tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81537149173608174912024-03-04T23:02:22.587-06:00RobowielandThe shirt says professional, but the sneakers say freelance.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.comBlogger394125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-50308458342136029632018-01-15T20:41:00.000-06:002018-01-17T16:16:07.102-06:00A D&D AnecdoteI am running D&D at Bounce Milwaukee, a local indoor play park as part of my Dungeon Master on Demand services. Here's what happened the first night we played:<br />
<br />
Three boys played tonight. They were sent to recover a dwarf who had not reported back home. They came across a wagon that had been turned into a goblin battle fortress with a goblin patrolling the roof.<br />
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The boys decide to talk to the goblin (since one of them discovered he could speak their language). After a brief exchange, they ask him his name. The goblin says he has no name, because he hasn't killed anybody yet. One of the boys goes into a heartfelt monologue about the goblin doesn' t need to kill somebody to get a name. I ask the kid to roll a Persuade check to get the goblin to point out where the rest of his tribe had taken the dwarf.<br />
<br />
Natural 20.<br />
<br />
The goblin, stunned by this revelation, sits down on the edge of the wagon and has a serious change of heart. He stands up, ready to help these Tall Ones find their friend.<br />
<br />
And that's when another goblin sneaks up from behind and stabs the first goblin, pushing him off the wagon to bleed out.<br />
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"You guys," says the kid, "we have to save the cool goblin!"<br />
<br />
"Okay," I say, "roll initiative."<br />
<br />
Once we set the order, I point out to the paladin, the only healer in the party, that he's their best shot at saving the cool goblin. He can get to the goblin first, but he's putting himself in harm's way and will likely have to deal with goblin attack while he's out there healing. Also, if he uses his healing on the goblin, he won't have any for the rest of the group if the battle goes poorly.<br />
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"We gotta save him," say the others.<br />
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"We do," says the paladin and runs out from behind cover. After a round of poor rolls from the goblins, he drops all 5 points of healing into the friendly goblin, who pops up, grabs a knife off of a dead ex-comrade and says "Ok, what do you need me to do?"<br />
<br />
The players ask the goblin to lead them to their friend, which he does after they tear up the goblin battle wagon. They ask him what his name should be. He tells them the goblin lord is the one who gives names based on deeds, and the boys say he's earned the right to take his own name. He pauses, asks about the meaning of this Common word they keep using to describe him, and decides to choose it as his name.<br />
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That is how the power of friendship and loyalty can make a nearly 40 year old man get choked up in front of strangers.<br />
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That is how Kuul the Goblin Rogue was born.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-60148097030575745582018-01-08T14:24:00.001-06:002018-01-08T14:24:14.629-06:00Harry Potter - Fate Accelerated Hack<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifBqefxn3qRasxJ4xw0dHUeuzM75V0IF42KSKs7kATRNpGIwGj8TSkEu3Y7PTcn4byXdP3Matqovk2twmHaajzuH5a1y9bTZDY2uaSC0fcPNh-9Z7UbT_7dnNhq9xOGaZI0lJkvtoN7f-K/s1600/harrypotter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifBqefxn3qRasxJ4xw0dHUeuzM75V0IF42KSKs7kATRNpGIwGj8TSkEu3Y7PTcn4byXdP3Matqovk2twmHaajzuH5a1y9bTZDY2uaSC0fcPNh-9Z7UbT_7dnNhq9xOGaZI0lJkvtoN7f-K/s320/harrypotter.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
When I talk about licensed games, one of the IP that I always get questions about is Harry Potter. This setting has an immense, passionate fandom. Why is there no tabletop RPG? The answer to that is a lot of heresay plus my own conjecture. The follow up question is: Well, what system would you use to run a HP game? My answer is, inevitably, Fate. Specifically, Accelerated because I think its abstractness does a good job at modelling established fictional characters.<br />
<br />
So, after years, of suggesting it, I finally decided to do it. It's not a heavy hack, which its why I shied away from it for so long, but the itch to design it finally irritated me enough to put it down on blog paper.<br />
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Follow my Harry Potter Fate Accelerated (Fate Accio?) hack after the jump!<br />
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Aspects</h2>
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High Concept</h3>
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This aspect sums up your character in a short, punchy phrase, such as <i>The Boy Who Lived, Smartest Girl In The Room </i>or <i>Working Class Wizard.</i></div>
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School Aspect</h3>
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This sums up not just what house or school your character is, but your relationship to it, such as <i>Reluctant Slytherin</i> or <i>World Famous Beauxbaton Duelist.</i> Zoom into houses if everyone's the same school, zoom out to schools for a international wizarding world adventure.</div>
<h3>
Wizarding World Aspects</h3>
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Each character should have the same number of these aspects starting from 1 to 3. Each aspect represents the most noteworthy thing that happened to your character in a previous year. They can lean positive, like <i>Aced My O.W.L.s</i> or they could lean negative like <i>Lost The Big Quidditch Match Singlehandedly.</i> Even something like <i>My Mother Was A Deatheater</i> can be used for goo invokes and compels. First year students should start with one aspect, while returning students should start with 2. A group of adult characters should start with 3.</div>
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Approaches</h2>
<div>
These stay as per Fate Accelerated but just for ease of reference, are Careful, Clever, Forceful, Flashy, Quick and Sneaky. Each character gets one Good (+3), two Fair (+2), two Average (+1), and one Mediocre (+0)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
I considered school bonuses for these, but that felt too class-ish. Part of the joy of Harry Potter is watching the character push against preconceived notions of their house and school. All those times Harry though Snape was evil? Snape was enjoying delicious fate points from compels due to his <i>Harsh Slytherin</i> aspect.</div>
<h2>
Stress + Stunts</h2>
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Stress stays as expected in Fate Accelerated. </div>
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These should focus on your best classes or other advantages from the wizarding world.</div>
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<i>Potions Teacher's Pet: </i><i>+2 </i>to Carefully Create an Advantage with Potions made in class.</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Do You Know Who</i> <i>I Am, Mudblood?: </i>+2 to Forcefully Attack an opponent who knows your family reputation.</div>
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<i>Wingardium Leviosa!:</i> +2 to Quickly Overcome an object's weight and sending it flying off in a random direction</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-31170262870810364382017-11-08T21:53:00.002-06:002017-11-08T22:00:35.611-06:00Actual Play - Extra Life at Gamehole Con<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdeQUooA9OcqlFmEWQX2I16knU6kFn-b2CkPFvlO20Qg1YtX5vj4nJ_acoIe6l9I_LX115xwS-vK49TXrVu6_4ahNFwg9SnHeOPk7K4zgDGmKRrCeqtHvMHKdXlCks6bLJo12CdOtkI6o/s1600/23334184_10214922018072361_7797646483908269860_o.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdeQUooA9OcqlFmEWQX2I16knU6kFn-b2CkPFvlO20Qg1YtX5vj4nJ_acoIe6l9I_LX115xwS-vK49TXrVu6_4ahNFwg9SnHeOPk7K4zgDGmKRrCeqtHvMHKdXlCks6bLJo12CdOtkI6o/s640/23334184_10214922018072361_7797646483908269860_o.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
I had a fantastic experience this weekend at GameHole Con. It's become one of my favorite conventions throughout the year.<br />
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On Friday night, I took a rare opportunity to sit on the player's side of things for a chance to play D&D 5th. I raised over $1000 bucks for Extra Life by drinking and playing an RPG.<br />
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I was a last minute add, so I had to improvise ways to get people to give money. I figured hey, I'll do a shot at $250 a pop because I'm playing a drunken master monk. Nobody would be crazy enough to do that!<br />
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I raised over $1000 that way. I remember we all went up to Mearls' room after the game, talked gaming and ate pizza, but that could just be the caramel vodka talking.<br />
<br />
If you want to see the whole thing, the archived <a href="https://go.twitch.tv/videos/187430780" target="_blank">Twitch link is here</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-58304200605597332782017-10-31T22:54:00.002-05:002017-10-31T22:54:56.440-05:00Appearance - Extra Life<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTT1-upKdw68EyVHCb4pcgPFZ1likWe59WbzRAOnWFdWXPNuNGx4fYczwVswIy2L8zFJ4Sd6rc2niamKN_S7kqj9_xRmiOk9-NbMbu9u8GErU_PuUQT9Gd1Vxsd5rMSvHy2r8bmQFdoOhp/s1600/UnearthedArcana_Thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTT1-upKdw68EyVHCb4pcgPFZ1likWe59WbzRAOnWFdWXPNuNGx4fYczwVswIy2L8zFJ4Sd6rc2niamKN_S7kqj9_xRmiOk9-NbMbu9u8GErU_PuUQT9Gd1Vxsd5rMSvHy2r8bmQFdoOhp/s640/UnearthedArcana_Thumb.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
I know I've already talked about Gamehole Con here, but something happened today that is worthy of its own blog entry.<br />
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I will be part of the Wizards of the Coast live stream on Friday night playing D&D with Mike Mearls!<br />
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The other folks at my table include:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Chris Lindsay</li>
<li>Satine Phoenix</li>
<li>Pat Kilbane</li>
<li>David Ewalt</li>
<li>Ruty Rutenberg</li>
</ul>
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I think I'm going to play a monk? </div>
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Anyway, tickets are <a href="https://www.gameholecon.com/events/event/4696" target="_blank">available here</a> if you are going to the show.</div>
