tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21427576275155531702012-01-24T08:56:49.498-08:00Dangerous assumptions about how gaming relates to life. Also a place for r_b_bergstrom to keep an archive of things he flung out into the gaming fora and wikis of the world.r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.comBlogger8741100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-70627865554674681802012-01-06T07:33:00.000-08:002012-01-06T07:34:12.151-08:00

I'm pleased to say that my Continuum campaign successfully jumped back into full swing after the year-end break. The sessions Tuesday and Wednesday were both really good, with opportunities for the PCs to chew the scenery a bit, and both groups made some good breakthroughs on the projects and mysteries at the top of their "to-do" lists. I did a little reflecting on the game during the break, and

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-23430791816863917222011-12-29T09:43:00.000-08:002011-12-29T09:55:37.902-08:00

Get used to seeing this screen a lot. It ain't easy, but it's fun. My Continuum campaign is on hold till the new year, so I've been filling my time playing (and modding) a wonderful little computer game called Dungeons of Dredmor.  It's essentially a roguelike, but with nice graphics instead of little ascii glyphs that populate that genre. So, more like Diablo, but with a wicked sense of humor

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-65086758441649173192011-12-02T14:48:00.000-08:002011-12-02T14:58:38.594-08:00

In Continuum, a "Corner" is a meeting place, secret lair, landing pad, fort, home or workspace for time-travelers. Some are hidden away in the middle of nowhere, others exist brazenly under the nose of the teeming masses that are unaware of the true secret history of time-travel. Corners frequently have clever nicknames, used to help spanners (time-travelers) coordinate activities in lieu of a

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-68658935033961472112011-12-02T12:16:00.000-08:002011-12-02T12:34:00.834-08:00

As some of my readers know, I'm running this time-travel game two nights a week. It's the setting of the out-of-print Continuum RPG, but with mechanics derived primarily from the Gumshoe system (Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists, etc.)  It's a game where PCs can teleport and time-travel at will, in a deterministic universe where the past (and future) is unchangeable and set in stone, but you can

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-41750985488536762612011-11-16T08:26:00.000-08:002011-11-16T08:49:27.234-08:00

It's American Censorship Day.   In honor of this holiday, I intended to [DELETED] a [DELETED] with a [FNORD] on my [DELETED]. PROTECT IP Act Breaks The  Internet from Fight for the  Future on Vimeo. I strongly encourage all Americans to take a few moments this morning to email or call their Senators and Representatives and complain about SOPA and the Protect IP Act, two pieces of

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-53355013374554122302011-11-09T11:45:00.000-08:002011-11-16T08:29:51.183-08:00

I've played four games of Microscope so far. After this most recent session (admittedly, about a month ago), I feel like I've learned a bit about how to get the most out of the game. Sadly, in order to learn and improve, we had to fall over a few times. I'll start with nutshell summaries of the four games, in order of when I played them: Alternate History / Steampunk: Leonardo da Vinci's

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-31349356010144278242011-11-04T17:03:00.001-07:002011-11-09T08:04:20.690-08:00

A few weeks ago my wife and I taught 1,000 Blank White Cards to some friends of ours (Mark and Laura). We played two games in rapid succession. Here's a bunch of our cards: 1kBWC - Teabagging Sheep, a set on Flickr.

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-23439475841090613382011-08-26T12:13:00.000-07:002011-08-26T12:24:16.542-07:00

Last night I ran a one-shot based on the cool old Star Wars fan-film TROOPS. This was the second time I'd run such a game, but the last time was way back in February of 2009.  For last night's reprisal, I moved the game from Tatooine to Bespin. Filmed live on the platforms of Cloud City. Here's a link to my post about the old game.  For those unfamiliar with the general TROOPS concept, here's a

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-71479830552057480582011-07-19T10:46:00.000-07:002011-07-19T10:59:13.303-07:00

I haven't gotten around to much blogging lately, so here's a quick run-down of recent games I've played or GM'd. Probably any of these could have been an entire blog post unto themselves, and a few might still be if I find the time and energy. I played Lacuna at the Emerald City Game Fest. This nearly became part of my "A good GM can save a bad system" post, but after a couple weeks of keeping

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-80554992110063768822011-07-05T11:35:00.000-07:002011-07-13T10:46:25.743-07:00

A good GM can save a bad system. I played several new (for me) RPGS this weekend at the Emerald City Game Fest, and I had a ton of fun. In spite of the mechanics. These games had ridiculous off-kilter mechanics, but the GMs kept the games rolling and provided more than enough color to overcome the flaws in the systems. The first game was octaNe. The scenario was a riff on Big Trouble In Little

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-25521408776226998142011-06-21T12:11:00.000-07:002011-06-27T14:47:40.584-07:00

This past Saturday was Free RPG Day, and my local game store asked me to run a demo in their store of one of the free modules they'd be giving away. Sounded like fun, so I signed up to run the introductory scenario "Broken Chains" for the upcoming "Black Crusade" RPG. Before I dive in to what I thought of Broken Chains and Black Crusade, I'd like to take a moment to thank Greenlake Games. They

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-45829101288436189612011-06-06T17:37:00.000-07:002011-07-05T11:40:11.347-07:00

I've tried quite a few different rules-light GM-less games over the years (Off the top of my head: Microscope, Remember Tomorrow, Fiasco, Universalis, Rune, Baron Munchausen, and Pantheon), and I strongly feel that Microscope is the best of the bunch. Microscope is settingless, and indeed that's really the point of it. In-game, you create a setting turn-by-turn, and then zip your focus around to

