Age of Ravens

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Action Cards: Sky Racers Unlimited

I’m getting ready for our next OCI portal, Sky Racers Unlimited. I’ll be using Action Cards with a mash up of X-Wing/Crimson Skies/Fate. First I have to prepare the special cards for the portal. Players draft cards for their Action Cards decks in each one. So we’ve had a fantasy themed set, a modern set, and a cyber-ninja set. I change around names, add & remove effects, balance, reword descriptions, and retire cards which were used a lot at the table or don’t work as well. Each player will end up with two Unique cards and one Unique Failure card in their decks. They’ll pick up double that in the drafting process and then make a final selection.

I have to design these a bit before the start of the campaign since it takes time to have them printed by DriveThru Cards (yea! data breach!). I change the color scheme and text style to match the genre. A drafting set consists of these 60 cards plus 36 area result cards also drafted to a player’s 14 card base set. Everyone also gets a blank card to write up during play. I also tagged on some new Atomic Robo-style initiative cards based on a G+ suggestion and blank plane damage consequences cards.

Remaining Tasks for This Campaign:

Finish Mechanics for Aerial Combat
Finish Mechanics for Building Planes
Character Sheet for Planes
Finish "23 Thing About Sky Racers Unlimited" Handout
Select Skill List
Modify Stunt List
Character Sheets

UNIQUE CARDS

Lone Wolf

You handle things on your own. If acting completely solo, you Win Big. If acting with a team, they just get in your way and hold you back and you fail.

Heroic

If your action is noble and selfless, you Win Big. If you're covering your own ass or acting for your own benefit, guilt catches you and you fail.

Wingman

Working with someone, you Win Big through coordination. If you're alone in this task, you miss something vital and screw up.

Full Throttle

You act with maximum force. You succeed with Amazing. But for anything requiring delicacy, you blow it and cause additional complications.

Feats of Daring

The ordinary’s boring and you fail at that. If attempting something you’ve never done before or in a new way, you Win Big.

3 Days to Retirement

If you're looking out for number one, you Win Big. If acting to help someone else instead of saving your own skin, you fail.

Bookworm

If the action doesn't involve human interaction, you Win Big. If you actually have to talk with someone, you fail.

To the Rescue

If you're creating or protecting something, then you Win Big. If it involves taking apart, damaging, or destroying, then you fail.

Life of the Party

If you’re involves interacting or talking with another person, You Win big. Otherwise you become distracted, bored or simply lost.

Slick Operator

If your action involves trickery or deception, you Win Big. Otherwise you just do OK.

Look There!

You spot an opponent's weakness or a new opportunity. You do Great and may add an aspect with a free invoke. However, for Physical tests distraction makes you fail instead.

Gun It!

If you're taking apart, damaging or destroying something, then you Win Big. If you’re creating or protecting, you fail.

Show Off

You succeed with an Amazing, but in the loudest possible manner-- drawing attention to your success. This can be good in some places, but not where subtlety's necessary.

Fly Low

You succeed with an Amazing, but in the quietest way possible. People may not even notice you've acted. This may undermine the final effect.

Sacrifice Play

You have another Moment of Glory, but lose your next action. Any reaction pulls on the following turn are capped at OK.

In the Mix

If you’re in a Combat, you Win Big. Otherwise you just do OK.

Back in the Ring

If you have a Consequence in your discards, you Win Big. Otherwise you do Great.

Toolbox

You have something for the situation and Win Big! -- but you only have a moment to say what that is before the GM adds a major catch.

Shake the Tail

You anticipate your opponent's actions and counter assaults of any kind. Win Big. If drawn for aggressive actions, your caution betrays you.

Like Gangbusters

You succeed with speed, gaining advantage through reflexes and response. Win Big. If your action requires calm or care, you fail.

Too Lucky

Victory lies within reach. If you spend a Fate point, you Win Big. Otherwise you Just Miss.

Take the Hit

You take damage in relation to your degree of success. Choose!

Hard Bargain

You take consequences in relation to your degree of success. Choose!

Smartypants

If you have a skill or specialty related to the task, you Win Big. Otherwise you Just Miss.

Ringleader

If you’re the person giving the orders in the scene, you Win Big. Otherwise you Just Miss.

Mastermind

If you had time prepare and plan before this scene, you Win Big. If facing surprises, twists, or unexpected events, you come up short.

Go On Instinct

If facing surprises, twists, or unexpected events, you Win Big. If you had time to consider and reflect, you overthink and come up short.

Second Wind

If you've taken damage this scene, you Win Big. Otherwise an OK result.

You Bastards!

If one of your allies has taken damage this scene, you Win Big. Otherwise an OK result.

Redline

You Win Big by using up or burning out something. Lose use of a piece of vital equipment, Skill or Stunt (GM choice) until repaired.

Scatter Like Roaches

If you're dealing with mooks, flunkies, or a faceless opposition, you Win Big and cut through. If battling a named foe or force, you fail.

One-on-One

If battling a named foe or force, you Win Big. If you're dealing with mooks, flunkies, or a faceless opposition, you do OK.

In My Sights

You do Amazing. Add +2d to any damage you roll as a result of this action.

Easy Going

If you’re outside of Combat, you Win Big. Otherwise you just do OK.

