July 22, 2005
RPG Campaign Setting
Now that the genie has escaped the bottle known as RPG, the next logical thought would be: If I were to run a RPG campaign (not that I am committed to this idea, merely thinking out loud), what would it be? (Old straight up Fantasy is out, since I'll be playing in Chris' Arcana Evolved campaign).
1) Victoriana- This would be an era that I know enough about that I am confident I can come up with interesting scenarios in my sleep. Think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meets Flashman meets Ridar Haggard. Ranges of scenarios could range from European city adventures (i.e. working with Holms or Lupin on a dastardly case), exotic locales all over the world (i.e. trying to infiltrate the Boxer Sect in China under-cover), or even straight up wars, both large and small (i.e. Having to rescue old Flashy in Afganistan say..) If any straight up adventure gets stale, a dose of the Old Ones or a trip to Mars would liven it right up. The big plus is that all my 19th century miniatures and terrain pieces would come in real handy...
2) Modern Arcana- Setting of be the here and now, and adventuring can either go into a Dark Conspiracy vein a la X-file, or urban arcana re Big Trouble in Little China. A nudge here and there would send this towards cyberpunk/gangster/spy/modern war depending on what the group wants. Very flexible, and let me try gaming in an era that I normally don't venture in (most of my gaming is ww2 or prior).
3) Ancient/Mythic China- For the truely exotic, a setting in the Wuxia (think Couching Tiger Hidden Dragon), with or without supernatural beings/zombies/Taoist Priest slinging spells, etc. Another genre that I know enough to deal out enough interesting scenarios. Might be a bit too exotic for the intended audience but you never know.
4) Alt-hist Historical- There are enough settings in the market about RPG in the Middle Ages/Ancient Egypt/Greece/Rome where many of the superstitions of the time (i.e. fair folks, mummies, sphinx, what have you) are all real. One can weave interesting tale involving "Real" historical happenings and fantastic goings on to make it fun. Probably closest to traditional FRPG (most are really alt-hist Medival) but with a fresher setting. (Also an era where I get a chance to use my collection of figures...)
Let me know what you think, post a comment if you can (some people are experiencing problem posting), or send me an email: msoong@yahoo.com
Posted by msoong at 03:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 21, 2005
Escape from Astigar's Lair
The recent RPG experience has wetted by appetite for DM'ing something. Any new ambitions world building would have to wait due to a lack of time, so I decided to visit commercial modules that have served me well in the past.
I decided on Escape from Astigar's Lair, a tournament module used at Michicon '80(!) published by Judges Guild (the low rent RPG publisher of choice back in the days of yore). It's a dungoen that's short (it's timed with a stopwatch and designed to be finished in less than 1 hour), designed for two people and two people only (wich prerolled character whose identity is central to the plot). It's got some scripted "roleplay" that's essential to the experience (i.e. character must follow their personality trait to get the best result), and the rest is straight monsters, traps, puzzles. (None of that namby-pamby new age stuff).
It's my first RPG DM experience in about 20 years, but somehow it doesn't feel strange, since I've been doing a lot of miniature game GM in the meantime, and most of my mini games have that element of Role-playing in it (i.e. involves character with their own agenda, DM having to improvise on the fly because a central character that's part of the main plot just died from a freak long range shot...). My grasp of D&D rules might be a little rusty (i.e. what's a otyough again?) but I feel that I can "act" more convincingly in carrying the story forward.
All in all, a pleasant experience... I am seeing more RPG in the future, hopefully combining RPG and miniature (more on that later)...
Posted by msoong at 09:23 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 14, 2005
More RPG idle thoughts
More possible candidate rules system for Milton's return to RPG...
ConspiracyX- A rules light system from Eden Studio using the Unisystem from Buffy/Angel which I liked, and the theme is conspiracy/Illuminati/X-File investigation type of game. I can host it almost like a "evening murder mystery" format...
Savage World- A universal RPG system that's rules light, and very much a miniature game system as well. Extremely light weight (and especially designed for DM who doesn't want to screw around with paperwork). I am tempted to turn my "Big Trouble in Afrika" miniature game into a RPG experience using this system...
Posted by msoong at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 08, 2005
More thoughts on RPG
Now that my RPG fire was rekindled by Chris' Arcana Unearthed game, I spent the next few days digging through RPG sites, product reviews, etc to see that's out there, here's some thoughts:
1) D20 has issues. There's a D20 sourcebook for anything you can think of: Giant Robot Sci-fi? You've got it. You want post modern horror/punk? Ditto. But when I flip through the source books, 90% of them contains either additional skills/feats/spells, or additional monsters. The other 9% would be six new prestige classes (there are now what? a total of over a hundred different official prestige classes from Wotc alone?) Things I am interested in: interesting plot hooks, how to integrate said setting into a good role playing experience, good puzzles, all that stuff is missing. Sigh, I am leaning toward d20-lite more as I write this...
