Gary Gygax passed away yesterday, he was one of the creators and co-author of Dungeons and Dragons. He die at at 69. I did not learn of it until I got home late from work yesterday. I found it appropriate that last night was our weekly game night and I spent the evening, online, playing Dungeons & Dragon with my friends. There was both a Dungeon and several Dragons is the session even. As fitting a tribute as I can think for one of the creators of D&D. RIP.

I love William Gibson sprawl trilogy and his writing in general. The hi-tech dark future with the huge gap between the haves and have-nots, the control of the mega corporations, the existence of the net and AI's, the hint at the mystical and the importance information and it's possession can play in the world. The world of Shadowrun is spawned from that world but with its own twists and turns to make it unique but of similar feather to the original. Why then is William Gibson stories so good and most Shadowrun games and fiction dismal tedious and retched experiences?

Well for one, Gibson is just a good story teller but their is a another important difference. In Shadowrun the focus is on the character called Shadowrunners. The story mechanism always focuses around the Shadowrunners that work in the underworld as anonymous and deniable henchman for mega corps. This is the problem IMHO. The stories are always focused on the assembly of a team of runners, planning the run (the most excruciating part), exicuting the run, and dealing with the consequences. Its not all the great the first time as all the suspense and risk is planned out and then after a few times is starts to feel like Scooby-Doo in it predictability and this gets very borrowing to read about or play. In Gibson stories there are characters and shit happens to them and then they deal with it. That is far more interesting, spontaneous feeling and can have far more interesting twists and turns.

I think the way to save Shadowrun as a game and make it playable is to throw the whole concept of Shadowrunners out. The whole organized Shadowrun affiliation is the reason the game and stories suck. Destroy this story mechanism and the setting become far less ridged and far less formulaic. Certainly some stories or games will fit that mold but those constraint do have to be there. Make the setting more free form.

I know its not a great revelation and may not be entirely correct but hey it did sort of click to me this morning in the shower so I thought I would ramble about it here.

Along the line of this post I got from madeofmeat I decided to do a similar post about the RPGs I have played and own.

Bold = played/play
Underline = owned/own
x/y = rating of system / rating of setting 1 = worst ever, 5 = best ever
* for actively playing

If the system existed in more than one iteration feel free to specify version in parenthesis.

BattleTech/Mechwarrior (Mechwarrior 1st edition) 4/5
Robotech 3/5
Heavy Gear(3rd Edition)5/5
Cyborg Commando 1/2
Lord of the Rings 4/4
Middle Earth Role Playing 3/4
Dogs in the Vineyard 5/3
Farscape 2/4
Serenity 3/4
Dungeons and Dragons* (d20 3.0) 2/4
D20 Modern 2/3
Aliens 2/4
Exalted (2nd edition) 3/1
Shadowrun (1st & 3rd edition) 2/2

If you like copy the list and add a few of your own to the list.

Just recently I read a Shadowrun Trilogy (Born to Run, Poison Agendas, and Fallen Angles) by Stephen Kenson from the latest rash of Shadowrun novels. Well... They were mediocre at best. It was apparent the author well well verse in the Shadowrun RPG, but this was a two edge sword. One one hand I have no doubt the action described in the book is plausible within the construct of the game mechanics on the other hand like the game mechanics it takes nearly the entire first novel to setup and execute two short runs. These books through me back to the nightmarish attempt to play the RPG with some friends. At first glance Shadowrun looks like such a sweet setting to set an RPG and even good Sci-Fi novels and yet both fall sort of flate in their reality.

So left lacking by the Shadowrun novel, I went back to the father of cyberpunk, William Gibson. After the lack luster experience with the Shadowrun novels I picked up Virtual Light by Gibson this it the first of his Bridge Trilogy. The Bridge Trilogy is not as cyber as his first Spraw trilogy but still in that vein. I am only into the forth chapter and already the characters have more depth and... character than the characters in Kenson's work had at the end of his trilogy. There has also been more action in the first three chapters than nearly the entire Kenson Trilogy. Good Sci-Fi is so... Good.

I'm sure I have said this before and will probably say it again, but how in all the is good and not SG-1 did Shadowrun hit so close to the target and yet miss to wretchedly?

So I am typing this review in wireless mode. Away form the desk were my poor laptop was anchored by it modem line for the past two or three years.

( A review of Dogs in the Vineyard )

Many Many more pages of RPG motivational humor. Good stuff!

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=264472

And just in case your inspired to create your own:

http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/motivator.php

<---- Looky, new avatar picture.

This furry defenseless critter was hanging out at the base of the tree outside my front door. He hope up on the tree for a picture as I was getting the mail after work.

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Speaking of mail, I got a package. My order to FRP games showed up. I got the GM screen for Serenity RPG and the Farscape RPG core book. Both of these are more for the collectors value than any real anticipation of playing them.

