A Role Playing Games Blog
Reviews & First Looks
Retro review: Traveller
9December 18, 2008
I have to admit I own a lot of different roleplaying games. Some I haven’t even completely read, some I haven’t even tried out and there are a few that have very fond memories connected to them. One of these games is the original Traveller, that I bought probably around 1990.
My copy is the second printing of the german translation of Traveller that was published under license by Fantasy Productions. When you open the 160 pages paperback book you will immediately notice that this game hails back to 1977. It completely black and white and printed on matte paper. Compared to modern rulesbooks with glossy paper and many full-color illustration this book looks very bland. But it’s probably on par with other rulebooks from that time.
Traveller is a SF roleplaying game and possibly the first SF roleplaying game ever (correct me, when I am wrong). Although Traveller was intended as a generic SF roleplaying system that can be used with a lot of different settings, the rulebook contains the implied setting of the “Third Imperium”. The Third Imperium was heavily inspired by a lot of classic science fiction books like Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series or Poul Anderson’s Polesotechnic League (two of my favorites). I am pretty sure you can run a Foundation campaign with Traveller rules without a problem. Just don’t use any aliens and you’re done.
The rulebook starts with the chapter about characters. Character creation in Traveller is very random. You start by determining your Stats (like Strength, Dexterity, Social Status, etc.) by rolling the dice, these stats are then combined into your UPP or Universal Personality Profile. The UPP uses hexadecimal values to give a shorthand for all stats. A possible UPP would be 747B85 for example. After that you roll on several tables to determine with kind of service the character enters, what skills he or she learned, if any special events happened or if he or she was reinlisted for another tour of duty. It is even possible that a character dies during character creation. When a character finally leaves the service he or she is ready for adventure. This character creation method creates some quite interesting characters. You don’t even have to come up with a background story since most important events where already rolled up during character creation. BUT you have almost no way to control what kind of character you roll up. Imagine you want to play a dashing navy officer but you end up with a dead space trader. Bummer!
The next chapter describes combat in Traveller. The combat system is pretty standard, perhaps a bit on the easy side but has some strange damage rules. There are no hit points but weapons damage the three physical attributes Strength, Endurance and Dexterity. If one of these value drop to 0 or below the character dies. For every point in Dexterity you lose, you have to reduce your combat rolls by one for example. The system works but I would have preferred to have some hitpoints or something like that instead. When I remember correctly that was one of the things I changed when I ran Traveller as a GM.
The following chapters give detailed information about space travel, trade, space ships and space ship construction, computer, space combat, worlds, encounters with animals, encounters, experience and many more. This part of the game still can be used today even if you prefer different rule systems. Travellers system for creating star systems helps even the science-illiterate GM to create believeable star systems. In many ways the classic Traveller rulebook reminds me of GURPS Space. And although Traveller was created with the “Third Imperium” setting in mind, you can easily adopt it to other science fiction settings.
The rulebook even includes two adventures, some details on the “Third Imperium” and a complete region of space for you to explore. But it also lacks a lot of stuff that is usually included in modern games. Although alien races are mentioned, you don’t get any details on how to create alien characters. There are no stats for common NPCs, so the GM has to do all the work himself.
If you are interested in running a SF campaign with an “old school” atmosphere, you can easily pick up and play Traveller. If you still can get a copy, that is. But you will probably have to plan in quite a few hours to prepare things. If a game from 1977 is a bit too old school for you, check out one of the newer incarnations of Traveller. But I am sure that there are still some people out there that enjoy a game of classic Traveller once in a while.
Playtest: WoW Miniatures Game
0December 8, 2008
I have to admit I am an avid “World of Warcraft” fan. When the WoW Miniatures Game was announced I was sure I had to get my hands on one of the starter sets to try it out ASAP. Some time ago I finally had the opportunity to try this game out.
The standard starter box consists of four prepainted miniatures, a set of 10-sided dice, six detachable bases, a rulebook, character cards, ability cards and a two-sided paper map. The maps not only contain the play area but also a round timer and a victory point counter. The bases contain two dials used to show the miniatures current hitpoints and its iniative order.
The first thing noticeable when you open the box is that the miniatures are quite large and of better quality than most prepainted collectible miniatures. When you are a long time WoW player you may even identify the armor and weapons on the miniatures. The miniatures in the starter set are non-random. So you always get a draenei paladin, orc warrior, gnome mage and a blood elf priest. Each miniature comes with a character card, detailing its attacks and defenses, and two ability cards that can be used optionally. For our first game we didn’t use these abilities.
The game itself is similar to other skirmish tabletop games (like D&D Miniatures for example). There are two Victory Points on the map. You earn points for defeating enemies and for getting your miniatures to hexes adjacent these victory areas. The side that reaches a certain amount of points wins. Defeated miniatures respawn fully healed at the graveyard aka spawn point.
