Savage Worlds Firefly

Well, I played an RPG (finally!) over the weekend, with good chances of repeat sessions every month. Didn't take me nearly as long to find a group as I was expecting! I played a Savage Worlds game set in the Firefly universe, it was quite fun. After having finally seen SW in action, I can't wait to play again, and I'm (again) considering trying to run something as well. When it comes to running games there are also other systems I'm considering, but SW is by far the most "mainstream" (and "crunchy", I think) of them. Final system choice would depend on what type of game/genre I run, but it's very tempting to just go with Savage Worlds and one of the published plot point settings, would save me from having to write up a setting document. "Sorta" Superheroes (Necessary Evil) or Vietnam weird-wars (Tour of Darkness) would probably be my top choices.

Of course, links for more info on Savage Worlds, Necessary Evil, Tour of Darkness, and the SW Test Drive rules for a sample of the system.

2007 State of the Gamer

I've been playing boardgames a lot lately. That certainly makes me happy, and I've been able to play some very interesting games... some of which have been sitting around, unopened, on my shelf for over a year. But I'm actually PLAYING them now! A few months ago, I decided to actually start a boardgame group to try and meet more people to play with. Since starting that group, I've meet several fun people and even more groups of gamers. I find it somewhat funny that when I was just kinda looking around for boardgamer groups in the area I couldn't really find much (See WGA below), but once I made the effort to try to create one, I was able to hook up into a network of area boardgamers. Hopefully this trend will continue, and even if it doesn't I've found some games that can be played solo.

I think a good part of me actually playing boardgames now is a bit of a "just do it" point of view that I've taken. Previous attitudes prevented me from participating in some of the weekly/monthly boardgaming events at the Game Parlor. I'd known that the WGA (Washington Gamer's Association) had a boardgame night every Tuesday there, and the occasional big event on Saturdays, but even if I was there to check it out, I didn't actually participate. Now, although I still prefer gaming in a nice friendly house, I will sit down and try a game out with complete strangers. I wonder if this means I might be ready to go to a con?

So, boardgames are my big thing now, in that I actually play them. I still enjoy RPGs... at least I enjoy reading them, listening to podcasts about them, reading about them, and discussing them. It's been over a year since I've actually played a tabletop RPG, but I'm assuming that I'd still enjoy it. Most of the ones I've been interested in lately are various "Indie" RPGs, some of which I've mentioned previously. These games tend to be more "rules-light" in that they're not giant tomes full of crunchy detailed rules (well, one of them kinda is), but they certainly still carry a lot of punch. Maybe this year I'll try to get out and run or play some RPGs too. I've still got eleven months to go, and maybe if I try to keep up with some blog posts that will help keep me on track.

Gaming in the basement

At one point or another, most gamers have gamed in their parents basement. Exceptions are those who got into gaming later in life, or didn't have a basement, or gamed in their friend's basement. It seems that this is often referred to in a negative way by other people though. (such a negative comment is in the first episode of All Games Considered (see sidebar) which is what inspired this little post.) Usually this phrase is modified with "still", like "The worst geeks are those who are still gaming in their parent's basement." Sure, when you imply that a 30+ year old is living with their parents, that often has a negative social stereotype associated with it... but what's so wrong about gaming in the basement? I personally have many fond memories of gaming in many different basements! I certainly don't look back on it negatively at all. I've gamed in my parent's basement, the basement of many friend's houses (well, usually their parent's house), the basement of several dorms in college, and... well that's about it I suppose. It's just fun to game, no matter where you are. I look forward to many future memories of gaming in some basement somewhere. I'd say my own basement, but we need to contact one of these "finish your basement" companies that keep leaving flyers on our door first. Of course, they'll have to dig the basement and completely reinforce our house's foundation first, but they seem to think that won't be a problem, with the sheer number of flyers they keep leaving. Whoops. More gaming!

Meme time!

Which is the "real" monstrous me?




Or maybe?

Star Wars in Savage Worlds

Last night we started watching our DVD of Revenge of the Sith, and when we paused for the evening I remembered starting a write-up of Star Wars specific rules for the Savage Worlds system earlier this year. Interested in what I'd done, I dug them up. Lo and behold, they were but a skeleton of the notes I'd "remembered" taking. Looking over them, some of my prevous ideas began simmering back up in my head, so I figured I might as well start writing down more of the actual ideas so that when I next abandon and then return to them, these notes will actu... [Side note, right here is where my keyboard's batteries die for the first time ever. We're out of standard AAs, but I happen to have some rechargable which i normally use for Xbox wireless controllers.] I was saying, with luck, these notes will be more complete and actually be useful, rather than practically starting from scratch as I'm doing now. Most of my focus for this conversion was trying to adapt my view of "The Force" as interpreted from movies, books, comics, and games. To this end I had gathered up vast amounts of "force powers" from computer games and RPGs for refrence. I'd also written down possible instances of "Force use" from the movies during a viewing of them, uh, last winter I think. After finding those notes, I figure within a week I'll be re-watching RotS with the commentary on and trying to pick out force uses.

