You can read it here, or read it over at the Free RPG Blog but we do have a winner for the 24 Hour Movie Mash up RPG competition. Without any real peep of complaint the winner is Droog Family Song Book.
My big question though, is what came in second for a lot of the judges. That's where the conversation really starts, and where it gets interesting which is why I want to bring it up.
The Silver Winner for me was All the King's Men. You can read my review of it here. What is yours and why?
Showing posts with label 24hr RPG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 24hr RPG. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Movie Mash up - Princes of Arabia
Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is Princes of Arabia, a submission by Aldo "Maledictus" Ojeda
Whoops. Both Rob and I missed this one, so I'm going to make sure this gets a review ASAP. First off, I'm going to say right now that I'm not really going to look at the language of the game unless it's really problematic. The reason is that this is someone not writing in his first language, and as someone who struggles with his written French I can sympathize.
What Aldo did was take Aladdin and Raiders of the Lost Ark and combine them to create an rollicking adventures to find treasure and gold. It's the second Raiders of the Lost Ark game, and it'll be interesting to see what's done with that.
As an aside, I think that might have been a problem with the contest. There were too many options to choose from so that we didn't get to see what a lot of people would do with the same film. It's hard because the wide selections of films created some games, like Droog Family Songbook, that were just amazingly off the hook.
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
The game has this one sided mash-up feel to it that a lot of the earlier games did. When you have Disney's Aladdin and you reference the fourty thieves you're mixing your source materials. It's got a very 1001 Arabian Nights and Raiders of the Lost Ark feel to the game since you play some of the fourty thieves who have been hired by the various, nefarious, groups in "Arabia" to get treasure that has been 'lost' and needs to be 're-acquired.'
Everything is in scare quotes because really the people who hire you are as crooked as they come and are just stealing from each other. I do think that the best part of the background write up is the section on the Crusaders:
Crusaders. I hate those guys too. It's a lovely little moment in the text that really works. However, it's just one of those elements that points towards 1001 Arabian Nights, or Lawrence of Arabia, rather than Aladdin. I mean, if he had the Genie doing it with his Robin Williams voice then that's comedy gold. As it stands, just points towards the fact that while the sentiment is right on the target, the target that got hit was in the other lane.
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Yes, it is a complete game. It's got a conflict resolution system, it's got the end of the scenario, everything you need is there to play it. Now, I feel that the conflicts might take too long because for every success you have, you only reduce the difficulty of the encounter by 1 and you only take damage when you roll a 1. I think there really isn't much tension if you fail a die roll, and there is little incentive to spend your Adventure Points to take damage for a friend.
The idea is that you roll a d6 and add your appropriate stat. If it's seven or greater then you reduce the encounter by 1. What I would like to see is that the higher rolls reduce the encounter strength even more. Say like a 10 reducing it by 4. Of course, to make the tension greater the flipside would be true as well. If you go lower than 7 then you would end up taking damage. A 6 would deal 1 damage, a 5 would deal 2 and so on and so forth on down.
I haven't played it, so this is just me speculating, but that's what came to my mind.
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
The PDF itself is easy to read, the the few sketches are a little on the cute and cartoony, which doesn't fit the theme too well but aren't distracting at all. The font is very readable, and it flows very well.
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
I think this has to have the nicest character sheets out of all the games. It's just a bunch of boxes, but it's an appropriate bunch of boxes. I like the fact that all of them can fit on a single sheet of paper too.
Would I play it?
Yes, I would. I'd like to play it as written, and then try it with the modification just to see if it speeds things up. It's a fun game, well executed as a game. It just didn't execute the rules of the contest.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is Princes of Arabia, a submission by Aldo "Maledictus" Ojeda
Whoops. Both Rob and I missed this one, so I'm going to make sure this gets a review ASAP. First off, I'm going to say right now that I'm not really going to look at the language of the game unless it's really problematic. The reason is that this is someone not writing in his first language, and as someone who struggles with his written French I can sympathize.
What Aldo did was take Aladdin and Raiders of the Lost Ark and combine them to create an rollicking adventures to find treasure and gold. It's the second Raiders of the Lost Ark game, and it'll be interesting to see what's done with that.
As an aside, I think that might have been a problem with the contest. There were too many options to choose from so that we didn't get to see what a lot of people would do with the same film. It's hard because the wide selections of films created some games, like Droog Family Songbook, that were just amazingly off the hook.
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
The game has this one sided mash-up feel to it that a lot of the earlier games did. When you have Disney's Aladdin and you reference the fourty thieves you're mixing your source materials. It's got a very 1001 Arabian Nights and Raiders of the Lost Ark feel to the game since you play some of the fourty thieves who have been hired by the various, nefarious, groups in "Arabia" to get treasure that has been 'lost' and needs to be 're-acquired.'
Everything is in scare quotes because really the people who hire you are as crooked as they come and are just stealing from each other. I do think that the best part of the background write up is the section on the Crusaders:
Crusaders – Crusaders, I hate this guys. They come from far away and claim Arabia as theirs. The only thing they care is money, they pillage towns and attack innocent people.
Crusaders. I hate those guys too. It's a lovely little moment in the text that really works. However, it's just one of those elements that points towards 1001 Arabian Nights, or Lawrence of Arabia, rather than Aladdin. I mean, if he had the Genie doing it with his Robin Williams voice then that's comedy gold. As it stands, just points towards the fact that while the sentiment is right on the target, the target that got hit was in the other lane.
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Yes, it is a complete game. It's got a conflict resolution system, it's got the end of the scenario, everything you need is there to play it. Now, I feel that the conflicts might take too long because for every success you have, you only reduce the difficulty of the encounter by 1 and you only take damage when you roll a 1. I think there really isn't much tension if you fail a die roll, and there is little incentive to spend your Adventure Points to take damage for a friend.
The idea is that you roll a d6 and add your appropriate stat. If it's seven or greater then you reduce the encounter by 1. What I would like to see is that the higher rolls reduce the encounter strength even more. Say like a 10 reducing it by 4. Of course, to make the tension greater the flipside would be true as well. If you go lower than 7 then you would end up taking damage. A 6 would deal 1 damage, a 5 would deal 2 and so on and so forth on down.
I haven't played it, so this is just me speculating, but that's what came to my mind.
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
The PDF itself is easy to read, the the few sketches are a little on the cute and cartoony, which doesn't fit the theme too well but aren't distracting at all. The font is very readable, and it flows very well.
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
I think this has to have the nicest character sheets out of all the games. It's just a bunch of boxes, but it's an appropriate bunch of boxes. I like the fact that all of them can fit on a single sheet of paper too.
Would I play it?
Yes, I would. I'd like to play it as written, and then try it with the modification just to see if it speeds things up. It's a fun game, well executed as a game. It just didn't execute the rules of the contest.
Movie Mash Up - Droog Family Songbook
Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is Droog Family Songbook, a submission by Nathan Russell
Wow, A Clockwork Orange and Sound of Music? I'd love to see how Nathan's mind works the rest of the time, because that's a challenging combination of films to mash together. I mean, one of them is an ultra-violent dark future mashup where teenagers are hell bent on causing as much violence as they can for kicks while the other is a rollicking romp of a musical where you have a family that has to avoid the Nazis. At first blush this idea is full of head-scratching what-the-fuckery, but I think Nathan does an amazing job at mashing the two up into something pretty incredible.
