One of These Days.....

I think all of us have some games in our collections that we have never played for one reason or another.  I'm listing my top four games.  Some of these games are new and some are old.  I'm leaving out games that are similar to other games but vary in how they handle some aspect of the game system. Without further delay, let's look at the games. 

ALIEN The Role-Playing Game: I have the starter set and the core rulebook so far and I would buy more books.  I've been a fan of the original Alien movie and Aliens for many years.  I have all 6 of the movies on DVD and I've read 10 of the novels so far.  While opinions on later films differ, I find something of interest in all of them.  

Ars Magica Third Edition: I bought a copy of the core rulebook and Mythic Europe last year from a friend that was thinning out his collection.  I was intrigued by the focus of the game being on wizards when it was originally released, and I always intended to buy a copy.  Years later and I finally own a copy.  The reading has been interesting so far.

The Dark Eye: I have the three main rulebooks.  I picked up the digest-sized versions because I could buy all three of them for basically the cost of the standard sized core rulebook.  TDE fascinates me because it's basically "Germany's D&D" and the world is open and growing with fan contributions.  

Lejendary Adventures: I bought the three main books upon release.  I know some complain about this game because it is so different from D&D in the rules, but I actually like the differences because it makes the game unique.  I admit that it was a little challenging upon my first reading, but I did get it figured out when I changed my approach.  I started with the definitions at the front and expanded out from there and everything clicked.  I would have to refresh my memory, but I would play the game if the opportunity came.

The reason I havne't played these games is simple.  I don't currently have a group and I haven't had one for years.  I'm sure there are games that you have but you have never played so what are they?

[Kickstarter] SteamCraft: A Steampunk Tabletop RPG

I have been pretty impressed with Perilous Journeys because it took the concept of Lejendary Adventures and made it much easier to comprehend and use; for anyone that is interested, more information can be found at their website.  I have not been to their website in a while so I decided to visit earlier.

I was surprised to learn that they have a new game - SteamCraft - that they are trying to get into distribution in game stores.  All of the information about the kickstarter can be found on the StreamCraft Kickstarter page.  The game sounds interesting and the rewards for backing  include custom dice, signed books, and even some custom steampunk goggles.  Give it a look... 

A Peek at Perilous Journeys 4

With this post, I am looking at the professions and guild system of Perilous Journeys.  The explanatory introductory paragraphs hold a lot of promise.  Simply put, professions are similar to orders in Lejendary Adventures or classes in D&D.  The guilds represent an association of like-minded individuals that offers training and looks out for the interests of the members.  Perilous Journeys is really flexible in the application of this concept for the benefit of the game.  For instance, it is typical to have a thieves guild or an assassins guild in a fantasy game but Perilous Journeys points out that you can have a criminal organization with members of various professions working in one guild together; such as thieves, assassins, and bandits in a criminal guild as mentioned in the rule book.  Basically, guilds give a little bit of structure to these organizations but the players are not bogged down in a bunch of rules that try to cover every little detail of the organization.  

The GM is left with the responsibility of creating and detailing guilds and similar organizations for the campaign. This should not be a difficult process because it should just involve a name of the organization and the professions that are part of the organization.  The only other details that are necessary are any NPC members of the organization.  The GM really needs no more information than that.  The rules cover how to qualify for a profession and it is straightforward - the character must have the required first ability to be admitted as an apprentice.  To qualify for full member status, the character must have a rating of 50 in the first ability and 20 in the other required abilities.

There is one drawback to belonging to a profession or guild.  The flexibility of creating any type of character is sacrificed for the benefits of guild membership.  The guilds provide training at a greatly reduced  or no cost, professional materials, etc. but also require the player to make certain decisions to belong to that guild.  The choice is in the hands of the players and it is a fair trade off.  If the player chooses to not belong to a profession and guild then the listings can be used as guidance during character creation. 

The Professions

There are 13 professions detailed in the rules; technically, there are 15 because there are 3 builds of Cleric detailed depending on what gods the character follows.  The explanation of the professions is simple to follow since the entries are split into four sections.  First, there is a small description of the profession.  Second, the social class recommendations for the professions are listed.  Third, The first ability of each profession is listed.  Fourth, the final section is a list of 3 or 4 required other abilities for that profession.  The professions seem to offer a lot of variety and I think players will be happy with the selection available.  If a player should desire a profession not covered in the rules then it should be no problem to either re-skin one of the existing professions or use one as a guideline for detailing a new one such as a Witch.  I must point out that I don't feel any essential professions were overlooked in the rules; I was just using the witch as an example.

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After a little more examination of the guild rules, I have decided to cover them in a separate post.  I continue to be impressed by Perilous Journeys.  It has taken a system I thought unplayable - Lejendary Adventures - and made it the center of my immediate gaming attention.  I look forward to my continued examination of this rules system.

