Nathan Long's Blackhearts = The Dirty Dozen

Last night I finished reading the rather massive Black Library omnibus edition of Nathan Long's Blackhearts novels, set in Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy world. To quote the blurb from the above page:

"Under threat of death for their crimes, Reiner and his companions are forced to carry out the most desperate and suicidal secret missions, all for the good of the Empire. Chaos cultists, ratmen, dark elves, rogue army commanders and more – time and again the Blackhearts are pitted against impossible odds and survive – yet what they most what is their freedom."

In the introduction to the omnibus, the author freely admits that the first novel (and by extension, the entire series) is essentially a rip-off of The Dirty Dozen. But you know what? Why not? There's nothing wrong with stealing from the best, and I consider that movie one of the great classic action/adventure movies of all time (I dunno if I'd really classify it as a "war movie", because even though it's backdropped by WW2, it doesn't have all that much to do with the war itself - it just provides a convenient excuse for the plot).

This series of novels actually provides a lot of idea fodder for gaming. The "Blackhearts" are all convicted felons of one stripe or another, and have been given the choice of death for their crimes or (probable) death in service to the Empire. To keep such villains "honest", their blood is laced with a magical poison that can kill them from afar if they simply run off into hiding, ensuring that they'll perform their duty rather than slink away and go into hiding.

This is the third omnibus of Warhammer World fantasy fiction I've read, along with the two omnibuses from the Gotrek and Felix series. The Warhammer World is very traditionalist "fantasy" with orcs and goblins and elves and dragons and dwarves and lizardmen etc. etc., but there's enough going on to keep it fairly fresh and interesting to anyone new to the setting. The two major deviances that I can think of are the involvement of the Chaos Gods and how Chaos affects the world, and the relatively high technology level of the Empire and Dwarven kingdoms - both cultures make extensive use of steam power and firearms. I know that firearms are a point of much contention among many gamers, who think that allowing even the most primitive of firearms into their fantasy campaign means that a few sessions later, their PC's next goblin-hunting expedition is going to look like this:



Anyhow, miniguns and whatnot aside, this idea strikes me as an interesting one for a short campaign, or at least an arc within an existing campaign. The PCs get convicted for crimes they didn't (or did, who knows) commit, and they're offered either death by the noose or a chance, however slim, of survival by "volunteering" for what would essentially be a suicide mission. How the PCs pull off the mission would be mostly up to them, and the real "adventure" could be trying to find some means of escaping from their sentence, backdropped by the actual mission they've been tasked to perform.

Some players might grouch that this is a form of "railroading" that most heinous of gamer crimes, but I don't realllllly see it that way. Yes, it is something of a contrived premise, but once the situation is set up, how the PCs handle their situation can vary wildly. Do they play ball with their captors and try to do what they are asked in the hopes that they are freed at the end, or do they immediately try to find some way of escaping their mission and gaining their freedom? You can play it a lot of different ways, and the scenario can provide a lot of role-play as well as adventure (one of the things Long notes in his introduction is that his characters win through as often or more often by trickery and guile as they do by force of arms - a perfect balance of situations and solutions for a good PC adventuring party).

Hrmmm, I think I see a Campaign in A Bottle forming up nicely.

New James Bond = Old School Gaming?

Since I'll be seeing Quantum of Solace tonight, I thought it was only appropriate to make today's post Bond related. I'm a big fan of the Bond movies and I also enjoyed the novels when I was younger (and some day I'll re-read them once I re-stock my collection).

Bond and Gaming go very well together. Heck, there is/was a James Bond 007 RPG put out in the 80's and although I've heard good and bad things about it, the overall impression I get is that, for a media tie-in RPG, it wasn't terrible. For me, the cool gadgets, adventures, cinematic (duh) fight scenes, stunts, and villains all smack of gaming, but I do think that it's definitely not "Old School" gaming - there's definitely a plot, the PC is pretty much indestructible, and gadgets and gear (read: magic items) play almost as much a part in the success of the venture as the PC's abilities themselves. There's also the obvious "PC script re-writes" in order to pull off getting the hero out of an impossible situation (as so well parodied in the Austin Powers movies), which is something that has made it's way into many "new" RPGs in the form of Plot/Hero/Fate/ Points that allow the PC to re-roll failures or even let the Player guide the course of events to save their PC from certain doom. This kind of Bond movie, I think, hit its zenith in the Roger Moore era, which were by far the campiest of the Bond films, and I think it only added to the camp factor and the overall impression that Moore was one of the weaker Bond actors.

