RPG Blog

Heap O' Bargains On RPGNow

        If you've been wondering why I wax so enthusiastically about Politically Incorrect Games, here's a cheap way to find out.  This free download from RPGNow (1.7 MB, ZIP) contains not only coupons for PIG's Story Engine and edition of Maelstrom Storytelling.  The free download also features discounts on products from The Le Games (gotta love their Unorthodox series), as well on those from Fat Dragon Games (check out their E-Z Tiles and E-Z Dungeons).  If you plan on doing any shopping on RPGNow anytime soon, make sure to check out these coupons first.

Free RPG: Icar

         This is a free download I haven't mentioned before, and for the life of me, I'm not sure why, as it's one of the best-supported free RPGs out there.  Icar is a sci-fi RPG that's been on the web for almost a decade now, and has its downloads broken up into handy little pdf files.  New toys are continually posted, and updates are frequent and documented.  There's a lot of non-free RPGs I wish I could say the same for.

Dungeon Magazine Index

        Although it's still in beta, the Dungeon Magazine Index is a very cool site allowing you to search their database for adventures that have appeared in Dungeon Magazine.  I especially like that a little synopsis of said adventure comes up when you select it.  So check it out, feel free to give some feedback, and let the dungeon delving commence.

Legends of Lanasia

        I don't know what's been going on with me and 2d6 systems lately, but here's another one for you:  Legends of Lanasia.  Still in Beta, the game (PDF, 1.8 MB) nonetheless shows some diverse skill selections and an interesting campaign setting.  It'll be interesting to see what the finished product will look like.  Stop on by and give some love to another 2d6er.  Oh, and if you know of other games out there that use a 2d6 resolution system that we likely don't know about, send it this way!

Writeups.org

        I came upon an interesting site a few days back--even if I'm late to the party and just don't know it, I'd still say to check out Writeups.org, a site with nearly 3000 fictional characters from TV, movies, comics, and other works statted up in a variety of different systems.  Sadly, a search for "Mr. T" comes up with 0 results.

BESM Acquired By ArtHaus

        Well, in the post-Guardians of Order fallout, one of the big questions has been where all their games/systems will end up.  One of those questions was answered today with this press release by White Wolf, stating that ArtHaus will be releasing the 3rd Edition of Big Eyes, Small Mouth in January 2007.  So it looks like BESM fans have something to cheer about--and I'm glad to see the press release at least makes some assurances towards fans who had pre-ordered from Guardians of Order.  There might be a happy ending somewhere in there after all.

Review of Coyote Trail Expanded

        Holy cow, I have been gifted with the opportunity to review roughly a metric ton of great RPGs in the wake of Gen Con Indy.  One RPG I’ve been asked to review outside of Gen Con was Politically Incorrect Games’ Coyote Trail Expanded Edition.  By now, if you’ve checked out any of PIG’s titles (or read any of my reviews of the same), you know that PIG’s products are usually uniformly excellent.  Now, the Wild West is not my favorite gaming setting, and I think it’s one that suffers from a lack of truly genre-defining products: some games mix in a lot of supernatural/steampunk elements, while others are too narrowly focused and thematic in nature to ever to the whole “all-encompassing the genre” bit.  Some are just plain vaporware.  So Coyote Trail comes to us with a definite niche to fill—read on to see just how well it succeeds.

        My review pdf was 172 pages, and right on the cover proclaims itself to be “Wild West Action and Adventure”.  As usual, PIG loads this book up with all sorts of extras (we’ll come to those in just a bit).  The layout, like most PIG books, is nicely clean and easy to follow.  The interior art was ok; a few of the earlier pieces left me just slightly flat, but seem to improve over the course of the book.

        CT (as we will refer to Coyote Trail periodically from this point in) is divided into Journals, which we will cover one by one:

Journal 1: Rules of The West

        Coyote Trail uses the genreDiversion system, which is pretty simple if you haven’t used it before: you roll 2d6 and attempt to roll under your applicable ability plus skill (and any modifiers, if the GM so decides).  The more you roll under, the better your margin of success is, which determines how well you succeeded.

