Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in A Lawful Evil GM's LiveJournal:

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Monday, September 1st, 2008
11:40 pm	I Survived ConQuest CQ 2008 is over. Overall, I have mixed feelings, and rather than do a day by day breakdown, I'm going to do my thoughts: THE GOOD: My game went well, as did all the Good Omens games, from what I've heard. Picked up three books - an early released book for Hunter, the originally planned to be but now isn't last book for Changeling, and a $10 copy of Unhallowed Metropolis. (If I run it, having two copies is helpful.) The hotel is nice. I got to park so close to my room that all I needed to do to pack up the car was step out the back door and walk maybe 20 feet. There were nice restaurants all around - well, not nice, but familiar and within two blocks. (IHOP, Togos, Round Table). Saw Kara and her husband and their spawn. Got to play Sons of Liberty - a fun game, but the standard rules seems to encourage the game to be played more like the card game Speed than an RPG or Story-Game. THE BAD: There was some shenanigans with group names being removed from titles of games. My two big problems with it were: a) my particular group, Good Omens, has worked hard to get a generally good reputation. and b) none of us were contacted in advance (and in fact we found out by happenstance), and normally people do things secretly like that when they know they are doing something somewhat unethical or shady. (Shady is a better word.) (For reference, I point to the secrecy enacted by the Bush Administration in regards to torture, surveillance, and the like.) Room numbers for games weren't listed in the program, and when I couldn't find where my game was, I was pretty much treated like an idiot by the staff. The program was a piece. I realized I'm getting sick of "Story Games" that have decided that no rules lead to better stories. (I realize part of the issue is that I do read every game I can to look for good rules to steal for other games, but that's beside the point.) I'm also getting sick of Prima-Donna GMs, and I don't care what group they are with. Or not with. Some of them are Good Omens GMs, and that's depressing. THE AMUSING: At the end of my Mage game, I discovered that my main villain had no offensive ability. He had everything he needed to set his plot in motion, but in actual combat? Not so good. Ever since meeting him casually, I've been baffled by the couple that is deirdremoon and tronpublic. However, after a conversation he was in on Sunday night, it now makes perfect sense. I mentioned a game idea to Cil, and now I think she's hooked, and that she's got at least one other player hooked. Overall, I'm concerned about the bad. Last year, CQ made some great strides 'forward,' but this year it's like they took a step backwards. I was less than impressed. Rich (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
2:39 pm	An Experiment This month, for my monthly Shadowrun game, I decided to try a technique from wickedthought. The bane of Shadowrun is planning. I'm all for having a plan, but as both a player and a GM, I'm of the opinion that if 1/4 or more of the allotted game time is spent planning, the fun has been ruined. So I let the players design the run. I gave them the basic mission - freeing a geisha from what was essentially slavery in a Yakuza run brothel - and then told them they get to decide what they want and need to do to succeed. Every time they put up a complication - a situation where the outcome wasn't automatically going to end up in their favor - I put a die into a bowl. These became bonus dice they could award to each other. I also told them that every fifteen minutes, I would get a die that I could use to alter what they had planned. (The premise, I told them, is that every roll they would normally have to make to get information, regardless of source, succeeds. But not all information gathered will be accurate.) In just under an hour, we began going through the run. The complications they had and the alterations I had made turned it from a cake walk into a real run, and overall I think everyone had fun. A few rough spots, but that's the first time any of us, ever, had used a technique like this. I plan to use it again. Rich (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 21st, 2008
4:47 am	Many Thoughts I'm very close to writing my reviews of Houses of the Blooded and D&D4. The problem is it's hard to read HotB as a pdf, since I don't take a computer into the bathroom with me, nor do I have it in any of the other places I keep books. I've encountered this recurring theme, recently, among GMs, and I'm wondering where we went so wrong. I know my own personal style has become somewhat laissez-faire - I present the situation, and then let the players run with it. I have no pre-planned solutions, a few scenes that I think are important to have happen, but those are such that I can improvise them whenever I need to. I guess that bothers some people. Feh. My viewpoint is simple - the players aren't here to listen to my story. They are here to make their own. It doesn't matter what game I'm running. The biggest introduction and GM control I'll keep is the opening of the plot. Everything else is