And so this brings us to the "new" era of Bond - the Bond Reboot. I've got no real problem with this, and after Casino Royale, I was sold. If Quantum of Solace does suck, I'll be sure to update this post and profess my error, but I think in making a more fallible Bond, a more human Bond, one who gets defeated, who gets the crap kicked out of him (Casino Royale torture scene, anyone? Ouch!), we're getting back to a more "Old School" character, one who can and will suffer defeat, who must pick his fights, and win not through gadgets and clever (or implausible) scriptwriting, but sheer guts, determination, blood, and sweat. I think this is a good thing, and would like to hear some comments from people as to whether they agree or disagree.

To cap off the post, I'll put in an embad of one of my favorite scenes from the last Pierce Brosnan Bond movie, Die Another Day. I thought it was his best Bond movie, and although I don't think he was anywhere near as good a "real" bond as Connery or Craig, I thought he was pretty decent. And, it's always amusing to see people kick the crap out of each other and break stuff (oh, if only I could have gotten away with this during my fencing classes...).

So, enjoy!

Masakari's Review of StarSIEGE

My friend Masakari has recently picked up the StarSIEGE boxed set, and as a favor to me I asked him if he'd be willing to do a guest posting here and review the game for me. I've been gaming with M for going on 12 years now, and this guy is an Idea Machine. Maybe, just maybe, I can convince him to share some of his other works here if we can get some positive feedback, but for now, here's his review of StarSIEGE...

********************

A bit of background: I've been playing roleplaying games for 24 years now. Systems I've played include D&D (from Mentzer's "red box" Basic Set through 3.5), GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, Rolemaster, Mage: The Ascension, Castles & Crusades, the Basic Fantasy RPG, and a host of homebrew systems.

Most recently, I've picked up Troll Lord Games' StarSIEGE: Event Horizon.

THE CONTENTS
* The Operations Manual: A 44-page GM's guide detailing the basic mechanics of the SIEGE system (movement, combat, skill rolls, etc.). Also covers the details behind science fiction-specific game elements such as mutations, psychic powers, and equipment/alien/world building.

* 4 Field Manuals: A 28-page player's guide, covering character creation. Includes simple equipment and powers lists.

* 4 Broadsheets: A "cheat sheet" for the GM, a character sheet, and construction record sheets for worlds and starships.

* "Victory: 2442": A 24-page sample campaign setting. Leaning towards the harder/grittier end of pulp sci-fi, this sourcebook describes what's left of the Terran Sector following a short, bloody three-way interstellar war.

* 2 d20: the only dice you'll need to play the game.

PRODUCTION VALUES
The physical quality of the material struck me as quite good. The box was sturdy and issue-free, and the manuals in good condition. Including four copies of the player's guide was an interesting touch - between that and the dice, it's a very complete package.

(Idle speculation: I wonder if they couldn't have cut the height of the box in half if they'd skimped on including the dice and extra manuals - maybe used something the size of TSR's old Al-Qadim or Dark Sun sourceboxes? While this might have compromised the "completeness" of the package, I wonder how much it might have saved in production costs.)

While Troll Lord Games has a reputation for shoddy editing, I've discovered very few editing glitches so far, mostly odd spacings of statblocks in the text and a missing subtitle on the spaceship creation broadsheet.

The artwork is black and white, but varied and well done. I found it fresh, but still very evocative of 80's-era sci-fi gaming products.

ORGANIZATION
I've found the placement of various rules to be somewhat haphazard; the lack of an index or table of contents doesn't help, either. That said, the booklets are small enough that hunting for answers hasn't eaten much of my time.

MECHANICS
The name and function of the basic character attributes are different from the usual D&D/C&C counterparts, but make sense in context. (For example, that old standby "Charisma" has been replaced with "Confidence", an attribute covering a character's social influence, ego, willpower, and resistance to psychic stress). Instead of using a 3-18 score, attributes are defined solely by their modifiers, which range from -4 to +4 (0 being average). Attribute values can be generated using a d20 (the default) or 3d6.

If you're familiar with the SIEGE engine introduced in Castles & Crusades, you won't have much of a learning curve here. One thing that HAS changed, however, is the use of "skill bundles" to determine a character's primes, rather than their basic attributes. Characters have a relatively short list of skill bundles to choose from (such as "Combat", "Mechanics", "Environmental", "Awareness", etc.); GMs are encouraged to tailor this list to taste.

In addition to skill bundles, StarSIEGE introduces "specialties" - essentially a grainier skill system. Characters can use XP to buy up bonuses in specific tasks. For example, a character could beef up their melee or unarmed combat bonuses over shooting, or specialize in particular scientific or engineering disciplines.

StarSIEGE introduces a number of character scores and rules for handling cybernetics, psychic powers, custom-built alien races, mutations, and tech levels. Depending on how much the GM wants to allow, supernatural power levels may range from low/rare/dangerous (e.g. "mutations" = cancer, and "cybernetics" = a wheelchair or a hook for a hand) all the way up to four-color comic-book superhero levels a la X-Men.

Interestingly enough, StarSIEGE allows GMs to build planets in much the same way characters are built. Planets have attributes, a collection of descriptive scores (such as population, tech, and wealth levels), and a collection of "facilities" that grant bonuses to interplanetary interactions. This opens up interesting possibilities for subgames involving interplanetary war, trade, and diplomacy. ("Birthright in Space", anyone?)

The existing equipment and psi-power lists are sparse, but cover a good baseline variety of basic sci-fi gear and abilities. This sparseness is largely due to the part of the StarSIEGE mechanics that has gripped me most to date: the Trappings system. This is an extremely flexible point-based toolkit for designing gadgets (anything from a knife to a starship), special powers, and racial abilities.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
As a fan of GURPS and D20 Modern, I really like the look of this game. Many elements (such as specialties, credit ratings, and the trappings system) strike me as very reminiscent of elements in GURPS and D20 Modern/Future, but far, far simpler in execution.

Organizational issues aside, I find StarSIEGE's rules extremely straightforward and easy to understand. I haven't yet had a single "What does this mean?!" moment regarding any rules questions - at least, not one lasting more than 30 seconds before finding the appropriate ruling in the books.

While the core system is simple, there are TONS of optional rules scattered throughout the booklets to keep things interesting (or, in some cases, make things more familiar). Want to know how many hit points your character has? Here's how to replace the core wound track system with hit dice. Like the feel of money in your pocket? Here's how to convert credit ratings into dollar values. Using specialties is too complicated? Here's how to dump them without needing to rebalance the entire game. Want to play a grizzled veteran who fights with a pair of pistols? Here's how....

Given the kinds of powers and tech one can model, it also strikes me that StarSIEGE would be an excellent system for running a variety of quick and dirty games outside of the sci-fi genre - for example, a low-to-no-magic modern-day or historical game. (Maybe territory close to that covered by the likes of Call of Cthulhu?) The toolkit nature of the system makes it extremely easy (if admittedly time consuming) to roll your own setting, and I can think of bunches of off-kilter character concepts that could work under StarSIEGE's framework.

THE VERDICT
StarSIEGE is a simple yet extremely flexible rules system, easily capable of modeling a huge variety of gaming genres (sci-fi and otherwise). Given what you can do with the materials provided and a little imagination, it's a steal at $30.

********************

Thanks again Masakari for a very detailed review. Questions, comments anybody?

Paintballs & Polyhedrons

I've always found it interesting that RPGs, taken as a whole, usually revolve around a great deal of combat, be it fantasy, science fiction, historical, or modern-day. But at the same time the people who play them (with some notable exceptions) are working on no practical "combat" experience. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, of course - I certainly have no desire to go get run through with a sword or hosed with a Thompson just so I can make my gaming experience more real - but I am a proponent of having a little real-world experience under your belt when it comes to various gaming-related activities. Little things like:

Taking fencing lessons.
Taking martial arts classes.
Visiting a real cave complex
Visiting a real castle (or the nearest equivalent you can get to).
Going horseback riding.
Going camping (without all the amenities).
Going rock climbing (with the amenities, please - be safe).