        It is a point-based system, (so if you do want a more cinematic/heroic game, it is an easy matter of just adding a few more points to play with during character creation).

        Characters are hugely customizable, choosing a background (such as clergy, foreigner, slave), a vocation (all the western archetypes are here: Outlaw, Prospector, Lawman, Drifter, Homesteader, Gambler, Cowboy, and many more), and Gimmicks such a Criminal, Quick, Wealth—basically modifiers that will help mold your character and possibly grant several bonuses to boot.

        Skills are also purchased  Vocations come with vocational skills, which are cheaper to increase than non-vocational ones (for example, if an Outlaw wanted skill ranks in Design, each rank in that skill would cost him 2 points instead of one, it being a non-vocational skill for him).  In total, character creation is swift, customizable, and easy.

        Mechanics are further split in this section into basic task resolution and more advanced rules (such as environmental modifiers and more specific hit locations), which enables them to be more easily digested by those unfamiliar to this particular system or gaming at large.  There are rules for automatic task resolution, and the mechanics seem to encourage you to get down to the action quickly.

        The use of the genreDiversion system provides slightly more of a gritty than cinematic experience for this title in terms of character mortality, but as mentioned earlier, than can be changed through increased starting point allocation.  It is worth noting that the game is 100% compatible with the Active Exploits system, PIG’s Impresa system can also be used without much of a fuss.

        I was very pleased to see all manner of rules and guides included for the use of horses, wagons, and chases in this section.  Any western game not making allowances for these, in my opinion, would be hamstrung from the get-go.

        The last part of the section is a primer of sorts describing some of the legends and realities of the Old West.  Types of settlements (such a boomtowns, forts, villages, ranches, ghost towns, etc.) are covered, and there’s also sections on travel, common town sites, and a list of story ideas and subplots to get things rolling.

        In addition to all this is are basic weapon listings, a list of common goods & services, and rules for character advancement (in Coyote Trail, experience points may be used to increase abilities/skill ratings, buy new skills, and even tame horses!).  Gun-lovers out there might not be satisfied with the half-dozen or so basic firearm types provided and are directed to The Knuckleduster Firearms Shop for more in-depth descriptions and a greater selection of weaponry.

        Overall, this section does an excellent job of laying down the core rules and character creation guidelines for the game, as well as provide a basic foundation and background for playing in the Old West.  In essence, Journal 1 is an RPG unto itself, and a group should be able to read this section and sit right down to the gaming table and begin playing. 

Journal 2: Shady Gulch

        Shady Gulch is a frontier town setting for CT, and is exceedingly well-written. Nestled in the Black Hills (and a clear homage to its contemporaries, such as Deadwood), Shady Gulch is full of action and not a few plot hooks.  What I was pleased to see was the amount of detail given to the surrounding area and not just the town itself.  The history of the town’s settlement is also touched upon, which I felt gave things a clearer perspective.

        A small map of the town is included, and the businesses are described, as well as the system for purchasing empty lots or how mining claims work.  Dozens of town NPCs are described, down to the brutes running Shady Gulch’s tiny Chinatown.  The angered Indian tribes (Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapho) outside of the town are also mentioned, as is their desire to make war against illegal mining encampments such as Shady Gulch and Deadwoood.

        This is an excellent default setting for a group to use as a “home base” of sorts, or possibly just as a brewing ground for encounters.

Journal 3: Indian Trails

Wow. Nicely done section. Not just tips for running an “Indian” campaign, this section does a nice outline of many of the basic pressures and threats the pioneer trails represented to the Native American tribes of this time period.  Better yet, it does it without falling prey to political agenda or preaching, concentrating on the facts of the period.

