Science fiction games at GenCon 2011

To boldly go... — From the recent Trek MMO

Rounding out my look at some of the news around this year’s GenCon in Indianapolis, here are some observations on science fiction role-playing games. As previously noted, one recent trend is the shift of well-known licenses among game publishers, such as The One Ring for fantasy and Marvel Heroes among comic book games. The Dresden Files RPG (for which a third book may be coming) is another example of a successful tie-in across entertainment media.

Fantasy Flight Games’ announcement that it had won the Star Wars license is in keeping with this trend. There had been some speculation about which company would make the next Star Wars tabletop game, joining West End Games’ popular D6 adaptation and Wizards of the Coast’s polished D20/Saga Edition versions. FFG may look first to the youth market with miniatures, board games, and wargames, since Star Wars: Saga Edition was pretty complete and will be difficult to immediately surpass in quality or sales.

Margaret Weis Productions, whose Cortex system underlies Dragon Brigade, Leverage, and Marvel Heroes, apparently lost the Firefly/Serenity license. Mongoose, which made middling D20 splatbooks and been successful with the latest edition of Traveller, has dropped the Conan and Babylon 5 licenses, even as fans hope to revive those franchises. I’ve enjoyed the sourcebooks for all these fictional universes and look forward to seeing who gets them next.

On the other hand, Mongoose did get Star Fleet Battles and Prime Directive, which are based on the original Star Trek television series (and not its many sequels or J.J. Abrams’ parallel-universe reboot). I already have the GURPS and D20 versions of Prime Directive. I’ve been reading up on Traveller, the granddaddy of space opera RPGs, as part of preparing for my homebrew/sandbox scenarios, so a Traveller/Trek combo could be interesting. Trekkers can also look forward to a board game from WizKids, which used to make Star Wars minis for WotC.

Speaking of my FATE 3e “Vortex” campaign, I recently got Bulldogs. The pulpy SF game (previously in D20) is a good fit for my game — so much so, that I’ll probably refer to it ahead of the hard science fiction Diaspora and the thin Limitless Adventures, if not Starblazer Adventures/Mindjammer, which we used to create characters. The stunts may need tweaking, but Bulldogs‘ rules for alien creation, equipment, combat, and starships are all clearly presented.

In other speculative fiction role-playing, the excellent Stars Without Number will be published in an expanded edition by Mongoose, but the PDF of this retro-clone, sandbox game is still free. I’d compare SwoN favorably with StarCluster 3. I’ve got my hardcopy of the comprehensive Stellar Horizons, and I’m looking forward to the science fiction/horror Ashen Stars and Cthonian Stars/Void (the latter will use its own system).

One reason I’ve enjoyed running “Vortex” is that there’s little danger of either of my face-to-face adventuring parties overlapping in storylines with the many fantasy, horror, or other games that the current Boston-area players are participating in. I’ll blog more about their sessions soon!

Superheroes at GenCon 2011

After looking at fantasy, steampunk, and modern supernatural games at this year’s GenCon, here’s my take on some superhero announcements from the role-playing convention.

The aforementioned Margaret Weiss Productions, which is publishing the Dragon Brigade RPG, will be making the next iteration of a Marvel Comics game using its Cortex system. The new Marvel game will focus on post-“Civil War” continuity rather than the vague “present” of many comic books and RPGs.

TSR’s Marvel Superheroes, which used the “FASERIP” rules, was similar to the more recent Icons, even though that loosely FATE-based, rules-light game uses art similar to the animated DC universe. Speaking of superheroes, I’m still waiting on Heroes & Villains Vol. 1 for DC Adventures.

I have yet to play the third edition of Mutants & Masterminds (also used in DC Adventures) or Icons. But several people in the Boston-area gaming groups have been asking about superhero scenarios, so it’s only a matter of time before I get back to my “Societe de Justice Internationale” setting, if only for one-shots. As previously noted, the steampunk Kerberos Club is also FATE-based, but I’ve also seen a mention of another superhero game based on that system.

In related miniatures game news, WizKids, whose HeroClix for Dungeons & Dragons, DC, and Marvel have been popular, announced more sets for those lines, as well as Lord of the Rings, Pathfinder, and Star Trek figures. As with the forthcoming Lego minifigs for DC and Marvel, I’m sure that some of them will eventually grace my desk or basement tables.

Speaking of metahuman vigilantes, Kim A.G., Steve M.R., and Thomas K.Y. finally wound down their participation in the City of Heroes MMO, a few years after David I.S., Dexter V.H., and I left the “Dimensional Corps Online” supergroup to try other games. It’s the end of an era, and I miss the camaraderie of our team at its best. Jim J.D’B. recently started another Smallville play-by-post game.

Last month, Jason E.R. ran a fun one-shot of the Darkpages noir superhero game. I haven’t had time to write up my notes from his scenario, which involved a Ghostbusters-style haunted hotel, warring angels and demons, time travel, and of course, Nazis! Jason has also graciously offered to run scenarios including the alternate-history “Expeditio Africana” using Fvlminata 3e, “The Tenth Ray of Mars” using Savage Worlds or FATE, and “The New Shadow” using Pathfinder or The One Ring. Time is always in shorter supply than ideas!

