White Dwarf Wednesday #27

White Dwarf #27 starts of with another great sci-fi cover.  Or rather a pulp-age inspired one. The other thing that jumped out at me (other than the transparent space suit the woman has on) is that the month/year is missing from the front cover. But those keeping track this is October/November 1981.

Ian Livinstone lets us know why, White Dwarf is going Monthly in 1982.  They also got some new, larger offices.  WD is hitting it's next big phase of growth along with the rest of the hobby.  Many would claim this period marks the end of the Golden Age, but I have a hard time with that because the popularity and growth never has been, and arguably never will be again, as high as this time.

Roger Musson is back with Part 3 of the Dungeon Architect.  This time he talks about the Populated Dungeon.  This delves into what some other Bloggers have referred to as Gygax Naturalism. Or how do these life forms get to where they are and survive there?  Steady diet of 1st levels?  If you are working out a dungeon crawl then these are good articles to find.  I guess in a way this is also a sign of the "end of the golden age".  The GA did care about dungeon ecology or why things were there, they just were.  The later Silver Age (or even, the Dragonlance Age) dungeons had a reason for being and the monsters there did something other than wait around to be killed.

Robert McMahon takes us to a new career option in Traveller, the Imperial Secret Service.

Open Box has some reviews for us.  Deluxe Edition Traveller is out, combining previous books plus Book 0, a map and 2d6s. I notice this is also one of the first uses of "role-playing game" used other than an academic or editorial context as opposed to SF/F game. I still have not seen RPG used yet.  Back on track, Andy Slack gives it 10/10 for newcomers, but 4/10 for old hands since there is not much that is new.
Chaosium has a new Runequest supplement/adventure Griffin Mountain. Actually it is more of a campaign at 200+ pages.  It gets a solid 9/10 from Murray White.  Star Fleet battles from Task Force Games is up next. I always wanted to try this game out and I know it has it's legions of fans, but it never happened.  The review is solid and John Lambshead gives it 8/10 citing it might be a bit complex for new players.  A bunch of Traveller books are up next, IIS Ship files (10/10), Traders and Gunboats (9/10) and Asteroid (8/10).  It was a great time to be a Traveller fan.

Lew Pulsipher is back with Part 5 of his An Introduction to Dungeons & Dragons. This time talking about characterisation and alignment.  Ahh, more evidence the Golden Age is nearly over if we are talking about characters. I am joking. (well, only a little). The interesting idea here is that Alignment should have an effect on role-playing your character and thus you get experience rewards accordingly.  So not an in-game mechanic, but a meta-gaming concept.

The Dungeon at the End of the Universe continues where Issue 26's The DM's Guide to the Galaxy left off. Marcus Rowland continues the D&D in space concept to combat, magic and equipment.  Though I have my doubts that a quasi-Dark Ages metalsmith can make air-tight armor.

Letters are up next.

A mini adventure for AD&D is next, Hell's Portal, fir 7-9 characters of 4th level. Fairly straightforward adventure.  I did notice that HP was constantly referred to as HTK which was common in many non-sanction D&D products.

Star Base has an article on putting Traveller weapon information on  index cards for quick reference.  Even then people were trying integrate cards and RPGs.

In what I believe is a White Dwarf first we have a female author of an article!  Penelope Hill gives us the Summoner class in Character Conjuring.  Summoners are a sub-class of Magic-User that summon monsters to do their bidding.  It looks solid, but the proof is in the playing as it were.

Fiend Factory is back with the "near misses" of the Fiend Folio.  These are the ones that didn't make it (and yet the Flumph did...) We have the Spikehead (an ape with a spike on it's head) and the Wirrn (large maggots) I suspect the Wirrn didn't make it due to a similar creature with a similar name in Doctor Who. The Greenman (a creature with green skin and four arms) and the White Ape (ape with four arms) both have their origin in the ERB's Mars books.  The last one, the Cold Beast, is something like a Lamasu or Shedu without wings and lives in a cold area.  Well that and it eats people.

Treasure chest has a bunch of new spells.

We end with a bunch of ads. The last page has the official AD&D miniatures page with the first time I recall seeing the new "man in the moon" TSR logo.

I see this issue as still a transition issue.  Obviously White Dwarf is deeply in love with D&D still, but the Traveller content is now about equal to it.  Runequest, which was always strong, gets mentioned still, but not as much.

Looking forward to 1982 and more changes!

Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul, Part 2 (sorta)

I wanted to have at least one write-up done for you today.  But work has been really busy and I crashed last night while watching the Olympics.

So instead here are some links that be helpful till then.

Thread on RPG Net
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?639850-Capes-Cowls-and-Villains-Foul

The Author's Blog
http://capescowlsandvillainsfoul.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/spectrumgames

Website with some freebies
http://www.spectrum-games.com/

Enjoy!  I hope to have something more useful soon.

Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul

Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul (CCaVF) is the eagerly anticipated supers/comic book emulation game from Spectrum Games.  The same folks that gave Cartoon Action Hour.

I want to start off by saying that this is an attractive book.  At 164 pages of full of color it feels like a comic. Since that is what the author aims to emulate I would say it so far is a success.

I think that is a good place to start.  What is CCaVF?  Well yes it is a supers game, but it is more a comic book emulation game.  Meaning it tries to emulate the play-ability of reading a comic book.  This sets it apart from the likes of other purely "Supers" games that might be trying to emulate how a super hero could exist in some sort of reality.  Instead the assumption here is comic book reality. This would include things like editorial control or even breaking the 4th wall.  Both of which are discussed later.

Chapter 0 is our Introduction which helps lay the ground work for what we will be reading. We are told that physics and logic often take a back seat to drama and excitement.  So far I feeling that this will be closer to Marvel Heroic Roleplaying than say Villains and Vigilantes (both of which are great games for different styles of play).  We are told that this game is about telling exciting stories with your friends.  So far this sounds good.  We are told next that this game uses the d12.  I love that.  The d12 is the oft forgotten die stuck between the mighty d20 and the diva that is the d10.
We also learn that CCaVF is a resource-based game.  Now my experiences with resource based supers games has been mixed.  So lets see what we have here.

Traits are match against other Traits with various Linked traits.  Traits can be Primary or Secondary and after they are Used they become less effective.  So someone like Superman would have a Primary Trait of Super-Strength with Secondary Traits of Flight and Heat Vision. Following the example in the book the Traits are bolded.  Characters are likely to have 5 to 12 traits.  Characters can also have Complications and Factoids. Sounds great! Let's get into the design!

Chapter 1 is Character Design.  I like the term "Hero Design" myself, but that is cool.  Your "Editor" (GM) will determine how many starting points your character will have.  Much like the Power Points of M&M or other games. Except you are not buying the trait itself, you are buying what the trait represents.  So a Signature Triat vs. a Secondary one or an Auto Defend.  There is a handy chart with all the trait types and levels/ratings so you can add up your points quickly.
CCaVF encourages thinking about your character as a whole.  So when making your Batman-clone you would not list all his martial arts but would just list Advanced Combat Training or something like that. Superman would have Super-Sonic Flight while the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel would have Hyper-Flight.  So where are these traits listed?  They are not.  Yup.  YOU define what the traits mean.  So for example I define an Anamchara trait to go with my Willow & Tara characters.  This is a Shared Trait, so the points are split up, but I define what it means and what it does.  But don't worry the author gives you some ideas to work with.

The neatest thing though has to be the Editorial Control. These are like supercharged hero points or drama points. Editorial Control can be purchased with points, but is more expensive for more powerful characters. The Editor also gets a pool of EC points as well to use for the villains.  There are also examples of various ways to regain EC points.  Finally you fill out the character with factoids.
The chapter ends with an example of character creation.  This is followed by a quick generation card to get you plying right away. Finally a listing of Heroes and Villains.

Chapter 2 is the Rules chapter.Typically rolls are a d12 + some trait.  Other times you might need to roll 2 d12s and keep the highest or even 3.  The basic idea here is that the action needs to be like that in a comic book. So a bit of time is spent on combat.  Now heroes and villains in CCaVF don't have hit points, but they do have Setbacks.   Most of the chapter is dedicated to this this idea and some example difficulties are explored.  All and all pretty easy.

Chapter 3 is all about Villains.  Villains get special treatment in CCaVF.  They are created with the same rules that give us heroes, but there is more to them than that.  Given the treatment given them here, I think this should be must reading for any superhero RPG player/GM.  Heroes are often defined by their villains or rogues gallery.  This game did not forget that.

Chapter 4 deals with Options. Things you can do to tweak characters or games.  One really nice thing is about how deal with super hero team-ups and what to do when some characters are more powerful than others.  There is even a bit on killing (and why it should be avoided) and live action (LARP) supers.

Chapter 5 is a fairly comprehensive example of play.  If you normally ignore these please read this one.  Many of my questions were answered here. It is a good walk through of how to play the game.

Chapter 6 talks about Issues, or adventures for your new set of heroes and villains. Again there is a lot of good information here for Editors/GMs of any sort of supers game.  In particular there is the all important Introductory Issue which brings the team the together.  I could not help but think of the team of misfits in the new Justice League Dark while reading this.  Fantasy RPG fans should also take note of this chapter since it helps get past that old "you all met in an inn before an adventure".

We end with an Afterword where the author discusses why he made this game.  The Appendix has a great glossary, index and cheat sheets for the game.

All in all I am quite pleased with this game.  I agree with the author in that I love Supers games, but it is hard to find that perfect game for your group.  There have been some great choices that have come out in the last few years, but none are 100% perfect.  CCaVF may not 100% perfect either, but it is really damn nice and has a lot of great things going for it.

Up next I'll stat up some characters.

