Dorkland! Roundtable with Richard Iorio

Last week I spoke with Rouge Games' +Richard Iorio II about his history as a gamer, getting into designing and his work with getting Rogue Games going, and his games Colonial Gothic and Shadow, Sword & Spell. We spent a lot of time talking about older games and what about them motivated his current approaches to designing games.

Vornheim Running Low + Micro Review

Last night, or maybe this morning, +Lamentations of the Flame Princess posted this on Google+:

If you want a physical copy of Vornheim and you see it on a store shelf or in stock at your favorite webstore, GET IT. My distro warehouse person said last night they had 1 left, so whatever's in stock is pretty much it.

As you know, LotFP is a bit backlogged at the moment and Zak's next thing is A Red and Pleasant Land so it'll be a bit before we get to Vornheim again.

(Thing is with small press, resources are limited and tying them up with reprinting an older title often seems less interesting and lucrative than doing a new project because sales of the reprint would be considerably slower than a brand new thing, even if in the long run Vornheim has the greater sales power - which we can't know ahead of time...)

I haven't talked much about Vornheim on here, but it has slowly but surely worked its way into my gaming since I picked it up last summer. Regardless of what edition of D&D you may play, this book has great ideas that will find use in your games. I use the tables like Search The Body constantly, to give quirky little flavorful items to characters. The urbancrawl rules are great for coming up with city maps in a hurry. The names and titles tables are great for coming up with a name for that NPC that you had to come up with on the spur of the moment. This doesn't even scratch the surface of the cool tables that make up the front and back covers of this book. +Zak Smith has come up with two tables that allow you to figure out everything from the to hit and damage of NPCs, to the level of wizards, to the cost of beer in an inn by making a single die roll. These tables are beautiful and elegant in their simplicity and utility. I will use them for as long as I run fantasy games.

Basically, all of this means that if you see copies of Vornheim in your FLGS, or on your favorite web store, buy it. Buy it now while you can still get this in actual book form. It might be a while before you can get another chance.

Sherman, Fire Up The Wayback Machine and Find Some Vintage RPG Files

I will admit that I was looking for a copy of the original text file version of Fudge (purely from nostalgia because that was actually how I was introduced to the game back in the 90s). A Google search found it, but alas the website was defunct. However, thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine I found the RPG page for the missing TEXTFILES (it was the 90s so you should think of it in all caps) site.

You want old school, this is where you want to look. In addition to the Fudge rules (plus addenda) you can find old Chaosium Digests, old early free RPGs, and netbooks for AD&D, Rifts, Shadowrun and other games. It even has the old Highlander hack for oWoD there.

There's a convenient .zip archive of the entire page, so I just downloaded that. Rediscover some "lost" gaming history now.

Fudge ASCB: Fantasy, Part I

Yesterday I put up the SRD page for Fudge: ASCB. As I said, periodically I'm going to put up notes and ideas for Fudge-based things on here, and that will be my baseline.

Fantasy is a cornerstone of our gaming, and it is something that I have thought about a lot. Most of my ideas have revolved around trying to smoosh D&D into a Fudge paradigm, and that just doesn't work. There is a Fudge build for fantasy (it originally appeared in the Fudge Expanded Edition rules put out by Grey Ghost, but it is derived by Steffan O'Sullivan's 5-Point Fudge variant). I like it, but I want something a bit lighter and less traditional.

This is obviously going to be more than one post, and while I'm not going to shove D&D into a Fudge hack, I am going to convert some D&D materials over. That's the fun part of Fudge and d20 both being released under the OGL, I can move monsters and spells back and forth.

If you haven't looked at the Fudge: ASCB page yet, you might want to now. The terminology will make more sense.

Aptitudes
What D&D calls classes (Fighter, Thief, Magic-User, Cleric, etc.) we will use what ASCB called Aptitudes. These aptitudes will handle the basics of what classes do in broad strokes. A Fighter fighting. A Thief stealing. A Magic-user using magic. A Cleric smiting divinely. The broadest applications of these things will be your character's aptitudes. These are ranked on the standard Fudge attribute ladder. There will be more than the basic four, because otherwise it will be hard to make characters look different. I think Bard will be needed. Outside of that....I don't entirely know yet. I still don't want a straight up D&D knockoff. We've already got D&D and it does what it does just fine.

