First Loves Blogfest

http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2012/04/friendly-to-z-challenge-and-next.html

Here are my first loves

First Album I loved: Thomas Dolby "The Golden Age of Wireless"

First Movie: Star Wars (I have no idea what "A New Hope" is...;) )

First Book: The Hobbit

First Person: Harder, I mean after all the first people you love are your family. So let's go with first person outside of your family. And that can only be...

BATGIRL!

Specifically, Yvonne Craig's Batgirl from the Adam West Batman TV series.
What's not to love?  She is smart and kicks ass.  Plus she rode a purple motor cycle before Prince was even born (ok, I might need to re-check that date but you get what I am trying to say  ETA: ok, Prince was only about 8-9 at the time.)

Zatannurday: Sindella

Last Mother's Day weekend I mentioned a bit about Zatanna's often absent mother Sindella.

I wanted to dive a little deeper into that character this year and looks at some the lineage she and Zee share.

We know very little about the witch named Sindella.  We know she is a member of the DC universe's Homo Magi race.  We know she can claim Atlantean Lord Arion as an ancestor (as can most of the Homo Magi).  In some continuities then this makes her a somewhat distant relative to Power Girl.  She even has some similar tastes in clothes.

We know that at some point she meets Giovanni "John" Zatara in Turkey and she returns to America with him.  A year later Zatanna is born.  She later fakes her own death so the other Homi Magic don't go looking for her or Zatanna.   This could also be an "in universe" explanation for why Zee's first name sounds so much like her last name.  Sindella didn't want her daughter found through the power of her name.

Sindella and Zatanna both have a "Medulla Jewel" in their brains.  This seems to be a focus of their magical power.  Sindella is shown using magic and not needing to speak it backwards, it is assumed that Zee can do the same. One thing is known that they can use it to communicate telepathically.  So I guess Zee would know if she were still alive.

The interesting notion here is that Sindella is an Atlantean, either by birth (she could be immortal like Arion; she doesn't look old enough to have a daughter that is 30+) or by birthright.  In game then she could (if still alive) be a walking treasure trove of occult knowledge.  Maybe even enough to rival Dr. Fate.

There is precious little out there on this character. We know next to nothing about her and Zatara meet, what she was doing prior to that and, well, basically everything else about her.

I am afraid that if we see here at all in JL Dark it will be as something to torture Zee.

Are We Done with Retro Clones?

Mind you this is not a rant.

But are we done with Retro Clones?
Not playing them, but making them.

I enjoy the hell out Labyrinth Lord and Basic Fantasy.  Spellcraft & Swordplay is still a fave and there are others I want to try out more like ACKS, LL-Advanced and who knows what else.

But there is such a thing as market saturation and soon (if we are not already there or past it) we will have more games than our small market will allow.

So do we really need anyone making more clones?
Do we really need Version X of someone's house rules?

I suppose the only important answer is "yes, as long as there are people willing to pay for them."

There is no Hell in the Blogosphere, part 2

Another has been taken.

"Angry Black Dragon Appears", http://ohsnapblackdragon.blogspot.com/
is now "Healthy Living".

Feel like I need to pour out a little bit of Mt. Dew in respectful remembrance.

There is no Hell in the Blogosphere

but there is an afterlife...

First off. Dammit. I hate the word Blogoshpere!

Secondly.  No blog is meant to last forever.  We come, we go, we leave a little bit of ourselves behind.

I am here to make a humble request of my fellow RPG bloggers out there.

When you decide to leave, first please know that you will be missed.
Secondly, for the love of all that is sane, please either leave you blog in place and turned off or at least do something about your URL.

I was very excited to see that Bree Yark! was back today. http://breeyark.blogspot.com/
Until I actually began to read the posts.  Nope.  Looks like one of the blogs that people use to either age links of make money.  It might be a real person there with real thoughts, but damn it reads like computer generated text.

To quote Frank Zappa:
When you pay the bill, kindly leave a little tip 
And help the next poor sucker on this one way trip.

When you leave your blog, leave a little behind for the rest of us.
Like Chgowiz did.

White Dwarf Wednesday #15

White Dwarf Issue #15, October/November 1979.

White Dwarf #15 is an interesting one for me to do today.  First off, it is one of the first WDs I remember ever seeing in the stores (and to this day I can't look at the cover and not hear Ozzy's "Bark at the Moon").
It is also one of the issues I am missing pages of.  Page 6/7 and 26/27 have been torn out.  Honestly I didn't recall them being missing till I picked it back up to read the Editorial.

Let's jump right in shall we?
Well my issue starts with some ads and then gets into the stalwart of early game zines, an article on HP!
Roger Musson gives us what might be the first "Wounds" system based on Con.  It is certainly playable since I have seen dozens of iterations of the same idea over the last few years AND it is as current as posts in my Google Reader today.  As good as it is, I am still a "HP as abstraction" kinda guy.

Andy Slack has Part 3 of his Expanding Traveller Universe article. This one is more interesting than last weeks. Lots of cool tables on planets and alien life.  Weird, trippy, 70s sci-fi always appeals to me and Traveller encapsulates that.

In the main feature of the magazine is a new board game/mini game called Barbarian from Ian Livingstone.  The purpose of this two player game is regain a magical sword and shield of the "Old Fathers".  The game is simple (it even says so).  There is a two page board, counters and charts.  All that is missing are players and dice.  One player plays Vaarn the Barbarian, the other plays the creatures trying to stop him.  The combat advantage is given to Vaarn, but there are more than one monster to play.

Don Turnbull has an EXCELLENT article on running the "New" D series of modules.  Honestly, if I ever run these again I am going to copy this page and stick inside the modules.

Open Box has some new reviews up.  Metagaming Microgames has two offerings this month Ice War (5/10) and Black Hole (9/10). Don Turnbull felt that Ice War should have been a bigger game, but Black Hole was a near perfect mini-game.  King Arthur's Knights from The Chaosium is not as it turns out a prequel to Pendragon, but one can't help think it influenced it somehow.  This is a 16-page mini game  that received a 7/10 review from Jacek Gabrielczyk.  We are treated to a bunch of Traveller books including 3 from Judges Guild. A mixed bag of Traveller Screen 7/10, Traveller Logbook 9/10 and Starships,and Spacecraft 5/10.  We also get Animal Encounters from Game Designers' Workshop 9/10.
It was certainly a great time to be a Traveller fan in late 1979.

