Backing Up The Bandwagon

I noticed that most of the other bloggers who partook in this particular excercise included video games and board games as well as RPGs. When I approached this list of 15 games that jump immediately into mind without thinking about it too much, none of them fit into those categories.

I'm a tried and true RPG fan and while I've played and enjoyed other types of games, they have less of an impact or influence on what I do now than one would think. If I did consider it a bit more I could add the following games as influences off the top of my head...

Chess
World of Warcraft
Monopoly
Phantasy Star (series)
Final Fantasy (series)
Pictionary
Boggle
Missile Command (old Atari)
Defender (Arcade)
Virtual-On (Sega Arcade and Console)

The thing is, I don't really play any board games anymore and I rarely play computer games. Both just take time away from things I'd rather be doing live playing RPGs, working on RPGs, reading books, reading comics, watching Anime or drawing. We pick and choose our entertainment based on how much enjoyment it brings us and thus how much impact it has on us. And isn't that the point of the excerise?

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Barking Alien

Bandwagon Joined

So the mighty menagerie of RPG bloggers has latched on to a new meme entitled "15 Games in 15 Minutes". The concept is simple: List 15 games that influence you and always stick with you in 15 minutes. Easier said than done. I can't think of only fifteen of anything. If you asked for my first hundred I'd have an easier time.

That said this should be fun. Here goes in no particular order...

1. Star Wars D6
2. Teenagers from Outer Space
3. Star Trek, FASA
4. Star Trek, LUG
5. Mekton
6. Fairy Tale Deluxe
7. InSpectres
8. Traveller
9. Mutants & Masterminds
10. Ars Magica
11. Toon
12. Paranoia
13. Champions
14. Land of Og
15. Changeling: The Dreaming

Others that popped into my head while writing this list (which took just under 5 minutes) include DC Heroes by Mayfair, World of Darkness by White Wolf, Monsters and Other Childish Things, Shadowrun, Ghostbusters by WEG, Space Opera, Villains & Vigilantes, Wares Blade, Yuuyake Koyake, MAID RPG, Metal Head, Risus, Star Frontiers, Gamma World and...oh yeah, 'D' and Something.

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Barking Alien

By Grabthar's Hammer, We Live to Tell The Tale

Continuing with the details of my homebrewed Galaxy Quest RPG, the next thing on the discussion block is the player characters' Species or Template (haven't really decided what to call them and I flip flop between the two names on a regular basis).

Humans are the stars and begin the game with a Star Power of 1...Wait. Maybe I should talk about Star Power before Species.

So each PC starts the game with a Hero Point/Drama Point thingie similar to the old Force Point in West End Games' Star Wars RPG called Star Power. PCs can spend Star Power Points to double the final result of their next roll (hit, skill roll, even damage). The problem is, as anyone who has played Teenagers from Outer Space can tell you, sometimes getting too high a result can backfire on you big time. Heheh...

All the 'Jobs' start the game with a Star Power of 2 except the Commander who gets 3 and the Security Officer who gets 0. That's right, zero. Remember he's not a star, he's an extra.

Now, if the character is Human he or she at least starts with a Star Power of 1. So a Human Commander begins with a 4 in Star Power. Star Power may be awarded much like Hero Points in other games, for exemplary role playing, innovative thinking, etc. Experience Points (called Fan Mail) can also be used to purchase Star Power.

Now more on Templates...Species...Blast! Anyway, the Human Template begins with a plus 1 to any one Attribute and three skills at 3 points each for free: Culture, Trivia and an Athletic/Gaming/Sport skill. Each of these must be defined and they add to that quirkiness that all seemingly plain, vanilla Humans seem to have on their off duty hours. So for example, Old America, Antiques and Horseback Riding or 3-D chess would be right up the alley of the commanding officer from that other show that is so obviously a copy of Galaxy Quest. Please, don't get me started.

The Background Alien is an alien from a well established ally world or one that is seen in the background often. These can not be the 'only-one-of-my-kind' types or 'we've-never-encountered-your-species-before' deals. We know these guys. They're well established. Background Aliens choose three species related Alien Abilities, each at a rank of 3. In my game an NPC named Lt. Lilith appeared who was of the same species as Dr. Lazarus from the 'original' Galaxy Quest series (the Mak'Tars of Tev'Mek). She has The Mak'Tar Stealth Haze, knows the Mak'Tar Chant of Strength and the Healing Hands of Ipthar. These are all at rank 3. She can not gain new Alien Abilities and can not really loose these. She can of course improve these like any other skill.