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-59762263580535128822011-05-27T10:04:00.000-07:002011-06-03T09:05:17.768-07:00

I just saw that the "double-oh-two" (002) edition of Wilderness of Mirrors is available as a PDF. There's a six-page preview up on DriveThruRPG, but it doesn't offer much in terms of what's different in the new edition. Since the actual book is itself about 14 pages long, a 6-page preview is rather generous. I can't really ask for more, even if it isn't answering my questions. So what are the

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-75271675357642225552011-05-25T17:18:00.001-07:002011-06-06T17:52:30.362-07:00

This is my third post on Remember Tomorrow, a light cyberpunk RPG I played recently. This post analyzes some mid-game strategic choices you'll have to make, and concludes they aren't nearly as well balanced as the options at character creation. Previous Posts on Remember Tomorrow: Overview and initial impressions of Remember Tomorrow. The math behind character creation in Remember Tomorrow.

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-14384559518934957882011-05-25T16:20:00.000-07:002011-05-25T16:23:08.621-07:00

   In yesterday's post I discussed our recent play of Remember Tomorrow, a rules-light cyberpunk-genre RPG.  I found it entertaining, but structurally a little odd. I'm tempted to give it another try, to see if the counter-intuitive stuff would shake itself out with a bit more experience.  Before doing so, though, I thought I'd take a peak at the math behind the mechanics of the game.   

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-90547119755474228052011-05-24T11:38:00.000-07:002011-05-24T12:12:08.486-07:00

A couple sessions back, my weekly one-shot group gave a test run to Remember Tomorrow. It's a rules-light set of cyberpunk mechanics, with little to no setting and roundtable narration principles. The "hippy game" equivalent for Cyberpunk 2020 fans, Remember Tomorrow has a little bit in common with Universalis in that GMing duties are distributed across the table and you may end up playing

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-35547232402767601922011-05-16T13:27:00.000-07:002011-05-16T13:35:25.339-07:00

Lately, I've been having a lot of experience with PCs going bonkers. There's a couple different ways to handle it, depending on what your goals are. In 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars,  I just drove the whole group crazy. Hallucinations, multiple realities, glaring inconsistencies, characters and situations that obviously couldn't exist, etc. It was almost all improvised, and I made no efforts to

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-59000011232296309552011-04-20T09:38:00.000-07:002011-04-20T09:38:51.025-07:00

...and only 2 of them exchange numbers. On Sunday, I played in the first session of a Supers game using the Truth & Justice (PDQ) system. The GM wanted the PCs to form a team or band of heroes, which seems perfectly reasonable. So she asked us to first focus on our mundane secret identities, and make sure that every PC knew at least one other PC. Presumably, that happened. With 7 players, there

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-16111268513822349972011-03-29T13:03:00.000-07:002011-04-15T10:19:22.671-07:00

Friends, Terrans, Troopers... I come not to praise 3:16, but to bury it... and I say that with slightly less irony than Marc Antony.  Our campaign of 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars has come to an end this past Sunday. It was a good game, it was a crazy game. I'm a little sad to see it go, but also very happy to have played it through to a logical conclusion and gotten clear without the rules

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-49434469166139575892011-03-21T08:57:00.000-07:002011-03-21T08:57:53.493-07:00

Yesterday's session of 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars went rather well, despite some big interruptions (relatives calling in the middle of the game), and a patently absurd Alien Power. Planet Name: Pollock Planet Description: Forest Alien Description: Sentient Planet Alien Power: Stop Technology Some tough choices on the planet description, based on what little is left to me on the charts.

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-35954847878096119432011-03-18T10:52:00.000-07:002011-03-21T08:07:23.774-07:00

Last night I ran Dogs In The Vineyard for the weekly one-shot group. Actually, this was part two of what looks to be a three-shot. I'm finding I really like the system, but it has some awkwardness. There's specifically three bad habits I'd like to "break" my players (and myself) of, if I were to run something longer than a single scenario. Bad Habit #1: Spending too long agonizing over how to

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-4263740294955995492011-03-16T13:06:00.000-07:002011-03-16T14:07:00.322-07:00

A bit of a follow-up to my post a few weeks ago on the Space Hulk: Death Angel cooperative card game. Upon getting the rules right*, the game has indeed proven to be a little more difficult than our first impression had it. However, we still haven't found it to be nearly as tough as some reviews made it out to be. Since I've been over the rules repeatedly to make sure we aren't still doing

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-63024946597746909472011-03-14T13:35:00.000-07:002011-03-14T17:42:57.616-07:00

My 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars campaign continues full pace, but clearly working towards a conclusion. It's been a few weeks since I lasted posted about it, so I'll be condensing those sessions into a rather short summary. I've been cranking up the zaniness as we go. The game is "meant" to be played straight - very much Band of Brothers or Platoon, but with aliens.  As we've gone, I've found

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-68793412666595540602011-02-22T11:05:00.000-08:002011-02-22T11:20:54.186-08:00

Sunday's session of "3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars" was our longest yet. We usually wrap up around 4 hours, but this ran 6. We're reaching the end stages of the campaign, as the charts are mostly crossed off, and one of the PCs will have to take the "Hatred for Home" Weakness the next time he levels up (it's the only flashback left for him). So,  I wanted to wrap up plot threads and reinforce

