Tragically Trad: Mecha

At GenCon this year I was fortunate to room with Chris Perrin and to get a chance to play in a session of his game: Mecha. Mecha is a rules-light RPG designed to simulate giant robot anime shows. It is not a mech combat game like Battletech or Iron Tyrants, it is an RPG with mech fighting in it. The difference is important. As Chris points out in the intro, Mecha anime is not really about the robots, it is about the characters piloting them. This is true for the game too.

The set up in Mecha strongly encourages, not only role-playing, but specifically role-playing in the style of anime movies. You get role-playing rewards that can aid you in combat for playing your character during the role-playing portions of the game. The game is divided into different types of scenes, social scenes, repair scenes, field op scenes, recovery scenes and combat. Role-playing and doing well in the non-combat scenes will reward you in ways that aid you in combat. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on September 17th, 2010 , Games, Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad
Tragically Trad: Heroic Journey Publishing

At GenCon I had the chance to play the totally un-trad game Mecha. In fact I got to play in a session run by the game’s creator Chris Perrin, one of my roommates at the con. What follows is an interview with Mark Reed of Heroic Journey Publishing, Mecha’s publisher.  I will be following this up shortly with a review of Mecha and hopefully an interview with Chris if I can ever get it emailed out.

How did you become involved in RPG publishing?

There are 2 halves to this story. The first started in 2004 really. I had just moved to the Twin Cities area and being a gamer I started looking for other gamers. I found The Source, the Midwest’s largest gaming store, Inside I posted or replied to a gaming flyer, I know what you’re thinking “You’re one of those guys?” but what was a guy to do with no friends no family and basically no connection outside of a job going to do? So after a few weeks of setting up times to meet and getting about 4 or 5 of us together, we all got together. And then we met Michelle Nephew of Atlas Games. We invited her to join our group, she had a free night and while I don’t have very much free time, that group has met almost every week since then. Now that led me to do work on my first set of RPG books, D20 Northern Crown. This plus my first visit to Gen Con in 2005 really started me down the path I am on. So fast forward 3 years. The only real work I have done since is some playtesting for Atlas. I had talked about wanting to publish but nothing really was ever finished or done to let me break in. That’s when a friend of mine, told me about Bounty Head Bebop, he had been trying to publish it for the last year or more but couldn’t find the time or know how to self publish, so he offered it to me if I could. That day Heroic Journey Publishing was born Nov. 23 2008 with BHB being released in PDF and then Later in December in Print. Then came other books and finally Mecha 2 years later.   Read the rest of this entry »

Written on August 31st, 2010 , Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad
Tragically Trad: Dogs in the Vineyard

Hello gamers,

As you may have noticed, I am going to be talking about a less than trad game in this column. There will be a few of these in the near future resulting from my trip to GenCon. I want to cover the things I did there, then it is back to 1990 as usual.

On Sunday at GenCon I was intercepted by Vincent Baker as I walked by his booth. To be honest, I did not know who he was at the time as he had never been an employee of TSR or West End Games (seems they are still making these things!). He asked me if any of the games looked interesting. I noticed Dogs in the Vineyard on the shelf, it was the only game on there that I recognized and I had actually heard a lot of good things about it in the past.

We sat down at the table in the booth and he talked to me about the game for quite a while. He was very polite and enthusiastic about the game. He was obviously very passionate about the subject matter and the system he had created. The book was only $22 so I wound up picking it up.

The book is visually simple, yet appealing. It is well edited, with no obvious typos. Vincent Baker uses a conversational tone in Dogs in the Vineyard, talking directly to the reader. His enthusiasm is present in the book, he often points out things he thinks are cool while explaining the rules. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on August 18th, 2010 , Dogs in the Vineyard, Games, Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad Tags: ,
Tragically Trad: Knockspell

Knockspell is a gaming magazine published by Black Blade Publishing. Knockspell focuses on the older editions of D&D, specifically OD&D (cloned by Swords and Wizardry), Basic D&D (cloned by Labyrinth Lord) and, AD&D (cloned by OSRIC). The magazine is more professionally organized than most of the other old school magazines and has the feel of classic Dragon Magazine. The art is very well done and they have twice featured my favorite old school artist, Peter Mullen, on their cover. The magazine has been around since Spring of 2009 and is on its 4th issue. I am going to hit a few highlights of the early issues and then review future issues in detail as the come out. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on August 17th, 2010 , Columns, Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad
Tragically Trad: How I Roll

I thought I would take some time to talk about the game I am currently running, and how I go about doing it. I am currently running a campaign using Michael Curtis’s Stonehell megadungeon, I have set the dungeon in Amacuifrom the Points of Light II hexcrawl setting collection. Both Stonehell and Points of Light are written by old school bloggers. I am using the 1st edition AD&D retroclone, OSRIC as a ruleset. This ruleset is also a product of the old school movement. This means that, while Points of Light is published by Goodman Games, everything I am using is a product of the old school movement.