open. Anyway, there seems to be this resurgence of self-important GMing. Lots of people are doing it - "Pay attention to me." I've encounterd it no less than in at least four conversations with different people over the past two weeks. There's lots of talk about "table rules" - how dice are rolled, what activities are allowed during a game, etc. Some people seem to be bothered by any player who is not staring intently at the game as it happens, which I think is a load of insecure crap. You can't read books, use a laptop, write, doodle, or do anything else but pay attention to the GM. Or you get cut out, or otherwise penalized. Why? I know me. I know that left to my own devices with nothing to do during a game (which happens a lot more than you would think), I get disruptive. So I like to have my distractions. If I'm needed, I'm always willing to put the distraction down and get back into the game. But I'd prefer to use the distraction than cut in on anyone else's fun. It's just polite. But apparently not. I dunno. It bugs me. For several reasons. I know I can multi-task, better than most. Not perfectly (because no one can), but I can do enough with some small attention paid to what I'm working on, and some other bit of attention paid to what else I'm working on. (That made no sense. Sue me. It's 4:40 AM.) I think a great GM is the one who lets you have fun and doesn't try to pressure you into making one decision; and even if they have surprises (which I do have), they don't come out like punishments. SPEAKING OF WHICH, I'M NOT PERFECT A bit of an embarassing moment while running my Mage game last Sunday. The game is a bit odd, dealing with a big release of the Abyss into the Fallen Realm (aka Earth.) Humans are starting to believe again, and monsters are finding it harder to hide themselves. (It's plot oriented, mind you.) The PCs are on a quest to gather some magical swords, which had been scattered throughout the country. They picked up one sword with little difficulty, and Cil looked and said "That's it?" And before I could stop it, my mouth said "That's it. You guys walked right past the plot. No big deal, I have another." I still regret saying that. The players eventually took that plot, but I felt like I forced it on them - what was meant as a "ha-ha" kind of statement came out really harsh and judgemental. Dang it all. Eh, I didn't see any complaints, but I still feel like a royal ass for saying those words. In the wrong context, they're uncalled for. Rich (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
1:59 am	Game Reviews I was originally going to post a full review of D&D 4th, but then the pdf of Houses of the Blooded got released to a bunch of us who did pre-orders. But reading on a computer screen is always slower, so I'm now lugging through that thing. I like what I see so far. And I thought it would be appropriate to eventually review both of them, back to back, on the same day. So you'll get to see it. Wait for it. Rich (Comment on this)
Friday, June 27th, 2008
5:02 am	Thoughts on D&D 4 Around 1992 I had grown sick of D&D. Maybe a little before then. I tried to run it in 1994, but that wasn't meant to be. When 3.0/3.5 was released, I thought it had some nice touches (feats, skills, new multi-classing rules, a more intuitive combat system (in regards to Armor Class, at least), and so on and so forth. But it still had a lot of what I had grown sick of. So far, there are things I really like about 4e. 1. Spell-casters not running out of spells. Sure, you might not have your most powerful spells available, but you always have a useful spell to cast. 2. Simplified basic rules. 3. Minions. No one can ignore them (which is one of my favorite bits - I hate running rpgs and having people ignore the minions to go after the big bads entirely.) 4. Everyone gets cool stuff as they advance. And while it might not seem realistic for everyone to have things they can only use once a day, or whatever, it works well for balancing things. 5. Humans are more kick-ass. 6. No more saving throws. Everything is an attack. (So the saving throws become target numbers that the person using the poison / spell / whatever to successfully get you.) 7. No more randomization in character creation. While I kind of miss it, it's a relic that is about time to go away. 8. Simplified skills that kind of make sense. I'm still reading the Player's Handbook. Oh - and I like little touches like "The Fighter's Challenge" - it might be too MMORPG for people, but it also seems to be like a lot of fun. (And fun is what it's all about, right?) Now, dont' worry - I haven't been taken over by the WotC/Hasbro Borg. It's still not my favorite game system (I'm not sure I have one), but I think this is a much better re-design than the 3.0 change. And this makes me want to pull out some old modules andrun them in the new system. Just to see. Who knows. Rich (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
