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Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

deadly_pudding posted:

Needs to be Mage canon. Just keep it all the same, except NWO is a bunch of edgy heel wrestlers in matching t-shirts. The players who don't get super mad and walk out as soon as Hollywood Hogan emerges from the black helicopter are the players you want to keep around :3:

I'd actually play Mage in that setting.

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Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Kurieg posted:

Do the Tanuki have gigantic shapeshifting scrotums?

If not my immersion is broken...:colbert:

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
I like the fact that UM is so London-centric. It's a game where the setting is the game. It is also the most nihilistic game I've ever seen though, and that's why I can't recommend it. There has to be some dash of hope or achievement possible. That more than clockwork, steam, tophats, and concentrating on London is what kills it for me.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Cooked Auto posted:

Simple, no one outside of Europe gives a drat about Scandinavia aside from occasionally being a place where it's really cold and people talk with funny accents and that aren't Italy/France/Germany/Russia. :v:
Same goes with the gods, no one cares about the rest of the asatru gods except Odin and Thor.
(:sweden:)

:sweden::respek::sweden:

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Egregious Offences posted:


Part One: Introduction
Mongoose Traveller, that is!

So, what's the difference? Not much. MT takes the old system, makes a few tweaks and leaves the game's traditional feel and aesthetic unmarred. Fans of the original system (well, that I know) like it, and it stays within the standard universe that the original game was in (Third Imperium, pre-Rebellion).


I am an Classic Traveller fan (surprise surprise), and I think Mongoose's version is excellent.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

theironjef posted:

Something slightly different, my goon buddy and I review old dead RPGs as a podcast. We just put up episode 11, which is covering Haven - City of Violence. Check it out if you're bored at work, especially for the batshit Skyrealms of Jorune and Ghostbusters RPG systems.

http://systemmasterypodcast.com/2014/01/22/system-mastery-11-haven-city-of-violence/



Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa:supaburn: Keep that toxic poo poo away from me you son of a bitch!

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
It gets better, this is Louis and what he loves...




I have met Louis and he talks and acts exactly how you expect him too...

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
Sweet Jesus I know...

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
Hey, he upgraded to d20 Modern! http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse.php?cPath=1308_576

Guys? Guys?

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
All his stuff is hackwork to be honest. He's up there with Gary Skarka in the full of themselves and clueless gamedev hall of fame.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Egregious Offences posted:

Wikipedia breaks it down pretty well: Classic Traveller, MegaTraveller and Mongoose Traveller use the system I described in my post, Traveller TNE (the new era) uses some weird d20 roll under system, and Traveller 4 and Traveller 5 use a roll under system where you roll more d6s to change the difficulty. Then there's GURPS and HERO Traveller, who use their respective systems.

TNE uses the same system Twilight:2000 2.0, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs RPG, and Dark Conspiracy used.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

50 Foot Ant posted:

Christ, Twilight 2000.

A lovely game where your character could die or end up crippled by radiation/chemical exposure before even character generation was over.

That was 1st edition and Traveller would just squash you like a bug...

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
Traveller has some of the best PC Alien races from any game in terms of interesting backgrounds. Plus the most dangerous to humans race is not the one you think.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
The biggest problem with WLD is that it could have been so much better. I'm sure a lot of us reading these write-ups are going well that could have been fixed this way or that way. This is shovelware pure and simple. Hustle up a map and throw poo poo down. Don't actually plan how things interact. It's kind of sad actually.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Rockopolis posted:

Well, it was either Tekumél, Blue Planet or this, and the Traveller F&F inspired me to pick this for my very first Fatal and Friends.
I've got pretty much every splat or scenario pdf.

Once I finish the last write up for V&V I was thinking about doing Blue Planet.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

MadScientistWorking posted:

The one thing that really surprised me about the version of Blue Planet I played was that for as scientifically accurate* as it is supposed to be the Fantasy Flight version of the game is remarkably light.

*Haven't read it at all so I can't remark.

I've run both versions. The 2nd Edition is very playable and combat is pretty drat fast.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Fossilized Rappy posted:

Awesome stuff...

Pykrete as a magical material? That is fantastic... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habbakuk

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
I can't hate UM. The concept is just too cool. I'm even fine with the Anglo-centricness of it and the continuation of Victorian values and tech all the way into the future. It's not a good game by any means, but it's not rubbish either.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Snorb posted:

I don't know too much about it either, but from what I gather, each various incarnation of Buck Rogers-- the 1920s/30s newspaper comic, the TV show with Gil Gerard and Erin Gray, TSR's XXVc setting and, to go full circle, High Adventure Cliffhangers-- is more or less a reimagining/continuity reboot. Sure, there's Buck, and Wilma, and most of the recurring characters, but the sci-fi aspect covers different terrain in each various incarnation.

You know, this is making me want to actually do a writeup for HAC.

High Adventure Cliffhangers is beat by beat the original comic strip. It's actually kind of neat too. I thought I had done a post describing it's combat system, but I guess I hadn't.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Grnegsnspm posted:

I figured I should also come say hi at some point. I'm the other guy in the podcast and the one that does the movie reviews and gaming articles for the site. Glad some of you have been enjoying our goofy bullshit. This thread continually gives me things I want to review for upcoming podcasts (Aletheia in particularly looks awesomely batshit loco) and if you guys have any suggestions for some good/terrible out of print games we should do, let us know. There are only so many things we can find in the FLGS' used bargain bin.

I have a ton of obscure/out of print stuff. What genre or themes are you looking for?

Also with the guests question...

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Hulk Smash! posted:

Here's the damage chart from Living Steel which is based on Phoenix Command, for comparison.

Click for big:


I ran all four of Leading Edge games systems (Phoenix Command, Aliens RPG, Living Steel, and Army of Darkness) at one time or another. Aliens RPG was easily the most playable set of their rules.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Calde posted:

Oh Monsterhearts, fantastic. I am incredibly interested in how it does social influence stuff, since I have heard it is the rare RPG to get it very, very right.

You should check out Hillfolk. Robin Laws made a game that is nothing but social interaction and influence.

Robin Laws posted:

Why This Game Exists
Scenes in stories can be divided into two categories: procedural and dramatic.
In a procedural scene, the characters confront and overcome external obstacles. They fight opponents, conduct chases, investigate mysteries, explore
unfamiliar environments, and so on. When they succeed by talking to others, it is by negotiating with characters who exert no particular emotional hold
over them, over practical matters.

In a dramatic scene, the main characters confront internal obstacles, seeking emotional reward from people they care deeply about, for good or ill.
Historically, roleplaying games have concentrated on procedural action, giving short shrift to dramatic interplay. They’re based on adventure genres, which
focus on the external over the internal.

When scenes that ought to be dramatic arise in the typical roleplaying game session, they tend to start strongly, but rapidly stall out. Players whose
characters find themselves in conflict with one another typically dig in, refusing to relent. They do this because they don’t want their characters to lose, and because they believe that, by sticking to their guns, they’re doing what their characters would do in real life. Story momentum grinds to a halt as the exchange reaches an impasse.

In real life, though, when we enter into emotional disputes with people we care about, we sometimes relent and sometimes dig in. That’s because we need emotional rewards from the people in our lives. Fictional dramatic scenes have long observed and replicated this pattern. DramaSystem observes and replicates those basic techniques. This is a game of drama that works the way fictional dramas do.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
Sean Lang, the writer of the SF RPG, was in my old gaming group in Baltimore.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

theironjef posted:

Was he awesome? Because whoever eschewed the standard White Wolf theater of the mind combat for that hex grid no-accuracy system had to have been pretty awesome.

He took a world of poo poo from his editor because his version of combat 'wasn't theatrical enough.'

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Evil Mastermind posted:

Yeah, but good luck getting your hands on a copy. :(

I have dead tree versions of both 1st and 2nd Edition Armageddon...:smuggo:

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Syrg Sapphire posted:

Got it. Updated appropriately, thanks for the heads up.


Oh man oh man oh man, I never knew there was a Dune RPG.

There were something like a 1000-1500 copies printed and sold at Gencon 2000? It has some really horrible mechanics, but the Minor House design and party creation work well.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

LatwPIAT posted:

I saw some posts earlier in this thread talking about the horrors of Phoenix Command and Living Steel. Would there be interests in doing a commentary on Phoenix Command and its derivatives? I'm actually quite fond of the system in spite of its major flaws, so I would perhaps not mock it as relentlessly as other people might, but I imagine myself as having a fairly deep understanding of how it actually works and what absolutely hilarious interactions there are in the rules. I could write mockingly about that, at least.

Like how smarter people run faster, or how putting scopes on a rifle will make it more accurate when fired from the hip. Or just how incredibly poorly written some of the rules are.

Or more pointlessly detailed things like how the creators created an incredibly detailed system for modelling firearms ballistics, and then made up numbers because their favourite guns didn't feel right...

Would there be any interest?

I have run all the LEG games (Phoenix Command, Living Steel, Aliens, and Army of Darkness) I love the games because they have some of the most batshit decisions and staggering amounts of math combined.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Halloween Jack posted:

I presume you shot an alien, then you shot another alien, then an alien killed you? And there was a lot of looking up rules involved in this process?

