Search results

Damn. The memories. The book's status as a bestseller and a generally dismissive attitude to these books meant it appeared on a young children's school book club catalogue when I was seven. The picture on the front caught my eye and that's the one I asked my parents to get me. I recall having...

The whole "[genre]-punk" argument is pretty much pointless anyway, because it has nothing to do with Punk in any case other than the original usage of Cyberpunk. When the Cyberpunk sci-fi genre first developed Punk was a thing in mainstream pop culture and so it was used in the title to...

As I said in my post above- there are some things that GURPS does well. I just don't see Girl Genius as being one of them. Historically accurate Medieval Europe? Sure. I had a good experience with using it to run Traveller. But for both this and Discworld (and probably Goblins) a more narrative...

I'd been into the Fighting Fantasy series ever since the Warlock of Firetop Mountain (I was eight when I got it). I'd initially thought that Dragon Warriors was another such book series when I bought it at age 11. A few months later I got WFRP 1e as a christmas present. I was well into my teens...

Despite the name GURPS is very much not a universal system. There are things that I've found it does reasonably well but light-hearted action comedy isn't one of them. I thought it was the wrong system for Girl Genius when the game was first announced and I was sort of hoping the long delay...

As I've said, the main reason to buy this game for me would be a chance to finally see the Sword World rules. I've been curious about those since I first heard about them in a magazine article in the 90s. The setting, questionable elements aside, is nothing special. Any novice GM could do the...

Sword World is a game I've heard about quite a bit- pretty much any time the idea of TTRPGs in Japan comes up. The last I heard it had never had an English translation. If the GS license is essentially a Sword World game with a different setting and illustrations then there'd be a reason to buy...

This is one of those licensed games that has me wondering exactly what the point of the license is. I'm actually a fan of the anime itself, and still- why? Goblin Slayer is a world that's pretty much explicitly a game of Old-School D&D. This being the case, is there anything that happens in the...

Oh, there are people who think they have problems with Bards? My brother is one of those people who can't take a hint when you're not interested in hearing what he has to say. I'm probably the only person he interacts with IRL on a regular basis who he knows plays RPGs. So clearly I'm the one...

My opinions on the Cypher System pretty much match the majority of replies here. It's got enough good ideas that I really, really want to like the game and see it work. But the unfortunate reality once you do more than casually peruse the rulebooks is that it just falls short. What's even more...

If you don't have people willing to play the WFRP system then maybe you could sell them on Worlds Without Number? It's similar enough to D&D with Levels, Classes and Hit Dice but has a simpler system that's a little more lethal than 5e which makes it a better fit for WFRP in my eyes. WWN has a...

One of the things I like about the system that you didn't mention was how the degrees of success/failure translate into the narrative. You roll when success is in doubt and the possible results are: "Yes, and..." Critical Success- not only do you succeed, but you can narrate something good that...

The only time I've ever seen a truly realistic depiction of real-world physics for space travel complete with gravity wells and orbits anywhere is in the Kerbal Space Program computer game. Playing it really gives you a feel for just how complicated a subject this is and why Astrogation would be...

Most recently, our group has discovered the revised edition of Stars Without Number and started playing a campaign of that. We're doing the classic Traveller-esque Free Trader game. A very good system, and a rare chance for me to be a player rather than a forever GM.

OK, so perhaps it was badly worded. Traveller was used as the example because PCs don't tend to become superhuman with experience. As in real life, they can absolutely evade the law. It's just that they have to use a combination of quick wits and good luck to do so. At no point do Traveller PCs...

This is the problem I have with established D&D worlds. Why do they need to have such things? The only reason they have to exist is so that PCs can achieve godlike levels of power but at the same time not be able to upset the Status Quo and significantly change the world. And I suggest that...

That's actually a very valid concern in D&D and similar RPGs. A lot of GMs fall into the trap of assuming that "Of Course" there will be some powerful NPC in the same leagues as the PCs that will suddenly appear out of the woodwork to slap them down for upsetting the Status Quo but as you point...

I enforce laws on my PC when it makes sense to do so. Generally this means when the PCs get caught doing something they shouldn't have done. Now, most PCs get up to the sort of things in-game that would lead to Law Enforcement Officers recognising them on sight. Often an adventure will pretty...

I used to write corrections and house rules in core books, but that's not happening as often for me now. I don't think that it's any change in me as much as a change in the RPG industry. When I first started gaming- well, I still recall that first edition WFRP book I got for Christmas when I...

So after the latest Tabletop Simulator update wrecked the tables we'd been playing on our group has realised why TTS isn't as popular as it could be. We're now starting new campaigns that can be played over Discord with a dicebot if need be, though we're also looking at possble new VTTs. We've...