Lock ‘em Down

If dealing with active opposition, you make no progress but cancel their next action. For everything else, you do Great.

That’s My Baby

If you’re flying or working with a plane, you Win Big. Otherwise you just do OK.

Out of the Gate

If this is your first test of a scene or combat, you Win Big. Otherwise you just do OK.

For My Next Trick

You do Great and set yourself up. Gain a +1 bump to the result of your next test this scene.

Take It From Here

You do Great and set someone else up. The next player to draw this scene gains a +1 bump to their test.

Exhibitionist

If you have an audience beyond your allies and enemies, you Win Big. Otherwise you just do OK.

UNIQUE FAILURE CARDS

Crash & Burn

Something breaks and results in a Just Missed. Lose a skill, stunt, or piece of equipment until you have a chance to pull it together.

Bad Manager

You're too worried about everyone else's actions and performance to concentrate on your own.

War Wound

An old injury- of the body or mind- acts up and causes you to fail. What and how?

I Got This

You overextend yourself by being a little too flashy and overconfident.

Let Them Down

Self-doubt or desire to avoid commitment causes you to seize up.

Drawing Heat

You do Great, but the strength or alertness of the opposition rises significantly.

Head in the Clouds

You're easily lost, no matter what the situation. You fail due to distraction.

No Surrender!

Your natural stubbornness gets in your way-- making the wrong choice or trapping you as you steam over a past slight.

Egghead

You become too wrapped up in the details and concentration, losing command of the bigger picture and failing.

Slapworthy

You do something inappropriate. Wrong thing for the wrong time.

Breaking Point

You push yourself to extremes. That catches up to you now as exhaustion makes you stumble.

Who’s Number One?

You look out for yourself, and that instinct towards self-protection gets in the way right now.

Down in Flames

You Just Miss, but you create an additional problem. Add a Minor Consequence to your deck.

One More Second…

Your care and deliberation mean that you make no progress in your attempt. For extended tests, things move forward slooowly.

Milquetoast

Meh. You Just Miss. This card may not be redrawn.

Hotheaded

Why are we talking?! You make your move too early as your impatience gets the best of you.

Red-Faced

You Just Miss, but you feel the shame of your screw up. The GM deals you Composure damage based on your audience.

Weirdness Magnet

A bizarre coincidence, appearance or random happening interferes with your action. What does that look like?

Where Were You?

If you’re alone, you have a Catastrophic failure. If you have allies nearby, you Just Miss.

I Have You…Gak!

You think you see your chance, but squander it by showing off or monologuing.

Friday, August 7, 2015

RPGaDay 2015: Week One Roundup

#1: FORTHCOMING GAME YOU'RE MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO

Microscope Explorer

I didn't even look that hard at the Kickstarter description before I backed it. I've gotten more solid and productive use out of Microscope than any other product I've bought in the last decade. It's enriched and enlivened about a dozen campaigns. I wasn't sure about Ben Robbins' other game Kingdom at first, but I've come to love. It's in my top five of rpgs of all time. It hits a sweet spot for me and makes me insanely excited for the new game.

#2: KICKSTARTED GAME MOST PLEASED YOU BACKED

Tying back to my previous answer, I have to go with Kingdom. Fate Core comes a close second, because of the great material and the use I've gotten out of that. But Kngdom's a niche game that handles many things I like best at the table: community as centerpoint, building & sustaining, character-centered play, meta-mechanics that don't get in the way (for me). I like the way Kingdom structures settings. Like DramaSystem I think it offers a solid and tight way to approach those pitches. I've used that frame for selling other games. Kingdom can also work as a tool within other games. I used it to explore the issues facing a community from an existing campaign. That offered a great side-bar and a way to deepen players understanding of that place.

Kingdom is a game that rewards repeated play. It took a couple of sessions before it clicked for me. I still mishandle some of mechanics but never enough to create problems. I think its an overlooked gem of modern roleplaying.

#3: FAVORITE NEW GAME OF THE LAST 12 MONTHS

At Origins I got a brief taste of Phil Lewis' Wrath of the Autarch. It's a fixed-length competitive campaign with the players building up their shared domain against eventual assault by an overlord. It uses the Deck of Fate for resolution. So it rings several bells for for me: community management, grand scale, Fate, card-driven. I have Suikoden in mind when I think about this. Phil was incredibly generous and gave me a copy to pore over.

There's a lot I want to steal from this. I'm doing a seasonal family L5R campaign, and I wish I'd thought of the "tech tree" approach he takes for building things up. His system for resources is smart and easy. I also really like the way WotA structures episodes and incidents. It brings in the resolution mechanics as a means of setting goals and difficulties. The character creation's both simplified and more involved: reduced skills but adding twists to relationship aspects. I keep finding new ideas here that make me want to strip down my campaign somehow.

It is a niche game. There's an interesting design decision in making it both competitive and limited span. That allows the game to have closed tech trees and enforces hard decisions. Since I'm running open ended campaigns I have to that about how these concepts can be adapted without losing their potency. I've seen a couple of other games with hard end points connected to preparation: Fable 2 and The Quiet Year come to mind. I should also mention there's a cleverly designed and well-developed setting to the game. Overall I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with it, but it has me thinking hard and re-reading it when something new occurs to me.