Trails and forts are briefly laid out in this section, much of the Indian Wars are explained.  But my favorite part of this section has to be the laying out of the various Indian tribes and their customs.  It should really help anyone wanting to avoid simply having Generic Indians 1 & 1A showing up in their campaign, as well as lend depth and background to said characters.

Journal 4: The Stories

Journal 4 contains four ready-to-run adventures and scenarios, all nicely statted out with plenty of NPCs.  I would especially recommend "Confederate Gold".  Not a lot else to say on this section, except including a starting adventure or adventures is one of my pet peeves when it comes to RPGs, so I was pleased to see this.

All The Extras

        Well, it wouldn’t be a PIG product if it didn’t include all sorts of goodies and extras!  Included in this section are a basic task reference sheet, character and NPC sheets, templates for some common characters of the Wild West (prospectors, outlaws, townsfolk, and the like), 2 sheets of PIG’s Disposable Heroes paper minis (all nicely suited to Wild West play), a set of Disposable Dice (hey, everything you need to play and all that), and part of the Whitewash City line of paper models and floor plans detailing the Eagle Saloon.  All these bells and whistles really make you feel like you’re getting a lot for your money, something PIG excels in doing (see Iron Gauntlets).  The only thing I’d have liked to see tagged on the end of all that was an index, but a good Table of Contents upfront and a clean design makes that not much of a worry.

Conclusion 

        In the end, Coyote Trail Expanded is certain to be a hit with those who have been waiting for a mainstream Western RPG.  It combines a clean, easy-to-learn system with writing that works hard to nail down the feel and open feel of the Wild West.  Basically, again PIG has come up with a game that should be open to the veteran games as well as the new initiate to our hobby, which I think has come to be one of their strengths.  There’s a fantastic wealth of information in this book—I’m still not sure how they squeezed this all in to under 200 pages.  If you’re looking to saddle up to a western (geez, that was awful—like on par with one of Gene Shalit’s puns), you’ll definitely want to check out Coyote Trail Expanded.

Book Review: Into The Reach

        I don’t usually review straight-up fiction on this site; every other review I’ve done has been regarding a game or RPG book/product. I suppose we can squeeze this one in on a technicality, as Into The Reach, Alana Abbott’s new novel, is set up as a literary introduction into the world of White Silver Publishing’s new RPG, The Chronicles of Ramlar, the land of Eranon.  It’s also the first book of the soon to be continued Redemption Trilogy, which will expand on the events taking place in this first book. Now, gamer fiction can either be horrible, tedious pieces entailing the “adventures” of a thinly-disguised beloved munchkin player (I don’t think I need to give specific examples here), or actually pretty diverting pieces that use that best parts of a game setting to good advantage. Thankfully for this reviewer, Into The Reach falls firmly into the latter category.

        Physically, this book is slightly oversized from normal fantasy paperbacks, and comes in at 258 pages (it would likely be a bit more if the pages were small, naturally, I’d put it on par with about a 300-320 page standard-size novel). There’s a rather nice wraparound illustration on the cover by Lindsay Archer, showing the main characters and accompanying wilderness backdrop. Archer also takes care of the several black-and-white illustrations on the inside, though I felt at times they got a little too dark and hazy for my liking. My only real beef is one that seems to plague a lot of game company fiction—namely, typos. Thankfully, it only occurs in a few spots, not enough to kill the novel, but it is a minor irritant.

         Most of the novel (minus a few flashbacks and the like) takes place in Eranon’s The Reach, a northeastern wasteland far removed from civilization, a place of hardscrabble communities, crazed recluses, all manner of unpleasant beasts (both natural and unnatural) and the occasional pioneer spirit. Our four main characters are: Kennerly, a troubled Sky Knight (griffon-riding warrior) struggling with a terrible tragedy and disgrace; Nara, the enigmatic, deadly thief who blames herself for a botched theft (and the its fatal consequences); Lydia, diplomat, elite courtier, lady knight—and murderess; and Taru, elven mystic/cleric, who may have lost the blessing of his god through in one terrible moment. All are running away from something, and in Eranon, that’s what The Reach is for. They fall in together by way of a series of coincidences, encounters, and chance meetings. When it appears one of them is being hunted, they must band together, despite their fears and past failures to try and combat their mysterious enemy. What follows is a good old-fashioned wilderness quest. Solid combat scenes, character interaction that goes beyond cookie-cutter dialogue and good pacing keep things moving along nicely.

