Here is my review of Unknown Armies 3rd edition, which should be coming out in digital in March, and in print later this year. Do…
Geek For Hire
Tag: gaming
Sorry for the delay on this. I had a death in the family, and that took a lot of the steam out of me. I hope to get back to writing more regularly. Ironically, I attended the panel which inspired this with the family member who died. He was on my mind a lot while writing it.
In my series about spell books, it occurred to me I had not addressed books in general. It is easy to assume everyone is on the same page with regards the subject of books. That said, not everyone really looks into the history of the book as an object and a technology.
I have a very brief life update. A family member is dying, so I have been distracted. I talk about projects, the Neo-Anarchist Podcast, and Gencon.
I have a very brief life update. Someone else in my family is sick. I also talk briefly about Volo’s Guide to Monsters.
I talk about the Savage Rifts product and getting the kickstarter reward. This is a basic review.
I love spell books. I did a video about them and everything. They are fascinating elements to magic in fantasy. Wizards are supposed to be wise. They got that way because of what they learned. None of that is cutting deals with powers, thank you very much. I am looking at you Warlocks. Books are where you store that knowledge.
First post of the new year, and it isn’t a resolutions post? What silliness is this? Nope, I am going to post another in my series on doing a scifi game in 5e. The first post can be found here.
Where was I? Ah, Backgrounds.
Backgrounds are awesome. It is one of the most interesting aspects to 5th editions is the idea of backgrounds. It adds more depth than just class and race. It adds variety to characters, flavor, and themes. Things like it had existed before, of course. In 2nd edition, there were the kits, which sort of tied to a background, and also added some subclass like features.
A few things. First, you can find my earlier posts on this Science Fiction 5e thread here, and here.
Second, let me know if you like these. I will keep writing them if people are getting anything out of them.
Third, sorry it took a day or two longer to get this out. Writing races is not as exciting and writing classes. I also had some other issues going on, but real life is like that some times. I did briefly consider doing my own artwork for these, but remembered I am not a great artist.
So, I started out with the notion of making a 5th edition Scifi game. This was spurred by the idea of exploring what you can do with the 5th edition system framework. All fun and games, until you realize how much work it can be. Oh well, we continue the madness.
The problems with setting
The question of game design is one of experience. What stories are the players going to have here? What experiences do you want them to have? The original role-playing games, proto-D&D and its ilk, were extensions of war games. They were changed because the players wanted a different experience from what they were finding in the wargames. The rules grew out of that desire for a new experience.
Not the sexiest title, I know, but bear with me. I recently had an opportunity to read and review the Adventures in Middle Earth RPG for the Tome Show. This was something I would have read anyway, but reviewing it allows me to change perspective a bit more. One of the things that struck me about the game was the versatility of 5th edition. They made significant changes to core class concepts and it was still very much 5th edition. It started me thinking about how far you could take that. Could I use the base 5th editions systems, but make a game divorced from the fantasy setting?