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If you want to donate money to encourage me, go to <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=268363" target="_blank">Mike's page</a> and tell 'em I sent you.</div>
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The livestream <a href="https://go.twitch.tv/dnd" target="_blank">should be here</a> if you want to watch on Twitch</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-90281748689695867792017-10-23T08:48:00.000-05:002017-10-23T08:48:13.582-05:00Convention - Gamehole Con <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBobDlzTvPom2IDV3AgUz9p5vMWUKWYZy7w4zNn8SIY3lWfqF8TC8-2FdkabBWMaUMGafwHxRwkv0ZuFxX-aLNROlZaIq5gN2RuULXaM_kfB6Nxk-wb5UAw8UlYgQHjyklq4fHRGdII0qo/s1600/ghc5logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="773" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBobDlzTvPom2IDV3AgUz9p5vMWUKWYZy7w4zNn8SIY3lWfqF8TC8-2FdkabBWMaUMGafwHxRwkv0ZuFxX-aLNROlZaIq5gN2RuULXaM_kfB6Nxk-wb5UAw8UlYgQHjyklq4fHRGdII0qo/s320/ghc5logo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Gamehole Con returns to Madison from November 2nd through November 5th this year. I'll be a special guest again, but there are plenty of other reasons to check out this <a href="https://www.gameholecon.com/" target="_blank">growing convention</a>.<br />
<h2>
Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition</h2>
<div>
If you really want to see how popular the current edition is, this show has a lot of things going on. There are Epic level con games with massive amounts of players, a variety of Adventurer's League storylines (including one I had a hand in), and guests like Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford.</div>
<h2>
Xanathar's Guide For Charity</h2>
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Gamehole has hooked up with Extra Life to provide a couple of 'celebrity D&D' games to raise money for charity in the style of Acquisitions Incorporated. They are also offering early copies of the highly anticipated Xanathar's Guide to Everything, proceeds of which will go to charity.</div>
<h2>
True Dungeon</h2>
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Last year was the first year <a href="http://truedungeon.com/upcoming-events" target="_blank">True Dungeon</a> appeared outside of Gen Con. It's back at Gamehole Con this year, set in the universe of Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller books.</div>
<h2>
Milwaukee Company of Gamers</h2>
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The always impressive board game library of MilCog will be on the road. It's an excellent place to try board games before you buy.</div>
<h2>
Come play games with me</h2>
<div>
I'll be running Firefly and Chill this year as part of my Guest of Honor duties. All my games are currently sold out, but the vagaries of con attendance usually mean I have one or two open seats when the time comes for game. Will I run two full boat sessions for Firefly with 9 players each? Only time will tell.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-68809625955436215822017-10-22T21:00:00.000-05:002017-10-22T21:01:26.021-05:00Star Wars Adventure Review - The Game Chambers of Questal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEZmm0E1Guuy0Zma6NLWY7wl9GaZ_d8Q2DWsOa_fEB2Rj8zQkhxPbGZ4wdOyDL1f4jKZxxd4P7WRo0LHOZ6A3NpLEjx-my0aPCGsjdZFrxgrzXLkzD0gdP7KJ1wsBNebaQpRWp628FQqdZ/s1600/Game_Chambers_of_Questal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="499" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEZmm0E1Guuy0Zma6NLWY7wl9GaZ_d8Q2DWsOa_fEB2Rj8zQkhxPbGZ4wdOyDL1f4jKZxxd4P7WRo0LHOZ6A3NpLEjx-my0aPCGsjdZFrxgrzXLkzD0gdP7KJ1wsBNebaQpRWp628FQqdZ/s320/Game_Chambers_of_Questal.jpg" width="244" /></a></div>
<i>This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.</i><br />
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<b>Adventure title: The Game Chambers of Questal</b><br />
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<b>Author(s): </b>Richard Kern </div>
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<b>Published:</b> June 1990</div>
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<b>The Pitch: </b>The Rebels come looking for an old friend on a planet run by a Moff who loves to play games with his adversaries.</div>
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<b>Summary:</b> An adventure that's part James Bond, part "A Most Dangerous Game", part dungeon crawl and, on the whole, less than the sum of its meager parts.</div>
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<div>
In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!</div>
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<a name='more'></a><h2>
The Story</h2>
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The Rebels come to Questal on the trail of their friend and fellow agent Tyree. Questal is a planet on the Rim that's tightly under the Imperial control of Moff Bandor. Turns out Bandor has a machine that can generate fear and, not only does he use it to keep his citizens in line, but he also terrorizes his prisoners by running them through a maze of deathtraps before executing them himself. The Rebels not only have to save their friend, but destroy the fear generating machine to truly topple Moff Bando's regime.</div>
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<h2>
The Design</h2>
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This adventure, instead of starting in the middle of the action, opens with another fairly standard <i>Star Wars</i> adventure opening. The Rebels run into a customs inspector looking for a bribe, and then the action starts when they have to stop a rampaging Trompa (a non-Hoth version of a Wampa) from smashing its way through a parade.<br />
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A lot of the material leading up to the Game Chambers feels very perfunctory. There's a hunt for Tyree's R2 unit at a used starship dealer, not one but two parties the Rebels must infiltrate for info, and even an ending after the game chambers where the destuction of the fear machine boils down to a couple of Technical rolls and then calling it a day.<br />
<br />
As for the titular Game Chambers? They're kind of disappointing. Even mixing in some colorful bounty hunters to goose the players along, the traps are just okay. They feel more at home in a James Bond movie or one of those episodes of <i>Star Trek</i> where a god-like being messes with Kirk. It also doesn't make sense that the fear machine is accessible from the tunnels where prisoners and Rebels are routinely shuttled to their dooms. Deathtraps and pulp go well together, but there's too much going on here for it to feel fun rather than a railroad of logic puzzle stations.</div>
</div>
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<h2>
Canon Compatibility</h2>
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Tyree and R2-D0 return from <i>Rebel Breakout, </i>the adventure in the original RPG book. There isn't much time for anyone to reminisce, because Tyree is deeply enthralled by the fear machine and D0 is suffering from some memory problems.</div>
</div>
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<div>
<h2>
Special Modifications</h2>
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<div>
The rampaging Trompa feels more like the action opening we're looking for. The sooner the players get to the Game Chambers the better, so using this as an Imperial breakout session might not be all bad. Otherwise, put an NPC that means something to the Rebels in the Tyree slot and you should be fine.<br />
<br />
At the beginning and the end of the mission, the Rebels are told they aren't getting any help from the Alliance, which feels like stating the obvious. There's a lot of page count devoted to Moff Bandor's luxurious mansion of evil so it seems like a shame not to use that for the big climax. Bandor comes off like a Bond villain throughout the adventure, so after the players escape the Game Chambers, let's turn the ending into a Bond movie. The Rebels come to the rescue and there's a running gun battle between the Rebellion and the Empire as our Rebels chase Bandor through his mansion looking for the fear generator.<br />
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Also, that fear generator is some kind of lost Sith tech that Bandor found, because he doesn't seem smart enough to build something like that.</div>
</div>
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<h2>
Final Thoughts</h2>
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<div>
This is another dungeon crawl adventure that seems like it's not quite getting the tone of <i>Star Wars</i> right. I'd be much more likely to swipe elements from this adventure to use in my campaign than run it straight up, because some of the individual elements are fun.</div>
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<h2>
Rating: 2 out of 5 Death Stars</h2>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-717251394711782282017-10-15T11:02:00.000-05:002017-10-15T11:02:55.725-05:00Star Wars Adventure Review - Otherspace<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizK4Ceif7UuZlW8fegnw-xktbqucRsi4UNhc0CGlXF4elGXunYKT5MiLbPzBX29YcvZmJ2K-mFXWhP7FE1m4Tt89AeBP3y0LVcXHt97DWreTNP4L9rHZ48ZHxTGIjEtZZgDv2KPYqX0Gmp/s1600/Otherspace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizK4Ceif7UuZlW8fegnw-xktbqucRsi4UNhc0CGlXF4elGXunYKT5MiLbPzBX29YcvZmJ2K-mFXWhP7FE1m4Tt89AeBP3y0LVcXHt97DWreTNP4L9rHZ48ZHxTGIjEtZZgDv2KPYqX0Gmp/s320/Otherspace.jpg" width="239" /></a><i>This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Adventure title: Otherspace</b><br />
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<b>Author(s): </b>Bill Slavicsek </div>
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<b>Published:</b> 1989</div>
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<b>The Pitch: </b>The Rebels must journey into another dimension to locate a lost Rebel prison transport and come across the death-obsessed aliens who live there.</div>
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<b>Summary:</b> An adventure that attempts to bring the claustrophobic terror of the <i>Alien</i> franchise to the Star Wars universe. Instead, it shows that two great tastes don't always go together.</div>
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<div>
In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!</div>
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<a name='more'></a><h2>
The Story</h2>