         The featured villain of this novel, Mordyss, does not gain the reader’s sympathy, but neither is he your Default Fantasy Evil Mage Mark VIII. A Dark Elf and an exile to The Reach himself (the circumstances regarding how this came about are described via several intriguing flashbacks), Mordyss is a powerful villain in his own right, capable of commanding fell summoning magics, but a slave still to his own past failures and required fealty to those more powerful than he. The scene is also set for greater encounters with the liche and necromancer, Zychariss, and one feels that even greater conflict waits in the wings.

        This is, in fact, Abbott’s first novel, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. She does a nice job of creating multi-dimensional heroes that have honest-to-goodness faults, flaws, and weaknesses. In that sense, she sort of patterns after David Gemmell, though definitely with a softer touch. Many of your standard fantasy tropes are here, but like the RPG Ramlar itself, they are well-written and avoid that “simply plugged-in” feel. Bits and pieces of Eranon’s geography, customs, and religion are dropped in nicely, giving the reader an excellent mental picture of the world the characters inhabit.

        I picked up Into The Reach as part of a package deal with the Chronicles of Ramlar at this year’s Gen Con, and I can say I’m exceedingly happy I did. It was a fun read on a dull plane trip, and really helped get me into the entire Eranon/Ramlar setting. If you’re looking for same good gamer fiction, or possibly just wanting a fantasy novel that’s easy to jump into, I think you might like Into The Reach.

        (And yes, I’ll be reviewing Ramlar itself soon enough, but my Gen Con review list is large, and will take a while to get through. Hang in there, guys—I’m doing my best).

E-RPG Developer Interview

        I recently conducted an interview with two of the folks behind the recent releases (and free downloads) E-RPG  & The Fantasy Sagas:  Ruel Knudson, Director of Project Development for Ironwood Omnimedia, and Willie Santana, Chief Operations Officer for the same.  What follows is a transcript of our e-mail interview, in which they make some bold pronouncements and talk a lot more about their products.  Read on, friends:

RPGB:  Let's start with a little gaming background from you both.  What games did you start with, and which most influenced the way you currently look at gaming?

Willie Santana:  Well I have Ruel to blame; I mean thanks, for introducing me to RPGs.  I have played Earthdawn, Shadowrun, D&D and E-RPG, of course.  ED and SR showed me you can have beautifully crafted settings but have the rules turn you off.  D&D is D&D, I can honestly say I did not enjoy it at all  (though part of that was due to an inexperienced DM).

Ruel Knudson:  I was, after much prodding, convinced to start playing with a group playing a game called Earthdawn. I enjoyed the setting, but my GM wasn't the best. I decided after a few game sessions to start my own and the games really took off from there. From there I went into Shadowrun, Palladium, and some AD&D, and a handful of other games here and there. AD&D I didn't take to all that well. By the time 3ed came out I was already working on Sagas. I played through 3ed for a while but ultimately Sagas was the only rule set that would really let me do what I wanted to do with my characters.

RPGB:  What is the core concept at the heart of the E-RPG?

Willie Santana:  I’d have to defer to Ruel on this one.  I had only minimal participation in the design of the core rules, as I was away in the military much of the time between 2001-2003 when the game was developed.

Ruel Knudson:  One word:  Ownership.  Players and GMs fully own their creations.  I wanted to strip away the reoccurring problem I felt RPGs had, that being they all justified their world nicely, but not the players.  Sagas is a simple, logical concept.  Because it is logical you can find that you are open to anything you want to create.

RPGB:  You mention quite often in press releases about E-RPG being a game that can be tailored to one's personal gaming preferences. What sets E-RPG apart in this category?

