Clyde’s wonderful interview with Luke is on my headphones, time to respond to this thread.
Here are the books on my shelves with the played games in bold:
1) Pendragon: Bought the newest edition after Clinton raved about it and it just didn’t grab me. I couldn’t figure out what it did that BW didn’t do for me.
2) FVLMINATA: I was at Gen Con and was excited to see this game in print again. It is on the list to read.
3) Truth and Justice: Man, I wish this was prettier; super-hero games need to be pretty. Still, I might whip this out for some friends.
4) Artesia: Sent to me as a gift (thanks, John!) and admittedly, I haven’t read it yet. But I dig the graphic novel and will give it a hard look.
5) Trollbabe: My girlfriend and I sat down and made up a character for her and she was excited to play it at some point. Chargen’s nifty.
6) Donjon: Played a session that didn’t go well with Alexander and Dro and Mayuran at Dreamation or maybe a Dexcon.
7) No Press Anthology: I’ve played a few games out of this, two with Michael Miller and Rob B. at a Jersey Con. Fun and lots of bang for your gaming buck.
8) Mob Justice: Why the fuck haven’t I played this? Shit, this one just fell through the cracks.
9) Nine Worlds: Man, I don’t know what to do with this game. I’m just not sure. Alexander had a neat idea of doing a Norse version. I’d love to wrap my head around the mechanics and the only way I see to do that is to play it.
It is on my to-play list, with a bullet.
10) My Life with Master: I played this at a con some years ago and that session is burned into my skull. And I’ve felt no urge to play the game again. It was harrowing, fun, amazing design but ultimately a harrowing night.
I blame Michael.
11) Charnel Gods: A friend of mine gave me his copy of the hard copy book after I had bought the .pdf. It is an amazing setting that inspired me to push Mu farther. I’m sure I’ll play it.
12) Capes: Bret showed me how this game works in less than optimal conditions. I’d like to give it a go again.
13) Conspiracy of Shadows: We played a really fun pirate campaign with this one. Vicious and awesome stuff.
14) Inspectres: I watched some friends play this at Gen Con in a sesion that I missed because I had to take a nap and freshen up. Damn my nap. Another one on my to-play list.
15) Mountain Witch: Played a stellar all-night session of this at Dreamation and ran a solid game at GYGO-a-thon. Yum.
16) Breaking the Ice: How is it that I haven’t played the romantic comedy RPG? I suck. Allow me to put this on the to-play list too.
17) The Shadow of Yesterday: This game rocks so hard that it inspired me to write my own game based on it. Clinton’s setting of Near is amazing and the mechanics back it right the hell up. I played a fun game of this with Aaron and Bret one Friday night where we created the streets of Verwhenen.
18) The Roach: As someone who works in a university library, this game draws me in. Another for the to-play list.
19) Shock:: I’ve played some really fun and DARK games of this with Joshua and Rob. The next time we play this game there will be spacemen with fins on their helmet and starswords and starships with Cadillac fins. Oddly, I haven’t read it yet, having played it with the creator twice.
20) Arcana Evolved: Rob ran this, maybe seven years ago and I liked my character. Monte does d20 like nobody else.
21) Orbit: Sent to me as a very kind gift and it just didn’t grab me.
22) Nobilis: Played a lukewarm session of this at a con and loved reading the book, even read some pieces of text out loud to my girlfriend but damned if I know what to do to make a game go.
23) D&D 3.0 and Company: I was running a game of this just before the first Lord of the Rings game came out, a game about two halflings finding a dragon egg, hiding it from the evil Imperial Rome-type nation and raising the dragon to rule their forest nation. Fun times but I found running the game tough, like swimming against the stream.
24) Carry: I’ve played two games of this with Nathan and its always really interesting.
25) Mortal Coil: I was really excited about this game when I got back from Gen Con last year but some parts of the conflict res make me itch a bit.
26) Schauermarchen: There’s some scary text in here but I’m not sure if there is a scary game in here.
27) Hero’s Banner: After Storn’s Burning Wheel game this past winter, I’ve felt that my noble being torn by different passions itch has been scratched but the generational aspect of this interests me.
28) Contender: I think this game will work really well for my Monday night buddies. To-play and I know just where to do so.
29) Dead of Night: This might be the game to scratch my current zombie-movie itch. The book’s so damned cute, cute like a werewolf pup. I like holding it.
30) Primetime Adventures: Hell, yes.
31) It was a Mutual Decision: I might know just the couple to get together with to play this. I’m eager to do so. Sock this one on the To-Play List.
32) Sorcerer and Family: I adore this game. Folks keep saying things about Mu being for a different system and bless them for buying my book but they are heretics (Fred, I’m looking at you).
