D for Dread

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dread
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171171/dread

In high-fantasy games characters encounter monsters and horrors and it is their every day basis. No walking dead, horrible monsters or weird spells make heroes blink their eyes before they attack trying to destroy the nasty.
Different thing is in Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy. In LotFP monsters and other things are rare. So rare that even rules don't stat them (only exception is Vampire what is an example monster). In LotFP weird and horror should be weird and horror.

Sometimes you need a little push from rules to simulate this. One of the most famous example would be Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game where insanity rules are most important in whole game. You see and experience horrible things, you go nuts.

Even though this article is mainly for LotFP you can use it with every retroclone or other d20 game and with minor tweaks adapt it to your favorite game system.

What Causes Dread?
1. Something unexplainable and horrific
2. Mutilated corpses, walking dead
3. Horrible, strange and unnatural incidents (it rains blood, swarm of flesh eating frogs ripping flesh from everyone in the village, moon has grinning devil face...)
4. Strange monsters
5. Monsters and beings beyond understanding or from other planes/dimensions
6. Reading something not meant for mortals (occult books with horrible secrets better not to know)

Level Of Dread
Depending how horrible the incident or vision is dread has it's level. Levels are 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 depending on how horrible the incident or vision is. Seeing a mutilated corpse would be level 10 when horrible monster from other dimension causing all the surroundings to look strange and different would be 30.

To Roll Against Dread
Roll d20 and add your Wisdom bonus against dread level. If you success your character is not affected by dread. If you fail the roll roll Effect Of Dread table and add the difference of dread level and your failed roll to the result.
Example: Dread level is 20 and d20 roll + Wisdom bonus score is 15. Add +5 to Effect Of Dread table roll.


Effect Of Dread Table
Roll d20 and add difference of failure score and dread level to the roll.

1-5: Scared. Loose 1 from every roll you do for the rest of the scene.
6-9: Horrified. Loose 5 from every roll you do for the rest of the scene.
10-14: Petrified. Loose 1d6 turns and after it loose 5 from every roll you make.*
15-17: Catatonic Loose 1d6 turns. After those turns roll save versus paralyze to regain mobility.*
18-20: Insanity. Catatonic and also roll insanity table.


*When petrified or catatonic only use armor for AC 


Insanity Table
Roll d6 to see effect of insanity.

1 - Mental scars. Loose 1 point of Wisdom permanently.
2 - Fobia. Take a related fobia. When situation could trigger your fobia suffer -5 to all rolls.
3 - Nightmares and angst. Roll save versus magic every morning in game time to prevent -2 to all rolls that day.
4 - Nuts. Come up with an insanity. Loose 2 permanently from Charisma and roleplay it (blabbering with yourself, obsessive-compulsive behavior etc.)
5 - Gain both Mental scars and Fobia.
6 - Insanity. Loose control of your character for 1d6 days. After it roll Insanity table again. Insane character can do basic things like defend himself but cannot think logically and is a burden to other party members.

Cradle of Rabies' year 2012

I am a little late with new year. Well, obviously my year turned the same time as everybody else's but in this blog. I am not a fortune teller, but here are few ideas what year 2012 of this blog and my roleplaying could be.

Vampire: the Masquerade Chronicle

Chronicle is at its final. Last weekend it was 99th gaming session and I try to wrap it next Friday with session number 100. Quite a lot has happened involving prince cameo in different identity bugging city and most of all main Character Amanda. Nosferatu Amanda and city's clan Brujah are allies and Amanda is not so sure about how she feels about clan Nosferatu. She is from unique bloodline family D'arc who are different. Also werewolven were included heavily.

When this chronicle is over I will write an overview of it.

Opening Mutants & Masterminds

I have owned this game for some time but haven't played it. Still reading it but reviewed half of the book. So other half needs review and after reading it and after the Vampire chronicle it will be played. Style will be something like movies Spirit and Sin City maybe with some Gotham City influence. Planning not to run a mega long campaign but shorter to get my hands on other new for me games. If I can end Vampire chronicle this Friday Saturday will be M&M.

Call Of Cthulhu Is Fun

Call of Cthulhu I have had so much fun playing. With this player only two games though but both were success. I have idea for my next 20s CoC game what I want to run this year. It will also be shorther game thus easier to run and get time for.