Specialties
These are like aptitudes, but more specific and they help clarify the exact abilities that your aptitude gives you. They also help set apart characters, so that one character who has the Fighter/Cleric combination of aptitudes can look different from another one. They are player defined, so that will take care of most of that, but I do want samples. Combat maneuvers, for example. I think my posts on Old School Clerics and Fighters will help with making some predetermined Specialties.

Cultures
This is an easy one. Basically what other games call races will be cultures in this hack. The nice thing about that is that it is also easy to make Cultures into cultures if you're interested in a more human-centric game, like something inspired by REH. But for most, Elves and Dwarves and all of those things will fit neatly into a Culture.

Backgrounds
This represents your character's  place within their culture. In many cases it is an occupation, or something like that, but in the case of this hack I am going to imagine it as who your character was before they started on the adventuring lifestyle.

There will be other things, of course, like magic to worry about, but I already have some ideas on that. I am looking forward to fleshing out some of these ideas here on the blog.

Tomorrow: The New G+ Hangout Campaign

We started a new game this week. We have had a lot of fun with our Swords & Wizardry games over the last few months, but we decided that it was time for a change of system and genre for a bit. As most people who know me know, I am a big fan of the Fudge RPG, so after a few false starts that is what I pitched to the group. We're using a variant called ASCB for the characters, with a few embellishments on my part.

We made characters:

We also started to flesh out the connections of the various characters.

We aren't sure yet how long this campaign is going to go, but we are definitely in for an interesting ride.

HARBINGER WARS #1 – Read the First Five Pages!

On April 3rd, there will be no winners. Just survivors. Harbinger Wars is coming!

 

Valiant is proud to present an advance preview of Harbinger Wars #1 (of 4) – the can't miss first chapter of the game-changing battle between Bloodshot and Harbinger that will define the Valiant Universe in 2013! From acclaimed writers Joshua Dysart and Duane Swierczynski and red-hot artists Clayton Henry and Clayton Crain, Valiant's first family crossover event starts right here this April!

 

For decades, Toyo Harada’s Harbinger Foundation and the government’s own Project Rising Spirit have been waging a secret war over the rarest resource known to man – the unruly superhuman telekinetics known as Harbingers. Over the years, they’ve each collected a small army of these empowered children to inflict their agendas on the world. But now, the reformed Harbinger hunter known as Bloodshot needs to atone for his crimes – and he’s going to start by releasing two dozen of the most volatile Harbingers from their PRS prison and into the world.

 

Bloodshot wants to lead them. Toyo Harada wants to control them. And Peter Stancheck, a teenage renegade with immense powers of his own, wants to give them free rein. But the runaway children of PRS have their own ideas for the future…and, as the body count rises, the Valiant Universe will realize that power this immense cannot be contained. It must be exercised. Who will survive the Harbinger Wars?

 

Spanning 12 issues total, the definitive Valiant Universe storyline of the year begins on April 3rd in Harbinger Wars #1 (of 4)! Then the action continues with new jumping-on points in Harbinger #11 and Bloodshot #10 – the first issues of all-new four-part storylines chronicling the fallout of the Valiant Universe’s first full-scale superhuman conflict. Follow the entire Harbinger Wars saga through Harbinger Wars, Harbinger and Bloodshot or read each series independently for a complete standalone story arc!

 

For more information on Harbinger Wars and the rest of the Valiant Universe, visit Valiant on Twitter, on Facebook, or at ValiantUniverse.com.

HARBINGER WARS #1 (OF 4)

Written by JOSHUA DYSART & DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI

Art by CLAYTON HENRY & CLAYTON CRAIN

Cover by LEWIS LAROSA (FEB131152)

Pullbox Exclusive Variant by CLAYTON HENRY (FEB131153)

Variant Cover by CLAYTON CRAIN (FEB131154)

Variant Cover by PATRICK ZIRCHER (FEB131155)

$3.99/T+/32 pgs.

ON SALE – 4/3/13 (FOC – 3/11/13)

 

HARBINGER #11 (HARBINGER WARS)

Written by JOSHUA DYSART

Art & Cover by KHARI EVANS (FEB131156)

Pullbox Exclusive Cover by CLAYTON HENRY (FEB131157)

Variant Cover by PATRICK ZIRCHER (FEB131158)

$3.99/T+/32pgs.