Coming soon: Science fiction at GenCon and returning to “Vortex!”

Steampunk and supernatural games at GenCon 2011

Continuing my look at this year’s GenCon, after fantasy role-playing games, steampunk is one of the hottest subgenres right now. Cubicle 7, which publishes The One Ring, will also be putting out the much-anticipated Airship Pirates. Another RPG that looks promising is the FATE-based steampunk/superheroic Kerberos Club.

Margaret Weiss Productions, which already had tie-ins for Buffy: the Vampire Slayer/Angel, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Serenity/Firefly, Supernatural, and Leverage, will use its Cortex Plus system for the similarly themed swashbuckling Dragon Brigade. It might not be Dragonlance, and although the densely packed introductory “Opening Salvo” might intimidate newer gamers, Dragon Brigade could be fun.

Lady Blackbird is a better model of concise presentation in this mashup subgenre. As much as I like such games, after seeing numerous steampunky sky pirates at conventions in the past year or so, I wonder if they’re are all scrambling for the same audience rather than there being a few rules sets that can capture and build upon it.

Although I’m not currently playing in a steampunk game, I have fond memories of Tim M.B.‘s GURPS 3e “Arth” in Virginia in the 1990s and my own “Gaslight Grimoire” (using GURPS Steampunk, Castle Falkenstein and D20 Etherscope). I am currently reading Perdido Street Station.

Josh C.’s steampunk/fantasy combination of AD&D2 Spelljammer and FATE 3e Legends of Anglerre has wound down for now, and Jason E.R. has proposed running some alternate-history one-shots. Speaking of alternate history, it looks like the fantasy Secret Fire, whose breathless promotions said it would honor the memory of Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax and “end the edition wars,” may have been a bit hyperbolic.

In other licensing news, congratulations to Evil Hat Productions for the Origins and Ennie awards won by the Dresden Files RPG. Greg D.C. and Paul J. have been running the modern supernatural game (based on Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment, or FATE 3e) for their portion of the Boston-area groups. Janice has read Jim Butcher’s novels.

They, Josh C., and Dave S.C. have also run various horror one-shots. I haven’t played in a longer-term supernatural campaign since Hans C.H.’s Storyteller: World of Darkness-Vampire: the Masquerade in the late 1990s in Virginia, but FATE is one of the more popular systems right now in my groups. Like Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf is moving from strictly pen-and-paper games to multimedia entertainment.

While I’ll leave coverage of board games, wargames, collectible card games, and assorted computer games to others, I’ll look at superhero and science fiction RPGs soon!

Fantasy at GenCon 2011

Cover for Issue 62 of Dragon Magazine — Larry Elmore's cover for Dragon 62

Right on the heels of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was GenCon Indianapolis, so I’m still catching up on the news from those conventions. In addition to the usual game demonstrations and costumed fans were announcements of new role-playing games and licensees of well-known intellectual properties. Let’s start with some fantasy RPG news that I thought was noteworthy.

Cubicle 7‘s The One Ring is the successor to Iron Crown Enterprise’s Middle Earth Role-Playing (I’ve played MERP, which uses the RoleMaster rules) and Decipher’s movie-based Lord of the Rings. Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s (and Peter Jackson’s) Middle Earth wonder whether the choices of specific eras, locations, and character development options for various sourcebooks are the best approach to that epic fantasy setting. I’ll take a closer look at The One Ring in the next week or so. I’m also curious about WizKids’ Lord of the Rings HeroClix miniatures.

Tabletop publishing giant Wizards of the Coast announced Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition‘s return to the Neverwinter Nights setting (actually a part of the Forgotten Realms) across media, with role-playing, board, card, and video/online game supplements. I think speculation about D&D5e is probably premature.

WotC’s D&D4e continues to face stiff competition, however, from Paizo’s Pathfinder. The Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat splatbooks for Pathfinder provide a wealth of options for Player Characters, restoring some of the “code bloat” from D&D3.5 but doing so stylishly and in a fairly organized fashion. I’ll be using them in my current teleconferencing fantasy game, minus the gunpowder rules.

I liked its D&D3.0 incarnation, so I hope to eventually pick up the Tome of Horrors Complete for Pathfinder. Green Ronin has released a second boxed set for Dragon Age, another fantasy competitor to D&D4e that uses tiered advancement and is oriented at newer role-players. A few of the people in my Boston-area groups have expressed interest in it and A Song of Fire and Ice (for fans of Game of Thrones).

Even though there was a hiccup in plastic miniatures for D&D4e, we’ll soon have prepainted figures for Pathfinder. I understand the economics behind randomized sets of minis, but as a Game Master, I’d prefer, say, a set of Undead, or a set of low-level forest creatures, or a set of Clerics.