4:44 pm	Reviews? Just some brief observations, actually. I looked through the Hunter: The Vigil demo yesterday, and it hasn't changed my opinion much. That opinion is - it's cool, but it doesn't need a whole game line. The previous incarnation of Hunter did, but most of what I've seen so far can be done with like maybe 25 pages of rules and some previous World of Darkness books. Conversely, I've been slowly going through D&D 4E. It looks intriguing, at the very least. (Isn't that odd? I'm more positive about D&D than I am about a White Wolf release? WTF?) Speaking of which, I've been looking for a good system for running a LONG TERM (read - weekly sessions, for about a year) fantasy game. Here's the limitations: 1. One player is pretty much against D&D, True20, and Savage Worlds. (The latter disappoints me, because I think SW is really good). 2. Another player is against the ORE (read Reign). 3. I'm against Storyboard (too hard to balance for the long term) and Burning Wheel (since reading it in places got me annoyed with the author.) And I'll NEVER be able to explain Rolemaster/HARP to half the players. Because it's that convoluted. Currently, I'm looking at adapting "Shadows of Yesterday," though I'm open to anything. What I need is a) adaptability; b) ease of play; c) a dynamic game. (Which is why I would really want to use Savage Worlds . . .) Suggestions? Rich (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 26th, 2008
6:06 pm	KublaCon - back and alive, but still stressing Just a pre-comment - yes, I'm stressing, only because Cil and I have begun our "spring cleaning" immediately after coming home from the Con.  Not because we want to, but because we have to.  (Long story.) At this point, I envy Sisyphus. Anyway, my story for KublaCon begins the night before, as I'm calmly printing out the character sheets for my Saturday AM game.  (Unhallowed Metropolis - Steampunk Survival Horror.)  As I printed the last character sheet, around 2 AM (because I'm a night owl), my brain reminded me: "YOU FORGETFUL JERK!!  YOU HAVE A SECOND GAME THIS CON!!  YOU'VE DONE NO PREP WORK FOR IT!!" Which was true.  I knew I had no chance I would finish it that night, so I didn't even try.   Instead, I made sure to pack the books I'd need. Unfortunately, I was up until 6 AM.  Not doing anything important, just not sleeping. Cil woke me up at 7 to drive her to BART, and when I got home, once again, I couldn't sleep.  I tried.  I really did.  Finally, around 1:30 PM, I got up, began to pack up the car and take care of business, and then ran to the grocery store and OfficeMax.  Purchased a printer, some other stuff, food, drink, and then drove to the hotel.  I got in around 4:45 PM, got my room, checked in on the Good Omens games I knew were running, went out to dinner, and then did some last minute work for my Saturday AM game. And had crappy sleep for about 8 hours. Got up, and prepared to run Unhallowed Metropolis.  It was fun - my playtest was really bad (in my opinion), but the actual game went a lot better.  Part of it was that I re-tooled my plot, and made sure that the clues led somewhere.  The players seemed to have fun.  After the game, went out for food, and then went up to my room and prepped my game for Sunday morning.  This isn't a problem for me.  I've improvised entire games before when covering for cancelling GMs.  (In 2002, at an early KublaCon, I was approached by the RPG coordinator and asked to fill in because a GM no-showed.  I warned the players that I'd use a different system, but they were cool with that.  It's good to know I can do that.) (Maybe that was 2001?) So putting together a game in 6 hours?  Not a problem.  I had internet, I had a computer, I had a printer, and I had my source material.  I had to purchase a few PDFs, but that's okay.  Using the original comic book (Jesus Hates Zombies) and printing out a few pages for player background, it was easy. The next morning, I got to the room and found something like 4 or 5 players wanting to crash the game, and only one no-show.  I tried to whittle the crowd down by warning them: 1) One of them would have to play Jesus Christ. 2) One of them would have to play Jesus' pet zombie, Lazarus. 3)  I was a liberal nutjob Christian. 4)  It wasn't your standard All Flesh Must be Eaten game, as I've adapted lots of cinematic unisystem stuff into it.  There was another warning, but none of it worked.  Eventually, we chose the player to take the open seat - I forgot how, it was either because he looked like Jesus or because he was the first one there.  I think the game went well - it could have gone better (I have high standards for myself, never forget that), and it could have been about an hour longer (though we did get kind of a late start on the actual game), but overall they put the clues together without being hit with a clue-stick, and only waited around for verification of their suspicions.   (Basic story - a demon in a church had created "fake" zombies during the middle of the zombie apocalypse, and was using them to terrorize a town.   His goal was to get all the people into the church, because it was 'safe,' and then bargain for their souls until he had netted all of them.) Oh - the cast of PCs: Jesus H. Christ (from Jesus Hates Zombies) (complete with "Big-Ass Anime Sword" that Buddha gave to him.) Laz (from Jesus Hates Zombies ) (Jesus' Zombie buddy) Jesse Custer (from Preacher) Joan Girardi (from Joan of Arcadia) Sarah Bailey (from the Craft - Robin Tunney's character) Bethany Sloane (from Dogma - the last scion) In the end, they saved the day, banished the demon, and hopefully realized they had a good base of operations now for the rest of their "save people" campaign. So after that game, Cil and I went out for lunch, then fell asleep while eating lunch, so we went to the hotel room for a "nap" that took about four hours.  (I put nap in quotes only because four hours is not a nap.  Four hours is sleeping.) Hung out with Sean N. for a few minutes, went down to Greg M's. Mutant & Masterminds game, hung out with Jen M (his fiancee), and with Jessie, Sean's wife, and then went up to our room.  Cil went to sleep, I played a bit, and then we woke up, packed up, and came home. I didn't get to play anything this Con, but that didn't bother me.  The games I ran were fairly fun, and that made up for it.  My games purchased were "Reign" and "Aeternal Legends."  (Expect reviews soon.)  Next Con is "GO-Con" (in July - the official "Good Omens" RPG convention, at Endgame in Oakland) where I'm running a World of Darkness: Innocents game, and then ConQuest, where I'll run a street level "Mage: the Awakening" game.  And then I need to figure out if I'm running at the October Endgame mini-con. I'm probably going to avoid running two games at a Con anymore, unless one is a game that doesn't require much updating.  Having to fully prep two new games was really draining. Rich Current Music: Christ on Parade - Let Me Explain (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
3:55 pm	The Dork Side That's me. As a super-hero in City of Heroes. A Natural Tanker with Willpower, Fire Melee, and Speed. :-) Rich (2 Comments |Comment on this)
7:47 am	City of Heroes / City of Villains I just got addicted to CoH and CoV. I play on Guardian and Justice servers (but am wiling to go to other servers as well.) On Guardian, I have the following characters: Arthur Guin (Magic/Tanker - level 9) - big bald guy in a leather jacket. Sham Haine (Scientific/Scrapper - level 9) - huge panther guy with claws and regeneration Machina Ex (Mutation/Blaster - level 12) - electrical blaster who I really want to raise up to level 14 so I can get flight. Gaia-Child (Magic/Defender - level 10) - healer, teleporter, psionic. And on Justice, I have the following: Asphyxiatress (Mutant/Corrupter - level 7, IIRC) - dark bolt stealthy character, and currently my only villain Blak Bird (Technological/Defender - level 6 or 7) - archer and martial artist Thraka (Technological/Blaster - level 5) - Basically, a Shadowrun Ork with an automatic rifle, some hi-tech grenades, and a love of shooting gangsters. So if you see any of those, say hey. Plus, I'd love to team up with people I actually know. Rich Current Music: Bad Brains - I Against I (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
6:42 pm	Lesson for the day I've been playing "City Of Heroes" recently. Blasters? Totally rule. I tried recreating one of my Aberrant characters (Machina) and she became an electrical blast/controlling Blaster. So far, I zoomed up to 7th level, and I've burst through at least three missions without one trip to the Hospital. (The 4th mission - with the Clockworks - sent me there.) Rich (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 31st, 2008
12:06 am	Stuff Still working on ideas for a Trail of Cthulhu campaign - thinking of setting it in the Bay Area in the 1930s. (One part Cannery Row, one part . . . I have no effin clue.) I've also been playing SIMS2 a lot. I made a household for Eddie (my old Changeilng character, who was revived in Changeling: the Lost as the enigmatic Lord Moon.) It's him, his girlfriend, and their adopted daughter. Oh, and a black cat named Pyewacket. I've never had a pet in SIMS or SIMS2 before. What a pain in the butt. Normally, when the entire family is asleep, time passes quickly. But now the damned cat is awake all hours of the night, making time pass slow. (Yes, I can speed it up artificially.) I've been thinking of playing City of Heroes/Villains. Mostly because I miss RPing a lot - I've been running mostly. (Yesterday, I ran Shadowrun, today Mage, Thursday Changeling.) I miss playing. (Which is why I guess I'm playing SIMS2 - it gives me part of what I feel I'm lacking in all of the RPGs I play in at the moment.) And thinking about running. Three different game ideas dance around in my skull. Bah. (There's ToC - above, which is really occupying a lot of my mental space; the new idea I had for an Exalted setting, that has to wait at least until after 4/16 to develop more; and the Steampunk setting I want to run.) I keep saying that one day I will quit trying to be a player, and just be a GM. I realize part of that is my own fault. Rich (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
5:23 am	On the Trail of Cthulhu I've been so inspired by the Trail of Cthulhu RPG that I put together a spreadsheet that will translate characters from Call of Cthulhu to the GUMSHOE system, based loosely on the ideas put forth by Kenneth Hite in the Appendix. I even got the always doomed Harvey Walters in there. Plus people like Randolph Carter, Inspector LeGrasse, and Dr. Henry Armitage. (Plus, the chance to use Herbert West is just too cool to pass up.) I've had one idea already for a campaign set-up - two players make characters based on Nick & Nora from the Thin Man series. Imagine the fun of those two and their various contacts investigating the Mythos. I'd probably give them a bonus on their Stability checks if they had a drink in hand. (You have to watch the Thin Man series to understand.) It beats my original idea - Encyclopedia Brown, Sally, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and some other teen sleuth against the Mythos. Anyway, I think I need to start running Trail of Cthulhu. Rich (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 21st, 2008