33) Burning Empires: We playtested it and it was interesting; I’m eager to give it a go with the finished book. If I don’t get into a Galactica-inspired epic space battle, I will consider the campaign a failure.
34) Burning Wheel: Man, I dig this game. Its crunchy. It is fucking subtle. It is a stunning piece of work.
35) Everway: This was a gift (thanks, John!) from a friend when I was toying with a tarot-based RPG. I haven’t cracked it yet.
36) Riddle of Steel: Neat game that inspired me to write Riddle of Blood and play a rockin’ mini-campaign of heavy metal vampires.
37) Godlike: I ran a cool one-shot of this and it was some bloody shit. The ORE is nifty.
38) Unknown Armies and Company: Played a three month or so campaign of this sucker and I think its a nifty game. I’ve run it a few times. The mechanics make percentile dice fun.
39) Spirit of the Century: We had a few month or two of gaming with this and Aspects fascinate me. The text could be stronger and I’m worried it relies on techniques I’ve learned from other games to make it go but damn, its a neat game.
40) With Great Power: My first game with Michael was a playtest of WGP during a draft that he was really unhappy with. I have been reading the text of this game between novels and short stories, hoping to give it a go at some point.
41) Cold City: We played a fun mini-campaign of this in 2006 and other than some hiccuping due to running an investigative game for the first time in a long while which led to a kind of flat first session, the campaign ended up on a strong note.
42) Lacuna…: This was among our summer one-shots and this one had legs. We should’ve played more. It is a game that doesn’t feel like it should work but it does and it works really well. The Second Attempt has taken it from an interesting idea to a great game.
43) Polaris: Played a wonderful session of this with Ben, Rob and Jeff at a Jersey Con and then played a lackluster game of it with Bret, Bob and Jeff, mostly because I think Bob and Jeff just weren’t bought in.
EDIT: I keep running across games that just weren’t on my shelf when I wrote this post.
Githyanki Diaspora 
re: Schauermarchen
You’ve got to bring some of the scary yourself, mate. I can’t do all the work for ya. đŸ˜‰
Re: Schauermarchen
One way I was thinking of playing this was to have all of the different areas’ descriptions in envelopes with some kind of stylish letter within with the area description and when a player goes into a new area, who reads the description is done in a kind of Passover dinner roundtable style.
Yeah, horror is a tough thing to capture and everyone’s gotta be into it. There’s some creepy shit in the game and I love the cool dice mechanics.
I’m not looking for you to come to hold my hand, man.
But now that we are on that subject, could you come over to hold my hand, man?
*insert cutsie smiley face dingus here*
Truth and Justice is the most fun I have had playing supers, similar to over the edge and spirit of the century in many ways but sooooooo much fun.
Re: Schauermarchen
It is dark. You cannot see. Only the hint of stars out the broken window.
And a voice as old as the Snake from the Garden whispers, “I will hold your hand.”
I’ve played a game that you haven’t? Color me amazed. My wife and I played a game of Breaking the Ice and it was hella fun. We did an old-school screwball comedy. I posted a write-up on the Forge.
If you’re going to play Capes, I recommend playing through the Capes Lite demo. That’s what we did, and it worked well.
I suspect my gaming survey looks fairly similar to yours – lots of games, not so many played. Having said that, we’re having a good crack at it at the moment!
>29) Dead of Night: This might be the game to scratch my current zombie-movie >itch. The book’s so damned cute, cute like a werewolf pup. I like holding >it.
This makes me happy! Let me send you my 28 Days Later scenario when I’ve finished writing it this week!
You have too played Capes. You play a game with me at GYGO-athon.
Shit, that game.
I think I tried to blot it from my mind, dammit.
Thanks.
Yeah, you deserve another go at it.
You have too played Capes. You play a game with me at GYGO-athon.
Re: Schauermarchen
That’s very nicely creepy… thanks. :: scribbles ::
Re: Schauermarchen
The text is hella creepy.
I reckon I should keep my trap shut about whether or not play is creepy until I’ve played it.
Fair’s fair.
Re: Schauermarchen
The text is hella creepy.
I reckon I should keep my trap shut about whether or not play is creepy until I’ve played it.
Fair’s fair.
Re: Schauermarchen
The text is hella creepy.
I reckon I should keep my trap shut about whether or not play is creepy until I’ve played it.
Fair’s fair.
Re: Schauermarchen
That’s very nicely creepy… thanks. :: scribbles ::
Re: Schauermarchen
That’s very nicely creepy… thanks. :: scribbles ::
What’s creepy, Judd, is that I had a dream last night of you and I talking about RPGs we’d played. And I wake up to find this post.
Even while he sleeps, The Master knows all.
Infinite Forums
I was reading your Dream Forum while you slept.
