Best of E3: Rise of Iron and Days Gone (oh, and RE 7 too)

For those who follow the computer and console gaming realms, E3 is a major trade convention where each year we get an info dump on upcoming releases, most of which is presumably spruced up to look better than it really is. After too many years observing E3, most gamers get caught in a jaded "wait and see" sort of moment, but occasionally a release will chip away at our hardened, marketing-resistant exteriors and make us actually interested in a game....well for this year it's only two, really: Destiny's new expansion titled Rise of Iron, which is more of the same, yes, but as a huge Destiny fan I'm happy:



The other one is Days Gone....which is best explained by providing this trailer:



Look at all those zombies! Amazing.

If the real game is half as good as this, I'll be very happy indeed. Not sure on it's ETA, unfortunately.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention this one:



It's Resident Evil, but it looks like #7 is going to take some pointers from the recent shift in how horror games are presented. Call me "cautious but intrigued" on this one. I think Resident Evil should work harder to define its strengths that were set by the original trilogy, and less time trying to ape P.T. and Outlast, but at the same time, this trailer looks really interesting, and I am incredibly forgiving Capcom/RE fanboy so whadda I know.

Friday Blaaaaaagh! Shadow of the Demon Lord, Runequest and Beasties

Low post week....life has been busy!

I snagged Shadow of the Demon Lord recently, and have been absorbing it bit by bit. I've enjoyed it enough that I have snagged the six POD supplements available on rpgnow, and as they trickle in I am thinking hard about what I can do with this. If you're not too familiar with it, Shadow of the Demon Lord is it's own special deal, but it has some core conceits worth mentioning:

1. It is totally not a clone of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but it definitely will make fans of that system feel right at home.

2. It is not a D20 System game, but the rules mechanics are lite enough to figure out easily and robust enough for you to do a lot with the system if you so desire.

3. The world of SotDL is totally not the Warhammer Fantasy World...it's a little bit grimmer and darker in my opinion. It is also more of a skeletal frame on which to hang this totally metal grimdark setting, with lots of room to "make it your own."

Anyway, I am thinking I may have to try running this after the Runequest 6 campaign runs its course.

Speaking of Runequest 6.....we're running it now on Saturdays. Yay! All that crippling time/effort anxiety evaporated after I set my mind to it. I've missed playing RQ, glad to be back. I also have some ideas about how I can use Mythras for some SF gaming in the near future....it looks like that will be fairly easy to do, going by the Mythras Imperative.

Night Owl Workshop produced a S&W supplement titled Beasties. You should check it out, it's a fantastic resource for W&S gaming, especially White Box, with some excellent illustrations of the monsters as well.

Other than that, it's been a busy work with family health, work, and my son. Maybe next week will be better....!

Mythras Imperative now out!

Over the weekend The Design Mechanism released the Mythras Imperative, the first book in the revamped, re-named system formerly known as Runequest 6. You can download it for free here, or pick up the print version at lulu here. The new introduction to the system precedes the release of the updated core book, which as I understand it may be available/announced sometime after July (if rumors are right) and will mostly be a slightly revised version of RQ6 without the ligatures.

That said....the new introductory book gives you everything you need to run historical, modern or SF games with a nice lite version of the system that is nonetheless a complete ruleset, including relevant skills and equipment (just no magic system). After reading it I realized this is easily sufficiently complete that you could pair it with --say-- Luther Arkwight and have all you need to move forward with Mythras for regular gaming. Check it out!

Titanfall 2 Single Player Campaign Trailer

This looks so much better than I expected, and I'm really happy that the Titfall devs realized there is a place for solo story-driven gaming in their franchise:

The Lost Lands: Bard's Gate Kickstarter

With a few weeks to go the Lost Lands: Bard's Gate Kickstarter is the latest mega-manual to come out of the Frog God Lair. Check it out:



I'm in for the $100 level for a 5E edition. I waffled on The Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces Kickstarter and regret it (when I finally landed my book copies through retail I was incredibly impressed). The Kickstarter is covering 5E, S&W and Pathfinder editions, this time cleaning up the process by letting you elect your preferred edition in the backerkit section. I've cancelled other KS's to make room for it, in fact.

I'm sincerely hoping 5E dominates as a request; I'd love to see older Lost Lands tomes converted to 5E (though converting the S&W versions is easy enough). In fact I'd really love to see Razor Coast converted to 5E although based on the history of that particular production I'll assume such a conversion is likely a pipe dream for now!

Gamer Epiphany (Later turned in to Gamer Oroboros)

Over the weekend I tried to find time to really dive in to Runequest 6/Mythras, per said plans from last week, as my Saturday group needs an alternative game for the next three weeks (a key player is out for three weeks and people don't want to leave him behind in White Star). RQ6 seemed like a shoe-in at that point....except....