The interesting part of the game is the way actions and movement are handled. Each round is divided into ten “ticks”. When you make an action you adjust the “tick” dial on your miniatures base accordingly. At the start of the game every one has set his dial to 1. Making a certain attack costs 3 ticks, so you change the dial to 4. When everybody has moved and acted, the round timer is moved to the next tick. Imagine it’s currently the 3rd tick. Then every miniature which has set their dial to “3″ may act. Since different actions cost different amounts of time, the iniative sequence is in constant flux.
Combat checks are made with pools of ten-sided dice. The attack of a unit has an attack of 3, the defender has an armor value of 2, so the attacker rolls 3 dice and his opponent two dice. Each die with a result of 4 or greater is an success. The attackers successes minus the defenders successes is the amount of HP lost. Magical attacks make magic damage that is soaked by Resist instead of Armor. A warrior for example may have some heavy armor but may be susceptible to magic damage.
The bases (called UBases) serve their purposes very well. They reminded me a bit of the combat dials from WizKids Games. But since there are only 6 bases in the box, you currently can’t do any larger battles as long as you don’t buy additional starter packs. The booster packs don’t contain any UBases.
Our first playtest lasted a couple of rounds. The games rules are pretty easy to understand (although it took us a while to understand the way “ticks” work) and the combat is fast and fun. We haven’t tried the optional Ability Cards, yet, that add some more tactical variation to the game. The game at this moment still lacks some variation in sceanrios you are able to play. Two maps are a bit few for my taste and some more interesting scenarios wouldn’t hurt. But I am sure Upper Deck has still some aces up its sleeve.
UPDATE: They have already released a free map kit and free tokens at their website, that you can download to spice up your game.
FATE review
5December 1, 2008
“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!
CthulhuTech
13October 23, 2008
CthulhuTech is a strange marriage of H.P. Lovecraft‘s Cthulhu mythos and japanese big robot anime series. CthulhuTech is also the first RPG by WildFire, a labor of love of just three people who created the game in their spare time. Knowing this makes the end result even more spectacular.
The rulebook is a beautiful 290 pages full-color hardcover book. When I first opened the book I was blown away by the artwork. The second thing I noticed that everything screams “Neon Genesis Evangelion”. And that’s a good thing. But let’s talk about the story of CthulhuTech first.
The game is set into the near future. It’s 2085 and humanity wages war against an ancient alien race, the Migou, who attack from space and against various cults who attack from within. The stars are right and dead gods have awakened and their gaze falls on Earth. The New Earth Goverment (short: NEG) utilizes cybernetic-organic mecha to fight against the alien invaders and the mecha of unspeakabe cults.
If you are a fan of japanese mecha anime and the Mythos, you will at once fall in love with CthulhuTech. The idea behind the setting is very cool, strangely familiar but also something refreshingly new. But I also fear that a lot of the psychological horror that’s part of Lovecraft’s stories will have to be thrown out of the door when you run a CthulhuTech campaign. The player are supposed to play soldiers in the so-called Aeon War and when you’ve dealed several times with strange alien mecha and other forces of the Mythos, you will probably get used to it. So in the end a Migou is just something like an orc in D&D.
But I haven’t had the chance to playtest the game, so perhaps it’s possible to establish a sense of dread common in Mythos stories even when the players’ character stomp around on battlefields across the solar system with huge humanoid warmachines.
The game uses a rules system dubbed Framewerk, that uses ten-sided dice and reminds me of White Wolf’s Storyteller system. There’s some kind of “poker game” built into the task resolution system that favor roll results that are multiples or straights. Like many modern roleplaying game, CthulhuTech doesn’t use classes or levels. There are several character templates that can be used when you don’t want to create characters totally from scratch, but their are meant as mere guidelines. The available templates are: Arcanotechnician (part scientist, part occult magician), Engel Pilot, Intelligence Agent, Mecha Pilot, Occult Scholar, Soldier and Tager (someone who has bonded with a supernatural symbiont).
Players can also choose between two races: humans and nazzadi. The Nazzadi were created by the migou from human DNA to fight humanity but they rebelled against their creators and now fight alongside humans. Did somebody say Zentraedi *cough*?
When you skim through the book you’ll notice that it’s full of background information, flavor text, everything you’ll consider “fluff”. Although you’ll find many things “borrowed” or “inspired” by anime series like Robotech or Neon Genesis Evangelion, the creators of CthulhuTech have created a highly detailed word in its own right. And since the book also contains a lot of NPC stats, vehicle stats, adventure hooks, etc. you can easily run a whole campaign without ever buying an additional sourcebook.
If you like mecha, SF, the Cthulhu Mythos, japanese anime and eldritch horror, you really should check out CthulhuTech. And if you need even more information on the world of the Aeon War, there’s already a CthulhuTech Companion available in stores and another title called Dark Passions is coming out soon.
