RPG tools

Sep 23 2011

Almost as good as the real deal: playing RPGs over Google+ Hangout

This is not an actual screenshot. Yesterday I joined Chris McDowall and a group of three players I didn’t know before that in a game of “Into the Odd” over Google+ Hangout. In this post I want to talk a little bit about both. Let’s start with “Into the Odd”.

“Into the Odd” is basically a highly streamlined and simplified version of D&D that did away with classes, three of the attributes and includes a totally new magic system. In this game magic is not fully understood and based on artifacts left behind by some race that supposedly came from the stars. While it’s a fantasy games it brings a lot of horror and SF themes to the table. The focus of the game is exploration and in our game we explored the “Iron Coral”.

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By • Advice, Legacy D&D, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG, RPG tools • 6

Sep 8 2011

Victorian & Steampunk Name Generator

I am terrible when it comes to coming up names for my characters. So whenever possible I make use of random name generators. As I mentioned several times before I am currently waiting for my copy of Airship Pirates to arrive. Alas I don’t know above the setting yet to make plans for a campaign, I already started looking for a tool to help me to create names for NPCs. Luckily I stumbled upon Spencer Rhodes’ Victorian & Steampunk Name Generator.

http://www.oobleck.org/steam/

The web-based generator allows you to generate up to 15 randomly generated male or female names suited for a game set into the Victorian Age (or a Steampunk equivalent). You can choose between the various social classes. I am sure this random name generator will be invaluable for me in the future!

By • Advice, Freebies, Random musings, RPG, RPG tools • 2

Sep 5 2011

Review: City Builder Generator Pack

City Builder Generator Pack I love random generators of all kinds. Especially when it comes to coming up with names for NPCs or creating all the small details needed to flesh out one of the less important places in one of my campaign worlds, I am glad that random generators for this kind of stuff exist. My favorite series of random generator packs is created by Hannah Lipsky of Chaotic Shiny Productions. In the past I’ve reviewed both the Kingdom Builder Generator Pack and its sequel. Today I want to have a look at the City Builder Generator Pack.

By • News & Reviews, Reviews & First Looks, RPG, RPG tools • 5

Aug 31 2011

Review: The World’s Greatest Screen

The World’s Greatest Screen (Portrait variant, silver) Recently I was looking for another customizable GM screen. While I was quite happy with the “Savage Worlds Customizable GM Screen” for a while, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to look if there was a slightly larger one out there. One of the problems I had with the screen I already owned was that I had to create the insert myself. Because of the landscape format I couldn’t just use pages copied from the rulebook. And there have been cases when I wished the GM screen was a bit higher.

The World’s Greatest Screen actually solves these issues. Like the SW Customizable GM Screen it’s created from cardboard and vinyl. It has a total of 8 sleeves sized 8.5” x 11” so even A4 paper fits if slightly trimmed. Please not that I picked the portrait variant, but if you prefer landscape, you can get it, too. There’s also a mini version with 4” x 6” sleeves.

Quality-wise the World’s Greatest Screen is on par with the Savage Worlds Customizable GM Screen. It looks sturdy enough to survive years of adventuring. With a price of $29.95 it should be affordable for every gamemaster.

According to the product description you can write on the screen itself using wet erase markers. I haven’t tried that yet, but I think this could come in quite handy. If you are looking for a sturdy, affordable and customizable GM screen, you should consider getting “The World’s Greatest Screen” by Hammerdog Games.

By • News & Reviews, Reviews & First Looks, RPG, RPG tools • 9

Jul 25 2011

Twitter and me!

I was not keen on Twitter at first. Some may say I am not big on change, but let’s just say I did not close my MySpace page until last month! I was not quick to migrate to Facebook when it came along, so when I began blogging and discovered how the RPG blogging community was active on Twitter I reluctantly joined. It took some time for me to get used to Twitter, I still use Facebook and remain very active, out Puerto Rico Role Players group main form of contact is there. I use Facebook for my games all the time, and it’s worked better that most other online tools I’ve tried, it has to do with the service’s pervasiveness, I am well aware of that.

So little by little I have balanced my use of Twitter and Facebook. These days most updates I do on Twitter and they appear on Facebook. Oftentimes I will post in English in Twitter, where the majority of my followers are English speakers, and do my occasional update in Spanish in Facebook, where I have a LOT of Spanish speaking friends.

One thing I had NEVER done was participate in a large scale real time discussion with lots of other people. I get hashtags; I had just never tried it. Some time ago I had seen the #RPGchat discussions and lurked, fascinated by all the ideas floating about. So last week I saw they were discussing Gen Con this week and decided to join in. I used my iPhone with the Twitter app and was able to follow and participate so easily.

The people participating in the discussion where friendly, helpful and so much fun and I won a prize they were giving away! It was the most fun I’ve had in Twitter. Shout out to all the fine folk there, it was a pleasure to meet you. I will definitely be joining them again.

I did embrace Google+ early one so worry not I’m keeping up to day.

Just in case, if you are interested, in Facebook you can find me as sunglar@hotmail.com, in Google+ as sunglar@gmail.com (you can see a pattern emerging here) and in Twitter as @Sunglar. I’d love to get to know you all better!

By • Blogging, GenCon, Humor, Non-RPG, Random musings, RPG, RPG tools • 2

Jul 5 2011

Review: Masks – 1000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game

MASKS cover It was almost a year ago when I had the chance to review Engine Publishing’s debut product: Eureka. Back then I called it “the most useful tool a gamemaster could probably have”. And now it seems Martin Ralya and his coauthors have managed to add another vital component to the GM’s toolbox.

Masks is a 338-paged book which contains thousand unique NPCs for your game. There are 334 fantasy characters, 333 sci-fi characters and 333 characters meant for a modern setting. These genre divisions are of course only meant as guidelines, so you might actually use a fantasy character in your sci-fi game with just a few minor tweaks. Aside from being divided into genres the NPCs also fall in three general roles: villain, neutral and allies. Since the most people in any given campaign world are more or less neutral to the players this group makes up 50%, while villains and allies are 25% each.

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By • Advice, News & Reviews, Reviews & First Looks, RPG, RPG tools • 5

Jun 28 2011

Describing the Indescribable

For many creative people, a blank space is an inspiration, a key to unlock ideas. These people can take an empty page or fresh canvas and fill it with wonders, unleashing their imaginations.

I am not one of these people. To me, a blank space is a challenge. I rely on seeds to kickstart me. (This is probably why I am a fan of what has been called “remix culture”, taking existing things and making new things out of them, often by combination with other existing things.) My creativity works more from adaptation to constraint than from limitless possibility. More

By • Fluff/Inspiration, RPG, RPG tools, WR&M • 3 • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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