Necessary Evil
Aug. 23rd, 2007 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So, as my time here in Monterey swiftly draws to a close, I prepare to make my final purchace at The Game Habitat, the local game/hobby store where I've been spending the bulk of my weekends, playing MtG, chatting with the owner about any number of things, and buying a handful (or six) of boardgames and RPG books. The Game Habitat (which the owner wanted to name 'It's All Fun and Games' but his wife nixed it due to the intentionally implied 'until someone loses and eye') is one of the best local game shops I've ever had the joy to patronize (that's not the right word, is it...?), due in no small part to the great people I've met there, and I'm really going to miss it.
But that's not the point of this post. The point is I'm getting ready to buy a boatload of games, mostly RPGs, and as many of you on this list (1) play RPGs and (2) live in the area I'm moving to, I thought it'd be an idea to let you in on what I'm getting. Any opinions you have are unlikely to change *what* I get, but I'd really like to play (most of these) with you guys.
I already have most of the new World of Darkness, as as I've always liked the *idea* behind WoD, I'd love to play this new, more-integrated incarnation. In particular, I just picked up Changeling: the Lost and so far it seems to be everything I wish the Dreaming had been. I think, maybe, with a different storyline and slightly more organization and cooperation, it might be nice to try a game of it with some (or most) of the players I originally met at Loki's attempted Dreaming game. I know I'd like to see my character re-rolled in the new setting, and I *know* I'd like to see how our characters might've interacted if the game didn't... collapse onto itself.
Along similar lines, I've really liked the looks of Scion, and the second book (and thereby second arc of the story) comes out in another week or so. I think there's a lot of potential in that game, and who *doesn't* want to play the son of a God?
I just picked up the core rules for Savage Worlds -- a $10 core that supports some half-dozen or so separate, fully-functioning games. Of those, I intend to get Deadlands (supernatural horror in a twisted Wild West during the Civil War era), Rippers (supernatural horror in Victorian/Industrial setting, where people become monsters to hunt monsters), a game set in the middle of the Vietnam War (with a healthy dose of supernatural horror and a basic assumption that everyone will die withing a session or three), and Necessary Evil (a game where all the superheroes have been killed in a great betrayal and it's left to the super villains to protect planet earth from invading aliens -- LOTS of potential if thew villains are well-crafted, believable villains and not just the "you can't destroy the earth, *I* want to!" kind). I, uhm, tend towards supernatural horror, I think...
I'm also getting the Legend of the Five Rings game; I don't actually expect to *play* it, except with maybe my brothers, but there you go.
There may be a handful of others -- I already have the newest rules for Shadowrun and Ars Magica, both of which I'd love to play, never mind possibly treading into RIFTS...
Seriously, people, I *want* to RP. Honest-to-god table-top RP. I don't even mind (so much) if I have to be the one running the games -- I plan on having a house so I can certainly host games. I've time and again been denied playing in games, and I'd like that to change in the next couple years.
Heh heh, I'm starting to sound desperate, huh? Heh. Yeah. I'ma go now.
But that's not the point of this post. The point is I'm getting ready to buy a boatload of games, mostly RPGs, and as many of you on this list (1) play RPGs and (2) live in the area I'm moving to, I thought it'd be an idea to let you in on what I'm getting. Any opinions you have are unlikely to change *what* I get, but I'd really like to play (most of these) with you guys.
I already have most of the new World of Darkness, as as I've always liked the *idea* behind WoD, I'd love to play this new, more-integrated incarnation. In particular, I just picked up Changeling: the Lost and so far it seems to be everything I wish the Dreaming had been. I think, maybe, with a different storyline and slightly more organization and cooperation, it might be nice to try a game of it with some (or most) of the players I originally met at Loki's attempted Dreaming game. I know I'd like to see my character re-rolled in the new setting, and I *know* I'd like to see how our characters might've interacted if the game didn't... collapse onto itself.
Along similar lines, I've really liked the looks of Scion, and the second book (and thereby second arc of the story) comes out in another week or so. I think there's a lot of potential in that game, and who *doesn't* want to play the son of a God?