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The Rebels are assigned to rendezvous with a prisoner transport called the <i>Celestial.</i> Instead, they drop out of hyperspace into an Imperial space ambush. The damage to their ship as they try a hasty retreat into hyperspace pulls them into a strange dimension on the other side of the blue wall. They find the transport, abandoned, along with evidence that the prisoners (including guest stars from other adventures) took over the ship before being taken aboard a giant alien bio-ship. The Rebels must board the alien ship not just to find the prisoners but also to scavenge parts for their own hyperdrive to return to their home dimension in their own ship. That's if they survive their encounters with some madness mist, the bug-eyed death-obsessed aliens called the Charon that run the ship, and the various prisoners who have gone mad or cut deals with the Charon to kill the Rebels.</div>
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<h2>
The Design</h2>
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For anyone looking for a straight up Star Wars dungeon crawl, this is it. The big fold out map is of the <i>Desolate</i>, the giant Charon ship, and it reminds of the ones you'd find in TSR boxed sets at the time. Dungeon crawl is being a little too generous here - in dungeon crawls, players at least get to choose which tunnels to explore. The rooms are laid out in a linear path in the adventure.<br />
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One of the strangest elements of the adventure are the Death Mist cards. The atmosphere causes severe hallucinations, which trigger in these cards that GMs hand out to players when they fail resistance rolls. This seems tailor-made for Force-users to have their own "Luke Skywalker at the cave" moment, but the only guidance the adventure gives for what being in a different dimension for Force users is like is "Man, it's creepy in here."<br />
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The main thrust of the adventure is a scavenger hunt for five pieces of a hyperdrive motivator for the Rebels' ship. Some of the pieces are easily found, others are hidden behind rolls. Hiding plot necessary materials behind rolls is never great design. The Rebels need to get home, so why not just let them find the pieces as they go through the ship? At the end of the adventure, the whole thing gets handwaved anyway, with the character needing to make a big roll to put together the pieces while the ship flies away from the <i>Desolate</i>...or it all works anyway, but the hyperdive shorts out again once the PCs are safely back in their home dimension. </div>
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Canon Compatibility</h2>
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The Charon share a lot of similarities with the Yuuzhan Vong, one of the more controversial elements of the Expanded Universe. They both are threats from beyond the known galaxy, both use creepy biotech elements, and both are trying just a little too hard to be scary.<br />
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The adventure also features Zardra from <i>Tatooine Manhunt</i> and Bane Nothos from <i>Strikeforce: Shantipole</i> as returning characters. This means a little more if you've already used those adventures. Zardra is a decent foil as a bad guy who allies with the Rebels to get home, while Nothos becomes the main human bad guy, allying with the Charon to try and kill the Rebels.</div>
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Special Modifications</h2>
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This one needs some work. I'd be more apt to clip specific characters or situations for use elsewhere in other games. The Death Mist sounds like it could be a fun Sith weapon meant to drive Jedi mad (and possibly fall to the Dark Side), kind of like the Black Sleep of Kali from Indiana Jones. The Charon also feel like they are a better fit for Star Wars than the Vong if you really need a creepy bioship alien. They are giant space spiders who walk around in exosuits and the illustrations really push them into classic Bug Eyed Alien territory.<br />
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Still, this could make for a good Halloween one-shot or even a good Imperial breakout scenario if the group has already used <i>Starfall</i> in that capacity. The trick is to flip the main narrative point: the PCs are the ones on an <i>Imperial</i> prison transport that jumps with a damaged hyperdrive. They wake up to the ship docked on the <i>Desolate</i> and the other survivors already on the ship. The scavenger hunt for the hyperdrive doesn't require rolls to find the pieces, but every piece should have an encounter to overcome, like the red mists or one of the other prisoners holding out. They have to work together with the non-Imperial prisoners to get home, or possibly even get that classic "I'll let you go...this time" ending from any Imperials they manage to save.</div>
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Final Thoughts</h2>
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The first <i>Star Wars</i> game I ever ran was a pretty cheap rip-off of <i>Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.</i> In my defense, I was 12, but <i>Otherspace</i> is a pretty clear knock-off of <i>Alien.</i> I'm sure that was intentional, because that was another popular sci-fi franchise at the time, but the adventure is a terrible fit for the optimistic pulp of Star Wars. Individual elements are interesting, but the adventure as written is brutal, linear and seems like a better fit for a completely different game.</div>
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Rating: 1.5 out of 5 Death Stars</h2>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-29490462469685815422017-10-13T07:54:00.000-05:002017-10-13T07:59:31.607-05:00Kickstarter - CHILL Undead<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="9oq2h" data-offset-key="829iq-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="829iq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">It's Friday the 13th, so it's time to remind everyone that the latest book for Chill, Undead, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playattentiongames/undead-a-sourcebook-for-chill-3rd-edition-horror-r" target="_blank">is on Kickstarter</a>.</span></div>
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<img alt="In our third sourcebook for Chill 3rd Ed, we explore the Undead, creatures that return from the grave for love, revenge, or hate." height="356" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/018/512/065/3005bb230b6bcdcea8b2d45dfb1479a2_original.png?crop=faces&w=1024&h=576&fit=crop&v=1507040260&auto=format&q=92&s=f22477ff9d7ede7488a1ff0a5533b33b" width="640" />
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<span data-offset-key="9c10b-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Why is this book cool?</span></h2>
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<span data-offset-key="fj46v-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">1) <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/102250351067967934972" target="_blank">+Matthew McFarland</a> </span><span data-offset-key="fj46v-2-0" style="font-family: inherit;"> and <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/103478737710603603763" target="_blank">+Michelle Lyons-McFarland</a> </span><span data-offset-key="fj46v-4-0" style="font-family: inherit;"> are good people.</span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="9his1-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">2) The Chill monster books are set up epistolary style, which deliver information but not truth. Even if your players read the entry on a specific type of monster, they won't know its secrets chapter and verse.</span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="9his1-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">3) My entry focuses on the Unknown possessing dead envoys and using them to sow discord within SAVE.</span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="9his1-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">4) The company has a dozen free cases available on its website (mine <a href="http://growlingdoorgames.com/downloads/a%20lamp%20gone%20dark.pdf" target="_blank">is here</a>). That's a whole campaign right there, for free, which they add to every time they do a Kickstarter. They've already unlocked two more cases through this campaign and are aiming for three more by the number of backers. That doesn't include the cases in the book or that every monster entry has hooks at the end for using it in your game. </span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="9his1-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">5) CHILL's design hits a sweet spot for me. The percentile system is easy to explain and the light and dark tokens invoke genre while making monster power management a breeze. I like that, when the tokens are all dark, everyone leans forward a bit, waiting for the shoe to drop. It creates a Dread-like tension at the table.</span></div>
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The Kickstarter runs until October 31st, but backing it on a day known for hockey-masked killers and black cats seems like a good call. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-51534956174681630442017-10-08T10:00:00.000-05:002017-10-08T10:00:00.422-05:00Star Wars Adventure Review - Tatooine Manhunt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.</i><br />
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<b>Adventure title: Tatooine Manhunt</b><br />
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<b>Author(s): </b>Bill Slavicsek and Daniel Greenberg</div>
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<b>Published:</b> June 1988</div>
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<b>The Pitch: </b>The Rebels must find an Old Republic officer before bounty hunters collect a huge bounty to bring him in dead or alive.</div>
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<b>Summary:</b> An influential adventure on not just the RPG but Star Wars canon. It lives up to the hype and offers a fun adventure on the planet that seems to be in the middle of nowhere, yet everything happens there!</div>
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In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!</div>
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The Story</h2>