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
What if I told you that it was right up there with All the King's Men for getting the the two films together and keeping the main elements intact? It would be strange, right? Well, in this game it is the future 1995 to be exact, and there are Nazi's everywhere in Europe and you have to make your escape. However, you need to try to keep three of your favourite things from being destroyed so you can take them with you.
How do you protect them? Hopefully by just dealing with situation, but in case you can't you can resort to a little bit of the old ultraviolence me droogies. You have to describe the horrible things you do to the various characters to make sure that what you love isn't destroyed. Depending on how much you protect things without over-killing everything will determine how well you survive the Nazis.
The best part is, that there is singing in this game. Yes, you are forced into song and that's perhaps one of the better parts of the game.
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
This game is 100% complete, in fact it's probably one of the most complete games out of all of the games in the competition. All you need is a single D6 and a D10 per player and some tokens. Because the game is GMless it's very easy to pick up and start running the game, because it does have a defined end game. The character creation process is just a lot of fun, with a bunch of random 90s fashion choices for your character to choose from.
Once you're done deciding what the character looks like, you pick your three favourite things and then you're ready to play. Then it becomes what kind of horrible situations you can put other player's favourite things in and hope that it turns ultra violent. Because there are three favourite things there are three chances at setting up scenes that cause people to have to defend them.
The only thing I'm not a super fan of is the random die roll to determine what's going on for the resolution of the scene if you leave it to Fate. What would have been nice is that there should be a vote to determine if Fate favours the player in the spotlight or another player. Each vote is a +1 to the die roll, that way it might encourage more storytelling, dramatic or entertaining, for personal benefit.
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
This is a very attractive PDF. Now I'm not a huge fan of the coloured backgrounds, and if this goes further Nathan should really consider putting out a printer friendly version of the PDF. That being said, this colouring is very, very appropriate. It's a faded paper with the water marked sheet music, just perfect. The only way it would be more perfect would be if the sheet music is the sheet music to "My Favourite Things" or something from the Sound of Music, or Beethoven because that's what Alex listened to all the time.
There are a couple of places where paragraphs are your friend, and they were totally ditched. Just a huge block of text like that kinda of hurt my head, and it was right at the beginning to which is never a good sign. Thankfully I was able to persevere and get to the rest of this book.
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
It's got a cover and a set of character sheets in the back. Truly, it doesn't need anything else since it's such a straightforward mechanic and rule system.
Would you play it?
Yes, I would. In fact, I want to play it right now. Anyone up for this? I have one more to read, but I'll tell you right now that this is my prediction for the winner. I can say that now that I'm almost done, but this is clearly the front runner.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is Droog Family Songbook, a submission by Nathan Russell
Wow, A Clockwork Orange and Sound of Music? I'd love to see how Nathan's mind works the rest of the time, because that's a challenging combination of films to mash together. I mean, one of them is an ultra-violent dark future mashup where teenagers are hell bent on causing as much violence as they can for kicks while the other is a rollicking romp of a musical where you have a family that has to avoid the Nazis. At first blush this idea is full of head-scratching what-the-fuckery, but I think Nathan does an amazing job at mashing the two up into something pretty incredible.
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
What if I told you that it was right up there with All the King's Men for getting the the two films together and keeping the main elements intact? It would be strange, right? Well, in this game it is the future 1995 to be exact, and there are Nazi's everywhere in Europe and you have to make your escape. However, you need to try to keep three of your favourite things from being destroyed so you can take them with you.
How do you protect them? Hopefully by just dealing with situation, but in case you can't you can resort to a little bit of the old ultraviolence me droogies. You have to describe the horrible things you do to the various characters to make sure that what you love isn't destroyed. Depending on how much you protect things without over-killing everything will determine how well you survive the Nazis.
The best part is, that there is singing in this game. Yes, you are forced into song and that's perhaps one of the better parts of the game.
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
This game is 100% complete, in fact it's probably one of the most complete games out of all of the games in the competition. All you need is a single D6 and a D10 per player and some tokens. Because the game is GMless it's very easy to pick up and start running the game, because it does have a defined end game. The character creation process is just a lot of fun, with a bunch of random 90s fashion choices for your character to choose from.
Once you're done deciding what the character looks like, you pick your three favourite things and then you're ready to play. Then it becomes what kind of horrible situations you can put other player's favourite things in and hope that it turns ultra violent. Because there are three favourite things there are three chances at setting up scenes that cause people to have to defend them.
The only thing I'm not a super fan of is the random die roll to determine what's going on for the resolution of the scene if you leave it to Fate. What would have been nice is that there should be a vote to determine if Fate favours the player in the spotlight or another player. Each vote is a +1 to the die roll, that way it might encourage more storytelling, dramatic or entertaining, for personal benefit.
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
This is a very attractive PDF. Now I'm not a huge fan of the coloured backgrounds, and if this goes further Nathan should really consider putting out a printer friendly version of the PDF. That being said, this colouring is very, very appropriate. It's a faded paper with the water marked sheet music, just perfect. The only way it would be more perfect would be if the sheet music is the sheet music to "My Favourite Things" or something from the Sound of Music, or Beethoven because that's what Alex listened to all the time.
There are a couple of places where paragraphs are your friend, and they were totally ditched. Just a huge block of text like that kinda of hurt my head, and it was right at the beginning to which is never a good sign. Thankfully I was able to persevere and get to the rest of this book.
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
It's got a cover and a set of character sheets in the back. Truly, it doesn't need anything else since it's such a straightforward mechanic and rule system.
Would you play it?
Yes, I would. In fact, I want to play it right now. Anyone up for this? I have one more to read, but I'll tell you right now that this is my prediction for the winner. I can say that now that I'm almost done, but this is clearly the front runner.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Movie Mashup - All The King's Men
Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is All the King's Men, a submission by Geoff Lamb
I liked this game a lot. Theme makes me happy. If you've got a theme where you have people trying to understand what they're doing, and how they might be on the wrong side, then I'm there. I love playing out those kind of situations where you are full of that dreaded realization that you are part of the bad guys. I think it's one of the reasons why I'm not a huge fan of Vampire, because there's no slow reveal. It's *BAMF* you're a bad guy now.
So, say hello to the bad guy. That would be you.
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
This is another example of an excellent mash up. You have the Robin Hood veneer, which allows you to pretty much tell the tale of Apocalypse Now. While I love mash-ups that take two elements and make something new, this one makes something new by being the most perfect balance of the two types of films that while you can see where one ends and the other begins, it's at the midway point.
While the setting is very much Robin Hood, though you are one of the faceless men of the Sheriff of Nottingham, allows for the Apocalypse Now type feel, the mechanic helps with the slow descent into madness. Failure slowly erodes at your self until you're either are killed, have snapped, or give up. I love entropy games mechanics because it is a slow fight that you are destined to lose.
