Tolen Mar

This looks like a cool source of ideas for a pulp campaign.

Dirty ’30s Campaign sourcebook

[via Treasure Tables]

Want to game in classical antiquity, in the Stone Age, or in the Gibson-inspired Tokyo dystopia? Check out Paul Elliot’s work at Zozer Roleplaying Game Design for a huge number of resources and setting information for Chaosium’s Basic RPG system, Traveller, GURPS, and systems of his own design. This is a trove of information.

[discovered through RPGBlog]

I have been recently been fascinated by the history of the various machines that have battled for our living rooms. Each machine has had its strengths and weaknesses, and as a programmer, I’m amazed by some of the ways developers have harnessed the power of consoles and pushed them to their limits resulting is some marvelous games.

I couldn’t agree more. The best games for any system arrive just before that system’s replacement. I had that impression with the PS1 – PS2 transfer, and I’m starting to have that feeling again while waiting for the Revolution and PS3.

And, you can add Scott and me to the list of people who thought Phantasy Star rocked!

[clipped from: Games That Pushed The Limits - Part 1 : Retro Gaming with racketboy]

Rather than repost all the reviews I’ve written for d20 Magazine Rack, I’ll just provide the links:

1. Dynasties & Demagogues
2. 17 Wondrous Items
3. Covert Forces
4. Khorforjan Gambit
5. Crypt of the Plague-Bringers
6. The New Argonauts
7. MotoCaust
8. Battlemaps: Dungeon Rooms V
9. Encyclopedia Eldoria
10. …Their Tummies Growled
11. Battlemaps: Orc Sighting Tower
12. Critical Feats
13. Mitarra: The Caves of Crystal
14. A Player’s Guide to Ptolus
15. Warlords of the Accordlands vol 1: The Master Codex
16. Warlords of the Accordlands vol 2: The World Atlas
17. Warlords of the Accordlands vol 3: Monsters and Lairs
18. Warlords of the Accordlands vol 4: The Campaign Adventure Book
19. Temporality

Jon and I opened a pair of battle packs and boosters each for the City of Heroes CCG and gave the game a try last night. We only managed to play through one match due to the lateness of the hour, but that was enough time for me to form some favourable initial impressions of the game.

In short, I liked it. I think the City of Heroes CCG is, for better or worse, the latest version of the Initial D CCG: a terrific set of mechanics wrapped around a licensed game. I can only hope that the popularity of the license will help make the game a success for AEG – they’ve done their part with the rules design.

In fact, when I heard that AEG was developing the City of Heroes CCG, my first thought was that they’d adapt the Initial D game mechanics to the new cause. The concepts are sufficiently similar – build your own hero vs. build you own car – that the mechanics would have worked without too much tinkering.

However, the design went another way, and I can’t say that I’m disappointed. At all.

Your 40-card deck is built around your choice of Hero. Each Hero is defined by a whole mass of keywords related to the card game: Archetypes (Tanker, Scrapper, Blaster, Controller, Defender), Powersets (Invulnerability, Energy Manipulation, Device, Tech, etc.), Movement (Teleport, Flight, Superjump,etc.), Accuracy, Defense, and Health. The Hero also has an inherent ability of its own.

Your Hero starts with two powers in play, and then gains more as the game progresses. One of those powers is a Signature Power, which only that Hero can possess, and the other is a generic power for that one of that Hero’s powersets.

Then, the game begins. One of the mechanics that immediately impressed me is that there is no turn sequence. Players simply alternate taking actions until one of the heroes is out of Health points. This means that there’s something to do every action: you can move your hero between melee and ranged attack positions; you can use a Power to attack; you can untap your cards; you can play a card from hand; you can search for a Sidekick card; or you can draw two cards to fill your hand.

Powers are the essential cards in the game. This is a game about superheroes, after all. Most powers have a value of 1, 2 or 3, which indicates how many times you have to tap it into order to use it. Until the card is back in its starting position, you can’t use it again. The number of taps suggests the raw power of the card. Some powers are toggles, which mean they are either active or inactive, and have a constant effect. Other powers are simply constant.

You can only play powers on your Hero that match the listed Power sets, or that belong to the general pool.

Powers can be modified by Enhancements, which improve the power in some way (enhancing damage, improving accuracy, increasing the number of untaps required to use the power again, etc.)

Sidekicks are mini-heroes. They have fewer hit points and don’t start with their own Powers, but otherwise can be controlled and used just like Heroes.

Missions are global effects on the game. While on the table, they provide a global negative effect on the heroes. Any Hero can attempt to defeat the mission through combat or by paying a special cost, and then generate a global benefit. I believe there can only be one Mission on the table at any time, either defeated or undefeated.

Edges are one-shot effects, usually reacts, that are played right out of hand to grant bonuses or inflict penalties on attacks.

All cards also have a secondary ability, in addition to the main text. Each card has an Inspiration symbol in the lower-left corner, which means that that card can be played for its Inspiration effect. Inspiration effects include: +2 accuracy, +2 defense, cancel a state effect (stun, immobilize or knockdown), draw 3 cards, or heal a certain number of points.

Despite the flurry of powers and keywords, combat is simple: One Hero activates a power, pays costs, chooses a target, and then compares the Power’s accuracy rating to the defending Hero’s Defense. If the attack hits, the defender takes the amount of damage listed on the Power card.

All damage is tagged with a keyword and some is more easily avoided/reduced than others (i.e., characters with invulnerability have an easier time avoiding smashing damage, but radiation damage is usually trouble for everyone).

Some attacks also inflict state effects in addition to damage. Heroes can be stunned, immobilized or knocked down, which limits their options for a certain number of subsequent actions. These effects are so strong that packing cards with the Break Free Inspiration icon is an essential part of deckbuilding.

Some powers have require you to discard cards from your hand as an additional cost, and you might have to discard cards if the distance between you and your opponent is too great (this simulates running after them to deliver the knockout blow).

Jon and I played a pretty simple game on our first go. Out Heroes stood toe-to-toe in melee combat range and basically just duked it out. Occasionally, our sidekicks would make noble sacrifices. If we wanted to draw the game out longer, we could have run away from each other, forcing the other character to give chase.

It was a fun game, and not just because I won [grin].

A word on the packaging of the game: The game is sold in regular randomized 11-card boosters, and in 25-card battle packs. Each battle pack contains a hero and 11 cards designed for that hero, and is filled out with random cards. The booster packs are the only place where you can find the rare cards in the game. Battle packs are about $5, and boosters are around $3.

This arrangement is great for the casual player, because you only need about four battle packs to make a deck, thanks to the overriding utility of the Inspiration icon mechanic; but collectors, completists and competitors will have to spend relatively large amounts of money to get the cards they want/need for their deck.

I’ll be picking up a few more battle packs to round out my playset, I think. And I’ll try my hand at building my own, tournament-legal Hero with the City of Heroes CCG Cardbuilder.