Treasure Chest gives us a very cool height and weight based on race and strength table.   So good in fact that I did Xerox this one!  We also get an alternate undead draining table that drains Abilities.  It is different than the one I have done, but the idea is the same.

Fiend Factory is back with an acknowledgement of all the letters it has been bringing in of late.  Don Turnbull mentions that he is keeping a eye on the quality and hopes that the feature continues to give us good monsters. Some monsters have Monster Marks, others do not.  What do we get this issue? Well...we get a metal sphere that spits fire in the form of the Heat Monster. The Dragon Dog (related to dragons and the Hell Hound) and the Tacharnid (which has no stats). Next is the weird Russian Doll monster. This thing starts as an Ogre till you do 10 points of damage to it, then the skin peels off and it's now a Bugbear, 9 points later a Gnoll, 8 points later an Orc...you get the idea till we end up with a kobold of 4 hp AND then till we get to the very end, to discover it was a Leprechaun operating the monster from the inside.  They went ahead and calculated it's Monster Mark and it comes out to be as much of a challenge as a Stone Giant (OD&D).   We round up the lot with a Time Freezer, a monster that can freeze time, to at least one creature.  And the Pebble Gnome, a gnome completely immune to magic of all sorts.
This marks the 10th issue of Fiend Factory.  Coming up is the top 10 as voted on by readers.

And finally. Ads.

Next up, end of the 70s, beginning of the 80s and when yours truly discovers this cool/odd little game.

Gen Con Schedule is out

The Gen Con schedule is out now.

I do not have any Ghosts of Albion games running.  I wanted to focus on paying games with my boys.
We are going to try to get into the D&D Next games, try to get some AD&D first ed in, and hopefully some D&D Basic (a clone) would be good too.  I'll run some D&D 3.x too, so we will get the full D&D experience. I think it will be great.

I happy to see there are plenty of Victoriana games, some Buffy/Unisystem games and some others I am interested in.  I'll have to put together a schedule.

I am sorry there won't be any Ghosts of Albion games.  But I am not amiss to doing a pick up game one night.

Willow and Tara: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

I am still playing around a bit with Marvel Heroic Roleplaying now that I have seen it out in the stores.  Saw a copy at my local Barnes & Nobel last night in fact.  I thought this might be appropriate for today.

"Willow and Tara" by David Reynolds

Willow and Tara in the Marvelverse
I have to admit, that anytime I think about the girls in a super hero universe I always think of it in terms of DC.  But the roleplaying and character development aspects of MHR are too good to ignore.
I have already done up my two DC go-to characters Zatanna and Justice with this system.  And I have stated up Willow and Tara in one other version of Cortex in the past.

For the girls in this universe I'll start with the assumptions that the events in my previous games, The Dragon and The Phoenix and Season of the Witch happened.  In fact even though this game was not part of the original plan it would work fine as part of the Generation HEX season I started and never finished.


Name: Willow
ID: Willow D. Rosenberg (public)
Age: 32 (2012)

Base of Operations: Boston, MA

Affiliations: Solo d8, Buddy d10, Team d6  (Willow in highschool was certainly more Team, but this is an older Willow)

Distinctions:
Bad Ass Wicca
Technophile
Quick to Anger

Power Sets
Sorcery d10
Magical Spells d10, Blast d10, Senses (magical) d10, Teleport d10, Telekinesis d10
Limit: Conscious Effort
SFX: Versatile
SFX: Area Attack

Anamchara d10  (Willow and Tara can combine their powers)
"I will always find you." (Telepathy) d8,  "I am you know...yours" (Combine) d10
Limit: Distance/focus
SFX: Multipower
SFX: Boost

Specialties 
Mystic d10
Tech d10
Cosmic d8
Science d8

Milestones
Magic
1xp You uncover some plot that is magical in nature.
3xp You discover some new magical tome or artifact.
10xp You defeat the main villain without magic.

Anger
1xp When you loose your temper
3xp When someone you are helping takes trauma
10 xp When your anger threatens the world, or saves it.

Willow in "Generation HEX" is one of the most power spell casters in the world.  But her own issues surrounding her anger still plague her.  She has turned to magic as a means of not just obtaining control over her situation, but of herself.  She is slowly getting there.


Name: Tara
ID: Tara A. Maclay (public)
Age: 33 (2012)

Base of Operations: Boston, MA

Affiliations: Solo d6, Buddy d10, Team d8  (Tara does best with Willow or in a group)

Distinctions:
Witchy Woman
Loyal
"Tara hide your magic" - Tara is a deep, quiet, well of magical power, but she has been told her whole life to hide it.

Power Sets
Sorcery d10
Magical Spells d10, Blast d8, Senses (magical) d10, Telekinesis d10
Limit: Conscious Effort
SFX: Versatile
SFX: Healing

Anamchara d10  (Willow and Tara can combine their powers)
"I will always find you." (Telepathy) d8,  "I am you know...yours" (Combine) d10
Limit: Distance/focus
SFX: Multipower
SFX: Boost

Specialties 
Mystic d10
Psych d10
Cosmic d8
Science d8

Milestones
Magic
1xp You uncover some plot that is magical in nature.
3xp You discover some new magical tome or artifact.
10xp You defeat the main villain without magic.

Soulmates
1xp When you or Willow are dragged into a problem together
3xp When someone uses you to get to Willow or visa-versa
10 xp When you have to work together after being apart to stop the threat

Tara is more self-actualized than Willow is.  She knows and accepts the dangers and responsibilities of her power.  What she is most afraid of is loosing Willow; either to death or darkness.   In my games the girls have seen many alternate realities, any reality without a Tara in it results in Willow turning evil and destroying things.

Willow and Tara have a lot of linked powers and milestones, as to be expected given their lives together.

To follow along with the Generation HEX plot ideas, they are living in Boston teaching at a school that has a lot of magical kids enrolled.  In my game they would of course know of Zatanna and I would still have to say they are not up to her power level on their own, combined though they could give Zee a run for her money. Not that they would mind you, Tara is a HUGE fan of Zatanna, I have this on authority.

Of course this would also be a good episode to have the girl visit the wilds of Canada and check out the Cave of Cool.

A to Z: Reflections Post

So the A to Z Blog Challenge is over for another April.  Not sure what I'll do next year, but I am sure  I am going to plan ahead for it better.