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
It is a complete game. As I mentioned above the mechanics fit perfectly into the style of game that the game wants you to play. It also really pushes that kind of war movie mentality where each platoon has their kind of specialist since once someone takes a focus, or a specialty no other character can take it. That way you kind of get that vibe, you know the one. You get Tex, and Sniper, and Gunner and all the stereotypes you get in that kind of film in the game, it's great.
It also has a really defined end game. You lose all of one stat and that's it. So if your lower stats get pushed then you're out really quickly, but I can see this game going on with a rotating set of mooks. One dies, or joins the other side and another comes to take his or her place. It is kind of needed since a quick succession of failures will end up with your character on the brink almost too fast, and there is never any fun to be found in sitting around watching others play a game you just technically lost.
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
As far as attractiveness, it's a pretty simple pdf. There's nothing big and fancy here. There is the appropriate Robin Hood imagery, but again that's probably the easiest to find.
There was a decision that I find a little odd. Instead of including all the material it takes to build a character in the character creation section, it's found in the appendix. You really want to put that stuff right where the people are going to see and use it rather than in the back. The back is where you put the summary so that people can reference what they want. That would be my only real gripe with the way the book is layed out.
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Cover, character sheet and even an appendix all included!
Would I play it?
Absolutely. I wouldn't change anything either, I'd love to give this game a whirl and find my character coming to grips with their own bad decisions.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is All the King's Men, a submission by Geoff Lamb
I liked this game a lot. Theme makes me happy. If you've got a theme where you have people trying to understand what they're doing, and how they might be on the wrong side, then I'm there. I love playing out those kind of situations where you are full of that dreaded realization that you are part of the bad guys. I think it's one of the reasons why I'm not a huge fan of Vampire, because there's no slow reveal. It's *BAMF* you're a bad guy now.
So, say hello to the bad guy. That would be you.
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
This is another example of an excellent mash up. You have the Robin Hood veneer, which allows you to pretty much tell the tale of Apocalypse Now. While I love mash-ups that take two elements and make something new, this one makes something new by being the most perfect balance of the two types of films that while you can see where one ends and the other begins, it's at the midway point.
While the setting is very much Robin Hood, though you are one of the faceless men of the Sheriff of Nottingham, allows for the Apocalypse Now type feel, the mechanic helps with the slow descent into madness. Failure slowly erodes at your self until you're either are killed, have snapped, or give up. I love entropy games mechanics because it is a slow fight that you are destined to lose.
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
It is a complete game. As I mentioned above the mechanics fit perfectly into the style of game that the game wants you to play. It also really pushes that kind of war movie mentality where each platoon has their kind of specialist since once someone takes a focus, or a specialty no other character can take it. That way you kind of get that vibe, you know the one. You get Tex, and Sniper, and Gunner and all the stereotypes you get in that kind of film in the game, it's great.
It also has a really defined end game. You lose all of one stat and that's it. So if your lower stats get pushed then you're out really quickly, but I can see this game going on with a rotating set of mooks. One dies, or joins the other side and another comes to take his or her place. It is kind of needed since a quick succession of failures will end up with your character on the brink almost too fast, and there is never any fun to be found in sitting around watching others play a game you just technically lost.
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
As far as attractiveness, it's a pretty simple pdf. There's nothing big and fancy here. There is the appropriate Robin Hood imagery, but again that's probably the easiest to find.
There was a decision that I find a little odd. Instead of including all the material it takes to build a character in the character creation section, it's found in the appendix. You really want to put that stuff right where the people are going to see and use it rather than in the back. The back is where you put the summary so that people can reference what they want. That would be my only real gripe with the way the book is layed out.
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Cover, character sheet and even an appendix all included!
Would I play it?
Absolutely. I wouldn't change anything either, I'd love to give this game a whirl and find my character coming to grips with their own bad decisions.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Movie Mashup 2011 - Ghost-Runner: The 9th Layer
Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is Ghost-Runner: The 9th Layer, submission number two by Shinobicow
Wow. A second one. I know that I want to do another one some time down the road, which might mean never, but doing two in quick succession is impressive even though I did slack a lot and get to this review this late.
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
It's actually exactly what I'm looking for in regards to what a movie mash up should be. It's got the flavours of both, where you have people who are trying to catch escape ghosts while in a dystopian dark future, but is still its own game with it's own feel. Certainly that feel is slightly more in the path of Blade Runner than Ghostbusters, you are corporate working Ghostrunners whose job description includes hunting down rogue ghosts and demons and vengeful spirits all without raising the alarm to the intentionally ignorant populace.
What I think would have been a nice addition to the world is that instead of having a prophet come out and try to out what was going on, basically that they had discovered a way of bringing back the souls of the dead and putting them into robot bodies, would be that if the fact that this was a secret was of the utmost importance. I think it would add a layer of extra conflict with the players, how do they go about doing things so that the least people are aware of what's happening. What do they do with the people who they find out, do they recruit them or do they "deal" with them to save their own jobs.
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
It's a little on the complicated side since it also mashed up two different rule sets (DOOM8 and FATE) so sometimes the rules get a little, murky. To be fair this may be my stumbling with FATE Aspects, which is what the game uses, rather than anything else.
I know it might be easy to some, I've just tried to work it out in my head and it makes sense but I've never played it so ...
Also, this does create a fair bit of legal text at the beginning of the book. It wasn't a huge problem, but it's still a little annoying when you want to get to the game.
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
It is a pretty attractive product, done up on the standard 8.5" x 11" letter (215.9 by 279.4 mm) format. It's got two columns, and readable fonts and appropriate pictures (which is always harder than people think). However, I'm gonna call Greg out on the Matrix-like green that he ended up using, every single dark future/cyberpunk/dystopic rpg uses that same green colour whenever they do anything now. I was greatly amused when Shadowrun changed to the same cyan that I had used for CyberGeneration because I think they get sick of it too.
The other thing is that there isn't an appendix, only a large ghost like figure that takes up the whole page. I can totally understand that there wasn't time to put something there, but when that's the case cut it completely rather than have an extra page that someone who might hit print will have to deal with. I'm also not a fan of the same image taking up a large part of the character sheet. It's just taking up space without really giving anything to the page.
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Yup, there's a cover and a pretty extensive character sheet. The only problem with the sheet is that large ghost like image on the upper right of the first page. Beyond that, it's good!
Would I play it?
Yes, actually. I might not use the same system, I might just go with a straight FATE game rather than this mash up, but the world is totally compelling enough that I would adapt it to my own desires. Good job!
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is Ghost-Runner: The 9th Layer, submission number two by Shinobicow
Wow. A second one. I know that I want to do another one some time down the road, which might mean never, but doing two in quick succession is impressive even though I did slack a lot and get to this review this late.
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
It's actually exactly what I'm looking for in regards to what a movie mash up should be. It's got the flavours of both, where you have people who are trying to catch escape ghosts while in a dystopian dark future, but is still its own game with it's own feel. Certainly that feel is slightly more in the path of Blade Runner than Ghostbusters, you are corporate working Ghostrunners whose job description includes hunting down rogue ghosts and demons and vengeful spirits all without raising the alarm to the intentionally ignorant populace.
