RPG

May 14 2013

Three computer RPGs every tabletop RPG fan should play

In the first post on this blog I actually said that I won’t be writing about computer games here. Today I want to make an exception from this rule. I have been an avid fan of computer roleplaying games long before I actually knew that tabletop RPGs existed. Most computer roleplaying games actually are not worthy of being called “roleplaying” games. Often the only thing they share with their tabletop counterparts are the underlying rules systems and several tropes.

But there are a couple of computer roleplaying games that actually allow you to roleplay to a degree. Others are great examples of world-building which could be an inspiration to GMs who love to create their own settings. There are three of these games I want to write about today.

Fallout
Fallout One of my all-time favorite computer games is Fallout. I am actually talking about the 1997 Interplay game here. The original Fallout takes place in a post-apocalyptic Southern California. It’s the year 2161 and family of the hero has survived the apocalypse in a huge underground vault. After a vital piece of equipment breaks down, the hero is sent out to retrieve a replacement from another vault. Of course this is only the first step in an epic adventure. What set Fallout apart from other games of the time was that you really could play the game like you wanted. You could focus on fighting your way through any opposition, outsmart or sneak around your enemies. In my first playthrough I played a charismatic and intelligent character that solved almost any problem with talking instead of shooting. I had a blast. The writing was solid, it had great humor, and a gripping, pretty non-linear story. Your decisions actually mattered, unlike in other games where different dialog options always lead to the same outcome.
In my humble opinion the Fallout universe is also deep enough to be used as a basis for a tabletop campaign. The sequels Fallout 2, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are still great games, but the first Fallout is definitely the best title in the series.
Fallout was actually meant to employ the GURPS rules, but Steve Jackson Games was unhappy about the game’s mature content, so the developers had to come up with a completely original system.

Mass Effect
Mass Effect If you’re even remotely interested in computer and video games you must’ve heard about the Mass Effect series. The Mass Effect trilogy spawned several spin-off games for mobile devices, comics, book, an animated movie and there are even plans for a feature film. Mass Effect is a science fiction action RPG developed by Bioware which tells the story of Commander Shepard who is fighting against the mysterious Reapers who wipe out the major civilizations of the Milky Way in a regular cycle. When I first played Mass Effect I was surprised how deep the background setting was. The Mass Effect feels much larger than the game itself. In a way it reminded me of the Star Wars galaxy. Even after watching Episode 4 I felt that I have glanced into a much larger universe. I felt the same with Mass Effect 1.
The gameplay varied slightly during the series. Mass Effect 2 and 3 feel much more like first person shooters than the first game in the series. But like in the aforementioned Fallout, combat is not everything that matters in Mass Effect. The decisions you made actually mattered and sometimes things you’ve done in the first episode of the trilogy affected events in the last episode. The conclusion of the series was a letdown to many gamers, but overall Mass Effect is probably the computer game that had the biggest emotional effect on me. I have to admit that there’s one scene in Mass Effect 3 that brought tears into my eyes. This is something no other computer game has achieved so far.
Why do I recommend Mass Effect to tabletop RPG fans? Mostly because of the setting. Mass Effect is a incredibly deep (for a computer game) and well designed space opera that works great at the tabletop. I’ve successfully run a Mass Effect game in the past using Starblazer Adventures and there are many other conversions available on the internet.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Skyrim Skyrim is the lastest game in the Elder Scrolls series. Like it’s predecessors it’s set in the continent of Tamriel, which has been ruled by the Empire for millenia. But things started to go downhill after the last member of the Septim bloodline sacrificed himself. The game is set into the northern-most province of the Empire called Skyrim. The game starts with your player character being sentenced to death but a sudden dragon attack gives you the chance to escape and eventually start a new life. After a short and pretty linear tutorial during which you can flee from the dragon attack, a whole world opens up for you to explore. Skyrim is a huge and beautiful sandbox for you to play in. There are countless dungeons, several large cities, small towns, lone farm houses, hundreds of quests, a crafting system, houses for you to buy and decorate… The options are almost endless. The main story of Skyrim is actually not that great, but that’s probably not why anyone plays an Elder Scrolls game. The Elder Scrolls series always provided a great sandbox experience. Other parts of the series probably offered you a deeper gameplay – in older titles you could even create custom spells and own businesses – but Skyrim is definitely the most accessible game of the series. By the way, Ken Rolston, who was lead designer for two games of the series, Oblivion and Morrowind, was a pen & paper RPG designer before he entered the video game industry. I think it’s no surprise that the rules system used in the earlier games of the series reminds me a lot of RuneQuest.

