H.P. Lovecraft and Gameshows

When was the last time an American game show featured questions about H.P. Lovecraft?

I think we should invite this woman to GenCon this year for a charity competition against Kenneth Hite. My money is on Hite for the victory.

Some Notable Additions to My Blogroll in 2010

2010 saw the creation of a number of blogs that I have found myself enjoying, as well as my discovery of blogs that had been posting for a while that I hadn't seen before. I ended up adding a good number of blogs to my various blogroll categories last year, and I thought I'd point out some of the better additions.

1) Grognardia -- James Maliszewski's "Grognardia" blog is one of the best old school gaming blogs on the internet. James' musings about games of yore, his thoughts on game design, and his commentary about classic SF/F are well worth your attention. James is one of my favorite "indie" game designers, having worked on "Sword, Spell, and Shadow" and "A Thousand Suns." I don't always agree with his opinions, but I always enjoy reading them.

2) Fabled Lands -- This is the official blog of Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson where they share information about their "Fabled Lands" line of Fantasy Game books, as well as examples of their past work. Want to see what a roleplaying game about Feudal Japan using the Warhammer Fantasy RPG rules would look like? Head on over to "Fabled Lands" and find out.

3) Fantasy Game Book -- This is a blog that examines fantasy gamebooks with a bit of academic rigor. I added the blog to my list just the other day based on the strength of recent entries by Andrew Wright. His thoughts on "One True Path" vs. "Multi-Path" gamebooks make for interesting reading.

4) Jordan Mechner's Blog -- Before Jordan Mechner, the terms "narrative" and "video game" would rarely be used in a sentence. That changed with Mechner's "Karateka." Though the narrative of the game was simple, his use of musical cues and dramatic elements hinted that video games could be more than tests of reflexes and memory. They could be interactive narrative experiences, and that experience didn't require the use of a laser disk that linked animated sequences through a decision tree.

It's That Time Again -- Christian's Favorite RPGs from 2010

2010 was an excellent year for the role playing game player. Every niche of the market -- from indie to mainstream -- had significant offerings that are must have editions to the gamer's library. Some of the offerings premiered at Gen Con, the industry's equivalent of the CES, but others had their own release timelines and marketing schemes. These schemes alternated between viral pre-order campaigns to structured "in store" celebrations, but all of them were fun to watch. I have to say that while the past few years have had some great game offerings, 2010 was the first time in a couple years that so many games screamed out to me to actually play them and not just to read them and add them to my collection.

So...what products made my Top 10 Role Playing Game products for 2010?

10) The Burning Wheel: Adventure Burner

The Burning Wheel role playing game is a fine example of how the indie role playing game market is capable of making not only good products, but ones that shape the field as well. The game was first published in 2002 and some of its innovations found their way into the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. The game is an rpg by game theorists and designers for game theorists and designers. That doesn't mean that the game isn't fun to play, it is, but it does mean that the way the game is presented changes the way you view other games and inspires tinkering. Once one has read The Burning Wheel books, one cannot read the Skill Challenges in 4e without seeing the game's influence on the hobby. The game encourages player to game master interaction in a way that some might find intimidating when used in play, but the rewards for doing so are grand.

The only complaint fans of the game can legitimately voice is that the release schedule for support products is pretty slim, and adventure support had been non-existent. This year Jared Sorensen* Luke Crane, Thor Lavsrud, and crew released The Adventure Burner supplement for the game which contained three adventures to aid game masters in designing their own scenarios. Like all Burning Wheel offerings, this book has applications well beyond use within the Burning Wheel system. It is a must have product for game masters of any system, as much of its advice is universal in application.

9) All for One: Regime Diabolique

Paul "Wiggy" Wade Williams is one of the most prolific authors in the history of role playing games. More than that, he is one of the most consistently entertaining authors writing games today. One of the reasons for Williams' high output is his ability to take ideas from history/fiction/television and to transform them into his own interpretation. His Hellfrost campaign setting combines the dark fiction of George R.R. Martin, the Icelandic Sagas, Roman History, and Arthurian legend and is one of the best RPG settings available today.

After I learned that Williams would be writing a game using the Ubiquity game system, most of his past work had been for the Savage Worlds game rules, I was intrigued. The Ubiquity rules system was created by Exile Games Studio for their excellent Hollow Earth Expedition game. When I saw that this game would be a swashbuckling adventure set in 30 Year's War France and would include Musketeers, Werewolves, Witchcraft, and Demons, I was sold. I purchased the volume at last year's Gen Con and was delighted by the product. If you loved "Brotherhood of the Wolf" or any of the Three Musketeers stories, but thought they would be slightly improved with the inclusion of the supernatural, then this game is for you.

8) Pathfinder: Advanced Player's Guide

For fans of the 3rd Edition of D&D, Paizo's Pathfinder role playing game was a god send. Typically, when a company updates a rules set players are left with the decision to either grudgingly shift over to the new rules or to continue to play using the old rules knowing that they won't be receiving any product support in the future. This is even more the case when the rules update is so dramatic as the shift between the third and fourth editions of D&D. Thanks to the Open Gaming License and the talented game designers at Paizo Publications, this wasn't the case for 3rd Edition players. Paizo thoroughly, and publicly, playtested their adaptation of the 3rd edition rules and published them as the Pathfinder role playing game. The game is beautiful to look at and corrects some of the flaws of 3rd Edition, while only introducing a couple of its own. It certainly isn't a game that I would use to introduce people to role playing games, but it is one of the premiere games in hobby -- and for good reason.

Last year Paizo released their Advanced Player's Guide which added new core classes and numerous options to the already robust game system. This is a must have for Pathfinder fans, and for 3e fans of all stripes. Paizo's work on this product is excellent.

7) Fabled Lands Gamebooks

Dave Morris, Jamie Thompson, and Russ Nicholson are names that harken back to the Golden Age of White Dwarf Magazine, back before it became a house organ promoting only Warhammer miniatures. Toward the end of the gamebook explosion of the 1980s Morris and crew released a series of gamebooks under the Fabled Lands title. Six books were published, but only three were made available in the States. The books featured complex puzzles, a simple but robust game mechanic, and interactions between the volumes. Choices in one book could lead directly into another volume. Sadly, the market for gamebooks had dwindled by the time these books were released and they never caught on.

Recently, there has been a resurgence of the gamebook market both in print and as applications on the iPhone/Pad. The Fighting Fantasy gamebooks are available as apps and excellent new offerings like those of Tin Man Games have emerged to create interest in the genre. The time was ripe for the Fabled Lands books to reemerge and last Christmas they were republished by a company owned by the books' creators. Give these a chance.

6) The Dresden Files Role Playing Game

Based on Jim Butcher's New York Times Bestselling urban fantasy series Evil Hat Productions' Dresden Files rpg is proof positive that small independent companies can make games that look, feel, and play like those made by the big corporations. Dresden Files uses an adapted version of the FATE rules system to create an easy to play game that incorporates player involvement beyond mere character creation. The entire group gets together to create the setting, the stakes, and the opposition that will occur in the campaign. The systems are innovative and the planning sessions are as fun as typical rpg game play sessions.

5) Deathwatch

For years fans of the Warhammer 40K Universe have awaited a role playing game where we could explore our own stories in the Dark Millenium. Dark Heresy satisfied that need for many, but for those of us who find 40k to be synonymous with "Space Marines" Dark Heresy didn't quite scratch that itch. Fantasy Flight Games' release of Deathwatch satisfies that desire quite nicely. Now players who recreate tactical skirmishes on their kitchen table tops where Ultramarines face off against the terrors of the Warp can experience the struggles of the individual Space Marine as he serves the Emperor and protects the remnants of human empire.

What more can you ask for really? A good rules system with a beautiful rulebook filled with detailed narrative information? Oh...this has that too.

Now all I need is an Eldar 40K rpg and my world will be complete.

4) Gamma World

For decades TSRs Gamma World has been a kind of awkward stepchild of D&D. The game has always had interesting ideas, and has had a couple of quality releases, but it never seemed to receive the corporate marketing support that it deserved. When Wizards of the Coast released the latest version of Gamma World, written using the 4th Edition D&D rules, they could have treated it as it had been treated in the past. They could have published a single volume with little fan fare, or released a game that lacked mechanical similarities to the company's flagship rpg. Instead Wizards created a product that they fully promoted that had monsters that were compatible with the 4th Edition rules set.

They also released a game that is one of the most entertaining gaming experiences around. If you've ever wanted to play around in a post-apocalyptic wasteland as a Pyrokinetic Yeti, as a Telekinetic Plant, or as one of a number of other combinations, then this is the game for you.

3) Castle Ravenloft

With Castle Raventloft, Wizards of the Coast managed to create an entertaining cooperative dungeon crawl board game that was also a perfect introduction to the role playing game hobby. As with super hero games, I am a dungeon crawl board game completist. When I purchased Castle Ravenloft, I expected it to be a good game, instead it was a great game. This is easily one of the best dungeon crawl games ever published. It is no surprise that the initial print run of the game sold out rapidly and forced Wizards of the Coast to delay the production of a similar follow up board game just to ensure there were sufficient copies of this game to go around.