What I think would have been a nice addition to the world is that instead of having a prophet come out and try to out what was going on, basically that they had discovered a way of bringing back the souls of the dead and putting them into robot bodies, would be that if the fact that this was a secret was of the utmost importance. I think it would add a layer of extra conflict with the players, how do they go about doing things so that the least people are aware of what's happening. What do they do with the people who they find out, do they recruit them or do they "deal" with them to save their own jobs.
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
It's a little on the complicated side since it also mashed up two different rule sets (DOOM8 and FATE) so sometimes the rules get a little, murky. To be fair this may be my stumbling with FATE Aspects, which is what the game uses, rather than anything else.
I know it might be easy to some, I've just tried to work it out in my head and it makes sense but I've never played it so ...
Also, this does create a fair bit of legal text at the beginning of the book. It wasn't a huge problem, but it's still a little annoying when you want to get to the game.
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
It is a pretty attractive product, done up on the standard 8.5" x 11" letter (215.9 by 279.4 mm) format. It's got two columns, and readable fonts and appropriate pictures (which is always harder than people think). However, I'm gonna call Greg out on the Matrix-like green that he ended up using, every single dark future/cyberpunk/dystopic rpg uses that same green colour whenever they do anything now. I was greatly amused when Shadowrun changed to the same cyan that I had used for CyberGeneration because I think they get sick of it too.
The other thing is that there isn't an appendix, only a large ghost like figure that takes up the whole page. I can totally understand that there wasn't time to put something there, but when that's the case cut it completely rather than have an extra page that someone who might hit print will have to deal with. I'm also not a fan of the same image taking up a large part of the character sheet. It's just taking up space without really giving anything to the page.
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Yup, there's a cover and a pretty extensive character sheet. The only problem with the sheet is that large ghost like image on the upper right of the first page. Beyond that, it's good!
Would I play it?
Yes, actually. I might not use the same system, I might just go with a straight FATE game rather than this mash up, but the world is totally compelling enough that I would adapt it to my own desires. Good job!
Friday, April 22, 2011
[Need Catchy Contest Name] - Brrr! It's Cold Sports!
There seems to be a large amount of contests that are going about the place. You've got Game Chef which should be starting up in a couple of months. You've got the Ronnies, which I still think is one of the most masturbatory titles in all of game publishing, which happen ... well whenever it seems. The key thing is that they get the creativity flowing and some really cool things happen from them. Heck, someone hijacked my almost empty lets tell a story thread to tell me that Fall of Granada was going to be turned into a real live book.
All this is cool.
However, what I see that is lacking is a sense of diversity. They all try to kind of do the same thing, here are some keywords and some stuff and here's your time frame and then we'll see what comes up. This is good, again there are plenty of cool games that come out of this. What I'm going to do is start my own contest, in honor of The New Toy selling The Licensed NHL Hockey Guys from Kaskey Kids. Let's see if someone can come up with a game, and I'm not going to limit it to RPGs, but a game that can take a sport and turn it into an RPG, Boardgame or Card game? That's right, I'm going that route. AMAZING.
Now, for the limitations. Because limits are what make things challenging.
1. It has to be a winter sport. By that I mean something that would get played at the Winter Olympics. Here is a handy, dandy list:
1. Alpine skiing
2. Biathlon
3. Bobsleigh
4. Cross-country skiing
5. Curling
6. Figure skating
7. Freestyle skiing
8. Ice hockey
9. Luge
10. Nordic combined
11. Short track speed skating
12. Skeleton
13. Ski jumping
14. Snowboarding
15. Speed skating
2. Mutant League XX - This is also inspired because I got the urge to do a version of Blood Bowl. That means there has to be some sort of mayhem attached to the game. Now I know someone is going to make a, "well I just have to do hockey normally then, don't I?" joke. That's fine, you can make the joke but I think it could do with some over the top violence there.
How do I enter?
1. Well, post here expressing your interest.
2. When your game is done, post it in the completion thread over at the "What's been done" post with a link to the game.
a. If it's an RPG, a link to the PDF is fine.
b. If it's a card game, a link to the rules and a PDF of the cars works.
c. Board game see above, though if you have specialty pieces you're gonna wanna tell us how to make them.
Deadline
I think this should give people plenty of time to think about it. Let's say September 31st because that's con season plus 1 month. I'm flexible on this, if you think it should be shorter, that's fine. If you want to submit early, that's fine.
Judging Criteria
Me and a panel of me will be the judges on this one. Not because I think I'm overly qualified for this, but because I think it'd be kind of cool to judge this. We're going to do it, a la dancing with the stars kind of judging. I'm going to give each game a rating, based off of the criteria below, and then we'll use that as the base point value. Then we'll have a vote off to determine the winner.
The Criteria are:
1. Completeness: Can we play the game, or does it feel like it needs a lot more work.
2. Fun: Is the game fun to play? Does it do the things that make you want to play it again, or continue the campaign.
3. Mayhem: How much mayhem is there? Blood all over the ice, or does it feel like too goons tweeted to stage a fight?
4. Look: How good does the game look? Is it pretty, is it awesome looking? Does it inspire the crowd to riot when their team wins?
Each is based out of 10 and that will provide the base score.
I'll make one too, it just can't enter the contest. There may be something cool at the end, I don't know. I may not have the power of an OGB behind me, but maybe a gift card for IPR, or Drivethru of undetermined value would be up for grabs.
That's right, I'm not cool enough to get people on my own. I'm going to have to bribe them with piddly sums of non transferable cash.
All this is cool.
However, what I see that is lacking is a sense of diversity. They all try to kind of do the same thing, here are some keywords and some stuff and here's your time frame and then we'll see what comes up. This is good, again there are plenty of cool games that come out of this. What I'm going to do is start my own contest, in honor of The New Toy selling The Licensed NHL Hockey Guys from Kaskey Kids. Let's see if someone can come up with a game, and I'm not going to limit it to RPGs, but a game that can take a sport and turn it into an RPG, Boardgame or Card game? That's right, I'm going that route. AMAZING.
Now, for the limitations. Because limits are what make things challenging.
1. It has to be a winter sport. By that I mean something that would get played at the Winter Olympics. Here is a handy, dandy list:
1. Alpine skiing
2. Biathlon
3. Bobsleigh
4. Cross-country skiing
5. Curling
6. Figure skating
7. Freestyle skiing
8. Ice hockey
9. Luge
10. Nordic combined
11. Short track speed skating
12. Skeleton
13. Ski jumping
14. Snowboarding
15. Speed skating
2. Mutant League XX - This is also inspired because I got the urge to do a version of Blood Bowl. That means there has to be some sort of mayhem attached to the game. Now I know someone is going to make a, "well I just have to do hockey normally then, don't I?" joke. That's fine, you can make the joke but I think it could do with some over the top violence there.
How do I enter?
1. Well, post here expressing your interest.
2. When your game is done, post it in the completion thread over at the "What's been done" post with a link to the game.
a. If it's an RPG, a link to the PDF is fine.
b. If it's a card game, a link to the rules and a PDF of the cars works.
c. Board game see above, though if you have specialty pieces you're gonna wanna tell us how to make them.
