October 15

October 2015 Blog Carnival: What Walks Into Town

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This month the host is Scot Newbury of Dice and Dragons .

It’s been a few months since I wrote for the carnival and when October rolls around I seem to have a dozen or so ideas rattling around in my skull which is the perfect thing for this months carnival.

Picture the scene, a small 1950s town in California where things seem to be perfectly normal on the outside but beneath the town has a dark underside.  The residents go about their daily lives blissfully unaware that in a few days a time traveller will appear that will set a chain of events in motion which if unchecked threaten to unravel the fabric of space and time firstly by killing the family and friends of this stranger;  then slowly erasing the whole world from existence.

Our time traveller finds himself stranded in his new time, his time machine requires a specialised fuel to power it and that is something that is very hard to come by in the 1950s.  If there is one thing in his favour is that when he landed he did so at the edge of town so his arrival goes largely unnoticed by the general population; the only contact he has is with a deranged farmer who was convinced he came from outer space to eat his brain.

Also, since he has travelled through time and not space he can blend in with only a few odd looks from the locals, his clothing is slightly different and made from an advanced fabric, he speaks in a strange slang which is unknown to the good people.  Conversely there are things here that are alien to him;  auto-mobiles are very low tech and all appear to be stick shift and not the automatic vehicles from his home time.  People gather at the bandstand to listen to music being played, this structure has a very different use in his time; this is very much the era of live music, the theatre and going to school dance; even getting a simple shave or h.aircut can be entertaining with a quartet of barbers to hand.

After a chance encounter with a friend from his own time he is made aware that every interaction he has causes ripples that subtly alter the time-line around him; he has become like a butterfly flapping his wings here and a storm occurring over there.  A second accidental encounter means he meets his own parents and must atone for the damage he has caused to their relationship or else the aforementioned doom will befall him.

All the while he wanders he has knowledge of what is to come, maybe not to all the residents of this sleepy town but there are a few important people here and there with an important part to play in the future of this town.   So our poor traveller stuck in his past must tread a fine line or risk upsetting the cosmic apple cart.

Note.

When I wrote this I was going to reveal the identity of the traveller as it is based on someone but then I realised that it would spoil the set-up of the mysterious stranger and this would no longer be What Walks Into Town but Who Walks Into Town. So take what I have given you, change it if you will and use your own time traveller rather than mine.

I won’t stop you having a guess if you want in the comments below but even if you guess right; I won’t publicly acknowledge it.

October 8

Kickstarter – DRAGONLOCK™ 28mm Scale Dungeon Gaming Terrain

Many years ago at GenConUK I remember seeing a set of dungeon furniture and scenery sets cast in resin and I fell in love with them.  What I couldn’t justify was the cost for a starter set as they were and still are very expensive items to have.

Enter Fat Dragon Games who have so far made all sorts of interesting terrain sets using print at home templates and slightly thicker paper in your printer so you can print as much as you like.

Now they have gone the extra step and are producing a Kickstarter so that you can print your own 3d terrain with a 3d printer!

I would so love to back this project but the lack of a 3d printer is what is preventing me from doing so.

 

October 6

Kickstarter – Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game

Originally released as a softback book with a campaign supplement that followed soon after Delta Green for me combined two elements I really love; the Cthlhu mythos and the conspiracy genre.  Where games like Dark Conspiracy and Conspiracy X both shine in their own niches, only Delta Green brought the mythos bang up to date.  It is a very different beast than Cthulhu Now which was the official modern day sourcebook for CoC and it taps into the idea that aliens have visited Earth using spaceships.

Now they are releasing a stand alone game which builds upon the work that has gone beforehand and it really does stand on the shoulders of giants.  There are various pledge levels available, enough to suit each persons pocket.

October 3

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day 19: Favourite Supers RPG

Since I first dipped my toes into the waters of superhero gaming I’ve loved the idea of playing someone with special powers.

I did compile a list of games that I was aware of at the time that were still available to purchase and you can find the list by following this link.

There have been a few more to appear, the Valiant RPG being one of them, this still fails to knock my favourite game off the top spot; BASH.  I blogged about this game in my top 10 and you can find the original article here.

Once I get my act together, I’ll have another superhero round-up and have another poll to see what your favourite game is and this time I’ll be sure to include Supers RED 🙂

 

 

October 2

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day 18: Favourite SF RPG

I’m using the same sort of criteria I did yesterday for my Favourite SF RPG, but I have fewer sf games that I like to mention.  I must have bought lots of sf games trying to find one to equal or better than my current favourite.

In the end it just boils down to one sf RPG, Traveller.  The background that eventually became  the Traveller milieu is sprawling and took inspiration from a great number of sf works, including Isaac Asmiov’s Foundation series and if you don’t believe me consult the library data and look up “psychohistory” 🙂  The game has had several editions and it was mentioned in my top ten rpg list such was the drawing power of this game.

Now I see Mongoose is working on another version of Traveller, I hope they are able to present something refreshing but still somewhat familiar to the classic game.

Runner up:

Star Wars.  Still for me a classic game of good vs evil and being able to watch the film to get an insight into what the game is all about is still a big draw for me.

 

 

 

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October 1

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day 17: Favourite Fantasy RPG

In my twenty-five something years of gaming I’ve read, run and played in a fair few number of fantasy RPGs,  so trying to decide my favourite is a bit tricky.  In the end I think I can boil into down into two distinct types; favourite system and favourite background.

How many times have you cracked open a game to find that it is indeed just another western style D&D clone or Middle Earth facsimile? I think when it boils down to it, most of the times it’s someone’s house-rules masquerading as The Next Big Thing TM.

Favourite Background:

Legend of the Five Rings wins for me here, this game just oozes style and atmosphere especially since the whole background draws upon a number of Eastern mythologies to give you something that is very different to what you may be used to.

Runner up:

King Arthur Pendragon.  A classic retelling of the Arthurian legend, where the players can partake in a campaign that spans three or so generations of play.

Favourite System:

Dungeon Quest.  I haven’t had a chance to play this yet but I love the whole idea of how it works, the simplified combat adds another dimension to it and the character bonds are a really good way of connecting the group together.

Runner up:

Runequest.  Another one of those games I looked at when I was getting in to gaming, the Games Workshop editions were released as a set of hardbacks and owing to licensing rights Glorantha couldn’t be used so a fantasy Europe was used instead.  I loved the percentile mechanics but not the really deadly combat, later on the system would be used in a modified form for King Arthur Pendragon.

Favourite overall:

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.  I bet you didn’t see that coming 😛 .  This for me was a real alternative to xD&D.  You had career based progression, deadly combat, some really odd creatures to battle and a wonderfully dark humorously horrific background; in short is was everything that xD&D wasn’t at the time.  Oh and it was completely British so it had some really oddities.

Runner up:

I have to tip my hat to the often forgotten Middle Earth Roleplaying Game.  While the system was a bit overwhelming and there could have been more in the way of examples it did justice to Middle Earth and the background was very well presented.