Monthly Archives: August 2018

Articles, System Hack

System Hack: Genesys Mecha Support Craft and Ships

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Sensor technicians call out an incoming squadron of CHM-01S Space Ogos. The Captain orders all mecha to launch, all bulkheads sealed, and the cannons to begin firing. Vibrations can be felt through the deck as the first CHM-02 Dacar is hurled out into the void, and energy fire from the cruiser’s cannons begins to sear its way downrange as the distant thruster flares of the Ogos start to swirl into an attack pattern. In this month’s System Hack for Genesys Mecha, we aren’t adding any more giant robots. Instead, we’re taking a look at the vehicles that will carry them into battle!

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Articles, Editorial

Legend of the Five Rings Beginner Game Review

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The time has come for four youths to travel to the village of Tsuma, there to participate in the Topaz Championship as part of their gempukku to earn their status as adults and samurai of the Emerald Empire. Not everything in Tsuma is as it seems, however, and not all intentions are honorable ones. Proving your worth may be more complicated than you expected . . . in the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game from Fantasy Flight Games! I’ve got a copy of this impressive-looking kit and I’ve gone through the whole thing, so let’s see how your gateway to the land of Rokugan shapes up!

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Articles, The Independents

The Independents: Operators

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Welcome back to The Independents! It’s time for a gear-up montage as we check out a new offering from the sibling-run outfit Samjoko Publishing! Action movies and RPGs both grew up around the same time, and during the 80s when both forms were fresh, there was some crossover. The James Bond RPG, Ninjas and Superspies, and later Feng Shui and Spycraft all approached movie tropes when developing their playstyles. Now, though, the feel and, dare I say it, choreography of modern action movies has come to RPGs in the form of Operators. Kyle Simons has taken a very different approach from other games in developing Operators, focusing on the fast pace and tight camera work of movies like The Bourne Identity and Mission: Impossible instead of the technical details of their cars, gadgets, and guns. While the game hasn’t been fully released on retail sites like DriveThruRPG, physical rewards have been sent out to Kickstarter backers, meaning the game is pretty close to final form.

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Articles, Meet the Party

Meet the Party: Star Wars d6: Crew of the Rocin

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A delusional wannabe Jedi  who actually can touch the Force. A smuggler in love with her own lifestyle, determined to continue flying free. An engineer in way over his head, in both ‘career’ and love. A failure of a Jedi who has still found a need to pass on what he knows. The tagalong kid who gets into everything and keeps everyone on their toes. The old hand from the Senate who’s taken a more direct path to helping his constituents. By reader request we’re going back to the 1st Edition of the original Star Wars Roleplaying Game one last time to meet a crew of well-meaning misfits using templates right out of the rulebook!

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Articles, The Independents

The Independents: High Plains Samurai Advance Review

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What happens when you throw together gangsters, cowboys, barbarians, samurai, steampunk and wire-fu and set the blender up to 11? Well, the potential for some truly eccentric, quirky or downright insane characters, and the award winning High Plains Samurai from Broken Ruler Games!

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Adventure Log, Articles

Adventure Log: Dungeons and Dragons, Part 7

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For the first time, Elliot found himself pulled through a fairy door. He could tell he was in his homeland, but nowhere he had ever been. But when he called to the laughing voice, she responded. Apparently the party’s fates were now intertwined with this being, and at some point in the future, they’d have to choose between the fairy world and the “concrete world”.

Elliot awoke in a cold sweat. Actually, more of a hot sweat. He was prone on the floor in a room he didn’t recognize, surrounded by wisps of steam that he did not know were Mephit corpses. “How long was I out?”

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Articles, Meet the Party

Meet the Party: Scum and Villainy

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A washed out veteran with a knack for pushing his luck at the right moment on high-stakes jobs. An illegitimate noblewoman, using her inherited charm and connections to build a shadow kingdom of her own. A grieving father, who can hold a ship together with duct tape and prayers, but can’t do the same for himself. An ace pilot, disillusioned about the costs of war and desperate to find work after fighting on the losing side.M eet the Party brings you ready-to-play characters, complete with backgrounds and relationships, for use both in your own games and as inspiration for creating characters of your own.   Strap on your holster and fire up the engines, it’s time to be space cowboy bad guys!

Last week we went over the recent Forged in the Dark product from Off Guard Games and  Evil Hat Productions, Scum and Villainy. There was a small bit of table fiction in the beginning of the review, and it struck a chord. What follows is the groundwork for a group of smugglers, blockade runners, and overall Ne’er-do-wells for profit, the crew of the Freefall.

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Articles, The Independents

The Independents: Seven Wonders

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How did the children from Narnia cope with adulthood?  How does a dystopian society rise, and how does it fall? What happens in your village when the heroes are away? What would you sacrifice to save your family? Who protects your home when you’re not looking? What’s it like to voyage into a black hole? What do heroes talk about on the eve of a decisive battle? Seven questions need seven answers, and seven story games provide them. This time out The Independents are going to be exploring a wide range of themes, settings, characters, and framing devices as we check out the story roleplaying game anthology Seven Wonders from Pelgrane Press!

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Articles, Meet the Campaign

Meet the Campaign: Apocalyptic Hexcrawl

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A Cannibal Halfling mainstay since well back into the Mad Adventurers days has been Meet the Party: a collection of ready-made adventurers to get your creative juices flowing for a number of game systems. Today, we’re introducing something different. Nipping at the heels of System Hack but less mechanical, looking for detail like Meet the Party but more broad, we have Meet the Campaign! Cannibal Halfling examples and Level One Wonk playstyle editorials come together in a mashup that might even be useful.

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Articles, The Independents

The Independents: Scum and Villainy

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“Easy does it friend.” Ari raises his hands as Marx levels his gun. He raises his voice again across the hanger. “You wouldn’t want to do anything hasty now. I’m sure there’s room to negotiate here. All we want is to get paid, and the artifact is yours.” Already the situation was looking bad. Marx, the supposed buyer they were set up to deal with, chose to bring his own group of thugs, and it seemed like their idea of negotiation involves bullets.

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