Yes, there are forums for EVERYthing and I have handles on them all.
Re: Infinite Forums
And I’ll bet your handle on all of them is “Paka,” right?
You poor, poor man.
Infinite Forums
I was reading your Dream Forum while you slept.
Yes, there are forums for EVERYthing and I have handles on them all.
Infinite Forums
I was reading your Dream Forum while you slept.
Yes, there are forums for EVERYthing and I have handles on them all.
What’s creepy, Judd, is that I had a dream last night of you and I talking about RPGs we’d played. And I wake up to find this post.
Even while he sleeps, The Master knows all.
What’s creepy, Judd, is that I had a dream last night of you and I talking about RPGs we’d played. And I wake up to find this post.
Even while he sleeps, The Master knows all.
I know you own a copy of Polaris, I don’t know if you’ve played it.
in my bag
I played it with YOU.
And I played it here.
Dammit, I missed a whole lot. It is near my bed because I was re-reading it. Hence, I missed it.
A pretty good reason to miss it, though.
Re: in my bag
Oh, right!
I have no head today.
I ran it for about half-a-dozen sessions, and loved it. I also played a high-octane ass-kicking session with Schnyder at ForgeCon, and the combination, along with lengthy ruminations, have given me some ideas about how to start/run Nine Worlds.
The game’s about finding or creating, and then fighting for your place in the cosmos. I would insist that everyone is an Archon who’s just been illumined. Some freaky shit happened to you, and then a few weeks later, this dude claiming to be Prometheus (with the scars to back it up) turned up and ripped his illusory veil from your eyes. You’ve just been told you’re a fucking demigod. What are you going to do about it? Those are your first few muses. If you can sustain your wishes, you’re on your way to Primacy. Otherwise, the cosmos (and the Olympians and Titans within it) will kick the unholy shit out of you, and make you their bitch.
That’s where the Norse (or Hindu, or Aztec, or whatever) pantheons come in: I think there’s the potential for a hellaciously entertaining one-shot or short campaign where a bunch of like-minded, recently-illumined archons think “Fuck all this swords and sandals toga-wearing noise. These Greek guys fuck goats or boys. Sod that. <My pantheon> is the way to go.” How far they get to achieving that goal is all about how well they play the game. i.e., with how much skill: 9W is a very skillful game. You have to tow the line for a while, or you will get spanked into oblivion.
In the ForgeCon game, I was a Turku school LARPer who lightning-bolted his LARP buddies for real… Prometheus shows up, and this dickweed is all “I am Thor, or I fucking well will be.” I did better than I thought: we persuaded Atlas to be the All-Father and remake Atlantis into Asgard. But then the cosmos kicked my hubristic ass, and I sacrificed all my hopes and dreams simply to survive. Perfect arc for a one-shot: guy is demigod, guy demonstrates hubris, universe destroys guy… but I can see it continuing: now I’m really interested in what the hell happens to this guy, now that he knows he can’t take on the cosmos yet. What niche does he fill? Does he end up a grunt on Mars, struggling to break off the planet? Players should start out bold and resolute, and the GM will make them bloody in short order.
One final thought for GMs of 9W: don’t go easy. In a game about hubris, appropriate opposition is often brutally hard. I found it huge fun to have “Thor” beaten up by the cosmos.
Are you up for a long, late-night Nine Worlds smackfest at Gen Con?
Let me get a grip on my Sons of Kryos and booth schedule before I make any game committments but color me as incredibly interested.
If I can get to bed by midnight or one-ish, I should be down with it.
Let me get a grip on my Sons of Kryos and booth schedule before I make any game committments but color me as incredibly interested.
If I can get to bed by midnight or one-ish, I should be down with it.
Zombie Madness!
I’m not too bummed by only 16 of 43 not played.
I can’t wait to see what you have for zombie madness with DoN. Sounds like fun.
Re: Zombie Madness!
My 28DL scenario is super fun – I’ve run it 3 times now and it’s gone down great. I still need to post an actual play of the games I’ve run actually.
I’ve got a thread here discussing tweaks to tension and survival points for a 28DL style game.
Zombie Madness!
I’m not too bummed by only 16 of 43 not played.
I can’t wait to see what you have for zombie madness with DoN. Sounds like fun.
Zombie Madness!
I’m not too bummed by only 16 of 43 not played.
I can’t wait to see what you have for zombie madness with DoN. Sounds like fun.
Sounds like BtI was fun. Awesome.
Capes Lite…will do. Thanks.
Sounds like BtI was fun. Awesome.
Capes Lite…will do. Thanks.
Sounds like BtI was fun. Awesome.
Capes Lite…will do. Thanks.
What kind of comic book did your group’s campaign emulate?