Lamentations Of The Flame Princess Grindhouse Edition

Haven't completed reading it yet but this seems to be the OSR fantasy game for me. I most definately want to run it! And somehow I feel that it will be the game I want to write my own material to. Looking forward to use this for both gaming and writing.

Reviews And Interviews To Blog And Roolipelit.net Forum

Reviews are fun to write but take time. I want to do more reviews and if I find interesting people from roleplaying scene (well, there are plenty of interesting people but different thing is to find time to interview them) I will do them. Already did two reviews for Sami and Ville what was fun.

Movies Give Me Inspiration And I Blog About It

I watch a lot of movies before closing my eyes in bed and almost every movie gives me some kind of inspiration. I will quick review movies from the point of view of roleplayer. Problem is I watch a lot of movies so I might wrap several movies into one blog post at a time. That saves space and also I can focus more on roleplayer's view than ranting about the movie itself.

Computer Games Move

I am a gamer. Not only roleplaying gamer but also computer and video games gamer. That's why I put up another blog I can focus on video games so I don't have to think how I can melt them here.

New Games?

If I find games in good price, I'll get them. I love collecting games and gaming material even if I wouldn't ever use them. They are neat in my shelf and the anticipation to wait the product and then shuffle it through is awesome feeling. So, trying to collect at least few pieces this year. Maybe I even find something worth to try out or even new favourites, who knows. There are few games on my must have list, but let's see if I get them in a decent price.

Reviewing: Ye Booke of Monstres for Call of Cthulhu

Liked re-writing my Vampire: the Masquerade review in the last post, so I thought I'd continue re-reviewing games. This original review I wrote is from 2009 for Roolipelit.net forum.

Ye Booke of Monstres - The Aniolowski Collection, Volume 1

Sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu introducing a bung of monsters from a selection of authors inspired by H.P.Lovecraft's work and Mythos. Author of this sourcebook tells that some of these Monsters aren't official Mythos entities but they fit in the world of Cthulhu. Monsters from this books are collected from 70 years of novels and short stories and different writers.

Outlooks

This is a thin book with only 59 pages + a few extra including index. The cover is dark and pretty cool although the art is a bit amateurish. From distance it is great but when examining the details you discover it.

Book is with soft covers and black and white illustration. Layout is lame. Every monster within includes a picture and monsters are divided with big headline and a line what shows pretty well where one description ends and the next starts.

Most of the illustration is similar to Call of Cthulhu rulebook illustration. Monster pictures are a bit scruffy. Illustration isn't that sterling although you can get a picture what the monsters are supposed to look like. I really like the fact that every single being is illustrated when you realize how strange and multi-dimensional some of Mythos beings can be. Points for the effort even though some of the monsters look more hilarious than insanity eating. But it is hard to draw something what is four dimensional, unspeakable and defies all physical laws. 

Olentoja ja hirviöitä

There are plenty of creatures. 69 total. You can do the math yourself. If there are 59 pages for creatures and 69 of them the descriptions cannot be that broad. Also when stats are included for everything here. This is the weakest link in the book, not enough information. Too many monsters tucked in a too small box. Most of the monsters only get few sentences for description.

Usually motives of creature or location is totally missed when information tells usually that monster attacks immediately and fights 'till the end. Also because some monsters are too mighty to fight with rules the stats are just for their ego boast.

I am bitter about this. Now the book is more like monster manual giving combat stats for monsters instead of actually adding more into Mythos and strangeness. You get a picture, stats, small description and that's it. Rest is totally up to the Keeper to use that monster in his adventure. In my opinion Mythos needs more monster information what doesn't tell the stats but how you can use them in your game.

Also for some reason there are plenty of human like monsters with big earlobes who look more like new age science fiction beings than monsters. I personally don't like them.

For Gaming

Even though the books lacks all the interesting information - actually describing the chreatures - it might give inspiration and variety for core books monsters. Problem is, that the Keeper don't get story seeds to use these. He gets combat stats but creating the adventure still depends on the Keeper. I like descriptions what give ideas how to use things. But if your gaming group is bored in ordinary Mythos monsters in core book, this might give small addition from other authors to check out. Although I don't have much of experience about Call of Cthulhu sourcebooks I bet there are better investments to put your money into to get more abominations to use in your games.