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-9449328636518712032011-02-07T08:24:00.000-08:002011-02-07T08:26:32.330-08:00

My latest "3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars" session was very light on actual combat. In fact, I didn't even send the PCs to the alien planet until the last hour of the session. Planet Name: Monet Planet Description: Heavy Atmosphere Alien Description: Birds Alien Special Ability: Impair We're more than half way through the charts at this point, so if I roll up a planet or alien description that

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-81484068152898840772011-02-04T10:25:00.000-08:002011-02-04T10:42:17.422-08:00

In most RPGs, if the party splits up, it's a detriment to the PCs. Resources are spread thin, they can be overwhelmed and ganged up on, etc. What's more, several players sit around twiddling their thumbs while 20 minutes (or more) of combat drag by. But that's just not the case in 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars. It's not like D&D where 6 ogres is a much biggger challenge for one player than for

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-79706712543854772112011-01-31T11:06:00.000-08:002011-01-31T11:10:38.976-08:00

Yesterday's session of 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars was the biggest challenge the PCs have faced yet. They actually had to rely on orbital bombardment, whereas on all previous planets, mere Strengths and Weaknesses were enough to get out of the trouble. Now, before we could get to the planet in question, there were some amusing hijinks involving ol' Sarge Harrington (a PC) and the captured

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-17468322474310124512011-01-29T08:30:00.000-08:002011-01-29T17:02:44.143-08:00

My wife and I have been playing a lot of Space Hulk: Death Angel in the past week or two. It's an awesome version of the classic Space Hulk board game / miniatures game, but in a portable semi-cardgame edition. (It's clearly a card game, but doesn't feel or play like one.) Best of all, it's cooperative. My wife and I play the Space Marines together, and the game itself controls the vile

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-45362910862185466782011-01-28T13:08:00.000-08:002011-01-28T13:08:43.605-08:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I liked the core of Yesterday's Tomorrow, but various mathematical inconsistencies and a few vague passages in the rules really bothered me. I hate to be the guy that just whines and gripes, and never does anything to solve the problem, so here's what I would do to make Yesterday's Tomorrow work better... Standardize the benefits of an advantage: Talents and

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-26546824878442064602011-01-28T12:57:00.000-08:002011-01-28T13:20:21.318-08:00

Last night I played Yesterday's Tomorrow (a retro-pulp RPG, sometimes abbreviated "Yes. Tom." below, because it amuses me to do so) by John Wick. Between it, and my experiences running Wilderness of Mirrors half a dozen times in the past year, I've come to an inescapable conclusion. John Wick needs to get himself a number of assistants:  a friend who is really good with numbers, a blind playtest

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-53030240279001298442011-01-26T11:38:00.000-08:002011-01-26T11:38:28.200-08:00

I recently played two sessions of the new Gamma World. You know, the edition to which my kneejerk reaction was pretty unfavorable. A friend of mine ran it at the weekly one-shot group. Let's see if actual play experience improves or worsens my perceptions of it... One of the first steps in character creation was rolling up what type of character you're playing. A quick aside: Some folks really

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-39239182817815090482011-01-25T09:28:00.000-08:002011-01-25T16:26:24.951-08:00

Yesterday, in my Continuum game, I had an amusing little situation, where someone said something without realizing the way it would be taken by the NPC they're talking too. Kinda like that famous exchange between Merlin and Julia in the Amber novels, where context tells us that the two characters will walk away from a conversation without realizing they completely misunderstood each other. It's a

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-40058402442608003002011-01-25T07:56:00.000-08:002011-01-25T07:56:31.437-08:00

Exciting session of 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars this week. Here's a summary: Planet Name: Bosch Planet Description: Heavy Gravity Alien Description: Felines Alien Special Ability: Flee I ended up with a really low AA for this planet, and knew the aliens were gonna be creamed. Especially since "Flee" is a really wimpy special power. Once the PCs were aware of it, they just started every

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-44644684242550453072011-01-18T10:54:00.000-08:002011-01-18T10:57:36.717-08:00

Summary of my most recent session of 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars... Planet Name: Holbein Planet Description: High Humidity Alien Description: Rays, Sharks, or Fish Alien Special Ability: Reduced Visibility We started the session thinking we were going to be down a player. Mark, who plays Captain DeMolay, had a prior engagement in the real world at his Mason's Lodge - or as close to the real

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-39479253513062183772011-01-18T10:15:00.000-08:002011-01-18T11:37:31.998-08:00

Quick summaries of a recent (not the most recent) session of my 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars campaign. Planet Name: Caravaggio Planet Type: Gas Giant Alien Type: Mineral-Based Forms (Silicon Centipedes) Alien Special Ability: Exploding Bodies Caravaggio was our first session with Captain DeMolay, a PC, leading the entire Company. So, things were very different. Instead of the usual piss-poor

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-39038197586812775102011-01-10T11:25:00.000-08:002011-01-10T12:37:21.199-08:00

Yesterday, we had a guest player at my 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars campaign. Naturally, people tried to bring him up to speed with what had happened in previous sessions. The resulting summary was unbelievably bizarre.   There's next to zero planning going in to these sessions, which is a big part of it. 10 to 15 minutes GM prep per session tops, and at least once it didn't even get that (as

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-5323279792363447822011-01-03T02:09:00.000-08:002011-02-04T10:29:38.662-08:00

