Eclipse interest and other stuff

I'm getting closer to putting together an Eclipse Phase game. NPC File 1: Prime is a real help giving a lot of pregen NPC's for use. I'm still not convinced character generation should need to be as laborious as its its and I'm a little meh about he idea of Psi in a hard sci fi game [although the rule of Awesome would suggest PSi is a good thing].

I also found some great player created character sheets for Eclipse phase I cant remember where I got them but I save them locally as they are under an Open License I'll put them up here as some point.

I've also had a bit of a returning interest in L5R so its had some mind share as has Rogue Trader which per the aforementioned Rule of Awesome should play well at the table.

So my times been reading those and still looking at Secrets of the Ancients.

I spent some time reading Mistborn rpg and its right up my ally so I need to review that here soon too.

Thursday nite procrastination

The week has passed and although I've done lots of prep on a number of properties I'm not sold on any one direction yet. That's OK I have wonderful table-mates to role play with and they are happy with me test driving some stuff with them.

Last test drive before Christmas was Ashen Stars - I wish I could say it worked out. It didn't. We like more action orientation then the game gives support for. Also I personally thing the rather large skill list is just not required - it actually slows things down and creates a situation where some skills may be "missing" an eventuality the game actively tries to avoid with some of its rules - more elegant to simply have less I think. Also we had general skill levels at the ~8 ranks level [as a result of using the pre-gens in Dead Rock Seven] and in actuality we find out ~11 is the level you really want for a signature skill. I think most would be happy to take it out for another trot but some of their confidence has been rocked.

So looking at my existing short list of games;

• Eclipse phase- the character generation is really daunting. The generation sheets are more or less required to make it work smoothly. My players don't like PC generation. So I'd use the pregens from the 3rd edition which are apparently quite well done now. Further then that this would be a sandpit game with me building on the themes the players like and a campaign idea I've had for some time about the "invention" of FTL drives and the industrial espionage that inspires.  
• Shadowrun - We gave this a nudge and doing more of this could be ok too. Mostly we have fun when we play this game. Its got a heck of a lot of "crunch" so its quite the investment in time to get into this game. We have actually started into the Brainscan module and it went only ok. The first mission is not much to write home about and not very inspiring either. I could take the next installment out and run it for the guys tomorrow. 
• Technoir - I like this but I'm afraid its a little too story-game-ist for my guys. I'd like to use a play-test slot to give this a try. But the rules are a bit unique and I've heard they are a little fiddly to get working. Combine that with a less then traditional rpg resolution mode and its a toss up as to weather it would find any converts at the table.  
• MGTraveler - Secrets of the Ancients is a really cool campaign and I could truly commit to running it. I believe the group would have fun with it so its a solid option and one I can prepare for the evening as I've already read and prepped it.
• In Flames - Its transhuman "of the bat" but is really improved with the addition of Uplifts and Chimera. Its in serious consideration for our game from that stand point. I'm not sure if it would have much mind-share at the table my bet is not. This really is my Eclipse Phase lite option and maybe I should just go with the full trans-lit experience and do EP?
• Aegis Project - This is a very narrative game, yet also very capable in combat. Its lite on setting and has just enough system. Its actually very good.

So I need to hone it down to a fine point for the session tomorrow night. 

Ok if its got to be Fantasy what Fantasy do I like.

I've talked about this before. I dont really like High Fantasy. I love Sci-fi. However I find that its often very hard to run a sci-fi game. What you get at the game table is not what you read in sci-fi lit. I think thats because so much of sci-fi lit is about exploration and that does not translate well to the game table. At least I'm yet to find a way to make it work well.

So in that case what games that are like Fantasy but not fantasy have my mind share:

I like Ars Magica and Pendragon  "alr-history" type rpgs. I'm interesteg in seeing Yggdrasil for this reason. Solid "history" with a mythic bent.

Grimm is a fairytale rpg where you play kids from our world falling into fairy. Playing kids is fun but I'd like an option to play natives of the fairy land too. A proper game with that flavor I think is fun, fun, fun. Maybe The Zorceror of Zo could be like that too?


Similarly I like Qin: The Warring States The Quasi historical Wu Xia inspired setting of Qin is very inspiring. I've always like Chinese cinema and so called "Kung-fu" films. This is a roll playing version of that. Whats not to like. Qin's focus is on the politics of the day and the creation of the Chines superstate.
Legends of Wulin has just come out. It is very similar to Qin. LoW focus is specifically on the  Jianghu River-lake world of secret societies and bandits. That just screams good role playing material.
Both these games toss in ghosts and other supernatural elements as well. 


Legends of the Five Rings fourth edition. The new books are beautiful, really very attractive. Its actually more a Fantasy game then any mentioned so far. However the strong grounding in Bushido and quasi-samurai culture mare it a solid option in this field of faux-history games.   

Then there are the Witch hunting games of Colonial Gothic, Solomon Kane and the eponymous Witch Hunter. I love the idea of playing a game like Last of the Mohicans with sorcery and the supernatural. That just reeks of cool to me.  

All For One - Regime Diabolique is swashbuckling in an Alt-France of the musketeers. I like Seven seas and this is much better done. has the flavour of En Guard and Flashing blades too. I loved the original stories growing up and the scarlet pimpernel which is a nice segue into  



Castle Falkenstein. Victorian pre world war high society with magic and adventure. Its just fun. The core system didnt seem to work that well but now with my experience of narrative games may work better. There seems to be a nice synergy between this and Grimm some how.


Sure there are others  but I read these ones and collect stuff on them and in some way they have all captured my imagination.

Game for 2012

In thinking about the game for this year here is a list of things I've gone over and considered for a predominantly Tans-humanist game - i.e. a game where humans memory can be digitized and humans are now neigh immortal and to some degree super human.  

Games that are out with a tans-humanist slant.

• Eclipse phase is good. Its quite system and background heavy. However its essentially Altered Carbon, Newtons Wake and Singularity Sky the rpg. With just a dash of Blindsight. For now its a good choice for a tanshuman game perhaps the best. Personally I'd like a bit less background with rules by Cortex+ [sort of like leverage]. Well I can dream cant I!!!
• Interface Zero is a bit gonzo/anime for my taste, plus they are idiots as they don't know the difference between Australia and New Zealand. If I was 15 I'd probably love it. But then I'd probably also like Twilight.
• GURPS Tanshuman Space is not a good as Eclipse Phase, IMHO its GURPS so you know rules aplenty which can be both good and bad.
• Mindjammer is a pretty good FATE driven Transhuman rpg setting if you want FATE.
• Shadowrun is also now verging on fairly decent tanshumanist themes and has heaps of support [you could even recon the Elves, Trolls and Dwarves as a product of either a nanoplague or gene-hacks if you wanted less Elf in your sci-fi soup. Magic could be all Psionic or some other pseudo science <<hand wave/hand wave/hand wave>>]
• The latest version of Stars Without Number has a section on AI with that and Polycrome you could pull off a transhuman game although its only toolkit like support.
• goose'Traveler with the cybernetics book gives you a toolkit also
• In Flames - Its transhuman "of the bat" but is really improved with the addition of Uplifts and Chimera. Its in serious consideration for our game.
• Aegis Project - This is a very narrative game, yet also very capable in combat. Its lite on setting and has just enough system. Its actually very good. We had a play test of this and it was surprisingly good in play. As such also on our list as game engine possibility.
• Remnants - more mecha really then translit but its shares many of the themes and is also a great game

Two games I'm waiting on which were meant to get out by Christmas releases, but are now releasing some time this year;

• 2300AD - Based on the work Collin Dunn did for his 2320AD this should also capture a strong trans-lit flavor [2320 had uplifts and genehacks so there is a fair chance this will also share some of these ideas]
• River of Heaven- this is by John Ossoway of Cthulhu Rising - Horror Roleplaying in a Dark Future fame. That was a great effort (as you can see). This is his tans-lit inspired work using BRP well "open quest" really, an open version of the BRP rules, as its platform and I'm sure it will be a good solid offering also. There is a blog talking about the game milieu. 

Right now Eclipse Phase and Aegis Project are pulling ahead of the rest of the pack. In Flames has fallen off a touch as I may as well go with Eclipse Phase as go with In Flames and Eclipse phase gives me the wider canvas too, which is something I was looking for.  

Perhaps strangely, I'm also considering straight Traveler and the Secrets of the Ancients series intertwined with the Classic Traveler adventure material. Why? The new Secrets of the Ancients material has transcendent/singularity themes and avoids some of the future shock for the players by having them as "regular-folks". So in that way it works quite well for starting non-trans-lit players off in the story and getting into play quickly.

As a aside we play tested Ashen Stars and found it was not what we were looking for. First Gumshoe. If you do this game and you want your PC to do well make your signature skills 10+ including the Health Skill. Second Combat. Its not geared for action adventure - its an investigation framework so your not going to be emulating Serenity anytime soon.

Anyway I have to hot the books and make a call for what to run as a play test or otherwise, by Friday.    
Funny thing is if I turned up with D&D stuff ready to go there would be no complaints. Wish I could just come to terms with Fantasy but I'd prefer historical + Occult over straight High Fantasy. I'm some type of gaming rebel I think? Everyone else seems to love Fantasy rpg's. 