#4: MOST SURPRISING GAME

I work through a ton of games when I prepare my RPG Genre Historylists. Each installment reveals something I'd never heard of or shows me I'd imagined a game completely wrong: Hot War, Bliss Stage, Monte Cook's World of Darkness. I've found some gems and some truly weird games. But for this I'll pick from games I've bought for my own play and/or have gotten to the table.

In which case I have to go with Ghost Lines. I didn't know much about it, except that Dr. Tom had run an online session of it. Rich Rogers pulled it out of his bag late on Friday evening. He handed us character sheets and went through the spiel. While he ended up with six players- probably a little much for the game- but that didn’t matter.

This game hooked me on many levels and I wasn’t expecting it at all.

As soon as Rich started explaining the setting, I wanted to know more. I loved the small and evocative details. Lightning devices to keep back the ghosts? A semi-industrial society having to contend with spirits and otherworldly fallout? Trains running and connecting these cities defended by Lightning shields? What the what? I wanted to dig in and explore this place, had to know what each weird piece of equipment on our sheets said about the world. Simultaneously sketchy and evocative, Ghost Lines immediately gave me room to wonder and imagine.

But it also gave me something solid and concrete: the players have a job to do. They’re workers. Probably poorly paid. They work off of incentives and bounties to protect these trains, but I imagine it’s tiring, boring, and filled with small irritations and mistakes. They have to lug heavy equipment around. They have to deal with other staff and passengers who may never see and spirit and hence assume they’re lollygagging. They don’t pick their fellows or routes and so get on each other’s nerves. My character had boots from his predecessor, boots that didn’t quite fit. Huge and clunking boots for a fearful kid who’d just gotten this horrible job. A kid who could kill all of his comrades if he fucked up.

And all of that in four pages. I realized afterwards we hadn’t even gotten to engage with several interesting sub-systems in our short play. I read through the rules a couple of times that weekend and then several more when I got home. It made me finally sit down and go through the amazing Blades in the Dark since it shares the setting. And though I dig the BitD city material, I want to know more about how the larger world functions. And I can imagine that because these rules give me a foundation and don’t hold me back. They’re a model of economy and made me go back to examine a couple of my 24 Hour RPG Designs to see the bloat even those little things have.

It’s awesome and I didn’t expect that.

#5: MOST RECENT RPG PURCHASE

I guess technically that's Microscope: Explorer since that Kickstarter closed last night. But that's still a vaporous future purchase. So perhaps it's Vow of Honor, a game Richard Rogers mentioned the other night. And because I'm weak and had some RPGNow credit, I bought the softcover. Why? Impulse rpg purchasing (which has never steered me wrong...). VoH looks cool and I dig the idea of Codes of Honor affecting play. But that copy's in the mail so I don't have it in my grubby hands.

I would have talked about the two things I bought at Gen Con last week: Jason Morningstar's Juggernaut and Ben Woerner's Sound of Water, the World of Dew Companion. BUT when I got home I found two packages on my porch. So technically, they're simultaneous. But I opened one first: No Soul Left Behind, a campaign module for Better Angels. I literally have no idea why I backed this.

Which leaves me with the real most recent, the Fate Codex Anthology Volume 1. This gathers all of the articles from the first year into a nice hard copy. The articles themselves come from Mark Diaz Truman's Fate Codex Patreon. I've been happy backing that and I dig the new ideas it offers each month. Hooks, genre tweaks, skill building, ideas for stunts, handling particular circumstances. As a backer, I got a decent discount on the printed version. I'm glad I did it, as I'm still not fully electronically adapted.(What's the term for that? Is there a word for a certain hesitation at reading things on tablets vs. dead tree?).

I'm about halfway through and loving it, even though I've read much of this before. I really, really dig toolkit books for game systems, with new ideas on how to implement concepts. Ryan Macklin's stuff is especially great and under the hood. So is Marissa Kelly's suggestions for Fate one-shots. I can think of a couple of other systems I'd like to see similar miscellaneous collections for (Gumshoe, PbtA). Overall a purchase I'm happy with.

Also...I like trade sized books. And there's a silky matte finish on the cover that sends delightful shivers up my spine. #bookporn

#6: MOST RECENT GAME PLAYED

My niece is living with us for the near future and she seems a little appalled at the amount of gaming Sherri and I do.

Good.

That means I’m doing adulting right.

Last night I got to play my second session of Worlds in Peril. I dig superhero games. That’s why I have a generic and meager G+ community dedicated to them. That’s why it took me much longer to complete my history of Superhero RPGs. That’s why Brian Cooksey came up with a PLOT drinking game that has everyone taking a shot when I mention supers. I also wrote a Superman comic once.

Anyway, Worlds in Peril is a superhero game built on a Powered by the Apocalypse engine. I backed the Kickstarter, even though I wasn’t completely sold on the draft version I’d seen. Again, I like Supers. In the time between backing it and receiving my lovely hard copy, I’ve had the chance to play a few more PbtA hybrids and talk to smart people about the game. You’ve got many flavors of adaptations- one’s which stick pretty closely to AW, Monsterhearts-tinged dramas, more “simulationist” (I use the term loosely) Dungeon World visions, and other things much further out.

Worlds in Peril is weird.

