So far there have been two Transmissions. Issue 1 focused on the work of Nigel Kneale, creator of the Quatermass series which was a huge influence to Hot War creator Malcolm Craig. Issue 2 focuses on UK politics in the early 1960s and how they might have flowed into post-apocalyptic London.

Each Transmission also includes a pre-written game set up, with appropriate characters so you can give Hot War a go with minimal set up.

They’re both well written and useful for Hot War games. So go check them out.

I’m hoping that off the back of this positive response to the game that Green Ronin firms up the plans for further products as well as officially announcing when the Campaign Guide will be released. According to a report from Gen Con on the Green Ronin boards, the hold up is not that they are waiting on approvals from George R.R. Martin. Though this of course should be taken with a grain of salt until there is some sort word from Green Ronin.

Most of the other award winners covered off DnD 4th ed, Dark Heresy and Paizo Publishing, though it was great to see that some of the smaller publishers and games had a good showing like Mouse Guard (which I own, but have never actually played) and Evil Hat Productions with both Don’t Rest Your Head and Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies. Unfortunately my friend Malcolm’s Hot War didn’t pick up awards in the two categories (Best Setting and Best Writing) it was nominated.

A full list of winners can be found over at the ENnie Awards site.

• There are heaps of fantastic small print games out there that I wanted to have an oppertunity to play.
• I thought that the Wellington gaming scene would respond well to an event mid year.

So I stole an idea from New Zealand’s biggest RPG con, KapCon (which is held every January), and based my Day of Games on the Games on Demand room. The deal here is that there are a group of facilitators who each agree to run certain games that they’re really excited about and then people come, vote on which games seem cool and go play. Sounds easy right?

Well as I found out this supposidly easy concept needs (not surprisingly) more organisation that I thought it would. Choosing a date in mid-May which was roughly half way between KapCon and the one of the other main RPG events in Wellington, ConFusion which is held in August was easy. As was picking the old faithful, Turnbull House for a venue. I pimped my idea on the NZRag boards to get people to come and run games and even made fliers to go into the FLGS. I kind of forgot to set up a Facebook event until a few days before but dispite that lapse the day arrived an we had a pretty good turn out, even a guy who was from the US and travelling around NZ. After some discussion I decided to do a slightly different time table. Rather than the traditional 3 hour slot I split the day into two 4 hour slots and four 2 hour slots. This way if you wanted to play in a game that required more set up you’d still get time to play.

This was kind of where my grand idea fell down a little. I had a big white board and session times/lengths all worked out, but I felt there was too much standing around waiting and discussing what would happen next. Also a number of the GMs didn’t get to play in games that they wanted to due to having to run games. So I’ve been thinking about how to smooth out those waits and give everyone the oppertunity to play if they wanted to. So here is what I’m going to do next year, assuming there is interest:

• Get a clear list of games from each GM so other GMs can indicate what they’d also like to play in.
• Set up the whole day’s timetable to begin with so if people finish their session they know where to go next and time isn’t eaten up in the short sessions with arranging things.

In terms of my own Day of Games experience it was good. I ran an awesome game of 3: 16 for three Americans who really got into their roles as Space Marines. Then I “ran” an utterly terrible session of Capes (a game I’d never read, played in or even come across before) which I thought would be an easy supers pick game but confused me and all of the players with it’s unusual conflict mechanic. However I did really like the way characters were generated. Finally I brought out Hot War and actually got to run through game creation. This was my most satisfying game of the day and made me want to play in a multi-session game of this even more.

All in all it was a good day and the comments from others made me think that it could continue to grow in the furture. So I’m thinking that Day of Games will be around for another year yet.

Edit: You can either get it from the Hot War downloads page or by going to the Scenarios section.

3: 16 – as a game of kick arse space marines doing what they do best, it is excellent. As a game of moral conundrums and difficult calls it forces the player to do more than just kill aliens. The system is simple, elegant and ultimately easy to learn and use. I also love the fact that character gen really only takes 5 minutes.