How did your journey through the alphabet go? Did you meet new bloggers with similar interests? Are there any you would like to feature and share with others?
Yes.  I joined several new-to-me blogs and found a bunch of books I wanted to read from my travels.

What were the highlights for you? (lowlights too...we want to hear it all)
Highlights for this blog was to get the word out on so man great games out to people that didn't know about them.  Lowlights...trying to do this for two blogs at the same time!

Did you enjoy posting daily? What was your biggest hurdle? What was your easiest task?
I tend to post everyday anyway.  Biggest hurdle was coming up with something appropriate for the letter in question that also fit with my theme.  Easiest part was finding games to talk about.

Was time management an issue? (I know, silly question, when isn’t time management an issue - but, it is worth reflecting on)
It did cut into my schedule quite a bit to be honest.

And what about your content - did you have a theme or did you wing it? Was it easy to come up with ideas for each letter, or were some harder? 
I had a theme and I stuck with it. But I had thought about it a lot and tried to find games ahead of time.

How about commenting - did you stumble upon lots of sites still using word verification? Did this prevent you from leaving a comment? What worked for your blog? 
I tried to visit every blog in the challenge.  Yes, I ran into a number that had Word Verification still turned on and it was annoying.   Though much worse than that were the people the had to approve my post/comment and then never did.
I keep word verification turned off. I would rather have it easier for my readers than worry about spam.

What will you do different next year? (Yes, you are doing this next year, you know you are, even if your brain is telling you to run for the hills - it appreciates the exercise)
Try to get more posts in before April!   Craft the posts in such a way to encourage more feedback.

What pearls of wisdom do you want to share with the Co-Hosts of this event? (We would love to hear from you and know what you think would make this awesome event even better)
There were a number of "dead" sites on the list and some were some that didn't link to their blog, but some other page.  You might want to get more Co-Hosts next year to help clean out the non-participants (the ones that signed up then never posted) and dead links.

So I ended up with a bunch of new followers.  50 on the Other Side and almost 20 on Freedom of Nonbelief, and very little overlap between the two.

My growth in views was not as much relative to last year.  But that is to be expected really.
I will be participating again next year.

Wayne Foundation Charity

Last year I posted about the Wayne Foundation and how they work to stop child sex trafficking.

They are having another Charity drive at DriveThruRPG/One Bookshelf.

All money goes to stopping the trafficking of children as sex slaves/merchandise.

Please consider this bundle of games, fiction and art.

Zatannurday: More Monday!

A while back I featured some pictures of Cosplayer Jettie Monday as Zatanna. It was, needless to say, a popular post.

So popular in fact that Jettie herself Tweeted about it, asking if I had seen her newest version of the costume.

Well I have now! :)
And imagine my delight when I saw they were Steampunk Zatanna!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.258798927493343.68039.209333585773211&type=3

So here they are by request and permission of Jettie herself!  Photos by Bill Nash, http://www.billn.net/
http://www.billn.net/Events/Causeplay-Las-Vegas-Sept-2011/19100465_Rw3GcM#!i=1486556791&k=wJBV74f

I think she looks fantastic!

So please "like" her on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/jettiemonday, and follow her on Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/jettiemonday and view her Flickr page, http://www.flickr.com/people/jettiemonday/

One Solstice Night

So I enjoy reading lots of different types of books and the one thing the advent of the eBook has given me is access to authors I might not other know about and access to their books.  So I stepped outside my normal range of books and found this new-to-me author Elroa Bishop.


One Solstice Night

Take equal parts of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and give them a solid twist and make it a love story then you might have something close to One Solstice Night.  But you should read the book anyway just to be sure.

OSN is a new novella by Elora Bishop, http://elorabishop.wordpress.com.

A self described “Author of magical lesbian love stories” I had read her previous work, “The Witch Sea” and enjoyed it.  I got a copy of OSN and instead of completing my curriculum redesign I read it.  I am glad I did.

The book is rather short (one of the downsides) but very entertaining.  The book focuses on Isabella Fox (a very mediocre witch) and her talking familiar Alice.  Isabella has just been run out of her last town and she needs a new job.  As a witch for hire, especially one that is only so-so, she doesn’t have a lot of options.   So she ends up with the town of Benevolence (which is part of a series I guess).  Benevolence is quiet to be boring and she only has one spell to cast every year (and she is not even convinced it’s needed) and it would be the perfect gig.  Except for the Outcast.

There are a lot of cool locales that I hope we get to see in other books.  The Hag Bar in the World’s Largest Swamp was a really cool idea. It was very easy to see all these witches, holding brooms and their drinks walking around, drinking, chatting.  I wish I had thought of it.     Benevolence is an interesting town.  I enjoyed the causal magic people were using and Bishop did a great job of detailing the inhabitants.

What I liked about this tale is there is a certain timelessness about it.  No indication is given on when it takes place or even where, leaving it all up to your imagination.  I think this is a good thing to be honest.

We get witches as a given but we also get “Changers” which are people that can change into animals.  Not like werewolves, one minute they an animal the next they are human.  I liked it to be honest.

The love story part of this is between Isabella and another woman (natch) and it is very well handled.  There is nothing here that would be above a PG-13 level really.  The relationship builds over the course of the book and when it happens you believe it.

The climax of the book is something Isabella didn’t expect (nor did I) and frankly the action parts really pushed this book in my opinion.   I will not spoil the end, but I will say I can’t wait to read more about Isabella.

My only issue with the book.  It was not very long.  It is described as a novella, but it is on the short side of that I think.  I like short stories and this is closer in size to that (maybe longer) though the plotting is more novel like.  In truth though to make this story longer would have been unnatural.  There is a well defined begging, middle and end here and to make longer would have seemed odd.

In the end, girl finds girl and they live happily ever after.  At least till next year when she has to do the spell again. ;)
I would love to read more about Isabella’s future adventures.

What strikes me the most about this book is how much it would work as a Witch Girls Adventures setting.  http://channelmlive.com/witchgirls/wgahome.html and http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/channelm/witch-girls-book-of-shadows-witch-girls-second-edi

The Hag Bar would be right at home with everything else in Witch Girls.  I can also practically stat up Isabella Fox, Emily Deer, Mrs. Cat, Mrs. Goose and Alice in my head now.

It does make me want to read some of Bishop’s work.