Some of the monsters are lame and stupid but there are few I really liked and actually got adventure seeds around certain monsters. Creative Keeper can make adventures from anywhere, so for those this might be a good inspirational source.

 Final Words

Plenty of new Mythos creatures but unfortunately short descriptions. You get stats but not what you really want to use. Thin and fast to read. Cover is not that bad and picture of every monster is great bonus. This could have been so much more. With more information about creatures or narrowing some of those to release more space. Some of these are really stupid.

I am not sure would I like this more if I was familiar with books these monsters are in. You know, saw it on book, get the stats. But for me who is unfamiliar for the fiction behind these this is waste of time. Oh, not so. There are few monsters I actually got inspiration to build campaign around. So it isn't throughout a bad sourcebook.

Points

1 for not providing enough information about monsters.

3 because cover is kinda neat and every booger is illustrated

1½ because I got few inspirations.

1½ final points. You don't need this. If you got almost every single Call of Cthulhu sourcebook, you can buy this. Or if you get this under 5 dollars, consider this. This doesn't change your CoC experience.

Things I like in pop-culture relating to rpg's

Started my work day and while working I started to think about different things I like in pop-culture what are related into roleplaying games or my roleplaying hobby. Now I am sitting down taking my coffee break and thought: Why only entertain myself, why don't blog about it. So, here are things I like in popular culture what are related into roleplaying games or my roleplaying hobby.

Vampires


Yeah, I had to take this one first, because Vampire: the Masquerade is my favourite and most played roleplaying game ever. Vampires in it can be almost anything: monstrous, animalistic, sophisticated, artistic, warriors, gang members, business men, devil worshippers, traveling gypsies, arrogant, repulsive, repenting, embracing the darkness...
If you are new to Vampire you can easily pick up a clan with its stereotype to determine your character (businessman Ventrue, biker Brujah, artist Toreador) and if more experienced can do characters thinking out of the box with unlimited possibilities. You can play political game or territorial war game. That makes both Vampire game and Vampire characters awesome.

I also like monstrous vampires (30 Days of Night, Against the Dark). They can also be easily used in Vampire games but also make good villains in other games. I do also like Count Dracula styled vampires.

But I don't like all these now so popular vampires. Good example is Twilight. Hate them. I also don't think all those gothic vampire pictures what I found really lame. You know, every Youtube Evanescence fan video has those gothic vampire chick pictures.

Giant Robots


Every boy loves giant robots what fight. I had Battletech strategy board game and liked it. I am not sure did me and my friends ever understood the rules as they were a bit complicated, but it was fun. Also Mechwarrior PC games are cool with those big destroying war machines.

Japanese robots are also cool. They are usually more sophisticated and fast than their American warmachine brothers. For example old PS2 game Zone of the Enders is really cool. You fly and duel in the air in fast based combats.

Also Transformers are cool. I did have those cool toys and comics. Also at least first of the new movies is really great. Others are cool but not that good.

I like heavy and clumsy machines of destruction, sophisticated and fast mechas and robots changing from vehicles to battling bots.

I don't remember playing any roleplaying game with giant robots nor owning one. I have to correct that. Heavy Gear is really interesting one.

Solo Tough Guys


Guys who do all neat stuff basically solo are awesome. Steven Seagal movies are awesome and I own bunch of them. Basically Steven plays same character with minor changes all over again but that makes his movies safe. You know what to expect and you get it. Also for example Machete is awesome. I remember having both Grindhouse movies (Death Proof and Planet Terror) and in one of them was this Machete trailer. I didn't expect to actually see Machete the Movie in real but I thought the "fake" trailer was really neat. When I found out that there actually will be Machete movie I was thrilled. Well, the movie could have been a bit better, but it is Machete!

That kind of things I do like and also use in roleplaying games.

Zombies


Zombies are probably the best monsters ever. They are really versatile and can be used in every possible setting and campaign. Post-apocalypse, Caribean seas, space, fantasy dungeons, your backyard. Also because there are different kinds of zombies from slow idling corpses (original Resident Evil video game zombies) to fast running zombies (newer zombie movies). You cannot forget also different zombies with special qualities to huge monstrous size (Left 4 Dead video game).