I mean that in a good way. I’ve read through the book and I’ve played two sessions with the awesome David Semmes. He’s done a good deal of Fate so I think we’re on the same wavelength. So the first thing you’ll notice is that Powers are massively abstractly. In some ways, there aren’t any rules for powers: at least not in the conventional rpg sense. There’s no list of powers (Elongation, Density Increase) or even effects (Strike or Immunity). And that’s a potent and radical shift for supers games. I’ve gone through most of them (see my lists above) and I can think of only a handful that even come close to handling things like that (ironically, the first supers game Superhero 2044 jumps to mind). As someone who came up running the crunchy systems for supers (Champions, V&V, GURPS, DC Heroes, Mutants & Masterminds) I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.

Powers exist as fictional elements in the game. That is, when you go to do a Move, you show how the power you’re using explains, shapes, or colors what you’re doing. And you’re not selling a tale to get a modifier, you’re just showing how you are carrying out your Serve & Protect, Seize Control, or Take Down attempt. You define your powers at the start and outline what you can do easily and what involves pushing or difficulty. In last night’s session I finally grok’d how those elements come into play. Characters can try to do new or edge case versions of their powers, but it requires a test and can have consequences.

There’s a bunch more to it, and I keep cycling back between “Uh, OK…” and “That’s pretty brilliant.” WiP follows the Dungeon World paradigm of simulating the classic play of the genre, but heavily abstracted. It has social mechanics, but it isn’t invested in those. I know there are a couple of superhero PbtA hacks that begin on the social side of things and the superhero fighting/patrolling stuff comes in second to that. The weakest part of the game for me right now are the way it handles Playbook elements (Origin and Purpose). I suspect that’s because I tuned mine pretty heavily to my story and it requires some twisting to get it to fit. My impression of that may change as I get to interact with it more.

I dug the session overall. I got to play with two new players and a completely different team line up than mine first session. I like my character Crux, he’s a support superhero. I like figuring out the team dynamics, especially when my guy’s only really expert is with Word Processing (50 wpm!). David Semmes is juggling like a dozen players across two or three parallel threads in this game. It’s ambitious and I love it. Playing it makes me want to try running it- to see how the various tools work and what’s involved in planning for it.

Bottom Line: Playing Worlds in Peril makes me want to play more Worlds in Peril.

Other Most Recently Played Games (working backwards): Hope Inhumanity, Itras By, Into the Odd, The Warren, The Clay that Woke, The Quiet Year, Rolemaster, Action Cards: L5R, 13th Age.

#7. FAVORITE FREE RPG

I’m tempted to repeat my answer for #4 and say Ghost Rails. But I have to go with another one, a free product I’ve gotten more use out of than any other: Auspicious Beginnings.

What is it? A tutorial adventure for Weapons of the Gods the insane wuxia system. Perhaps less insane now since they stripped out the obscure license and republished it as Legends of Wulin. It comes from Eos Press, a company legendary for delays, misinformation, and strange publishing practices. And WotG is, IMHO, a hot mess. I say that knowing some folks love it and have gotten great campaigns out of it. But the rules are opaque at best.

That’s not to say they’re bad. They have amazing ideas. Much of that seems to come from the work of Rebecca Borgstrom (now Jenna K. Moran) on the project. What's awesome? Well WotG “monetizes” the setting. There are legendary stories, tales of factions, explanations of philosophies, discussions of gender, and descriptions of nations throughout the book. They have a mix of fiction and description. But more importantly players can buy connections to those ideas and stories. You can purchase a link and become part of these fables- creating a destiny, showing the GM what you want, and encouraging you to play within those archetypal elements. It’s cool and something worth stealing for other games.

But I have a hard time following the system beyond that. It uses the kind of dice tricks I’m not fond of- pattern matching and the ability to flow dice out of your pool to the side and then back again later.Fireborn and some other games have done that and "it's not my bag." (tm) And the combat’s crazy, though I suspect it does simulate the feel of a legendary encounter. Eos Press once published a Combat Example pdf. I wish I could find it now. It is several pages and exchanges with all kinds of mechanics triggering off, just for a duel between two characters. IIRC it doesn’t even come to a conclusion. I read that and noped hard.

But forget all that. Ignore what I just said, because Auspicious Beginnings is wonderful.

The PCs heroes arrive at Only Two Devils, a frontier city with a reputation for the exotic. The city has several striking key NPCs and factions associated with them (like Ironhand Nan and the Sheathed-Blade Empty-Hand Prosperity Society). The Governor has elaborate rituals for city entry and stiff requirements to access the more interesting spots. One or more members of the group need to get to the secret markets to secure a special lost item. To do so, they need a sponsor. Therefore they have to participate in a grand contest- not of fighting, but tests of skill. Like leaping from spear point to spear point carrying a flag while avoiding arrow fire. If the group can succeed, they’re adopted by one of the factions- which leads to a fight and a jump off for further adventures.

The contest’s brilliant and colorful. It’s intended to showcase and ramp up the use of the game mechanics. That holds true for other systems besides WotG. You can use this as a model to show how to do cool stuff. The characters are awesome- the Pre-Gen PCs, the rival contestants, the leaders of the faction. The setting’s vivid and full of amazing hooks. It has twists, ways to buy into the setting, and great advice for running any Wuxia game.