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The Rebels rendezvous with an undercover spy named Dana, who gets jumped by some bounty hunters before she can give them her information. What she has is pretty heavy. A legendary Old Republic general named Adar Tallon, long thought dead, is instead hiding out on Tatooine. The Rebels only have a few days to act on the info before a Star Destroyer currently going through repairs is able to make the jump to the desert world. There's still plenty of danger on Tatooine as bounty hunters have gotten a hold of the information and are trying to find someone in that wretched hive of scum and villainy of Mos Eisley who knows the way to Tallon's hideout.<br />
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One the rebels find a guide, it's off to the Jutland Wastes, trekking across the desert to try and find Tallon's hide out. There are Sand People, bounty hunters and a whole lot of Western encounter riffs on the way. Tallon makes a last stand against the remaining bounty hunters at his hideout, along with dealing with a traitor within who sold him out to the Imperials in exchange for his life. The adventure ends with a breakout of Tatooine with stats for the always fun Star Warriors board game.</div>
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The Design</h2>
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This adventure comes in two major set pieces. The first half features the Rebels wandering around Mos Eisley and a certain cantina looking for a lead on Tallon's location. It operates as a mini-sourcebook on Mos Eisley. The original printing comes with a two-sided poster that has the city center on one side and a large floorplan of the cantina on the other. The players meet the member's of Tallon's crew in the bar, of course, but there's plenty of stuff going on in the city like bumping into bounty hunters also on the general's trail.<br />
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The second half is a wilderness run to get to Tallon before the bounty hunters (or, in theory, the Imperials) do. These encounters are presented in a linear fashion. The Rebels are supposed to investigate a few different places where Tallon is hiding out, have a few encounters in between those locations and finally come across their target in the last location. The linear setup is the only really weak part of the adventure, but it's easily remedied by picking and choosing which encounters happen. (Also, why can't the players just do a fly-by of the locations rather than surface travel on a desert planet?) Once the players start looking bored, time to go to Tallon's place.</div>
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Canon Compatibility</h2>
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This adventure introduces a few things to the Star Wars canon that became quite popular. The most famous one is the Z-95 Headhunter, the precursor to the X-Wing starfighter. Tallon has a few of these parked at his hideout and they can lend support to the players breathless escape from the Imperials in orbit around the planet (which apparently the only way to leave Tatooine).<br />
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One of the more infamous is Jodo Kast, another Mandalorian bounty hunter whose MO is similar to Boba Fett. This also pushed along the idea that the Mandalorians were a culture rather than just a type of armor, but it also offered an NPC for the PCs to fold, mutilate and staple that didn't have a bigger role to play in <i>Star Wars.</i> Kast had something of a cult following among Star Wars fans, even appearing in the ill-advised fighting game <i>Masters of Teras Kasi.</i></div>
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Special Modifications</h2>
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There isn't much I would change outside of spicing up a few characters. Tallon, even though he's at the heart of the adventure, is pretty generic. Some of this is likely because the Old Republic era was so ill-defined at the time and likely a place the writers weren't able to delve to deep into. I think I would make him connected to a PC if I ran the adventure, or perhaps sub in a character from <i>Clone Wars</i> or something to have players recognize their prize.<br />
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The same question hangs over Jodo Kast's head. I learn towards making Boba Fett the lead bounty hunter instead to give players an enemy they know and hate rather than a copy. It would depend on the table and how they feel about engaging with characters they know are unlikely to be killed. Some players don't like the idea, others would still like to tell the story about the time they almost got Boba Fett and changed history.<br />
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Some readers have said their GMs ran this on another planet because of all the stuff that already happened on Tatooine. I can see their point, but I feel like having a drink in the cantina and creeping through Mos Eisley back alleys adds a lot of flavor to the adventure. I had a similar issue with the adventure in the Beginner Box of FFG's Edge of the Empire RPG. It features a different dingy Tatooine port with a different Hutt crimelord. Why not just bring out Jabba?</div>
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The only real design changes would be toward the end of the adventure. The escape at the end of the adventure feels optional. It makes more sense in the beginning where the Rebels are at a space station with an ISD in drydock, if I needed it at all. I would also lay out the three locations where Tallon is supposed to be hiding and adjust how many wilderness encounters the PCs have based on which they pick. If they pick the right one right away, they have all the encounters. If they grab a false lead or two, they have that encounter, but less ones out in the desert.</div>
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Final Thoughts</h2>
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This adventure lives up to the hype. It's probably the one I would run so far without many, if any, changes and there's a lot of good support beyond the main plot for players who like to fiddle around in the margins. </div>
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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Death Stars</h2>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-36634152018757627952017-10-01T10:00:00.000-05:002017-10-01T10:00:04.566-05:00Star Wars Adventure Review - Crisis on Cloud City<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.</i><br />
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<b>Adventure title: Crisis on Cloud City</b><br />
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<b>Author(s): </b>Christopher Kubasik</div>
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<b>Published:</b> November 1989</div>
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<b>The Pitch: </b>The Rebels are framed for murder on Bespin and have 24 hours to clear their names before being arrested by Lando Calrissian and turned over to the Imperials.</div>
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<b>Summary:</b> Many of the adventures of this era steer clear of anything directly related to the movies. This one heads right for Bespin, wrapping up the players in a mystery that they need to solve to avoid Imperial justice. Also, the only appearance of a full deck of Sabacc cards, with rules to play!</div>
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In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!</div>
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The Story</h2>
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The Rebels are tasked with accompanying Walex Blissex to Bespin where his friend is working on some sort of secret project. The message Dr. Len sends is desperate and the Rebels arrive just in time to hear Len get murdered through the door. They might have gotten there on time but they get jumped by droids twice on the way into Bespin, and the only suspect in Dr. Len's murder is a deactivated protocol droid lying in a pile of droid parts in the locked room. Lando shows up just in time to make everything seem suspicious. He lets the Rebels walk on the condition they find out whodunit.<br />
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The Rebels walk into the local droid manufacturer, who sends them to the casino. They play a few hands of sabacc with some locals, Lando in disguise (?!) and Lira Wessex, Walex's daughter who knows more about what's going on than she seems. A modified labor droid crashes the casino and the main plot really takes over - something is controlling the droids on Cloud City and trying to take over.<br />
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The Rebels get the skinny once they break into the droid manufacturer. Dr. Len was working on a master control droid called ExoOne to run Bespin more efficiently. His assistant, Dr. Vreen, contacted the Empire about giving them the droid and the Empire sent Lira to see things first hand. Except Exo doesn't want to run an efficient Bespin, it wants to turn everyone on Bespin into robots with a nanite virus that has already infected Dr. Vreen. The players dodge evil droids, Lira double-crosses and cyborg zombies until they get to the central computer core, where father and daughter hatch a crazy plan to kill Exo by turning Bespin off and on again...hopefully before Cloud City is crushed in Bespin's atmosphere.</div>
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The Design</h2>
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This adventure is notable for a big reason. It is the origin point of the rules of sabacc, the infamous card game that Han and Lando played over the ownership of the Millennium Falcon. Instead of a fold out poster, the adventure comes with a set of punch-out cards and rules on how to play. Sabacc is a blend of blackjack and poker in these rules, where you want to lock your cards in when you think you have the value closet to the winning one.<br />
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The adventure suffers from some of the same overplotting as the others we've covered. The PCs get jumped twice on the way in, and yet are supposed to be told if they bring it up to the authorities they just shrug and go "Huh, killer droids, how weird." Things move in a fairly linear fashion, though that's not necessarily a bad thing in a mystery plot such as this. It's honestly less of a whodunnit than a whydunnit, and it opens up into stakes that are high that aren't necessarily saving the galaxy.<br />
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The central casino scene, while a fun way to introduce sabacc, runs into the double problem of being an exposition heavy scene with multiple NPCs talking to each other instead of the players. I wish there had been more guidance here about how to give the players what they need to know without the GM talking to him or herself for ten minutes.</div>