The disappointing thing is apparently they are still waiting for Stock of Dogs in the Vineyard. This was the real thing I wanted with the order. I am really looking forward to this small press RPG. I think it could be a great setting and a great game system. Oh well a little more waiting for this won't kill me.

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Took GFWTR out for dinner, just Bob Evans. This is the second or maybe third time we have gone out to dinner while I was carrying. She is very tolerant of my pursuance of this. Although this being only the second or third time with the GFWTR I have been carrying a lot lately without her around.

I have grown very comfortable carrying. Not so much as to be flippant or careless but comfortable. I have my holster setup working pretty good and comfortable. I hop in the Element and to comply with Ohio's open carry in the vehicle law I do the old "buckeye tuck" as it has come to be know. When away from the car I find I am no longer constantly checking and rechecking my cover clothing and I no longer hold my arm out away from my body to avoid contact with the weapon. I'm sure I still do a few things the would tip that I was carrying to someone that knew what to look for but I do think I have gotten so that I am casual while carrying. Now to be diligent to not get complacent

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I am looking forward to getting some work done on my kitchen and down stairs bathroom this weekend. Maybe go to Pittsburgh and shoot a match Sunday morning and just unwind a little. Work has be a slight drag and a bit stressing over the past two or three weeks. The only other Mechanical Engineer at work is leaving and this is going to dump even more work on me I need the time off to decompress.

My brother will be in town next week so I am looking forward to seeing my nephew that I have not seen since Thanksgiving. I will probably take another day off late next week and go shoot some sporting clay with my brother and father while were all together. A short work week is going to be nice.

Definitely rambling now, better get some sleep!

So I have pretty much given up about 2/3 of the way through Exalted 2nd edition RPG. I read the first third to half of the book pretty completely and then started huntin' and peckin' for interesting section as my interest waned. In the end the RPG just does not do it for me.

From all the great reviews I perused on the web I thought I would really like the game. I was wrong and apparently did not research or preview the book well enough, but should point out I was slightly drunk when I bought it with high hope of a cool new RPG. Turns our I was wrong.

The more I read it the less I found I liked that setting. Always a bad sign for a new RPG. The idea of the main characters being demigod like beings that are able to just brush aside the 'commoners' if they choose does not appeal to me. I enjoyed the back story and could probably even enjoy reading fiction set in the that universe but to play an Exalted character has very little appeal to me.

On top of that the game mechanics did not impress me. They seemed overly complicated for how little they appeared to aid with the story telling part. Not to mention there seemed to be vague parallels to the resolution system Shadowrun used and that's enough to set me against any game system. I don't mind that the game mechanics are complicated but they should establish the action very well and accentuate the narrative. It does not seem that the complexity of Exalted lends itself to detail just sluggish play. It might be more streamline in actual play if I had every got that far but nothing in the game mechanics jump out at me as elegant or innovative. When I read Silhouette Core rules from Dream Pod 9 (Heavy Gear is still at the top of the list of the unplayed RPGs) that they use for all there games there were lots of nifty thing in the rules that made me go hmmm... I like that, or cool... that was a slick way to resolve that. Exalted never made me react like that.

So in the end I think it was not as much that the game sucks it's just that it does not fit what I want from and RPG. I really want a good gritty game. One where the characters bleed, fail, and are often the underdog even though they often persevere and win in the end. The game should be lethal, gritty and messy. Exalted on the other hand seems like a very cinematic and dramatic system/setting.

So the hopeless quest goes on for a new game system that I will fail to talk the rest of the geeks into playing. I have <a href="http://mcb-homis.livejournal.com/12782.html>Dogs in the Vinyard</a> coming in the mail. This game looks like it has more grit potential. We'll see

Back in the day (high school) I bought nearly all of the Palladium's Robotech RPG books they published when they held the license. The game system was a bit... uhmm... nebulous but I love Robotech as much as I liked Battletech. I just wished Robotech had been as playable as Battletech. A good friend I gamed with in High school had their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles book and several of the Rifts series. Well it appears they are in serious financial trouble. The kicker is its of no fault of the companies business practices but due to the action of a single employee. It appears a sales manager embezzled funds and merchandise on the order of $850,000. Not much money in the corporate world but to a RPG publishing company this is almost certainly a death sentence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium_Books#Financial_troubles

http://forums.palladium-megaverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=57048

Not sure there is much to be done. There are several campaigns that are trying to boost Palladium's sales to help save the company. They are also one or more donation campaigns going on. I learned about all this when Stiggybaby's sent me there weekly update. They are offering a 40% discount on all Palladium books in an effort to help do something. Unfortunately I have a stack of RPGs that I don't play already, I don't need another orphaned RPG at the moment, I'm still reading Exalted so it can go in the orphan pile in short order.