This list could go on forever. Anyhow, my point is, it's always helpful to have a little practical experience with activities your characters might engage in. This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to do this to make your games more "realistic", but it will help you picture things in your mind, and give you more idea fodder.

Where am I going with this (hint: read the post title)? This weekend, me and three of my friends went to play paintball. It was my first time (two of the other guys had each gone once before), and I was interested to see what it was like. I won't bore you all with tales of me and my friends hosing 12 year olds with paintballs, or the elusive bandanna-clad Paintball Ninja who stalked us relentlessly (and who is now our sworn nemesis), or the climactic showdown where friend fought against friend to the bitter finale (when we all ran out of paintballs).

But what I would like to mention is, if you have the chance, go do it. If for no other reason than to feel that rush of adrenaline as you get shot at and shoot back in turn (without actually worrying about dying, of course). Below are few things you will quickly discover. Also note, as a favor to me, friend and fellow blogger Darkwing of the Arcadia Prime Blog was there with me (and has played paintball before) and offers up some comments of his own (which I've put into italics).

1. Suppressive fire really does work. When you're pinned down behind a log or a rock or a barrel and you can hear and see shots smacking into the cover and all around you, zipping over your head or past your eyes as you try to take a peek, you really do not feel like getting up and exposing yourself. Even when you know it's just a game and the paintballs just deliver a little sting when they hit, instinctually you just do not want to put yourself in the line of fire. After experiencing that, I'd be more than willing to make in-game rulings that NPCs (or PCs) who aren't "fearless" (like a golem, or dragon, or zombie) need to take some sort of Morale check in order to move out of cover when they're subject to some sort of "suppressive fire". I'm sure you could modify it for, say, having heavy armor, or a large shield, or some other protection that means you're more confident it won't hurt you, but i think it's just plain old hindbrain self-preservation instinct that keeps you behind that protection.

2. Sometimes, you just need to advance. One thing we quickly discovered is that while most players would immediately run for cover and hunker down at the start of the game, the veterans never did this - they would calmly and coolly advance towards the opposition, firing steadily to pin the other team down and take out anyone they could draw a bead on. This meant they weren't wasting time hiding, and they were already in a position to take down anyone who poked their head up since they already had their gun up and seeking targets (and also, they can follow where people went when they ran for cover). This move also caused the opposition to hesitate and there was a bit of an "Oh crap!" moment when they poke their heads out from cover and realize that the enemy isn't cowering behind some cover 30 yards away, but Right In Their Face with the muzzle of the paintgun looking like the mouth of a cannon, right before said surprised opponent catches one right between the eyes. Again, after experiencing this, I'd be willing to grant a PC who took the initiative and made a bold and unexpected frontal assault on an enemy position (ok, not a castle perhaps, but you know, a few guys hunkering down behind a stone wall or wagon) the chance to either automatically gain initiative against his foes, or perhaps have them simply stunned and unable to act that round.

3. Sometimes, the battlefield is not your friend. If you're in a fight in the middle of the woods, there's rocks, roots, branches, piles of slick leaves, mud, pools of water - all sorts of things that can turn your foot or catch you unawares. I'm typically not one of those anal retentive GMs who gets a (not so secret sometimes) thrill out of imposing movement penalties or ability checks / saving throws for characters to move quickly through terrain without mishap. But, believe me, taking a pleasant stroll through some rock-strewn wilderness, swishing through the autumn leaves and lazily squishing through a bit of mud here and there is a whole different experience than charging through the same terrain full tilt, with your vision obscured, exhausted and adrenalized and being shot at from all sides, with your weapon in your hand that you're trying to avoid smacking against every obstacle you come across or get clogged with dirt and mud if you stumble and fall. I'd say that if all a character wanted to do is cover ground, then fine - go ahead and move your distance. But if there's going to be moving and shooting or moving into melee with a foe who sees you coming, you might need to take a test to see if you can get there without mishap. Otherwise you might get there, but in no position to actually accomplish your goal.