It was pointed out to me at this week's 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars game that I didn't blog about last week's 3:16 game. So, here's two birds with one wordy stone... Last week, the platoon was sent to help the 3:15 out of a bind. Captain Schwimmer told them that their real goal should be to make the 15th look bad. "They need rescuing, and we don't want them to ever forget who had to haul

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-40996074596066070202010-12-21T13:23:00.000-08:002010-12-21T13:48:37.836-08:00

I almost never blog about my Continuum RPG campaign, despite it going really smashingly well of late. It's so complex that the amount of time I have to work on it between sessions is a lot better spent actually prepping for the next session instead of blogging about what we've already done. Plus, with how many mystery plotlines I run in it, and the non-linear nature of a Time Travel game, it's

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-15296470227898803952010-12-17T09:51:00.000-08:002010-12-17T09:56:26.541-08:00

Last night I played in a superhero RPG loosely based on "Mystery Men", in that we were supposed to play incompetent superheroes. The system was Savage Worlds, using the Supers Compendium. I played the Armchair Musketeer, which is exactly what it doesn't sound like: a plushly upholstered Louis XV chair that had been granted sentience, served in the Royal Musketeers, and has been fighting crime

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-29056841124172913392010-12-13T08:59:00.000-08:002010-12-13T08:59:31.763-08:00

I'm pleased to report that I had a much better session of "3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars" this week. Not that the previous week's session was bad, per se, but it had left a weird aftertaste. Problem Solving, mafia-style I solved the dilemma of how to "punish" the PCs for their recent failure (and repeated officer-icide) without punishing the players, without boringly locking them all up in the

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-82639323098082349262010-12-07T13:29:00.000-08:002010-12-07T16:46:13.934-08:00

After my recent post about 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars and how some of the polish had worn off the mechanics, I got an interesting question in the comments. Lee 'Spikey' Nethersole wrote: After having read all of your posts about this game/system i feel the need to ask exactly why you are playing it. ...I still wonder what you are getting out of it... What am I getting out of it? Well,

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-5189846072396665652010-12-06T09:44:00.000-08:002010-12-06T09:53:34.790-08:00

Yesterday I ran my fourth session of 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars. It was an interesting, but oddly paced session. Let's look at the planet/mission stats: Planet Name: Klimt Planet Terrain: Ocean World Alien Type: Sirens Alien Ability: Invoke Weakness The remains of the platoon, after having suffered heavy losses in the past three sessions, was given the "easy" job of providing security to a

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-67482539597874418652010-12-03T14:19:00.000-08:002010-12-03T14:48:01.857-08:00

Looking back on my last post, and the one from June, I don't think there's really enough info there for anyone else to run this hybrid Everway/Warhammer FRP game. So,  I'm going to post below the actual rules document I've GM'd from. It's just 2 or 3 pages, written pretty informally, and in a couple spots talks about things I hadn't yet done (like convert Wound cards to reference Everway's stats

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-52206326878462777552010-12-03T13:45:00.000-08:002010-12-03T13:49:11.884-08:00

I ran some "Everhammer" (Everway, using select mechanics ported over from Warhammer FRP 3rd Ed) over Thanksgiving while visiting friends in Portland, OR.  This time we got in 12 to 13 hours of actual play, split in two sessions. This slightly more than doubled the total amount of Everhammer I've run. Overall, it went really smashingly well. Plotline:  The session was mostly creepy, with a

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-50630741972316821112010-11-21T22:32:00.000-08:002010-12-06T09:53:34.798-08:00

I'm very pleased with tonight's session of "3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars", and I should be because I provoked my players into fragging a superior officer. You know you're doing something right as GM when your players decide to take a dangerous and unnecessary action with possible consequences, just because the NPC was so vile. In the first couple sessions, I saddled them with an incompetent

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-54752007916096751212010-11-08T08:22:00.000-08:002010-12-06T09:53:34.806-08:00

This is a summary of my second session of 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars, which I ran just over a week ago. I would have written this sooner, but I've been really sick. Planet Name: Matisse Planet Description: Mountainous Terrain Basic Creature Form: I think they were supposed to be "Mineral-based forms" but somehow I made them humanoids with weird ears. It made sense at the time, but I can't

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-50074253197545778942010-10-26T07:39:00.000-07:002010-12-06T09:53:34.813-08:00

On Sunday, I started a campaign of 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars. It's a military sci-fi RPG with very abstract mechanics. The primary influence is of course Starship Troopers (the book more than movie), but I'll be throwing in hefty doses of Platoon, Band of Brothers, and Going After Cacciato. Yes, there's big alien menaces to be dealt with in every session, but the plot is more about the moral

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-5009514254878679292010-10-25T17:37:00.000-07:002010-10-25T17:43:57.747-07:00

Last Thursday, we were making PCs for a Sci-Fi RPG called Diaspora, and I took forever. I always take forever making RPG characters. Or rather, I always take forever coming up with a good idea, so the only time I can hammer out a character in a reasonable window of time is if I've got a really good handle on the setting, and know what sort of character types are appropriate. Otherwise, it'll go

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-37007495879475941792010-10-19T16:49:00.000-07:002011-03-29T13:12:17.300-07:00

My Monday and Wednesday game is a Continuum campaign, but using the Gumshoe mechanics. Which meant that I incorporated stability from Gumshoe, but had to come up with values for stability losses for all sorts of Continuum-related scenarios such as the Time Combat Stratagems. Here's the modified version of the Stability chart that we use for that campaign. Most entries come from the Trail of

