IoM Actual Play: And a Little Child Shall Eat Them (FtC4)

It’s been four years since children the world over turned on their parents, devouring their nurturers.

They are predators our children. Cunning. Deadly.

It’s been four years since the dead started walking.

This is the fourth installment of my zombie apocalypse game utilizing the ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN unisystem rules.

Around the table this time are Tim, Andrew and Paul each from Ideology of Madness’ Funnybooks with Aron and Paulie. John from ThistledownAP.com as well as Chris and Tresi from the Internet are present for this chapter in a world where gone mad for sweet, warm screaming flesh of man.

Opening voice over provided by Gary Layton.

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Written on December 27th, 2011 , DriveThru RPG Reviews, Ideology of Madness Actual Play, Podcasts, Role Playing Games Tags: , , ,
DriveThru RPG Reviews: It’s a Fiasco!

Most role-playing games are about players playing characters who are heroes doing heroic acts.  Even if they are not doing heroic things, these characters are generally somewhat extraordinary and are often, at worst, anti-heroes.  This only makes sense as stories about ordinary people doing ordinary things are, almost by definition, boring.  Nonetheless there are hundreds of slice-of-life style movies which prove that even ordinary people can get involved in extraordinary or at least extraordinarily interesting stories.

Fiasco is designed to tell these types of stories in a role-playing game format.  Because the characters in these stories are less important than the situations they find themselves in, Fiasco revolves entirely around the relationships between characters rather than those characters’ abilities.  In fact, players don’t create characters until after these relationships are established.  Each character has a relationship with the character of the player to his left and to his right and a character’s personality and abilities are defined more by these relationships than anything else.  Character creation boils down to giving a name and a descriptive phrase that fits the personality suggested by these relationships to the character.  In fact, having a character concept in mind before these relationships are established is pointless.

These relationships are defined by the group through a rather ingenious method.  Each Fiasco game begins with the group (or perhaps the person who happens to have one available) selecting a play set.  These play sets are short descriptions of the sort of scenario the players can expect or the theme and genre that the game should be.  It also includes a “movie night” section which suggest movies that the play set emulates.  Fiasco makes no bones about the fact that the game is inspired by dark farce movies and this is a prime example of that dynamic. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on December 20th, 2011 , DriveThru RPG Reviews, Games, Role Playing Games Tags: ,
IoM Actual Play: Ship-Wrecked on Monster Island

In the days after Serpentfall, a handful of Marines – the last of their once mighty unit – are shipwrecked on Kaijushima… a place you might know better as Monster Island.

Wreathed in mist and veiled in mystery, Monster Island was bad enough during the BIG ONE, when it held cannibal soldiers sworn to kill and die for Hirohito, and savage tribes who worshiped Golyeong, the MIGHTY “gorilla ghost.” After the Serpentfall, who knows what TREMENDOUS horrors might be RISING UP in Monster Island’s jungles, awakened from the prehistoric past?

Ship-wrecked on Monster Island is an actual play recording made at Fear the Con 4.  Players include Comedy Rockstar Mikey Mason, Funnybooks’ Paul, Thistledown AP’s  John, Josh, Nathan and James.

The game uses the Day After Ragnarok setting expansion from Serpent Scales #3: Return to Monster Island.

Day After Ragnarok is set in a world where the allies never won World War II. Instead, Patton dies before the Battle of the Bulge assassinated in Otto Skorzeny’s Operation Walküre. The Nazis, emboldened by this development that they believe signals the new Twilight, are successful in their endeavor to access the arcane powers of the Norse Gods. They summon up Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent.

The end times dawn in 1945.

The Yanks strike back at the world encircling serpent with a nuke – killing Jormungandr, but also ending the world as we know it. The giant snake’s massive body crashes across continents, destroying cities and nations… Magic and monsters enter the world.

And our heroes are ship-wrecked on Monster Island.

Day After Ragnarok is a Savage Worlds setting from Atomic Overmind Press.

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Written on December 17th, 2011 , DriveThru RPG Reviews, Ideology of Madness Actual Play, Podcasts, Role Playing Games, Savage Worlds Tags: , , , , ,
DriveThruRPG Reviews: Icons is Evolutionary!

My gaming life began not with Dungeons and Dragons but with the TSR Marvel Super Heroes game from the 80’s.  I was (and am) a huge Marvel fan, anyway, so being able to drop one of my characters into that universe was a dream come true.  When other people’s first characters were fighting orcs and dragons and saving the princess, my first characters were fighting Dr. Doom and the Marauders and saving  the world.  While I’ve gotten rid of each version of D&D when the next one has been released I still have almost all my game books from the Marvel Super Heroes game and still have characters I created 20 years ago and would still love to play in a campaign.

