Gaming

I’m overwhelmed. The Library of Congress put its Prints & Photographs Catalog online. Look, it’s turn of the century Boston!

Rick Jones wrote up some rules for Wushu Falkenstein (original) over on RPGnet, which should interest at least a few of my readers. His magic rules are excellent. Also on the topic of Wushu (original), the author turns out to be a regular poster on RPGnet. And here’s a post on running Exalted with Wushu rules. I’m still trying to figure out the over the top problem. Here’s another take on it: Embellishments don’t have to be flashy. “I slip through the night, varying the rhythm of my footsteps irregularly, my black suit blending with the shadows, avoiding leaves and other noisy footing.” As a GM, nothing is forcing me to present the players with obstacles which invite flashy solutions — what if the fight takes place next to a sleeping giant?

Justin Achilli has spilled a few beans about his new fantasy setting. Elsewhere, he said simply “Frostholm. First quarter 2005.” In a way I sort of miss hanging out in the kind of crowd that picks up on news like this within seconds and savages it to within an inch of its life, but in a lot of ways I don’t. Regardless, the setting looks like the kind of thing that I might well like a lot. On the other hand, I’ll continue to bet that the market for grim campaign settings is not all that huge, and Midnight might have locked it up by then. But we’ll see.

I tossed this off in a friend’s comment section, but now I want to save it. Excelsior. It’s Las Vegas. 1960. The Rat Pack is headlining the Sands. And the Angel Pack is patrolling the skies… Jack Diamond: he’s a hard man, the hardest, skin like diamond and quips like knives. You couldn’t scratch him with a .45. (Note: parallel evolution (original).) Angie “Angel” Spencer: team leader, irreverent British heiress, with immense white overarching wings. She flies, and she knows when you’ve been naughty. ...

The 2003 Origins Awards ceremony is over and done with, without too many surprises. I’m quite happy to see Z-Man Games picking up a Vanguard Award for Warchon — nicely done! As happens every year, we demonstrate our fascination with the Origins Awards by talking about how irrelevant they are (original). (Sorry, but Celtic Age was actually pretty good; particularly noteworthy are the experience rules for weapons.)

We played some Trollbabe the other night, and had a tonload of fun. I was kind of expecting it to be a bit turgid, since it’s a highly experimental sort of game, but it moved really quickly and provided as much drama as I could ask for. Without going into heavy detail, it’s a game in which you play trollbabes — half human, half troll, stuck between two worlds. All PCs are trollbabes, and every trollbabe in the world is a PC. The isolation from both the human and the troll worlds is an important part of the game. ...

Palladium Books just announced that Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Films have optioned the Rifts universe for a live action motion picture. Disney also gets dibs on marketing resulting from the movie. Now, chances are the thing will never get made. Options are just options, and don’t pan out at a high percentage. In fact, it’s kind of goofy of Palladium to announce it — trumpeting your options is sort of a sign of amateur hour. But that’s Palladium for ya, god bless their overpowered little hearts. ...

Actually, it occurs to me that since the book has been announced, there’s nothing stopping me from saying “Hey, look at this, I wrote part of it.” So there you are. Yes, I am a diehard wrestling fan. I have an old LJ post about this which I think I will dig up soon.

“So,” he said, “What’s ‘ discovery science,’ anyhow?” “UFOs,” she replied. “Cattle mutilations. That sort of thing. More coffee?” It pays to talk to waitresses.

There’s a hefty little thread over on the Forge about ad lib GMing. (Well, it starts out as a thread about player fulfillment and winds up as a big discussion about “No Myth” roleplaying, but you know, it’s still rock and roll to me. Ad lib GMing, with player acceptance. OK.) The early advice from Le Joueur is very solid and can be turned to slightly less extreme ends. My experience is that many players need the possibility of failure in a way that his Complication theory doesn’t really address. To put it differently: ends must be mutable in play. And… hm. Ah. ...