8:57 am	Fscking Exalts I always said I would never run Exalted, unless I could create a new world for it. I hated hated hated hated hated the world they created for it. (Especially the 'details' that seemed to be based on who could be more shocking with each and every book.) The other reason I never wanted to run Exalted is that I wanted someone else to run the high powered games. I ran Aberrant. I ran Mage. I still run Mage. Sometimes, people run super-hero games, and otherdarkmeat has run Aberrant and is now starting to run Scion. gothboiblinkie ran Exalted. But me being able to play in those types of games on a regular basis have been few and far between. Anyway, we'll see. The idea could work. Rich Current Music: Nightwish - Wish I Had an Angel (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
8:57 am	[Review] Trail of Cthulhu I've never quite been a fan of HP Lovecraft, but as a fan of science fiction and horror, I've always held a deep appreciation of his contributions to the genres. I didn't even begin to really grasp him or his work until about seven years after I first heard his name, and I didn't start trying to really read him until well after I turned 30. Conversely, I always had some appreciation for the Call of Cthulhu RPG - which did help me with the appreciation of Lovecraft's work. My big issue there is that, in the long run, I'm not fond of Chaosium's percentile based mechanics. (I guess I prefer dice types that can produce a bell curve rather than those that produce a straight line of probability.) I don't dislike all percentile mechanics, btw - I'm quite fond of those in the Warhammer games and the approach taken by Unknown Armies. The former I dont know why I like, since it's not much different than Chaosium, and the latter I like because it gives you ways to modify the dice roll outcome if it's important to your character or concept. What I liked about CoC was the detail and beauty of their sample scenarios - they were written well enough and open-ended enough that I wound up using at least three of them as Mage scenarios with little difficulty. So when I heard that Kenneth Hite was working on a Call of Cthulhu game using the GUMSHOE rules, I was intrigued, to say the least. GUMSHOE, for those who don't know, is a game system that is designed for running investigative and research oriented role-playing scenarios. Characters are defined entirely through their skills, and there are two basic categories - Investigative and General. Investigative skills are farther divided into Academic, Interpersonal, and Technical. General covers everything else. It's a resource management game - while if you have the right skill, you find the clue, proper interpretation of the clue can come from two things - either good guesses on the player's part, or spending skill points to get direct interpretation from the GM. Since the fiction Lovecraft wrote was more investigative and psychological than action-oriented and visceral, this struck me as a natural match. So how did it turn out? The first warning is the final cost - the previous two GUMSHOE games (The Esoterrorists and Fear Itself) are, combined, slightly less expensive than Trail of Cthulhu. However, Trail of Cthulhu has a higher page count than both the previous books combined, with a better quality of printing, and a hardcover instead of soft cover binding. The physical quality, the artwork, and similar things are all higher than those two previous works, as well. (Not that I'm saying those other two books are crap - far from it - but ToC is better than they are.) This helps justify the price tag. Actual content is equal in quality. Like the Esoterrorists, the system for character creation is dependent on the total number of players - the more players, the less points you have to spend on Investigative abilities. If used correctly, this gives each investigator a chance to shine - with limited skill points, it's better for each Investigator to specialize in an area for the good of the group. Everyone gets the same number of General skills (a larger pool), but you'll want these. Trail of Cthulhu has three 'types' of play - Purist, Pulp, and a mix of the two. Purist games will be closer to Lovecraft's original works, with academic types realizing how close to the end of the everything they are. Pulp is more action oriented, and obviously the mix is between the two. (Purist is like the standard Call of Cthulhu game. Pulp would be more like Delta Green, which was my favorite mode for CoC in the modern era.) The Bad I didn't see much bad in my first run through. Some of the pulp abilities seem to cross into the realm where my suspension of disbelief begins to snap, but the easy solution is to skip those. I'm still kind of hazy on the Stability vs. Sanity rules, but I think playing through it