A megadungeon is really more like a campaign setting than it is like a traditional module. Stonehell comes with keyed maps and room descriptions, but they are very sparse. It is up to the GM to give the dungeon any sense of purpose, there is no script or even explicit hooks here. The same is true of Points of Light, it is a collection of numbered hex maps with short descriptions of what is in the hexes. I also rely heavily on random tables to flesh the world out. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on August 10th, 2010 , Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad
Tragically Trad: GenCon

Hello Gamers,

I am off to GenCon tomorrow, and I am looking forward to a good time. I am packing Labyrinth Lord and Michael Curtis’s Stonehell if anyone is looking for some old school gaming goodness. Labyrinth Lord is a clone of Basic D&D, so if you enjoyed the Red Box (elf is a class!) you will enjoy this. Stonehell is a huge, sprawling dungeon, ripe for exploration. It is so big that it is not a module, it is a campaign setting. I have a long term, ongoing game that revolves around Stonehell dungeon. I have already decided that, should anyone want to play a Stonehell game, the results will effect my home campaign. My players will see the results of your actions.

I will also be packing The Dr. Who RPG, Hackmaster Basic, and everything I need to do a completely random tables based game. If you are going to GenCon you can find me as rmckee78 on Twitter.

Written on August 4th, 2010 , Conventions, Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad Tags: , ,
Tragically Trad: Save v. Poison, FAILED!

Over the years my various gaming groups have had a laugh at the idea of fighting giant centipedes. I have to admit, that as a DM, the never really struck fear in my heart either. Until I rolled over one in my sleep last night and it stung me.

I woke up screaming. While I have never given birth to a child, or been shot, I have enough data points to be a fair judge of pain. I have had non-trivial invasive surgery, a really bad car accident, a serious electrical shock and a gushing head wound. This ranked up there with waking up after the accident. My right leg, from the mid thigh down, was paralyzed for several minutes. It was painful to stand on for over an hour. It is still sore and stiff today. All of that came from a sting wound the size of a mosquito bite. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on August 2nd, 2010 , Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad Tags:
Tragically Trad: Yesterday’s News

Hello Gamers,

Dig out The Crow soundtrack, Masterbook is coming back! The RPG Blog II has news that Precis Intermedia has acquired the rights to West End Games’ Shatterzone, Masterbook, and Bloodshadows. They are planning on reprints, with cards. This is great news for traditional gamers. If you are not familiar with those games, they used both dice and a deck of special cards for their resolution mechanic. Masterbook was the overall generic system used by a number of games, including an Indiana Jones game. Shatterzone was a Masterbook based game (actually it used the same system without calling itself Masterbook) that was like a cross between Star Wars and Cyberpunk with four armed hot chicks. Bloodshadows was a noir horror game, imagine 1930s LA with zombies.

My friends and I had a blast with the Masterbook games back in the ’90s. In fact I ran a Bloodshadows game involving a severed hand that scarred my little brother for life. I cannot wait to see them back in print.

Written on July 23rd, 2010 , Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad Tags:
Tragically Trad: DexCon Report

Hello Gamers,

Sorry this is a little bit late, but I got my rat tail tangled on a Street Fighter II machine and it took forever for the paramedics to arrive after we called them on the car phone.

I have to say this is a great time to be a traditional gamer. I attended DexCon in NJ and had a blast. If you are in the NY/NJ area, and enjoy any kind of tabletop gaming, you need to make this con. It is a good size (that’s what she said), not so big that you get lost, but there is enough people to support all kinds of gaming. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on July 22nd, 2010 , Conventions, Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad Tags: ,
Tragically Trad: 1971

Hey gamers! I am sitting here in my “Free Angela!” T-Shirt, listening to “All Things Must Pass”. It’s 1971, and boy is it a rough year. USA and USSR agree not to detonate nukes on the ocean floor (your house is still a valid target); Lt. Calley is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail (he doesn’t); Manson is sentenced to die (he still hasn’t); Allman, Morrison and Armstrong die. We get ELO but Kid Rock is born. Not much good here except Pam Grier is still making prison movies, unless you have access to Dave Arneson’s basement that is!

If you did have access to Arneson’s basement you would be one of the first people exploring Blackmoor, in fact you would be one of the first people playing the game that would become Dungeons and Dragons. If you did not have a key to Dave’s basement you can still get a taste of what that gaming was like.  Read the rest of this entry »

Written on July 9th, 2010 , DnD, Role Playing Games, Tragically Trad Tags:
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