I've suddenly had an epiphany: I am a middle-aged guy with a very busy, demanding job,  child (late in life) and family that consumes a lot of time. In the last eighteen months I have purchased a lot of games, among which include all sorts of giant, lavishly illustrated tomes, laden with rules, mechanics and fluff. And then there's all that OSR stuff I've actually read, and could actually run. Hmmmm.

As a result, I'm eyeballing Magic World again. Weird, because of the whole "abandoned by Chaosium" deal, but it' really about the level of detail I actually want out of a BRP engine right now. RQ6 is awesome.....but maybe not for a guy like me with a serious time budget.

Actually, I kinda just feel like talking the group into playing White Lies or Swords & Wizardry. Hmmm.

TL;DR: getting old sucks.

EDIT: Actually I know what I need to do: convince the group to try out either Mutant Future or Other Dust. Been dying to run both for eons now but never have.

EDIT #2: Although Other Dust is now on the menu, I am DETERMINED to run RQ/Mythras! But I had to set some limits...thank goodness this game is basically "modular." So we're using Runequest Essentials instead of the main book for char gen, limiting magic to folk magic and theism. Then I'm letting everyone pick from the racial options only in Classic Fantasy. I'll introduce sorcery through play, which gives me the extra time to re-read the rules....which, despite basically just being from RQII, added a lot of subtle complexity to the process that I totally don't remember from my RQII days. Orrrrrr maybe it's just been a while. Either way, I am staying committed; I really want to run RQ again....it has been too long.

White Star: Quinlon Disruptor Tech

Quinlons have played a role in both campaigns I've run so far. In the Dark Stars setting they are a fringe group with little organization, working as pirates, scavengers and traders in Netherspace Sector, with their militarized coalition trying to make a bit of headway. In the new Regency Campaign, the Quinlons are a major force, and are basically imperial fascists who have allied with the Order of Typhon to indirectly aid the Vegan Empire by siezing control of the Independent Sectors that lie between the Vegan territories and the Regency, allowing the Vegan naval supply lines uninterrupted access to attack their enemies.

In both setting I've described the quinlons the same way: large humanoids, looking vaguely like Predators which cross-bred with Reavers from Firefly and then adopted the aesthetic look of the guys from Mad Max: Fury Road. They have a penchant for decorating themselves heavily with metal piercings and tattoos, and despite vertical mouths they have eerie, human-like eyes. Sure, quinlons are technically White Star's "not-klingons" but in many ways they fill a great niche for "space orcs and/or other prominent foe" as well, so why not spice them up a bit!

Anyway, quinlons are known for dangerous but effective technology. Here's some of what I've developed for them in my campaigns so far:

Quinlon Disruptors

Quinlon disruptors come in pistol and rifle varieties. They are notorious for their unreliability; any time a disruptor rolls a "1" on an attack roll, roll a D20 again: on a 1-2 or 19-20 the disruptor explodes, dealing 2D8 damage to the target and anyone within five feet of the explosion. On a 3-4 or 17-18 it jams and the user has to eject the energy clip and replace it that round.

Disruptors are notorious for dealing severe damage. When a target takes enough damage to drop to zero hit points, it must make a saving throw (modifiers to saves for explosive or death effects apply). If the target fails, it is disintegrated.

Quinlon disruptors come in several varieties: the standard disruptors are mass-produced and handed out to shock troops for quick use. Antique disruptors are more reliable (they only blow up on a 1 or 20) but also require 1D6 hours maintenance per week after being used or the reliability goes back to normal. Outsourced disruptors are also possible. In the Regency Campaign, the Vegan Empire strikes a deal with the quinlons and supplies them with mass-produced disruptors that include a non-lethal stun setting. These disruptors can be set to deal non-lethal damage to targets, knocking them out; in reality, any one reduced to zero hit points when hit by a modifed disruptor at stun still have to make a saving throw, or the damage is treated as lethal (but they are not disintegrated).

Disruptor types include:

Antique Disruptor Pistol (1D8+2 damage; Range 100; ROF 2; Clip 20; failure risk; disintegration risk)
Antique Disruptor Rifle (2D8 damage; range 200; ROF 2; Clip 20; failure risk; disintegration risk)
Modern Disruptor Pistol (1D8+2 damage; Range 100; ROF 2; Clip 20; higher chance of failure)
Modern Disruptor Rifle (2D8 damage; range 200; ROF 2; Clip 20; higher chance of failure)
Disruptor Pistol with Stun (as regular pistol above, but "stun" option built in)
Disruptor Rifle with Stun (as regular pistol above, but "stun" option built in)

Purchase Costs: 

