Recent content by Starfox

I've been playing Blades in the Dark lately, and a D&D-esque hack of it I wrote myself. It is very open to player initiatives, and very friendly for improvisational play. Basically, every session starts with deciding what to do, so there is no way to really plan ahead, either as a GM and player...

For me, this is the distinction between "old-school" and other role-play. In old-school, there are no skills outside of combat, payers describe their actions in great detail and the GM determines the effectiveness. In social situation you take out your acting skills and try to convince the GM...

What makes CoC horror for me is that the rules are so bare-bones. You can never count on success, combat is always lethal, and monsters are always dangerous. In a more advanced "balanced" rules set combat is survivable. Not so in CoC. Free League's Alien has a similar setup and does horror the...

We just had a local brick and mortar store selling SF/Fantasy books and games open up in town, and yes, you are right. Seeing is believing. I buy more in a store than I do over the net.

So much of this is stuff I've never heard of! I want to ask for views on your purchases, but that feels too demanding and also a way to derail the thread, so I won't. Also, I find my capacity for reading and understanding new games is shrinking with age. I stick to manhandling one set of rules...

And here I was feeling down because I did not invite the boy in class that was being bullied to game with us. I only learned recently that the worst bully was in our gaming group.

The different Star Wars games are made by different designers and companies usually building on their own games in other genres - I'd say these are not different editions, they are completely different games that share only the setting.

I generally prefer to play the latest edition of whatever I play. I find I mostly like the changes over editions as long as they are evolutionary and not revolutionary. Some exceptions, a friend started a Kult 3E game, and it is SO MUCH better than 1E despite being a completely new system. But...

My local game shop happened to have Scum and Villainy in their shelf, so now I have it. At first I was a bit disappointed how little difference there is from the base Blades in the Dark - I had expected more rules customization - but on a second read i think its pretty good. Eclipse Phase is a...

I actually own all of these :), played quite a lot of 1E Pendragon back in the day.

Something I love in Blades in the Dark is the simple but structured downtime rules. Feels like a perfect fit for this kind of setting. With my current crush on this system, I might go for a BiD hack or combine it with Aliens somehow. But Jovian Chronicles does seem like the kind of setting I'm...

I ran it in my own setting based on a mix of two Heinlein books, Tunnel in the Sky and The Puppet Masters, but with mecha. Fun was had! :)

I played and loved Mekton II back in 1987. :)

Lots to look in on. Thanks guys. I looked up reviews of Expanse and Jovian Chronicles RPGs, they appear too system-heavy for my current Blades in the Dark-influenced tastes. Jovian Chronicles' (JC from now on) setting seems nice, tough I was thinking of a more anarchic entrepreneurial game than...

I've been having a blast playing an Alien RPG campaign. Its mostly been rather low-key, with the environment itself being a major enemy. But I feel that the faster than light aspect of the game isn't really needed. So I was thinking about role-playing in the solar system. I know of two RPG...