All Flesh Must Be Eaten is the roleplaying game you have to mention when you talk about zombies and roleplaying games. Infinite Deadworlds and several possibilities to custom make zombies from cows to nearly intelligent hunters.

Even though mutants are different from zombies I find some similarities with the most advanced zombies. For example Hills Have Eyes clan could be easily done with AFMBE to give a different approach to a similar game campaign.

Cars


I love cars. From powerful muscle cars to exotic tuning cars. My enthusiasm to cars started with Need For Speed Underground and continued to a point where I started to build my own car. I had to buy second car so I could build the first one. I also have used tuning cars and culture as one of the main themes in Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle.

Movies here would be for example Fast and the Furious series. Also tuning culture with street cars from garages, shows and magazines are to be checked out.

Unique Monsters


Monsters just being statistics you can beat to gain experience (looking at you D&D) is nothing wrong. It's one genre. But I am more fascinated in unique monsters what are truly monsters because you cannot find them around every corner. That makes them more terrifying because after you killed it and learned it's weakness you cannot use same tactics again because every monster you encounter is different one.

Even though in Call of Cthulhu there are several monsters what are not unique (deep ones and Mi-Go for example) they have a certain feel, as you don't just run through every campaign killing same monsters all over again. Of course the fact characters are near helpless against them makes a big difference. And there are many "monster of the campaign" entities you can build your whole campaign around.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess also is great example here. I have read the free version and like everyone knows there are no monsters listed as every monster player characters encounter should be an individual. That's cool. Similar thing is with Praedor. There are basic stats for different sizes of monsters but every single one of them are individuals.

I love monsters in movies also. In horror movie if there is a monster, it's way cooler than the guy from school who stabs others. World of Darkness sourcebook Slayers should be mentioned here.

M-m-m-monsters!

I accidentally A-Z challenge twice, is it bad? So this is individual post :D

Monsters in fantasy games are every day encounters what trouble villages, block dungeon paths and give challenge and experience points for players. In my opinion monsters are a bit too common in fantasy games to be really terrifying anymore. Usually monster becomes terrifying in fantasy games if:

- It's really huge, final boss type.
- It's something player's haven't met before and in meta-game players don't know how much damage it does, how hard it is to hit, or what abilities it has.

Other monsters are just there to kill. One eyed octopus with visible brain? Kill it. Orc raiders with human skulls hanging on their armor decoration? Kill them. Woman with snake lower body? Kill it.

But how monsters could be more horrible?

Low Fantasy Setting


Fantasy games, what are more fantasy medieval and human are the main race, monsters could be more terrifying. If in game characters don't posses all these special abilities, but are more "normal" but more skilled people who encounter mostly "normal" challenges and antagonists, monsters might be more terrifying. If seven game sessions have been fighting against hungry wolf pack at wilderness, defending against raiding tribesmen, hunting down rogues down the city streets... a strange mutant in cave could be more terrifying. If game master is not shuffling his monster manual every few minutes during the campaign, but once reaches on it, it could mean some serious business.
Other method is, don't shuffle your monster book at all. Just describe something horrible. Players don't know if it is something you already have prepared for in advance taking from monster book, or is it something unique you have created for this encounter. Monsters you create are more terrifying than monsters you can find from some book.

One example is Praedor. Praedor is low-magic fantasy setting, where every single monster is unique. Every monster player characters encounter are created individually. Even smaller ones can be dangerous, but if you meet a pack of human sized monsters what are intelligent enough to use weapons, or meet a monster size of house... it is scary. Also, monsters don't roam the countryside. They live behind the borders of known world in the infinite corrupted labyrinth of ancient now forgotten city where wild and strange phenomenoms of wild magic, ancient temples with residential demons and corrupted and twisted monsters live. Sometimes one or two of these could wander by accident to known world...

Another good example of terrifying monsters could be LotFP. As far as I know, there is no monster list but Raggi encourages game masters to create their own monsters. Cannot tell you more about LotFP, because haven't read it but it sounds really good OSR game.

