An escaped Mad Adventurer on the loose! After playing tabletop RPGs for a decade and a half and GMing for most of that I turned my hand towards writing for/about them! Since then I've added another decade on top of that, oh gods. I got my start with the Gaming Security Agency, and then joined the Mad Adventurers Society for a few years before setting up CHG. I write about games here, have written for games such as Transit: The Spaceship RPG and materials published by Raging Swan Press and Beer Star Games, and have written entire games such as Lost Among The Starlit Wreckage. You can find me personally @RGM79Ace or under cannibalhalflinggaming on the various socials.
DeGauss stepped off the bus and shouldered his backpack, another day at Halcyon City High School #5 behind him. The house he walked towards was a curious one, first of all because it looked more like three identical houses joined side-to-side. More curious was that one section looked brand new, a second was currently under construction, and a third looked like it would need repairs soon. Just as DeGauss reached the doorway a desktop computer was thrown through the bay window of the soon-to-need repairs section, followed by a torrent of sulfurous cursing, causing DeGauss to roll his eyes; it must be payday again at Collateral Damage Demo and Construction Co. The young man let himself in and started to make his way to his room when a sultry voice piped up: “Ah, young DeGauss. What did the establishment try to drill into your head at school today?”
A spy and scout for the Rebellion who has picked up a number of strays with his ship. An old soldier who had found a living as a doctor, returning to the fight to atone for past deeds. A survivor from an extinguished Order, stealing to survive. A former star of an Imperial Academy, forced to flee because of a secret she did not even know she possessed. Meet 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. This time we’re destined for the dark times between the death of the Republic and the rise of the Alliance, as we create Star Wars Roleplaying characters using Dawn of Rebellion!
Every mecha series has its own mass-produced machines that form the majority of the forces present, friend or foe. The MS-06 Zaku, the OZ-06MS Leo, the VF-1A Valkyrie, the M9E Gernsback, the RPI-11 Glasgow, the KG-7 Aerion, whether they are the first of their kind or simply the most recent model to be fielded there has to be a machine that forms the backbone of mecha warfare. If I want to be creating a hack for Genesys that lets me run an anime-style mecha game, then I’m going to need such a machine of my own. In this month’s Genesys Mecha System Hack, an adaptable prototype is ready for launch!
The Empire reigns across the galaxy even as an alliance of resistance fighters and rebels begins to form to overthrow Imperial oppression. A space station with the power to kill worlds is still being constructed near Scarif. A group known as the Spectres still fights to free the planet Lothal. The Imperial Senate stands impotent, but certain members secretly resist. A boy on Tatooine still has no idea what his future has in store. It’s a new era in galactic history, and you can find what you need to play in it within the pages of Dawn of Rebellion, the newest Star Wars Roleplaying supplement from Fantasy Flight Games!
Whew, a lot of dust in here! Both in the column’s space and in the physical board and card game collection. How to clear it all out? Well, a few explosions will do to get most of it, and maybe a follow-up implosion to make sure it’s all gone. With new games coming out every day, A Glimpse Into the Vault takes a look at older card and board-based offerings so they don’t get lost in the rush. For once there’s nodrinkinginvolved, and there’s only a little gloom, because I’m hauling out Exploding (and Imploding) Kittens from The Oatmeal!
So you’re walking, and you’re walking, and you’re walking, and a big scary dragon shows up! Traveling and wilderness exploration in Dungeons and Dragons can be fraught with peril, of course, but they can also be a little more nuanced than that. There are of course rules, in both 5th Edition’s Player’s Handbook and its Dungeon Master’s Guide, for traveling in the spaces between civilizations, but February’s Unearthed Arcana gets a little more specific still. I cracked open both books and compared them to the UA material, so let’s see what it means to head Into the Wild!
When the GenesysRPG from Fantasy Flight Games was released I wondered exactly what I could do with it. I’m familiar with the Narrative Dice System after a number of Star Wars campaigns and one-shots, but that’s the trick with universal systems: when you can do anything with it, the single biggest question becomes what to do in the first place. Almost since the beginning, though, an idea needled at me, and I’ve finally decided to do something about it: a Mecha Anime hack for the system. Before we set up and get in our giant robots, however, I needed to figure out exactly what I was going to be doing to make this happen.
The party has made it to the throne room of the dark lord, stumbling from wounds and shepherding the last of their spells and strength. As they enter the lord stands up and boasts of how outmatched they are, and it’s hard to argue with him as minions lurk in the shadows. Still, the cleric steps forth to rebuke the dark one – only to gurgle as the tip of a short sword emerges from his chest. As the body falls and party members turn to face the culprit the party rogue holds up his bloody blade and swears fealty to the dark lord. Around the table players turn themselves to face the rogue’s player, voices starting to rise, as he shrugs and says “It’s what my character would do!”
“I’m writing this anonymously, because I’m spilling some secrets that aren’t supposed to slip out. Just know that I’m on the right side of true history – whatever TimeWatch says it is – and I’ve done my best to make that happen. And if I screwed up a few times? Well, no one’s perfect . . .” So begins the blurb on the back of a manuscript that has recently fallen into my hands, a century and change after a TimeWatch agent delivered it for publication and the entire print run vanished months later. It’s been out again for more than a year now, though, so apparently whoever made it vanish from the time stream didn’t manage to do so a second time around. Before history gets rewritten once more and I forget I ever read it, let’s review The Book of Changing Years from Pelgrane Press!
“Welcome to the Halcyon City MegaMall. We are currently experiencing a metahuman event. Please evacuate. Welcome to Halcyon City MegaMall . . .” The standard prerecorded warning announcement echoed through the wide corridors and plazas of the MegaMall, abandoned packages here and there on the floor. The only person in sight was a single extremely bored-looking security guard sitting at an information kiosk, idly flipping through a magazine, apparently heedless of the warning announcement. Aside from the lack of shoppers and scattered goods there was no sign of what sort of event might be going on – until the glass storefront of a shop exploded outwards as CryptoHertz and Spitfire were sent flying backwards through it.
Cannibal Halfling Gaming 