Deadline
I think this should give people plenty of time to think about it. Let's say September 31st because that's con season plus 1 month. I'm flexible on this, if you think it should be shorter, that's fine. If you want to submit early, that's fine.
Judging Criteria
Me and a panel of me will be the judges on this one. Not because I think I'm overly qualified for this, but because I think it'd be kind of cool to judge this. We're going to do it, a la dancing with the stars kind of judging. I'm going to give each game a rating, based off of the criteria below, and then we'll use that as the base point value. Then we'll have a vote off to determine the winner.
The Criteria are:
1. Completeness: Can we play the game, or does it feel like it needs a lot more work.
2. Fun: Is the game fun to play? Does it do the things that make you want to play it again, or continue the campaign.
3. Mayhem: How much mayhem is there? Blood all over the ice, or does it feel like too goons tweeted to stage a fight?
4. Look: How good does the game look? Is it pretty, is it awesome looking? Does it inspire the crowd to riot when their team wins?
Each is based out of 10 and that will provide the base score.
I'll make one too, it just can't enter the contest. There may be something cool at the end, I don't know. I may not have the power of an OGB behind me, but maybe a gift card for IPR, or Drivethru of undetermined value would be up for grabs.
That's right, I'm not cool enough to get people on my own. I'm going to have to bribe them with piddly sums of non transferable cash.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Movie Mashup 2011 - Spade vs. Indy
Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is Spade vs Indy by Tamás Kisbali aka Evil Scientist
Spade vs. Indy tells your right away what kind of game this is, and what movies were used to mash things up. This one uses the Maltese Falcon and the Indiana Jones movies to create a wonderfully film noir, pulp adventure experience. This one just kind of popped up for me, I hadn't been to 1km1kt.net in a while, so I didn't have the same sense of anticipation when I read the game but it's still a pretty damned good idea.
Proximity
Yes. This is what I see as a mashup. It's not one, or the other, but it takes elements from both movies and turns it into an original game. It's pulpy, and campy, and full of the potential for backstabbing, doomed romance, and mustached twirling villains. You always feel like you're in both movies, without feeling too much like you're in one or the other. Perfect.
Complete
100% complete. It would have been nicer to have a few more examples, just to make sure that some of the rules are clear. The game uses a card system to determine everything from stats to success. Not only do you have a set of cards for character creation and tricks, but you'll need a second one to be the random challenge difficulty.
Where the game shines in a place where it might fail is the role of the secondary characters. There are two main characters, your spade and your indy but if you've got more than three players then normally what you're left with is a bunch of unhappy players. However, here the associates get the fun job of trying to screw up the two 'main' characters to get what their characters want. It's a really elegant way to solve the problem of not being in the spotlight since it's not "your story."
Attractive and Professional
The few graphic elements in the pdf are nicely placed and are perfect for the setting. Same thing with the header fonts. The separate colours really make them pop well.
The standard body font is serviceable, unless we're dealing with quotes. That's when I want to take what's been done with the book and throw it out. Seriously jarring to have to deal with one of the quote marks on the bottom and the other on the top. It's the only thing I would change in the whole document, but it's a big one especially in the opening story text section where you're going to either capture your audience or lose them.
Extras
It's got the character sheet at the bottom, with a little nifty crest watermarked in it. The slots are big enough to place the cards in, but in reality I'd rather just write the number and suit down rather than have to worry about fixing the cards to the paper somehow.
Also, a little personal quip of mine. I'm kind of sad that it's got a No Derivative Clause in the Creative Commons License. I think this is a wonderful mechanic, to the point where I start to wonder how I can hack it. Just a personal qualm, nothing actually bad about the game itself.
Would I play it?
Hell yes. It's in the current, games I think that should win this contest.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is Spade vs Indy by Tamás Kisbali aka Evil Scientist
Spade vs. Indy tells your right away what kind of game this is, and what movies were used to mash things up. This one uses the Maltese Falcon and the Indiana Jones movies to create a wonderfully film noir, pulp adventure experience. This one just kind of popped up for me, I hadn't been to 1km1kt.net in a while, so I didn't have the same sense of anticipation when I read the game but it's still a pretty damned good idea.
Proximity
Yes. This is what I see as a mashup. It's not one, or the other, but it takes elements from both movies and turns it into an original game. It's pulpy, and campy, and full of the potential for backstabbing, doomed romance, and mustached twirling villains. You always feel like you're in both movies, without feeling too much like you're in one or the other. Perfect.
Complete
100% complete. It would have been nicer to have a few more examples, just to make sure that some of the rules are clear. The game uses a card system to determine everything from stats to success. Not only do you have a set of cards for character creation and tricks, but you'll need a second one to be the random challenge difficulty.
Where the game shines in a place where it might fail is the role of the secondary characters. There are two main characters, your spade and your indy but if you've got more than three players then normally what you're left with is a bunch of unhappy players. However, here the associates get the fun job of trying to screw up the two 'main' characters to get what their characters want. It's a really elegant way to solve the problem of not being in the spotlight since it's not "your story."
Attractive and Professional
The few graphic elements in the pdf are nicely placed and are perfect for the setting. Same thing with the header fonts. The separate colours really make them pop well.
The standard body font is serviceable, unless we're dealing with quotes. That's when I want to take what's been done with the book and throw it out. Seriously jarring to have to deal with one of the quote marks on the bottom and the other on the top. It's the only thing I would change in the whole document, but it's a big one especially in the opening story text section where you're going to either capture your audience or lose them.
Extras
It's got the character sheet at the bottom, with a little nifty crest watermarked in it. The slots are big enough to place the cards in, but in reality I'd rather just write the number and suit down rather than have to worry about fixing the cards to the paper somehow.
Also, a little personal quip of mine. I'm kind of sad that it's got a No Derivative Clause in the Creative Commons License. I think this is a wonderful mechanic, to the point where I start to wonder how I can hack it. Just a personal qualm, nothing actually bad about the game itself.
Would I play it?
Hell yes. It's in the current, games I think that should win this contest.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Movie Mashup 2011 - The Great Garbage War
Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is The Great Garbage War by Alistair Morrison
The idea behind this was to take Wall-E and Mars Attack. What I love about this challenge is that these are two very different movies and bringing them together isn't something that comes easily in my head. This means that there's a good chance for a rather pleasant surprise when it comes times to reading the game, that or it could go horribly wrong. Either way, I think a kudos is needed whenever someone goes out on a limb and this game is by far the most going out on the limb game I've seen.
Proximity
The game is less of a mash-up of two movies to create a new game, but taking Wall-E extending it and putting Mars Attack in. It feels like a bit of fan fiction in that regard, ridiculous silly fan fiction, and this isn't a knock on the idea or the game. Fan Fiction is a type of mash-up, especially if you add outside elements of other fannish things (movies, books, etc.). However, much like my complaint about A Fistfull of Darkness it feels more like Mars Attacks slapped at the end of Wall-E rather than a combination of the two movies. I think if you take Mars Attack as one of the movies, that's going to be the nature of the beast. It's hard to take "Martians invading the planet" and not have it feel like you've just thrown it in the middle, or the end, of the other movie.