   

A Peek at Perilous Journeys 3

The good news is that I was able to locate my Lejendary Adventure manuals.  The bad news is that the manuals are actually loaned out to someone that is very interested in the system at the moment.  I'm not going to ask for them back just to do a little section by section examination for my blog; besides, I can do that at in a later post.  The examination of Perilous Journeys continues...

Character Customization

After the selection of race, your character can be customized with the selection of edges, flaws, and contacts.  Edges are basically advantages while flaws are basically disadvantages.  Contacts are NPCs the character knows that may be able to give assistance to the character.  This section is where I run into my first issues - one minor quibble and one somewhat irritating inclusion - with the game system.

I just do not "get" the open eyes edge.  I understand that the character can sleep with his eyes open but I just wish there was a little more guidance on this one.  Is the character harder to surprise?  Does the character wake up quicker?  I am not sure BUT I am also not too concerned about it because it's not a deal breaker at all; not even close.  On the other hand, I find the inclusion of the gas edge to be irritating and somewhat of a mood killer.  Yes, I know it is a game and we are all just trying to have fun here.  Maybe it is just me but I would rather it not be included - not because I think it is offensive or anything like that.  I always seem to game with somebody that will take something like that and just try to be as goofy as possible with it.  I admit that the irritation with that flaw may entirely be just me; besides, I can always outlaw it in my games.

Other than those two issues, this section is well done.  There seems to be quite a bit of variety without bogging down with a bunch of rules covering every little circumstance and exception.

Back To The Good Stuff...

Unlike Lejendary Adventures, I have no confusion over the determination of the first ability of a character.  It is simply the ability with the highest score generated during character creation.  I knew that much from LA but was unsure of when and how to determine all of the point additions to the ability score.  

Abilities are similar to skills in other  games.  There are 38 abilities to choose from during character creation. The abilities serve several purposes in Perilous Journeys.  First, each ability grants bonus points to one of the  core attributes when it is chosen.  Second, each ability is linked to a core attribute and can not be increased over the score of the score attribute without using extra points to do so.  Third, each ability also generates a selection from the equipment lists -low, middle, high, and magical. 

That's it for now.  More later...

A Peek at Perilous Journeys 2

A Question Answered
In my last post about Perilous Journeys, I wondered if there were any differences between the pdf and the print version of the rules.  The author, Jamie Hardy, has informed me that the only differences are the cover to the print version and the fixing of some typos and minor clarifications. Just an FYI for those interested.


Now, a look at the character creation process in Perilous Journeys...

Introduction
Two things caught my attention when reading the introduction of the character creation chapter of the rule book.  First, the beginning characters created with this system are not weaklings and the power level is one that is "appropriate... for characters that would be adventuring in a dangerous world".  Some might argue that the "OD&D feel" mentioned in the foreword of the rule book is not in agreement with this.  I disagree with that view.  The characters in both games just begin at a differing level of power.  Second, the rules ask each player to come up a somewhat fleshed out character concept before character creation begins. It is even pointed out that this concept should be more than just "warrior" or "thief" but should include details on personality, abilities, how the character was trained, etc.

The Character Creation Steps
There are 14 steps to creating a character in the Perilous Journeys rules.  Some of the steps are either optional or do not apply to every character due choices made in other steps.  It may sound like a lot of steps but - I am happy to say - the steps are clear without any confusion to the reader.  Unlike Lejendary Adventure, I am 100% confident that I understand the steps and can actually create a character.  In fact, I am tempted to once again pull out my Lejendary Adventures book to see if I can make any more sense of those rules.

Races
Players have 8 races to choose from in the Perilous Journeys rule book.  Four of the races - Dryad, Fomorian, Lurikeen, and Wild Elves - offer a wider variety of chooses for the player.  Some might be wondering why the Wild Elf is simply not listed as a sub-race of the Elf.  After a little examination, it is clear that the two races are quite different from each other.  A simple sub-race listing would not work in this case.

Each race entry is laid out in an easy to follow format.  First, there are some introductory remarks about the race that includes physical details.  Second, the generation of the Core Attributes is covered in detail in this section.  Players have two options here - a point based method or a points plus random rolls method; both methods seem viable but the choice of method is up to the GM.  Third, this section covers the selection of Abilities (commonly called skills in other games) for the character being generated.  Humans are free to choose anything but the non-human races have abilities that are excluded - they can never learn them - and others that are restricted - they can not begin play with these abilities.  Fourth, the race entries end with Racial Traits that are other capabilities such as immunity, special hearing, special vision, etc.

This is just a beginning post on character creation.  I am going to try to locate my Lejendary Adventures rule books so I can do a side by side examination for several sections of the two rule sets; explaining my problems with LA and any insights with PJ.  I feel that is the proper way to continue this look at Perilous Journeys.  If I am unable to locate my LA books then I will just continue examining the PJ rules alone.  More later...

For Fans of Lejendary Adventures

If you are a fan of Lejendary Adventures - or tried to get into the game and was put off by the writing style - then you might want to check this site out:

Perilous Journeys download and information