I’ve used this set up straight or in modified form about a half dozen times. I’ve come up with all kinds of crazy new contests. My favorite is racing hungry monkeys to gather fruit from a private garden. There’s a ton of inspiration here and it’s fun to come up with new ones tuned to the players’ builds. I’ve seen others talk about classic touchstone repeated-play modules, like Isle of Dread or Village of Hommlet. I never had that experience with early D&D modules: making them into a toolkit. I have with Auspicious Beginnings. Pick it up for any fantasy game with stunting concepts and athletic tricks for the players (like Exalted or L5R).

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 13: 2009)

YO DAWG I HEARD YOU LIKE LISTS

I’ve been poking around these tabletop RPGs, but what about other kinds of games? Which are the best Post-Apocalyptic Video Games? Let’s begin with those VideoGame Geek users rate as their top ten. (I’m skipping a couple that seem mislabeled like Borderlands.

Fallout: They rate Fallout 2 highest, which suggests something about the old-school nature of the site. Then Fallout, Fallout 3, and Fallout: NV. You'll see this property pops up on the tabletop list below.
The Last Of Us: That seems a decent call. It’s a shroom zombie apocalypse, but with a human story.
Bastion: An interesting game and one I hadn’t placed in this genre before.
Gears of War: "World destroyed by alien invasion" genre. They list GoW 2 as the best.
Neuroshima Hex: The app of this BG based on the German PA universe.
Wasteland: An oldie I never played. I remember it from the game store’s PC software rental case. The new one’s supposed to be excellent.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: A game I mentioned on the last list in conjunction with the tabletop game with the same name and different premise.
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne: One of the best games ever. I’m replaying it right now. World gets blown up by demons and you have to figure out how to literally rebuild it with philosophy.
Darksiders: Religious apocalypse and you get to play a Horseman. Yippie?
Enslaved: Dystopian system-crashed future loosely based on the Chinese classic Journey to the West. Seriously.

A Forbes article has many of these, but switches some out, replacing them with Tokyo Jungle (cool), Metro 2033, Telltale’s The Walking Dead, and Half-Life 2. For #1 they pick the hellish wasteland of juvenile mutant fighting: Pokemon. Games mentioned on other lists around the net: Fahrenheit, Left 4 Dead, Beneath a Steel Sky, Final Fantasy VI, Fuel, and Day Z.

As an interesting coda, Kotaku has an article about Submerged, a post-apocalyptic video game without violence. That's an intriguing concept and one I think tabletop rpgs handle more easily right now. I like that we're getting some alternate approaches and choices within these games.

HEY! I have a Patreon campaign supporting these lists. If you like what I'm doing, consider contributing or at least resharing this to spread the word.

SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT DOOMSDAY

To keep this list easy to read I’ve tightened the years covered. As we get closer to the present the lists expand and contract weirdly. I include mostly core books, but also significant setting material or sourcebooks. I consolidate “spin-off” and miscellaneous supplements into a single entry. For example at the end you'll see round-up entries with post-apocalyptic elements. Given the number of great things published I haven't included everything I want. I try to list revised editions which significantly change a line or present a milestone. Generally I only include published material- print or electronic. I skip freebie or self-published games. I'm sure I've left something off without adequate reason; feel free to add a comment about a line I missed (if published in 2009). I've arranged these by year and then alphabetically within that year.

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part One: 1976-1984)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Two: 1985-1987)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Three: 1988-1990)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Four: 1991-1993)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Five: 1994-1996)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Six: 1997-1999)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Seven: 2002-2002)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Eight: 2003)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Nine: 2004-2005)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Ten: 2006)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Eleven: 2007)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Twelve: 2008)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 13: 2009)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 14: 2010)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 15: 2011)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 16: 2012)

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 17: 2013)

The Year in Post-Apocalyptic RPGs 2014

The Year in Post Apocalyptic RPGs 2015: Part One

The Year in Post Apocalyptic RPGs 2015: Part Two

History of Steampunk & Victoriana RPGs

History of Superhero RPGs

History of Horror RPGs

History of Universal RPGs

Samurai RPGs

History of Wild West RPGs: First Fifteen

1. Afterpeak

Originally I assumed this had a simple set-up: fuel runs out, civilization collapses. But Afterpeak's more involved. Exhaustion happens, followed by global brushfire war. But then an alien space zoo crashes, flooding the world with strange animals and diseases. Several years later a weird energy field sweeps across, returning magic to humanity. The material's generally systemless, but there's still some crunch in the equipment lists, bestiary, and discussion of character archetypes. Afterpeak's definitely a kitchen-sink setting. It has interesting ideas, but GMs will have to spend serious time hunting through and extricating them.

This is the first of three products with controversial publication histories on this list. You can apparently still get the '09 version. But there's also a more recent one clocking in at twice as long. The sale page notes for that expanded version notes, "This is the only official version of the Afterpeak Systemless Setting. Any other version of Afterpeak or products written for Afterpeak you might find being sold through any company other than Point of Insanity Game Studio is being done without the author's approval or involvement. I cannot guarantee the quality or content of these products." I assume there's a dispute over the earlier version and rights. That earlier edition comes from the ironically named FreeFall Studios, purveyors of copious quantities of CG boobies.