Complete
This is a lovely complete game. The mechanics are pretty simple roll a bunch of d6 depending on your stats and 5s and 6s count as successes. The system is pretty lethal, which makes sense because Mars Attacks is all about the death and destruction part, and quick. The biggest and brightest part is the probability table, which I think makes picking a difficulty number easier for anyone wanting to run this.
Attractive and Professional
The book is layed out well, and rather well written. There are definitely a couple of chuckle worthy moments. I'm going to give the book a fail on two points, and they might seem minor but they're important even if you're going to do free work. There are two movie stills in the book, and that's a big no-no. They aren't copyright free, or even under a creative commons license. If you want to be professional about stuff, taking something that you don't have the rights to is a very large mistake and I'm going to have to point it out here. Yes, it is only 2 stills but that's two stills too many.
Extras
There are lots of lovely charts and appendices at the end to help you reference things quickly if needed. The character sheet has all the details and everything you need to play which is in keeping with how well the book is layed out and how clean it looks.
Would I play it?
I'm still undecided. I'm leaning more towards the not, because there are a lot of other games so far I'd like to play in the contest and I have a limited time. Yeah, very undecided. The mechanics are easy to pick up, but I'm not sure if I'm convinced that thematically this is something I'd want to play. I'll probably be mulling this for a while.
However, again, Kudos needs to be given for trying to mash these two films up.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Today's game is The Great Garbage War by Alistair Morrison
The idea behind this was to take Wall-E and Mars Attack. What I love about this challenge is that these are two very different movies and bringing them together isn't something that comes easily in my head. This means that there's a good chance for a rather pleasant surprise when it comes times to reading the game, that or it could go horribly wrong. Either way, I think a kudos is needed whenever someone goes out on a limb and this game is by far the most going out on the limb game I've seen.
Proximity
The game is less of a mash-up of two movies to create a new game, but taking Wall-E extending it and putting Mars Attack in. It feels like a bit of fan fiction in that regard, ridiculous silly fan fiction, and this isn't a knock on the idea or the game. Fan Fiction is a type of mash-up, especially if you add outside elements of other fannish things (movies, books, etc.). However, much like my complaint about A Fistfull of Darkness it feels more like Mars Attacks slapped at the end of Wall-E rather than a combination of the two movies. I think if you take Mars Attack as one of the movies, that's going to be the nature of the beast. It's hard to take "Martians invading the planet" and not have it feel like you've just thrown it in the middle, or the end, of the other movie.
Complete
This is a lovely complete game. The mechanics are pretty simple roll a bunch of d6 depending on your stats and 5s and 6s count as successes. The system is pretty lethal, which makes sense because Mars Attacks is all about the death and destruction part, and quick. The biggest and brightest part is the probability table, which I think makes picking a difficulty number easier for anyone wanting to run this.
Attractive and Professional
The book is layed out well, and rather well written. There are definitely a couple of chuckle worthy moments. I'm going to give the book a fail on two points, and they might seem minor but they're important even if you're going to do free work. There are two movie stills in the book, and that's a big no-no. They aren't copyright free, or even under a creative commons license. If you want to be professional about stuff, taking something that you don't have the rights to is a very large mistake and I'm going to have to point it out here. Yes, it is only 2 stills but that's two stills too many.
Extras
There are lots of lovely charts and appendices at the end to help you reference things quickly if needed. The character sheet has all the details and everything you need to play which is in keeping with how well the book is layed out and how clean it looks.
Would I play it?
I'm still undecided. I'm leaning more towards the not, because there are a lot of other games so far I'd like to play in the contest and I have a limited time. Yeah, very undecided. The mechanics are easy to pick up, but I'm not sure if I'm convinced that thematically this is something I'd want to play. I'll probably be mulling this for a while.
However, again, Kudos needs to be given for trying to mash these two films up.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Movie Mashup 2011 - Djinnbusters
Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Next on the docket - Djinnbusters by Jens Thuresson (aka Groffa)
Djinnbusters is a game that takes Disney's Aladdin and Ghostbusters and combines them to have the players be ghost hunters in an Aladdin like setting. Now I will admit that I was both interested and cringing slightly when I heard this mash up. I was excited because I wanted to see the outcome and cringing because I still hadn't recovered fully from the Game Chef Fist Full of Native Use series from November. However, I think it does a pretty good job says me without really any background other than Arabian Nights (and by that I mean the book, honestly.)
Proximity: The game is a pretty good mash-up. You've got the setting from one, and a rather iconic object from the film in the lamp, and puts the Ghostbusters spin on it. I know this might sound like I'm going against what I said, with the previous review of A Fistfull of Dollars and Dark City, but there it didn't really give me the same kind of grit that I expected. Here we've got two comedies and a game that is actually pretty serious. You get jobs from Iago, which I will never hear any GM do without hearing Gilbert Godfrey's voice in my head, where you then go to try and find ways to weaken the ghosts that you encounter. It's got the magic carpet, with a personality, which I think is really important to me because the carpet was perhaps the best character in Aladdin.
Complete: It's a great little game. It uses the Good at / Bad at / Impossible at kind of mechanic and a very simple die roll. This is good because what really makes the game shine is the example where you're busy trying to figure out what makes the ghosts weak. I would totally make the players actually do what they thought they had to do in order to defeat the ghost. Sing songs, warm up those pipes folks. If it's dance, you'd better get ready to get up. If you had to throw things, you might want to start balling something up to throw. I might draw the line at like feeding it grapes, but just barely.
Attractive/Professional: It's nothing particularly special to look at. The art is all hand drawn and rather cute actually. It doesn't really convey the kind of seriousness the game has. I mean, as serious as any game that will get the players dancing to try to defeat ghosts can get. It would have been nice to get a couple more images in there that might have helped, but that's a small quibble.
It's a very functional document and does what it should do. That's really all you can ask from a book done in 24 hours. I blame Dr. Lang and his "how to layout a free rpg" guide.
Extras: It's got the character sheet, and a title page and a GM section which is always appreciated. It even has the "Don't enter here" page to help make sure the players really want to know how the thing works. I say that because the players knowing how the ghosts mostly work doesn't really impede the process.
Would I play it? Hell yeah. I would run it just to have my players dancing about. I think this one is my current favourite (sorry Alone in the Woods) so far but there's been a burst of new ones and we'll see how it goes.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Next on the docket - Djinnbusters by Jens Thuresson (aka Groffa)
Djinnbusters is a game that takes Disney's Aladdin and Ghostbusters and combines them to have the players be ghost hunters in an Aladdin like setting. Now I will admit that I was both interested and cringing slightly when I heard this mash up. I was excited because I wanted to see the outcome and cringing because I still hadn't recovered fully from the Game Chef Fist Full of Native Use series from November. However, I think it does a pretty good job says me without really any background other than Arabian Nights (and by that I mean the book, honestly.)
