Pick a card, any card, any card at all . . . and that card might help you build your character, overcome challenges, and even tell you something about the world you’re playing in! All you’ll need is a deck of cards and a copy of Suited from Escape Box Games! After this little book and its first expansion landed in the Independents in-box, I took a look and found a game that can adapt to any genre, get started right quick, and provide a session that doesn’t get bogged down in minutiae while providing exciting stories with some unique mechanics. Want to know more? Read on! Continue reading The Independents: Suited
All posts by Seamus Conneely
Messing With Your Players: Troublesome NPCs
It was a normal enough day for the crew of the Citadel-class transport called the Black Rose, currently berthed in a space station dock in orbit around Nar Shaddaa. Drake the Bothan Entrepreneur was trying to balance the crew’s budget after they sold their last ship, the Red Empress. Aralai the Twi’lek Pilot could be heard grumbling in the cockpit about how she had run out of booze the night before. Zeb the Human Mechanic was tinkering with the ship’s modifications, and his younger sister Morgan was putting together a particularly malicious slicing program on her datapad. Patches the B-1 Doctor, Bulldawg the Klatooinian Heavy, and the sundry other members of the crew were keeping to themselves . . . when a loud banging sound echoed on the main hatch. Instead of the usual bounty hunters, when they opened the hatch they found the furious owner of the space dock, screaming about how one of his two shuttles had just been stolen. Drake immediately turned to Zeb and Morgan and asked the dreaded question: “Where’s Barry?”
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System Hack: Genesys Mecha Support Craft and Ships
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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Legend of the Five Rings Beginner Game Review
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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Meet the Party: Star Wars d6: Crew of the Rocin
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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The Independents: Seven Wonders
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!
Meet the Party: Star Wars d6: Borrowed Time
A drunken pilot and Force user. A Trandoshan hired gun. A computer-slicing Jawa. A betrayed Intelligence agent. An addicted thief. A Mando weaponsmith. A bounty-hunting droid. This Meet the Party might be bringing us another crew from a galaxy far, far away but they’re definitely from a long time ago. We’re shipping out with the crew of the Borrowed Time once again, but in an entirely different style: as characters in the d6 System for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game!
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System Split: Star Wars D6 System and Narrative Dice System
Star Wars has been around for 41 years, and it’s been in the tabletop roleplaying game market for 31 of them now. There have been many writers, companies, and game systems involved over the course of the far, far away galaxy’s tenure at the table. This System Split is going to do things very differently; rather than compare different games using the same system and genre, we’ll be taking a look at different systems in the same universe: the original D6-based Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game from West End Games and the modern Narrative Dice System-based Star Wars Roleplaying from Fantasy Flight Games!
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Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron Review
The day foretold in the Draconic Prophecy has come, and Eberron has returned to Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition! The planned settings announcement went live on July 23rd, and to accompany it came the PDF of the Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron (don’t worry, we’ll pay due attention to the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica when it comes out later this year). We grabbed a copy pretty much right away, and after a few days to read through it and digest the contents I’m ready to talk about what’s in it, what’s not, what it all means, and where Eberron and D&D go from here!
System Hack: Genesys Mecha Super Prototypes
As the original models start to show their age and make way for newer models, the mecha arms race continues. Whether they’re looking for an edge or racing to break the status quo, sooner or later mecha designers find themselves tapping into new technology, experimental weapons, and unique equipment. They’ll need above-average pilots to master them, but soon enough the Super Prototypes will arise to conquer the battlefield. We’re going to need some sharp test pilots for this Genesys Mecha System Hack!
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Cannibal Halfling Gaming 