Here are eleven RPGs I love but that didn’t quite make the First 11 RPGs list mostly because I’ve not played them.

Agone – I’ve never actually played Agone but loved the look of the books.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century – The first game I ever ran and I still have a soft spot for it although I’ve not run it in 20 years. However it has many of AD&D 2nd Editions flaws so sadly its on the second 11.

Colonial Gothic – I’m always shocked at how few historical periods have RPGs.  Its like RPGs are turned on their head compared to wargaming and fiction where SF / Fantasy are nice compared to many other periods.  Colonial Gothic dares to go into a period few other games had gone into before and in an interesting way.  Saddly I’ve not had a chance to play it.

Dark Conspiracy – One of the games I turn to when I want inspiration for how it should be done but I’ve only ever played a couple of sessions so I don’t feel I can put it on the first 11.

Original D&D / AD&D (2nd Edition) – I started playing just as 2nd Edition hit the shops but I always felt there was something about it that needed cleaning up. Similarly Original D&D which I like had flaws that needed fixing. Which 3rd Edition did hence it being on the first 11 list.

Hero – Like GURPS (see below) this was just too crunchy for me. I love the source material though.

In Nomine – I’ve played this and enjoyed it but when I was making the first list and second list I kept forgetting it and having a nagging memory of it.  Twice I remembered it and it slipped away.  I ended up having to go through all my RPGs to work out which one I was forgetting and then add it right away.  So on that basis it only makes the second eleven.

GURPS – This has to be here for the quality of the sourcebooks. However the systems a bit heavy for my tastes and I struggled to run it.

Macho Women with Guns – Just for the title and the humour. I’m told it plays well but I’ve never had the pleasure.

Millenniums End – Dared to be an RPG without magic or the supernatural – again sadly somehow I’ve never actually played it so it didn’t qualify for the main list.

Trail of Cthulhu – Another game I’ve just not played enough to really feel I can say either way although I like what I’ve read.

Reserve: For Fairy Queen or Country – Loved the setting idea and wish TSR had given it more air to breath but another game I’ve never really had chance to try.

Second Reserve: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying – High character mortality in games college meant I never really got the chance to play this enough to decide if I liked it or not. Plenty of opportunity to try out the character generation system though.

This post was inspired by the post on Dane of War’s blog now on Geekcentricity.

In alphabetical order are eleven games that I think are really worth your time and money. These are all games that I have played on a regular basis, and have reasonable knowledge of. They cover several different genres and eras.

7th Sea – excellent Swashbuckling fun and writing a last minute review for Valkyrie got me a foot in the door of writing.

Call of Cthulhu / Delta Green – The best post gothic horror game(s).

Conspiracy X – If the X-Files had been an RPG this is the game it would have been

Deadlands (original system) – Had great fun playing this and loved its slightly quirky system.  Keeping to just ten games forced a difficult choice and this didn’t quite make it so I decided to go with 11 instead.

D&D 3.5 (Specifically Ravenloft) – My favourite incarnation of the most famous RPG ever. 2nd Edition with the annoying bits sorted out.

Hong Kong Action Theatre (1st Edition not the BESM version) – With or without the meta game elements this is a very cool martial arts Role Playing Game. It might not have had Feng Shui’s graphic design but I found it played and ran both smoother and faster which for the genre beats artwork hands down.

Over the Edge – If one game has made me think harder and longer about how RPGs should work and how settings should be put together I can’t think of one. One day I will run a game set in San Serriffe using Over the Edge.

Paranoia –The first RPG I ever played. A rarity – a comedy RPG that works.

SLA Industries – I can’t really explain it but something in SLA speaks to me – it’s probably the subtle, subversive, dark Britishness beneath its surface.

Strange Grogge (Wessex Games) – This excellent, small press, fantasy Swashbuckling game is great fun.  Plus you get both an RPG and a skirmish wargame in one book without one compromising the other because the rules are so simple.

Tunnels and Trolls – The other classic fantasy RPG.  Do I really need to say more?

Reserve: Legend of the Five Rings – This would have made the list if 7th Sea wasn’t on it already. Unfair of me really. Brilliant game and setting but I’ve made it sit on the bench.

Ursa Carrien is the first release from Nightfall Games of a pure PDF product. At 98p it’s an eight page bargain for anyone who plays SLA Industries RPG.

The Ursa Carrien are a new addition to the monstrous inhabitants of Cannibal Sector Two and the opening illustration by Dave Allsop is a stunning piece of work. After the cover page there is a one and a bit page description of the new Carrien for players and GMs. The rest of the PDF is GM only including statistics for these new creatures, the weapons they use and a BPN “Armed for Bear”.

