games
Green Ronin bags another licence
But is it one too many? I was surprised to read that Green Ronin had signed an agreement with DC Comics to release a series of four books as part of their Mutants and Masterminds line. It makes me wonder how many licensed products are sustainable for a small publishing house like GR.
Fall – Episode 23 Lull before the Storm
This is also known as the Filler Episode (as Norm couldn’t make it), and happens to also be the most amazingly awkward roleplaying Ive ever done.
Not much happened in terms of plot in this one, most of it is dealing with the bomb Calvin dropped in the episode before and Alex not knowing how to deal with it all. As all of this is gone into in by Jenni in her blow by blow recaps, I think I’ll leave it at that.
But to sum up:
- Calvin and Alex barely talk when they wake up in Calvin’s bed the next morning, having spent the night together.
- Alex gets busted leaving the house by Martha, Calvin’s sister.
- Megan tries to sweet talk a priest into giving her some holy water, and when that doesn’t work steals it instead.
- Darius is still recuperating (either in hospital or at home, I was a bit confused).
- Calvin tries to find Gina, and discovers that shes disappeared. The car she borrowed is found in a parking lot near the train station and he assumes that shes left town.
- Megan is oblivious to whats happened between Alex and Calvin, even when the three of them hang out at her house trying to find out what happened to Gina. (Cue awkward silences)
- Alex totally confuses Calvin by bursting into tears in front of him, after he offers to just forget about the night before and she says she doesn’t want to.
- Calvin and Alex have another bonding cemetery moment when they’re attacked by two vamps. This fight doesn’t go so well and Calvin ends up getting bitten.
Next time round well be getting back on track with the plot and edging that much closer to the end of Fall, Season 1!
Previously on Fall
Jennis write ups
Fall – Episode 23 “Q&A”
The next in the quick fire Fall recaps is episode 23, Q&A aka the one with the romantic ending. But I get ahead of myself.
The episode picks up exactly after the last one left off. The team are driving around Fall River with their people divination wire trying to track down Xavier.
Fall – Episode 22 “Icarus gets his Wings”
It’s been awhile since my last Fall write up, four episodes to be exact. I’ll try to be succinct and will leave out most of the dialogue, for that head on over to Jenni’s write ups (the link is at the bottom of the page).
First up is episode 22, Icarus gets his Wings.
Fallout: New Vegas gets some screen time
So Fallout: New Vegas has been getting a bunch of screen time this week. With a new first impressions being posted on a bunch of different blogs and sites.
I’ve been pretty keen for this to come out since it was first announced last year. I liked Fallout 3, I mean it was no Fallout or Fallout 2 but it was a pretty solid game and I’ve recently been wanting to go back and have more of an explore.
But when it was announced that Obsidian would be developing this game under licence I was pretty stoked. Knights of the Old Republic 2 (despite the ending) was a great game and I’m also really looking forward to the long over due Alpha Protocol.
So I look forward to more news about this next part of the franchise, and the ability to zoom in for those messy and devastating headshots through V.A.T.S.
This is seriously awesome!
Pictish Rock Art a Written Language. (from Boing Boing)
Although I suddenly realise I’ve never seen anyone use pictograms for a fantasy language. Odd. But my theoretical ‘Celtic islands dark fantasy game’ is definitely going to have a ancient pictographic language in it.
It’s been a while – how about some links?
I have totally let Thursday link day get away from me. But here’s a few…
- The LA Times writing on D&D.
- An interview from Wizards with Zak S. Zak writes a really cool blog called Playing D&D With Porn Stars which is mostly general musings on his style of D&D and playing with a group who aren’t traditional gamers. Seriously – it’s a really interesting read from a rally interesting guy.
- E6 – it’s a style of D&D that involves limiting levels to level 6 and not progressing further. Low level play for the win! There’s rules for 3/3.5 and rules for 4e. My favourite levels of D&D are a bit beyond this – say 8 till 12 – but I like the basic idea a lot.
- A Spanish Civil War card game! Two of my favourite obsessions in one! The Spanish Civil War is a really underutilised part of history for gaming I think – one day I’ll write my Call of Cthulhu Spanish Civil War game.
Finally here’s a TED talk from game designer Jane McGonigal about how if we increase our weekly online gaming hours to 21 billion we can save the world. It’s complete bullshit, but it’s interesting bullshit!
Meet Victor Wong
A while back I said I’d put up some old PC backgrounds. Here’s another one from another of Kyle the Viking Hat GM’s games. This one was Osere, a modern espionage game using Kyle’s home-brewed rules. Here’s the character – Victor Wong. Criminal.
Victor was born Wong Ke Lo to a comfortable middle class family in Taipei in 1979. His father, Wong Fai Hun, was a businessman with vague connections to the Bamboo Union, one of Taiwan’s main triad organisations, through his Kuomintang background. An only child, Victor was an unimpressive student, a loner who only found solace in the gymnasium. Victor was a good gymnast, but lacked the competitive drive to truly excel.
After the senior Wong annoyed the wrong Bamboo Union functionary, Victor was targeted for recruitment – a subtle punishment for the upstanding businessman. He was an easy target as his antisocial tendencies made him comfortable with the life of crime while welcoming the social contact the triad provided. His father was mortified, but warned to stay away by Victor’s new ‘friends’ He was only 16, but quickly became a useful second story man for the Triad, breaking in to allow enforcers into buildings as well as minor thefts. The Union taught Victor to fight and use a gun as well as the basic intricacies of alarm systems.
At 17, Victor was nearly convicted for burglary after a job went wrong. Fai Hun interceded to bribe the cops responsible for the bust and decided he had to get the family out. Immigration to Australia seemed the best way to get Victor away from the triad as well as avoid any further shame to the family. In 1996 the Wongs moved to Melbourne as economic migrants, buying a news agents and settling in Box Hill. Victor was just young enough to come with his parents.
Melbourne didn’t help Victor’s behaviour. He quickly fell in with 14K, a Sydney based triad with Melbourne offshoots, and got back into his old ways and quickly became estranged from his parents. But a period in jail in 2001 helped scare Victor, convincing him he wasn’t invincible. After he got out, he moved to Bidawal, not telling any of his triad friends where he was going. He started to look around for other ways to make a living, scraping by on odd jobs and the occasional break in but generally trying to keep his head down. Eventually Sonny Kim, the Bidawal Police Department’s Asian Community Liaison officer, told Victor that he might know of some work for someone with skills like his. Sonny was as corrupt as they come, but he could see that Victor was trying to get out. Now Victor is with OSERE. He’s hoping that he’ll be able to make a living, find some of what attracted him to triad life and stay out of jail.
Fall – Episode 21 “Reaching my Limits, Part 2″
For the past two weeks, since our epic session, I’ve been trying to write this actual play report on Fall. I’ve found it extremely hard, as it was a dark and difficult road that my Slayer started down. I’ll warn you this will be long, and may have emo musings littered through out. Don’t say I never give you an out!
The coolest sounding RPG book I’ve heard of in a while
Lucha Libre HERO! I can’t imagine ever getting around to running this but I like the fact that I live in a word where it can exist.
(via Ken Hite)