Honorable Mentions
If you are looking for other great games aside from the ones mentioned above, check out the other episodes of the Fallout, Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls series. If you don’t mind the dated graphics and gameplay you also should give the Ultima series a try. It’s one of the longest running computer game series and loved by many, even though the last two installments of the series were pretty bad. If you’re looking for a truly memorable story check out Planescape Torment. In my opinion it’s definitely the best AD&D-based computer RPG out there. Troika Games’ Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magicks Obscura is steampunk fantasy game that plays a lot like the original Fallout. It has some quirks and is still somewhat buggy, but both the story and the world are worth your time. It’s one of those settings I would to use at the tabletop one day. Last but not least, I have a treat for fans of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series: Cyanide’s Game of Thrones is an underrated gem. The graphics are somewhat outdated and the animations and voice acting are not the best out there, but the plot is truly awesome.

What are your thoughts on computer roleplaying games? Do you like them or hate them? Have you ever used elements from video games in your pen & paper roleplaying games? Please share your thoughts below!

By • Fluff/Inspiration, Random musings, RPG • 12

May 8 2013

The pressure of being GM

Being the game master, dungeon master, referee, storyteller, or whatever you may call that special position can be a lot of fun. But it also carries with it a certain amount of pressure, and if things go badly this pressure may ruin the fun for everyone. While a lot of people claim that everyone at the game table is responsible for everyone else’s fun, in reality most players rely on the GM to entertain them. And even if they don’t, a lot of GMs I met, feel that they have to work harder than everyone else.

In fact a lot of GMs also put a lot of pressure on themselves. Some GMs not only run the games, but they also write the adventures, or even create the whole game world. Heck, there are quite a few GMs who actually wrote their own house rules or even created whole systems from scratch. So it’s just natural that they feel pressure when they present their creations to the group.

Over the years I’ve noticed that running games has turned from something that was fun into something that I subconsciously tried to avoid. I love coming up with awesome game worlds, I’ve written several RPGs, I’ve written (or improvised) the vast majority of my games, and I am pretty sure that my players enjoyed themselves most of the time.  But while my players were usually very patient, understanding and helpful, I felt that I put more and more pressure onto myself. I always liked to try out new systems and new worlds, but over the years the campaigns I ran got shorter and shorter – mostly because I thought the games had “jumped the shark”. As you can imagine, the unexpected success I had with Warrior, Rogue & Mage back in 2010, didn’t really help. The pressure slowly became unbearable.

Looking back I now realize that I probably already suffered from depression back then. One common symptom is that you feel that nothing you do has any worth or that it is not good enough. This feeling has caused me to stop working on quite a few game design projects and it’s also a reason why it’s currently so hard for me to start running games again. Being a GM with depressions is probably a special case, but I am sure that a lot of you GMs out there feel that pressure from time to time, too – especially if you have very demanding players.

So what can we do to deal with these feelings? I think the first step is to openly talk about this issue. Roleplaying games are pretty social games and often your players are also your friends. So talk to them about it. Sometimes talking a break may help or asking someone else to run a game for a couple of sessions. Another way to reduce pressure is to switch to another system and/or setting you’re more comfortable with. Or just run a beer-and-pretzels game for a while, before you get back to more elaborate campaigns.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you feel a certain pressure, too, when you are running games? What are your methods to deal with that feeling? Please share your thoughts below!

By • Advice, Ask The Readers, Random musings, RPG • 5

May 6 2013

My thoughts on PDFs vs. printed books

Paper or Plastic? Recently I noticed a discussion on Google+ about whether gamers prefer PDFs or printed books. This subject crops up from time to time and I noticed that with the greater availability of tablet PCs more and more people start to pick electronic versions of roleplaying game books over the dead tree versions. So I thought I should share my thoughts on this subject with my dear readers.

I always have been an early adopter of new technologies and my collection of roleplaying game PDFs is much, much larger than my collection of printed books. PDFs are especially handy when it comes to preparing games. Looking up things is much easier because of full-text search and you can easily copy sections you want to reuse in your cheat sheets or player handouts. A lot of us do their prep work on the PC anyway.