The Prodigy is an unusual individual with ability and potential beyond the norm. Maybe she's an Android or a pre-academy age genius. The Prodigy gains a plus 3 to any one Attribute and a free plus 3 to any one skill. Unfortunately, many people are uncomfortable around the Prodigy and she may encounter prejudice. Maybe they don't feel a mechanoid is an effective officer or that she is too young to pilot a starship. Maybe they found out about the genetic engineering that gave her her advantages. Whatever the case, the Prodigy is the person you know you need but don't always want.

Last is my personal favorite, the Token Alien. Usually the Token Alien is from a species rarely seen, thought extinct, newly encountered, or perhaps they just don't often join the NSEA Fleet. The Token Alien can, once per session, come up with an Alien Ability reasonable for its species. The ability is at a rating of 3. Next session it is gone and you can come up with a new one. However, if you want to use the Alien Ability from a previous session again, you must roll to see if the writers of the show remember that you had that power. You must roll a D10 and add the most closely related Attribute. If you beat a 15 you can use the ability (once again at 3). Write its name down with a 1 next to it. The next time you want to use that ability you do the same thing but this time you can add the one and so on. If you use the same power in 5 separate sessions, roll as before and try to meet or beat a 20 (but remember, you now have a +5). If you do you get that ability permenantly.

My friend Allen's humanoid insect character has the ability to Communicate with Insects permenantly but has also evidenced limited Flight and the ability to Stick to Walls. Bare in mind that you can come up with a new ability in a session and than later in the same session try to use an ability you've used before. You simply can't come up with more than one brand new ability per session. I wanted to describe more about the adventure we ran and some other notes but that's all the time I have tonight.

Tell me what you think and I'll try to update you with more soon.

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Barking Alien


 

It's A Hell of A Thing

I can hardly believe that upon looking at the section of my blog that lists the tags, Galaxy Quest comes up only twice before this post. That is practically inconceivable.

For those of you unfamiliar with the film Galaxy Quest...what the heck is wrong with you? Do you not like to laugh? Are you afraid of humor, cool special effects, and space adventure television parody? Are you mad?!?

Ahem...where was I? Ah yes...

I love this movie. I think I've seen it more times than any other film with the exception of the original Muppet Movie (topping my list at 35 times...don't ask, big Muppets fan). As any good GM worth their salt will tell you, if you love something enough, you game it. The Muppets RPG is in the works I assure you.

Some years back (2003) I was going to my old gaming group's regular get together when something occurred the caused us to be unable to run our regularly scheduled campaign (I forget what). Jazzed to run something, anything (sometimes you just get in that mood) I created a Galaxy Quest game right there on the spot. The system was loosely based on Teenagers from Outer Space, though I made a number of changes and added special abilities for each 'Job' on the ship.

The Commander has Overdramatis Personae. He or she gets a progressively larger bonus for any action/roll which is overly dramatic or hammed up. The more overacted the higher the bonus essentially.

The Operations Officer has Cyberlingual Interface. They can talk to the computer. Anyone can use computer skill to get info from the computer but only the Operations officer and speak with it directly. This PC must repeat pertinent information the computer has said out loud. Information obtained in this way is often better than that obtained by normal computer skill use.

The Pilot or Helm Officer has The Moves. If an appropriate catchphrase is uttered out loud, the Pilot gains a bonus to any one maneuver or pilot related action including increasing speed and attacking ("Pedal to the Metal Commander!"). Each catchphrase can only be said once per adventure.

The Engineer chooses to be Old School or New School. Old School Engineers can develop new weapons, alter the ships abilities, etc. by explaining a complex action in the simplest terms possible. It should relate to something that is a common, everyday action or idea. The ability is called Plain English for now. A New School Engineer can do the same thing using Technobabble. One must give a fully detailed and convincing explanation of how they are going to reroute auxiliary power through the plasma manifold in order to create a chain reaction powerful enough to generate a temporary quantum rift.

The Science Officer comes with Know-It-All. In my opinion the scientist or science officer in a science fiction game should be pretty damn important. I mean, the name of the genre is in the guy's job description for pete's sake! So, to this end, Know-It-All is a very powerful ability. Basically, the Science Officer can use this ability to make a leap of judgement about what is happening in the game based on the information they have and try to convince the other players they know what they're talking about. If the rest of the crew believes the Science Officer the GM must include the data as facts in the adventure, even if they are way off base. That's right, with Know-It-All the Science Officer can literally alter the plot of the adventure.

Doctors get something similar to Engineers in that they can cure a disease, heal the wounded or counteract a poison in one of two ways. An Old Country Doctor can do it if he uses some crazy home remedy (Human or Alien), acupuncture and acupressure or even Voodoo magic. Modern Medical Doctors need to use the biology themed equivalent of technobabble and the most advanced medical technology available. Not that the Old Country Doctor has a penalty with those new fangled contraptions and the Modern Medical Doctor doesn't know any home remedies. He was probably raised by a hologram.