2) Smallville Role Playing Game

I bought this game for two reasons. First, I am a super hero game completist. I own every published super hero role playing game to date, and this was a must have for that reason alone. Second, Cam Banks was one of the lead designers on the game. Banks has done some excellent work in the past on Dragonlance game products, as well as on the Supernatural RPG, and I was interested to see how he would treat super hero soap opera action.

The resulting game is one of the most exciting and innovative role playing games ever produced. From character creation to how the games mechanical resolution system emphasizes character's relationships to each other, this game breaks new ground in the role playing game field. The fact that it does all of this while creating a game that is easy to learn and understand due to its relatively simple mechanics is a wonder. If your mind was ever baffled by the concept of how a game could mechanically represent Superman while still providing mechanics that allow Lois Lane to meaningfully participate in play, then Bank's accomplishment with this game becomes even more clear. This is the first super hero rpg where playing a normal person is just as exciting and rewarding as playing the hero. Like Dresden Files this game incorporates player input in campaign and relationship creation.

1) D&D Essentials

I had been on the fence about playing 4th Edition D&D. I owned the books, but I was more than content to play in my 3.5 Eberron Game and my Pathfinder game -- then came Essentials. I was intrigued by the nostalgia appealing new Dungeons and Dragons: Starter Set that was reminiscent of the Metzger edition of the old D&D Basic Set. I read the box and was impressed by the manner in which it presented the D&D rules, but I was disappointed by some of the small errors and typos. This all changed when I read the Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms books. These books presented the new 4th edition rules not merely in a clear and easy to learn format, as was intended, but in an entertaining way as well. The narrative text made these fun to read, and it's not an easy task to make role playing game rules fun to read -- especially D&D rules. The entire product line is worth owning and broke the final layer of resistance I had to playing the 4th edition game. I am now a 4e fan and regularly run an Encounters session at my local game store. For the first time in years, I cannot wait to see what product Wizards releases next.

If you've ever wondered why D&D appeals to so many people, you cannot do much better than to start with the Essentials books.

*[edited 1/7/11 9:31 am]Thanks to Anonymous for pointing out the error in attribution. I could blame my error on the fact that I have been enjoying reading/running Parsley games lately, but that would be lame. Luke Crane is the mad genius behind Burning Wheel (or is he?). As penance, I will be buying another set of the three core books.

Ticket To Ride Adds Giant Monsters

Alan R Moon's Ticket to Ride is one of the best board game series of the past decade. The games combine easily understood rules, quick game play, quality game components, and "gateway" game appeal. Ticket to Ride was the game that established Days of Wonder as a prominent games manufacturer -- Memoir '44 proved they were here to stay. As the years have gone by, Days of Wonder has released a number of fun alternate versions and expansions to the original game. Most of them have been strong entries, and I have enjoyed them all, but none have excited me the way that the game's next offering has.

When I saw the announcement for Ticket to Ride: Alvin and Dexter my heart jumped a little. The high concept combination of classic train game with Giant Monsters and Alien Invaders is a sniper shot into my geek heart. The game expansion should be available in February, but you can read the rules for the expansion online today.

UK's Channel 4 Ranks D&D as 3rd Greatest Toy

Last year, on December 19th, Channel 4 aired a special hosted by Jonathan Ross discussing what he, a panel of experts, and popular vote thought were the 100 Greatest Toys. The show featured the 100 most popular toys and games in England, and my beloved D&D ranked 3rd on the list.

Looking at the list of toys and games, it quickly became apparent that D&D was being used as shorthand for Role Playing Games. RPGs were also the only category of game/toy that featured only one entry on the list. This just strikes me as off somehow. There are an abundance of wonderful RPGs that I think deserve notice, and it is debatable that D&D is even the best RPG available. It isn't really debatable that D&D created the role playing marketplace and its place as the first role playing game deserves quite a bit of recognition (pedantic discussions by patricidal game developers regarding pre-D&D role playing games aside), but should it have been the only game on the list?

What about DC Heroes, James Bond 007, Traveller, Call of Cthulhu to name just a few games that I think deserve mainstream recognition.

I can understand leaving a couple of great rpgs, like Pathfinder and Lamentations of the Flame Princess off the list as they are "pastiche versions" of games that precede their existence.