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There's also the Edroids, who are nanites that slowly turn infected humans into droids. Exo's plot to turn droids against humanity is already nice and operatic. Nanites seem like a bit of a stretch even for Star Wars's casual flirtation with how science works, but they could work if maybe they just rewrote a brain rather than literally made flesh steel. </div>
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Canon Compatibility</h2>
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The text throws ExoOne as an amazing leap in science, but a droid controlling other droids doesn't seem like that big of a deal after a war where droids fought all over the galaxy.<br />
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Being on Bespin, there is some visitation of some local hotspots, like the freezing chamber scene where the players have to fight off evil droids until Walex and Dr. Vreen can climb out of the apparatus. Lando also shows up three times in the adventure, which I think may be the only appearance of a major movie character in these adventures.</div>
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Special Modifications</h2>
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Most of what I would change is streamlining. I would probably cut the droid virus thing to leave for a sequel and focus on ExoOne turning Bespin into a home for free droids or something like that. Dr. Vreen can have something else installed in him that makes him act erratically, like a brain bomb that ExoOne can trigger at any time. There;s a neat Frankenstein and his Monster vibe to Vreen and ExoOne's relationship I think I would play up, too.<br />
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I would combine Lando's appearance from the opening and the casino and remove the disguise bit. It seems like a reference to a storyline in the old Marvel comics, but it also smacks of one of the weaknesses of licensed games. WEG always seemed afraid that players would use and abuse the canon characters, so they tended to overpower these characters, stat-wise. Lando isn't written up that way here, but the disguise encounter doesn't really do anything for the story. It makes more sense to encounter Lando in his natural element at a sabacc table. That's a cameo that fits the flow of the story.<br />
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I would also do my best to keep that ending set-piece where the Rebels have to stop Could City from falling into Bespin. Most of the groups I play with seem like they would try to outlogic ExoOne rather than blow up the core, so having the droid shut down after being defeated seems logical. Then, Cloud City starts to fall, and the players have to scramble to reboot the control core because ExoOne inadvertently turned everything else off when it went quiet.<br />
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The Walex/Lira dynamic is fun, but probably only really necessary if your group played <i>Starfall.</i></div>
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Final Thoughts</h2>
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I remember this adventure being cooler than it was, possibly because of the sabacc rules and the Lando cameo. There's a lot of time doing the same thing over and over in repelling droid attacks. Still, it's another adventure that focuses away from Rebels vs. Imperials, and uses Cloud City as a fun location.<br />
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Though seriously, Lucasfilm, where is my real sabacc deck?</div>
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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Death Stars</h2>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-62362236620994128882017-09-24T10:00:00.000-05:002017-09-24T10:00:12.557-05:00Star Wars Adventure Review - Battle For The Golden Sun<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbx1ZdOWlh5izR7BA0QbHe9LYtFjAmewqAhAogTs0TMPK-7JVRscSZO5MUS-MCOtScZy-6no8vVJcQpXx-deImH1ZJxVN751CZHRHvRati66ZiOaWT2hvV0FEf5cUMnu_dHZN9mtYtvk6/s1600/Battle_for_the_Golden_Sun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbx1ZdOWlh5izR7BA0QbHe9LYtFjAmewqAhAogTs0TMPK-7JVRscSZO5MUS-MCOtScZy-6no8vVJcQpXx-deImH1ZJxVN751CZHRHvRati66ZiOaWT2hvV0FEf5cUMnu_dHZN9mtYtvk6/s320/Battle_for_the_Golden_Sun.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover photo courtesy Wookieepedia </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.</i><br />
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<b>Adventure title: </b>Battle For The Golden Sun<br />
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<b>Author(s): </b>Doug Kaufman</div>
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<b>Published:</b> June 1988</div>
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<b>The Pitch: </b>The Rebels crash-land on a waterworld in search of a Rebel ambassador. Instead they find seatroopers, warring natives and a giant piece of Force-sensitive coral.</div>
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<b>Summary:</b> A decent adventure that throws the PCs in the battle between two factions of natives that, despite showing off an Imperial garrison poster and a seatrooper on the cover, puts the Galactic Civil War in the background for a session or two.</div>
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In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!</div>
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<a name='more'></a><h2>
The Story</h2>
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The Rebels crash land on the ocean planet of Sedri. This is mostly by design, as the planet has a substance called Golden Sun which confuses sensors and requires anyone landing on the planet to disable the safety protocols on most hyperdrives to not think the planet is a sun. The Rebels are there to recover Mors Ondrian, a Rebel agent who discovered the planet by accident. They are accompanied by his assistant Rekara, a Mon Calamari who was driven slightly mad by the piece of Golden Sun she brought off-world as evidence of its existence. The Rebels quickly come across a native Sedrian being accosted by some Imperial Seatroopers, who happens to be the son of the local tribal chieftain. Pek, the Sedrian, takes the Rebels back home to introduce them to his father and the local intrigues that include Karak, a rival to the throne who ends up being the true villain of the piece. The Rebels are convinced the Imperials have the Rebel and sneak off to the garrison to free him.<br />
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As it turns out, the trip to the garrison is a red herring. Karak has the Rebel agent and has cut a deal with the Imperials for their assistance in a raid on the Sedrian city. This assistance includes a Swimmer, which is the body of an AT-AT turned into a repulsorlift battleship. When the Rebels fight off the advance, they chase Karak down into the caves where the heart of the Golden Sun lies and must convince the Golden Sun, which is a sentient, Force sensitive giant piece of coral, that they have its best interests in mind and not give Karak its power.</div>
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The Design</h2>
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This adventure has a pretty coherent plotline that throws the players into the middle of the struggle between the good guy Sedrians and the ambitious usurper. The Sedrians play into many of the Noble Savage cliches that plague other Star Wars aliens, but its something that's an expected trope in the setting at this point. The whole adventure has something of a space western feel to it, which makes it feel like it could have been part of the original Marvel Comics run, where the writers went back to the sources Lucas drew upon for Star Wars.<br />
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The Sedri, as aliens, are a decent fit for Star Wars. They are drawn as slightly more humanoid sea lions and their main location, the city of Fitsay, is decently fleshed out. There's even space for details on idioms the Sedri use in their speech, such as describing the Imperials as <i>fishkillers.</i><br />
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The original version of this has one of those big gorgeous fold-out maps, this time of the Imperial Garrison that's being built on Sedri. The fold-out has been the centerpiece encounter in the other adventures, but it is almost entirely optional in this adventure. The adventure suggests going into the garrison is entirely optional, even though the artwork features a lot of Imperial Seatroopers. It almost feels like someone up the editorial chain (or perhaps Lucasfilm) didn't think an adventure with no Stormtroopers to shoot up wouldn't sell, so the garrison was added in a later draft just to be safe.<br />
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There's a also a collection of great GM advice scattered in sidebars through the document. This was a period of game design where adversarial GMs where often encouraged, so it was refreshing to see a lot of advice about rewarding players for crazy plans rather than punishing them in the name of realism. Between Star Wars, Paranoia and Ghostbusters, WEG was a big source of this type of advice, which might explain why I've gravitated to their games over the years.</div>
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Canon Compatibility</h2>
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This is another adventure that sort of exists on its own without any real connections to the greater universe. Take out the Imperials and you could probably run this adventure for any space opera type of game. This could just as easily be a Star Trek adventure.<br />
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The Golden Sun entity has some vague connections to the Force. I wish these connections would have been explored in the text more strongly, but I assume that Lucasfilm was not too keen on any real details of the Force coming out in the RPG. The good guy tribal leader and the villain both have some slight Force abilities to represent their connection with the Golden Sun. It's assumed in the text that any Force-sensitive PC will have an easier time communing with the Golden Sun in the end battle, but even if your PCs don't have one, the Sun will reach out.</div>
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Special Modifications</h2>