WIP it Out

I was digging through my hard drive the other day.  Just looking through files after files of things I have written spanning 3 decades, 6 different computers, 8 different OSes and countless game systems.

I have a huge desire to get these out of my hands and into yours.  Either as free, purchase or whatever books.

So here are the statuses of my various "Works in Progress", or in this case "Witches in Progress".

The Witch (for Basic Era Games) is off to an editor for final edits.  Art has been purchased and then I can wrap-up the layout.

Eldritch Witchery for Spellcraft & Swordplay is off to a different editor.  Art has been purchased for that one as well.  That one will need some tweaks according to my editor, but that is expected to be honest.

The Complete Book of Witches & Warlocks (working title) is a Pathfinder update to my Liber Mysterium book.  It is a collection of everything I have done for d20/OGL witches.  Significant edits and rewrites to bring my witches in line with the Pathfinder one.

Here There Be Dragons... my son's old school (OSRIC/LL Advanced) book on various new dragons.  Written, needs edits and stat revisions.

On other fronts I have:

The Vampire Queen adventure.  Needs maps.  For Spellcraft & Swordplay.

Darwin's Guide. A collection of monsters for Gaslight.  Writing.

And some Ghosts of Albion adventures: (various stages of completion)

GoA: Obsession - who keeps killing singer Miriam White?
GoA: Blight - the Protector of Ireland is dead and you are prime suspect.
GoA: Wilderness - the Industrial Revolution is on hold when the Wood fights back.
GoA: Dinosauria! - You are invited to a most unusual New Year's Eve party.
GoA: Angst - strange goings on at a local school for girls.  Ran once. needs edits.
GoA: Underground - The new London underground train has unearthed something horrible.
GoA: Pygmalion  - an artist  is surround by death.
GoA: Synchronicity - what threat is so horrible that it takes the combined casts of Ghosts of Albion and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to stop?

Some of these would work for other systems.

Anyway. Lots of stuff. I'll need more time to sort it out, but no sense is letting it languish any more.

I get these moods every so often.  The desire to clean house. Normally it takes the shape of me packing up a bunch of my books and games and unloading them at the local game auction.  But the last time I did that I so regretted it that I vowed never to do it again.  So this time I'll create new books to unload.

White Dwarf Wednesday #14

We continue our trek through time and space back to England of the late 1970s with White Dwarf #14 from Aug/Sept 1979.

How do you know you are reading White Dwarf and not The Dragon?  The ads have topless women in them. This was not the first time I noticed this, but 6 pages into the issue and already I have seen 4 topless women.  Mind you I am not complaining, but I am pointing out how different the attitudes were between the American game circles and the overseas ones.  This is the same theme (differences between the two groups, not nudity) of the editorial.  Ian Livingstone discusses the differences between British conventions and American ones.  Ian mentions his recent trip to America and we get more of that later.

Andy Slack is back with more expansions to the Traveller Universe. White Dwarf was the reason I picked up Traveller in the first place.  I never quite wrapped my head around it to be honest.   I would love to try it again someday.

Don Turnbull is also back with the fiends of the Fiend Factory.  This seems to be the also-rans of the bunch since non of these made it to the Fiend Folio.  We get a demonic elphant (the Gurgotch), the group entity Mindweb,  an Energy Cyclone, the Gazer (a weird beholder-like creature made of 1000s of eyes) and a frozen naked girl, the Ice Maiden.  But there is something else to note here.  Along with last issue alignments are now presented in AD&D format, so Chaotic Evil, Neutral Good.  But this issue the Monstermark scores are gone.  We knew it was coming, but they are now gone.   Another interesting bit, a note added later (but before publication) mentions "The Folio" for the first time.

Open Box we have reviews of Traveller book 4 (Mercenary) and 1001 Characters.  They get a 9 and 6 respectively from Don Turnbull.    Some Judges Guild books, The Dragon Crown and Of Skulls and Scrapfaggot Green. Both of these were used as Convention adventures but they were not particularly well liked by Don Turnbull giving them only a 5 and 7 respectively.  Mostly due to spelling and print errors but alos for some odd rule interpretations.

We are treated to a Runequest adventure "Lair of the White Wyrm" by John Bethell which would work for D&D with some tweaks.  But I want to try it with CoC to be honest.

Treasure Chest gives us a one-page dungeon (see, there is nothing new under the sun), The Bath-House of the Pharaoh. Well it's one page, front and back.
The letters page concerns itself with various attacks and defenses of the Monstermark and Fiend Factory.

The big feature of the issue is an interview with Gary Gygax.
A lot of this is stuff we now know and take for granted.  Highlights:  At the time of the interview TSR had 20-25 employees and expected that to grow to over 30 or 40 by August of 1980.  He does credit Dave Arneson's campaign and Dave Megarry's Dungeon board game as influences.  At the time WD estimates there are 30,000 D&D players in the UK and GG estimates that there are 250,000 to 300,000 in the US and Canada.  When asked what extent have other games (RPGs) have had on D&D Gary says "None to speak of."   The World of Greyhawk is planned for the summer of 1980.

We end the magazine with the few pages of ads.

Certainly more ads this time around, but not as strong of issue as the last one was.

Pop o-Matic d20 Kickstarter. Only 12 hours!!

Remember a bit ago when I posted this:
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/03/i-think-i-need-one-of-these.html

Well I got one and it is great!  It is perfect for that critical roll and there is always a lot of drama around popping a 20!

Now the guy who makes them is running a Kickstarter and there is only 12 hours to go!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2067825909/attacks-of-opportunity

What I like most about this is that he is giving the option for you to donate a Pop-able die to a Veteran's gaming group or to a disabled gamer.

Please have a look at this and support if you can.

Oh the Places You'll Go!

I love maps. Old maps, new maps, maps that never were.

Here are few that catch my fancies, and fantasies.

I'd love to plan a game sometime for the far future of Earth.  Maybe something along the lines of Dying Earth or Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique cycle.

(image from here, http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm)

Given my love for the roots of D&D, Victorian adventure and weird SciFi I have also had a desire to play on a Mars that Never Was, a Mars with oceans.

Likely using some of the Warriors of Mars ideas from Jason Vey's site.

The Places I Could Go, indeed.

What a Fiasco

Lots of things to discuss this fine day in May.

But lets start with this one.