ON SALE 4/10/13 (FOC – 3/18/13)

 

BLOODSHOT #10 (HARBINGER WARS)

Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI

Art by BARRY KITSON

Cover by MICO SUAYAN (FEB131159)

Pullbox Exclusive Cover by CLAYTON HENRY (FEB131160)

Wraparound Variant by LEWIS LAROSA (FEB131161)

$3.99/T+/32pgs.

ON SALE 4/17/13 (FOC – 3/25/13)

 

 

Dorkland! Roundtable with Matt Forbeck

There was a lot of things to talk about when Matt Forbeck was at the Dorkland! Roundtable. I knew that he had worked for a great deal of companies in the tabletop role-playing industry, even co-found Pinnacle Entertainment group and serving as its first President. I didn't know that he had published a gaming fanzine while still a teen and had a booth at GenCon for it. We talked about all of these interesting things and we talked about his writing career, including his successful 12 for 12 Kickstarter campaigns.

There was a lot of good stuff, and we probably could have kept talking for another hour. I think, along with my talk with Monte Cook, these were the two Roundtables that we could have just kept going on and on. I hope you enjoy.

Valiant Comics Hit H.A.R.D.

The 90s are back, and Valiant Comics is bringing back the H.A.R.D. Corps as part of the Harbinger War.

The Lost: A Charity Fiction Anthology

I don't often push crowdfunding campaigns, mostly because I think they get enough momentum on their own. This one is a bit different, and it is kind of close to my heart. This is about The Lost: A Charity Fiction Anthology. And, eighteen days out from the finish, it is still a few hundred dollars away from its goal. From the campaign page:

The Lost is stories of hope, tragedy, and the people the world turns away from. From a young woman struggling with addiction to a streetwise Santa looking out for his friends, these stories range from literary to magical realism. The Lost is an anthology of stories that confront issues of homelessness and the people our society ignores.

The Lost features a great group of writers who have created daring, elegant stories of loss, redemption, and love.

and (most importantly):

The Lost is a fiction anthology with nine stories about the lives of the people society has forgotten. The proceeds from The Lost will benefit City Harvest, a charity that feeds the hungry. 

Now serving New York City for 30 years, City Harvest (www.cityharvest.org) is the world's first food rescue organization, dedicated to feeding the city’s hungry men, women, and children. This year, City Harvest will collect more than 42 million pounds of excess food from all segments of the food industry, including restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms. This food is then delivered free of charge to some 600 community food programs throughout New York City by a fleet of trucks and bikes. City Harvest helps feed the more than one million New Yorkers that face hunger each year.

Part of the reason that this charity is near and dear to me is because I've been homeless, and I know how you can feel close to that edge again (having been underemployed for a while now) , so I know that the time comes when you need to get help. I've never been one to easily ask for money, unlike some who seem to think it is OK to ask others to pay for things in life like moving expenses or car repairs. Homelessness are people who are in genuine need and who need genuine help, and people like +J.R. Blackwell and +Brennan Taylor of Galileo Games wanting to help warms my heart.

I've seen an ARC of the book, and there's some great fiction to be found in these pages. I'm sure you'll recognize some of the writers:

• Kathryn Watterson: Bumble Bee Brown
• C.J. Malarsky: Burning Ember
• Sarah Newton: Circles and Stars
• K. H. Vaughan: Hell on Wheels
• Megan Engelhardt: Jimmy Got-It Gets It
• Stephen D. Rogers: Magpie
• Meg Jayanth: The Beasts By Their Names
• Peter Woodworth: The End of Hungry Santa
• Shoshana Kessock: The Case of George the Curious

For  $5 you can receive one of the short stories in electronic form. For $10 you can receive the anthology in electronic form. Obviously, you can give more, help more. and that would be a great thing. Never ever give because someone says that you need to, or because you feel that you have to...give because it is the right thing to do.

Justice League of America and Vibe First Issues

When I read the new first issues of Justice League of America and Justice League of America's Vibe from DC Comics, I have to say that I had low expectations. I have much of the run of the Justice League Detroit from the months in between J'onn J'onzz making his triumphant return to the Justice League to the lead-up to the Crisis on Infinite Earths that lead to the deaths of a good chunk of the Detroit-era League.