What are some games that you think deserve to be in the Top 100 games and toys of all time? How about just a list of the top 100 RPGs? I'll submit my list of the Top 30 RPGs, all of which will be games I have played, with some discussion of my criteria on Thursday.

Jim Ward, Creator of the First Science Fiction RPG, Needs Your Help

Jim Ward is one of the founding fathers of the role playing game hobby and the creator of the first Science Fiction role playing game, Metamorphosis Alpha. Ward's 1976 SF creation didn't merely extend the boundaries of roleplaying beyond the simulation of Fantasy novels, it offered a different style of play altogether.

Metamorphosis Alpha wasn't a game of far flung galactic empires or post-apocalyptic Earths. The game was set in a universe where interstellar travel was possible, but the game's action takes place on a single space craft. As the game's introduction describes it:

Mankind's urge to explore and expand its frontiers finally caused another push into the vastness of space -- first interplanetary, then interstellar. By the 23rd Century a great migration wave was spreading from Old Terra to the hundreds of inhabitable worlds which had been discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. During the next hundred years colonization ships of all types and descriptions went out to the stars, bearing seedling colonies seeking a better life. Many found their new homes -- for better or for worse -- but for one reason or another scores of these starships never reached their destination. This game is based on just such an event, the fact of a colony ship which became lost...

Ward's creation was more than a mere emulation of the fiction of Heinlein, Van Vogt, and Asimov, it contained it's own narrative ideas. These ideas allowed for a new experience in the role playing game genre. Players were still exploring multi-leveled complexes, dungeons if you will, but their reason for doing so was different. Instead of glory and wealth, the characters might be seeking mere survival or knowledge of a lost time.

Ward has contributed much to the hobby. He was the founding editor of Dragon Magazine, the creative force behind the Gamma World role playing game (a post-apocalyptic offshoot of Metamorphosis Alpha), and the Spellfire card game.

Sadly, Ward has been diagnosed with a serious neurological disorder. The condition is treatable, but the costs are significant and he needs the support of the gaming community. Visit the Friends of Starship Warden and do your part to help one of the original gamers.

Jeff Dee and Jack Herman to Release Villains and Vigilantes 3.0

Earlier this year Jeff Dee and Jack Herman, the creators of the Villains and Vigilantes role playing game, reacquired the rights to their creation and started their own company Monkey House Games in order to distribute new product for the classic superhero game. Villains and Vigilantes was the second superhero role playing game to enter the gaming market and it helped to launch superhero gaming as a legitimate genre in the hobby. The first edition of V&V was eventually pushed aside by Hero Games flagship Champions game, which became the standard against which all superhero games would be measured. Dee and Herman responded to Hero Games' entry with a streamlined and much improved second edition of Villains and Vigilantes.

While V&V was never able to match the sales of Champions during the superhero rpg heyday of the late 80s to early 90s, it had a loyal following and its creators wrote many excellent gaming products that reflected the "indie" sensibilities of the game's creators. These product included two modules written by indie comic stalwart Bill Willingham whose Elementals comics were among the most influential of the era. Where Champions could be cumbersome to play at times, and absolutely required a battlemap, V&V was a looser game that featured quick and dirty combat rules and a deep sense of fun.

Since forming Monkey House Games, Dee and Herman have released a cleaned up version of the second edition of Villains and Vigilantes -- a version 2.1 -- that featured a new cover and provided errata and clarifications to material in the Fantasy Games Unlimited published second edition. The book also features new interior artwork. While I found the new cover disappointing in comparison to Dee's older artwork, the new interior artwork is up to Dee's normal professional standards. Monkey House has also released a number of new products for the 2.1 version of the rules, and their production schedule has been sufficient to maintain the V&V momentum their start-up began with.

In fact, they have been so successful that Fantasy Games Unlimited, the successor company to the original publisher of V&V, has released new product for the game for the first time in over 15 years. This product appears to be published without proper license, but I will leave the legal wrangling to Dee and Herman. I will say this though. Don't buy a copy of the second edition V&V rules from Fantasy Games Unlimited or copies of the Willingham modules, you can purchase a more recent version of the rules from the actual creators of the game and Willingham's adventures will be available shortly.

Fans had been wondering if Dee and Herman planned on merely supporting their cleaned up version of the second edition, or whether they had plans for a new edition for the new millennium. After all, the rules are good and Monkey House was bringing back into print some of the old classic adventures in addition to publishing new ones.

Monkey House Games answered that question on Christmas Day when they officially announced that they were developing Villains and Vigilantes 3.0 and that the game would be available in 2011.

I look forward to seeing what innovations Dee and Herman have to offer.