After getting inspiration from the retro-clone Lamentations of the Flame Princess (for which there are already some cool hacks), another indie game I’m looking forward to is Adventurer, Conqueror, King. “ACK” or the rules-light Old School Hack might be closer in feel to a lower-powered vision of my “Vanished Lands” fantasy setting than the D&D3.x or D&D4e versions. I’m also still considering the FATE3e Legends of Anglerre.

My Pathfinder/Skype: “the Vanished Lands” campaign has yet to resume after last month’s hiatus and various scheduling snafus, but I look forward to continuing the latest teleconferencing party’s adventures. When we left those Player Characters in the northwestern borderlands, they had returned to the haunted hamlet of Alarn, only to find that several of the knights sent there had been slaughtered…

I first ran games long-distance by “snailmail” back in the mid-1980s with friends such as David I.S. and Cheryl I.L. Later, I tried several “Vanished Lands” and “Vortex” scenarios by e-mail and play-by-post, but they tended not to last more than a few months each. I’ve had more success with the Skype telecom teams — now with members in New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Missouri, and Colorado — but busy parents and my own travel have acted as speed bumps lately.

Other tangential G.M.s also running fantasy include Paul J.’s Pathfinder: “Crossroads of Eternity,” Dave S.C.’s D&D4e “Attos,” Josh C.’s Pathfinder: Golarion/Inner Sea, and Bruce K.’s Conan. I haven’t had time to try any of them out, but I wish every game success! Next up — steampunk RPGs…

More food and travel

Yummy dinner image — Steak and bleu cheese

On Friday, 29 July 2011, Janice and I met Valery M. and his family for dinner in Boston’s North End. We passed the parade for the feast of Saint Joseph on the way into the traditionally Italian neighborhood. Valery is a colleague I had met at Citrix Synergy in San Francisco last year, and we hit it off immediately. He and his family spent a few weeks in the U.S. before returning to France.

We ate dinner at La Famiglia Giorgio’s, a family-style restaurant. The food and conversation were good, and we had lots of leftovers. It was great to have homemade pasta Bolognese, worthy of the “food porn” on The Phantom Gourmet or TV Diner. At other points in the past few weekends, we’ve eaten at some favorite chains, including Wild Willy’s Burgers, Comella’s, P.F. Chang’s, Farm Grill, Chipotle, and Stone Hearth Pizza.

I noted to Josh C. at lunch recently that after visits by friends and family (including David I.S., Damon F.P., Erik B.L., and my brother Peter) in the first half of 2011, Janice and I are the ones traveling in the latter half of the year. We’ve already been to Maine, Upstate and downstate New York, Chicago, and Northern Virginia, with more trips to New York and Virginia still to come! I look forward to celebrating various birthdays, weddings, and reunions, but I’ll be glad for the occasional quiet weekend at home.

Last week, I met fellow CW alumni Michele L.D. and Jacqui D.B. for dinner at CK Shanghai. I had the sizzling eggplant pot with beef, and it was very good. Michele got Jacqui’s and my leftovers because we were both traveling the next day.

This past weekend, Janice and I flew down from Logan to Dulles Airport. We had dinner with Peter and his family at the Dogfish Head Brewpub, where I had grilled salmon and the Chateau Jiahau. Like Peter’s sweeter Midas Touch Ale, the rice-based beer was recreated from an ancient recipe.

Before going to the Lego BrickFair the next morning, we met my parents for brunch at Eggspectations, where I had a good frittata. We later played Wii Sports Resort with our nieces and watched The Green Hornet, which was a bit disappointing. While I enjoyed stoner comedy Pineapple Express, the high body count and sense of humor wasn’t really a good fit for the superhero.

The Green Hornet started more seriously in radio as a descendant of the Lone Ranger and is best known for Bruce Lee‘s (subject of recent documentaries) U.S. debut as Kato in the late 1960s television show — with the possible exception of a crossover with Adam West’s Batman. While I haven’t been able to keep up with the various spin-off titles, Dynamite Entertainment‘s Green Hornet comics have been pretty good. I’m glad I waited to see Seth Rogen’s version on video.

On Sunday, 7 August 2011, my family and I, plus Peter’s mother-in-law Maureen, went to Old Town Alexandria. We explored the art galleries at the Torpedo Factory and had a birthday meal for my parents at the Chart House on the waterfront. I had excellent crab cakes and shared a decadent chocolate lava cake (Is there any other kind?).

We later all played Uno before my parents returned to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Later that night, Janice, Kelly, Peter, and I watched Will Smith and Eva Mendez in the romantic comedy Hitch, which was better than I expected. Hitch reminded me of a classier Boomerang.

Even with traveling nearly every other week, I hope to resume my regular Pathfinder/Skype: “the Vanished Lands” telecom fantasy and FATE 3e Starblazer Adventures: “Vortex” space opera games soon. We’ll see whether the July hiatus has made my role-players more eager, stirred potential Game Masters, or caused more delays. I’ll post more about various RPGs next!