Imagine my sense of nostalgia and delight, then when I read Icons.  Many games, especially since the advent of the d20 system are just fresh skins stretched out on the skeleton of a rules system that were not designed for them.  Icons is just the opposite.  Instead of the bones of the Marvel Super Heroes system with a new skin, Icons is the skin of the Marvel Super Heroes system with a new skeleton.  Of course, the creator of Icons, Adamant Entertainment does not have the license to Marvel’s characters but that is almost the only thing missing from the old game.

The similarities between the two games are striking.  Like the Marvel Super Heroes game, character generation in Icons is almost entirely random.  The type of character, ability levels, number of talents (known as specialties,) number of powers, the powers themselves and their levels are all determined randomly.  Obviously, just like the game from the 80’s, this could lead to wildly varying power levels in a group of heroes, but that is the fun of the system.  After all, the Justice League has both Superman and Green Arrow and the Avengers have both Thor and Hawkeye.  It can be just as entertaining for a player character group to have members with just as massively different levels of power. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on September 27th, 2011 , Comics, DriveThru RPG Reviews, Role Playing Games, Superhero Tags:
DriveThruRPG Reviews: Blood and Honor is Tragic Goodness

In many ways, Blood and Honor is more of an extension and revision of the rules presented in Houses of the Blooded than a separate game.  In fact, at one point John Wick, in typical John Wick fashion, states that a great deal of Blood and Honor is lifted directly from Houses of the Blooded.

There are a few changes between Houses of the Blooded and Blood and Honor and the first and most significant is evident almost immediately.  Although Blood and Honor retains Virtues and Aspects from its predecessor, character creation does not start with the character.  Instead the group begins by creating one or more clans.  The clan(s) created do a great deal to help define the nature of the characters that are then created as well as where the story goes once character creation is done.

During clan creation, the players select four aspects for the clan, though one of these is always an aspect called “None of Us is as Great as All of Us,” an aspect that gives characters bonus dice for assisting a fellow member of their clan.  Unlike Houses of the Blooded, where an aspect could be anything that the player can come up with and the Narrator approved, the aspects in Blood and Honor are limited and defined.  It should also be noted that Aspects in Blood and Honor do not have Tags.  While the Invoke and Compel facets remain, Aspects no longer have a Tag that opponents can use against characters.

The beginning Daimyo is always an NPC but one that the players define by selecting from one of 6 personality types for him.  Tags come from the Daimyo chosen.  Each Daimyo has a Quality that provides benefits as well as disadvantages that might be Tags that opponents can use against the Samurai of the Daimyo’s Clan.  All of this combines to make Blood and Honor seem like much more of a cooperative game than Houses of the Blooded.  While it is still certainly possible for betrayal and Machiavellian machinations within a Blood and Honor clan, these would only weaken the clan and thus the people within it. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on September 26th, 2011 , DriveThru RPG Reviews, Games, Role Playing Games Tags: ,
DriveThruRPG Reviews: Space 1889 – Red Sands – A great choice!

Space 1889 Red Sands available at DriveThru RPG!

The destiny of the worlds in a Space 1889 campaign is determined by three distinct groups of people. The first is the Brotherhood of Luxor. The second are the Vulcans. The final group is the player characters. How they deal with the plots of the Brotherhood and handle the dangerous technology of the Vulcans will determine the fate of the solar system in their campaign.

The Savage Worlds version of Space 1889, Red Sands, is one of Pinnacle’s plot point games. Like all plot point games, there is an inherent story in the game, a central threat that will destroy the solar system and everything unless the player characters are able to put a stop to it. GMs of these games are not forced to come up with a campaign concept for Space 1889, it is provided right out of the box.

In Space 1889 the worlds endangering threat is the Brotherhood of Luxor a big bad cabal with more than one dark secret. The core of the Brotherhood is a gathering of powerful, anonymous individuals who each have their own reason for creating chaos and destruction. They use any number of cat’s-paws and pawns and a wide assortment of strange technology to advance their plots and it isn’t until their end game that the players have a chance of glimpsing the men behind the curtain. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on August 3rd, 2011 , DriveThru RPG Reviews, Games, Role Playing Games, Savage Worlds Tags: ,
Funnybooks with Aron and Paulie: Some of My Best Friends Are Women!

