Showing posts with label RPG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RPG. Show all posts
Friday, March 2, 2012
Heavy Rain: Railroad Edition.
Hey guys. As promised I've been playing Heavy Rain and now I have another short bit to say about it. I feel awfully deceived. I wanted the game because the premise was I would have choices and if I killed a character it would change the plot and choices I made mattered. Well I've been playing the game and have come to the conclusion that it's all a lie. Not in the sense that the cake was a lie, but an actual lie. I was playing and I found if I followed a set of actions Ethan would end up yelling and throwing things at Madison. My response was bad Ethan! It was near a save point so I loaded and then reloaded. I took every possible choice set I was offered and the only thing that changed was how long it took me to get him throwing things. Well Damn says I. So I let the fight happen. Afterwards I am offered the choice to be angry or apologize. First time I chose apologize. Second time I chose be angry which led to an extra speech blurb before being rerouted to apologize. I have to say my primary motivation at this point for continuing to play the game is to see if I can drive my character off the rail road tracks I seem to have found. I don't think I am imagining this but I haven't really heard anyone else complain about it. I have a hard time believing I am the only one who tried to change the outcome of a situation on the spot rather than a do a full blown second play through. I think I am going to start over so I can try and kill/let everyone involved die. Let's see what happens then. And NO I won't just youtube it. Where is the fun in that?
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Don't Rest Your Head
Well guys, it has been a bit since I have done a RPG so today I will do a quick run down of one I just finished reading. Now if you want a twenty page break down of every little detail, I'll save you the effort, I write these game blurbs so people can say 'huh I'll look into that' or 'no thanks' not to nit pick.
So Don't Rest Your Head is a RPG based around insomnia and the first thing they brought to my attention was d6 dice pools. Every PC has three dice pools labeled Discipline, Madness, and Exhaustion. You always roll your discipline, madness is optional, exhaustion is GM discretion. The GM rolls dice from a pool labeled Pain. Doesn't that sound promising? Now the reason for dice pools is because there is consequences depending on which catagory 'dominates' when you roll. So say you roll your discipline and choose to roll madness as well. Oh no! All your high dice was in Madness. Well that's not a bad thing per say. It just means that things will go your way, but now one of those madness dice is permanent.
I bet your asking why is that a bad thing. Well on your character you get x amount of exhaustion and x amount of reactions. Depending on the dominating pool, depends on what box you check off. If you collect to much madness, you go insane and become a nightmare. If you collect to much exhaustion, well you collapse into a coma and are probably going to get eatin/left for dead, unless your party really loves you.
However that's not the only thing you have to worry about. The GM rolls dice too. If Pain dominates, first of all things don't go your way, your plan probably just got ruined, and the GM can force you to check off one of your boxes for either madness or exhaustion and if you haven't been careful this can destroy your character.
It's ok though. It's not all hopeless. There are also two bowls in the middle of the table. One labeled Despair, on labeled Hope. The characters can spend hope to reduce the amount of dice the GM roles and they can also spend Hope to unmark the boxes that will end up destroying the character. However the only way to really get Hope is by the GM doing aweful things to you. the players get Hope when the GM spends Despair to make your lives hell.
This game seems to be very much about consequence. Nothing happens without a consequence. Even winning a situation has effects on your character that may not necessarily be positive. If you want to sit down and read the rules, its less than a hundred pages and about half way though it will just start talking about the world they have roughed out for you. So really, you are looking at 20 pages of rules. It is classified as being technically horror. Some call it adventure. I call it a game. The world is sketched out with some major players and enough fluff to hopefully spark some creativity or plot. The character sheet is half questionnaire so if that doesn't float your boat, I'd steer clear.
If you really really want to hear about some of the fluff, it gives me Neverwhere vibes mixed with the Sci Fi Alice Mini Series.
Beware the Wax King!!
Have I raised some questions? I hope so.
Corset signing off.