One thing that I'll add is the Fog of War. Ahead of each game, we'd try to make plans and try something coordinated, and remind each other to communicate. As soon as the game starts though, you find yourself under fire and you get in cover. You look around, and suddenly you think "Where the hell did everyone go?" When you and your teammates are in cover, it's hard to see what's going on. You know you're under fire, and you might have an idea where it's coming from, but as long as your head is down, you can't see a damn thing. You have no idea if the enemy is just sniping at you or advancing on your position. In rpg terms, this could be represented by making a "Situational Awareness" check or something similar. If you're hiding behind good cover, you may be impossible to hit, but you also have no clue what's going on around you. So while taking cover is definitely a good thing, you don't want to let it dominate your actions to such a degree that you lose sight of the tactical situation.

Anyhow, I think that's all for now. It's food for gaming thought. Questions, Comments?

Friday Ramblings

Just a quick post today - it's been a busy week. I just made myself one of those little banner ads you can place in .sigs and the like. Sometimes having access to design software at work can be very nice. Nothing special or flashy, but I think it looks nice:





I've been contemplating this blog - I'm still having fun with it and there's more that I have to say, but I'm trying to decide whether it needs a stronger "voice" or "direction" or, in the end, if it's best to leave it as more of a catch-all of my gaming/sci-fi/fantasy ramblings.

I know a number of my readers belong to the RPG Bloggers Network - what do you all think of it? I've considered applying, but for whatever reason, it just feels too "establishment" to me. I don't feel like this blog adheres to one "camp" or another, and while I think that's ok, I also think it might limit my readership.

So for better or for worse, anyone think of anything I could write about or do here that they'd like to see? I have thought of asking a few of my gaming buddies to do guest posts - one of my friends recently acquired StarSiege, loves it, and has actually written a program that generates equipment using it's "trappings" rules. There's also Darkwing, who guest-posted on From The Warp this week, and I wouldn't mind having him write a guest spot here.

One other note - tonight me and a bunch of my friends are going to go and see My Name Is Bruce, with The Man Himself attending the screening and doing a Q&A. It should be a rockin' time. it pains me when I mention Bruce Campbell to college kids these days and I just get a blank stare - back when I was in college, Army of Darkness was a frequent late-night dorm room movie.

Quick update - I've re-worked the mini-banner to go with the new title font. I think it looks pretty sweet.

A Weapons List From Scratch (or not?)

Assume you're building a RPG from scratch. It's a generic fantasy / historical RPG that should be able to handle melee and mechanical/muscle weapons from Ancient Egypt to, say, just before the beginning of the true Gunpowder era (so exlude arquebuses, cannon, etc.). The list should be culture-generic and the weapons should be themselves as generic as possible.

So my question is, what would your weapons list look like, if you were trying to cover such a time period, be culturally generic, and yet, at the same time, you're trying to have SOME degree of detail (so it's not just "small, medium, and large weapons"). How big would your list be? A dozen weapons? Two dozen? Half a dozen?

Off the top of my head...

- Knife ^
- Short Sword
- Long Sword
- Great Sword
- Hand Axe
- Battle Axe
- Club
- Mace
- Warhammer
- Flail ^
- Spear
- Javelin
- Staff ^
- Lance
- Polearm ^
- Pike ^
- Short Bow
- Long Bow
- Crossbow
- Sling

To a greater or lesser degree, what you get is the "Classic D&D weapons list" (or at least something pretty close to the list) that I remember from the Big Black Box that was my introduction to RPGs, and specifically, D&D.

If you ask me, the vast, VAST majority of weapons fall into this list in one fashion or another. Sure, you can expand this here or there (polearms, anyone?) or vie for "bigger/smaller" versions of some of these (warhammer vs. maul, mace vs. morning star, etc.), but by and large, I think it's pretty good.

So, what're your thoughts? Are there weapons missing from the above list that you consider "must haves"? Any other alterations you'd want to see?

Update: I've just gone in and did a little editing. I added Flail and Pike, and changed a few of the names a little (all new/edited entries have a ^ in front of them). This brings our list to 20 weapons. How's it look?

Writers and Gaming

I just stumbled across this article. Short, and I've heard some of these people talk about writing and gaming before (especially China Mieville), but it's a pretty interesting read nonetheless. I must admit at times I can't tell if I'm a wannabe adventure writer who likes to play and run RPGs, or if I'm an RPG hobbyist who likes to try his hand at fiction every so often. I'm sure a lot of other gamers fall into a similar quandary.

Anyhow, here's the article: Of Dice and Men: Modern Fantasists and the Influence of Role-Playing Games.