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-36407865838952868452010-10-19T12:07:00.000-07:002011-01-26T07:30:57.297-08:00

UPDATE:  I've been directed to a video that gives more information about the game and it's randomized components, so after my original post I'm adding my thoughts on the new info. Within the past week or two Wizards of the Coast released a new edition of the classic RPG Gamma World. I played a lot of Gamma World back in the day, and would be happy to try out a new edition, at least in theory. As

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-35285091065780687702010-10-14T11:27:00.000-07:002010-10-14T13:32:37.161-07:00

The Gumshoe game I just mentioned is actually a hybrid. It uses the Continuum time-travel setting, but with most of the Continuum rules replaced with Gumshoe rules. Which meant I had to convert certain elements. In the post below is an example of a sub-system I converted to be Gumshoe compatible. Range When we say Range, we're not talking about how far a gun can shoot. Range (and it's always

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-9613144987153416682010-10-14T10:23:00.000-07:002010-10-14T10:23:52.992-07:00

For the past year, I've been running a Gumshoe game with one really major house rule: All the skill pools refresh automatically at the start of every session.  It's a simple change, but made the game a lot more enjoyable. With this rule, there's no need to track from week to week how many points you have left/available in Chemistry (or whatever other skill is critical to the task at hand). 

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-83833689860753851112010-09-24T10:57:00.000-07:002010-09-24T10:59:20.010-07:00

Last night was the third session of a four-part super hero mini-campaign of Truth & Justice. The villains are particularly despicable, having at this point killed over 2,000 people in their campaign of terror (and they'd tried to kill a stadium full of 50,000 as well). The villains thus far have all been Invulnerable, Immortal, Intangible or just plain Untouchable. In the first 5 or 6 fights (

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-80192496821565036012010-09-20T09:19:00.000-07:002010-09-28T23:22:20.836-07:00

Gwen Con X, the last Gwen Con ever, was this past weekend. After some troubles with a bus Friday night, Sarah and I were able to make it over there for 4 RPG scenarios and a couple short games of "Are You The Werewolf?" Overall, it was a great weekend, and I'd have been happy if any of these games had run twice as long as they did. All the games had some meaty in-character inter-party-conflict,

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-37913165238586237302010-09-03T08:12:00.000-07:002010-09-27T08:31:52.941-07:00

I just stumbled across a blog called "Points of Light: Mostly for D&D games". As the name says, it's mostly about D&D, which I don't play a lot of. It's also got a lot of "Edition Wars" related posts (he really likes 4th and hates Pathfinder), which are of limited interest to me. Every single paragraph has at least one "fucking" which seems a bit excessive. But stepping past those complaints, as

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-17342121502977522752010-09-01T14:23:00.000-07:002010-09-01T19:57:54.461-07:00

Played a little Truth & Justice last week. It's a reasonably rules-light superheroes RPG. I tend to over-think my characters too much, and take way to long making a PC. So, with my back up against the wall at the game, I slapped together a thin parody of a character, which I named The Meat Shield. Despite being so shallow, the character was kind of fun to play. The Meat Shield Hot dog vendor

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-57720446362990352122010-08-17T10:17:00.000-07:002010-08-17T10:23:57.178-07:00

It's been a rough couple of weeks for me, as I'm not getting my fix of choice. Gaming, that is. My typical weekly gaming schedule involves a Continuum campaign I run, a Fate game I play in, and an additional one-shot that I either GM or play in. I really hate canceling sessions. I don't like letting people down. Also, I must admit I get really psyched to game, and there's a huge let down for me

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-22427553676489796532010-08-02T12:13:00.000-07:002010-08-02T14:32:15.142-07:00

Played in a great session at the Fate Steampunk  campaign yesterday.  My character came very close to dying, repeatedly. Surprisingly, I took hardly any damage, just a single "clipped" result, but to get by with so little injury took activating all six of my aspects, spending all three of my fate points, and getting three different assists from other players (using the optional rule where they

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-90146937870655133132010-07-30T09:05:00.000-07:002010-07-30T16:06:43.243-07:00

My wife and I are playing in a very enjoyable steampunky alternate history game on Sundays. Our characters have been selected to take part in the first U.S. mission to the moon, which is happening in the late 1890's. I'm such a thin-skinned perfectionist, I always find something to complain about even in a game I'm really enjoying. So let me get that out of the way: I have some minor gripes

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-9712782845996429602010-07-26T11:59:00.000-07:002010-07-26T12:49:56.605-07:00

Here I am reflecting on the Warhammer 3rd dice yet again. This time it's the red (reckless) and green (conservative) dice. In previous posts, I've looked into how the red dice are a bit of a mixed bag. They generate some big hits, but run a lot more risks in the process. Largely, this is balanced by the way that most action cards have a much-better red side. Or do they? As it turns out, many of

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-60524106188490327172010-07-23T10:03:00.000-07:002010-07-23T12:22:11.140-07:00

Last night I played in a one-shot of "Fiasco". It's a rules-light GM-less RPG that seeks to capture the feel of a Coen brothers movie. In our case, we were a touring rock band that was on the verge of breaking up. Our scenario ended in tragedy, followed by a killer solo album.If you've never heard of Fiasco, there's plenty of reviews out there that will tell you the basics. I suggest taking a

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-30485782393036304892010-07-23T09:56:00.000-07:002010-07-23T10:03:11.476-07:00

If you haven't done so yet, there's just a couple days (ends on the 25th) left to vote for the 2010 Ennie Awards. There's some very cool games (and gaming-related products) up for voting this year. There's also a couple real stinkers, in my opinion, so you should head over there and vote for the ones that actually deserve it. :)The ballot includes links to the publishers product pages for every

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-52859388181354251192010-07-22T11:06:00.001-07:002010-07-22T11:06:57.995-07:00

This cracked me up.

