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Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Berserk (anime)

I'm currently watching Berserk. It's a fantastic show. It reminds of a cross between D&D and Dark Souls. The characters are all mercenaries in a world with hidden magic and monsters. I'm still only halfway through, but I suspect magic and monsters become much more prevalent as the series goes on.

The series starts with Guts fighting a monster lord, and then goes back in time till when he was a younger mercenary. Much of the series is taking place in the past.

Lots of nasty politics, big battles, and bloodshed. Another neat thing is that the armor appears to be a mix of medieval for leaders and English Civil War for the more common troops. I like it.

I haven't finished the show or read the manga, so no spoilers, please. Just wanted to say this anime is perfect for D&D fans.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Runequest 2e - I finally have a copy

Chaosium has published a reformatted version of Runequest 2e, that also includes all errata in it's correct locations. I've heard of this game for years, and it's always been very expensive on eBay, so I finally got myself a copy.

I like it, though I don't know that it would be my preferred version for d100 gaming (Openquest is the best version I've tried). I was also surprised that no Sorcery rules were included. I guess they got introduced in 3e by Avalon Hill.

I was also surprised that the rules really aren't that Glorantha specific. Yeah, the cults included and some of the monsters are definitely Gloranthan, but the way lots of old gamers talked, I thought this book would be stuffed with it. I think the RQ Deluxe Set from AH had more Glorantha info in it. Just a weird thing I noticed from what forum-goers say vs. what is actually in the product.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Gurps Fantasy Set Kickstarter reached goal!

Well, as of now, they are over $104,000, on a goal of $100,000, and still have 11 days to go. I'm glad this was a success for them, and I expect the product will be very well done. I normally would hesitate on a Kickstarter project, after going through the Dwimmermount fiasco, but I expect Steve Jackson Games won't have any trouble meeting and exceeding everyone's expectations for this game.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/847271320/dungeon-fantasy-roleplaying-game-powered-by-gurps?ref=user_menu

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

More info on the upcoming Gurps Fantasy box set

The Gaming Ballistic blog has collected a bunch of Sean Punch's quotes on how he's going about writing the set and what's in it. I, for one, think it's pretty interesting, and I really wish that SJ Games had published this set years ago.

http://gamingballistic.blogspot.com/2016/09/dungeon-fantasy-boxed-set-word-of-kromm.html

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Gurps Fantasy on Kickstarter

Steve Jackson Games is finally going to do a Fantasy-specific Gurps adaptation (Kickstarter here). All you need in one box set! I have high hopes for this!


Thursday, September 1, 2016

Glorantha - I love it but...

Glorantha has been around in gaming since the late 70's. It was the default system for the Runequest rpg. If you are interested in bronze age roleplaying, it's one of the best options available (outside of ancient Greece).

However, it went through a long period of navel-gazing, with products focusing heavily on daily life, spirit quests, and pre-ordained battles. This stuff is really cool to read, but is largely worthless at the gaming table.

I'm also not a fan of the Heroquest/Hero Wars system. I like the 100 word character essay, but I just don't "get" the actual system. It's very poorly explained. I suspect that if someone who knows it could actually sit down and teach it, it would work well. Trying to figure it out from reading a book didn't, at least for me.

Runequest itself has gone through a whole bunch of editions lately. I'm not even sure which edition is the current official one, or if one even exists right now. RQ6 was published and then Chaosium yanked their license (not sure how, since it was released under the OGL). In any case, I like the world, but the rules situation is stupid and finding players is very difficult.

Anyways, the Lunar Empire are the good guys and the Orlanthi scum should be crushed under heel immediately, other than this cool Vingan warrior: