A Role Playing Games Blog
Archive for February, 2009
Mutant Future
0February 23, 2009
Some time ago I posted about Labyrinth Lord and other retro clones based on old-school D&D. I didn’t know that the creators of Labyrinth Lord also released Mutant Future, a game based on LL rules but set in a post-apocalyptic future.
The 162-page book can be downloaded for free from the Goblinoid Games website.
In Mutant Future you can play everything from a normal human to a mutant plant or even an android. The rules are a bit on the crunchy side which was expected, but if that doesn’t frighten you off, Mutant Future may be worth a look.
Two new upcoming Savage Worlds settings
1February 23, 2009
Evil DM Productions, an indie game design studio, has announced two new settings for use with the Savage Worlds rules. The first setting “Legends of Steel” will be a sword and sorcery setting:
The type of Sword & Sorcery adventuring that Legends of Steel attempts to capture is the truly heroic, amazing, over the top action found in the Sword & Sorcery comic books of the 70’s, the low budget Sword & Sorcery movies of the 80’s and the adventure filled Sword & Sorcery television shows of the 90’s.
Legends of Steel will be released in several editions, each one complimenting a different set of rules.
The second set of rules mentioned is their own Broadsword rule system that can be acquired for just $3.95 at RPGNow. I haven’t checked it out but our fellow blogger Philippe-Antoine Menard has said some nice words about it:
Broadsword is a minimalist but effective RPG engine that offers to recreate the best (and worst) of low-budget/low-fantasy movies taken directly out of the collective recollection of the sword & Sorcery genre of the 70’s and 80’s. It’s a great beer and pretzels game for a good evening of good natured mayhem and crude jokes.
Magic system needs to be hacked to be playable and equipment costs were left out of game (intentionally).
Still the game delivers at what it promises.
The second setting is “The Lost World of Hador”, a pulp setting inspired by the works of authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. Of course nobody can comment on the quality of the setting itself, but the cover artwork looks pretty sweet.
And since I always wanted to play a pulp game, I might check this out, when it’s released.
RPGbomb
1February 22, 2009
Some days ago I stumbled upon RPGbomb, a social network for roleplaying game fans. Here’s what the creators of RPGBomb tell us about their service:
RPGbomb.com is an online service that allows their members to set up unique personal profiles that can be linked together through networks of friends and associates. RPGBomb.com members can view each others’ profiles, communicate with old friends and meet new friends on the service, share photos, post blogs and comments, and describe their interests. To enrich our members’ experience, we request and display some personal information to other members and visitors, which allows our users to identify each other and expand their network of friends.
Although it still has some rough edges, the service looks usuable and to try it out, I created a profile there. RPGbomb has all the features you expect from a social network, like a friends list, groups, video and photo sharing, et cetera. If you want to give it a try, feel free to add me to your friends list and leave a comment on my profile page!
New Edition of “Space: 1889″ in the works
0February 20, 2009
The German publisher “Uhrwelt-Verlag”, a sublabel of Ulisses Spiele, has secured the rights to produce a new version of the classic steampunk roleplaying game Space: 1889. Instead of using the rules of the original game, they will use Exile Game Studio’s Ubiquity rules. The new Space: 1889 game will probably be in German language first. As far as I know they haven’t announced an English version, yet.
I still have one of Heliograph‘s reprint of the original core rule book lying around somewhere and I had some plans to run a Space: 1889 campaign using a modern rules system, but perhaps I will just wait for this upcoming edition.
For more information on that subject, you can check out this thread at the Ulisses forums (German language only).
Why you should give the D6 System another chance
8February 20, 2009
Do you remember West End Games? WEG was the company that brought us many successful roleplaying games including Paranoia and Star Wars. Star Wars used a very cinematic and easy to learn rules system: the D6 System. After WEG lost the Star Wars license, they released three D6 System core rule books: D6 Space, D6 Fantasy and D6 Adventure. Each book was written with one genre in mind, but the rules were compatible and gamemasters were able (if not encouraged) to mix and match rules from the three books. So, why should we bother about D6 anymore, when there are much bigger systems like D&D, GURPS, etc. still going strong?