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-30209684117951514902010-07-22T07:46:00.001-07:002010-07-23T11:14:41.864-07:00

I ran a pretty slow session last night at my Continuum game. This is definitely against my normal trends.Disclaimer: What follows is just a tiny peak inside my brain, and what I'm thinking while I GM. It's internal monologue, but posted in public so I can't just ignore it. No guarantees anyone will find it useful...I have a tendency as a GM to throw too many things at the players. It's the single

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-32683259228622586902010-07-20T15:00:00.000-07:002010-07-20T16:23:42.596-07:00

I've come up with an interesting way to get "boon" and "bane"-like effects from Warhammer 3rd into just about any RPG, but without the extra baggage and complexity, and without disrupting the normal mechanics of these games. First I'll need to establish some context about which aspects of the boon system I want to port over.I really like the ideas behind the Warhammer dice, but I'm not sure I

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-83453326067473537742010-07-16T10:21:00.000-07:002010-07-16T11:35:24.995-07:00

Last night I ran "Wham Trek" at my weekly one-shot group. The mechanics were an extremely light trimmed-down version of Warhammer FRP 3rd. After a brief explanation of the rules, and a tiny bit of clarification that this had nothing to do with George Michael, we were ready to go.For those still scratching their heads, Wham Trek was an RPG scenario blending of a couple of crazy old boardgames

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-82694672699468345512010-07-09T16:59:00.000-07:002010-07-10T08:34:54.836-07:00

Last night I played in a one-shot called "New Hope" that was sort of set in the Star Wars Universe, and used mechanics somewhat based on the indy RPG "Lady Blackbird".It was set several years after Return of the Jedi, and the New Republic was every bit as as nasty as the Empire had ever been. Everything you recall from the movies was just Republican propaganda. It was an interesting twist on the

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-91681982999374395392010-07-07T15:55:00.000-07:002010-08-09T12:48:10.827-07:00

When I've run Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd, I've replaced the "Opposed Check Difficulty" table from the main rule book with the following chart: If the Opposing Characteristic is: Rated at 1 to 3 characteristics dice: add 1 challenge die Rated at 4 to 5 characteristics dice: add 2 challenge dice Rated at 6 or more characteristic dice: add 3 challenge diceThe various "+1 misfortune die"

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-58126768963748304212010-06-30T15:49:00.000-07:002010-07-01T09:19:17.092-07:00

A couple weeks ago my wife and I picked up a cooperative card game called "The Isle of Dr. Necreaux". The concept behind the game is a good one - it simulates a team of spies infiltrating an evil scientist's island lair, and escaping before the bomb goes off. But the more I play it, the more I feel like there's a mathematical flaw at the core of the game.What it comes down to is this: You'll

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-81762479840675847322010-06-28T12:12:00.001-07:002010-06-28T12:37:32.690-07:00

A while back I mentioned the Humble Indy Bundle, which was a set of 5 or 6 downloadable computer games. Very cool little titles, of which the cream of the crop is a beautiful game called Aquaria. My wife and I have logged a lot of time playing Aquaria. It's one of very few computer games I've ever felt the compulsion to truly play all the way through. After about 50 hours of play, we not only

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-78314783010627403002010-06-18T09:35:00.000-07:002010-12-03T13:48:29.323-08:00

This is an article about how I folded two very different game systems into one another, and found the place where they intersect to be more immediately enjoyable than either on it's own. First, some context about the two games: The new(-ish) Warhammer FRP has some really awesome groundbreaking elements like group initiative, abstract movement, multiple-axis of success, and wickedly cool dice.

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-61647859145505992012010-06-10T08:06:00.000-07:002010-06-10T08:17:34.137-07:00

In which I admit that I am not always the world's greatest GM...Last week's Continuum session was awesome, things went way better than expected. But, unfortunately, when you're standing at a peak, there's nowhere to go but down.Last night's Continuum session was horrid. We had technical issues on both Skype and MeBeam, that made it painful trying to communicate with the players. I didn't handle

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-2563350310710888032010-06-05T10:32:00.000-07:002010-06-05T11:18:38.356-07:00

This past Wednesday, I finally sprung a trap that had been set in a game since December. In my Continuum game, the PCs had been carrying around for quite some time a set of tickets to a stage show for a particular one-night-only performance by a mentalist (hypnotist/magician). They were fairly confident that their elder selves had been to the show. They knew for certain that an allied NPC had

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-22454219323144572022010-06-03T11:38:00.000-07:002010-06-03T11:54:57.745-07:00

My apologies for using the narcissist term "Swarm Prime" to refer to the default Continuum universe. I know it's in poor taste, and I hope my fellow spanners will forgive me.The Continuum RPG has a list in the GM's section about events that happen in the official timeline of the Aquarian Era (2001 to 2400 CE). It's full of crazy fun stuff, like the birthdate of the first human born on Mars, and

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-60152420416596694982010-06-01T08:35:00.000-07:002010-06-01T11:01:39.326-07:00