Has anyone out there played Fiasco?

http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/

Z is for Zombie

"Zombies are the new Vampires." - True Blood

Funny quote and mostly true.  Thanks to the various "Dead" and "Resident Evil" movies, not to mention new TV shows, Zombies have never been more popular.

Actually I have never cared for Zombies.  Sure I enjoy them as much as the next horror guy, but I'd rather read about ghosts, vampires or almost anything else really.

Same is true for games.  But I have to admit that one of my favorite games is All Flesh Must Be Eaten.


WotC may have D&D and White Wolf has the vampires, but when it comes to wipping out hordes of the walking dead then you need this book and Eden has it.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten (AFMBE) is THE premire Zombie roleplaying game. Everything you need to know is here and it uses the fantastic Unisystem game system so beginners can play it fast and pros still enjoy it. Plus it is 100% compatible with all of Eden's games like "WitchCraft", "Armageddon", "Ghosts of Albion" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". With the d20 conversion guide in back, it is also compatible with tons of d20 games.
I enjoy it because it is so flexible.  The power rating can be altered to suit your mood. So street level normals armed with baseball bats to gods walking the earth again.

What makes AFMBE so nice is the collection of Dead Worlds that Eden publishes for it.  And like the core book, these are also compatible with other Eden games.

All Tomorrow's Zombies takes AFMBE and makes it Zombies...IN SPACE!! And in Cyberspace and all sorts of "SF" tropes with zombies thrown in. An excellent "Zombie World" book from Jason Vey and Eden. If you like AFMBE and are a fan of Sci-Fi then this is a must buy.  Even if you don't then there are plenty of high tech devices to use in other games, such as Conspiracy X.

Pulp Zombies is a collection of Pulp Era Deadworlds. This one focuses on the two-fisted action adventures of the 1930s.  A special emphasis is given on the mystical side of the pulps and of course Nazi Zombies.

Enter the Zombie is Kung Fu action theatre at's its best.  Emulate the action from Enter to Dragon to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to the latest John Wu film to Big Trouble in Little China.  There is more though too.  Expanded Chi powers, role-playing in mytho-historical Japan and China or the streets of Hong Kong and San Francisco.  Plenty of options for characters, players and Zombie Masters.

Fistful o' Zombies where the Quick and the Dead are often the same thing.  Plenty of new character archetypes for a wild west game. Whether the wild west of Clint Eastwood or Gene Autry. New qualities and drawbacks and plenty of weapons from the time.  I use this along with other Victorian era games.  The gem though in this one is the conversion notes between the original Deadlands game and AFMBE.

Zombie Smackdown. I was not sure what to think about this one.  But I am glad I got it.  I am not a fan of Professional Wrestling, but the mix of wrestling and zombies is too cool to pass up.  Plus there are plenty of good rules for matches and even Luchador wrestlers. You can do your Santo-inspired character justice.

Dungeons and Zombies brings D&D to the Classic Unisystem fold.  There are rules for using more WitchCraft like magic in your AFMBE game.  This book covers all the tropes including many new races such as elves, dwarves, halflings and orcs.  High Fantast, Low Fantasy. King Arthur and Lord of the Rings-style play.  Combine it with WitchCraft to get a full range of magical abilities.  Combine with Terra Primate for tons of new adventure ideas and races.  And of course use the AFMBE-Revised appendix to converst any d20 information you need.  Far more flexible than most d20 based fantasy games.  Really well written and one of my favorite Dead World books from Eden.

ARRGH! Thar Be Zombies! I'll admit I am not a fan of pirates.  I enjoy the recent round of pirate movies, but that is the exception rather than the rule.  What makes this book so good is that pirates and zombie just seem to go together well.  And while I may not be a fan of pirates I am a fan of ghost ships crewed by zombies.  So I use this in a modern WitchCraft game instead.  The ship to ship battle rules are great and provide an extra layer when using them with All Tomorrow's Zombies.  The voodoo in this book is a short hand version of the Vodun from WitchCraft, but still nice to have.

One of the Living is something akin to a "Players Handbook" for AFMBE.  The focus is more on new skills, qualities and drawbacks for the characters; not so much for the zombies.  Though there is plenty of Zombie Master only information.  In particular is how to run long campaigns instead of the one shots that AFMBE are really good at.

Worlds of the Dead: A Collection of Deadworlds is a collection of smaller "Dead Worlds" that don't have enough material for their own books.  Great for a starting idea, fleshing out an game of your own or adding to one of the other Dead Worlds from the other books.  Since it is also 100% compatible with Eden's other games, they can be added to those as well.

Atlas of the Walking Dead. Part Monster Manual, part scholarly overview of the myths of the world.  Full of creatures including some I had never heard of (and that is saying something!)   A must have for any of the Dead Worlds or any of Eden's other games.  If you are a Zombie Master then you need this book.  If you play horror games then is one of the best works on various zombies you can buy.

Book of Archetypes, Book 1 and Book 2.  Pre-generated archetypes for AFMBE, but usable in any Eden Unisystem game.  Players can use these as starting points for characters.  Zombie/Game Masters can use them as pre-gens, NPCs or anything they set their mind too.  Over 30 archetypes in each book plus new qualities and drawbacks.

With these you will be ready for the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse.

New Podcast Interview

I recently gave an interview over at Penny Red, website of Victoria author Daniel Hodges.

You can hear it here:
http://victoriaroleplaying.blogspot.com/2012/04/post-36-i-lex-luthor.html

We talk about Victoria RPG, Ghosts of Albion and why Lex Luthor is really the hero of the Superman world.

Enjoy!

ETA: Looks like the file is not working yet.
ETA2: File is working fine now!

Zatannurday: Y is for Young Justice Zatanna

As Zatanna fans we have been living is some really great times of late.  We had a great Zatanna comic from Paul Dini.  Now we have Justice League Dark and best of all, teen Zatanna in Young Justice.

Of course according to Action Figure Insider we are not going to be getting a Young Justice Zatanna figure.
http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/main/afis-ask-matty-mattel-qa-answers-for-april-16th-2012
Though the Wal-Mart exclusive Zatanna looks pretty close.

We do still have Green Ronin's DC Adventures game.
The official game has Zee's stats, but these are closer to what she was when she had her own title.  Zatanna from Young Justice is just getting into her powers.

Here is the Young Justice version of Zatanna.  I did this from my memory of what she could do in the episodes.

