A while ago I mentioned a Kickstarter for printing your own gaming terrain and now an Miguel Zavala is releasing downloadable miniatures files that enable you to print your own D&D monsters.
If this is your sort of thing you can grab the files from here: http://www.shapeways.com/designer/mz4250
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When I first started gaming and I had an almost unquenchable thirst for gaming I would think nothing of gaming for seven nights a week but even that wasn’t long enough for me as occasionally we’d game Saturday and into Sunday or Sunday into a bank holiday Monday. One time we even played right into the new year so we could all wish ourselves a happy new year!
Looking back on it now, I realise it may have been a mistake to try and play longer and longer without much rest, I recall arguments over trivial things when we were all sleep deprived. Stupid things like can someone with super-leaping drop down a height they can leap?
I know, daft things that seemed really important at the time.
These days I tend to game responsibly and try to not game for too long as I don’t appear to have the endurance for it these days. Call of Cthulhu isn’t much fun when you’re unable to process the clues but tend to connect you to the great green giant itself 🙂
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.
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 🙂
I’d love to play some sort of half-dragon, half ogre, Sorcerer, Fighter. Nobody said it had to be a legal combination.
I would love to play a half-dragon though and I miss the old prestige class that was in the D&D 3.5 books, as that had awesome role-playing potential.
Is the ten foot pole. I know it’s a bit of a cliché but the pole has plenty of uses and deserves to be part of the humble adventures tool-kit; how could you not marvel at the versatility of this wonder of nature and it’s almost free to own.