2) RPG and Wargame: There's a couple of supplements that came out recently on how to integrate war into your RPG session. This is more up my alley since I am still mainly a miniature wargamer at heart. So if I can have my group of players, each playing some character with war focus (say as soldiers, warmages, etc.). They might spent some game session as "leader" figures in a miniature wargame (could be skirmish or mass battle), and in between campaigns they might take a break and do some adventuring (i.e. looting an enemy castle). Each character would in effect leading a "warband" in wargaming terminology with options to go solo. This sounds like it can be interesting, need more exploration...
3) DM philosophy: I was never a fan of Monte Hall Dungeon crawl (i.e. open door, see monster, kill monster, get loot, repeat). But I'm not sure I want this whole "role-playing" experience either where one spent hours just going about meeting and talking to people and building up your equipment list.
When I was a DM my fav type are always a straight forward dungeon crawl, but with Role-playing element thrown in (heck, my miniature scenarios tend to be the same way). Characters are almost always pre-generated by me, with detailed personality, motives, hidden agendas (emphasis on the latter). The game always starts at the entrance of a dungeon/castle/scene of action, the group has to work together to get through the puzzles/traps, and something in their personality make up will always give them a hint (so that if they are roleplaying properly they should arrive at where I want them to arrive).
The narrative drive is always more important than the strict printed rules. There are also a lot of behind the scene DM die-roll/machination going on. The adventure is always designed to be a single session affair (mostly an all afternoon thing). So if you are a fan of this type of RPG, drop me a line via my newly enabled comment section...
3) Role-playing in high places: Don't you wish sometime instead of crawling through a dungeon looking into filthy chests for that 10 GP, you's rather be a lord/king/general, making your Difficulty Check NOT to disable a trap, but to see if your latest border dispute with the Lord next door was successful? Or planning for a war? I bet you role playing as high level decision maker would be fun, but too bad I can't find anything on it in the market. If anyone knows of something like this please email me for I'd definitely be interested... (heck if it doesn't exist I might even write one myself...)
Posted by msoong at 12:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 29, 2005
Arcana Unearthed (or my first RPG in 19 years)
The last time I played in a RPG game, Reagan is still president, and TSR is the big fish in the gaming pond. Since that time most of my regular gaming buddy drifted away, and my interest as well (i.e. things like miniature gaming, hex wargames, Magic the Gathering, Euro gaming, etc.) Root cause for my lost of interests are many: dissatisfaction with the rules, lack of time to prepare adventures (I am normally the DM), and just a general tiredness from the usual fantasy hack-n-slash dungeon crawl.
My regular wargame/euro group also does some RPG on the side, and reading Chris's blog on their travail are entertaining enough that I was tempted on occasion to give RPG a try.
Other development in the gaming industry also aided the slow burn that's contributing to my RPG bug, namely:
1) An abundance of RPG system/genre: Any fandom/sub-genre now either have their unique system, or there's a d20 adaptation to it. Among all the choices out there, I am bound to find a system that's to my liking. Even the 500 lb juggernaut in the RPG world (d20, now owned by Hasbro) is way more rational than the D&D rules of old (it has its own issues in my eyes, see below)
2) Particularly innovative system: My interest in the Buffy/Angel universe led me to the innovative Buffy RPG system. (just to qualify, I've been out of the RPG world all these years, so what's innovative to me might be old hat to you guys). It is rules light, and it concentrates on "putting on a good show" as oppose to crunching numbers and stats. It focus on story telling and not hack and slash. I bought the Angels RPG core rules with the intent of running a module one of these days.
3) Rules lite D&D- Castles and Crusades is a new D&D-like system that strips out a lot of the D20 rules to make it more story driven. Now a "retro D&D" that's organized more rationally sounds like a good idea to me. I sprang for the Player's Handbook (a hardback at $19 is a pretty good deal). While the basic concept if good, the rules itself has some editing issue. But this one remains a good possibility for a occasional module.
4) Search for the Perfect Victorian Adventure game: Those of you who's familiar with my miniature gaming should know that the Victorian/Colonial era IS my bag of tea. Space 1889 held promise but that came out when my RPG fire was burning low so didn't register in the radar (other than the Soldier's Companion miniature rules which I tried a few times and found some serious issues with). I am not sure how well S1889 held up to today's RPG standard, but likely I won't sprang for that (although the background material is worth collecting...)
I discovered Howard Whitehouse's Astounding Tales! rules, which is a ultra-light RPG system/miniature rules. I had good experience using it to run my Big Trouble in Afrika convention game. This is a good system that lets me run a limited RPG campaign (i.e. not open ended, and not long lasting) which combines some rules light role-playing and table top miniature battles.
Where do I go from here?
I don't see myself start doing full featured "design the world" DM-ing anymore. So I might run some one-off module with C&C, AngelRPG, or design my next series of miniature battles as RPG adventures (i.e. Victorian adventurers going through Afrika/Central Asia/China), we shall see...
Posted by msoong at 03:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack