Archive for December, 2008

Boardgames and Roleplaying

4
December 8, 2008
by Stargazer in , , , ,

There are quite a few boardgames or miniature skirmish games with elaborate background stories that almost beg to turned into a roleplaying game. In some cases the developers of these games came up with their own roleplaying game. And some games like Heavy Gear or Savage Worlds can be used as either a miniatures game or a roleplaying game.

Recently a friend of mine proposed we could play some Battletech again. Battletech is a tactical board game where you control one or several huge mecha called Battlemechs. The game was initially created by the now defunct FASA Corporation. His idea was to use the rules from Mechwarrior (we decided to use the 2nd Edition rules) to create some mechwarriors that are in charge of their own unit of mercenaries fighting in the wars of the 31st century. We will use standard battletech rules for the mech-vs-mech fights and the roleplaying game for all other encounters. When everything turns out as planned, we all will have a great time.

But this made me thinking. There are a lot of games that would work great as a combat system for roleplaying games. Take some miniatures skirmish game like Games Workshop’s Necromunda for example. In that game each player controls a gang in the Underhive of a huge 41st millenium megacity. The combat rules are very detailed and there are even rules for campaigns and improving the stats and skills of the gangers. So, why not turn it into a fully-fledged roleplaying game? You can of course write up you own rules but it’s much easier to keep the combat rules of the skirmish game intact and add some other rules for the non-combat parts.

This is easy to do with a roleplaying game like FUDGE. FUDGE allows the GM to choose the attributes and skills he needs for his campaign. So just use Necromundas Stats and Abilities as detailed in the rules of the skirmish game and you’re done. You just have make sure that the fighting skills for the combat part of the game can easily be represented using FUDGE. Necromunda like all GW tabletop miniature games uses WS (Weapon Skill) and BS (Ballistic Skill) for combat checks. All stats including WS and BS can usually range from 1 to 10. FUDGE normally uses skills and attributes ranked from Terrible to Superb with 5 steps in between. For normal gangers you can set Terrible=2, Poor=3 etc. until Superb=8 and you’re mostly done. You can now easily convert between both systems. That could work for other GW games as well.

Another game that comes in mind, when thinking about boardgames that would make a great background for a roleplaying games is Crimson Skies. Crimson Skies is a tactical boardgame much like Battletech (it was created by FASA too), but this time you control fighter planes in an alternative early 20th century. The background is pretty detailed and gives a lot of opportunities for adventures outside the cockpit. For a fitting roleplaying game for Crimson Skies I would just take Spirit of the Century since it’s close enough to FUDGE to being easily adaptable and it’s already the right genre. Just use the standard Crimson Skies rules for air combat and you’re done.

What are your thoughts on that matter? Have you already used a boardgame as part of the roleplaying experience? As always, feel free to post your thought into the comment section below!

Google Friend Connect

3
December 5, 2008
by Stargazer in , ,

This morning I added a Google Friend Connect gadget to the site. I had to fiddle around with the theme a bit, but in the end it turned out pretty nice. So, what is Google Friend Connect?

Google Friend Connect allows site visitors to log into the member using an existing account (Google, Yahoo, AIM or Open ID). Then you can invite other people to join you at the site, see other visitor’s profiles and additional gadgets allow more interaction between the visitors of a site. It reminds me a bit of Yahoo’s MyBlogLog, a feature you probably have seen on some of the blogs here on the network.

FATE review

5
December 1, 2008
by Stargazer in , ,

“Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment” or FATE for short is a free roleplaying game by Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue. In many ways FATE is different from classic roleplaying games like D&D for example. In a way FATE is also more of a GM’s toolbox than a complete RPG much like FUDGE, the game FATE is based on. My review is based on the FATE 2.0 rules freely available on the FATE website. The creators of FATE are currently working on the “Dresden Files RPG” and have recently released “Spirit of the Century”. Both games use an updated version of the rules, which will be released as FATE 3.0 shortly after the “Dresden Files RPG” is out.

Funky dice
FATE uses FUGDE dice for task resolution. Fudge dice are six-sided dice with plus (+), minus (-) and blank sides. You usually roll four dice and add the results. You can generate results from -4 to +4 in that way.
FATE also allows you to use different dice as well, when you don’t want to buy a set of special dice, but the Fudge dice are recommended.

No attributes
The biggest difference between FATE and classic roleplaying games is the lack of attributes. Usually RPGs have attributes like strength, charisma etc. to describe a character’s abilities. In FATE is it assumed that usually most characters have average attributes. To describe what makes characters special, aspects come into play. An aspect is always something what differentiates a character from his fellow men. And since FATE is story-oriented fancy aspects like “Strong like an ox” are preferrable to simply “Strong”. In situations where a character’s aspect could play a role in the game, the player make “invoke” his aspect, which allows him to reroll dice or change a roll’s result. An aspect like “Member of Thieves guild” for example might be used to influence botched pickpocketing tests or help the character find a branch of his guild in a city he just travelled to.
The GM may also invoke aspects to force players to act in certain ways. Take the example with the “Member of Thieves guild” again. The GM may use this to let a NPC call in a favor from the player character or ask the player to act upon his guild’s codex. If the player acts on that request he is rewarded FATE points, he can use to improve roll results or reduce wounds (“It’s just a flesh wound!”) or he can pay FATE points when he doesn’t want to act out his aspect.
Aspects can also be bought in ranks. A character with two ranks in the “Strange Luck” aspect may invoke this aspect twice before it resets. That can be daily, every session, after an extended rest or whatever suits the GM style of play.

Skills
Skills in FATE are pretty standard. The GM decides what skills he wants to use for his campaign. FATE gives several examples on skills and there are three levels of detail the GM may use for his campaign. The more detailed the different skills are (in contrast to broader skill groups) the more points the player may distribute among his skills. FATE also makes use of a “skill pyramid” that is meant to discourage unbalanced characters. Skill levels in FATE are described by adjectives instead of number values, so you can use everyday terms to describe your character’s abilities like in “My character is a Fair swordsman”.

Toolbox
FATE shows it’s toolbox character in every aspect of the rules. There is no fixed set of skills, the GM is entitled to make a list fitting his game, aspects are discussed between player and GM during character creation and there are three different combat rule systems and several magic systems available in the 84 pages of the rulebook. There is not even an implied setting like in D&D 4th Edition, so if you want to use FATE, you have to bring your own setting or convert an existing one.

Conclusion
FATE is a great roleplaying game for an experienced gaming group interested in story-heavy gaming. Although the rules can be quite “crunchy” at times, the focus of the rules is always the characters and the story and never number-crunching. Especially the aspect system sounds very interesting, although it can be quite hard to get your head around sometimes.

Pros:

  • It’s free. You can’t get a cheaper roleplaying game
  • It’s a game designer’s toolbox. If you like designing your own world, game, etc., then FATE is perfect!
  • It’s only 84 pages long, but filled with designer notes and examples. That’s a big plus in my book, since I don’t have so much time reading hundreds of pages. I want to play, dammit!

Cons:

  • It uses fudge dice! Although the fudge dice work great, it’s always a hurdle if you need to get non-standard dice.
  • No setting. If you are looking for a game to pickup and play, FATE is not the right RPG for you.

Please note that this review is based on the 2nd edition of FATE (available here) and I haven’t been able to actually playtest the game. So please bear with me. As always comments are more than welcome!

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