Some really, really good ones.
Dread - This is a one shot game, mostly. The typical dread game is like a horror movie. The PCs are all regular people, and make their characters by answering a questionnaire. These are leading, probing questions that let you identify with a character very quickly. There are no stats or modifiers or anything. Wanna do something risky? Pull a block from the Jenga tower. Knock the tower over? You're outta there. Maybe the killer jumps from the shadows and stabs you. Maybe a brick falls from the ceiling and bashes your head. Maybe you see something Man Was Not Meant To Know and go catatonic. Maybe you go screaming off into the night, or get arrested. Either way, you're out of the game.
Its a great game for pickups and conventions, and for your non-gamey friends to try it. I've ran Dread for my 60 year old mother and 11 year old daughter, and both were wanting more.
Dogs in the Vineyard You are one of God's Watchdogs, a quasi-Mormon gunslinger and Defender of the Faithful in a west that never was. The Faithful are good, hardworking people, but there are demons about. The demons urge the townsfolk to pride, and then to sin, and its your job to put an end to it.
What makes it unique is that the player characters are the final arbiters of morality in the game. Exactly what the King of Kings teaches in the Book of Life? That's up to the players. No angel, prophet, or saint NPC is going to tell you that you're wrong. The only one that can question a Dog is another Dog. So the merchant's wife is sleeping with both the woodcutter and the Blacksmith, and her Husband has sworn to kill both of them. The local preacher has been trying to calm the men and talk to the woman, but its no hope.
The PCs have to decide what to do. Maybe the merchant is unloving and you declare that the King of Kings wants her to be wed to the woodcutter. Or that the other men should be watched by their families to stay away from her. Or you decide that one of them is the real troublemaker and drag them into the street and shoot them. Sometimes you've got to cut off the arm to save the body, Dog.
The resolution system is really neat, in that it doesn't seperate combat and noncombat encounters. They are all conflicts, just with different stakes. Maybe you get into an argument with the merchant, trying to convince him to forgive and work on his marriage. If he wins, you can either let him go, or push him against the wall. If that doesn't work, then you can up the ante again and deck him. If he still won't give up, then you can etiher let him go or draw lead. How important is it that he listen to you?
Unknown ArmiesHere's the thing - magick is real. And its everywhere. Most of us can't see it but a few have achieved enlightenment. Magick is sympathetic, so you gotta do something significant to do something significant. Say you're a dipsomancer - a mage that works off alcohol. You can grab an old vintage and take a shot to do something small. Something bigger, well, you might need to take that shot out of Winston Churchill's scotch glass, and for something really big you might need something from the Cask of Amontillado. (You didnt' *really* think that was just a story, did you?). Or a Conspiromancy might need to convince a group of people that aliens made crop circles outside of town for a little juice. Want a lot? Get the president to open up Area 51 (Not Groom Lake, the REAL one).
Pretty much everything about this game is awesome. The madness meters are the real gem, with five different scales that I can't recall at the moment. Violence, Isolation, and Self are three IIRC. As they go up and down you are less affected by them, which is good and bad. If you get a low score on violence, then gunfights and dead bodies leave you puking or running. If its up high, then they don't bother you at all...which means you start to lack basic empathy. You're becoming a sociopath, and can't use your passions to help your rolls like most people.
Dread - This is a one shot game, mostly. The typical dread game is like a horror movie. The PCs are all regular people, and make their characters by answering a questionnaire. These are leading, probing questions that let you identify with a character very quickly. There are no stats or modifiers or anything. Wanna do something risky? Pull a block from the Jenga tower. Knock the tower over? You're outta there. Maybe the killer jumps from the shadows and stabs you. Maybe a brick falls from the ceiling and bashes your head. Maybe you see something Man Was Not Meant To Know and go catatonic. Maybe you go screaming off into the night, or get arrested. Either way, you're out of the game.
Its a great game for pickups and conventions, and for your non-gamey friends to try it. I've ran Dread for my 60 year old mother and 11 year old daughter, and both were wanting more.
Dogs in the Vineyard You are one of God's Watchdogs, a quasi-Mormon gunslinger and Defender of the Faithful in a west that never was. The Faithful are good, hardworking people, but there are demons about. The demons urge the townsfolk to pride, and then to sin, and its your job to put an end to it.
What makes it unique is that the player characters are the final arbiters of morality in the game. Exactly what the King of Kings teaches in the Book of Life? That's up to the players. No angel, prophet, or saint NPC is going to tell you that you're wrong. The only one that can question a Dog is another Dog. So the merchant's wife is sleeping with both the woodcutter and the Blacksmith, and her Husband has sworn to kill both of them. The local preacher has been trying to calm the men and talk to the woman, but its no hope.
The PCs have to decide what to do. Maybe the merchant is unloving and you declare that the King of Kings wants her to be wed to the woodcutter. Or that the other men should be watched by their families to stay away from her. Or you decide that one of them is the real troublemaker and drag them into the street and shoot them. Sometimes you've got to cut off the arm to save the body, Dog.
The resolution system is really neat, in that it doesn't seperate combat and noncombat encounters. They are all conflicts, just with different stakes. Maybe you get into an argument with the merchant, trying to convince him to forgive and work on his marriage. If he wins, you can either let him go, or push him against the wall. If that doesn't work, then you can up the ante again and deck him. If he still won't give up, then you can etiher let him go or draw lead. How important is it that he listen to you?
Unknown ArmiesHere's the thing - magick is real. And its everywhere. Most of us can't see it but a few have achieved enlightenment. Magick is sympathetic, so you gotta do something significant to do something significant. Say you're a dipsomancer - a mage that works off alcohol. You can grab an old vintage and take a shot to do something small. Something bigger, well, you might need to take that shot out of Winston Churchill's scotch glass, and for something really big you might need something from the Cask of Amontillado. (You didnt' *really* think that was just a story, did you?). Or a Conspiromancy might need to convince a group of people that aliens made crop circles outside of town for a little juice. Want a lot? Get the president to open up Area 51 (Not Groom Lake, the REAL one).
Pretty much everything about this game is awesome. The madness meters are the real gem, with five different scales that I can't recall at the moment. Violence, Isolation, and Self are three IIRC. As they go up and down you are less affected by them, which is good and bad. If you get a low score on violence, then gunfights and dead bodies leave you puking or running. If its up high, then they don't bother you at all...which means you start to lack basic empathy. You're becoming a sociopath, and can't use your passions to help your rolls like most people.