Proximity: The game is a pretty good mash-up. You've got the setting from one, and a rather iconic object from the film in the lamp, and puts the Ghostbusters spin on it. I know this might sound like I'm going against what I said, with the previous review of A Fistfull of Dollars and Dark City, but there it didn't really give me the same kind of grit that I expected. Here we've got two comedies and a game that is actually pretty serious. You get jobs from Iago, which I will never hear any GM do without hearing Gilbert Godfrey's voice in my head, where you then go to try and find ways to weaken the ghosts that you encounter. It's got the magic carpet, with a personality, which I think is really important to me because the carpet was perhaps the best character in Aladdin.
Complete: It's a great little game. It uses the Good at / Bad at / Impossible at kind of mechanic and a very simple die roll. This is good because what really makes the game shine is the example where you're busy trying to figure out what makes the ghosts weak. I would totally make the players actually do what they thought they had to do in order to defeat the ghost. Sing songs, warm up those pipes folks. If it's dance, you'd better get ready to get up. If you had to throw things, you might want to start balling something up to throw. I might draw the line at like feeding it grapes, but just barely.
Attractive/Professional: It's nothing particularly special to look at. The art is all hand drawn and rather cute actually. It doesn't really convey the kind of seriousness the game has. I mean, as serious as any game that will get the players dancing to try to defeat ghosts can get. It would have been nice to get a couple more images in there that might have helped, but that's a small quibble.
It's a very functional document and does what it should do. That's really all you can ask from a book done in 24 hours. I blame Dr. Lang and his "how to layout a free rpg" guide.
Extras: It's got the character sheet, and a title page and a GM section which is always appreciated. It even has the "Don't enter here" page to help make sure the players really want to know how the thing works. I say that because the players knowing how the ghosts mostly work doesn't really impede the process.
Would I play it? Hell yeah. I would run it just to have my players dancing about. I think this one is my current favourite (sorry Alone in the Woods) so far but there's been a burst of new ones and we'll see how it goes.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Movie Mashup 2011 - Review - Fist Full of Darkness
Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Next on the docket - Fist Full of Darkness by Gryffudd
Fist Full of Darkness is a game that is striving to take The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and Dark City and combines them into a single entity. I will admit that I was pretty excited by the sheer possibilities of this concept. A Western that deals with what Dark City deals with. That's pretty sweet, or it could go horrifically wrong. It all depended on what was going to happen on the other side of 24 hours.
Proximity: The game does a really good job of taking Dark City and making it Dark City at the OK Corral but it doesn't really feel a lot like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Not that this is generally a bad thing, I think taking a game and turning the genre on its ear can create some awesome game design moments. The problem is that you're trying to mash up two movies into a game, and this feels more like a drop from one was taken and put into a drinking glass filled with the other. It provided a little bit of flavour, a little bit of setting but not much more. I was hoping for a little bit more grit in my alien controlled city.
Complete: It's got all the rules that you need to know in order to play the game. You're always rolling 3 stat blocks worth of dice, which can make for some hand-fulls of dice situations if you've got your two highest stats being pushed against a really high resistance. It uses the DRYH idea of Dominance without the success part which weakens the suspense on the rolling. If you know that you only have to roll high, not get a good number of successes and high dice, and there are no consequences of using your other dice then it's functional, but again in a 24 hr RPG functional is what you're aiming for.
Attractive/Professional: I was jazzed when I saw the cover. I think it's one of the best covers in the competition so far. Really got me into what was going to be inside the cover. Hell, it even made me ignore the coloured paper, which usually annoys me to no end when it comes to RPG books. The border really adds to the Western feel of the game and is really pleasant to look at.
The problems happen when the text constantly runs overtop of the border. That's something that's easy to deal with and should probably be avoided. I know that the author has 24 hours, which is why I don't comment on things like typos or editing mistakes because you've got a limited time, but this is something that you can catch and fix with the basic functionality of whatever application that you're using. When this is one of the criteria I'm gonna mention it.
Smaller quip, would be to try to not have the images be a block of white behind them. It's a problem when you want to use images and coloured backgrounds. Again, it just detracts from the overall look of the book. Also, the two "Indian" images probably shouldn't be there. I use the term "Indian" intentionally, goodness knows I haven't talked about appropriation here, because the western that the author used didn't include any type of appropriative of caricatured depiction of First Nations people in the text, so including the use of said images just makes me sad, really.
Extras: There is a really lovely character sheet in the back filled with the same stylized border, but done in black and white. I think it's a nice book end to the game.
Would I Play It?: Yes. It's still looks like a fun time, and the mechanic is totally playable. Would it be my choice to win the competition? No, but that doesn't mean it isn't a fun concept.
NOTE: Kenisis missed a great opportunity to have it be all sorts of stuff. Pyro, cryo, tele etc.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
Next on the docket - Fist Full of Darkness by Gryffudd
Fist Full of Darkness is a game that is striving to take The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and Dark City and combines them into a single entity. I will admit that I was pretty excited by the sheer possibilities of this concept. A Western that deals with what Dark City deals with. That's pretty sweet, or it could go horrifically wrong. It all depended on what was going to happen on the other side of 24 hours.
Proximity: The game does a really good job of taking Dark City and making it Dark City at the OK Corral but it doesn't really feel a lot like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Not that this is generally a bad thing, I think taking a game and turning the genre on its ear can create some awesome game design moments. The problem is that you're trying to mash up two movies into a game, and this feels more like a drop from one was taken and put into a drinking glass filled with the other. It provided a little bit of flavour, a little bit of setting but not much more. I was hoping for a little bit more grit in my alien controlled city.
Complete: It's got all the rules that you need to know in order to play the game. You're always rolling 3 stat blocks worth of dice, which can make for some hand-fulls of dice situations if you've got your two highest stats being pushed against a really high resistance. It uses the DRYH idea of Dominance without the success part which weakens the suspense on the rolling. If you know that you only have to roll high, not get a good number of successes and high dice, and there are no consequences of using your other dice then it's functional, but again in a 24 hr RPG functional is what you're aiming for.
Attractive/Professional: I was jazzed when I saw the cover. I think it's one of the best covers in the competition so far. Really got me into what was going to be inside the cover. Hell, it even made me ignore the coloured paper, which usually annoys me to no end when it comes to RPG books. The border really adds to the Western feel of the game and is really pleasant to look at.
The problems happen when the text constantly runs overtop of the border. That's something that's easy to deal with and should probably be avoided. I know that the author has 24 hours, which is why I don't comment on things like typos or editing mistakes because you've got a limited time, but this is something that you can catch and fix with the basic functionality of whatever application that you're using. When this is one of the criteria I'm gonna mention it.
Smaller quip, would be to try to not have the images be a block of white behind them. It's a problem when you want to use images and coloured backgrounds. Again, it just detracts from the overall look of the book. Also, the two "Indian" images probably shouldn't be there. I use the term "Indian" intentionally, goodness knows I haven't talked about appropriation here, because the western that the author used didn't include any type of appropriative of caricatured depiction of First Nations people in the text, so including the use of said images just makes me sad, really.
Extras: There is a really lovely character sheet in the back filled with the same stylized border, but done in black and white. I think it's a nice book end to the game.
Would I Play It?: Yes. It's still looks like a fun time, and the mechanic is totally playable. Would it be my choice to win the competition? No, but that doesn't mean it isn't a fun concept.