Willie Santana:  Contrary to what some GMs may feel, the RPGs are not all about them; they are stories being told through a medium.  Part of the beauty of this specific medium is that you have the characters writing their own lines, in essence living their part within the story line.  E-RPG understands the value of this dynamic and allows you to create ANY character and we’ve tried some odd ones.  I generated a rather useless “Psionic Thief” and a rather strong  “sword staff fighter”.  Ruel created a Jedi-esque shape shifter that got his @$$ handed to him but a simple Rogue that took a virtual God to kill.  You name it, we’ve tried it and it worked.

Ruel Knudson:  A lot of games are either this or that.  D20 for instance is a versatile game.  You can have a story based game, but ultimately the game is designed for dungeon crawls.  Combat is at the heart of this, and most other games.  You can by other games that focus on stories, or survival, etc.  What you may have a hard time doing is finding one that does it all pretty evenly.  What sets Sagas apart is that you can do this on the fly.  For instance, you may enjoy playing a character who gets through the day by cleverly manipulating people.  You know the guy.  He's the one who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar but manages to convince the baker that the cookies were made just for that purpose.  Then one day you play the game and you find yourself more interested in the logistics of exploration.  The mechanics of Sagas allows for this kind of shift.  You'll find the right amount of depth there to satisfy you if you want it.  If you don't, then it won't hurt anything.

RPGB:  Can you give us a brief example of how the system works?

Willie Santana:  That’s all you Ruel.  I can play it and enjoy it, but I’m not the GM type.

Ruel Knudson:  Your character is developed using a point or random attribute system.  These points actually determine every part of your character at the beginning of the game.  Your starting skill points, money, etc are all determined here first.  The attributes determine which die are rolled to perform a task related to that attribute.  In addition, characters learn skills which assist in making a task easier.  Each skill level adds to the total rolled by your die.  You can further develop your skills into proficiencies which allow you to further advance your ability to succeed.

As your characters succeed at task they are awarded experience points which are used to advance skill and proficiency levels.  In this way characters evolve as the player needs to.

Characters approach each task by rolling their die representing the attribute.  The higher the roll, the better the they attempted the task.  If the total exceeds the target level by a certain number then success levels are generated that give bonuses to results or follow up skills.  For instance, extra success levels on an attack roll will give bonuses to damage, while a high success on a lock pick reduces time to pick a lock.

That is the game on a basic level.  Players develop their character's, and their own interests in the game by learning the nuances to different play elements.  Learning the nuances to character interaction can help a character who likes to role-play through these scenarios.  The same goes with all other facets, from combat, exploration and survival, magic, crafting items, etc.

RPGB:  What upcoming products (and Ironwood Nexus has quite a few, I noticed) are you most excited about?

Willie Santana:  Personally, I cannot wait until the modern and Sci-fi rule sets are finished.  Due to my past experiences, I am more involved with the development of these products.

Ruel Knudson:  The DPnP (Digital Pen n' Paper) is my dream project.  When I had come up with this I had a chance to look at a bunch of the current programs similar to this.  I didn't.  I came up with a list of things I felt a gamer would want in a program like this.  After that list was completed I hunted down one that could do it all and found that not one program did everything I needed it to do, in a way I thought would be best for all gamers.  DPnP is a great tool for taking your tabletop games online, but what has me excited about it is the things it can do for offline players, too.  This won't simply be a program for playing on the net.  All Sagas players will find this program to be a great benefit to their gaming.

RPGB:  You guys hit 1,000 downloads of E-RPG in just a week's time.  Is that the sort great reaction you anticipated, or were you surprised by the positive start out of the gate?

Willie Santana:  Wow! That was my response when I found out. To be honest, I did not know what to expect; I knew we had a quality product (if we got our wives to play it and enjoy the game… It HAS to be great), and that we’d been marketing it well enough but 1,000 in a week… Wow.