I was thinking about the board game "A Touch Of Evil" the other day, and trying to figure out the math of the big showdown at the end of the game. In particular, I wanted to know how many dice should really be applied to any given Evil Elder, so I started looking at the math behind it all. The conclusion I've drawn from this is that what the game presents as a strategic decision is actually more

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-43430865026086045732010-05-28T09:01:00.001-07:002010-05-28T11:16:23.838-07:00

On Tuesday, I wrote the following about Warhammer RPG:"Later this summer they're releasing a magic supplement, which will also have rules for corruption and mutation. Probably, I'll buy that and see what it does to magic, then decide thereafter whether or not to continue purchasing this game line. If it turns out I'm [likely to] rebuild it entirely, I probably don't need to keep buying. But

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-64257946646548402422010-05-25T17:50:00.001-07:002010-05-26T12:04:35.895-07:00

Just thinking out loud about what I might do to really trim down Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay 3rd Ed down to a lean, mean role-playing machine. Keep the parts I like, ditch the parts that get in the way.Let's talk Crunchometer for a moment. Warhammer FRP 3rd is a c20 that plays like a c12. In truth, it's every bit as crunchy and fiddly as D&D 3rd Ed, but the wealth of tools, shortcuts, and

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-56874660392462067392010-05-18T11:19:00.000-07:002010-05-18T18:51:30.637-07:00

Yet another post on the dice in Warhammer FRP 3rd Ed. I'm milking these plastic polyhedrons for all they're worth.This time, the topic is the conservative and reckless stances. Here's a graph of very typical dice pool*. What the graphs show is the changes to the probability if the character is in a neutral stance, or if they are rolling 2 Conservative (green) dice or 2 Reckless (red) dice

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-27476309414991467782010-05-14T13:30:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.588-07:00

Yet another post on the interesting dice pools of Warhammer Fantasy RPG 3rd Edition. This time, we'll be taking a look at Fortune and Misfortune dice (the white and black d6's that are half blank, and which represent situational modifiers).GM Tip: If your players do something crazy in character, that might just work but could also backfire, the proper reward for that is to add 2 white and 1

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-34865457875833537722010-05-13T09:52:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.597-07:00

In yesterday's analysis of the dice from Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 3rd Edition, I came to the conclusion that 1 Challenge die was worth 2 Misfortune dice. That was, as it turns out, an over-simplification.Let's look again at the chart that shows the relative impact of challenge dice and misfortune dice. Here it is, a very typical starting character dice pool, 4 trait dice, 1 skill die, and 1

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-31713370986199853382010-05-12T13:20:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.605-07:00

This post is about the dice in Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 3rd Edition. Specifically, the Challenge Dice and Misfortune Dice. This will probably be the first in a series of posts looking at various aspects of the often-opaque mechanics of Warhammer 3rd.Rather than save the big surprise for the end, I'm going to put the most important conclusions of this article right up front where you can't miss

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-89726497683203381872010-05-10T16:59:00.001-07:002010-05-10T17:11:15.532-07:00

...to get the Humble Indy Bundle at the amazing price of "Pay what you want". Sale ends tonight, and I just found out about it twenty minutes ago. If it's still Monday when you're reading this, it's worth popping over to http://www.wolfire.com/humbleIt's a bundle of five computer games in a bundle that you set the price on. You can even decide how much of what you pay goes to the developers, and

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-68095451026356952662010-05-07T10:21:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.614-07:00

Last night I GM'd Warhammer 3rd for 6 players, 5 of whom had never even looked at the game before. It wasn't without its bumps, but overall I was pleased with the way it went.6 PCs, with all their cards and sheets really eats up some table space. A friend showed up half way through the night, and we really couldn't free a place for him to sit at the table. Even before his arrival, I had to

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-17318437675223921102010-04-29T07:26:00.001-07:002010-04-29T08:59:43.537-07:00

Here's what the Savage Worlds rule book should have said about Tricks, but didn't:Tricks are only really worth it if your character has a low Fighting die but a high Agility or Smarts, and the enemy has a Parry higher than your average attack roll.Despite what you might have inferred from the concept and fluff text of Tricks, they are not actually intended to model crafty or sneaky fighters. Any

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-54128369339323583112010-04-26T10:59:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:59:34.523-07:00

Brainstorming a short list of action cards that I think Warhammer 3rd could really use. Most of these would be actions you can buy with XP, not new basic actions.Hold Them At Bay - a card that makes it tricky for people to engage you, or get past you. This sort of thing can be done with existing Location rules, but it's a little fuzzy, and someone who rushes you will always get to attack first.

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-39436804186092047832010-04-26T09:14:00.000-07:002010-04-26T09:23:56.521-07:00

Last week while my wife was convalescing from a back injury, we tried out a new little video game. It's called Clockwords. It's a little bit like Scrabble or other word games, but with a timer element that is represented by a battle between a steam-tech robotic weapon system and invading insects. It's actually pretty cool. Here's a link. She was bedridden much of the week, but she could still

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-63801951793121154612010-04-09T10:37:00.000-07:002010-04-09T10:53:26.478-07:00

This scathing movie review is a cross-post from my non-gaming blog. The movie is so stinky, I felt compelled to place the review here as well to maximize exposure.If Peter Jackson had attention-deficit disorder, and was doing a lot of meth while making the Lord of the Rings films, we now know what the results would have been like. They would have been just like the new remake of Clash of the

