Cast Off - Launching of a Kickstarter Project

I've been pretty quiet on a lot of fronts because I've been working hard on a variety of projects (Veronica Monsterhearts, Rent's Due, Third Life, AIR to name a few) but one of them is near completion.

Cast Off is now live and we're hoping to get some people to be interested by movie trivia and funny voices!

It's the first "big print run" game that I've done. Suitors was a bigger total print run, but this is the biggest game I've ever done and that's why I'm looking for help with the funding. Spread the word!

RPG Review Recess - Posthuman Pathways

There is currently a kickstarter going on by Jason Pitre over at Genesis Of Legend publishing who have also put out The Spark.

You can follow the link here to the kickstarter, but if you want you can wait until after the review of the game. I'll repost the link at the bottom.

Posthuman Pathways

This game is designed to be a GMless 3 person game where you talk about the transition from a current era society towards a post-human society. There's some piece of technology that causes a huge change, and you and 2 other people will go through their transitions from the youth of today, to the adults living through the changes, and then as the generation that looks back knowing how the world was different before. Through the game you explore your characters decision about the technology, and what happens on the other side.

It designed specifically for 3 people, where each person takes on a specific role with a specific goal in mind. You have Trailblazer who is responsible for the Timeline questions and setting up the scenes for the other players. The Trailblazer is also the one who can push forward action by asking questions to keep things moving. The Guide is the one who sets up the challenges and is the main source of confrontation for the Voyager who is the person playing their character. You'll switch these roles so that every one gets a chance to play their character in each phase of the game.

Now if you've played, or read, The Spark, you'll see a lot of that in there. The setup, the language, and a lot of the idea behind the game shine through in Posthuman Pathways. That only makes sense because of who is writing it, and it really fits there. This isn't a game where you need a person to moderate what's going on, it's not RPG storytelling in the traditional sense where you've got a bunch of obstacles to overcome. It's far more about the introspection that comes with great change. The Voyager will always win any conflict,  you don't have to worry about winning or losing there. It's all about the decisions that the Voyager makes. What prices you pay for the choices you make. Everything has a cost.

You keep track of all the changes on pieces of paper, cue cards if you have them but they also have downloadable "cards" that you can use in order make things all nice and neat if you're into it. The format is also great because it's a set of pamphlets that you pass around as you take on each role. It outlines what your responsibilities are and gives you the steps for how to go through a scene.

My only personal wish is that there was some way to have the story go off in a direction that even the Voyager couldn't totally expect. I don't know if it fits into the game, and there is enough variation with things like the questions that the Trailblazer puts forth. If the technology first seems to be something the divides and scares people then you'll have to deal with that rather than have it turn into a nice little utopia. However, that's really picking at nits.

There are two really great parts to this. The first is that it's almost at it's funding goal and just needs a little bit more to get it over the edge. The second is that you're looking at 7 bucks to get the game. That's it, 7 whole dollars and you get a copy of a great game that you can pick up and play when your normal group can't make it. Just pull it out of the envelope and play, no setup needed or anything like that.

This was shorter than I thought it was going to be, but if your mouse is down here then you can always click on this link to go and give them your seven bucks.

RPG Review Recess - #FATEcore reading of #KriegszeppelinValkyrie and review stuff

I'm sure, unless you're living under a rock somewhere, that the FATE Core kickstarter has gone off swimmingly.  With that there have been many unlockables that have been promised, two of which have already been shown to the backers. Well, the text has, it hasn't been layed out or anything it's just the cool bits you need to start actually playing the game.

Wild Blue by Brian Engard (here on this blog known as [other guy] who co-wrote Bulldogs! with Brennan Taylor) was the first to be shown and it's a cool idea, but I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. I'll give it, it's own space later.  Right now I'm going to talk about the second one that got shown, because I saw it at Metatopia this past year and when I heard about it I was very excited by the whole premise.

Let me just give you my quick opinion about this part of the whole project. You should get in on FATE core possibly just for this alone. This isn't to say that the other products aren't going to be phenomenal as well, there's a lot of amazing writers with amazing pedigrees with amazing products of their own, but this one is all I was hoping for and more.

The basic premise is that the war is over, but one German Scientist working out of Africa was unaccounted for until his robotic armies started attacking various villages, towns and cities throughout Africa. You've discovered his base in Mt. Kilimanjaro and you're using a newly finished German Superweapon captured after the war was finished, the Kriegszeppelin Valkyrie, in order to take the fighter pilots necessary to take out Dr. Walter Schottky and his nefarious Galvanic Warriors.

There is more than just that happening, the goal of the game isn't just to defeat the evil doctor. Nope, just as important is to have the highest kill count, and the most famous battles. You don't want to just destroy Galvanic Fighter Pilots, you want to get your name out there as the most daring and courage fighter pilot. After ever battle, the Captain of the Kriegszeppelin Valkyrie will talk about what really happened out there and who got what kills. Then you can talk to the AP reporter assigned to your mission to report back home what's going on, and that just happens to be Ernest Hemingway.

There's a level of Paranoia debriefing there that I think is perfect. Not only do you have to report on what you did, but you have to report on what you saw other people do. Do you help someone out and tell the truth, do you pad something for a friend, do you slander those you don't like? Then there's the chats with Hemingway where you need to describe your daring-do and what was awesome about what just happened. It makes it that much cooler for the players because it's still fresh in their minds and they can start the embellishing process right then and there over drinks. You get to set up relationships with the other players, so there's motivations to help or hinder people all around you. All of these things make for a great "band of brother" kind of combat setting that Kriegszeppelin Valkyrie is aiming for and delivers on.

The combat is perfectly done as well. You can't just shoot people down, well you can but it takes a lot longer, but if you manage to out manoeuvre your enemies, you're more likely to get the kill. You get that dogfight feeling through adding and recovering aspects that will put you at a horrible disadvantage. All the regenerated characters are all pilots from the era too. They all have their strengths and weaknesses and what planes you pick give you a set of strengths and weaknesses and just ... yes. The game is very yes.

Now I'm going to occupy myself by singing the songs from Billy Bishop Goes to War.