These evolved, smarter, weapon carrying Carrien are spreading – supplanting Greater Carrien that they encounter. They will provide a new and interesting challenge for players and are an excellent addition to the game.

GM’s will find the material useful. The Ursa Carrien’s behaviour, combat style, life cycle and relations with other Cannibal Sector inhabitants are fleshed out. The BPN is well thought out and nicely focused on the Ursa Carrien. They feel located in the game universe not just a random addition. It’s good to get a chance to see how Nightfall themselves set up a straightforward BPN.

I do have a few quibbles and I’m going to go into more detail than I normally would because Jared has asked for feedback on their first PDF. The first four are all so minor that I’d not normally mention them:

• There are a couple of typos in the copy I downloaded but I’m told they’ll be fixed in an update.
• The language used risks slipping into being a little flowery at times although it doesn’t go over the edge.
• If the player information could have been kept to page 2 rather than spilling over page 3 pages 1 and 2 could be used as a double sided handout to players by GMs.
• GM’s who like everything laid out before running a BPN have a lot of the work done for them. However they may want to prepare additional material such as maps and stats before running the BPN.

The only real concern I have comes from the very high levels of production value that have gone into the design of the PDF. The use of an olive green background is great when viewed on screen but is a disadvantage when printed on a home printer. While my laser printer produces a very nice copy I can only imagine the wrinkled, wet pages my old ink jet would have produced as it chewed up two out of three colours in the colour cartridge. A more printer friendly background or a printer friendly version would be nice.

Ursa Carrien is an extremely polished, professional offering and I look forward to seeing what else Nightfall releases in the future. None of the really minor issues none of should stop SLA Industries GMs from finding the £0.98 ($1.49) from picking a copy up.

Issue 58 of Ragnarok (the journal of the SFSFW) landed through my post box today including my article for Wessex Games’ Strange Tydes The Bare Belly Coast. Immediately spotted an editing error I’d made where I’d truncated a sentence…

“The alliance with the Orcs eventually saw it added it to their empire as a protectorate in the la”

Should read…

“The alliance with the Orcs eventually saw it added it to their empire as a protectorate in the largest empire in the Land.”

The Ottle Empire heading should appear above the table with their Navy list.

For legibility here is a larger version of the map that accompanies the article (click to enlarge)…

Ragnarok Issue 58 is at the printers according to the SFSFW blog so my Bare Belly Coast article for Wessex Games’ Strange Tydes will soon be available in lovely print form. Time to finish off the Strange Grogge companion article.

A GM should decide if a piece of information is essential or if they only want to give it out on a 20% roll.

Investigative game structure – Opener followed by clues that offer multiple routes followed by finale.

Avoid creating scenarios where Player Characters are observers of Non-Player Character driven stories.

Avoid default skills – eg spot hidden in CoC – other skills should be useful for investigation.

Skills can signal players what is important in a game – so include skills that tell them what a game is about.

Players select their own spotlight through their choice of skills.

Scenes have to have a design purpose – not just be there to delay dinner.

There are clues that move players on.  There are clues that explain what is happening.

In Gumshoe point spending gives colourful extra clues.

Active or passive investigation – player seeking clue is active, GM pushing clue is passive.

It’s not clever [as a GM] not to give information out.  You get a richer gaming by giving information out.

Many players feel cheated if they think you [the GM] are making up the adventure as you’re going along.

The Armitage files shows how improvisational techniques can be used.

New Orleans Syndrome – lack of information sends player characters racing off to New Orleans punching Jazz musicians.

Tell players what is going on but not how to solve what is going on.  Doing the later would be railroading.  Doing the former is letting a game progress.

Avoid 30 minutes of faffing around because of bad dice rolls on spot or other investigation checks.

Players need to get from A to B.  May go the scenic route or charge in all guns blazing.  They’ve always followed some track if they get from A to B.

Free floating clues can be delivered by any NPC the PCs are talking to.

Clues A,B,C and D can be available in any order in a sandbox game.

If the PCs go off path a floating clue can be used to point them back on track.

Most gamers want fantasy in their games.

Red Herrings / Mistaken information can be clues if they get PCs to another scene.

Stuff in a game book should have stuff to play with (Ken Hite).

Update: Thanks to Angus for letting me know Gareth Hanrahan was the other person on the Pelgrane panel.

Now onto the show itself, I hope it won’t sound like I’m complaining too much and that its more constructive criticism. I really did enjoy the show and I know from running a few events in the past just how much effort it is….

I got there pretty much exactly at 10AM and joined the back of the line. I didn’t have to wait long as they called for advanced tickets to come forward.