will make it more clear to me. The Good There is so much. I think Trail of Cthulhu has better examples of spending pool points than the Esoterrorists had - after reading it, I can better understand how to use the GUMSHOE system overall. The skills are altered from the Esoterrorists, but they are more focused towards the CoC setting. The default ToC is the 1930s, which at first didn't thrill me, but the more I read, the more into it I got. One helpful section was one about how to help players feel that they aren't being railroaded - which is good, since even we GMs who actually improvise a lot and let player input affect the game world get accused of being railroading unless we stop, say "dur, I didn't expect that" and then make an obvious display of not being prepared for that - which I think is detrimental to a good session. There's also a part describing how to translate characters and creatures from Call of Cthulhu into Trail of Cthulhu. Overall Reading through Trail of Cthulhu led to me digging up my 25 year old, falling apart copy of "The Shadows of Yog-Sothoth" and thinking to myself "I could run this, finally." I believe Trail of Cthulhu best captures the feel of Lovecraft's work, and the work of his peers and followers. It made me want to run it, as an ongoing game, which hasn't happened with me and Cthulhu for a long, long time. I know my interest in horror has flared up in the past month or so, and this game didn't help. Which is good. If you are intrigued with the genre, pick it up. If it doesn't give you new ideas and new enthusiasm, read it again. It's the best money I've spent on an RPG so far this year. Rich ( Future Reviews. ) Current Mood: impressed Current Music: Interpol - PDA (Comment on this)
Friday, March 14th, 2008
10:15 pm	Speaking of Reviews Hey all. So it's "tax return" season, which means I have a lot of games to review. Here's what is currently waiting for me: Dark Heresy: Warhammer 40K RPG. Trail of Cthulhu (Call of Cthulhu using the GUMSHOE system) Dictionary of Mu Deadlands: Reloaded Anyone have preferences on which I should review first? Rich Current Music: Naked Raygun - Backlash Jack (3 Comments |Comment on this)
10:13 pm	Review: Unhallowed Metropolis Let me start by saying that I'm reviewing a game that I have not yet run, only read. I will be running this game at Kublacon, and will be running a play-test of it on 4/19. You have been warned. Unhallowed Metropolis This game has two things that I like, combined - steampunk and zombies. How could I not like it? Unhallowed Metropolis starts with the premise that the zombie apocalypse starts in 1905, the end of the Victorian Era. In addition to zombies, there is also the "Blight," a loss of the ability of the land to provide viable food or life. Millions of people die and the world is thrown into chaos. Eventually, civilization starts back up again, and major cities are reclaimed from the zombies and the other creatures - such as vampires - who have taken them over. Society begins again, using the template of the last culture they knew: the Victorian Culture. There are some changes. Fear of people rising from the dead has made cremation mandatory for all but the most wealthy and influential of citizens. They might have burials, but first the body must be watched over for three nights by people called Mourners. Mourners are mostly female, and serve a kind of holy / monastic duty - but if the body rises, they are equipped and trained to take it down with just one swipe of the large blades they keep concealed under their black crinoline skirts. The game is set in 2105, but it's a world that seems like a version of the 19th Century, gone wrong. The primary setting is in London (though looking at the map of the Blight zones, the Torchwood fan in me keeps thinking that a detour into Cardiff would be entertaining, at the very least.) The Victorian manners and morals are at least held up, if not totally followed by everyone. Steampunk technology in the form of things like energy-transmitting Tesla Towers dominate the landscape, meanwhile the steam and smoke make the London Fog lethal to all. Disappointments I'm uncertain how the game system itself works - how well characters can do things they are supposed to be good at. In general, it's simple - roll 2d10, add an attribute or a skill, and if you roll over a target number set by the GM, you've succeeded. (More on this under the good stuff section.) Right now, it seems a bit tough, but we'll see how it works in actual application. Aesthetically, I'm not pleased with the move towards gas-mask chic. I understand some people like it, but I like to see people's faces. I'm old fashioned that way. Though it does make sense within the setting. My only big complaint, though, comes from what I see as wasted text. The same paragraphs (or really similar paragraphs) are used in the background section and the rules section when talking about things like the Mourners or the Undertakers (bounty hunters who take out undead bounties). MEANWHILE: Psychic powers are discussed in the background, but there are no rules for them whatsoever in the rules section, at least as far as I could see. It would have been nice to see even a little mention of them in the rules section, if not a full write-up for characters (because you know someone, upon reading the background, would really really want to play the psychic.) The Good Stuff Minor point - Magadalene Veen from Abney Park models for at least two of the pictures. (I dunno - for me, I like the tie in with the RPG project and a band that centers around a steampunk image. Plus, she's purty.) The character options are intriguing - the initial choices are Aristocrat, Dhampiri (half-vampire), Criminal, Doctor, Mourner, and Undertaker. Each character option has special abilities, including some they pick based on the skills they develop. This is a nice touch - the Criminal ones actually made me think about playing a criminal for once, which is normally never my main interest as a player. And if none of those archetypes appeal to you, there is a way to write up a completely original character - they'll be less 'special' than the archetypes, but more flexible. (There are also promises that there will be free new archetypes on the website.) One idea I REALLY like is the corruption system - kind of like your morality, but it applies to more than your behavior. It could also apply to your Health. Or Sanity. Basically, you choose when you do something that can get you more corruption (which is basically improving on dice rolls or extreme measures to survive). After a certain point, your corruption rises, and more bad things happen to you. (I like stuff like that.) When it hits a certain point, you are entering your character's final story - after this, they are going to die, or turn into a monster (literally or figuratively), or end up in jail forever. This is one of those "combat is serious business" games, which also appeals to me. (Personally, I think in most games combat should really fuck a character up. Then players are more likely to try other options.) So that's it - there's more good than bad, and the system is simple enough that, other than my one concern (which has nothing to do with having played it), I think this game can appeal to anyone who wants to try something different with their horror or victorian role-playing. I consider the money I spent on the book to be money well spent. Rich Current Music: Naked Raygun - Dog At Large (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
1:07 am	Lots of stuff I've got to start working on my game for this weekend. I'm running a four hour new World of Darkness game, and I've written up one of the six characters. (It's a haunted house game, except it takes place on an airplane that is flying from O'Hare to SFO.) Today, my grubby little mitts received Trail of Cthulhu (Call of Cthulhu using the Gumshoe system) and Deadlands: Reloaded (since I like Deadlands, and wanted to see the new version). No time to read those, though. Plus, a friend helped me get a copy of Shock: v. 1.1, which again I can't read until after my convention game. PLUS: On Saturday, I wrote up a new Shadowrun character - for fourth Edition. He's a Mystic Adept (part mage, part physical adept) who follows a Black Magic tradition. He calls himself "Brimstone". Oh, yeah, he's an Ork. Brimstone is living in Germany, after being identified in performing an "act of terror". (I'm not sure of the details, but the idea is that he and some friends pulled a prank, which led to the corporation they pranked labeling it more than just vandalism - it was now terrorism, attempted murder, industrial sabotage, and a whole bunch of other things. It occurred to me that I like the idea that the accusation is true, but the charges are inflated.) Brimstone is developing a rather interesting history. But I can't work on that either. Bleah. Maybe I'll finish the character write-ups tonight. I just need to stat them up, write a brief description, and then do some notes on what is haunting the airplane. I like haunted house games. Wish me luck. Rich (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
2:59 pm	Thinking aloud This post is inspired by another post, in the journal of thegamemistress.  You can find it here. Of course, you'll also have to go follow a link in her journal as well, to a prevoius conversation there. So for those who don't read my normal journal, I'm going to come clean with a couple of points I think are relevant about myself, before people go telling me "I can't judge" or "I don't know what it's like." 1.  As a kid, I was a victim of physical abuse at the hands of my peers; and mental/emotional abuse from my father and some of my teachers.  (Oddly, the physical abuse ended when I started hanging out with the punks in my high school.) 2.  I have depression, and take medications for it (that one study says don't work, but man, does my personality alter when I'm not on them.) 3.  There was a sexual predator/rapist in my family.  A pedophile.  He did not victimize me because apparently as a kid I scared the living crap out of him.  (That's the story - at the end of all his guiltless confessions, being scary saved me from some of the worst victimization possible.) I've talked about all of this a lot in my normal journal.  I've 'moved on.'  I mean, I admit that I smile a bit when I hear about some picked on kids shooting up their schools, but then my logic center takes over and reminds me that its wrong to kill people.  I'm in the long and horrible process of patching things up with my dad.  The pedophile uncle is dead (and I already did Numfar's Dance of Joy about it.)  Certain things can hurt you only for as long as you carry them around.  People point out that I'm quick to forgive - which is true - but some of that is because I don't want to carry someone else's shit around for so long.  And when an abuser gives you shit, it's theirs, and they want you to carry it.  Fuck 'em.  You don't owe it to them. ANYWAY - (man am I getting off topic for this journal) - I really like the new Changeling.  I've been running it since October, I believe.  I ran it at Dundracon.  I've had fun almost every time I've run it - it's never seemed like a chore.  The background for Changelings, for the most part, sucks.  But that's not your character. Your character is how they react to the suck.  And how the suck is.  Because the suck can take many forms - neglect, physical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse.  The idea of the true Fae committing sexual abuse strikes me as odd, but hey, if it floats your boat, go for it.  How people react to abuse is different, just as different as the kinds of abuse that can happen are different as well. I know I can't tell people how to play.  But if all you see about Changeling is that the characters were abused, and that makes the game horrible for you, think about how you are dealing with your own abuse.  Chances are, it's not healthy. Rich Current Mood: cranky Current Music: Naked Raygun - Terminal (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
6:31 pm	Gunz iz serius biznez. As frequently happens, this post is giong to have to start with some real, honest, warnings: 1)  What follows is not a political diatribe against private ownership of handguns or any other firearms. 2)  What follows is not a rant against any player or GM or Storyteller or the like. 3)  Nothing in here is personal, I'm not saying anyone is wrong, but I'm trying to give my perspective. There. I will admit that a debate on Tuesday night got my head thinking on this.  Guns. I run a lot of modern or near future RPGs - right now, it's Mage: the Awakening, Changeling: the Lost, and Shadowrun.  As it turns out, guns figure pretty heavily into these games.  Guns are scary things.  I've had way too many pointed at me in my life.  Now, among the injuries I have maintained, a gun shot has never been one of them.  Mostly because in real life, when I've had a gun pointed at me, I do what smart people do - cooperate with the person who had the gun, do my best to not get shot. The question comes into what degree guns should be scary in role-playing games.  I realized it's a matter of mood. For example, guns should NOT be scary in: Four color super-hero games. Feng Shui 7th Sea (An example - I remember as a kid watching a pirate movie - I think it was Captain Blood - where you hear and see a gun fire, the protagonist looks both ways and then ducks, and the bullet misses.  It's fine for the Swashbuckling genre to work this way.) Scion However, in other games, guns should be seriously frightening: Any cyberpunk or steampunk style game.  (Yes, this includes Shadowrun.) Any wild west game (including Deadlands) Any modern horror / dark fantasy game, including the World of Darkness. ( With a caveat ) The fear of guns should go both ways in a game.  Which means that while in a 4 color superhero game, charging a guy with a gun isn't a bad idea, they'll do the same to you. In a game where guns are scary, anyone who doesn't try for cover (without some serious other reason) is a fool or a madman. Personally, I'd like the chance to play in both worlds.  Rich (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
4:24 pm	Next Con So the next "big" Convention in the Bay Area is Kublacon. I've submitted two games for the Con: Game 1 Destination Unknown (AGOP) System: Unhallowed Metropolis Description: The Earl of Waterford has a problem. His wife recently died, leaving him without a male heir. His only daughter, Abigail, has vanished into the smog and crowds of the streets of New London. It has been requested by the Earl that you and your fellow troubleshooters track her down and bring her home, before she suffers a horrible fate from the polluted streets, criminal organizations, or the animated dead who stalk the city. Do you have the fortitude to see this out? Game 2: Jesus Hates Zombies (A Good Omens Production) System: All Flesh Must be Eaten Description: Based on the comic book "Jesus Hates Zombies." The All-mighty has sent his only begotten son back to Earth to retrieve the Faithful in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. The only problems are that Jesus no longer has all of his divine powers, due to the loss of faith, and that God never told Jesus where the faithful are. Join Jesus, his zombie pet Laz (short for Lazarus), and various other semi-famous characters who have banded together to rescue the first actual group of faithful from the zombies that have surrounded them. It's survival horror/dark comedy (hopefully) in the vein of the source comic book and Shaun of the Dead. Some house rules pulled from the Cinematic Eden System. Anyone think they'd play in these? Rich Current Music: John Lennon - Working Class Hero (4 Comments |Comment on this)