« March 2004 »
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31
You are not logged in. Log in
Entries by Topic
All topics  «
Board Games
Books
Chess Variants
Collecting Games
RPG Actual Play
RPGs
Video Games
Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
RSS Feed
View Profile
Jeff's Gameblog
Tuesday, 23 March 2004



I'm really starting to enjoy learning the ins and outs of the Savage Worlds system. The dice system seems like a lot of fun compared to the humdrum of rolling the same d20 or 3d6 or d% every single time you do something. I find it interesting that one of the 'innovations' of SW is to allow for GM-less miniature skirmishes. Boot Hill, the second rpg ever published, allowed for basically the same type of play! Still, no need to beat up Mr. Hensley for bringing back a type of play oft ignored by modern game designers. Sometimes I like the blurring of the lines that separate RPGs from other gaming pursuits. One thing about Savage Worlds that I do not like is the insufficient index. I was trying to fill out my character sheet only to discover that game jargon like "Derived Stats" and "Encumberance Penalty" don't appear on the index. Hey, if it warrants appearance on my char sheet, I expect some help finding it in the dang text!

Over the past two days I have been attempting to re-read Gary Gygax's Role-Playing Mastery. That's been slow going, partly because I'm slogging through the chapters written for the newbies, but partially because Mr. Gygax tone makes it clear that at the time of writing the book he considered himself the be-all and end-all of the hobby. Maybe I'm doing Uncle Gary an injustice, but for pete's sake his history of gaming boils down to "H.G. Wells wrote Little Wars and then I invented roleplaying". Yes, Gygax is the Man. I still consider the 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide one of the best works in the field. And yes, he wasn't actually writing a lengthy history of the development of the hobby, but come on. To sell yourself as King RPG just strikes me as unseemly.

So my willpower to buy one "TSR Fever" game at a time has already broke down. I currently have winning bids in on two different editions of Gamma World and a Gangbusters. The nice thing about Gamma World at least is that good old fashioned dungeon crawls work in that setting at least as well as in D&D.

Posted by jrients at 8:40 PM CST

View Latest Entries