A hit and a miss

We had to reschedule the second Angel session, but Godlike started as planned and went pretty well, I think. The first session did not require many rules or dice rolling, so the system has yet to really prove itself.

Game Count: 40/52

Sharpe's Game

No, you haven't missed a novel in Bernard Cornwell's highly entertaining series. I'm talking about Neil Gow's new indie RPG Duty & Honour. Sharpe is his biggest single source of inspiration and from what I've read so far (the book only arrived from Lulu yesterday), it seems to capture the spirit admirably. The game says right out of the gate that it is not a strict historical simulation of Napoleonic land battles, trying instead to follow the exploits of Sharpe, Aubrey & Maturin, and other fictional heroes of the era.

I like the physical appearance of the book, too. Someone commented that it's close to the size of Osprey's military history books, and that may not be an accident. It's easier to read than a small paperback, yet handier to carry than a traditional full-size RPG. The layout is unexceptional but clear (important to me) and editing seems to be pretty good. Wellesley's name is misspelled in the in-character introduction, but that is the only typo I've spotted so far.

I hope I get to actually try this game out instead of just adding it to my collection.

Godlike to set sail

Finally we have a date for the first session. In 10 days, we'll see if I have written crap or gold. Angel part II also has a date, even sooner than Godlike, but I'll still be 11 games short of my target afterwards and weeks are running out...

A rogue shall be born

Created a D&D 3.5 elf rogue yesterday for a Dungeon Crawl Classics game. Probably my very first thief-type character. Although he doesn't see himself as a thief; he's actually pretty good-natured and more of an expert on fine mechanisms such as traps and locks. Hell of an acrobat, too, but cannot sneak or fast-talk worth a damn.

Game Count: 39/52

This is rock 'n' roll

I ran Cinematic Unisystem for the first time this week, having only played it (Buffy) before. The working title for this endeavor is Angel: 1957; kind of boring but gets the point across. It's a two-part scenario: first half my own making and the second taken from World of Darkness: Midnight Roads. The characters form a three-person band called Ellen Hart with the Sonic Rockets. They have been touring southern states for a couple of months and have one single released on Meteor Records. And then, of course, Something Happens... but that'll be in part two. In the first session they drove from a disastrous gig in Texarkana to Hope, Arkansas and performed successfully there.

Period music was played from my laptop, people seemed to have a good time, and the system stayed nicely out of the way. To be continued!

Game Count: 38/52

Gaming Weekend III: the outcome

I had great fun as a player and as a GM. I played in a post-apocalyptic game titled Cthulhu 2100 in which we literally saved the world, and ran a Boot Hill 3rd edition game whose plot was ripped off from a Tex Willer story (Finnish issues 9-10/1991, in case you are curious). The setting and NPCs were used basically without changes, and the story was only modified enough to work with the four PCs I created instead of Tex and Kit Carson (who, for example, are Texas Rangers, while the PCs were without law enforcement powers). Roughly halfway through the events started to go their own way instead of following the comic, and that was perfectly all right and what I expected, really. If anything, I think our version was a little more plausible.

I think Boot Hill is still my favorite RPG gunfighting system.

This was my first attempt to translate an existing story into a RPG scenario so directly, and the results were so good that maybe I should steal/adapt more often...

Game Count: 37/52