Its been far too long since I've blogged. I got out of the habit when I fell ill and havnt really gotten back into it. Its a lonely feeling hobby blogging. I like more feedback then is typically available from a blog. I've decided to forge ahead anyway. To help I'll broaden my themes and include the hobby 'lit, TV and movies I like and even the more then occasional art I find inspiring. I'll go for once a week and make it Thursday night as my Blog time and discuss whats happening with my gaming etc.

In 2011 we didnt do as much gaming as I would have liked. My bout of illness got in the way. Also despite loving OD&D and having a wicked-good time doing fantasy stuff, I'm a sci-ficionado and I want to do Sci-Fi gaming. I'll post more on my efforts in this direction this year too.

Games last year -2011- which rocked my world were a shorter list.
Top billing has to go to Leverage which may just be one of the best games ever developed. Cortex+ as presented in leverage does the heist genre perfectly. It does other games really well too.
Stars Without Number is also a favorite despite not being exactly what I'd do with the OSR and space
Ashen Stars - I wanted to like it but Gumshoe is not a good match for my sci-fi tastes
Project Aegis was also a present surprise  
Additional present surprises were
Legends of the Five Rings 4th ed
Warhammer 3rd ed
and In Flames

I'm going to make a habit of doing gaming viewpoints/reviews through the year too on various products and I'm sure many will find those interesting too.  

 






 

Money in Ayurth

I've been toying with what the coins in the fantasy game should be called I've come up with the following which is quite satisfying.

Atlantian platinum coinage.

Copper pieces = Copper Pence
Silver pieces = Silver Shillings
Electrum pieces = Electrum Electors
Gold pieces = Golden Crowns
Platinum pieces = Platinum Paragons


What I like about this is it captures a sense of the setting; Clearly Electors, the Crown and the Paragons are important and this speaks to elements of the setting, namely religion and the royalty and that's just the type of thing you want in my opinion. 

Great rules for Dungeons without number

I really liked the rules for using Stars without number as a fantasy engine. I wouldn't do it I like the rules for Labyrinth lord too much to use SWN as the wholesale rule system for fantasy gaming but I do like the rules given for magic use and strain with are very very cool. See the Mage below.

I've reproduced them so you don't have to back link and because I want to have them to hand. Here is the link for the whole article. http://www.sinenomine-pub.com/?p=143

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Mage: Mages are in all ways equivalent to the Magic-User class <<snip>> save in the way in which they prepare and cast their spells. At the beginning of the game, the player and the GM take turns picking eight spells from the combined first level spell lists of clerics and magic-users, each choosing those spells that best fit the Mage’s education and style of magic. These choices form the spell list for the Mage. New spells can only be added through research, or the discovery of some arcana utterly appropriate to the Mage’s style as determined by the GM. As the Mage acquires access to new spell levels, this process is repeated to form the list for that level. Mages can start with the knowledge of any two first level spells on their list. Further knowledge must be acquired from a teacher who knows the spell or a scroll inscribed with the enchantment.
Mages must prepare their chosen spells each morning, performing the necessary rites, meditations, and study in order to fix the spells in their mind. A mage can prepare as many spells of each level as is allowed by the spell progression table for the retroclone being used, plus the Mage’s Intelligence modifier. A first level mage with an Intelligence of 14 could prepare two first level spells, for example, while a 5th level mage could prepare four first, three second, and two third level spells.
Once a spell has been prepared, a mage can cast it at will. A prepared spell is not consumed in the casting. Instead, after each casting, the Mage must make a Mental Effort saving throw at a penalty equal to the spell’s level and a bonus equal to their character level. If the save is failed, the Mage earns one System Strain point and becomes Fatigued. A Mage that is already Fatigued falls unconscious for 1d4 rounds after failing a strain save, awakening Fatigued at the end of it. A Mage with maximized System Strain cannot cast any further spells. A half hour of rest eliminates Fatigue, but Fatigue cannot be banished by magic.
A Mage that prefers not to risk accruing System Strain may omit the save and buffer the enchantment with his own vitality, automatically becoming Fatigued but avoiding the expenditure of a System Strain point. Conversely, a mage may choose to “overcharge” a spell, hurling more energy into it that he can safely channel. For each additional point of System Strain spent in boosting the spell, it does +1 damage per die of effect and range and area of effect is calculated as if the caster’s level was +1 higher. Any number of available System Strain points may be spent on overcharging a spell, but the Mage automatically takes an unavoidable 1d4 damage for each point spent, with a Physical Effect save for half.

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Is that cool or what! I'll use this in Here Be Dragons or OSR hose rule set as its close to what we have been using but much better.

Note - to really get this rule I had to go read up on "System Strain" in the SWN rules. I recommend you do likewise to get clarity on the implementation of this rule.