Mars

Ever since I read the War of the Worlds and Princess of Mars I have wanted to have a D&D game based on Mars/Barsoom.  This was heightened when I later read the Martian Chronicles.

It turns out that the real Mars is far more interesting.

The latest Martian rover Curiosity has landed successfully on the Red Planet. The stated goal of this little robot is to see if Mars was ever capable of supporting life or even had life at one point.

I should not have spell out the ramifications of a positive discovery would have in both science and religion.

Till that happens you can follow Curiosity's Twitter feed. https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity
And it's official site here: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

While Curiosity roams the face of the real Mars, you can roam the face of the Mars that never-was with these games.

Mars
Savage Worlds Edition
d20 Edition

Adamant Entertainment distilled some of the best features of the Planetary Romance/Sci-Fantasy genre into their Mars books.  The lineage is obviously Edgar Rice Burroughs, with Green, Red and White (Ape) Martians.  There is also a fair enough amount of H.G. Wells, but I have a hard time seeing this dying Mars invading Earth.  As they advertise this is not the Mars of reality, this is the Mars that never was.  This is Barsoom as it were.  While not "John Carter of Mars the RPG" it can be played that way.   There are even some surprises in the form of the Grey Men of Mars.  Hint, they are not the "Greys" of later UFO mythology.
There are plenty of options for characters with an emphasis on high heroism and great feats.   Imagine all the adventure of Victorian Times and the Pulp Era with the feel of a Space Opera in a D&D campaign then you get an idea of what Mars can do or be.  This all reminds me a bit of the "Dying Earth" genre as well, since Mars is dying.  Maybe that invasion of Earth is not too improbable after all.
NOTICE: Adamant Earlier today decided to offer these at half off!

Space 1899: Red Sands
This is the Savage Worlds update to the classic Space 1899 series.  Like it's fore-bearer this is a game where brave men and women from Earth brave the Ether to travel to a dying Mars or a Venus covered in lush jungles and dinosaurs.  Based on the works of Burroughs and Verne this is a space travel game with a twist.  There is plenty of room for adventure and the importunity to plant the flag of the British Empire on a new world or even find adventure of your own.
It is the Savage World rules and you need the core rules to play this. It is great fun and it is to date the best reason given to me to play Savage Worlds.
The only downside to this is that there is no conversion notes from the old Space 1899 to the new system.

DriveThruRPG August Sale

Been a bit since we had one of these.  But DriveThruRPG is offering 20% off any or all of the following products.

Here is the Coupon Code for this month's 20% off the listed products: TooHot8450


Tailslap Issue 1 [Unicorn Rampant]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/81174/Tailslap-issue-1?affiliate_id=10748&

Claw/Claw/Bite Issue 18 [Unicorn Rampant]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/92329/Claw---Claw---Bite-Issue-18?affiliate_id=10748&

Second World Sourcebook [Second World Simulations]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/19443/The-Second-World-Sourcebook?affiliate_id=10748&

Lore of the Gods [DragonWing Games]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/28416/Lore-of-the-Gods?affiliate_id=10748&

The Makefactor Base Class [Total Party Kill Games]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/102842/The-Malefactor-Base-Class?affiliate_id=10748&

The Agency [Realms Publishing]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/98467/The-Agency?affiliate_id=10748&

DCC #70: Jewels of the Carnifex [Goodman Games]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/104220/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-%2370%3A-Jewels-of-the-Carnifex?affiliate_id=10748&

Artists, Artisans, & Workers [Taurus Twelve]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/85690/Artists%2C-Artisans%2C-%26-Workers?affiliate_id=10748&

Vornheim: The Complete City Kit
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/91110/Vornheim%3A-The-Complete-City-Kit?affiliate_id=10748&

I also have a coupon for $10.00 off an order.  I have to figuer out what to give it out.

Zatannurday: Team-ups

For the most of her career Zatanna has been a solo act. She has worked in groups; Justice League or the JL-Dark (not really the team's name) and some pairings.

But I'd like to see her in more team ups with other supers.

Here she is with Raven, pairing up with her dad Zatara, with other DC Women,  with Black Canary, and a couple times (here at least) with Scarlet Witch (here and here).

So here are some other team ups with Zee!  Enjoy!

Scarlet Witch and Zatanna 3 by ~Thetrainingartist on deviantART

Zatanna v Enchantress (Marvel) + Enchantress (DC) by ~Nick-Perks on deviantART

Gen Con 2012

It dawned on the other day that I am in no way shape or form ready for Gen Con 2012 yet.

Hotel was booked back in January, badges bought, games registered for.Google calendar updated.
But I am not mentally ready.  I am not running anything this year officially, maybe something for my kids.  Most likely the continuation of theForgotten Temple of Tharizdun.

I plan to pick some things up at the OSR booth, but there are not many purchases I want to make this year to be honest.

Who is going to the Best Four Days in Gaming? 
What are your plans?