Mythos Monsters


What is great about Call of Cthulhu is that there are monsters. Smaller ones you might fight against, and huge enough to make you almost instantly insane. You might pack yourself with shotguns and dynamites, but they are no help if you fall into madness before you have your own turn. Most of the bigger Cthulhu monsters are the ones you cannot defeat at all. They are ancient, immortal, but still they might be the plot of the game.

Monsters Of World Of Darkness

In several WoD game lines you actually play a monster yourself. Werewolf or vampire for example. But still, even though humanity considers you a monster, you have your own monsters. Vampires are vulnerable to werewolven, werewolven fight against corruption of spirit world. Even your own kind can be monster for you.
Also, if you play mortal in WoD, you might find out that world and reality are not what you are used to. Humans are not top of the food chain. There are more powerful beings, what can be evil in you view. If you play a mortal, you don't care what clan or bloodline this one vampire antagonist is. It's a freaking vampire!
Also for human monsters (or what human is left in them) I suggest you to look at Hunter: the Vigil sourcebook Slasher. These are the monster serial killers you see in the movies from Jason, Freddy, Norman and Hannibal. And as WoD games are personal horrors, what if you are the monster yourself for yourself (V:tM humanity).

Reality Is A Lie


What if this world was just an illusion and behind the curtains of what we see is the real world? Ruins of times of gods and angels what is now corrupted and really messed up. What if the curtain of reality rips off and you get to see the real truth? Kult has one of the best settings ever. The reality behind this illusion is truly horrible where you might get lost. And Kult monster gallery? It is twisted and horrifying.

Zombies, All Time Favourite


Who doesn't like zombies? Lots of people must like, as zombies are present in various games. Fantasy games have zombies, horror games have zombies, even science fiction game Fading Suns has its version of zombies. And there's a game about zombie scenarios (All Flesh Must Be Eaten). Zombies are one of basic monsters. They are dead people who walk again with their rotten corpses wanting for flesh. They might be cursed, magically raised, toxic catastrophe aftermath, anything. But are zombies terrifying? It depends. If zombies are just another monster gets on the way of dungeon crawling group, they might not be that scary. But read CoC example play with a zombie, make whole city full of zombies in AFMBE, put zombies where they don't setting wise belong. Make them tough and hard to kill. Describe them how they sniff the air when player characters are hiding. Make them block important route with a mass of rotting flesh. Make huge horrific mutant zombies size of a building constructed from several dead bodies. Make them faster than running men.

I must learn to gamemaster short sessions!

There are several games in my shelf I want to play. But I don't want to play full campaign, but one to five sessions adventures. Problem is, that my gamemastering style is slow. By slow I mean, that my games always are long.

I tried to run Call of Cthulhu campaign set in modern world in one, maximum two sessions, but last weekend I ran eleventh session. Why? Well, even though I wanted to make one-shot I got carried away with mood and character relations building.

Mood takes lots of time. If I'd run one-shot, I feel that I had to rip so much off from the role part from roleplaying. It would be like fastforward to only those key scenes relevant to the adventure and leaving everything else out. That is hard for me.

I have another CoC adventure planned, and I must try to make it real one-shot, or two to three sessions total. How would I manage to do that?

I don't plan games. Well, I have idea what I want to happen and how I would like to end it and plan for main plot. I should write it down in a timeline to carry out. That would help alot in time managing when I know what happens and when and propably why.

I have enjoyed this Cthulhu adventure, even though it has been fail as it did not last only few sessions what was my original plan. If I want to play all the games in my collection, I must manage the stories and adventures so, that they don't take weeks or months to play through.

After I have gamemastered this one over, I will make real adventure plan for next CoC adventure. It will be kind of a test for me to make short adventure I can gamemaster in one, two or three sessions.

After this one, I will see how I work it out. I am a storyteller, so restricted and focused adventures are hard to manage. Don't know when my gamemastering took this path, but I'll try to fix it as soon as possible. It doesn't mean I won't gamemaster campaigns anymore, but I want to be able to grab a game, throw an adventure and finish it in few sessions.

What should I GM for Halloween special rpg?

I am planning to run some fun one-shot for my girlfriend in Halloween. I want it to be fun, kind of old-schoolish horror, like those B-movies or some old scary story.

