A Role Playing Games Blog
Random musings
Converting the Spouse: An Ongoing Quest – Part 2
4August 9, 2011
I was really, really surprised and excited to see the great response behind my first post in this series. I’m really happy to see everyone chiming in to comment and relate. It’s good to see that I’m not entirely alone on this issue; I am however going to continue in my conversion endeavor and for that reason, I have come back again to relate my never ending journey of turning my wife into a gamer.
Last time, I talked about my plans for using L5R as our game system of choice, due to its relatively easy rules and also thematically easy to relate to premise. I also decided that we are going to be going a bit away from a purely murder, death, kill, loot style of gaming. But, when last we parted, I wasn’t exactly sure about what I would be doing with the game; this week, the game type gets narrowed down, and we move into the realm of character creation. Good stuff.
Three Years of Stargazer’s World
2August 8, 2011
On August 4th Stargazer’s World has celebrated it’s third anniversary. Over the last 36 months my team and I have brought you over 1140 posts. That’s about 31 posts per month! I sincerely hope that you enjoyed reading the blog as much as we did writing it!
A lot has changed over the last three years. When I started out I was the only one German fan who took his first steps into the world of RPG blogging. Without the help of the RPG Bloggers Network, our readers and a few friends I would probably have given up soon. But that’s was not how it turned out. Writing for Stargazer’s World helped me to make friends all over the world, encouraged me to go to GenCon and gave me the confidence to release a roleplaying game of my own writing.
It have been quite tumultuous times but I definitely won’t miss a minute of it. Thanks again to everyone who joined me on that ride!
Gen Con Day 1… Results: Tired! (Lots of fun but beat)
0August 5, 2011
Whatever possessed me to think I could actually write about Gen Con Indy after a full day of gaming? Well here goes a post about first impressions. I got to talk to a LOT of people today, and hopefully get to talk to more tomorrow, both friends and exhibitors. So how was it so far? Awesome!
After my last first time here four years ago, I came to the con with a different attitude, and it has worked. I have spent time with friends from the island who travelled here from back home as well as those that live stateside. I have also met with friends I had only contacted through social media. It’s a strange thing to meet people you’ve only seen in avatars and profile pictures.
As far as Gen Con goes, well what can I add? It’s a massive event no gamer should miss. No matter how far away you are it’s a pilgrimage worth making, and I am sure once you’ve been here you’ll want to return. Today I concentrated on the Exhibitors Room, foolishly believing I could see all I wanted to see. I visited booths, talked to some professionals I had never thought I would exchange words with and learned about all sorts of interesting games. Some are already being talked about in the blogosphere and internet new sites. Also I went to some smaller companies and saw some really interesting things, especially in areas I typically don’t follow, like miniature games and board games.
I spent far too much money and already have the books I wanted and a few more. I will write more extensively later on specifics as I am simply just too tired to write much more. I finished the night playing a game of Savage Worlds with David (@LodestoneDavid) from Purple Pawn who was kind enough to run three loud Puerto Ricans (me, my friend Yamir and @luniticus) as well as our new friend Scott, through an excellent pulp adventure. It helped me better understand the system as well as show me how to put together all the rule components more efficiently. Kudos to David!
And I cannot sign off today without thanking the Gen Con staff who facilitated my being there, were helpful and all around swell people. Covering the con for the blog has been a blast. I will write more next week about the experience and specifics, so this is just the beginning. Thank you all for reading!
PS – Remember that This Just In from… Gen Con! Is also covering the con and they are doing podcasts about it…
Starblazer Adventures: Our character creation session
4August 4, 2011
Yesterday my new gaming group assembled for our Starblazer Adventures character creation. None of us had played FATE before, so it was an exciting experiment for all of us. As expected coming up with the Aspects was actually the hardest part.
After all the players had finally arrived I gave them another overview of the FATE system. Then after talking about their basic character concepts we started with the character creation phases.
To make things easier for all of us and because I thought it was the best fit for what I had in mind, I chose the Gritty option. That means there are three phases during character creation (Training, Starblazer Legend, Guest Star). Each player character gets 6 Aspects, 3 Stunts and can spend 15 Skillpoints. Choosing skills and stunts took mere minutes, but going through the three phases to come up with a backgound story and the six Aspects took several hours. Luckily my players have brought some snacks and I had prepared some Chili con carne, so at least we didn’t starve through the process. 
But in the end the players came up with some great Aspects. I am not sure how well they will work ingame, but at least they sound great and give a good overview of how the character “ticks”.