Last of the jobs and perhaps my favorite is Security. Security's ability is called Glorified Extra. You start with a bonus to all physical stats and combat skills but only able to take a single hit. Anything stronger than a punch from a Human and you're dead. You also start with the name 'Crewman'. If you fail to survive you roll up a new character named Crewman #2. If you survive, you get to take a second hit and become Crewman Jones (or Smith or Wicsowski or whatever you want). Survive a third adventure and you're Crewman 1st Class Jones. Surviving odd adventures gives you a rank. Suriving even adventures gets you a name. Each adventure survived gives you another hit you can take (all other characters have a fixed number of hits based on a stat that almost never changes).

Yeah, this is just the basics. Playable Species - referred to as Character Type - included Human, Token Alien, Background Alien, and Prodigy. Spaceship combat is largely cinematic with few rules of any kind. Action is fast, skills are both simple and classically science fiction-y (Energy Weapon, Computer, Pilot Starship, etc.).

In my next post I'll go into some more details about the game, the elements of the first adventure I ran and my ideas for my upcoming return to this awesome setting.

Never Give Up, Never Surrender,

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Barking Alien

Encounter Nominal

I recently had the rare opportunity to run a one shot game for a good friend and his group, the majority of whom I knew but never really gamed with before. I was filling in for their regular GM who was unable to make their scheduled game day. As the group favors action oriented, multi-genre craziness such as superheroes, RIFTS and the like, I thought I would go old school-that-never-was and run a session of the Encounter Critical, my first ever stab as this game. Be prepared...I'm gonna open up a big o'can of Old School Renaissance blasphemy...

Now if you are not familiar with this rpg, please take a moment to read up on it before continuing on with my little tale of fail as I do not wish to cloud your judgement or opinion. Furthermore I want to go on record by saying that the game's creator, the amazing S. John Ross, is a genius of the highest order (and a darn nice guy).

If you're finished with your travels, please continue...

OK, so it goes without saying that I'm always up for trying something new and different, even if that new and different thing is an old school game styled similarly to the RPGs of yore. I have found memories of Gamma World, Metamorphosis Alpha and Space Opera, three games that combined together would make a gumbo that would somewhat resemble Encounter Critical. Sorta. Kinda sorta. Wait...I can't quite, with 100% certainty, picture Encounter Critical. That is, I can't see Vanth. Hmm...this could present a problem. I know its kind of got a Masters of the Universe/Thundarr the Barbarian vibe but...I never liked Masters of the Universe.

Oh crap...what am I getting myself into?

The rules have some awesome concepts (every other game with a Ranger or Scout class should look at EC's Pioneer class and tremble. D&D should just flat out beg forgiveness for calling their Ranger a Ranger). I like how each class can't raise a level until they achieve something significant to the class (Pioneer's must discover a new locale, Warlock's must transcribe a new spell into their grimoires, etc.). Largely though, for a one shot, only some of that matters. To the players it was just an old school D&D Basic era game with percentage skills. Unfortunately, it didn't wow anyone with innovation mechanically (I know, its not exactly meant to...read on).

So I had a world I couldn't get a lock on, rules that didn't really jazz us and I went in the completely wrong direction and played down the wonkiness in favor of trying to make the game 'make sense', at least to me. While the players had fun and laughs were shared by all, I was left feeling that horrible despair of a rare miss. I ran a game that was only...ok. What went wrong?

I spoke with the group afterward and they took a look at some of the materials (print outs of the PDF). All agreed that this was the wrong game for this group and this GM (me). What many see as a wild and wonky super-science meets magic world, these guys saw as hokey. Its strange but they had trouble taking the world of Vanth as something that could actually be. It was too weird and humorous for their "suspension of disbelief" but not humorous enough to be an actually comedy rpg. The group's average age didn't help either. These guys were in their 20's and 30's. They never played the old school games very much and grew up on modern comics, Manga/Anime and video games. Gamers my age may look upon EC with nostalgia and humor but these guys missed the in joke or simply didn't find it funny.

A major mistake I made was that I tried to create an understandable frame of reference so I opened with the group crashing their Traveller-esque Scout Ship on Vanth. After a while they felt like, "Dang. How soon can we fix the ship and get off this crazy planet and back to the Traveller universe?"

In the end, I like reading through Encounter Critical but I don't think I'll be running it again anytime soon. Some of the ideas in it are awesome but its just not my cup of joe. I'm going back to projects my players can take more seriously...like Galaxy Quest.

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Barking Alien