August 14

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day Twelve: Favourite RPG Illustration

I make no bones about the fact that I’m very much a second generation or so gamer; I got into the hobby in 1989 but had been showing an interest when the old AD&D cartoon was playing on the television.  I even stayed up late to watch an episode of a show called “South of Watford” hosted by Ben Elton in which he played AD&D with Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston, this is what finally got me hooked.

Game books of that era were sparsely illustrated and mainly consisted of line art or in the case of the 1st edition AD&D books used cartoons to fill space.  Is it a surprise then that I tend to prefer the B&W white art of that era as opposed to the full colour that can be found in today’s books?

My favourite illustration is the double page B&W white illustration of the runes that Ralph Horsley did for the Warhammer Fantasy Role-play source book Dwarfs.  The way he made them look like they were carved into stone was spectacular and it truly is awesome to look at.

I have a soft spot for all of the Warhammer art, I find it visually appealing and an idea of roughly what something looks like as it tries to inflict critical wounds upon the characters.

Category: fantasy, RPG | LEAVE A COMMENT
August 13

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day Eleven: Favourite RPG Writer

As the month has progressed I’m finding it harder and harder to answer these questions which is a good thing.  I find there is no challenge to be had  writing about something if it is easy when you can write about something that makes you think.

I am tempted to name one of my friends here but I believe that is cheating and so I won’t stoop so low.  There is one writer who really got me interested in the whole conspiracy genre and he was a prolific writer so I have many of his books; I say late because he died in 1995 aged 35.  I am referring to Nigel D Findley.

I wish Nigel was still here beavering away at his keyboard writing some new project or game supplement.   I only regret not buying the Shadowrun supplement Universal Brotherhood as that was one hell of a sourcebook and it is a shame that I don’t have it as I never got around to finish reading it.

Gurps Illuminati really opened my eyes to the whole conspiracy genre which had me seek out Conspiracy X  and eventually do some freelancing work for Eden Studios on one of their unreleased supplements for Conspiracy X.

 

Category: Modern, RPG | LEAVE A COMMENT
August 12

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day 10: Favourite RPG Publisher

Well this is probably going to be a very tricky question to answer as I’ve met a few of the UK publishers and know a couple of them as friends, I’ve also play-tested for Eden studios so this is going to be a tough question to answer.  Now if this was favourite game designer I may be on shaky ground.

My favourite publisher is no longer in business which makes things somewhat easier as I can’t be accused of favouritism in any way shape or form.

So without further ado my all time favourite is the long lamented Hogshead Publishing. Partly because the reprints of The Enemy Within campaign gave me years of play and was a real joy to referee, I’m more enamoured with the New Style of games that they put out especially The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen.  A wonderful story game with subtle humour and a very light mechanic can give you an evening of raucous laughter as you try and out do each other.

Oh and just to be clear about one thing; James is one of the aforementioned friends I talked about in the opening paragraph.

Now did I ever tell about the time we decided to invade the hollow earth armed only with an egg whisk, spatula and the band of the Coldstream guards……….

August 11

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day 9: Favourite Media You Wish Was an RPG

In some ways I regard myself as lucky, many of the shows and books I like are popular enough to spawn licensed editions.

With the exception of one show:  Blakes 7 RPG.  I have a home-brewed black and white comb bound edition I’d love a decent version of it.

Blakes 7 is a classic British SF programme, it ran for four years and centred around a group of prisoners on the run from the Federation.   Each prisoner had his own character flaws and it was probably the first show I saw where a flaw came to the fore.

Perhaps I shall see about doing my own version of it using Fate or something similar.

Category: sf | LEAVE A COMMENT
August 10

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day 8: Favourite RPG in the Media

One of the points I find while doing this challenge is trying to come up with some interesting answers to the questions.

I remember years ago seeing Mazes and Monsters the film loosely based upon the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III.  So while it is an appearance in the media the game system is entirely fictitious.

My answer to this question would have to be the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, I remember watching this when I got home and being enthralled by it.

I should also point out that while this park takes you to the land of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons none of the riders suffered any sort of injury or dismemberment; which is more than can be said about most modern parks 🙂

 

Category: fantasy, RPG | LEAVE A COMMENT
August 9

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day 7: Favourite Free RPG

I’ll confess to being something of a system hoarder, if I come across a game that is marked as free then I tend to download it so that I can read it or at least be inspired by it.

There are lots of games to download, I would list them all but someone already has a compendium of Free rpgs which can be found here: The Compendium of Free Role Playing Games

My favourite free game would have to be FATE published by Evil Hat , I know it is technically a game system but you can still do a lot with it and it is very easy to build your own game world using this wonderful toolkit.

I did something similar with my Star Trek game, details can be found here and here.

 

Category: FATE, pulp, RPG | LEAVE A COMMENT