NOTE: Kenisis missed a great opportunity to have it be all sorts of stuff. Pyro, cryo, tele etc.
Movie Mashup 2011 - Review - Alone in the Woods
Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
First up - Alone in the Woods by Shinobicow
Alone in the Woods takes any Robin Hood movie, and there are plenty, and Home Alone and attempts to mash them up together into a game that takes Sherwood and turns in into a trap filled place to prevent the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and his minions from getting to far into the camp.
Proximity: In this regard the game both succeeds and fails at being close to the films. The location is spot on, you're inside Robin Hood's camp defending it from the evil Sheriff. Great, you've got a perfect parallel between the two movies and the game uses it wonderfully. My concern is that's kind of where the game starts and ends. Robin Hood is an adventure story, filled with action and romance, and Home Alone is all about the childhood dream of being separated from family and then being ingenious enough to grow up when it comes time to defend it from a couple of thieves. It would have been nice to see a couple of those things in there? Maybe not only do you have to defend the place from the Sherrif and his Troops, but also woo the one you love who just happens to live in the toughest place to get to. Maybe have it be less, "Well, I guess everyone is drunk and that's why you're alone" and even more on the "you have to hold out until Robin gets back from his latest caper" would have gone a lot more of the way to make it feel like it was more like the two movies.
The big things were got, maybe one of the little things would have made it better. However, this is something that's come up in 24 hours so getting the big things right is really important.
Complete: It's totally there. Using the paired down d20 system, thankfully, the game makes you use a bare bones skill list and has very defined phases. The author even took the time to write up a "How do you run this game" section in the back. How to run it if you're playing the good folk and the bad folk and what your main job is, which is to keep the funny moving. Character sheet is there, tables are provided. 100% Complete and ready to roll.
Attractive/Professional: It's got a serviceable look to it. The kind that says, "I've got a short amount of time and want to get this out" which I can appreciate since I know that I'm very much in that camp when it comes to my layout skill. However, my one complaint would be the "LOL" put in on the title cover. I think the picture itself would have conveyed the proper, "Oh no!" emotion rather than having to add a LOL to it.
Another thing that probably should have gotten cut was the discussion on all the Merry Men that will not be appearing in this game. The only three that are important were Robin, because you were a Merry Child, the Sheriff, because he is the villain, and Maid Marion, because you can enter her lands to scavenge for materials. That's a lot of text that you didn't need in a contest where every minute counts, and in the end it doesn't add much to the final product as well.
Extras: Yup. All of them are there, especially the things that are needed in a d20 game. Charts, tables, more charts and tables (I'm just joking there are only 5 tables) and the character sheet.
Would I Play it? Yes. All in all, Alone in the Woods is a really solid effort. Someone mentioned on the 1km1kt forums that it would probably make a really beer & pretzels game and I agree completely. It's got the right amount of silliness and the right amount of boardgamyness that would make it fun to sit around a table and play, and I can start to think of all the little doo-dads that would make great add ons the playing experience.
I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).
Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.
Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?
Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.
First up - Alone in the Woods by Shinobicow
Alone in the Woods takes any Robin Hood movie, and there are plenty, and Home Alone and attempts to mash them up together into a game that takes Sherwood and turns in into a trap filled place to prevent the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and his minions from getting to far into the camp.
Proximity: In this regard the game both succeeds and fails at being close to the films. The location is spot on, you're inside Robin Hood's camp defending it from the evil Sheriff. Great, you've got a perfect parallel between the two movies and the game uses it wonderfully. My concern is that's kind of where the game starts and ends. Robin Hood is an adventure story, filled with action and romance, and Home Alone is all about the childhood dream of being separated from family and then being ingenious enough to grow up when it comes time to defend it from a couple of thieves. It would have been nice to see a couple of those things in there? Maybe not only do you have to defend the place from the Sherrif and his Troops, but also woo the one you love who just happens to live in the toughest place to get to. Maybe have it be less, "Well, I guess everyone is drunk and that's why you're alone" and even more on the "you have to hold out until Robin gets back from his latest caper" would have gone a lot more of the way to make it feel like it was more like the two movies.
The big things were got, maybe one of the little things would have made it better. However, this is something that's come up in 24 hours so getting the big things right is really important.
Complete: It's totally there. Using the paired down d20 system, thankfully, the game makes you use a bare bones skill list and has very defined phases. The author even took the time to write up a "How do you run this game" section in the back. How to run it if you're playing the good folk and the bad folk and what your main job is, which is to keep the funny moving. Character sheet is there, tables are provided. 100% Complete and ready to roll.
Attractive/Professional: It's got a serviceable look to it. The kind that says, "I've got a short amount of time and want to get this out" which I can appreciate since I know that I'm very much in that camp when it comes to my layout skill. However, my one complaint would be the "LOL" put in on the title cover. I think the picture itself would have conveyed the proper, "Oh no!" emotion rather than having to add a LOL to it.
Another thing that probably should have gotten cut was the discussion on all the Merry Men that will not be appearing in this game. The only three that are important were Robin, because you were a Merry Child, the Sheriff, because he is the villain, and Maid Marion, because you can enter her lands to scavenge for materials. That's a lot of text that you didn't need in a contest where every minute counts, and in the end it doesn't add much to the final product as well.
Extras: Yup. All of them are there, especially the things that are needed in a d20 game. Charts, tables, more charts and tables (I'm just joking there are only 5 tables) and the character sheet.
Would I Play it? Yes. All in all, Alone in the Woods is a really solid effort. Someone mentioned on the 1km1kt forums that it would probably make a really beer & pretzels game and I agree completely. It's got the right amount of silliness and the right amount of boardgamyness that would make it fun to sit around a table and play, and I can start to think of all the little doo-dads that would make great add ons the playing experience.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Some Thoughts on my 24 Hour RPG
I finished my 24 Hour RPG because I really wanted to get that off the ground for a couple of reasons. It was a break from writing CyberGen 3.0 and Critical!: Go Westerly. It was a chance to get the creative juices flowing again in a different direction, which always makes them come back better when working on projects.
It was also a quick mental challenge that, while draining, is something I think served me a little better than the Game Chef competition did. It gave me a much tighter deadline. I ended up writing 10k words for Game Chef and in retrospect that's far too much. I wanted to be more concise.
I also ended up showing that I can use Geasa and modify it to fit something different. I hope by showing that I can do it, other people can do it too. If I get it polished enough what I might do is put it up on Drivethru as a free download because I think it's a good way to get people to understand that the system is there to be used.
Anyway, if you want to check out the game you can download it here.
It was also a quick mental challenge that, while draining, is something I think served me a little better than the Game Chef competition did. It gave me a much tighter deadline. I ended up writing 10k words for Game Chef and in retrospect that's far too much. I wanted to be more concise.
I also ended up showing that I can use Geasa and modify it to fit something different. I hope by showing that I can do it, other people can do it too. If I get it polished enough what I might do is put it up on Drivethru as a free download because I think it's a good way to get people to understand that the system is there to be used.
Anyway, if you want to check out the game you can download it here.
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