Zatanna (YJ) - PL 7 (104 points)

Strength 0, Stamina 1, Agility 2, Dexterity 3, Fighting 1, Intellect 3, Awareness 3, Presence 3

Advantages
Artificer, Attractive, Benefit, Wealth (well-off), Connected, Fascinate (Deception), Languages 3, Luck, Ritualist, Teamwork

Skills
Acrobatics 2 (+4), Athletics 2 (+2), Deception 4 (+7), Expertise: Magic 8 (+11), Insight 4 (+7), Perception 4 (+7), Persuasion 2 (+5), Ranged Combat: tsalB: Blast 8 6 (+9), Sleight of Hand 8 (+11)

Powers
Magic
   !ediH: Concealment 0
   dleihS: Force Field 8 (+8 Toughness)
   sehtolC egnahC: Transform 4 (Affects: 1 Thing > 1 Thing, Transforms: 12 lbs., DC 14)
   sthguohT yM raeH: Mental Communication 4
   tegroF: Affliction 2 (mind, 1st degree: Impaired, 2nd degree: Exhausted, 3rd degree: Unaware, Resisted by: Will, DC 12)
   tropeleT: Teleport 4 (500 feet in a move action, carrying 50 lbs.)
   tsalB: Blast 8 (DC 22)
Mystic Senses: Senses 5 (Acute: Mystic, Analytical: Mystic, Detect: Mystic 2: ranged, Ranged: Mystic)

Offense
Initiative +2
Grab, +1 (DC Spec 10)
sehtolC egnahC: Transform 4, +1 (DC Dog 14)
tegroF: Affliction 2, +1 (DC Will 12)
Throw, +3 (DC 15)
tsalB: Blast 8, +7 (DC 22)
Unarmed, +1 (DC 15)

Complications
Motivation: Responsibility: Zatanna feels responsible for her father's current state as Dr. Fate.
Power Loss: Needs to say spells/powers backwards to use them.

Languages
English, Greek, Italian, Latin

Defense
Dodge 6, Parry 4, Fortitude 4, Toughness 1, Will 7

Power Points
Abilities 32 + Powers 27 + Advantages 11 + Skills 20 (40 ranks) + Defenses 14 = 104

Not quite yet the powerhouse she will grow up to be.

X is for Conspiracy X

(and X-files too!)

One of my all time favorite shows is the X-Files.  It was a fantastic myth of everything that made for good TV in the 90s.  Sure it went on a little too long, but when it was good it was the best thing on TV.

So it should be no surprise that I enjoy similar themed games.  I like Alternity Dark Matter and I mentioned the Unexplained earlier.  But my favorite has been Eden Studios'  Conspiracy X.
So today X is for Conspiracy X.

ConX (as it is called) comes in three different editions.  There is the original rules, a GURPS version and the newest Unisystem version which makes system-wise compatible with WitchCraft RPG (but still not thematically compatible).  I have all three, but I prefer the newest Unisystem version, not just for the system, but it brings ConX out of the paranoid 90s and into the post millennial, post-9/11 world.

So what is ConX about?  Well  the basic system is Classic Unisystem so I won't detail that all here.
The premise is that the U.S. Government has been in contact with three different alien races over the last few decades and how they have all these various plans for the world.  In addition to all of this there are rival government agencies and all sorts of unrelated (or related) weirdness going on.  The focus is much more psychic powers and MKULTRA than the magic and covens of WitchCraft.

Con X 2.0 also has rules for more equipment, weapons, and governmental agencies.  The coolest mechanic in the game though has to be the Pulling Strings one.  Very useful when working through the myriad of governmental bodies you will need to deal with.  These alone make it worth the price if you play any other Classic Unisystem game.

Ok, so my love for the WitchCraft RPG is well known and well documented. Creating a WitchCraft world of adventures, situations or even meta-plots of my own are nearly second nature to me.

But I also like Conspiracy X. A lot.  The games are not really thematically compatible and both have very different points of view on magic, gods, monsters and the like.

If you like conspiracies and the X-Files, Con X is your game.  If you want to run a paranormal game, but don't want to get bogged down in myths, legends and want your magic to be somewhat more controlled then Con X is your game.

Here is another way to look at it.  You are a character in a Modern Paranormal game.  Suddenly a glowing figure appears before you.  What is this creature?  If you say Alien, then play ConX.  If you say Demon, then play WitchCraft.  Both games can be used for horror, ConX is dark sci-fi, WitchCraft is dark fantasy.


Plus it will be a feature of this years Free RPG Day! So stop into your local game store and pick a free game.

Question for you all

I was digging through the depths of my hard drive tonight and I found the remains of one of my oldest documents.

"The Urban Survival Guide" was going to be a guide book for living in and running adventures in cities.

I never finished it but it got me thinking.
Have you all ever used cities as a main adventure area?  In a D&D like game?

I have Vornheim and it is awesome, but any city is fine for this discussion.

W is for What Next?

(Apologies to all coming here for the A to Z challenge, you might not be all that familiar with the back story of today's rant.)

I wanted to talk about World of Darkness today. But instead I am going to rant.  Well not rant so much as complain about gamer privilege. I know in the scope of things this is so minor as to be non-existent. But yet here I am...

W is for What Next?

So unless you were away from the internet like was all day yesterday you probably missed the "Big news" that Monte Cook packed up books and told WotC, "Screw you guys I'm going home."

Ok, not exactly like that.  Lots of times people leave projects on properties they love due to disagreements.
I have left playtests in "protest" before over a direction the author wanted to take that I felt was a bad idea.  I won't name names either, but it was a property I really liked and was honored to be a part of.  The game in my mind still sucked, but plenty others still liked it so maybe I was the one in the wrong (I don't think so).

So Monte Cook has left Wizards and his work on D&D Next; the nom-de-net for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition.

I am a D&D fan. I am a D&D loyalist in fact.  I have every single edition and played them all.  I have nearly every retro clone.  I bought into the D&D 4 hype and bought a ton of books for it. I loved moving the minis on the maps with my kids, I loved the fact that the classes were balanced and I loved that 1st level characters all had something to do.  I disliked how long combats took. I disliked all the meta-gaming that had to go on with feats and surges and actions and markings.  But it was D&D and I still was able to do the sorts of things that worked for me.