Random, but slightly interesting (to me) note from movie observations:
TPM: "Force Speed" - Used to escape Droidekas by OWK + QGJ, but not in final battle used by OWK to catch up to DM & QGJ - why?

For the time being, this has grabbed my attention (along with the latest batch of comics) delaying my continued re-reading of the Harry Potter books in preparation to running a HP game early next year. Status: I was about 1/4 of the way into book 3, Ann has finished 5 and (FINALLY) started 6. I have threatened to ask her on a nightly basis, "Do you know who the Half-Blood Prince is yet?"

Capes, superhero role-playing

Prior to my urge to run Harry Potter, the game I was most interested in playing was Capes. I'd recently picked it up after reading a few posts about it and digesting Capes Lite. The lite version was a bit hard to completely figure out, it's almost more of a "how to teach Capes to new players" guide for people who already know how to play, but after reading all the way through it then starting over it made alot more sense.

Things that I like about Capes:

• No GM required!
• Character creation a snap! well... a click and lock!
• Very little prep required, perfect for a quick pick-up game.

The click and lock system seems pretty innovative, and it's an attraction because everyone likes fiddling with stuff. Different combos can give you a basic character similar to several iconic heroes. Superman could be Godling + (Angsty) Nice Guy (or Inhuman, or Simple Soul), Batman could be Hunter + Guild-Ridden. You can create characters via a freeform method as well, or mix and match. Why would you need these click and locks to create your character? Well... you create several characters, often at a whim based on what you think the scene could use. You might snap two click & locks together to get a villian of the week to oppose the other players, or you might decide you want to bring a reporter mentioned in a previous scene to the forefront for a little bit. Everyone works together to create the scene, mostly by adding to it through your actions and by creating goals for the scene. The rules are pretty simple, but there can be alot of strategy involved if you want to maximize your story control (which is done through earned meta-currency: Story Tokens, Inspirations, and Debt).

I'm still looking forward to a chance to try it out, I think it would be alot of fun.

A trip to the game store

I took a little side trip to the Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) when running errands during lunch today. Once upon a time, trips to game stores would cheer me up and leave me feeling excited and energetic (or something like that). Now it seems the trip tends to depress me more than cheer me up. There are several reasons for this. This particular store carries TONS of stuff, a lot of which is older gaming material. While I enjoy browsing through all this, seeing some of the older stuff that i used to play reminds me of games once played, and seeing various miniature and board games (some that I already have, some that I've been interested in) reminds me that I don't really have anyone to play them with. But this time, I ran across a few things I'd been thinking about getting! While none of them are particularly hard to get, they're not something I'd been inclined to order online yet. The first (and largest) is the hardback FUDGE 10th anniversary edition. While I already have FUDGE, this tome contains about a dozen extra sections covering a variety of genres and implemenations. Another interesting book is Sorcerer and Sword, even though I don't own Sorcerer (but am somewhat familiar with due to online readings and the free "apprentice version"). I was quite interested in this book since there's alot of theory in it and a discussion about classic Sword and Sorcery (Heroic Fantasy) literature and the "betrayal" of the genre in the 70s and beyond. There's a funny story about this next book, Cute & Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters. It's a Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM, anime roleplaying) book, and I like the system and enjoyed most of their books despite never actually playing it. Obviously, it's about the whole pet monster / pokemon / monster rancher, but takes a satirical look at it. Now, if you're familiar with the genre (and who hasn't at least heard of it these days), you know the basics: two people each own monsters, and pit them against each other for fun/profit/status/whatever. The closest real world comparison is cockfighting, when you get right down to it. Many stores and distributors refused to order or carry the book because of the word "cock" in it's title, or because of the negative connotations of cockfighting... So the "cockfighting" was removed from the interior text and two versions of the COVER were made. There's a note on the back of the book that shows the "safe" Cute & Fuzzy Seizure Monsters" cover stating that this is the exact same product with a different cover and title. Fast forward to me picking up the book and buying it. When this particular item is rung up, I get asked for my birthdate. ... Yup. I suspect if I looked really young, I'd have been asked for ID. All because of a word on the COVER. Which, of course, anyone could already see. If you bought the version without that word, you're fine. The contents are all the same (although i should mention that you can't easily see those contents at this FLGS, as they shrinkwrap everything, so if the questionable content were inside they'd be fine.) Really, that was what inspired this whole long-winded write up. There are a decent amount of mature-themed ("adult") RPG products out there, but this was NOT one of them. I could go on about those in control of America being uptight, hot coffee, etc, but anyone who reads this already knows that.

Anyways, I've been carded buying an RPG book. At least they didn't wrap it in brown paper.