Mar 25 2013

Geeknic XI: There and back again!

pr_roleplayers_logo1I’ve blogged at length about Puerto Rico Role Players, a local group of role-playing game enthusiasts dedicated to promoting tabletop RPG games in Puerto Rico. Besides running demos a cons, something that’s become a tradition over the last three years have been the geeknics. Picnics for geeks where we gather to game; spend time with other RPG and share the love for all things geek!

It’s been three years now… How time flies! And for the anniversary of our first large gathering as a group we planned a BIG bash. We are going back to the same place where the first one was held, Luis Muñoz Marín Park and we plan various special activities.

Members of the group have already announced there will be a D&D Next playtest game, a Vampire Storyteller is recruiting players for his game and I will run a very special game, more about this momentarily! Besides the RPGs there is always somebody that brings a board game or card game to play. At the last geeknic people played card games, miniatures games and board games as well. So there is something for everyone!

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By • D&D Next, Legacy D&D, Non-RPG, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG • 0

Mar 21 2013

Star Wars Infinities – The Gathering Storm (Part 9 of 9)

SW InfinitiesWell here we are at the end of this weekly series! It’s been a great experience for me. For a long time I had wanted to try my hand at doing a series of related posts on a unifying topic and I’m very thankful to Michael who said “Go for it!” when I told him of the idea of revisiting my old Star Wars RPG Infinities (i.e. What if? or alternate story) type campaign.

Through the process of writing these posts I’ve revisited, edited and remixed my notes on that campaign and have reacquainted myself with my plans for the game. In a way it’s reignited my desire to revisit the game. Perhaps it will happen…

I had originally planned to do eight sessions but as I revisited my notes I realized there was one more bit of information I wanted to share with our readers. The characters! My players back then made some very interesting characters and I wrote some introductions for each of them.

When the game began our group had just changed the location of our game, some players had move to the USA and amazingly I had only 4 players as the campaign began. That quickly changed and the group eventually grew to 5 early one and eventually to 6 by the end of the campaign, about 8 or 9 months later.

On this post I’m going to share the character concept the players gave me and the introduction I wrote after my discussion with the players following character creation. The following stories are not simply my creation they were crafted with player input, so I am very thankful we could tell these stories together. A BIG thanks my player then, Luis Manuel Alvarado, Luis Lao, José Bellavista and Karlo Yeager. Two of them are not currently playing with us regularly, but I always hold hope these good friends will sit at my table once more.

Each section will begin with the character concept as presented by the player, in italics, and the introduction I wrote for each of them. So here we go!

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By • Ask The Readers, Fluff/Inspiration, Non-RPG, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG, Star Wars Saga Edition • 0

Mar 15 2013

Star Wars Infinities – The Gathering Storm (Part 8 of 9)

SW InfinitiesYes you read that right! This was supposed to be the 8th installment of the weekly series of posts based on my old Star Wars Infinities campaign. Organizing the information for these posts has been a trip down memory lane and I realized that I have materials for one additional post. So next week will be the REAL final installment, an overview of the campaign itself. But for this week we’ll venture into crunch territory, house rules!

While the first 7 posts were mostly fluff and (I hope) usable for any Star Wars game, regardless of the system, this one is specifically about the Star Wars Sage Edition RPG. Published in 2007, we quickly embraced the system and got to playing. As I often do before a campaign I submitted a survey to the player about campaign expectations, this gave way to the Infinities timeline and background you’ve read in previous posts. It also gave way to the following house rules.

Back in 2007 I did share some of these rules in the EN World forums and got some excellent feedback form members. The rules evolved, I took some of their advice, ignored other bits, and came up with the following rules…

(Various caveats: I wrote the rules back in 2007, only the core rules had come out. I had some idea of how I wanted the system to work, specifically cutting back on some of the Jedi’s power. Whether I succeeded is debatable. In the end I believe I added needless complexity and there were some easier fixes, but hindsight is 20/20! One last thing, the force talents were adapted from those posted online. I cannot find the original source for all of them; some are adapted from the Imperial Knight Prestige Class (found here), the others I cannot identify. I don’t think I wrote them from scratch, but I am not sure.)

These are the house rules as I presented to my players back them. So let’s take a trip down memory lane to 2007!

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By • Blogging, Fluff/Inspiration, Non-RPG, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG, Star Wars Saga Edition • 0

Mar 13 2013

What about Open Gaming Monthly? A short review…

OGM 01After my review of Gygax Magazine and my bemoaning of the loss of Kobold Quarterly, I discovered another magazine that was recently released in digital form Open Gaming Monthly, a digital only magazine supporting open gaming and brought to you by the folk at PFSRD.com and Fat Goblin Games for $2.99. You might be wondering is the price of admission worth it? Most certainly!