So what characters did the players create? There is the female corporate pilot whose father had already worked for ExoGeni and who is known for her reckless flying, the ambitioned Turian tech who has issues with authority, the genius archeologist who considers his brains his only weapon and finally the Drell ex-soldier who had to survive as an orphan in the streets of his homeworld.
Hopefully we can play for the first time in two or three weeks. Alas scheduling is as always a major issue and two of the players have to drive about an hour to get to my home. But this is not keeping us from giving Starblazer Adventures a try. As said before we are all quite excited. We all enjoy the Mass Effect universe and everyone is very happy with how the characters turned out. Now I have some time to prepare our first adventure. Wish me luck.
My Gen Con plans…
6August 3, 2011
I am really looking forward to Gen Con! I blogged about it a while ago… We are so close to that most sacred gathering of geeks in Indianapolis that I can taste it. I’ve only been there once before in 2007 but I can tell you it’s one of those things you have to do at least once if you are a gamer. Last time I think I missed a lot of the fun, I bought too much, gamed too little and did not interact with people enough. All issues I intend to correct.
I also plan to cover Gen Con for the blog. The how is still taking form. I’ll be taking lots of pictures and talking to whoever will indulge me, to know what fun things publishers big and small are planning and unveiling at the con. In this day and age there is so much information and coverage (like the fine folk at This Just in from Gen Con) that I don’t aspire to bring you every bit of news, just what I think will be of interest to our readers. I hope to post in some form from Gen Con, let’s see if the Exhibit Hall and random games don’t kill me…
What’s my plan? Well it’s fluid… At first I began filling up a log schedule and after a while I realized I would be running from one place to the other with little time to just ENJOY being there. So I scrapped it and decided to play it by ear. Here is the (very) rough outline: (more…)
Starblazer Adventures: Biotics
0August 2, 2011
I finally made a breakthrough in my efforts to get a Mass Effect campaign using Starblazer Adventures up and running. The biggest hurdle so far have been the biotic abilities and tech talents. But luckily I’ve found solutions for both.
Tech is actually pretty easy. In most cases no special skills or stunts are needed. Starblazer’s Science and Engineering skills and their respective stunts pretty much cover everyting needed. The Omni-Tool from Mass Effect basically combines the Med Kit, the Multi-Tool and a PDA in one single item. In addition to that usage of the Omni-Tool shall allow the user to administer medical treatment with either their Engineering or Science skill whatever is higher.
With the help of Legends of Anglerre I was able to create a couple stunts for the new Biotics skill. In order to pick that skill the character needs at least one fitting Aspect. The stunts then give access to the powers you might know from Mass Effect 1.
What time is it? Jade Regent time!
0August 1, 2011
I just got an e-mail from Paizo promoting their upcoming Adventure Path, Jade Regent. Curiously I organized my RPGs today (part of the ongoing get the library back into a semblance of normalcy project) and I gave Pathfinder its own very own shelve; before it used to be grouped with all the other D&D editions. Looking over the Pathfinder Adventure Paths I noticed that I won the very first one, Rise of the Runelords (I got the first part at Gen Con when I went for the first time) and then a smattering of issues here and there, mostly when a topic they covered appealed to me.
I am NOT their market for adventure paths. I rarely, if ever, play pre-published adventures. I may read the occasional one for an idea, stealing a map here, a trap there, but let’s just say the last adventure I ran ALMOST straight from the book was an AD&D 2nd edition adventure. Still I find the format Paizo uses intriguing because each adventure installment is accompanied by other gaming material. I have also recently become more interested in Golarion. While I doubt I will ever run a game in that setting, it’s one of those worlds I love reading about for inspiration and just for the sheer fun of it.
One thing I love from all adventure paths is the free Players Guide! Who doesn’t like a freebie! This one is no different. This time around the traits are tied to some key NPCS. The NPCS are very nice and can be used for any campaign. The guide also has rules for caravans. Yes you read that right, caravans… Their statistics, events, job, combat, the idea seemed farfetched at first but for a campaign where the PC will be making the long journey overland to a distant land it seems like a good mechanic to add. I will need to read it better to see how I could put this to use. Interesting!
So if you like adventure paths and are interested in one out of the adventures of Marco Polo, and you want to visit the distant Asian themed lands of Golarion, this Adventure Path may just be up you alley. Me I’m sitting down to read the Player’s Guide. Enjoy…
PS- As I was re-reading this post for typos I noticed I had originally written Rise of the Rune Lords as RIDE of the Runelords… That adventure path would have been very different if the protagonists were a bunch of Harley ridding guys with big beer bellies. Just saying…
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