Month: February 2015

What’s Cool on Kickstarter

Megan # #

Here’s my picks on what you should check out on Kickstarter this week-

Faith: The Sci-Fi RPG
This RPG uses cards instead of dice, giving it a unique spin on the genre. The background story about living with gods among the players in interesting and the art is gorgeous. Plus John helped playtest the game!


“FAITH uses a unique system that replaces dice with cards. Each player has a poker deck and a hand of 7 cards. Most actions the characters attempt are successful by default, but when another character or the Game Master tries to stop them a confrontation will arise. In that case both sides will be able to play a number of cards from their hands depending on their attributes and add their value to their skills. The highest final value will determine who succeeds and who fails.

These confrontations make the gameplay feel dynamic, allowing characters to perform actions outside the more traditional and constrained initiative rounds and letting them use their resources as they see fit instead of being subject to the sheer randomness of a dice roll.”

 

Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion

“Ever since its release in 1984, Masks of Nyarlathotep has been considered one of the finest supplements for Call of Cthulhu, a roleplaying classic. Countless players have dared to thwart the machinations of Nyarlathotep and plumb the mysteries of the Carlyle expedition. Keeping this globe-trotting campaign is unfortunately rather a challenge, with scores of NPCs, dozens of locations, hordes of cultists, and at least one very angry Outer God. Needless to say, even the best Keeper could use a little help.

That is where The Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion comes in.Drawing on the wisdom and experience of the members of Yog-Sothoth.com, the première site for Lovecraftian role-playing, the Companion gathers together tips and advice for Keepers wishing to run Masks of Nyarlathotep. Within these pages are detailed nearly every imaginable facet of the campaign, from starting play to ending things with a bang, explaining, exploring, and expanding the classic work. There is something for everyone, from novice game masters to Grognardian disciples of Cthulhu.”

 

Adventure Scents
So I haven’t decided how I feel about these, though Aser is opposed. I think it would be a lot of fun for campaigns to be able to close your eyes and imagine you’re sitting around a campfire, and the room actually smells like a campfire. Though you won’t find me using the Fishing Docks scented ones.

“These products are meant to be special effects, designed to heighten the immersion of things like roleplaying and video games, books, TV, and movies. You can also use them enhance a costume – adding a whiff of realism to your favorite persona. And don’t get me started on all of the possibilities for these products around Halloween!”

 

The Miskatonic: A Lovecraftian Horror Comedy
This game looks super cute and like a lot of fun. I’m 100% pro-enormously huge shotguns.

“Plunge headlong into the writhing depths of The Miskatonic, a side-scrolling, horror comedy visual novel, packed with bizarre and hilarious dialogue, a cadre of warped and damaged students and faculty, and an intriguing, devious narrative! Chat jovially with the local abominations, scout revolting locations for occult expeditions, and investigate the innate strangeness within!”

 

Pinblock: Revolutionary Piece of Engineering
They claim these don’t hurt to step on, so I think that already puts them ahead of Legos. But more seriously, this design looks like it gives you a lot of flexibility to build what you want to build using one style of block instead of hundreds.

“We’re two best friends who had a single childhood passion – building epic things. We loved the idea but the tools with which we had to work had limitations.

When we grew up, even though severed by time, Shijun came up with an idea to not just reconnect and rebuild one of our old childhood constructions but to create blocks of our own that would be simple enough to overcome common limitations and complex enough to be able to build anything we wanted.”

 

Three Monkeys pt. 1: Into the Abyss
Aser and I are always on the look out for games that are accessible for him to play, and this looks like an amazing audio game. The plot sounds awesome and they are putting a lot of work into making the audio the highest quality they can

“Three Monkeys takes advantage of Binaural Audio techniques to immerse you in a highly reactive 3D world – meaning you’ll need a pair of headphones to really get the most out of the game. The mechanics combine timing-based responses, relying heavily on human reactions. For example, if you hear a sword swinging towards you, you have a number of choices about how you choose to respond. The game provides the player with the ability to react in the way they desire.

Exploration is handled in the form of a zonal open-world format. This allows the player to get the maximum thrill from exploring the world of Byzantia, whilst enhancing the quest in the story. There will be a range of environments, including villages, forests, mines/caves, abandoned cities – the acoustics in each zones can be utilised to provide a rich gameplay experience. Unity will be used to develop the game alongside WWise Audio Software and Astound Audio Plugins to achieve the best audio response and flexibility.”

 

Still active!

