Role Playing Games: Search/Destroy

Destroy: Stuff with animals.

Destroy: That whole generation of pompous 'character'-based RPGs that Vampire and Ars Magica kicked off - people with an aptitude for character play never needed huge tables of 'personality traits' and 'flaws' and a restrictive gothy background story. The one system that did this stuff quite well was Torg with its 'story cards'.

Oh also Tunnels And Trolls was really shit.

I think like Tom there is a lot to be said for a roleplaying game that is straightforwardly about crawling through dungeons fighting with Orcs and stuff. It only really gets rubbish when you through in all that character class and experience point shite.

geek kitten to thread...
3rd edition is crazy, it's very different. no class restrictions and stuff, so it's very versatile for making any kind of character you like but this can make stuff very unbalanced. but it's good. not that i've played it, i just read the books cos i got nobody to play with since i was like 15 (blub).

Destroy: GURPS, Champions (too much math by far), possibly Palladium but I could be argued out of this one.

Third ed. D&D has really changed the whole gaming world, not only with the changes to the system (now called the d20 System) but also that the system is open-source...anyone can publish a sourcebook; it doesn't have to be licensed by TSR or WotC or whoever. If you haven't been in a game store in the last year or so, the whole landscape has changed. Nearly all the competing systems have switched over to the d20 system, including the Vampire world. So now we have GURPS-style universality as a byproduct, but great market competition...small publishers and good sourcebooks now have an opportunity to find an audience. But part of the fun for me was learning new systems and seeing how the structure of the system affected your game world-view, you know?

other than Rifts i kind of gravitated towards MERP ... just on the strength of those critical hit tables ;-)

does anyone remember a game called Earthdawn? it was a pretty cool spin on the traditional Tolkien-esque fantasy world. it was somehow spookier and more ethnic ... i bought a bunch of the books all at once but never really managed to get a good game going as i was sort of "growing out of it" at the time.

"Strike to head destroys brain and makes life difficult for the unfortunate fool. Expires in a heap, immediately"

four words: teenage mutant ninja turtles.

"Strike to head destroys brain and makes life difficult for the unfortunate fool. Expires in a heap, immediately"

i tell you, those guys were on PCP or summat. that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The direction of it was pretty much up to the players, leading to some hilarious plot bits including them milling over wether to slaughter the firstborn of their native village (they'd got the wrong end of the stick about "a newcomer to the town")and breaking into the local guard house to get some clues (still not sure why they did that).

It was tremendous fun, largely cos it just consisted of getting pissed and gossiping more than actually playing the game.

ancient hackles rise - "true" here = "commercially available". Most freeformers I knew distrusted or disliked Amber hugely.

(ph34r my indieism!!)

that was my experience, anyway.

Isn't PARANOIA the one where the players get in trouble if they read the rulebook? and where the game is so deestructive that each player has to have six lives to stand any chance of completing even one session?

I STILL play Settlers of Catan whenever I run into willing players.

You guys are making me miss my old days of D & D...this makes me sad, 'cause my friend Kurt who was the best DM evah isn't alive anymore. :(

That really is the key argument, and a good argument in favor of Eric Wujcik as well. (You were arguing in favor, right?) Obv. I'm pro-Amber, but yes, I should have used Tom's 'commercially available' modifier. (Please recommend me some indie free-form games, Tom!) I still think Amber's a great game with the right group, and never have a problem with the GM being monopolized to the detriment of the other players because all the players are scheming bastards who go off in little groups when the GM is busy.

I'm actually trying to work up a screenplay idea based on this.

Destroy: angry vindictive DMs/GMs

I loved the old amendments to D&D, ie. Expert, Companion, Masters. No, D&D != 'Basic' D&D, though WD and every other tosser used to call it that routinely.

AD&D: I had an affection for the rulebooks, but actually playing it would have been far too complicated.

I like the sound of Ewing's Victorian game.

I recently discovered old Traveller books: again, you hardly need them for 'playability': it's just the sheer coolness of those black pamphlets with yellow / blue piping and Scouts, High Guard, etc. 'High Guard': those words strike me as cool even now.

then we did one based on some caves and a miniature "canyon" near our houses.

as for commercially, we only played ad&d because we were poor and we could get this stuff from the older kids in the neighborhood.

+2 to peeing in the hot tub, roll 2d12 to determine radius.

makes you think.

obviously, not being around your old players is a pain, but the smallness of everywhere in your house could be turned to an advantage - the claustrophobia could be good for horror roleplaying games.

by the way, was anyone else from ILX (other than Tom & AlexT) at the roleplaying game thing Tom brought me to in South London some years ago (in the pre-ILX era)?

