March Madness OSR Challenge! Part 1

I have bitten off more than I can chew this month.
New month is the big April A to Z blog challenge and this month I need get some more done for work and my witch book.

Plus I am still sick.

So....I am going to have to do this in chunks.
I want to thank Tomb of Tedankhamen for hosting this.

1 What was the first roleplaying game other than D&D you played? Was it before or after you had played D&D?
It was over 30 years ago so it was either Traveller or Chill 1st Ed. This was all after D&D.

2 What was the first character you played in an RPG other than D&D? How was playing it different from playing a D&D character?
I ran Chill. My first character I played in another game was "Zaphod" in Traveller.  The skill system was a new idea for me and I liked it.  Plus the D&D mode of "kill things and take their stuff" doesn't work in most games.

3 Which game had the least or most enjoyable character generation?
In my mind the character creation for Traveller gave me the most trouble.  The easiest is anything for Unisystem. I can pretty much create a character for Unisystem in my sleep.

4 What other roleplaying author besides Gygax impressed you with their writing?
Easy.  C. J. Carella. His WitchCraft game is a work of art. He created the Unisystem game system and the Cinematic Unisystem.  I was fortunate enough to be working on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG when it was in development.

5 What other old school game should have become as big as D&D but didn’t? Why do you think so?
Chill. It lived in the shadow of Call of Cthulhu. Of course Chill is seeing some new light from Goblinoid Games in the guise of Rotworld,  Majus and Cryptworld.

6 What non-D&D monster do you think is as iconic as D&D ones like hook horrors or flumphs, and why do you think so?
I am not sure that flumphs are as iconic as say beholders or mind flayers, but that is a discussion for later. For other games  I always liked shoggoths and gugs from Call of Cthulhu.  The "Mean Old Neighbor Lady" from Chill is also fairly iconic for that game.

7 What fantasy RPG other than D&D have you enjoyed most? Why?
Runequest. I liked it because of it's connection the the Chaosism's BRP system which meant I could add in things from the Elric/Stormbringer/Hawkmoon games and Call of Cthulhu as I liked.

8 What spy RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.
None. Not my cup of tea really.  I liked how Spycraft was put together, but I never played it.

Sick day

Been down with a bad cold all week and I am not getting much better.

Sorry if posting is slow this next week.

Tempting Fate, Part 2

So I have been looking at Fate a lot recently.
Reading it over. Thinking of different things to try with it.

There are a lot of reasons to do so.  Just have stuck that right chord with me yet.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 28

Day 28: What is the single most important lesson you've learned from playing Dungeons & Dragons?

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

― G.K. Chesterton

The same thing can be said about D&D.

Mecha vs. Kaiju

Back when True20 was still new there was a "campaign world" created for it; Mecha vs. Kaiju.  It eventually spun off into a full blown product.

I talked about it more recently when Pacific Rim came out.

Well True20 sadly never got the traction it should have, but there is a new system to fill it's niche, Fate, and new Mecha vs. Kaiju for it.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1171175182/mecha-vs-kaiju-a-sci-fi-anime-rpg-for-fate-core

If it is anything like the True20 it will be ridiculously fun.
Though it looks like to me this not a simple conversion, but a complete rewrite to fit the Fate rules.
If that is the case then this stands to be a really, really fun game.

If it does for Fate what it did for True20 in my mind then this is an easy winner.

I have been dying to do something with Fate and this just might be the thing I need.

Mecha vs. Kaiju True20 Version
The game is set up much like other True20 books.  You have your three archetypes/characters (Adept, Expert, Warrior) and a host of new feats and powers to choose from.  Some are campaign-specific but almost all could be used anywhere else.  In fact there is enough here that the main feature of MvK is readily apparent; you don't have to do games about fighting giant monsters all the time.  Now of course the main plot and thrust of this game is fighting giant monsters, but I can easily see some adventures of exploring monster islands, contests between cocky pilots, mad scientists, children with newly awakened psychic powers.

When I first read this game my thoughts went first to Godzilla, but you can do Akira here as well and any number of other "Neo Tokyo" genres.  Plus it is compatible with a host of True20 books I already have, so adding cyberpunk, horror or even comedy is easy.

If you don't like the campaign background you can leave it, but I think you would be missing out on something really fun if you do.

This might in fact be my favorite True20 setting.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 27

Day 27: If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything different when you first started gaming?

I don't know.  I am not one for regrets or second-guessing my choices.
I think I would have liked to have bought more of the classic books when I could and saved more of the things I wrote. Playing some more games when I was younger would have been nice too.

But yeah I mean I had a blast. I am still having a blast. Why would I want to change any of that?

White Dwarf Wednesday #99

March 1988 and White Dwarf #99. This might one of my least favorite covers ever for White Dwarf.  Some weird looking space marine (research tells me it is a Chaos Marine).  In The Eye Of Terror Collective by Creativity Inc is the credit.
Sean Masterson gives us lackluster editorial.

Marginalia gives us two products, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb and Heroes for Dungeonquest.  Curse of the Mummy is a new board game and Heroes another expansion for Dungeonquest.

Lots of stuff for Warhammer 40k.

Letters moves up to the start of the issue.

The Ritual is a Warhammer Fantasy introductory scenario.   It's 10 pages and looks like it could be fun.  It has a serious old school vibe about it (naturally) but it really looks like something that could be published today for the OSR crowd.

For RuneQuest we get a guide on Martial Arts.  Only a page, but some very 80s stuff.

A little bit more on some Warhammer 40k.

Spirit of the Mountain is a Call of Cthulhu adventure.  Taking place anytime between 1830 and 1930 it is a fun little adventure set in Navajo land in Arizona.  I like it. I am sucker for anything Native American in nature.  Growing up in the midwest near old burial mounds will do that.  Plus I was in the area of this adventure this past spring on vacation and I have been dying to try something out.  It looks like something that I could convert easily to Ghosts of Albion.

One of the reasons (I think) for letters getting moved was to make room for a new forum on miniatures. I have been poking my head in on various newer White Dwarf issues to know that anything miniatures was gold for White Dwarf.

End with more Warhammer 40k and various ads.

A lot of what I said about last issue is still valid here.