Numenera: The Strand
Death Saves: Fallen Heroes of the Kitchen Table
Mt. Hood: The Oregon Pint Glass
World of Darkness: Dark Eras Prestige Edition
Ako Dice – Now available in multiple colors and as Fudge Die!
Pencil Dice – Now available in multiple colors and as Fudge Die!
Unspeakable Words
Rise of Cthulhu: A Card Game of Influence and Horror
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Exploding Kittens

–Megan

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Game Review: Mars Colony

Aser Tolentino # # #

Mars Colony, those two words can evoke so much, and have over the years. From frontier exploration, to colonial oppression, to an excuse to shoot things, Mars Colony has served as the canvas for a great many visions of what might be. Tim C. Koppang’s Mars Colony takes yet another approach that’s summed up nicely by its tagline: the role-playing game for two players, about personal failure and government.

This is explicitly a two player game, with one person taking on the role of the protagonist, called the Savior, and the other, called the Governor, embodying all the obstacles the Savior must overcome. The Savior is either a man or a woman, named Kelly Perkins. Much of the game centers on the impact of the games events on him or her. Since Megan played the Savior during our play-through for The Redacted Files Podcast I will refer to Kelly as her through the rest of the review.

Set up is quick and easy, but does involve some thought. The players must sketch out in broad strokes four political parties, what they stand for generally and how much power they have. Characters encountered during the story may belong to one party or another, influencing their interactions with the Savior. Each player also writes three fears he has about the government on cards which are placed face down and shuffled. Two of these are revealed and help characterize the problems besetting the colony and can serve as inspiration for scenes. The Savior selects a Sympathy, a character with whom she has a special connection. Lastly, players decide on three health indicators for the colony, the conditions that the Savior must fix to stabilize the situation.

Play is relatively straightforward. After an opening vignette, the players start taking turns. The Governor can establish either an Opposition Scene, in which he narrates how the problems of the colony are about to impede the Savior’s progress, or a Personal Scene, in which both players engage in free-form role play about the Savior’s reactions to the events of the game. The Savior can also establish Personal Scenes, or can choose to narrate a Progress Scene. In a Progress Scene, she narrates what she is doing to resolve the problem, then rolls two dice to see how well she does. The sum of the dice are points that go to the goal of stabilizing the situation. She can roll as many times as she likes, but each roll comes with the possibility of failure, represented by a 1 on either die, which erases all progress for the scene. The game mechanics force the Savior to take risks to actually achieve her goals. If she fails, she loses progress made in that scene and the colonists admiration shifts to contempt, too much of which will see her removed. To avoid contempt, she can lie, keeping the progress she’s achieved in a scene before the failure. The more she lies though, the greater the chance of being caught. After her first lie, a roll of snake eyes will lead to scandal and the discovery of her lies, a 1 and either 1 or 2 after the second, 1 and 1, 2 or 3 after the third, and so forth. Scandal erases all progress won through lies and a whole lot of contempt. After the Savior narrates the ninth progress scene or is removed by the colonists, the game is over. The Savior narrates her personal aftermath, while the governor narrates the eventual fate of the colony based on the Savior’s actions.

In our play-through, Megan stepped into the role of Kelly Perkins. Mars Colony on her arrival faced rampant corruption, out of control crime and poor nutrition. Her Sympathy was Alex McPherson, a former lover who she’d known when they worked on the initial setup for the colony and left behind to be the public face for the colonization project back on Earth. She first tried to tackle corruption, but had to lie when she failed to get the mayor on-board with her plan, rolling well on the first attempt but getting a 1 when she tried for more points. She stayed on corruption  in subsequent scenes, winning over people with an impassioned speech. She then shifted to crime, trying to build people’s confidence in their government’s ability to protect them. She pushed her luck again though and had to lie to cover up just how badly that went. Corruption and crime intertwined with the last indicator when criminals stole a food shipment. Megan inspired the colonists by setting a good example and actually shamed many of the thieves to give back what they’d taken, and hoarders to share what they’d been keeping back. Along the way, she took solace in Alex’s companionship and shared her growing misgivings with him. Eventually she called in the military to seize suspected criminals identified through covert surveillance (one of the fears on the cards)in a way that kept local government’s hands clean. To clench the deal, she made an arrangement with one of the captive gang leaders to push crime out of the public eye and stabilize that indicator. The great thing about indicators is that once you solve a problem, another comes up to take its place. Megan was then beset by failing atmospheric processors. While trying to finally settle the colony’s nutrition problem though, she had a scandal and much of her success was undone just one round before the endgame. She struck at corruption with her last scene, naming names and calling out the bad apples before leaving with her work undone. The result for the colony was a middling existence, stumbling along as an expression of humanity’s stubbornness that was too big to fail. Kelly Perkins left with Alex to enjoy a quiet retirement and obscurity.

With two players who are comfortable with one another, a game like this flows out with a constant give and take that is difficult to recreate with larger groups. Both players are always on, either speaking or actively listening so they know where they’ll put the next piece of the puzzle. It’s a style of game-play that I’d highly encourage everyone to try, especially if you have a significant other who is also into the hobby or who might be engaged by a more personal experience.