So Don't Rest Your Head is a RPG based around insomnia and the first thing they brought to my attention was d6 dice pools. Every PC has three dice pools labeled Discipline, Madness, and Exhaustion. You always roll your discipline, madness is optional, exhaustion is GM discretion. The GM rolls dice from a pool labeled Pain. Doesn't that sound promising? Now the reason for dice pools is because there is consequences depending on which catagory 'dominates' when you roll. So say you roll your discipline and choose to roll madness as well. Oh no! All your high dice was in Madness. Well that's not a bad thing per say. It just means that things will go your way, but now one of those madness dice is permanent.
I bet your asking why is that a bad thing. Well on your character you get x amount of exhaustion and x amount of reactions. Depending on the dominating pool, depends on what box you check off. If you collect to much madness, you go insane and become a nightmare. If you collect to much exhaustion, well you collapse into a coma and are probably going to get eatin/left for dead, unless your party really loves you.
However that's not the only thing you have to worry about. The GM rolls dice too. If Pain dominates, first of all things don't go your way, your plan probably just got ruined, and the GM can force you to check off one of your boxes for either madness or exhaustion and if you haven't been careful this can destroy your character.
It's ok though. It's not all hopeless. There are also two bowls in the middle of the table. One labeled Despair, on labeled Hope. The characters can spend hope to reduce the amount of dice the GM roles and they can also spend Hope to unmark the boxes that will end up destroying the character. However the only way to really get Hope is by the GM doing aweful things to you. the players get Hope when the GM spends Despair to make your lives hell.
This game seems to be very much about consequence. Nothing happens without a consequence. Even winning a situation has effects on your character that may not necessarily be positive. If you want to sit down and read the rules, its less than a hundred pages and about half way though it will just start talking about the world they have roughed out for you. So really, you are looking at 20 pages of rules. It is classified as being technically horror. Some call it adventure. I call it a game. The world is sketched out with some major players and enough fluff to hopefully spark some creativity or plot. The character sheet is half questionnaire so if that doesn't float your boat, I'd steer clear.
If you really really want to hear about some of the fluff, it gives me Neverwhere vibes mixed with the Sci Fi Alice Mini Series.
Beware the Wax King!!
Have I raised some questions? I hope so.
Corset signing off.
Friday, September 2, 2011
4th Edition
Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition. Published by AEG in June of 2010, entered my world at Gencon 2010 with much squeeing and many gollumesq moments of muttering about my precious. While I had been playing the card game a great deal that year, it had never crossed my mind that it had ever been a role playing game. However life was complicating my world as it often does so it took me a little over six months to sit down and read the simple roll and keep system. And in the end I found a book filled with lush fictional history, great character concepts and I wanted to run a game. Of course the group I played with was currently submererged in a Dresden Files game at this point and we had already promised someone else they could run a game of their own so sadly L5R was added to the to do list.
For those of you who don't know, now seems like a good time to fill in some blanks about the purpose of the L5R RPG. It is set in a semblance of feudal Japan with an air of magic and ancient wonders. Mechanically speaking it is a roll and keep system. Meaning for example you could have a 5k4 skill. So you would roll five d10 and keep your favorite 4. Having never read the previous editions I won't compare them. If you wish to hear a comparison I suggest here will be a great start. I think at this point I prefer talking flavor. Though I am a bit disgusted they published an entire book that is 90% flavor text. I take great joy in the talkings of ancient lords and the lavish art. I spent a lot of time looking at the art work and flipping through the pages to read something about one of my favorite clans at random. I didn't want to get rusty on the rules while I waited to run. If I do have a pet peeve about this system its the massive amount of fluff you need to understand if you want to play in the world they created for you. Even the authors were saying 'please just use this as guidelines its too much' at one point.
Then it happened. About six months ago the draw was up and the game had had starting obsessing over was due at last to run. I had filled a small notebook with story arcs and monsters. People and places that the group may or may not encounter. I had everything set up perfect for my horror game that would take place in the shadowlands until he popped the question. No I don't mean THE question most women think at this point. He asked me if he could be a social crab clan berserker who gained glory through art. Ok. If you were like me you giggled a bit there but it doesn't really sound like a problem. Not until you actually try to hunt down the crafting rules in the book. They are virtually non existant. Especially if you want to know, well how long and how much does it cost to create an ornate sword with intricate design on it. What is the Target Number for that. I searched the core book with the two expansions out at the time and finnally ended up downloading the 3rd edition of the book for answers.