Hot War – I’ve talked a lot about this game and a large part of what appeals to me is the alt history setting that is much a character as any of the PCs. It is dark and difficult and allows the telling of stories that don’t always go the way you think. The collaborative nature of the game play means that as a GM unexpected things happen which just adds to the richness. Also the use of traits and relationships instead of skills makes for really well rounded and complex characters.

However since I wrote this I have actually brought another game which I think I’d like to add. Mongoose Publishing has gained the licence for the classic Sci Fi RPG, Traveller and I think have done a damn fine job. I’ve never read any of the other versions of this game but I’ve found this version excellent. I’ll be writing up a full review soon.

At it’s heart Project Breather is about the horror that comes from with in people, and that the monsters are not just the ones with the crazy powers and disfigurment. The horror from within was the theme I tried to promote through out the game, by placing the characters in situations where they could let their darkest side loose.

There are 5 characters in Project breather, and different to the book I had them as members of an agency called the Office of Internal Affairs rather than members of the Special Situations Group. The team is:

Captain Brad Harris – An American Air Force pilot
Lieutenant Julian Stevens – Royal Naval Intelligence
Samantha Askew – A former journelist
Sargent Jock Smith – A London policeman
Herbert Jenkins – A disgraced politician

These 5 were asked to go into SSG, and basically dig up dirt on their operation under the guise of an audit. All things considered it doesn’t take long and the investigation begins. In the course of the investigation the team find out that certain Doctor has suspected of a rather horrible crime and that the SSG are trying to cover it up. Obviously they do everything in their power to uncover what actually happened.

Firstly in preparation for this event I ran through this game twice. And I don’t think these run throughs were all that great. They didn’t suck, but they were missing something. However they were valuable experiences as they helped me farm ideas and scenes that happened in the actual game. In the game tonight all (even though it ran a little long) those little titbits I’d picked up along the way meshed really well. I had a real sense of the London portrayed in Hot War as well as a greater understanding of what had to happen.

I can’t speak for the players, but I think that the pace of the game went really well. I was letting little bits of information slip through out the game that lead to a growing sense of understanding and dread as they realised what was happening. But at the same time there were enough unknowns that they still had “Oh fuck” moments at the end. It’s a real shame that we got cut off as I think I might have been able to take out a couple of them given another 1/2 hour.

I also used the players suggestions and questions to shape the adventure around them. I had written the backstory of what had lead to this situation, however I hadn’t actually written the story of how the situation is resolved. In a game like Hot War with so much collaboration written into the game mechanics I think this is crucial for running succesfully.

I had a blast running this game and hope the players enjoyed it as much as I did. I hope to have it uploaded for others to use at some point soon.

The premise of the setting is an alternate future. In 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis actually happened and the world is plunged into a terrible war. The book starts out a year later, with all of the players in London being part of a task force called the Special Situations Group. However the nuclear winter isn’t the only thing they have to deal with. Other ‘twisted’ technologies were also used, creatures from nightmare and out of crazy experiments. These are the real destructive force at play, not the run of the mill nuclear weapons.

The book is very well laid out and has a number of great hooks in the shape of diary entries, propaganda notices and photos that really evoke the way London is in 1963 after the world has ended. It also easily leads you through the collaborative nature of the game set up, character creation and in game play. This is a game of shared narration. It isn’t only the domain of the GM to push the story, the players are also given a vested interest in making what they want of their character’s situation.

I’ve played through two short scenarios with this game so far and I’m loving the way the setting demands that stories and conflicts get told. In a way London isn’t just the backdrop to the adventures, it is a character in it’s own right. The crumbling buildings, haunted people and brutal situations all emerge from the London backdrop utterly seamlessly.

The characters who find themselves in this London are made up of their ability to deal with physical, mental and social situations through their attributes and traits. They are driven by their agendas and their relationships. All of these elements come together to create complex and interesting characters that are a whole lot more then just the sum of their stats and skills. The creation of dice pools to work out who wins and looses in the conflict took me awhile to get used to and required a slight shift in thinking from the god old target number model.

Hot War describes itself as “A game of friends, enemies, secrets and consequences in the aftermath.” and that is what it delivers.

If you are at all interested in a game of personal conflict or in an interesting setting that is far from the norm then head along to Contested Ground Studios and check it out.

Hot War covers