Now we are going into the next version, and I have barely played the last version.  My kid's group, The Dragon Slayers, are wrapping up their 3.x game.  We have gone through many of the "Classic" adventures and as much as I love 1st Edition, I really don't want to go back to it.

I know.  I am complaining about having too many games to play. Woe is me...

I guess I'll wait for the playtest like everyone else.  But I have to say that at the moment, D&D 5/D&D Next is not filling me with a lot of excitement.

Meybe I'll just back to D&D Basic and house rule the hell out of it.  Start characters at a higher level (really, wizards should have more spells than 1) and use some of the rules I like from 4e (bloodied) and 3e (multiclass).

V is for Victoria RPG

Continuing my exploration of Victorian era RPGS I can't help but mention the the game that uses the eponymous Queen herself.

Today, V is Victoria.

Victoria is the premier game from Daniel Hodges and Hazard Gaming.  Unlike most of the games I have reveiwed, Victoria is focused on running a game in the historical Victorian Era.  So focus on class, station and no magic (well...mostly).

Victoria is heavy on atmosphere and history.  In fact among the Victorian games, Victoria stresses the history the most.  It is trying to go for an authentic feel of the era sans monsters, magic.

So what does Victoria have? Well for starters character concept is king here.  You should have a good grip what sort of character you want to play.  The book suggests thinking about characters from literature or history.    One of the things things you are going to want to do is decide on your class.  Not how it is typically used in games, but social class.  Social class is everything in this game and there are plenty of examples of of how to use it in play.   The game is really targeted to the newer player with plenty of examples of game play and how to use skills.

Speaking of which, looking at the character sheet you might be surprised to see that everything is a skill.  The first three group are grouped by Social Class.  So there are Upper Class skills (High Society, Linguistics, etc.), Middle Class (Adventure, Law, etc.) and Working Class (Stealth, Street,etc.).  Depending on your class you have more points to allocate to one of the groups and then secondary and tertiary.   You can move points between skill groups (at a cost of course).  There is a fourth group, Personal, which are closer to "Attributes" but are treated just like skills.

The mechanic is a very interesting one and one I have not encountered before to be honest.  The skills are ranked 2 to 12, but you start around 7 and work your way out.    You roll a 2d6 and when you roll the number of your "Main" (a spread of scores) you make it, if you roll outside you don't.  Pretty easy really.
Double "1"s are a critical failure and double "6"s are always a distinctive success.  In either case you can be granted Plot Points.

Plot Points play like Drama Points or Hero Points in other games.  In Victoria the Point economy is bit freer with points being spent and gained quicker.  So if your Main is 5-9 and you roll an 11 then you can spend 2 Plot Points to extend your range and make it.  I mentioned before that critical rolls can grant you Plot Points.   If you fail, if you can describe your failure well then that is worth some plot points to be used at a later challenge.

Half the book is for the players and the other half for the Gamemaster.  The Gamemastering section is not to be missed really, especially if you are a new Gamemaster or starting one.  There is great advice here.  There is also good game-based advice for the giving out the Plot Points and how to reward play based on Social Class.

Chapter 10 is an interesting one since it deals with the Supernatural.  The "paradigm" of Victoria is the "Sherlock Holmes" one.  That is there is no magic, but many people that believe in it.  I think that is where this game works the best.  Some background (but not stats) are given for many creatures.  Chapter 11 similarly deals with alternate settings.  Chapter 12 is an example adventure that stretches science to near Frankenstein levels.

Victoria works best as "Charles Dickens" or "Sherlock Holmes" the Game.  Realism with real problems.
If you want a game with more magic, then we have those as well.  Take advantage of this game's strengths.

I would use this as an expansion is most any Victorian game to add another level of realism to the play. There is quite a bit of history and even a handy guide for how much various professions make in a year.
The character creation section is fantastic for any Victorian era game since it does require you to think about your character not as a collection of stats and numbers, but rather as a concept and as a person within society.

The book itself is fantastic to look at.  The layout is clean and easy to read. The art is the similar PD art found in Ghosts of Albion, Gaslight and Victoriana, but to me that is a good thing.  That is what a Victorian game should look like.

If you like historical games and like your games with a bit more realism in it, then Victoria is a great choice.

You can also go to Daniel's webpage to hear his weekly Podcasts.   In fact next week I am going to be in Episode 11.
http://www.hazardgaming.com/
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=99046&affiliate_id=10748&

Dirty Nel
So, the one thing about Victoria is it lacks a proper magic system and supernatural creatures are non-existent.
That all being said, that doesn't mean I can't try to emulate my street faerie prostitute Dirty Nel.
You can see her in her Ghosts of Albion, Rippers, and Victoriana aspects. Here she is as a normal human.  She is still a prostitute working for the elite upper class. Her clientele are not just the upper class, but the upper-class spiritualist and occultist of the age.

Name: Dirty Nel
Class: Working
Occupation: Prostitute/Informant
Backstory: Nel is a young elfin-looking woman. She claims she fell on hard times, but Nel didn't have far to fall.
Flaw: Fallen Woman, Greedy
Skills


Upper Class

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
High Society					X	X	X				X
Linguistics						X	X				X
Medicinal						X					X
Research						X					X

Middle Class

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Adventure					X	X	X				X
Law & Inv					X	X	X	X			X
Martial						X	X				X
Tactics & Org.					X	X	X				X

Working class

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Chameleon				X	X	X	X	X			X
Stealth				X	X	X	X	X			X
Street*				X	X	X	X	X	X		X
Trade & Source					X	X	X				X

*extra skill speciality: Dark Secrets


Personall

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Atheltics						X	X				X
Machines						X					X
People					X	X	X	X			X
Wits					X	X	X				X

Possessions: clothes, boots, purse, couple of knives.
Ht: 5'0" Wt: 6.7 stone Age: 16
PP: 4
Money: what she made the night before.

White Dwarf Wednesday #13

Wow.  I am not doing so well on this one am I. I missed last week and didn't catch it till almost Saturday.
So we move on to Issue 13.
For starters the Editorial page has gotten a facelift. In it Ian Livingstone wants to know about your gaming group to start building a list of contacts.

In what is the big feature of this issue are the new AD&D Combat Tables. 4 tables that will be in new PHB.
The Fiend Factory is back with some faves like Doombat and Shadow Demon.  We also get the Imps, which look like they were changed into the mephits.  Don't have my Fiend Folio handy to be sure, but they look the same.