This is a product very much of its time, as evidenced by the two quotes from George W. Bush and Barack Obama that introduce the game. Its elegant yet engaging mechanics can prompt some thought about bigger questions for those apt to engage in such, particularly the difficult choices faced by anyone trying to accomplish anything in the world of modern politics. Regardless though, it’s a great way for two people to spend an hour or two together, creating a powerful story.

Mars Colony was a runner-up for 2010 Indy Game of the Year. You can get the PDF for just $6.00. Find out more from the author’s website: http://www.tckroleplaying.com/marscolony/

Categories: Blog Posts, Mars Colony, Reviews1 Comment

What’s Cool on Kickstarter

Megan # #

Numenera: The Strand
Numenera! Kickstarter! A movie! All things I love, and I really can’t wait to see the Ninth World brought to life in this short.

“A drifter/scavenger roams a desolate beach in the Ninth World looking for useful items and stumbles upon an artifact of the Numenera. This starts a chain of events that leads to an experience that changes the very essence of his being.”

 

Death Saves: Fallen Heroes of the Kitchen Table
A collection of comics about the times things just don’t work out in an adventure. I can’t wait to read it.

“‘Death Saves: Fallen Heroes of the Kitchen Table’ collects 16 all-new comic book stories about what happens when fantasy gaming characters run out of hit points. This book will be a 132 pages, full-color, perfect bound softcover printed in digest format (5.5″ x 7.75″) and features an original cover by artist Jared Morgan.”

 

Mt. Hood: The Oregon Pint Glass
I really want to get one of these for my dad – he collects pint glasses and grew up in Portland. But I want one too! They’re a bit pricier, but I think they’re beautiful and unique.

“In making The Oregon Pint, we’ve combined modern technology with the old world craft of blowing glass to make a beautiful and relevant new product. With our design concept in place we took USGS topographical data of Mt. Hood and converted it to a digital 3D model. We then made 3D prints of our designs for design evaluation and prototyping. Once we were satisfied with our design, we created molds for our first blown glass prototypes. With our design finalized, we’ve ordered our first production mold and are almost ready to start production.”

 

Binary Dice
I love dice and these are pretty cool. They’re a bit more then I want to spend on a pair of d6 though.

 

World of Darkness: Dark Eras Prestige Edition
A bunch of adventures set throughout the ages for nWoD. They look pretty intriguing and the book they’re planning is going to be gorgeous.

“nWoD Dark Eras starts out presenting a chapter for each of nine historical eras; one for each of the New World of Darkness game lines. The sections are written for the currently available edition of the game line, but they are designed to be usable with any edition. Each terrifying time period and location is examined through the supernatural creatures that dwell there”

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TRF Updates

trfadmin

Hello everyone!

We wanted to keep you updated on some exciting projects the TRF crew is involved in.

  • TRF Excursions and Recursions: We’re adding a new feed to TRF, and we’re going to be alternating releasing on each feed on Sundays, which means we’ll have a weekly schedule debuting on February 22nd! We’ll add additional iTunes and RSS feeds in case you only want to listen to one stream, but hopefully you’ll enjoy all the episodes.
  • Lone Star Gamers: We’re excited to announce that the Lone Star Gamers will be joining our Excursions and Recursions feed! TRF regular Landan’s Pathfinder group will be founding a kingdom in Kingmaker.
  • City of Needles: Megan and Aser were invited to join in a Numenera campaign at City of Needles for a couple of sessions. We had a lot of fun playing a mad nano and, well, a bard that go back to a house we could have sworn was just a nightmare. Check out this campaign written as a serialized novel and follow @ProfTesla on Twitter!
  • Firefly Podcast: Aser has taken up the reins of GMing for a new podcast. TRF regulars Megan and Rob, as well as several fans from the community are involved in the only actual play podcast in the Firefly ‘verse, using the Firefly RPG system from Margaret Weis Productions, and a whole lot of Browncoat love goes into this. Check it out on Twitter at @FireflyPodcast
  • Patreon: We’re starting to put together a Patreon page to help us bring you a lot more content. We’ll be making an announcement soon, but we hope you’ll consider helping us entertain you!

-Megan and the TRF Crew

 

Categories: Blog Posts, Updates2 Comments

February Release Schedule

trfadmin #

Goblins

What are we playing this month?

February 12, 2015 – Final Girl: Dead After Hours
Something goes horribly wrong at the annual office party, as usual.

February 22, 2015 – A Rune Awakening Episode 1: Everyone Loves a Festival
In our first release on the new podcast feed, a group of people with disparate backgrounds come to Sandpoint to celebrate the opening of a new cathedral and the new beginnings of a town once plagued by trouble. Unfortunately, no one told the troublemakers.

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