Well, Paul’s gone.  In an amazing display of we-don’t-need-that-guy, we immediately replace Paul with Knights of Reignsborough artist Jake Ekiss.  Fresh from last week’s Twitter rant, Jake picks up where he left off this time with no 140-character limitations.  In this week’s show we revisit the Captain America movie, chat about how none of us are going to GenCon and how Dan Didio botched the lady issue at San Diego:

  • CAPTAIN AMERICA THE MOVIE
  • NOBODY’S GOING TO GENCON
  • PAUL’S COMING TO TOWN
  • SOME OF DC’s BEST FRIENDS ARE WOMEN (link to Didio’s comments and to the DCU Blog response)
  • WONDER WOMAN 613
  • FP PROJECT SUPERMAN 2
  • GREEN LANTERN CORPS 62
  • EMERALD WARRIORS 12
  • DRACULA: COM 12
  • KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE: JAVA JOINT (Available digitally from DriveThru Comics!)
  • AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 666
  • ULTIMATE FALLOUT 3
  • PLANET OF THE APES 4

Knights of Reignsborough Issue 4 came out Friday.  Check it out because… the concert event of the year is coming!

Also, today kicks off Ape Week here on Ideology of Madness.  Come back all week long for loads of poo-flinging monkey madness!

Give us a call at 972-763-5903 and leave us your feedback.

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Written on August 1st, 2011 , Comics, DC, DriveThru RPG Reviews, Funny Books with Aron & Paulie, Marvel, Movies & TV, Superhero Tags: , , , , , , ,
Iron Tyrants: “Exciting and Diverse”

EDITOR’s NOTE:

This is a review we originally posted back in January.  In recognition of Iron Tyrant’s new availability on DriveThruRpg, we have re-posted for those who might not have seen it the first time.  Iron Tyrants is a hoot-and-a-half.  Go get it.  Now.

—

After getting to play test Iron Tyrants with Luke Meyer at Fear the Con, I was itching to get my hands on the book and to try out the game for myself.  So when I got the chance, I jumped on it.

The book itself is impressive.  Since its release there have been a lot of jokes going around The Podge Cast about how surprised people are that it is “like a real book.”  While no one should have expected less, it is still refreshing to see a couple of guys who are basically just following their passion go to such lengths to make sure it is professionally done.  The production value of the Iron Tyrants book is at least as good as anything that has come out from most small press companies and greatly exceeds the offerings of many of those companies.  For that matter, it is on par with many of the works of larger gaming companies (and since I haven’t heard of the clear coat on the cover of Iron Tyrants peeling off anyone’s book yet, it’s clearly superior to most of what Palladium puts out.) Read the rest of this entry »

Written on July 12th, 2011 , DriveThru RPG Reviews, Games Tags: ,
DriveThruRPG Reviews: The Savage Worlds of Misfit Studios

One of the most impressive things about Pinnacle’s Savage Worlds (in addition to how just simply entertaining the system is) is that not only are their products generally impressively professional, with excellent layouts, editing, writing and art, but also the products from third party companies that utilize Savage Worlds are equally professional.  The products Misfit Studios creates exemplify this dedication to quality.  After reading some of their previous offerings, I was eager to get the chance to read more and five new offerings I was able to read did not disappoint. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on April 25th, 2011 , DriveThru RPG Reviews, Role Playing Games, Savage Worlds Tags: , ,
Pinnacle’s For Whom The Whistle Blows: Excellent, Interesting and Creepy

I suspect that there is not an adventuring party in the world that does not think that if they’re hired to guard a train, there will be a robbery attempt while they’re on guard duty. For that matter, the very idea is pervasive enough that it has parallels in almost any time and genre of role playing games. Any old school gamer knows that having a character sign up to guard a caravan in a fantasy world is not only a good way to make money and get to where you’re going, but also a good way to give your DM plenty of built in adventure hooks. Your DM needs no excuse to have you attacked by bandits and monsters. And if you’re playing in a futuristic setting, the starship convoy you’re escorting is sure to get attacked by bandits or a taskforce from an enemy faction while you’re flying.

Pinnacle’s For Whom the Whistle Blows does not disappoint in this regard. I’m not giving away too much when I say that the cowpokes who sign on to guard the train in the adventure end up dealing with a robbery. But dealing with bandits is only the beginning. What starts off as a simple train robbery (with the players playing the role of the good guys) ends up like 30 Days of Night with a little of The Descent thrown in for good measure. Like all good Deadlands adventures, For Whom the Whistle Blows starts with a basic premise common from any number of western stories and slowly and progressively heaps on terror after terror until it is truly a horror story. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on January 26th, 2011 , DriveThru RPG Reviews, Role Playing Games, Savage Worlds Tags: ,
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