A Role Playing Games Blog
Archive for December, 2009
Happy New Year
0December 31, 2009
New Year’s Eve is upon us and as last year I have invited my gaming group to try out a new game. This time we are going to play “Trail of Cthulhu” by Pelgrane Press.
This is actually the first time I am running a game using the GUMSHOE rules and I wondering how it will turn out. Aside from being pretty rules-light, you don’t need to roll on investigative abilities in that system. All clue-gathering skills succeed automatically. Which removes the old problem that the players have a hard time solving the mystery, because of one or two failed skill checks while gathering information.
If you want to learn more about the GUMSHOE system, you definitely should check out the interview I did with Robin D. Laws in September.
I will now return to my preparations of tonight’s New Year’s Eve party. Take care and have a happy new year 2010!
A Merry Christmas!
1I just came back from the Christmas Eve dinner at my parents and decided it was the perfect time to wish you all a merry Christmas!
As you’ve probably noticed I am taking a small hiatus from blogging but I will be back soon! So stay tuned and take care!
Dungeonslayers: Tomb of the Witchking
1December 22, 2009
Some days ago the 2nd “Dungeon-2-Go” for the Dungeonslayers RPG has been released. While the German version had been available for some time now, Andreas Bösche, Sana D. and Moritz Mehlem finished the English translation just a few days ago.
Following a map they found – or perhaps just by chance – the players find a cave containing the tomb of the witch king Vundraziel, whose disciples followed him into the grave.
The 1-paged PDF is a full adventure for your Dungeonslayers campaign and can be played with characters of level 5 to 8. You can download Tomb of the Witchking at the Dungeonslayers download page. Enjoy!
Lazy Friday Video Post: … please stand by!
0I’m officially on vacation right now and probably pretty busy in the upcoming week, so I will post less frequent than before for the time being. In order to pass the time more easily, I’ve dug in my own archives and found a video that fits perfectly:
You can download the music as MP3 file here. Or press the button below to play it directly in your browser:
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Am I getting old or just lazy?
22December 16, 2009
In the last years I have developed an aversion against games that are very rules-heavy. Although Pathfinder looks very sweet, I just can’t see myself any game based on the d20 System anymore (aside from Microlite20 perhaps). I actually bought Fantasy Craft and was amazed by all the fresh ideas they brought into the game, but in the end, I will probably never run it. Back in the day I have ran several Shadowrun campaigns but today I find the rules much too complicated for my liking.
As I have been getting older I have noticed that I have less time for my hobby. That’s why I started to look at rules-light games like Savage Worlds, the D&D retro clones like Swords & Wizardry, Dungeonslayers and the new Dragon Age RPG. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind reading hundreds of pages of setting information, but when it comes to rules I want it fast and easy. Am I getting old or am I just lazy. As you grew older have you noticed that you preferred rules-light games or would you run D&D 3.5 with all available classes, feats, optional rules every day?
Chill Quickstart Rules
0December 16, 2009
This may be old news to some of my readers, but I just learned about the Quickstart Rules for Chill 3rd Edition. I’ve played Chill a few years back (I think it was the Mayfair edition) and enjoyed it very much, even though my first character ran off naked into the night somewhere in Alaska, never to be seen again. But that’s another story. It was also the first time that I played in a game where the GM made use of eerie music to get the players into the mood. This is a technique I use to this day, sometimes to great effect.
I am not sure if there ever will be a 3rd edition of Chill, because the last news on the official homepage was several months ago. The last thing I heard was that publisher OtherWorld Creations was trying to raise money for the project. Alas the link to the fundraising page is dead and the activity on the Yahoo! group of the project has almost come to a halt in the last months.
The 45-paged Quickstart Rules PDF contains all the rules you need to play a game, an introductory adventure and a couple of pregenerated characters. Since I am a big fan of horror games I might have bought a third edition of Chill, but from the looks of it, the project is dead like a dodo.
Why I love the Dragon Age RPG
6December 15, 2009
Some days ago Green Ronin finally made the Dragon Age RPG Set 1 available for preorder and offered it as PDF download, too. On top of that everyone one who preorders the boxed set gets the PDFs for free. As I very much enjoyed the Dragon Age: Origins computer game I preordered the boxed set as soon as possible. On the very same day I printed out the PDFs on my laser printer and started reading. And I have to admit, I very much like what I’ve read so far.
It’s a great game for new players to pickup and play
The Dragon Age RPG is a great new game for experienced and new players alike and I am sure that it could help to get more people interested in our hobby. And that’s actually the first reason why I love this game. The rules are very rules-light, almost old-school but presented in a way that even inexperienced players should have no troubles understanding the rules. Character creation is very fast and easy but offers a lot of options for the players. And especially if you have played the computer game you already know what to expect when playing the game. The GM doesn’t have to explain to his players what a Mabari War Hound is, for example.
It feels like an old-school game
When you’ve followed my blog for some time now, you know that I very much enjoyed playing some of the more old-school games like the D&D retro clones, Traveller or 1st edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. And in a way, Dragon Age harkens back to these old-school games. Especially when you read the section about GM “Dos and Don’ts” you’ll notice a lot of tips that sound like they were taken directly from the “Quick Primer for Old-School Gaming”. Special emphasis was put onto the idea that you should challenge the players and not just their characters. And this is very old-school in my book. The rules-lite approach reinforces that old-school feel.
Boxed Set
I love boxed sets! Especially for a game targeted at new players, a boxed set is a must in my book. In this format it’s much easier to provide the player with everything he needs to play, and it looks more like a game to potential customers. It’s a shame that the boxed set will probably arrive a bit to late to make a Christmas gift this year.
Fantasy with a twist
The world of Dragon Age has all the fantasy tropes like elves, dwarves, mages, etc. but with a twist. Elves are not the perfect, immortal beings we know from Tolkien’s work but have been enslaved by humans for a long time and are still second-rate citizens in most places. Dwarves are an almost extinct race and known for their political intrigues and backstabbing. Mages are closely watched by the Chantry and feared and distrusted by the common people. Bioware’s vision of a dark fantasy world is not as original as many other more outlandish worlds but it’s definitely not your garden variety fantasy setting.
If you haven’t already preordered Green Ronin’s Dragon Age Set 1, you should definitely check it out as soon as it hits the stores. And if everything works as planned I should be able to post a proper review later this week. So stay tuned.
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