May 4

May the 4th be with you 2016

With the release of the new film once again it looks like the Star Wars star is in the ascendency and the resultant buzz has certainly sent ripples through the industry.

This new set of films gives yet another timeline to play around in and I’m sure that once the fiction books start to emerge then there will be plenty of material that people will start to adapt to their favourite edition of Star Wars.

For me though, I always loved the Rebellion era; as this is the one I grew up with and spent many hours watching the movies and pouring over the details of each world, life form or ship.  Some of these ended up in the various RPG books of the time and some even in the Star Wars CCG which Decipher published.

I was a little disappointed as the whole expanded universe I grew up with was put to one side and no longer regarded as canon.

Anyway back in the May 2014 blog carnival post I promised a war story from my past.

In the beginning…….

There was a comic shop near me that had just opened up and I soon became a regular there, not like the owner had a choice though 🙂 And one day a notice appeared advertising for players for an upcoming RPG.  So out of idle curiosity one night I popped along to the inaugural meeting and that was the night I really got to play Star Wars in anger.

The scenario.

Was some odd home-brew which the two GM’s worked between them, there was so many people there that two people had to administer it.  I believe the crux of the scenario was to try to find a group of Imperial spies who had infiltrated the alliance; rather than use bog standard NPCs the spies were some of the other players.

So things went a bit awry and ended up with the Imperial spies stealing the smugglers stock light freighter and tried to do a runner.  That night I was feeling pretty heroic so I decided to attempt to leap aboard the ramp as they lifted off.  Just to seal the deal I spent the one force point I had and rolled really well.

It all comes apart here as one of the other players spends a force point to shoot me; they succeeded and blast me off the entry ramp. With my character bleeding to death they proceed to fire the starships weapons into the hanger bay, causing an almighty chain reaction that with one exception kills all the remaining party.  The one survivor was the smugglers co-pilot, a wookie; who used a force point to augment their damage soak roll and ends up being blown out the hanger bay and into a nearby pond with nary a scratch on him.

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November 8

Kickstarter – Headspace RPG

I’ve always enjoyed the cyberpunk genre of games and I’ve also started dabbling with the Powered by the Apocalypse engine; so this may be an interesting fusion of system and setting.

It’s also reasonably priced with the option of a B&W paperback book as well.

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 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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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.

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