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The lost world aspect of the planet and the Force connection of the Golden Sun make this seem like a good adventure for any Jedi PCs in your party to shine. I'd amp up the mysticism of the Golden Sun and make the quest be for a lost Jedi instead. A planet that you need to crash-land on seems like a good place for a refugee of Order 66 to hide out on, so making Mors Ondrian a Failed Jedi seems like a no brainer. This also means Rekara is his old padawan, who came across a piece of Golden Sun that talks to her. She insists the rock talks to her and tells her that Mors is alive, and she enlists the PCs to help her find the old man. </div>
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Final Thoughts</h2>
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I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this adventure. The aliens in the WEG books can be hit or miss, but I felt the Sedrians, as a one-off species, worked fine here. This seems like a great adventure to run as something of an off-speed episode to cleanse the palette after clashing with the Imperials again and again for a few episodes. They do have a presence in the adventure as written, but it can be dialed up or down as the GM sees fit. </div>
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Rating: 4 out of 5 Death Stars</h2>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-84232238616623545942017-09-17T10:00:00.000-05:002017-09-17T10:00:09.562-05:00Star Wars Adventure Review - Scavenger Hunt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYa34sLNbVWdwM5YTJZSIzkaW_oG2dw1fy4jUhM0yc9BdeTeNWhjYt6FMlJZuNaH7_1nGdFpaojy5g0XBHx9XB6azETakI0CRifnfvhhRy0NRC-rBRdotaI34Xw-KWYR4DEyEkDbGjTOpV/s1600/Scavenger_Hunt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1302" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYa34sLNbVWdwM5YTJZSIzkaW_oG2dw1fy4jUhM0yc9BdeTeNWhjYt6FMlJZuNaH7_1nGdFpaojy5g0XBHx9XB6azETakI0CRifnfvhhRy0NRC-rBRdotaI34Xw-KWYR4DEyEkDbGjTOpV/s320/Scavenger_Hunt.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
<i>This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.</i><br />
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<b>Adventure title: </b>Scavenger Hunt<br />
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<b>Author(s): </b>Brad Freeman</div>
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<b>Published:</b> January 1989</div>
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<b>The Pitch: </b>The Rebels have to deal with the annoying Squib to set-up an ambush on an Imperial transport containing sensitive information that could seriously damage Rebel operations. The Rebels needs to visit an iconic location from the films and do the Sqiubs dirty work to get their cooperation.</div>
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<b>Summary:</b> This adventure has a lot of harsh design decisions through out as well as weird encounters with Star Wars elements and new elements that don't quite gel. There's some stuff in here that might be useful, but much like the setting, you've got to sort through a lot of trash to get there.</div>
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In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!</div>
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<a name='more'></a><h2>
The Story</h2>
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The Rebel base at Dankayo gets stomped before play and the Rebels are sent to recover a database from the location on board an imperial transport called the <i>Elusive.</i> The Rebels show up in Dankayo just in time to see the <i>Elusive</i> jump to hyperspace. Luckily, a ship jumps into the system full of the Squib, aliens that picked up the jump coordinates and are willing to part with this info...if the Rebels do something for them first. The Squib want a gravity well projector from a scrapyard system they call Paradise, and they need someone to deal with the Ugors that control the system. There's a lot of annoying alien hijinks about negotiations and bribes between the various species that involves everything from handing over weapons to cooking challenges.<br />
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It soon becomes clear that the gravity well projector is part of a piece of wreckage from the Death Star. This gives the Rebels a chance to battle the dianoga that somehow survived and even pick up Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber if they survive one of the worst encounters ever. Once they have the gravity well in hand, it's a race out of the system being chased by the Ugors and pirates and a final battle where the Rebels use the gravity well to snag the <i>Elusive </i>out of hyperspace to blow it up.</div>
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The Design</h2>
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The Squib take the annoying parts of the Ewoks(cute and fuzzy), Ferengi (greedy) and Gungans (awful space dialect) and mix them together int a toxic combination that would probably drive any game group to blow their ship out of space the moment they returned from the mission. That's not even counting the NPC Squib who is specifically written to mess things up with Ugors that accompanies the players.<br />
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There's a lot of time spent trying to force players into meetings and encounters without their weapons, which always smacks of bad design. Players love their toys and time spend wheedling, cajoling and tricking players to hand over their guns (followed by players doing the same to keep them) is usually better used in spending time doing fun stuff.<br />
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The callbacks to the dianoga fight and the reveal of the location as a Death Star chunk are fine, but this adventure has a notorious encounter with Darth Vader's closet.<br />
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No, you read that correctly.<br />
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It's set up as a jump scare where the door opens, they see Vader's helmet and cloak and the players are expected to react with blaster fire, Force rolls and even suggestions on blowing Force points. The whole thing turns out to be a storage area for a spares, and it all comes off like a huge "gotcha!" that seems to be fun for GMs who would never want their players to come back to the table ever again.</div>
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Canon Compatibility</h2>
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Surviving the closet attack nets the players Obi-Wan's lightsaber that he died with on the Death Star. For a few rounds. Seems like a good trade off for a Force point and a few heart attacks at the table!</div>
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Special Modifications</h2>
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For the purposes of education, let's say I was forced at blaster point to run this adventure. I'd probably change the Squib and the Ugor to something a bit more recognizable like the Toydarians and Ughnaughts. Instead of the gravity well, it would be a race between the Rebels, aliens and Imperials to find the slagged data center in the junk system. Perhaps one of the aliens stashed it in the Death Star chunk? Do we really need to have a call back to the trash compacter scene?</div>
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Final Thoughts</h2>
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My editor back when I reviewed movies once to me that reviewers earn their pay on the bad ones because the good ones are pleasurable. I remember the first time I read this adventure I stopped at the Vader encounter, cursed out loud and put this thing on the shelf to never again be looked at again. Rummaging through a junk system for a vital thing is a good hook, and the Death Star set piece has its moments, but this adventure doesn't have much to offer anyone looking to pick something off the shelf to run, nor pieces to use in a different adventure.</div>
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Rating: 1 out of 5 Death Stars</h2>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-40745868759425529202017-09-11T08:00:00.000-05:002017-09-11T08:08:39.888-05:00Star Wars Adventure Review - Riders of the Maelstrom<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nAd9Nonf5UoxCOKweblmU_RGD6lHttZsjB6ke2OwdK35cf1k4hiU49Tc0M88HKXE2n2V0twiyT9jEJdVgTa9I_7zXDdNgdeNUWGIeZP7D5qxelvgKWmk7Ys-2RRG4RXppWzogBDmhwIK/s1600/RotM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="915" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nAd9Nonf5UoxCOKweblmU_RGD6lHttZsjB6ke2OwdK35cf1k4hiU49Tc0M88HKXE2n2V0twiyT9jEJdVgTa9I_7zXDdNgdeNUWGIeZP7D5qxelvgKWmk7Ys-2RRG4RXppWzogBDmhwIK/s320/RotM.jpg" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover courtesy of Wookieepedia</td></tr>
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<i>This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.</i><br />
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<b>Adventure title: </b>Riders of the Maelstrom<br />
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<b>Author(s): </b>Ray Winninger</div>
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<b>Published:</b> July 1989</div>
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<b>The Pitch: </b>Another big ship based adventure, this one based on a Mon Calamari luxury cruiser. The Rebels stumble across a plot that involves pirates, other pirates that are also Rebels, and rival Moffs looking to put everyone out of business.</div>
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<b>Summary:</b> There's a lot going on in this adventure which depends a bit too much on coincidence and has problems projecting a straight plotline. But there's a lot of neat NPCs, factions vying with each other and a big location that's dying to be explored.</div>
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In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!</div>
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<a name='more'></a><h2>
The Story</h2>
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We open with the PCs being chased off the planet Aris through a twisty jungle maze, a rewiring puzzle done under fire from infinite stormtroopers and escape thanks to the fortuitous appearance of an alien species that wears masks. The PCs make their escape on the <i>Kuari Princess</i>, a luxury liner where two Moffs (!) have commandeered a big chunk of the ship to have a secret meeting about the local pirates. Just as the PCs finish snooping around the closed-off section of the ship, those pirates show up to take the liner and start setting up machinery to allow them to attack ANOTHER band of pirates (who are also Rebels) by ramming the ship into the Rebel pirate base. The adventure ends with a battle cross-cutting the PCs on board the liner trying to take it back with the PCs desperately flying through the bad guy pirate fleet trying to warn the good guy pirates. </div>