I just picked up the core rules for Savage Worlds -- a $10 core that supports some half-dozen or so separate, fully-functioning games. Of those, I intend to get Deadlands (supernatural horror in a twisted Wild West during the Civil War era), Rippers (supernatural horror in Victorian/Industrial setting, where people become monsters to hunt monsters), a game set in the middle of the Vietnam War (with a healthy dose of supernatural horror and a basic assumption that everyone will die withing a session or three), and Necessary Evil (a game where all the superheroes have been killed in a great betrayal and it's left to the super villains to protect planet earth from invading aliens -- LOTS of potential if thew villains are well-crafted, believable villains and not just the "you can't destroy the earth, *I* want to!" kind). I, uhm, tend towards supernatural horror, I think...
I'm also getting the Legend of the Five Rings game; I don't actually expect to *play* it, except with maybe my brothers, but there you go.
There may be a handful of others -- I already have the newest rules for Shadowrun and Ars Magica, both of which I'd love to play, never mind possibly treading into RIFTS...
Seriously, people, I *want* to RP. Honest-to-god table-top RP. I don't even mind (so much) if I have to be the one running the games -- I plan on having a house so I can certainly host games. I've time and again been denied playing in games, and I'd like that to change in the next couple years.
Heh heh, I'm starting to sound desperate, huh? Heh. Yeah. I'ma go now.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 01:49 pm (UTC)And, of course, I'll keep you in the loop for anything that I'm running. I'd like to get folks together at some point for one-offs of Universalis and Shock:.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 06:57 pm (UTC)I think I've heard *of* Universalis, but I know I know nothing about Shock...
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 07:04 pm (UTC)I guess I'd also be potentially interested to see the new Vampire in general, but I'm probably not going to be able to commit to a long-term game unless my group of folks who play short-runs of odd games doesn't take off.
Universalis is almost all meta-game; basically, it's a system for collaborative story-telling, but takes place entirely at an explicit "OOC" level - e.g., you pay tokens to create story elements, change characters' attributes, etc.
Shock: is a GM-less game intended to replicate "golden age" social criticism science fiction in the model of Asimov, etc. Basically, you create a grid of social issues and then SF "shocks" to them (so, e.g., Neal Stephenson's "Diamond Age" might be issue:cultural identity/shock:nanotechnolgy), and people take turns playing a protagonist who confronts a shock/issue pair and the antagonist that opposes whatever the protagonist wants.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 07:12 pm (UTC)My 'plan', such as it is, is basically to try and do a number of one-shot or short-arc games from several of these settings and systems to (1) see what people like and don't like and (2) get my feet wet running games, as I expect I'll have to if we're going to be playing any of these systems. -smirk-
I think the new Vampire is a great improvement over the old one, a lot cleaner in form and function and more-centered on the core archetypes of "vampire." Unfortunately, I think every 'expansion' book they add piles on more of the same baggage that the old game had, but...
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 07:22 pm (UTC)I might be interested in Tour of Darkness too, yeah, but for some reason I'm not as grabbed by the idea of war+supernatural as much as war on its own (and Vietnam is my least favorite war to talk about... :)). I've never actually successfully played Unsung, though...
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 07:03 pm (UTC)Actually, I'd thought the Vietnam-themed game, Tour of Darkness, might've appealed to you as well, just based on the Unsung and V:tM games I've had with you. It's also a Savage Worlds game, and it's also supernatural horror, but the characters are 'regular guys.' I haven't read the Savage Worlds system, but rules have always seemed more like 'guidelines' for me, anyways. That's the only reason I care much for RIFTS these days (and the fact that, essentially, it was my first). Though, lately, a lot of the material that's been coming out for it is just... uninteresting and/or ridiculous. Madhaven -- "RIFTS New York" -- is almost something I'm interested in, in a "Mad Max" sort of way, but it borders on ridiculous. (Of course, I guess Mad Max did, too...)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 05:54 pm (UTC)"It stems from the root "pater" - "father." From there, the augmentative suffix "-one" is appended, maintaining the connotations of "pater," but seperating the term from the familial sense. Finally the verbal suffix, "-ize," is attached.
The basic meaning of the term is "To act as a patron towards," from which the meanings "to treat condescendingly" and "to frequent as a customer" were later derived.
That said, to be honest, I'm much more interested in M:tG (and certain other, now defunct, TCG's) and board games, than I am in paper-&-pencil RPG's, though, I'd be willing to give it a shot, at least once.