Chill 3.0

Long time readers of my site and/or my posts online know of my love for the classic Horror RPG Chill. To many role-players around my age their first introduction to Horror roleplaying was the venerable “Call of Cthulhu”, but not me. Mine was Chill.

I got started in the 1st Edition Pacesetter days (early 80s) and “Chill: Vampires” was and is one of my favorite books for any game. The 90’s came around and I picked up the 2nd Edition, Mayfair, version. It was slicker and had some minor rule changes, but it was a great addition to my ideas for my 2nd Ed AD&D Ravenloft game. The Mayfair version is of course superior, but it lacks some of the feel I associated with the game. Maybe it was the lack of the Jim Holloway art or the darker tone. Picking up a copy of the Mayfair version now I get the impression (true or not) that the makers of Kult saw it and thought, “yes this is good, but what if the world was much, much worse?”

I liked Chill also because it had Midwest sensibilities. Pacesetter was from Wisconsin; Mayfair was/is in Niles/Skokie, a suburb of Chicago than is not too far from where I live (and has one of my favorite pizza places). It was while playing Chill that learned that the best horror was horror close to home. I don’t know, or much care really, what Hollywood thinks is horror. How can a place that gets like 350 days of sunshine know what is horror? On the other hand East Coast horror (Lovecraft) has a completely different flavor. It’s almost alien. Chill may have had a global scope, but the horror is home grown. Chill remembers that there is simple horror in the haunted house, or the strange creature from the Unknown. It is not about the bigger-badder-more horror of some games, where every game has to up the ante on the last game.

I had lots of ideas for Chill, but never got to use them since I couldn’t find anyone that wanted to play it. No worries, most of my Chill ideas were resurrected for my WitchCraft RPG games. In fact there is nice continuity in my horror game world of supernatural occurrences increasing over the years that track nicely to the power levels of my games (Chill -> WitchCraft RPG -> Buffy/Ghosts of Albion).
So needless to say I was stoked when I heard Chill 3.0 was coming out. I joined the playtest, gave my stuff and……that was it for a very long time.

Well now Other World Productions is producing Chill 3.0, but they need the cash (and interest) to do it.

You can find all the information here:
http://www.chillrpg.com/

And their Fundable account here: http://www.fundable.com/groupactions/groupaction.2009-05-13.8365429432

Now I would love to see a new version of Chill, but I am not sure I should be getting my hopes up here.

Family D&D Night II

Well we did a second round of Family D&D night last night to coincide with World D&D Day. We got to another room and found the two kidnapped boys we needed to rescue. We tried to get them out, but triggered the magical trap instead. We fought some living suits of armor and in the end defeated them and rescued the boys. Not your thrilling blow-by-blow D&D adventure recap I know, but that is not the point. The point is that here in the second game I felt everyone was doing much better.

My oldest was more into his character and was trying to move him around where he would be most effective (a Dragonborn Paladin). How effective? Well he managed to move in just in time to keep my Fey Pact Warlock from getting killed. To me that is a good game. And he rolled another natural 20 to do it. He had no complaints about not getting double damage tonight, and it killed the animated armor. My youngest had more of an attention span with this one too. He is only 6, but he was remembering which dice to use when and that was really cool. My wife still is having a good time. But I think she enjoys watching all of us.

All in all it has changed what I think needs to be a minimum age for D&D. I knew my 9 year-old would do fine, but my 6-year old is having a blast too, and he is getting it. He knew he needed to stay back and do his thing with the bow. Plus I also feel they are getting into the role-playing aspects well, which should not be a huge surprise really. Kids are good and playing pretend. I also think everyone worked off of everyone else's strengths well. While last time I was getting my butt kicked by Kobolds (with a high Reflex save) this week I did better with animated armor with low Reflex saves. So everyone did get a chance to shine. I think that is the sign of a good DM and a sign of well put together rules.

So now where we are at is my wife would like to play a game with just the four of us. I am thinking of keeping with D&D4, but BFRPG and/or LL are also sounding like good ideas. I would make their characters 4^th or 5^th level so they would survive a bit better. I can also ignore feats and skills really and focus on what they enjoy most; exploring and combat. This could be fun really. Get my old-school D&D fix in and still have a game that doesn't interfere with my other D&D night.

ONE HOUR LATER:

Well I talked with my wife and my boys. She wants LESS choices in her game about classes and attacks. The youngest want to play an archer/ranger and my oldest wants to keep with his Dragonborn Paladin. So. I think I will use the D&D Rules Cyclopedia as a base, with ideas from Basic Fantasy and Labyrinth Lord. I think a Basic D&D Dragonborn will end up looking a bit like a Dwarf in terms of mechanics, but I am not worried about that right now. OR I might stick with D&D 4 and just reduce some of the options. Haven't quite figured that out yet. Skills are not important to me in this game; we can just do ability checks, so that is a mark against D&D4; though in general I prefer D&D4's skill system over the past incarnations. I prefer the simpler saves/defenses of D&D4 and the single advancement rules. And I certainly prefer the AC as DC style check.

This will be interesting to figure out.

GenCon 2009 & Ghosts of Albion, Part 2

I am running three Gen Con events this year for Ghosts of Albion.

This are the official times and places from Gen Con. Registration is closed now, so you can register for these at the con or use the generic tickets.

I will repost this when I have more information

Here are the details.

Ghosts of Albion: Blight

RPG0906270 - 08/13/2009 07:00:00 PM (Thursday) Crowne Plaza, Grand Central Ballroom B, Table 3

RPG0906268 - 08/14/2009 07:00:00 PM (Friday) Crowne Plaza, Grand Central Ballroom B, Table 3

Ireland is dying. Her Protector has been murdered and you are the primary suspects. Can you clear your name, regain your magic and stop whatever necromancies befoul the land? Time is short, yours and one million lives hang in the balance. Set in 1847 this is an adventure for the Ghosts of Albion RPG.

 

Ghosts of Albion: Obsession

RPG0906269 - 08/15/2009 07:00:00 PM (Saturday) Crowne Plaza, Grand Central Ballroom B, Table 3

There is trouble at the Plough Street Theatre. The Times reports that authorities have found the strangled body of prominent actress and performer, Miriam White. However Miss White has herself commented to The Times that she is in fact alive and well and has been seen not only on stage, but having lunch with her manager just outside the theatre. You are requested by James V. Harold, esq., owner of the Plough Street Theatre to discreetly investigate this matter.