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The Design</h2>
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Does that sound like there's a lot going on? Because it is. Most of these early WEG adventures seem built for an evening or two of play. This adventure feels like it could easily go four or five sessions with just the stuff in the main plot. Mixing in the side quests and the various encounters made for PCs ducking into a room to avoid stormtroopers in the hallway could stretch this adventure into a mini campaign. </div>
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Unfortunately, the main plot hinges on a lot of coincidence and player action assumption. Its assumed the players are going to sneak around the Moff meeting and try to help the off-screen Rebel pirates, but there's not much motivation for them to do so other than they are Rebels. For example, it's assumed the Rebels will sneak on board wearing the communication masks of the Anomids, even though there are several fun and exciting ways to get aboard the ship like masquerading as crewmembers or hiding in luggage or something. Also, what about droid or alien PCs that can't pass for human under an elaborate mask?<br />
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The scenario design makes up for this, however, by providing a ton of information and side encounters on the <i>Kuari Princess</i> that make up for it. The book almost feels like it was written as a location sourcebook and then hammered into an adventure to fit an open slot on the production schedule. There are dozens of side encounters that could just as easily be fleshed out into adventures or action set-pieces for use in stories on and off the ship.</div>
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Canon Compatibility</h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOf5GyhML33tnVlUgl8Iz6r-PRH-iXk0tzq-NLYAipAbHTdpB8fWc-U1StY8stjmwod42vZdW9gx_VVAPxYFofbKGhIY60dOZMh_EsVvcKF98oFiiXAjdOVKEpahBL4yGBHXJzA1fSoQ2R/s1600/SWRPG-110-111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1003" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOf5GyhML33tnVlUgl8Iz6r-PRH-iXk0tzq-NLYAipAbHTdpB8fWc-U1StY8stjmwod42vZdW9gx_VVAPxYFofbKGhIY60dOZMh_EsVvcKF98oFiiXAjdOVKEpahBL4yGBHXJzA1fSoQ2R/s320/SWRPG-110-111.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scan courtesy of Wikipedia</td></tr>
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The <i>Kuari Princess</i> first appeared in the original <i>Star Wars The Roleplaying Game</i> book as one of a handful of adorable in-universe advertisements in the book. It was a galactic cruise featuring stops on Tatooine, Endor, Bespin and the yet-unnamed-Coruscant (called Imperial City here). It was mostly an excuse to burn through some more concept art in a full-color spread, but a campaign that starts with the PCs as a Rebellion cell operating undercover aboard the <i>Kuari Princess</i> and visiting iconic locations in the first few weeks of game sounds pretty cool to me.</div>
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Special Modifications</h2>
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There's a lot of fat to trim from this adventure. The off-screen Rebel pirates and their base can go, as can the overly intricate escape opening (though I might save that for ideas the next time the PCs need to book it off a planet after a bad session). Two Moffs seems unnecessary, as does the need for the pirates to load the ship up with equipment to ram it into the base. Hunting pirates and messing with Imperials is at the core of this adventure, so I would bring that front and center.<br />
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Word leaks to the Rebels that the Imperials have secretly boarded the liner and told the captain to make way for the Maelstrom to lure the pirates to attack. The Imperials have a battalion of troopers and materials stashed on board to counter-ambush the pirates without any regard for the innocents put in danger by the act. The Imperials, in fact, want to use any innocents killed as justification for clamping down on the sector. The PCs are put on board to figure out what the Imperials are up to and possibly tip off the pirates, who are more good guy scoundrel types in the case. Things get real when they either go on mission to figure out the Imperial plan or, if they get two wrapped up in hanging out in the casino or flirting with other passengers, the Maelstrom pirates strike. The session ends with a big shipboard battle between the Rebels, the Imperials and the pirates, who could become potential allies if the Rebels stop shooting at them long enough to talk.</div>
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Final Thoughts</h2>
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Pre-published adventures are most useful when you can run them out of the gate with a few modifications to suit your players and their characters. But even those that don't work well as published are often useful as resources for characters, scenes and encounters that can be pulled out and inserted into a campaign elsewhere. The main adventure is a mess, but there's enough material included with <i>Riders of the Maelstrom</i> that a GM should be able to stitch one, if not multiple adventures, together with a little work. </div>
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Rating: 3 out of 5 Death Stars</h2>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-32694547284904921452017-09-04T17:46:00.000-05:002017-09-04T17:46:55.326-05:00Star Wars Adventure Review - Starfall<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiho-dKdYXBXIFxWG_kJ-WIduhbXB2awgyNFIJszrZdNauONZIQuGS4I_0rEM2ZDFWYqtns-lNxdfHNyFfnrRj3hQetUlWJ6lMkIS4QHD76KZBfar9LgB6ZCHpP-6SMxjM0YrrS7lKKdNd3/s1600/Starfall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="495" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiho-dKdYXBXIFxWG_kJ-WIduhbXB2awgyNFIJszrZdNauONZIQuGS4I_0rEM2ZDFWYqtns-lNxdfHNyFfnrRj3hQetUlWJ6lMkIS4QHD76KZBfar9LgB6ZCHpP-6SMxjM0YrrS7lKKdNd3/s320/Starfall.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover courtesy of Wookieepedia</td></tr>
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<i>This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.</i><br />
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<b>Adventure title: </b>Starfall<br />
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<b>Author(s): </b>Rob Jenkins and Michael Stern</div>
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<b>Published:</b> May 1989</div>
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<b>The Pitch: </b>Depending on how old you are, this is either <i>Die Hard </i>on a Star Destroyer or <i>The Poseidon Adventure</i> on a Star Destroyer. The Rebels are trapped inside a Victory-class Star Destroyer that's been wrecked by a surprise Rebel ambush. While they make their way through collapsing corridors, they also find out the captain of the Star Destroyer plans to take the Rebel fleet with him when the ship explodes. Can the Rebels save themselves AND the Rebel fleet?</div>
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<b>Summary:</b> This is my favorite Star Wars RPG adventure of all time. It still holds up after all these years, even if, as written, it's pretty linear. I've run it with every official Star Wars system and it's been a ton of fun every time.</div>
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In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!</div>
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The Story</h2>
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The story begins with the PCs in a pickle, having already been picked up by the Imperials at Kwenn Station. They were escorting Walex Blissex, starship designer to meet his daughter Lira, when she revealed the meeting to be a trap to arrest Walex because of his dealings with the Rebels. everyone is put aboard the <i>VSD Subjugator</i> being shipped off to the Kessel Spice Mines or something when an ambush seriously damages the ship. The Rebels get loose and make their way through the superstructure to the landing bay and an escaping ship. They also get verbally taunted by the captain of the ship, tricked by a malicious protocol droid and blast their way to a final boss battle.</div>
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The Design</h2>
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Starting the adventure after the capture fits the <i>in media res</i> style of Star Wars and it also allows for a plot point that's hard to achieve: the "you all get captured" point. Players hate, hate, hate anything that removes agency, but having this happen off-camera is an okay way to do it. It's also why this is a good scenario to use as a campaign launcher (since everyone's thrust together) or as a back-up when the players get captured during a subsequent mission,</div>
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The design is frustratingly linear for such a large, interesting location. The PCs drift from location to location led by Walex with a few busywork rolls for clues to the greater storyline beyond their escape. Most of the encounters are at least unusual, with the zero-g stormtrooper fight being one that's always a blast to run. The final battle involves something of a cockfight between Captain Kolaff (whose been taunting the PCs the whole time) and one of the PCs in a pair of AT-STs. </div>
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This was the phase where WEG was trying to add a little minigame with each scenario or trying to tie in some other element of their game line with the RPG. The AT-ST battle is mostly there to show off the scale rules, but it's not a bad way to cap off a scenario. It's also pretty easy to skip if you're short on time.</div>
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Canon Compatibility</h2>
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The Victory Star Destroyer has become something of the middle child of the Republic/Empire cruiser line, surrounded by the <i>Venator-</i>class of the prequels and the more famous <i>Imperial-</i>class. A GM could probably move this adventure to either of those with little change, though they would lose the sweet fold-out map that came with the original adventure.</div>