That's true ... I guess the problem is a lack of seating area, in part -- the living room has a love seat, an easy chair, and my computer desk, but if you fill those seats (or the small amount of empty floor space -- my living room is also my office/place for my bookshelves), not everyone can see each other. It might be interesting to have everyone in the front of the room with me at the desk behind them, though :)

idea of the Vicar always playing a Vicar = best idea of today

but *simpering* vicar?

CoC, modern setting, Wiltshire. Fire Vampires. Inbred cultists (though only a handful).

Lustmord, The Drums From Mt Eerie, New & Rediscovered Musical Instruments, Project Dark are planned... anything else spring to mind? Looking for some kind of alien language type thing (heavily treated vocals) without having to play death metal...

G--ff - are GURPS going to reissue their version of Bunnies & Burrows?

Phoenix Command was highlighted in the May '89 issue of the Belgian edition of Playboy magazine article "Role-Playing Outside the Bedroom" written by Gore Vidal. It was revealed there that, not only was Hugh Hefner a fan of role-playing games, but that he refereed a weekly Phoenix Command game at the Playboy Mansion. Whether he still runs the game today is unknown.

lol

i wish i could play in some rpg campaign - even generic fantasy i don't mind (tho my pref has always been cyberpunk) but a. no time b. no gm :(

let's do one on ILX

Some kind of game where people write in character according to some kind of story might be a fun thing to have here

lol maybe on an invite-only private board - have u posted to ilx before bro?

That was assumed.

https://twitter.com/AndrewWK/statuses/425038191914012672

turns out i partied a lot in high school :/

DM: "Your quest is to seize the Keg of Inebriation from the grumpy Storekeeper in the village."

this looks cool https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1004444231/dungeonforge-be-the-ultimate-dungeon-master

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/27/dm-from-the-am-to-the-pm-in-dungeonforge/#more-186713

this book looks interesting

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0615642047/downandoutint-20

I have that book and it's ridiculously interesting

i actually joined in a game recently at work! short sessions post-work on wednesdays booking a conference room to play a french-language game (we play in english, but the ruleset is french only) called... vermin? vermine? unsure on spelling. post-apoc nature-reclaims-earth-from-humans horrorish setting. not sure how long it'll last since A) it took months to get people to even start coming and B) who the fuck wants to leave work at 10pm on a wednesday?, but it's pretty neat so far. ABSURDLY lethal but dm promises to more or less make combat something that we'll only get into if we're stupid enough to make it happen

I ran a 2nd edition ad&d campaign from about 2009 to last year (built my own world and maps, natch) (previous ad&d stint being from about 1980 to 1985) and it was soooo fun but sooooo tough to actually get sessions together when some players are in NJ and one's in Metro North land and half of them have small children and most of them are comix freelancers who have to be draconian w themselves about time. I've thought about converting it to a private blog format or something so we could keep going.

Also that book looks fucking awesome.

hey happy 40th birthday D&D

I am very tempted to start buying 1st edition Traveler material, am I insane

Some people on the Brooklyn OSR/RPG Discord I am on were trying to get a game of that together. I don't recall if they ended up playing. Caverns of Thracia might have taken that over.

If you think you will play it, why not? (lol, I know, I know.)

I found the first edition of Traveller frustratingly vague and at the same time overly complicated. It rarely lent itself to good gameplay.

The GURPS version, on the other hand, really rocks.

I bought the two Bundles of Holding during lockdown that had 50 (fifty) LBBs so I share your pain.

They look good alongside my actual twenty or so LBBs and just the one or two reissues.

SPI published a science fiction RPG called Universe that I thought was really cool. The rules were cool, anyway, I never got a group to play it.

Sixteen-year-old me loved this cover.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91SUGOShrxL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

Ok now I’m wanting to just get a bunch of Gurps traveller books… I’ve always been intrigued by Gurps. I have a few of the hustorical setting books, and the new sun book. So I should get that core book and compendiums and a bunch of the cheaper traveller books, right?

GURPS was one of my most played RPGs back in the day. It's definitely not rules lite or OSR - it has a heavy character creation and skill system - but most of the complexity after character creation can be ignored.

Btw, Free RPG Day is happening this Saturday at various places around the globe. Check your FLGS if they’re participating

https://freerpgday.com