Deserted Island experiment - Call of Cthulhu

A few days ago I started a new thing, listing three supplements for one of my games, that I'd take with me to a deserted island. Now the time has come for Call of Cthulhu.

1.  The 1920s Investigator's Companion - this book might be disqualified as it can be considered a "core book" for players. I'll add it to my list anyway, and add a fourth as a bonus. This book is just great when it comes to suggestions for character concepts. The long listing of professions and how to create those kind of characters are really helpful. If you want to get away from the dilemma that the characters are an unlikely bunch, you could pick a section and have all make characters from that type or one similar. Other goodies are the sections on research facilities, and how to get around. If you play in a historical setting these facts are gold. They are also well presented. We'll see how the 7th edition is designed, but this book would be great as the core of a Players Guide.
2. Cthulhu by Gaslight 3rd ed. - This choice might surprise some, but I think the second great era for any kind of horror game is the gaslight era. This is a great book with lot of details about the geography of London and how people lived back then. There are also some good advice and tweaks for character generation that can be used for other eras as well. Naturally there are a few scenarios to start that campaign at the island. 
3. Arkham Unveiled - Is there any book more iconic than this? Arkham is at the heart of Lovecraft country, and this is a book that gives a pretty good overview of a typical city of that area. There are lots of small mysteries and oddities you can make adventures out of, and there are nothing better than a university that can work as a patron for cerebral adventurers. If that's not enough, there's bootleggers and criminal gangs for more two fisted games. Round it off with a few scenarios and you have a good place to mine for lots of gaming.

Now what's the bonus item? Well, there are two obvious choices. One is that great campaign which some have dubbed the best rpg campaign ever, Masks of Nyarlathotep. The problem with that one is that I have not read it, or played it! I don't even own a copy. I would love to play it, mind you.

The second obvious choice, and the one I'll pick since my list above leans toward the historical eras, is Delta Green. Sure, by now it's also history, but it's modern day and tweakable to be used for 2013 as well, or whatever. It would be easir for me to pack for my island trip as well, since I own it. But, I have actually not read it all, so that will suit me fine. I can stay on the island for a while!

I bet some of those choices would meet with arguments! Agree? Disagree? Feel free to say so.

We'll see what game comes up next. You know where to find me...

Story games, really?

I feel like I have to rant a bit. I realize most people have no interest in the details of how things became like they are, but I hate it when people don't bother to find out.

Why the rage? I heard somewhere someone lamenting the fact that these days "indie games" is just a distribution label, and say nothing of the game. That person also seemed to like the term "story game".

You know why indie game is a distribution label? It has nothing to do with the subject of the game! Read what it say on the tin. Indie means independent. The Forge was started in order to talk about self publication, and creator owned properties. It was all about independent game publication. It has nothing to do with subject matter. Why would it? Look at the name again. Indie.

My second hang up then. You know why the story game community of that name was set up? It was because some people wanted to talk about things Ron Edwards had decided he did not want at The Forge. So, "story games" like they talk about there, are games that people want to talk about in a way Rod Edwards didn't want at his web forum. There, a really solid definition of game content and subject matter. Or not. No, it's not a distribution label.

Story games. Sheesh.

I think you could just as well call it hippie games, like they call non-traditional games at the Happy Jacks RPG podcast. A fun term, meaning nothing. Except of course, that games talked about at the Story Games community are all about long haired individuals with flowers in their hair. Naturally.

Sadly I realize it's damn hard to talk about these things, and I have used those term myself. But, I knew the history.

Why do I even get upset about these things?

Impressions of FATE Core - look and feel

So I finally got my copy of FATE Core. While I am less than happy with some Kickstarter projects, this was not one of them. Evil Hat kept in contact during the whole process from the funding until arrival of the goods, always updating with the latest status. Take note, all you who run rpg Kickstarters! Let people know what's going on? You have taken their money, they deserve to know you have not left for a sunny beach with their money. Kudos to Evil Hat. they did this right.

How is the game?

Well, I have not yet run a game, since I've only owned the book for a few days and I rarely read a game book from cover to cover when I first get it. But, it looks good. I am familiar with FATE 2nd ed and this looks like a really good update. It's well presented and from what I've glanced, it reads well. All concepts are clearly presented.

This is where I'd like to take a moment to compare this book to The Dresden Files game. In that game there was sidebars and "boxed notes" laid out to look like handwriting, and post-it notes. It was horrible! The page looked so busy I got tired from reading just a few pages. It also made it a pain to skim a few pages to search for something, or get a grasp of things. With so busy a page, it made the eyes jump all over the place. Less is more, guys.

Not so in FATE Core.

In this book it's all black and white and the sidebars and boxes highlighting stuff is integrated in the graphical profile of the whole page. If that sounds like just so much typographical gobbledygook, I will hold up classic Call of Cthulhu as an example. If you take a book like Arkham Unveiled or The Fungi from Yuggoth, you'll see two column lay out, few fonts and the boxed illustrations align with the text columns. The eye needs not stray. Everything you needs in where it's expected to be.

There's more.

One thing I really like is how Evil Hat have put small notes in the margins, pointing out where to go for details on something mentioned in that paragraph. Especially in the beginning chapters which explains the basic concepts and character generation that is really helpful. It's taking the usage of an index to the next helpful level. There is an index, but thanks to these hints it's quite short. I think it works pretty well. We'll see how it holds up after heavy use.

Another thing I really liked were the illustrations. I found no gravity defying breasts and ridiculous  armour, and in general women were depicted sensibly. Also worth noting is that there are quite a few non "white dude" individuals. I liked that. I have not found any really amazing pieces that I stood out, but I found none that made me cringe, which I think is far more important. You can say what you want about knowing your target audience, but clearly Evil Hat wants to think beyond the niche here and they should be applauded for that.

This game I like, and I have seen enough of the rules to like them as well.

So.

You know what I have a problem with? Now when I have this game and Savage Worlds, I have two games that can cover multiple campaigns. (Yeah, I also have GURPS but I have given up on that.) Why is that a problem? What should I use it for? I have too many choices! But, maybe I can finally get a Planescape game that feels like it lives up to the setting's potential. Just maybe.

Deserted Island experiment - Unknown Armies

I just listened to the THACO podcast, and they did something interesting. They talked about which game they would take with them to an deserted island. Old hat, yes, but with a new twist. They stipulated that you got the core book(s) for free, and could only take three supplements. Which do you pick?

I'm going to amuse myself by listing some of my games, and my picks. First out is Unknown Armies.

Why Unknown Armies? Well, first off it's so damn well written. The second edition is one of the few game books I read from cover to cover just on the strength of its prose. The content is good as well, but the prose is excellent. UA is a game where violence matters, where magic is ugly and hurtful. It's a game about the urban modernity, and its backside. It's just like the highfalutin 1st edition Mage, except it's not written by hippies with no grasp of rpg rules.

1. 1. Lawyers, Guns and Money - This is because Alex Able's organization is a good start for your street level investigators to get a lead into the Underground. You can boss the characters around and give them missions to do crazy stuff until they develop their own agendas. It's a good book for getting the players to join something bigger than themselved.
2. Hush Hush -  Everyone needs someone to hate, right? The Sleepers are great for showing up at weird places, silencing witnesses and if you have them show up and clean the mess the characters have put themselves into, you've got a serious trip going with doubts, debts and murder. 
3. Weep - Look at that cover. Seriously, look at that cover! Go do an image search and I'll be here when you come back. See? If there's anything more twisted and disturbing than that little girl and her staring eyes, then I don't know what is. This is a scenario collection, and you might wonder why you'd take that to the Island. But, not only are they long and meaty, the book just ooze that feeling of urban decay and desperation, physical and mental, that so defines Unknown Armies.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to say so. Next game, Call of Cthulhu!

Sad Independence Day

Let's all take a moment and think back to when the US was not like the Soviet Union, and spied on its own people.

Remember greatness, and reclaim it!

Tomorrow I'll be back with rpg content.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!

Savage Worlds - issues with character generation

I was just starting to listen to a podcast, and they were playing Savage Worlds. Ever since I first read the original 40k miniatures rules, I have thought it would make an excellent rpg. Now they have published some, but none of them seems to fulfill the promise that first book hinted at. But, I think Savage Worlds might be the game to do it. I downloaded the cast, and started listening.

Guess what? It sounds like these guys also have some issues with the dice size system for the attributes! They repeatedly ask what they start at, what the max is and how much they get for a point and what they start at. I'm not saying these guys are stupid, and I know for a fact that my players are not. But, oddly enough I hear see another set of players have problems grasping the ideas about the core abilities. In the comments for my last post, Jeff mentioned similar problems in his experience. Peculiar, I say.