2. Atomic Highway

Looking at the cover, I assumed Atomic Highway would be something like octaNe or a rough and gritty Mad Max-ian slice of the nasty. Instead it opens with a clean discussion of role-playing and a two page comic showing how a session works. It's designed to be accessible and open to new players. Atomic Highway opens with a tight explanation of the present state of the world, skipping the extensive history that so many other games drown in. It aims to offer a sense what kinds of communities the players have come from and as importantly the social relations and structures operating there.

Character creation's fairly simple- attributes with a 1-5 value combined with a tight skill list. I like that an explanation of "ground rules for playing" prefaces this section. While some games have a "What is an RPG" section, fewer have a discussion of generous and safe play early on. Players may choose to be mutants, gaining a simple benefit and flaw. Again Atomic Highway offers a short list rather than overdoing it. The densest mechanical section covers vehicles and customization, but even that's fairly easy. As someone who doesn't usually like heavy "build-a-bot" mechanics, I actually like this. Overall Atomic Highway's decent. It has random scavenging tables worth lifting for other games, simple mechanics for chases, and about a third of the book has GMing advice, adversaries, and a sample adventure. If you're looking for a solid and simple game to do general apocalyptic games, you should check this out. It doesn't hurt that as of this writing you can get the full pdf for free from RPGNow. You can also get the supplement, Irradiated Freaks, for nothing.

3. Barbarians of the Aftermath

This builds on the light Barbarians of Lemuria system. Barbarians of the Aftermath expands those mechanics with a solid toolbox for running post-apocalyptic adventures. Rather than provide a set background, it has many options focused on survival against the odds in a fallen world. Groups can generate the history and setting using a series of random tables. Earlier results modify later ones tie things together thematically. All kinds of apocalypses are on offer here. While it's wide ranging, I wanted even more depth to the initial tables. You don't get as much color or variation as I wanted. The rules themselves offer a host of character genotypes and careers- with the idea that the selection can be tuned to the world created. There's a good section on the obvious crunchy bits for this kind of game: mutations, psychic abilities, weapons, vehicles, chases, typical adversaries. The book ends with a short adventure generator and some designer notes. The package isn't bad but I ended up wanting more. I expected more random tables and interesting generation options. As a supplement for BoL it works and works well. As a general toolbox, it's a little less successful. It doesn't go far enough or in enough detail. Barbarians of Lemuria has been revised thanks to a recent Kickstarter. Perhaps this will be expanded as well.

4. The Day after Ragnarok

Late 1945, with the German war machine hemmed in on all sides, the Nazis activate a desperate sorcerous plan. They invoke Ragnarok and call forth the Midgard Serpent, Jörmungandr. With a head 350 miles across, the beast smashes armies, cities, land-masses, rising up from the depths and creating a massive, writhing doom. Fleets are swallowed and dripping venom poisons the air. Truman takes desperate action, launching a B-29 from Iceland armed with the single Trinity device. It flies into the mouth of the serpent and explodes.

The death-throes of the beast spill radioactive venom and blood high into the atmosphere- a hideous brew of atomic death and supernatural mutability. That spray carries far, engendering horrors and poisoning the land everywhere it falls. But even worse is the massive crash as a the corpse plummets into the Atlantic Ocean and elsewhere. Earthquakes and a mile-high tidal wave destroy the East Coast of the US and befoul everywhere it touches. Central Europe, England, Egypt-- a host of countries are simply crushed under the weight of this thing. The darkness creates a year of winter.

You end up with a pretty horrific post-apocalypse setting-- albeit one in an unusual time and with a supernatural source. Hite hints at more to come (Fenrir's arrival and the death of Tyr) but for the most part we're in a poisoned world trying to survive. That survival must come in the face of Commie Agents, Tainted Lands, Shambling Monsters, Political Manipulators, and Crazed Cultists. The weird tech of the setting comes from researchers developing new sciences and devices from the very body of the serpent itself (armor from its skin, eye drops from the sera of its blood, rocket packs fueled by Midgard Oil, and so on). Think steampunk or The Rocketeer by way of Cthulhu.

I enjoyed reading The Day After Ragnarok-- it has a good deal of historical in-jokes and references. At heart it's a setting for cinematic and furious action. I can certainly see running this as a short-campaign to shake things up. The material's presented cleanly, with a mixed bag of illustrations. If you like Alt History, Pulp, or even Occult Games then I'd suggest picking it up. Atomic Overmind has supported it with a few pdf supplements, but that seems to have dropped off. Originally released for HERO and Savage worlds, they've recently released a FATE edition as well.

5. Eclipse Phase

Eclipse Phase describes itself as a "...game of post-apocalyptic transhuman conspiracy and horror." In the future, the human race has lost the Earth. Technology advanced at an ever increasing rate, causing transformations throughout society. Commercialized space travel, uplifting, augmented reality, hypercorps, genetic enhancements, and militarized AI each created new problems and realities. Then potent AIs, known as TITANS, broke free of their control. They engaged in a massive netwar which spilled out as they unleashed real world devastation through weapons of mass destruction. They forcibly uploaded millions of human minds. Then they vanished out from the solar system, taking the uploads with them. Behind they left a wrecked and devastated Earth.

