Voices

Lots of coolness going on lately... but I'm too scatterbrained at the moment to talk about it. Instead, I'll bore you with more gaming talk.

Assuming that everyone responds to let me know that they're up for it, I will probably be running John Wick's Cat for a group of four people on Thursday. The game is an awesome little slice of rules-lightness, and it seems like a lot of fun, but I've never really cared for the character sheet in the book.

So, I made my own. Take a look, and tell me what you think! It sort of follows along with John's design, but there's a bit more room for the things you need to write down, and it doesn't use the curly-cue font that the default Cat sheet did.

http://www.mydatabus.com/5z/ubgznvy.pbz/amnesiack/My_Cat_Sheet_Final.pdf

The picture is Anarchy Cat from *Malta's deviant art gallery; it's used without permission, but hopefully she won't track me down and kill me for it. I only used it because it's awesome, not because I intend for it to be a challenge to her rights/ownership in any way. ^_^

I've had this bouncing around in my head for the last couple of days, and it seems that the only way to get it out will be to write a little bit of it down, and here's as good a place as any.

The second episode of Future Imperfect went well, I think. Lots of intrigue, double-dealing, and behind-the-back shenanigans, but the team still managed to pull off their mission, thus keeping their handlers happy. I've been thinking a lot about the structure of the game, though, particularly in regards to rules set, which I'm still not liking a lot. Combine this with some discussions (both online and offline) that I've been involved in lately about Dogs in the Vineyard, and this is a sample of what percolates up: ( Cogs in the Machineyard )


Note: Posted via email.

My print copy of Beast Hunters arrived today. It's truly a beautiful book. Thanks, Christian and Lisa!

I pre-ordered the new MC Frontalot album today. It ships April 6th.

Also, for the record, my Saturday this past weekend totally kicked your Saturday's butt. Just sayin'.


Note: Posted via email.

I finished reading Primetime Adventures last night. It is a seriously cool game; I can definitely see why it gets the love that it does all over the internet. I have some small issues with the layout (examples are set in text boxes that come at the end of the page, which is not always at the end of the rules section/paragraph that it's illustrating, so you have to either stop mid-section to read it, or turn the page, finish the section, and then backtrack to read the example), but it's otherwise a great example of a simple but powerful game wrapped up in tight package. I'm not sure I'll do a full-sized review on it (I feel like I would need some actual play before I could say a lot about it), but I'm glad I read it.

Don't Rest Your Head is next; I've been looking forward to this one for a while.

I've also got a friend reading my print-out of Beast Hunters at the moment, so hopefully we'll swing into some play on that one very soon.

You are an elite warrior who stalks the monstrosities that threaten your tribe and savage your land. With every tattoo inked in the blood of the beasts, you claim more power. With every kill, you prepare to face stronger foes. Only the most skilled and most cunning Beast Hunters survive. Will you?

Thus reads the back cover of Beast Hunters, a new two-player rpg from Berengad Games. In it, one player takes on the role of the titular Hunter, while the other becomes the Challenger, presenting the various obstacles and conflicts that the Hunter must face.( Read more… )

I finished reading Beast Hunters today. Reading pdfs always takes me longer than reading a print version of something, but the fact that I actually made it through the whole thing, without waiting for the print copy to arrive, is a testament to its quality.

Freaking. Awesome. Game.

A much more detailed review to come.

Covert Generation takes the theme of 10-17 year-olds waging a high-tech guerrilla war against the powers that be and wraps it up with workable narrative-focused system. While it may not be a game for everyone, it provides some unique mechanical twists for those who are already interested in its genre material. ( Read more... )

Note: Posted via email.

We met Wednesday for our face-to-face planning session for the Future Imperfect game. I've been swiftly reminded of why I gave up using generic point-buy systems several years ago, in spite of having cut my teeth on GURPS for 10+ years as a kid. The game as a whole, though is shaping up very nicely.

I tried to come up with a short list of questions to ask about the characters, and I ended up just boiling it down to one: "Frame a scene or type of scene that you would like to see occur within the first 3 sessions of the game." hansandersen added a second good question to this: "If the game were a television series, and your character had the B-plot for that episode, what would the B-plot be?" I got a lot of great character information from both of those questions. Question 1 got me concrete information on some situations I can throw into the game, and question 2 gave me a startling amount of insight into some of the characters that I don't think I would have had otherwise.

The other thing I'm very happy with is how the thematic batteries have turned out. I stole the idea of thematic batteries whole cloth from Joshua BishopRoby's fantastic victorian space opera game Full Light, Full Steam. A thematic battery (the PCs each have two of them in my game) is an important theme or trait of the character that can be both good or bad for the character in different ways (very similar to Aspects in Spirit of the Century. When in a situation where the thematic battery could apply, players can choose to "charge" the battery by taking a penalty on an applicable action; those charges can later be spent to gain bonuses on related roles.

I like this for several reasons. I'm a big fan of mechanics that give the players a little bit of leeway around the outcomes of their rolls, so that one bad roll doesn't kill the game. Also, because thematic batteries are completely under the control of the players, they're only going to take penalties and bonuses when they want to take them, so it gives them a lot of control over the flow of the story for their characters. On my side of things, though, the biggest benefit is that those thematic batteries become huge, flashing neon signs above the characters' heads that say "This is what this character is all about!" My players came up with some great ones too. Here are a few samples: "A History of Violence", "Information Junkie", "Wrong Place, Right Time", "Expendable".

I'm looking forward to our first session, and I may try to keep some Actual Play logs just for the fun of it. We'll see.