I know from conversations I had with other gamers that a lot of groups have completely switched to PDFs and tablet PCs at the game table. If everyone in the group has a tablet PC or smartphone with a reasonably big screen, using PDFs instead of dead tree versions of books may make a lot of sense. From my D&D 3.5 days I still remember the hassle to carry around half a dozen of heavy hardbound books all the time. So using a tablet PCs and PDFs is the reasonable thing to do for most GMs.

But for some reason I still prefer using mostly dead tree books at the game table. One reason may be that I just like to leaf through real books. The physical sensation of leafing through a book and the smell of the paper are still almost magical to me. I guess nostalgia plays a major role here.

I own a lot of games I will probably never run and in these cases I am more than happy with the PDF version alone. But with the games I run, I prefer to have a dead tree copy of the rules in addition a PDF copy. For preparing the game and quickly looking up things I use the PDF (on my PC or tablet PC) and while running I rely on the paper version. For Stars Without Number I actually got a second copy of the printed book so I can give one copy to my players as well.

I guess that in the future I’ll probably rely more often on PDFs alone. In most cases PDFs are cheaper and if you own a reasonably fast tablet PC they have quite a few advantages over the dead tree version. What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you have the same feeling for dead tree books as I do, or have you fully embraced the digital age? Please share your thoughts below.

By • Random musings, RPG • 5

Apr 25 2013

Robots, Maps and Traveller: An interview with Rouven Weinbach

Rouven WeinbachThe first roleplaying game I ever bought was the German translation of Marc Miller’s Traveller. I have been a huge fan of science fiction even long before I knew what roleplaying games were. After playing a couple of fantasy RPGs I thought I was ready to run a game myself and decided that Traveller was the perfect game for me. The first game I ran wasn’t actually that bad, even though the story I came up with was more than a bit weak. But nevertheless the players and I had a great time. Alas we never continued the campaign and even though I like Traveller very much, I never ran it again.

A couple of months ago an old friend of mine, Rouven Weinbach, got in touch with me. Unbeknownst to me, he was now working as freelancer for the German RPG publisher 13Mann, and has written a supplement for Traveller (compatible with Mongoose’s Traveller) called “Robots“. I have to admit that I am no expert on Traveller and me writing a review wouldn’t probably do the product justice, so we decided it would be a fun idea to do an interview with Rouven instead.

Stargazer: Thanks for taking your time to answer a couple of questions about Traveller, Robots, 13Mann and yourself. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Rouven: Gladly. I am a game designer and author and have been in touch with RPGs since the tender age of 12. That was the time when Ronald Reagan was still dreaming of SDI and the number of roleplaying products were still countable. Like most GMs I wrote my own adventures. Some of them bad, some of them worse but I never stopped doing it.

Being a game designer and author is not my real job though. I only do it during my spare time. My real job is with a big logistics company in Germany.

More

By • Interview, News & Reviews, Other Systems, RPG, Traveller • 2

Apr 22 2013

Life Signs

Reports of the unfortunate and sudden demise of Stargazer’s World are highly exaggerated. Even though I haven’t posted in the last few weeks doesn’t mean I plan to shut down the blog for good. I actually have a couple of posts in preparation and I hope to get things running again soon. But on the other hand I decided that taking a break from blogging wouldn’t be the end of the world. At the moment I slowly try to get things running again. So please excuse that this post is of a more personal nature than what you’re used to.

The last weeks and months have been quite hard for me. Even though I have been in therapy for the last months, my mental health issues flared up again earlier this year. I had to cancel a SWN campaign I wanted to run, because the fear I could mess up things again, turned into fully-blown anxiety attacks. Focussing on anything became exeedingly hard and I had to be signed off work for four weeks.

According to my therapist I suffer from a moderate depressive episode. In my case anxiety and sleep disorders are among the major symptoms. I am also pretty thin-skinned and prone to bouts of anger. I easily get frustrated, which doesn’t really help with creative endeavours like preparing for a roleplaying campaign or writing blog posts. In the last few months it has become pretty obvious that I suffer from some kind of mental health issue. But looking back, I realized that I have been suffering from depression for much, much longer.