The 3rd edition book did have a price chart along with some guesstimated times but it was nothing like I was looking for and in the end I gave up on finding an official one and created my own. While the price charts were nice my game was set in a time where Jade was harder to get your hands on that some of the most evil maho magics. I let them all start the game with three fingers and that was more Jade than they had ever seen in their lives. So when one of them asked me, can he make me a blade out of Jade? I laughed and said sure, this is what it will cost you.
For it being my first game I ever ran (Ninja burger rpg doesn't count) everyone said they had shit tons of fun and I learned a lot with them. When everyone was telling me GMing was about flexibility and making sure the players had fun, I don't think I really got it until I had my own lot going the wrong direction chasing a bone they thought I threw when it was really just a nice scenery description. Or when they decided that they wanted to talk to Fu Leng personally about their problem and how to solve it. I guess if I have to assign a morale and a point to all this, official rules don't make the world go round but a rowdy group of gamers that can make you smile, agree to play a game you're dying to run, and offer to bring snacks can go a long way toward helping it.
To all the beginner gm's out there, don't give up.
Listen to advice. You're never to good to grow.
-Girl in a corset
For those of you who don't know, now seems like a good time to fill in some blanks about the purpose of the L5R RPG. It is set in a semblance of feudal Japan with an air of magic and ancient wonders. Mechanically speaking it is a roll and keep system. Meaning for example you could have a 5k4 skill. So you would roll five d10 and keep your favorite 4. Having never read the previous editions I won't compare them. If you wish to hear a comparison I suggest here will be a great start. I think at this point I prefer talking flavor. Though I am a bit disgusted they published an entire book that is 90% flavor text. I take great joy in the talkings of ancient lords and the lavish art. I spent a lot of time looking at the art work and flipping through the pages to read something about one of my favorite clans at random. I didn't want to get rusty on the rules while I waited to run. If I do have a pet peeve about this system its the massive amount of fluff you need to understand if you want to play in the world they created for you. Even the authors were saying 'please just use this as guidelines its too much' at one point.
Then it happened. About six months ago the draw was up and the game had had starting obsessing over was due at last to run. I had filled a small notebook with story arcs and monsters. People and places that the group may or may not encounter. I had everything set up perfect for my horror game that would take place in the shadowlands until he popped the question. No I don't mean THE question most women think at this point. He asked me if he could be a social crab clan berserker who gained glory through art. Ok. If you were like me you giggled a bit there but it doesn't really sound like a problem. Not until you actually try to hunt down the crafting rules in the book. They are virtually non existant. Especially if you want to know, well how long and how much does it cost to create an ornate sword with intricate design on it. What is the Target Number for that. I searched the core book with the two expansions out at the time and finnally ended up downloading the 3rd edition of the book for answers.
The 3rd edition book did have a price chart along with some guesstimated times but it was nothing like I was looking for and in the end I gave up on finding an official one and created my own. While the price charts were nice my game was set in a time where Jade was harder to get your hands on that some of the most evil maho magics. I let them all start the game with three fingers and that was more Jade than they had ever seen in their lives. So when one of them asked me, can he make me a blade out of Jade? I laughed and said sure, this is what it will cost you.
For it being my first game I ever ran (Ninja burger rpg doesn't count) everyone said they had shit tons of fun and I learned a lot with them. When everyone was telling me GMing was about flexibility and making sure the players had fun, I don't think I really got it until I had my own lot going the wrong direction chasing a bone they thought I threw when it was really just a nice scenery description. Or when they decided that they wanted to talk to Fu Leng personally about their problem and how to solve it. I guess if I have to assign a morale and a point to all this, official rules don't make the world go round but a rowdy group of gamers that can make you smile, agree to play a game you're dying to run, and offer to bring snacks can go a long way toward helping it.
To all the beginner gm's out there, don't give up.
Listen to advice. You're never to good to grow.
-Girl in a corset
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