The Lost Continent Illyria
6October 21, 2008
Some time ago our fellow RPGBlogger Philippine Gamer has posted about a D&D 4th Edition campaign setting a member of his gaming group, R. Velasco, created: “The Lost Continent Illyria – A Renaissance Magiteck Setting”.
Although (or perhaps because) I am currently working on my own project “World of Asecia”, I had to check out his work.
And I was totally blown away. The setting is only 14 pages long but it’s very well written and uses some great artwork. The PDF document almost looks like a professional roleplaying sourcebook on par with WotC’s work.
Here’s an excerpt for your convenience:
Illyria is a setting where magic, fantasy and technology exist side by side.
Magitech, Portals and Magical skyships, espers and engineers, summoners, and gunknights. Illyria is an unforgiving monarchy where the blood of dragons promote a person’s identity and social status. But still heroes arise in the name of the Queen, or in the name of the Country. Never both.
If you are looking for some setting for your D&D game or some inspiration for your campaign check it out! You won’t regret it!
RIFTS Ultimate Edition – Just my two cents
4September 29, 2008
When I today opened my mailbox I found an US airmail envelope with the RIFTS Ultimate Edition inside it. I ordered it some time ago after writing about my favorite post-apocalyptic settings. The first thing that surprised me was the hardcover format. I’ve owned a few Palladium Book titles in the past and they all have been softcover books and this is a welcome change. My original RIFTS book is already on the verge of falling and the hardcover book looks much sturdier.
But I was not surprised to see that the look and layout of RIFTS hasn’t changed much. Kevin Siembieda still uses the same font throughout the book he always used and the layout is still the two-column layout we all have seen so many times in all these years. So, even if the cover is brand new, the insides are all the same. Or is there still a glimpse of hope?
There is actually quite some new material and the organisation of the chapters has changed a bit. The book now starts with the information on the setting, followed by the O.C.C.s (Occupational Character Classes) and R.C.C.s (Racial Character Classes). A bit strange is the detail, that Siembieda gives details on Magic etc. before explaining the rules and some background information on Chi-Town is thrown in somewhere between magic and equipment. But if you have successfully run a RIFTS campaign before you know what I mean.
The book is mainly black and white on normal paper with some color pages on glossy paper thrown in. There is some new art (at least I haven’t seen it), but there is a lot of art that has been used in the original RIFTS book. When you are used to roleplaying rulebooks like the more recent D&D 4E books you will be surely disappointed by this book. My copy is from the Third Printing dated July 2008 and it looks like from 20 years ago.
The rules are old-school as well. RIFTS contains quite a large number of tables and every class has it’s own levelling chart. If you are a friend of modern and streamlined rules systems you should avoid RIFTS (and every other Palladium Books game) like the plague. Especially the combat rules still are broken in my opinion. And it’s totally beyond me, why they forgot to include a character record sheet.
Ok, when you’ve read this post to this point, you obviously think that I hate RIFTS to the bottom of my heart. But that’s not true. I just LOVE the setting. The RIFTS Earth is a great place to do campaigns in and some of my most fond roleplaying memories are connected to RIFTS. I just can’t understand why Palladium Books is still clinging to these broken rules and why their books still look like they were layouted by an amateur during the late 80s. When I look at this book I get the feeling Kevin Siembieda was sitting at his desk with scissors and glue tinkering the book together.
Another thing that annoys me is the fact that they never forget to put all that legal mumbo-jumpo all over the text. It’s just no fun to read an O.C.C.s description when there are (C), (R), and TMs all over the text. I understand that a company has to defend it’s intellectual property, but Palladium Books is just going to far.
I think that the Ultimate Edition looks better than the original RIFTS book but it’s far from being a perfect product. The over 375 pages long book is still worth it’s money if you can live with the subpar looks and the Palladium rules system. The setting has some very cool elements and opens up an endless playground for a creative GM.
One GM screen to rule them all
4September 24, 2008
I have seen a lot GM screens in my roleplaying times and most of them were either not too sturdy or the information printed on the GM’s side was only partially useful. One excellent GM screen was the one released by WotC for the new D&D 4th Edition but there’s another GM screen that put’s them all to shame!
I am talking about the “Savage Worlds Customizable GM Screen” by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. For around 26 bucks you get a sturdy trifold vinyl screen that has 6 pockets that you can use to customize your screen. I currently use it with the Pirates of the Spanish Main insets that you get for free at the official site, but you can easily create your own insets. If you don’t mind to create your own insets, you can use this GM screen with any roleplaying game. And since it’s coated with vinyl it’s pretty resistance to the common dangers on the playing table like sticky softdrinks, candle wax and/or spilled snack food.
You can even use it to hit your players if they don’t behave. It’s the perfect tool for the GM. 
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