Being able to call my mental health issues by name is actually helping a lot. Up until a while ago, I always had to give some pretty fuzzy explanations on what was wrong with me. Now that I know that it’s depression I suffer from, things are easier. I still have to cope with the symptoms from time to time, but it’s easier to talk about my problems. In addition to that the new medication my doctor prescribed seems to help.

Since I haven’t run any games in a while, writing about RPGs is becoming harder. I always drew a lot of inspirations from what I’ve experienced at the game table and at this moment I feel like a fake when I am writing about something I actually don’t do at the moment. There are also a couple of books on my shelf that need to be reviewed, but I haven’t managed to read them thouroughly – and my bad conscience isn’t helping.

I am pretty sure that things will slowly improve over time, but currently I am still struggling to cope with the daily chores. So please bear with me, if I don’t manage to post in a regular manner. I also hope you don’t mind if I use this blog to write about my depressions from time to time. Talking with other people about my problems has always helped me to cope and writing about it isn’t much different. I also got the impression that depression and other mental health issues are not uncommon in the RPG scene, so perhaps this topic is not completely off-topic at all.

By • Random musings, RPG, Site News • 12

Apr 5 2013

Wanderers of the Outlands, a sci-fi setting!

Milky_Way_GalaxyAlmost two years ago I wrote my first post about a sci-fi setting I had in mind. I plan ahead for my campaign so I knew I wanted to run some sci-fi and began to put together some ideas about what to run. I posted a first draft here in the blog, talked with my players, the majority was excited about the prospect, listened to the comments the first time around, and have been tinkering with it ever since.

In the meantime I wrote about designing aliens (and some wonderful readers offered to help with the design, I never took you up on it because just what the aliens looked like had not really solidified in my mind, but if the offer is still good I’d love to work with any artist willing to help!) and wrote the end of the campaign for a ConCurrent game I ran, both at a Geeknic and online during the con (the links to part 1 and part 2).

So coming back full circle, here is the finished background to my sci-fi game. I already discussed it with my players, and they seem to be on board. Some elements remain undeveloped, but that is a purposeful decision because my players have agreed to develop specific elements of the campaign. I love that idea and look forward to their input.

So, without further ado, Wanderers of the Outlands! (I’ll be back after the background to discuss some specifics of the campaign…)

By • Ask The Readers, FATE, Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, Pathfinder, Random musings, RPG, Star Wars Saga Edition • 4

Mar 27 2013

SWN: Jumpstarting my Creativity

Stars Without Numbers Mongoose CoverFor the last few weeks I really struggled getting anything done. I don’t know what caused it – perhaps it’s this long, cold and dark winter – but my mental health issues have been more severe lately. At this moment I am slowly starting to feel better. The bouts of anxiety I get from time to time are fewer and further between, but I still have troubles when it comes to creativity.

But just today I found a good way to jumpstart my creativity again. Stars Without Number has a pretty elaborate World generating system that allows the game master to quickly roll up detailed worlds. There are random tables for atmosphere, biosphere, tech level, population, tags, etc. Within a few minutes you can roll up a whole slew of worlds. Since I want to run SWN in the near future I decided rolling up a sector would be a good start. So I got my dice and started rolling.

To make things easier for me, I created a spreadsheet in Google Drive that allows me to enter the numbers I rolled and it automatically puts out the results. That way I didn’t have to write everything down myself. Instead I just rolled and watched as the worlds slowly took shape on the spreadsheet – and in my mind. Especially the tags generated by this system really help to jumpstart one’s ideas.

For one world I rolled up the tags Unbraked AI and Zombies. Immediately I had ideas about a world controlled by a mad AI that creates mindless cyborg zombies from any hapless human being it can get its hands on. This world could be the perfect setting for a horror-themed adventure. In another case I got Desert Planet and Alien Ruins, and my mind was filled with ideas of a lost alien civilization whose remains are scattered across a deadly desert. Within a couple of minutes I had a couple of great adventure ideas.

Of course rolling up the worlds is just the very first step. I still have to turn everything into a workable setting. Some worlds I created using the random generation method are pretty silly and don’t make much sense at all, so I’ll have to make some subtle – and not so subtle – adjustments in the coming days. But the important part is that using the random world generation in Stars Without Numbers helped me getting some creative work done. Now I have to make sure that my perfectionism and self-doubt don’t stop me dead in my tracks. Wish me luck!

By • Advice, Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG • 7

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