Now, why is it so?

When I read the Savage Worlds rules, I thought many things were slightly queer. But, one of the things I found quite simple was how the die size system worked, and how you spent your 5/15 points on abilities and skills. Now I have had three pieces of evidence that what was clear to me it far from it. Is the idea of die sizes that strange? I remember seeing it back in the oddball game Tales from the Floating Vagabond. But, I only remember it rating the size of the guns. Maybe it was all abilities and skills. It was almost 20 years ago. I'm old. Maybe that's why I got it. I'm old and have seen dozens of game systems, and nothing surprises me anymore. Maybe.

Playing Savage Worlds - Agents of Oblivion

I have now for a while been running a Savage Worlds game. Ever since Savage Worlds first was published I have been curious about the game. For a while the system was everyone's favourite at rpg.net and cropped up as soon as someone had a game they liked, but wanted a nicer rules set to play it. It seemed like it was the game for every setting. The fad passed, and then it was FATE. At last, I got the Savage Worlds game.

First off, let me say that Pinnacle really is first class. Maybe you heard that the explorer edition of the rules had a really bad glue, so that the book came apart? I emailed Shane Hensley and I got a new book. Class act.

 The game is labelled as "fast, furious and fun" and is known for settings which mash up something familiar with magic or that extra two fisted pulp style action. I kind of like that style, and decided I had to get the Agents of Oblivion setting book.

So, how does it play?

It turns out that our first one off, a short canned adventure, went quite well. We had a car chase, a sneak attack on a mansion and a big fight with explosives and a vehicle. In addition to that also some interpersonal action and roleplaying. It felt like this was a system that could handle lots of moving parts without being cumbersome. It was also clear that the card based initiative worked quite well. Everyone could see that cards on the table and knew who's turn it was. I also liked the tangible effect of the poker chips we used for bennies. Without them, the fight with the major NPC would have been very short and anticlimactic.

I will get back to that last part.

After that we have started to run AoO proper, not with pre-gens. It turns out that either I explained it very confusingly, or the concept of dice sizes as ranks were confusing. I think it is simple enough, so I blame myself. Then we started the first mission proper, Deep Calls to Deep, of my own invention.

This was a X-Files kind of adventure with mysterious stuff happening in a small town. They went there, talked to people, looked for clues and did the regular investigative things and weird stuff kept happening. There was just one firefight, which worked just as well as the first one, and some hacking. The rest was talking and mostly searching or knowledge based skills. This worked alright, and at no time did I feel the system got in the way, or felt clunky. But, did it feel fast, furious and fun? Eh, well. Maybe not as much.

I'm thinking that maybe I was really running a Call of Cthulhu scenario. Maybe Savage Worlds is more Masks of Nyarlathotep than a purist Trail of Cthulhu adventure, if you catch my drift? Unless you have hordes of minions, fast action and chases, maybe investigative games are just as well run with BRP as with SW? Since I have the Big Yellow Tome of BRP, maybe I could just use that instead? I think the conclusion is that if you want to play Savage Worlds, maybe you should use those rules a bit more. Play something involved, crunchy and watch it run smoothly. I'd almost say that the more rules you use, the better it works. 

My decision is to make my next mission crunchier. There will be more fights, more chases and I will, to put it plainly, work the rules more. I don't think I've been in a situation before where the game so clearly demanded that you actually use them. Often it works well to break them out when needed, but now it felt like I should have done it more often. Odd feeling.

Then there was that thing about that fight, where I used lot of bennies to save the bacon of my NPCs.

I can imagine  some of my dear readers thinking that is just wrong for the GM to prolong a fight to have his pet NPC do more than the dice allows. Sure, I can understand that sentiment. Let me then counter with the fact that those extra rounds allowed for some really good ideas from my players, and some hilarious scenes of mayhem. It was worth it.

How about some real life steampunk train?

Yeah, I know. It's very little game content here these days. I have some posts I plan on writing here, reflecting on my late Savage Worlds game. I said that before, didn't I?

Anyway.

Do you like steampunk? Do you like trains? Take a look at the following steampunk crowd funding project! You can contribute using PayPal.

No,  I'm not personally involved.

A real steam train!

While we wait for me to find something intelligent to say about our current Savage Worlds game, I felt like bringing some worthy cause some attention. Check out this blog about focusing on latent homophobia. Next time you make a character in a game, think about why it should be a straight, white guy. Just think about it.

See you later.