Ok on to the fiddly bits…

The magazine is 99 pages long, full color, with a good balance of ads and content and a catalog of the items for sale at the PFSRD Shop in the back. Right off the bat I must say this did not feel like a shopper, the ads were there but they did not overwhelm me. They had certain columns, like previews, news, notes, and upcoming releases; with a print magazine such content can quickly become dated, but taking advantage of the digital format it’s all hyperlinked and really useful. And there is so much goodness here, from the small columns and asides, like GM Advantage with links to articles and tools, a Resources column, and Random Treasure, little boxes with items all around the magazine.

The content is solid, almost all open content! They had interviews, but they were NOT the main focus of the magazine. The focus was actual content, fluff and crunch I can immediately use in my game. Monsters, items, races, locations, adventures, optimization advice and an open content shared setting to be developed each issue.  There is an artic theme running through many, but not all, articles, which is very nice. The theme ties together parts of the magazine but does not make it so that people NOT running artic or cold themed setting are left hanging.

The largest chunk of the magazine is really Pathfinder content, but with publishers also hosting the Sword and Wizardry SRD and the Mutants & Masterminds SRD, I hope there is space for content for both these games and other OGL games in the magazine.

There are other details, like a full reproduction of the cover art with artist info, and even a recipe! Yes you read that right, a food recipe for Spinach Lasagna Rolls. The art, layout and everything about the magazine is top notch. If they can continue producing such a wonderful magazine month after month they have a regular client here.

An excellent product all around, if you like Pathfinder, Open Gaming content games and want to support PFSRD.com and their related sites, check it out!

By • Just my two cents, Mutants & Masterminds, News & Reviews, Other Systems, Pathfinder, Random musings, Reviews & First Looks, RPG, Swords & Wizardry • 0

Mar 11 2013

Kickstarter: Achtung! Cthulhu – Assault on the Mountains of Madness Confirmed!

On the weekend I received a press release by Modiphius that I just have to share with you guys. As I’ve said before I’m very excited about their current Kickstarter campaign. Combining WW2 with elements of the Cthulhu Mythos is a stroke of genius. Recently the most amazing stretch goal has been reached: a campaign based on H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness! Check out the amazing artwork that will appear in the book:

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If you want to learn more about Achtung! Cthulhu and what you can get if you want to back the campaign, check out the press release after the break or the Achtung! Cthulhu Kickstarter page!

By • Call of Cthulhu, Kickstarter, Other Systems, RPG • 1

Mar 8 2013

Star Wars Infinities – The Gathering Storm (Part 7 of 8)

SW InfinitiesUnderstand, all the planning for this campaign began in 2007. While Social Media existed, not all my players were avid users. One didn’t even have internet access at home. So when I decided to begin teasing about the campaign my best bet were text messages. This was not even MMS, no smart phones in the group. This was only text, and short messages at that…

These messages began simply as a distraction, a way to get all the ideas about the Star Wars game out of my head and give the players an idea of the campaign. I sent the first few while waiting in line at the bank. The response was immediate and I realized these messages could serve another purpose. Through them I could send teasers about the happenings in the galaxy and possible plotlines. Likewise the players took an active role and began interacting with the storyline, one quickly integrating e-mail for longer responses.

Here I have collected and edited all postings sent via text message or e-mail and ordered them into a semi-logical sequence.  They give a glimpse at what had been happening in the Galaxy before the game started, hinted at things to come, and even introduce some characters they met during the game. A very special thanks to Sammy, Piwie and José, they are not currently playing with us regularly, I hope to have them at my games again in the future.

So without further ado, this week’s installment:

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By • Blogging, Fluff/Inspiration, Non-RPG, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG, Star Wars Saga Edition • 0

Mar 6 2013

What about Gygax Magazine? A review… (and a rant for good measure!)

Gygax Magazine #1When Gygax Magazine was announced I was thrilled. Although I am not a big super of the OSR movement (more on this later!), I understand its appeal and there are instances where I enjoy it. Also if you’ve read my past reviews of Kobold Quarterly you’ll know I’m a fan. I always compared it to the old print Dragon Magazine. It was to me the spiritual inheritor of said publication. So what about this magazine that was clearly setting itself up to be the direct descendant of Dragon, from font, to art to content? Would it work?

When the release came out I was REALLY disappointed… I wanted to participate of the fun and get the magazine, but alas there was no electronic version when it came out. That, to me, was a head scratcher; in this day and age to ONLY go with print at launch was a miss. I understand the nostalgia, which was confirmed upon reading the editorial, but that was not communicated effectively beforehand.

In their defense they cleared up questions really quickly, communicated effectively and assured us there would be a digital copy soon. And there was, but no having the digital copy right there and there took the wind off my sails a little bit. Despite the excitement in the RPG community I was a little disappointed by everything I saw about the magazine. It looked TOO MUCH like Dragon magazine; I feared it might not be a tribute and become merely an aping of glories past.

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By • Blogging, Humor, Just my two cents, News & Reviews, Other Systems, Random musings, Reviews & First Looks, RPG • 8

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