We some additions to the Traveler rules.  Part 1 includes Skills and their uses as Poisons and chemical warfare.
Open Box hits another high point with reviews of B1 In Search of the Unknown and S1 Tomb of Horrors. Don Turnbull gives them 9 and 10 respectively.   Equally as impressive is the 9-point review given to Games Workshop Dungeon Floor Plans.

The issue keeps on giving with Brian Asbury's Houri character class. This class has become a bit infamous in the last few years. I have even posted about it in a past, here and here.

More from the Valley of the Four Winds.
Some new spells. Most are good, though I dislike "Laser", not really a fantasy type spell.  
Some more letters.  Most are about the monsters in FF.  First a letter about how the monsters are already going downhill in quality.  Interestingly one of the letters is from Don Turnbull himself about how Monster Mark is dead with the advent of the new AD&D system.
Some news and some ads.

Quite a bit of quality work in this episode.  While the amount of content hasn't changed (just yet) the quality is up.  Despite the letters, I still think the monsters of FF are still good.

U is for The Unexplained

The Unexplained is a game I have known about for years and have wanted to pick up, but something else always pushed it's way to the front of the line.  So when it appeared on DriveThruRPG a couple of weeks ago I knew I had to get it.  I also knew it would make for a great post for the Blogfest.

So today U is for The Unexplained.

I had reviewed the Unexplained's sister game, Now Playing, a while back.  TU uses pretty much the same rule system, Fudge, though the focus is less on emulating a TV show (though there is that there) and instead emulating a real world full of cryptids, ghosts and UFOs.  In many ways The Unexplained is very much like a 70's monster hunter documentary or even a 90s conspiracy show.  Given it's ties, systemwise, to Now Playing it is easy to guess that the author, Bradford Younie, is a big fan of shows like Dark Skies, the X-Files and certainly Kolchak the Night Stalker.  If Now Playing is the TV version, then The Unexplained is the reality they are based on.
Chapter 1 of the book covers a bit of the background of the game with Paranormal Societies, including the FPI (detailed later).

Character creation begins in Chapter 2.
Like many games you have 6 attributes (Brawn, Agility, Stamina, Reasoning, Perception, Will) and these are give levels in words, not numbers.  So "Fair" "Good" and the like.  This is a Fudge game so the levels of everything are words.  Like all Fudge games character creation is a fast affair where where you start with a concept and work from there.  Authors (not game authors or players) might find this exercise interesting for their own characters since there is no/less number crunching than with other games.
The next chapters cover all the other things that can define your character.
TU has a bunch of skills (Chapter 3), Traits and Faults (Chapter 4) and various other means of describing your character (Chapter 6).
If you have ever played Fudge before then you will get this game in a flash.  If you have never played Fudge, then it is simple to understand and the mechanics are not at all difficult. Chapter 6 covers all the gear your character might need.  Enough to make Stanzt, Spengler and Venkman happy or Thelma to go "Jinkies".

Chapters 7 and 8 cover the rules of the game and Storytelling (Game Mastering) respectively.   Chapter 7 is your Fudge basic information as it is applied to this game.  Chapter 8 though is a very good chapter on running any sort of paranormal type game.  I have read dozens of chapters like this and this one still had some good advice for me.

While most people go to Fudge games because of the ease of character creation and game play, what I like most about this game is how well researched it is.  I play plenty of paranormal/horror/conspiracy type games.  After a while one begins to look like the other and I tend to compare them favorably to unfavorably to games like WitchCraft, Conspiracy X and DarkMatter.
The Unexplained stands up to these game rather well.  Characters are assumed to belong to the Foundation of Paranormal Investigations (FPI), which plot wise and thematically puts it between ConX and DarkMatter. They even have their own website, http://www.paranormal-foundation.com/.    The FPI is a game conceit, but that doesn't mean you have to use it.  You can go rogue if you like. Make your game more "Supernatural" than "X-Files".

The rest of the book breaks down this research into major game-playing areas.
Chapter 9 covers Ghost Hunting, with Chapter 10 on Ghost Ships in particular.  Given some the material on Carnivore Games website, I would say Ghost Ships hold a particular interest to the author.  The chapter is nicely done and very in depth.  If you need to know something about Ghost Ships for an RPG then this is a good place to start.  Chapter 11 cover Cryptozoology, so bigfoots, lake monsters and the like.  Chapter 12 Parapsychology and psychic phenomena. Chapter 13 is all about UFOlogy including the various alien races  that have come to Earth, the Greys, the Reptoids, the Nordics.  Exactly what you would expect.  Crop circles are also detailed.  Chapter 14 covers magic.  Again this is a modern view on real world magical practices, as if they were really magical.  So a nice overview here.  But I will admit, I have a hard time mixing UFOs and Magic.  This is not a fault of the game, but rather one with me I think.  This chapter though is a good overview of many magical traditions and ritual magic.

There is also a sample adventure/investigation at the end.  Appropriately enough it is about Bigfoot.
The character sheet is similar to the one found in Now Playing, and there is a nice touch of a Character Creation Questionnaire that should really work with every paranormal like game.

I mentioned the research, the game is full of interesting tidbits such as eye-witness accounts, photos and case notes from dozens of "real" reported cases of the supernatural and the paranormal. Everything from cryptids, to ghosts, to UFOs. Thematically this places it closer to ConX than say WitchCraft, though without all the baggage of the government. One gets the feeling that Younie spent many, many hours doing nothing but reading up on conspiracies and everything outside the regular media to give us this information.

A nice treat in the end is the OGL (Fudge is now released under the OGL) AND a plain language declaration what is open and what isn't.  Plus, for lack of a better word, an "openness" about publishing your adventures or supplements that can be used with Now Playing or The Unexplained.

I really liked Now Playing, but I like The Unexplained even more.
The Unexplained has a nice charm about it that I find very attractive.  Now Playing changed my mind about playing Fudge based games, and this might change my mind about running them.

Who should buy this game?
If you have ever been curious about Fudge then this is a good game to pick up.
If you enjoy supernatural/paranormal games then get this.
If you are a fan of Now Playing, then absolutely get this.

Links
http://www.paranormal-foundation.com/
http://carnivoregames.com/wp/
http://www.facebook.com/theunexplained
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/07/willow-tara-fudge.html