Ruel Knudson:  I didn't expect to hit that number that quickly. It made me re-think this whole free release concept (j/k). I'm glad so many people thought well enough of what we are trying to do to give it a try. I just hope they keep coming back for whats coming up next.

RPGB:  What would be your advice to someone sitting down to read through E-RPG or using it in a gaming session for the first time?

Willie Santana:  Don’t over think it, decide what character you’d like to play and make it; if it doesn’t work out, you don’t have to kill him/her off, as in life your character can grow into something other than it was born.

Ruel Knudson:  It may be a little hard to get the concept of Sagas and what sets it apart when you first get started in the game.  Part of that is going to be the unlearning of other systems.  When you first start out, leave convention at the door and make this your first experience with role-playing.  The first thing you should do is find your character.  Don't be all things, or be one thing.  Make the game your own through the character, the story, and the game you want to play.   As you character gets better at playing, so will you. In no time you will find yourself telling a story you are making.

RPGB:  If you felt you could sell your game to anyone with one basic concept it entails, what would that concept be?

Willie Santana:  Its about characters and their stories. And the scope of those characters is not restricted by any mold other than which you decide to set.

Ruel Knudson:  Choice.  A lot of games offer this.  Open character development isn't new.  Classless systems aren't new.  What I think we nailed with Sagas is the choices you can make as you play that make the game your own.

RPGB:  OK, time for a tough one--what genres or types of players might have a ROUGH time with your game?

Willie Santana:  Only those who are unwilling to try a new system; my wife who had not even heard of table top RPGs until I introduced her to them in 2004 plays a rather strong archer in a fantasy campaign and an AMAZING cybernetically enhanced sniper in a cyberpunk in our modern rule set test campaign.  If she can do it, anyone can.

Ruel Knudson:  As far as genres or setting go, I haven't found one that Sagas can't be played in.  We have used Sagas to play through all our old favorite settings and stories.  The game has adapted flawlessly to conceptual games, as well as thematic games.  We've played campaigns based on movie themes, books, video games, etc...  The only theme left for us to attempt is superheroes.  But I don't think we are going to have too much trouble with that one either.

RPGB:  Are you planning any conventions/public appearances to promote the game further?

Willie Santana:  We will, definitely.  Right now we are concentrating in finishing the projects that we have in the works.  We want to have a full product line available when we tour 

Ruel Knudson:  Right now it is about getting our products out there. Our primary focus is always going to be the production of our products.  I feel that our products and E-RPG will speak for itself initially.  If a product is released, but no support material is there to support it, all the appearances in the world won't sell your books.  Once our initial line is introduced and running on its own I think conventions are a definite.

RPGB:  Lastly, any more freebies on the way?

Willie Santana:  Its part of our business model.  We will continue offering free content to supplement our products.  We will also release some retail (pay) content as well.  The logic behind it is to offer a good mix of free and/or low cost material and attract as many players as we can.

Ruel Knudson:  Absolutely.  As far as books go, only Modern and Sci-fi Sagas will be released for free downloads.  All our adventures and other source material will be purchase items.  Freebies will instead come in the form of little packages.  Members registered with Ironwood Nexus will be able to download little packages we put together.  Some of these will be creature templates, or adventure snippets.  We may have some dungeon crawls or equipment packages as well.  Also, we are looking at setting up a format for allowing players to submit there own creations on the Nexus as well.  Between official IOM creations, and player created content, I think we can keep people happy with plenty of free content.

---

        Thank you both for taking the time to answer these questions.  It's always nice to see more free RPGs and RPG materials released.  For more info on Iron Wood Omnimedia and E-RPG,  just follow this link.

Delta Green Future/Perfect

        Just a quick note for you Delta Green fans out there:  Dennis Detwiller has released Parts 1 & 2 (combined) of his Delta Green campaign Future/Perfect.  Pick it up here as a free download (PDF, 5.6 MB).  If you like his work, make sure to check out his ransom model projects as they come up.