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The story of the Blissex family also starts here with Walex on the Rebel side and Lira siding with the Imperials. They would appear again in the later <i>Crisis in Cloud City</i> module and scattered around as references throughout the EU. The tight focus of the adventure means it can fit in a non-Legends story.</div>
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Special Modifications</h2>
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The original version of the adventure comes with a gorgeous fold-out map of the <i>Subjugator.</i> I tend to run it more as an open sandbox with players able to do something at the different locations on the map that ticks down to the inevitable run to the escape ship at the end. Most of them are made up on the fly or hastily scribbled notes, because its such a gorgeous location.</div>
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Walex Blissex is a fun character but he's fairly inconsequential to the affair, even with his connection to Lira. It's more important to have him if a GM wants to have that story to explore throughout the campaign. This seems to work best in a campaign that's not focused on the Galactic Civil War because it puts faces to that struggle that aren't destined for other things.</div>
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It can be fun to open a campaign with the players revealing "what are you in for?" when they bust out of the prison block with brief flashbacks to how they got caught.</div>
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Final Thoughts</h2>
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Starfall is one of my favorite Star Wars adventures. It has that same pulp breathlessness as the films, with some interesting if lightly sketched characters, some fun encounters, and a very good plug-and-play episodic feel that works in any part of a campaign. The linear nature of the adventure works against it but the pieces can be moved around as needed.</div>
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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Death Stars</h2>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-88348375572740266292016-11-14T18:53:00.000-06:002016-11-14T18:53:03.587-06:00Actual Play - NumeneraI donated some of my time to run Numenera as part of <a href="http://www.buttonmashbash.org/" target="_blank">Button Mash Bash</a>.<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UU7KMQ8NEbg/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UU7KMQ8NEbg?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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It's a charity marathon video game stream that plays unusual games. Numenera certainly fits in that category.</div>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1C53lO0HtUk/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1C53lO0HtUk?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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I adapted <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/118719/Vortex?term=vortex+numenera&test_epoch=0" target="_blank">Vortex for the run</a> and the Technophiles helped me cut it down to three short episodes. You can still make donations if you enjoy the actual play.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-66528471030657124872016-10-30T11:32:00.000-05:002016-10-30T11:43:37.312-05:00Shadowrun Classic - Fate Core Hack<img src="http://shadowrun.us/imgs/shadowrun.png" style="user-select: none;" /><br />
I've noodled around with a <a href="http://robowieland.blogspot.com/2013/07/fate-core-shadowrun-2050.html" target="_blank">few</a> fate <a href="http://robowieland.blogspot.com/2013/12/fate-accelerated-shadowrun-2070.html" target="_blank">hacks</a> of Shadowrun before, but a mixture of circumstances allowed me a little time to put down my thoughts on the matter in more detail. This time of year is innately frustrating for freelance designers since projects talked about at Gen Con are slowly rolling into production but much of the time is spent waiting for that pivotal "Okay, go!" email. There's a lot of unpaid words here, but sometimes you have to clear the decks before you can focus on new work.<br />
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This hack was built for running Shadowrun during the 1st through 3rd editions of the game, set during the 2050s and 2060s. My intent was to run classic Shadowrun adventures like Bottled Demon without houseruling the hell out of the original rules. It doesn't have everything out of every book, but it has enough that converting your favorite piece of equipment should not be difficult. Fans of technomancers should be able to do them by reskinning Magic as Resonance, but I didn't tackle them here because they fell out of the time period. (I may return at a later date to do it.)<br />
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The rules for setting up the run take a lot of inspiration from <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/116948490555602883045" target="_blank">+John Rogers</a> amazing CrimeWorld setting from Worlds in Shadow. You should read it anyway if you're planning on running any game where your protagonists are criminals, because its densely packed with information and inspiration.<br />
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I wrote down these rules in advance of the next meeting of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/151675935233498/" target="_blank">Adventurer's Guild Local 42</a>, a series of RPG events I'm running at <a href="https://42lounge.com/" target="_blank">42 Lounge</a> in downtown Milwaukee. I'll be running it on Sunday, November 13th at 3 pm. You might also see it added to the mix of games I run at conventions.<br />
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Click here to check out the complete<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yGCe_kBs4n44B3_dBlt9Yx4SZKsb3Ogqyq8uDsKvee0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"> Fate Shadowrun Classic</a> rules.<br />
Click here for characters ready for aspects based on some of my favorite <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lTmmbUURDbU-XVRREFzAGAQkvrarwNFJsMHOos_y43c/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">classic Shadowrun archetypes</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-53035190411506883502016-09-30T18:20:00.000-05:002017-09-24T18:21:29.357-05:00Geek & Sundry - Heist RPGsI love heist stories in case you couldn't guess from <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/327614846/girls-heist-out" target="_blank">my Kickstarter</a>, my <a href="http://conolympics.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">most popular RPG</a> blog, or this article about <a href="http://geekandsundry.com/4-heist-rpgs-ready-to-steal-your-love/" target="_blank">some sweet RPGs</a> for Geek and Sundry.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-34476925602014225512016-09-28T08:18:00.000-05:002016-11-01T08:19:33.573-05:00Geek and Sundry - VengeanceA game's theme is an important draw. If a game is about something, it needs me to feel like I'm doing that something. That's why I never got into Magic - I never felt like a wizard in a duel.<br />
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Vengeance has theme oozing out of every corner of the box. I love how it handles the roaring rampage of revenge genre, <a href="http://geekandsundry.com/vengeance-is-as-close-to-kill-bill-the-board-game-as-you-can-get-without-killing-bill/" target="_blank">so I wrote it up</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-42455532345871135972016-09-27T08:15:00.000-05:002016-11-01T08:16:14.663-05:00Geek and Sundry - Shadow of the Demon LordOne of the best RPGs from 2015 was this dark fantasy game from one of the developers of D&D. I talk about <a href="http://geekandsundry.com/step-into-the-darkness-with-the-shadow-of-the-demon-lord/" target="_blank">why I like it over at Geek and Sundry</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-12113068492884560682016-09-23T08:13:00.000-05:002016-11-01T08:14:06.993-05:00Geek and Sundry - Deadlands KickstartersOne of my favorite RPGs has not <a href="http://geekandsundry.com/deadlands-comes-roaring-out-of-the-grave-with-two-fisted-kickstarters/" target="_blank">one, but two Kickstarter</a>s running at the same time!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-15706515065532380562016-09-12T08:10:00.000-05:002016-11-01T08:11:47.937-05:00Geek and Sundry - Online D&D ResourcesI found some great websites for use with D&D 5th Edition while prepping my Curse of Strahd game. I collected a few and shared them over at <a href="http://geekandsundry.com/awesome-online-dd-resources-to-make-your-games-that-much-cooler/" target="_blank">Geek and Sundry</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-13896551140172350552016-09-11T08:04:00.000-05:002016-11-01T08:16:28.389-05:00Geek and Sundry - Tiny Epic GamesI've really come to love this series of games from Gamelyn. Small, fun, but offering plenty of replayability and strategy. They're kickstarting an expansion of Tiny Epic Galaxies, so it seemed like a good time to <a href="http://geekandsundry.com/a-guide-to-the-tiny-epic-series-of-games/" target="_blank">talk about the whole line</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-63486485881733563312016-09-10T08:08:00.000-05:002016-11-01T08:09:01.183-05:00Geek and Sundry - Bizarre Board GamesVideo games have a bad rep for licensed tie-in games that suck, but back in the day board games<a href="http://geekandsundry.com/5-bizarre-licensed-board-games/" target="_blank"> weren't much different.</a> I had the Pac-Man game as a kid and found it difficult to play because the marbles would shoot everywhere.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-74142983191023170192016-09-10T01:18:00.004-05:002016-09-10T01:18:43.362-05:00Geek and Sundry - Flick Your Way to VictoryFlick 'Em Up was my favorite board game experience of Gen Con 2015. <a href="http://geekandsundry.com/flick-your-way-to-victory-with-these-skill-based-board-games/" target="_blank">I talk about it and</a> a few other games in this article.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8153714917360817491.post-66574689617871346482016-09-08T08:00:00.000-05:002016-11-01T08:02:08.319-05:00Geek and Sundry - Big GamesMixing football and board games seems weird, but one of my favorite sessions of Imperial Assault last year took place during a Packers game. I suggest some <a href="http://geekandsundry.com/4-big-games-to-play-during-or-instead-of-big-games/" target="_blank">big board games</a> to play this year for folks who like board games and sportsball.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12098545506479026723noreply@blogger.com0