Disruptors are illegal in most areas of space, so the costs below reflect "cost in Quinlon Space" vs. "black market prices" everywhere else:

Weapon                                   Quinlon Cost            Black Market Cost
Antique Disruptor Pistol          100                            500
Antique Disruptor Rifle           200                            1000
Modern Disruptor Pistol          50                               250
Modern Disruptor Rifle           100                             500
Disruptor Pistol With Stun       75                               375
Disruptor Rifle with Stun         150                             750

Overcharging Disruptors

Anyone with sufficient technical skill (such as engineers) can set a disruptor to overcharge by bypassing it's already shaky safety mechanisms. Doing so turns the disruptor into a lethal bomb which detonates, dealing 5D8 damage to all targets in a 25 foot radius. This destroys the weapon, and anything in the radius that hits zero hit points must make the save or be disintegrated. When overcharging, the user has 1D4-1 combat rounds to get away before it explodes; if the result is "0" then it explodes immediately! If you are using a skill system, a successful skill check (DC 15) will add 1 to the countdown timer.

Plotting a Campaign in Pergerron using Mythras in the Near Future

With Classic Fantasy out soon, Mythras (alias Runequest 6) is really on my mind right now. On the one hand, I've been trying to ignore it a bit, as I have a couple active games going with no immediate end in sight....White Star (now on Saturdays) and D&D 5E in Chirak (that consumes Wednesdays). But, we could put D&D on pause Wednesday, or White Star could conclude in another 5-10 sessions easily enough. When that happens....I think a little RQ6/Mythras is in order.

Not sure if I'll use the Classic Fantasy content whole cloth, as I like the core rules as-is, but maybe I could snip the monsters, magic items and some other stuff out and blend it in. I'll most likely use my Pergerron setting, which worked quite well for my prior two Magic World campaigns, so it should translate pretty easily in to Mythras.

Failing Wednesdays and Saturdays, I have some other local gaming cohorts who have been asking me to run RQ6/Mythras for a long time now. If I can somehow find the time to introduce a third game, this would be an easy way to do it. Hmmmmm.....

If you are wondering why RQ6/Mythras is sufficiently interesting to merit extra effort to run, know that it is probably the best system currently on the market for managing a blend of fantasy and realism that will evoke the grim and gritty elements of sword & sorcery (& sandals, don't forget those) in a manner consistent with actual fiction. The power and fragility of RQ6/Mythras characters contrast in such interesting ways, and you really can model an Achilles in this system without resorting to tricks or house rules, essentially.

That sort of evocative experience is a real eye-opener for many people when they finally get to play RQ6/Mythras for the first time, realizing that there's an entire other range of storytelling you can be doing in fantasy, which draws upon a much more mythic and historical resonance than D&D traditionally can. D&D can handle a certain style of game exceedingly well....but it's not a system where losing a limb is a realistic prospect in combat, or where casting spells requires meaningful sacrifice and effort....or where you can, by the Rules as Written*, advance in skill and talent without ever lifting a blade, to become a major mover and shaker by force of wit and personality and talent alone. Mythras is all of that, and a bit more.

Time to revisit The Vosjin Wood again, I think.

*In 5E's defense you can train in downtime without leveling to gain new skills and languages, but 5E is not even remotely as nuanced as Mythras is in this regard.

Storm King's Thunder and Volo's Guide to Monsters

So not one but two new D&D 5E manuals coming from WotC: Storm King's Thunder, a new adventure book in September and Volos' Guide to Monsters, a sort of 1/2 monster manual, 1/2 ecology guide coming in November. I'm really pleased about the latter announcement....but here's the covers:

Interesting seeing Volo used like this, but it will make a distinct new "Monster tome" name for 5E, I guess. It sounds from the descriptions like there will be a lot of Realmsian content, but still sufficiently general for use in any game, I hope. As usual, thanks to Morrus at EnWorld for bringing the scoop!

The New Big Dragon GM Screen for B/X D&D is Here

Actually, I've had it for at least a week, but just realized I haven't mentioned that bit.

The Screen is in two parts, with gorgeous artwork. They're durable, tough screens....not quite like the Savage Worlds style heavy board screens, but still very sturdy. Two spell books, character sheets and a collection of tables in book form round out the package. It's designed for B/X D&D but I think you could pull off a Labyrinth Lord game with this easily enough.

Either way, with this in I now realize I have a LOT of new stuff for B/X D&D, enough to run a fairly robust game, especially with all the B/X NBD books I have now (check out Richard LeBlanc's site here to see what is available and coming soon). I can guarantee you I would never have thought this to be a "thing" ten, fifteen...even twenty years ago. Ever, really.

Unfortunately I don't see a retail page for this one yet, but hopefully the funding was enough to make plenty of copies for sale post-Kickstarter.