I was in one which was more USCM doing things like hostage rescue on Mars. It was pretty fun. The Aliens RPG system is a much simpler version of the Phoenox Command base rules.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

theironjef posted:

We talk about that, but I was mostly outing him as the author of Rifts: Underseas and Rifts: South America, since those go off the rails in some extremely crazy ways. To be honest, Underseas might just be my favorite Rifts book, since I love the idea of a single aircraft carrier becoming an insular post-apocalypse society. Of course it's Rifts, so you get that idea and then immediately torpedo it by making the ship a giant ultra-boat that is totally invincible so there's no perceived threats or anything. Just like a floating Chi-Town. Oh, they're lost in the wilderness, a bastion of reactionary society fighting for their very lives, with their impenetrable defenses, impregnable armor, and one million suits of power armor! Fear for them! Still though, PC whales, power armor designed to give sharks legs, and pirates that raid dreams. Best Rifts book? Maybe!

I can't speak for the other guy, but as with any game that has one, my problem with Buffy was a lovely merits/flaws system. Bonus character creation if you promise to tell a lot of bad jokes! Same for if you promise not to! Plus a bunch of drawbacks that effectively constitute a game of long-form chicken with your storyteller. "Will this be the week you dump on me for my lovely flaw choices? Will this be the week that you're an rear end in a top hat DM?" type stuff.

I didn't agree with a lot of your opinions from that Buffy review. The main issue is that the players and ref really need to know the game universe. If you don't, a lot of the decisions that were made seem really silly.

The merits/flaws work fine if you treat them as '10 Free Bonus Points with an excuse'. If you just gave 10 points to assign to either Qualities or skills I bet you wouldn't have had as much of a problem with them.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
Yeah Underground used the DC Heroes(Mayfair) rules which they expanded on in Blood of Heroes. Logs were the only way to keep Green Arrow and Superman on the same tables.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
jef, I'm still trying to figure out why you guys actually like any of the Palladium games. Some variation on Stockholm Syndrome maybe?

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
Like I said. I have an insane collection of RPGs (I've scanned a lot of them as well) and would love to guest commentate.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

theironjef posted:

Don't feel too bad, I still have a podcast floating around where we basically guess that the guy who wrote Haven: City of Violence is a huge racist, so you're at least better than I am, morally.

Louis Porter is a mega-douche so you're indignation is still partially valid.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Young Freud posted:

Pondsmith has had actual inserts or references. "Listen Up, You Primitive Screwheads!" has an entire back-section where Mad Mike in his cyberpunk trenchcoat is setting up landmines and acid traps. There's also the Paranoia supplement "Alice Through The Mirrorshades" where a game designer, Mike Puddleforge, who is described as having cracked black skin like the covers of his cyberpunk game he's burning for warmth, attacks the time-travelling troubleshooters because they're ruining his vision of the future.

He's an interesting dude. I remember when me and a friend where playtesting CPv3.0 and we went out to the now-defunct Sal's Taco Lounge for dinner and watched Ice Pirates on the TV screens. Supposedly, he grew up in Oakland and told us about him carrying a knife for defense back then.

mll used to write for him.


gently caress this doubleposting stupidity.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Alien Rope Burn posted:

[So, then, what's the difference between a demon and a god?

Branding :colbert:

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
Six Guns and Sorcery goes over North America extremely thoroughly for Castle Falkenstein. There are some wonderful bits including who Norton's right hand man is.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
GURPS Falkenstein had an Ottoman Empire sourcebook too.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

theironjef posted:

I think it's overcompensation. Furries are largely an afterthought in this book. I never thought I'd want more furries.

Dear God...

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Alien Rope Burn posted:

I have to wonder: has there ever been a good game about pirates? Particularly one with good rules for sailing and boats?

Flashing Blades, Privateers and Gentlemen, 50 Fathoms...

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Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Alien Rope Burn posted:

7th Sea is a real mixed bag. It differentiates itself from other swashbuckling games by not being entirely horrible, but has a lot of bizarre design decisions, like "Making the setting so you can walk anywhere that matters and never really need a boat" or "We've been there before? gently caress sailing, I'm French, I can teleport".

It can be pretty cool if you take a hammer to it. The boat rules are poo poo, though.


I'm not too familiar with the first two! Never was that enamored with Savage Worlds' vehicle rules, but at least it puts in the effort? Don't know if 50 Fathoms does anything better with them.

Privateers and Gentlemen and Flashing Blades were published by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU). I did a mostly finished review of their Villains and Vigilantes so maybe I should do Flashing Blades?

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