Now, perhaps a decade later humanity has fearfully begun to spread out through wormhole gates into the greater universe. Some fragmentary structures remain- through a patchwork of authorities and links, strongly corporate. Most people, including the PCs, are disassociated intelligences, sleeved into bodies based on need and wealth. It may seem like a kind of immortality, but there are costs and dangers. Threats exist everywhere from viruses, to fanatics, to monstrous AIs stalking the stars. Eclipse Phase does a great job of setting up what the players could be doing- serving with a group called Firewall fighting threats to the humanity's existence. But everything I've read and heard suggests that the game set up, despite being detailed and dense, is also open. You can run many different kinds of campaigns, genres, and styles within the framework. The system provides you with high crunch tools to carry that out. Normally I'd describe this kind of game as "kitchen-sink" apocalyptic, but it does a great job of compartmentalizing the modules. As one GM told me- you could easily make the game into any style you wanted.

6. Exodus Post-Apocalyptic RPG

The more you know. Today I learned Interplay licensed a relatively small company to do a tabletop rpg for Fallout. Then I learned that shortly afterwards Bethesda bought the property...and promptly sent a cease & desist letter to Glutton Creeper Games. This led to a series of further legal entanglements and decisions, with the bigger companies essentially skipping out on judgments against them. Still GCG did eventually produce a post-apocalyptic game, Exodus, albeit with the 1950's themes stripped out and apparently replaced with a 1970's monster movie vibe. The shift is smart, but steals away some of the charm of the original setting.

Exodus offers a d20 Modern setting, with a nuclear war in 2012 bringing everything crashing down. The game takes place 30 years later. The version I looked at (the 1.5 pdf of the Survivor's Guide) is a mixed bag. Especially the art. It isn't just a supplement book you use with d20 Modern. Instead it’s a complete rule book with all of the mechanics included. That leaves little room for setting and backstory. We get a chunk of that through the mechanics (talents, classes, races), but the "Exodus Primer" is literally six pages towards the end out of a 300+ page book. I hoped there'd be more for folks really wanting to do a Fallout-like game. Still the publisher supported the game with organized play modules, the Wasteland Bestiary, and Southwest Wasteland Guide. 4 Hour Games bought Glutton Creeper in 2014, but they're still listed as the publisher on RPGNow. A few days ago they posted an "early access" Overseer's Guide ($13 for 40 pages as of this writing). Hopefully that will be expanded. Notably it bills itself on the site as Pathfinder compatible, so perhaps that's what's on offer there.

Also: I don't want early access rpgs with slow drips of content to become a thing ("don't worry we'll add more pages...).

7. Frost Zone

A 560-page beast of game from German publisher Nackter Stahl. The world is entering a new ice age, but the battle for survival includes cyborgs, mutants, psychics, and beyond. Corporations and nations have prepared for the coming crisis by developing new weapons, including new lifeforms tailored to survive glacial conditions. The whole thing has a cyberpunk vibe. Frost Zone has a few supplements, but doesn't seem to have developed a huge following. If you know German, the main book as well as a couple of pdf supplements are available on RPGNow.

8. Gamma-Trollworld

This is an adaptation of Tunnels & Trolls for use as a Gamma World-style game. Unfortunately it is published by James Shipman of Outlaw Press. He's stolen artists' and writers' work as well as illegally published supplements for T&T. There's a long history on this. Here's a quick Google search.

9. Golden Age

I love poking around and reading game blurbs. The description suggested a Final fantasy-like world, where some kind of magical devastation in the past had resulted in a weird technomagic hybrid society. It seemed like a little game that perhaps took itself too seriously. Designer Ben Warren released a new edition in 2014. You can get that for free from RPGNow. There I noticed that it's called "The Official Roleplaying Game," which seemed kind of pretentious. I mean it wasn't like a licensed property. Wait, maybe it is and maybe it isn't. See Golden Age is based on a series of independently produced British audio plays. So they're a kind of self-published post-apocalyptic fantasy setting with scripts and actors. The creator of that world, Ben Warren, also designed this game. I'm a little surprised that the RPGNow blurbs down say anything about the source material. The game itself is OK. It seems rules light. The layout's not great- OK if dense text design marred by a seriously intrusive page background. The book lists available products that don't seem to actually exist. If you're a fan of the original setting, then this is probably worth grabbing. For post-apocalyptic enthusiasts, not so much. Those apocalyptic elements are in the distant past and seem to only matter lightly to the current setting.

10. Klanarchia

Also written on the publisher's website as "Clanarchy." This Polish rpg combines magic and technology. It seems the world has been destroyed by a magical cataclysm. Centuries have passed and new technologies have arisen. Yet still many areas remain blank spots on the map. The game definitely has a heavy horror bent. It reminds me a little of Mutant Chronicles, but with even more fantasy. It looks like they only published a single core volume for the game. However, they're apparently in the process of developing a second edition. One of the selling points of this new version is a reliance on illustrations to get across the atmosphereand setting of the game. The publisher page likens it to a graphic novel, inspiration more than mechanics. They plan to cut the original 400+ page core volume down to a mere 150 pages. You can see a small gallery here. That's an interesting idea and something we haven't seen that much of- if they truly do go with a GN approach. A few games, usually superhero, have done "comic book" pages, usually to only illustrate play examples.

