for building my world and it worked really, really well. I could simply insert a linked idea and then come back to it later to drop some notes. Then, still later, I’d return to the skeleton of the page and add enough flesh to the bones to make the idea burst to life. It’s a wonderful way to track your ideas, thoughts, campaign notes and other goodies. However, if you’re going to be putting GM-only notes, make sure you password protect the page(s) or the entire site.

Character Creation Tips – D&D The Next Generation

This post is very close Deb Dixon’s fantastic book called, “Goal, Motivation, Conflict” which is one of the cornerstones of creating good characters in a novel (sense a theme with this post?) and it also works well for creating RPG characters (NPC and PC.) You need to setup the character’s goals (short and long term), their motivations to accomplish those goals, and what conflict (internal and external) that is keeping the character from getting to his or her goals. It’s a great formula, and I stand by it in my fiction writing and my role playing.

The adventure, “Abominations of the Amazon,” written by Mike Ferguson and produced by Goodman Games is a decent introduction to the system of Call of Cthulhu, but the adventure does require the core book to run properly. It’s a great way to introduce players to the system, but not new game masters. I found myself wondering how various rules worked and such, and felt like I needed the main book in my hands to run the game properly. I’ve played in a CoC game in the distant past, but never run it. I suppose if I were more familiar with the game, then the adventure would have flowed better for me.

Aside from the lack of knowledge on my part, the adventure read very smoothly, was very well laid out and had some excellent maps and handouts to go with it. I could see this being run in a night or two and possibly hooking some players to the system.

My chief complaint is that the “horror” of the adventure was purely mechanical. There wasn’t much in the descriptions, box text or overall game that invoked the raw terror one feels when reading an H.P. Lovecraft story. It makes me wonder how much Lovecraft Mr. Ferguson has read in the recent past and if he wanted to apply any of that reading to the adventure. I just feel that a greater sense of terror invoked in the players not the characters could have been useful in setting the mood. Maybe that’s just me.

Grade: B+