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-64360690668030207742010-04-07T12:50:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.630-07:00

"A couple years ago, White Wolf released this RPG called Scion. I started a campaign the first chance I got.At first, I loved it, but I was really bummed how long it took them to release new material for it. Six months out, all they had was one rulebook, and a super-short demo adventure. Their release schedule kept falling apart, and it was frustrating, too, because that first book was at best 1

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-11830432160340061742010-04-07T07:50:00.001-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.638-07:00

This is just a little rant about game mechanics. It's really not helpful in any way, and not particularly entertaining. If you're looking for usable content, scroll down to my next post. If you just want to hear me whine a little bit, this is the place.When I did my initial review of the Warhammer 3rd Ed, one of the things I didn't like about the game was the analysis paralysis that sets in

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-68000555520196480712010-04-06T16:22:00.001-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.647-07:00

In Warhammer FRP 3rd Ed, nearly all your actions and abilities are on cool little cards. This means you don't have to look up anything in a rulebook during the game, because you've got all your feats, powers, and special moves right there in front of you.I don't have a clue why they didn't do the same with racial abilities. Every race has a couple special rules and abilities, and they're

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-74421862095486609982010-04-06T15:09:00.001-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.655-07:00

Here's two "new" careers for Warhammer FRP 3rd. They're loose conversions of existing careers from 2nd Ed. A more faithful rendering of the Bodyguard would have had Strength instead of Agility, but then both careers would have had the same Primary Characteristics, and I didn't want that. The result was that the Bodyguard had a slightly less potent set of skills than it might have otherwise had,

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-85136238935070911712010-03-27T14:57:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.664-07:00

In the FFG forums devoted to the 3rd Ed of Warhammer Fantasy RPG, people keep posting various house rules and special action cards for Running. They vary a bit in execution, but the goal is to allow player characters to move much faster, with no fatigue penalties, if you're doing nothing but move.I've been managing to stay polite thus far, but it's not easy. I feel this whole notion is horribly

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-3739111198451322322010-03-19T12:51:00.001-07:002010-03-19T12:59:37.586-07:00

This started as a short tangent in my last post* (about using Gumshoe's "Core Clues" in Warhammer FRP), and grew long enough to need a post of it's own:When I was running Savage Worlds on a more regular basis*, I borrowed from Gumshoe and set my difficulties for clue-gathering at a 2, usually with some added bonus/benefit if the PC got an 8+.Didn't matter if it was an interrogation using

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-76155699974138195842010-03-19T11:36:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.672-07:00

GUMSHOE has a concept called "Core Clues", clues that are so vital to the plot that you literally can't miss them. Whatever else you think of GUMSHOE, there is something very nice about knowing that a fluke bad die roll can't derail the plot and make the players spin their wheels for hours without a lead.Let's face it, even when players get all the clues without the dice ever hosing them, there's

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-3397709157880671452010-03-16T17:27:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.681-07:00

The new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play has all sorts of beautiful components, which can make it a little daunting for the GM who intends to house rule a few things, or make up other new content. You don't want your personal creations to look dreadful and amateurish next to the official products.Luckily, there's this program called Strange Eons. It was originally designed by the Arkham

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-17565840067605050692010-03-16T16:34:00.000-07:002010-05-18T14:44:35.689-07:00

A couple weeks ago I got WFRP 3rd as a present. It has happily sucked up most of my free time of late. I've done a lot of reading and analysis, and my wife and I have run several test battles (and a test chase scene and a test social encounter), so I'm feeling I've got a pretty good notion of how the game works.At this point, I'm in love with the way the game plays. Combat is fluid, the mechanics

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-17165427263960254882010-03-05T08:03:00.001-08:002010-07-10T08:34:16.309-07:00

Last night I ran a one-shot of Wilderness of Mirrors, using the setting from Star Wars.I replaced the 5 stats of Wilderness of Mirrors with five similar, but subtly different stats. The five attributes were:Droid - used for tech, repair, and computingFlyboy - used for piloting and acrobaticsJedi - used for The Force, LukePrincess - used to charm, inspire, and commandWookie - used to intimidate

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-89428145979057400442010-03-03T10:12:00.000-08:002010-03-04T01:33:05.619-08:00

I just uploaded the absolute best version yet of my Drives'R'Us mod for the video game Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space.The 4.0 version of Drives'R'Us expands on my 3.1 version with 4 new spaceships, and over two dozen new quests. I've added colonies for most of the alien races, a few random invasion fleets to attack Glory, larger maps, and even the fabled fortified vault of Fomax. In

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-15119689541854257372010-03-02T10:30:00.001-08:002010-05-18T14:44:35.698-07:00

In this post, I present a fairly detailed review of what I do and don't like about the 3rd Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play.You may or may not have seen the latest edition of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, the version that comes in a big box full of custom dice and full-color cards, with a $99.95 price tag on it. I've wanted that game ever since it released last fall, and just couldn't

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2142757627515553170.post-90054579422623407432010-02-26T09:31:00.000-08:002010-02-26T10:28:50.335-08:00

I've been running a fair amount of GUMSHOE lately, but in two recent sessions at my weekly one-shot group, I finally got the opportunity to play the game. It was really neat to see the system from the other end of the table, and I think the experience has already improved my GMing of GUMSHOE.My most important advice for GMs new to GUMSHOE is this:Whenever possible, ask the players "Do you have

r_b_bergstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04642655645136452700noreply@blogger.com0