I will say right now that I thought that the Detroit-era of the Justice League was a great idea. On paper. Unfortunately, that idea hit some speedbumps on the way to getting to the final stories. One of those major speedbumps was Vibe. To be honest, the portrayal of the character had all of the subtlety of being hit in the head with a bowling ball. One thing that DC Comics had a hard time recovering from, after Marvel Comic's surge of popularity in the 60s and 70s, was that all of their characters were pretty much white middle class guys (except of course for the billionaire white guys), and there wasn't much for readers of color to grab on to with DC's books. I'm sure that was part of the reason for a multicultural approach to this run of the Justice League. It just wasn't very good and to prove that it wasn't very good, the final story arc lead to the death of a couple of the new characters and the ending of this version of the Justice League.

So, let's fast forward to 2013 (and ignore the "return" of the Detroit-era  Justice League in Darkest Night) and we see a return of some of the ideas of that team to the New 52. There's a new multicultural Justice League in town, and it is set in Detroit again. Michigan native Geoff Johns launches this new Justice League of America book (although he will be replaced by a permanent writer), probably in order to tie it more tightly into the next "Aquaman" of the New 52, the comic with the awkwardly long name of The Justice League of America's Vibe (hereafter known as Vibe). I'm sure that's to avoid "confusion" with the magazine of the same name, but who really knows.

The set-up of Justice League of America #1 and Vibe #1 are both the same: Darkseid's attempted invasion of Earth from the initial story arc of John's and Jim Lee's Justice League comic. Detroit was the first beachhead of Darkseid's invasion, and also the place where the first person died: the brother of Francisco "Cisco" Ramon, the man who will become the super-hero Vibe. Cisco was caught in the first Boom Tube opened onto Earth, and was saved by his brothers Armando and Dante. Armando was killed by a Parademon in the attempt, but did save his brother.Being caught in this Boom Tube is what has given Cisco his powers: the ability to sense beings from other dimensions (due to their differing vibrational rates) and a powerset of vibrational-oriented abilities.

Both of these comics set up the background of the formation of this new Justice League, and Vibe becoming a super-hero. I think the whole "the unlikeliest hero" is a bit too cute and self-aware on the part of Johns and DC Comics. Yes, we get that no one liked Vibe from the first time around but there were reasons for that. These comics do a much better job this time around, and I'm not the only one who thinks that. Vibe is a much less stereotypical character this time around, and I think that is what will potentially keep this book going, not any marketing ploys.

Another Detroit-era character, former mentor and support staff member James Gunn returns as a member of the secret government organization A.R.G.U.S. (no where near as cool or fun as S.H.A.D.E. but an attempt by the powers that be at DC Comics to make something like Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D.) and mentor and support staff to the new Justice League of America. I'm not 100% sold on A.R.G.U.S. within the setting yet, it just seems too derivative even after a year. Throw in Steve Trevor as a super-spy and Suicide Squad/Team 7 member/leader Amanda Waller running the whole shebang and I'm still not entirely sold on the concept. Another thing that I didn't think that I would be saying, but Vibe definitely came out of the gate a lot stronger than Justice League of America, which makes sense since Vibe does have a much smaller cast to deal with.

However, these are both good comics. I'm not the biggest fan of Geoff Johns. He is a good writer, don't get me wrong, but he can be very uneven in his storytelling. His work on Green Lantern tended towards being overly long, and sometimes convoluted, and his work on Justice League is no where near as strong as what he had done with the Justice Society in the past. That said, Johns brings an incredible amount of enthusiasm to any book that he writes. Love or hate his work, but this is a man who is motivated by love for characters. Unfortunately, as I said, that doesn't always promise quality but it can bring good things to any book that the man works on.

Are these books worth buying? Yes. I would say that Vibe is definitely the "must have" book of the two. Johns has tied this new character deeply into the story of the New 52, and that means that there are going to be some big things happening in this book (as demonstrated by the reveal on the last page that I am not going to spoil), and they are going to be important to the advancement of the setting. Justice League of America is still a wildcard for me. I know that this is also supposed to be important to the advancement of the overall setting, but I'm just not feeling it as much as I did with Vibe. Probably because there is so much going on, and so many characters to introduce that there wasn't as much of a chance for storytelling.

The opinion in the comics blogosphere seems to be that Vibe will be the book that won't last, but comparing these two first issues I am going to say that it has much longer legs (so far) than Justice League of America. I'm not saying that I expect the book to be cancelled, I am just saying that of the two, Vibe was the stronger comic. You should buy both Justice League of America and Vibe, but you should buy the hell out of Vibe.