In December Eric Gibson, WEG’s current owner, announced that the D6 System is going to become OpenD6. OpenD6 will probably be released under a license similar to OGL but Eric (aka Hellsreach) also mentioned Creative Commons. And as you may guess that would be my favorite license.
He also plans to setup a special OpenD6 site, where anyone can download the SRD he needs. You just decide which rules you want to have included in your personal rulebook and the website creates a personalized version just for you.Gamers will also be able to upload their rules and modifications to the OpenD6 site, too, so that they are available to everyone else as well. And if this really 
works out, the community should support something like this.
D6 has been created for the Ghostbusters RPG back in the day, but it has been successfully used in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game and quite a few other games. If you own at least one of the core rules you can easily play in any genre you want. Since D6 doesn’t use any levels or classes it can be easily modified without breaking the game. Although I like games like D&D a lot, I always considered classes problematic because they are often not easily modified for genres they were not designed for.
But the best argument for the D6 System is that it’s easy to learn and fast to play. At first D6 only uses six-sided dice, so you don’t need any fancy dice which makes it especially handy to introduce newcomers to roleplaying. Every attribute and skill is ranked by a die code like 3D+2 for example. To make a check on a skill ranked 3D+2 you have to roll three dice, sum up the result and add 2. This final result is then compared to a difficulty. If your result was equal or higher than the difficulty, you succeeded. You don’t need any more knowledge as a player to play any D6 game.
I’ve been playing a lot of Star Wars back in the day, when WEG still held the license. And now I am thinking about blowing off the dust from the D6 core books I bought a couple of years ago and use them for my next campaign.
By the way, if you want to discuss D6 further, you should check out the WEG Fan Forums (WEG’s owner is a regular poster there).
If you don’t own the D6 rules, yet, you can get them for $13 each at RPGNow. Or you order a printed copy directly from WEG.
Will WotC shut us down next?
10February 20, 2009
According to a post at ENWorld Wizards of the Coast has sent a Cease & Desist letter to 4epowercards.com. This time a site has been hit that offered power cards for 4E for free. Although I think that the law is on Wizard’s side, I am not happy about this development. I have actually never used 4epowercards but as far as I know it was a site by fans for fans and the people behind it were not interested in making a profit. And I don’t think that anyone can make use of mere power cards without actually having bought the D&D 4th Edition rulebooks.
The question is now: where will WotC draw the line? Who will they shut down next? And will it affect the RPG Bloggers Network and the RPG Blog Anthology? Quite a few people on the network are posting about D&D 4th Edition. We have seen new rules, rules variants, new items and even complete settings. Up until now I was pretty sure that they won’t go after us, but I am not so sure anymore. What about my own D&D 4th Edition Firearms post? Is it already a violation of Wizards’ rights or is it considered fair use?
Wizards of the Coast really should release the fan site policy and the revised GSL they have been talking about for months now. I can understand that they want to protect their IP, but what they are currently doing is just making the fans nervous. And nervous fans don’t promote a game for free or even decide to turn their back on the company they once supported.
Geek Related has two interesting posts on that topic:
What’s new with Dungeonslayers?
0February 19, 2009
Some time ago I introduced Dungeonslayers to you, a free and easy beer-and-pretzels roleplaying game.
I have finished the translation of the everything but the introductory adventure and the character creation section has already been layouted. If anything works according to plan, the english version of Dungeonslayers will be available soon. Christian Kennig, author of DS, is already working on an english version of the website.
In the meantime the work on the german version continues. Christian Kenning has posted another short adventure for DS and a couple of handy sheets where the GM can track the groups stats or map out his dungeons with style. I also had some time to work on the campaign setting that I am writing especially for DS (see my last post). This setting will not only feature a whole world for you to play in, but also rules for firearms, two new races and a couple of new monsters.
So, please stay tuned!
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