11. Post-Apocalypse20

RPGObjects retooled d20 Modern to create Modern20 in 2009. That same year they released several short genre sourcebooks (Horror20, Supers20, Martial Arts20). As a result Post-Apocalypse20 primarily offers mechanics: feats, occupations, mutations, etc. There's a short section at the back with a few pages of GM advice on running PA games. This book primarily serves d20 Modern and Modern20 players.

12. Strontium Dog

No clue. I'd heard the name Strontium Dog tossed around in the context of the 2000AD comic anthology, but I associate things like Rogue Trooper and Robo-Hunter with that. And of course Judge Dredd...which incidentally also gets yet another edition this year, Judge Dredd. This one retools material Mongoose developed for their d20 version into a shiny new Mongoose Traveller version. I've mentioned Dredd before on these lists, so look to my earlier comments on the d20 edition for an assessment.

But back to Strontium Dog. After a nuclear war, Mutants begin to appear in vast numbers. Not pretty, X-Men mutants, but nasty Total Recall mutants. They become second class-citizens, driven into desperation and dangerous work. The Strontium Dogs of the title are mutants who act as bounty hunters. While the setting has a strong focus on the Great Britain of a blasted Earth, there's a massive network of colonies, aliens, and a Greater Galactic Federation. Players take the role of antihero mutant freelance lawmen, travelling around and hunting down the worst of the worst. Also based on Mongoose Traveller, this sourcebook contains new mechanics for building mutant characters, specialized equipment, new skills, and so on. About a third of the book covers the background and characters in depth. Strontium Dog has only gotten a single supplement so far, Bounties and Warrants, a 100-page book of missions and plot seeds.

13. Sable Rouge

A French rpg aka Red Sand. I've read, re-read, and desperately tried to parse the Google translation of this game's descriptions. Here's what I think it is. It takes place on Mars, but in the distant past, before it became the lifeless world we know today. Various races exist on this world which is being swept by climatic shifts. The Big Event(s) happened and now the world's one of ancient ruins and rusted industries. You have robots, magic, alchemical substances, cannibals, psychics, and mutants. There's a focus on visceral survival and violence. Sable Rouge's Mars seems to be in a trough between Apocalypses, with the final one lying the future. The previous one may have involved an alien invasion. Maybe? The blurb describes it as a cross between "Conan, Mad Max, Pitch Black, Ghosts of Mars, and The Descent." Like so many others, this game doesn't seem to have caught on. The publisher only released a core book and a GM screen.

14. Zombacalypse

Zombacalypse very much takes a page from All Flesh Must Be Eaten. It offers a toolkit for running different kinds of zombie survival games based on the Aether RPG. I'm not familiar with that system, but it seems to have moderate crunch. The sourcebook itself covers a general breakdown of zombie concepts, qualities for building different zombies breeds, survival in a zombie setting, equipment, and finally a short set of plot hooks. There's also a sample scenario set in the American Civil War. The whole thing comes in at 100 pages. If you're really enthused about zombie survival and haven't yet sated your appetite, this might be useful to you. On the other hand, I'm uncertain from the blurbs what makes this stand out from the horde. Silver Gryphon games later released a Savage Worlds version, a module called Camp Wicakini, as well as a PWYW scenario, Hotel Babylon.

15. Marginal and Other Cases

Two existing games get strong support materials this year. Unhallowed Necropolis is a mega-supplement to Unhallowed Metropolis, It has a ton of new options and roles, but also more history and secrets for the setting. In particular it adds to the spiritual and paranormal elements of the world. I'm still not sure if Robotech should be counted as post-apocalyptic. I've seen some tag it that way, but I'm skeptical. In the interest of completeness though, I'll mention Robotech: The Masters Saga. I guess the Masters are some kind of superior Robotech invaders? I'm not sure how they differ from the standard invaders.

Four other games feel like corner cases. Shock: Social Science Fiction is an indie game designed to simulate the social questions of more thoughtful science-fiction. While not directly specifically post-apocalyptic, it ties into the heavily social themes of many PA novels. It might be useful for GMs who want to focus on concepts over dirt and crunch. While the World Ends also offers a kind of high-level generic approach. In this GM-less story game, the characters travel across a collaboratively created world on the brink of change or destruction. Players try to play through their PCs goals while shaping the world they move through.

When I see John Wick's name on something, I know I have to check it out. He always manages to add something I hadn't considered when I read through his designs- from the bizarre detail of something like Thirty to the excellent advice of Blood & Honor. The Shotgun Diaries is Wick's rules-lite zombie apocalypse game. You get a simple, fast, and frantic game here. When you roll- you're killing zombies. Everything else is unimportant or the path to get to killing those zombies. Players try to accumulate dice to roll. If they fail to get a success, then the Zombie Master gets to say what happens. It is simple and effective. The game is brief but has a number of innovations, including a zombie clock which ticks by building up the next horde to face the group.

Finally, Apotheosis Blues is a complete but pdf-only game, so I'd usually leave it off. But it's written by the same person who gave us the free rpg Angel Angels, about an invasion of sperm-collecting extraterrestrials who look like young women and Immaculate, an end-times rpg with holy warriors struggling against Hell. In this game you play a new god affecting a world destroyed by a crisis of faith. "Warning: this game contains religious and sociopolitical themes that may be offensive to some readers. It is intended for mature audiences."

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History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part One: 1976-1984)