It would have been nice to have known what was happening from the shows website a bit sooner – if I’d known what seminars were going to be on a bit in advance I might have put myself down to run something or arranged to meet up with people in gaps. Maybe next year?

The convention pack was functional with the Programme and a supplementary game schedule. Both did the job. There was also a rather heavy book on stage magic – I hate to gripe about a free gift but I can’t really see its relevance. I didn’t have a chance to find an alternate home for it before leaving (I didn’t want to just abandon it with the Gideon bible in my hotel room). I hope a lot of cost /effort didn’t go into sourcing the books because if it did it was a wasted on me. I’d much rather have an old game supplement, custom dice, figure or discount voucher for the trade hall.

Anyway less of the grumbling and onto the morning session. Since this was my first trip I didn’t sign up for any games. I wanted to have a proper chance to look at the show. The trade room seemed busy enough in the morning. There was a good mix of traders and probably enough given the number of punters – a couple of general traders, several larger publishers, several smaller ones, a crowd of artists, a dice seller and a jewelery trader. The Bring and Buy had a prime spot up on the stage. I may have been spoilt by wargames shows but the bring and buy seemed rather short of stock. The hall wasn’t too crowded or too quiet – it reminded me of a good year at Bifrost rather than the three deep scrums I’ve seen at Salute or GenCon. You could have a chat with a trader or get Robin D Law to sign Skulduggery without feeling like you were getting in the way of someone wanting to spend cash.

After circling the stalls a few times and bumping into some friends on the way I took a turn by the games room in the basement. It looked pretty busy with all the games looking like they were full to the point of just being manageable. I always think it’s a good sign at a con if the games are busy. I wasn’t really tempted by any of the morning seminars so I wandered around a bit and lurked in the basement listening to games in progress. That may sound a bit odd but I started playing role-playing games  by watching games being played and I’ve always thought you can learn a lot about a game by seeing it played.

After lunch I had a feeling that the numbers at the show had thinned out a bit – not a surprise as you often get a rush at the start of a show who are just coming for the traders. I went to two of the seminars in the Green Room under the stage. Now if you don’t know what a Green Room is or don’t know where the stairs to under the stage are this could be a rather lost location. Fortunately I’d been down there at Salute many years ago and having been involved in shows I know where to look for a Green Room.

Now here’s a tip if you’re putting on a seminar at a convention – pick a theme that’s broader than “my game companies plans for the future” that will get you you’re hard-core fans and a few who are interested in the business. The two seminars that lured me to the Green Room were Investigative Gaming, featuring Gumshoe and Pelgrane Press and Ian Livingstone: A Retrospective. Both of those managed to fill the room and both got to tell us a bit about what they have coming up. Of course that’s probably more important for Pelgrane than Ian Livingstone

The two talks were quite different. I’ll write my notes up from Pelgrane’s talk about Investigative Gaming and post them tomorrow. They announced they are starting a fiction impring Stone Skin Press and gave us some background on that. I picked up some good ideas in that session. Ian Livingstone’s talk about the foundation and growth of Games Workshop and his work in computer games was fascinating.

Based on the numbers in both sessions I’d say the seminars are the one part of Dragonmeet that has outgrown the space it has available. Perhaps it was that I was at the end of a row and in danger of being pushed off my chair by other people trying to squeeze in. It could really do with a slightly larger, more accessible location, preferably where the video projector can be set up to project in the direction the audience are facing!

After back to back seminars I needed a drink and then wandered around for a bit till friends finished up their games. The raffle was called and I didn’t win

The charity auction was going on but we had to head out to get people back to snowed in parts of the country and trains. So I’m not sure how much they raised. Then managed to spend a couple of hours having a quiet drink with old friends before hiking back to my hotel.

£7 wasn’t an unreasonable price to pay. There were a good mix of traders, games and seminars. Ian Livingstone’s seminar was a special treat.  Thanks to all those involved in organising and running it.  I really enjoyed my day and hope I can make it again next year.

Symatt’s posted his Dragonmeet show report too.

The last bit of work tonight was to draw a map to go with the article.  I modelled it as a terrain in Vue and rendered it from a high angle.  I took the render into Expression and used it as the basis for the map…

Earlier this week a thread on the Fraternity of Shadows website started about city fires on the Domain of Dread. It reminded me of the 7th Sea article and I’ve begun converting it, where appropriate, to Ravenloft. The Ravenloft version isn’t all ready yet but I thought I’d post the 7th Sea original tonight with the first part of the Ravenloft adaptation with d20 crunch following as I find time.