But I don't know what to run yet! Here are few options and ideas:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten could be one, but well, my girlfirend is not into zombies, so I quess it would be lame surprise for her. And let's face it, even though zombies are awesome it could be pretty lame. Come on. Zombies on halloween? As I might want to have some bloody zombie-action, that's not an option.

Call of Cthulhu. Well, this is real deal. Horror almost at its best. I was concidering 20's theme instead of modern age. There is something more sinister and spooky in 20's than today (today and tomorrow campaigns tend to be more equipment against monsters than "oh shi- I go NUTS over this tentacle 7-dimensional blob of eyes!!!!). So, 20's it would be. I was thinking, that I wouldn't run Mythos with great bad god and cultists (that is cool though), but something different. Here's the idea:
Fading away. So, at first main character sees people noone else sees. Later on, some people don't see the character anymore. So, for some reason (Cthulhu, it's in the title.... um no) main character is slowly slipping into the realms of the dead. Only problem is, is that a bit too slow paced, too moody, too tragic, too artsy?
Another idea is monster found in Yer Booke of Monstres (CoC sourcebook with Mythos monsters from various authors). Cannot remember the details, but there was this elder god (or something) what looks like a moon. So, character is amateur stargazer and finds this new planet/moon... what is (CTHULHU!!! Eh, no) some frikkin' huge monster! And when character finds it out, he goes nutz.

My Life With Master. Haven't played this yet, but it could be (tragic, dark and sinister) beer and pretzel (we don't have those in Finland I quess) game. It could be something in mood like Nightmare Before Christmas. Good quality is, that MLWM rules are quite easy to use. And the game supports 100% the campaign (well, you obey your master and then try to kill him!). That could be a go.

Kult. Well... no. I want to have fun in halloween. Kult has awesome setting, but it is a bit too violent, strange, sinister, dark, pervert, and so on for Halloween when you dress like witch or ghost and drink "blood" and eat "chopped fingers". So no.

CoC or My Life With Master. Which should it be.

If someone has really, really neat Halloween rpg adventure or something, shoot me with it! You can find my games I own here *klick*.

Rules - examples or not?

I personally like when there are examples of rules in the rulebook. I think, that same time you read and try to digest the rules and after a new thing there is example how it works, it is faster and easier to learn when you actually see how that works. You might do few test rolls to try the mechanics, but if there are examples you see how the mechanics work while you read.

One quite recent example of this is Call of Cthulhu 6th edition. It was a while since I last time played it. Actually several years, almost a decade. I did remember the basics of the rules but didn't quite remember the insanity mechanics. Luckily, there was long example what explained everything from loosing minor amount of SAN to taking a small rest period in asylum. That example covered everything needed without need to read all the sanity rules. Really convient.

But now I'd like to know what you guys think about examples. Are they for good or for some reason bad? Share with me.

What game next?

In previous post I told that current Fading Suns campaign is nearing it's end, and now I have to start to think what will be the next game to play to do some preparations. Preparations would include making character with player, learning or re-reading rules, getting idea of campaigns concept.

There are some options I have been thinking to run next.

My Life With Master is really interesting game. Rules are light enough, you can "win" the game without deciding the conditions for ending the campaign, and you got concept what you will gamemaster. Game is also ment to be quite short, so it would be nice to play in between of next longer campaign. My player isn't actually very interested in MLWM, but I could try to get her into it. Anyways, it would be short so she could give it a shot. I have also an idea for setting. Master will be a vampire in his castle near the village and player character would be his ghoul. My idea is quite World of Darness-ish, but it could work for WoD and Vampire fan player of mine.

Another game I would love to run is All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I started BBQ from Hell campaign I planned, but player didn't like it. Not sure didn't she like All Flesh Must Be Eaten, the campaign or wasn't the time just right. If BBQ from Hell isn't working for my player, I could run another AFMBE scenario for her. She is not as big of a zombie lover as I am.

World of Darkness is my favourite setting (particulary old WoD) and I think I never get bored of it. Vampire: the Masquerade is a game we will play again. We planned that we start new V:tM campaign when the fall comes, it's dark, cold, rainy and angsty. But for now we delay our favourite game. We did try to start a campaign of Werewolf: the Forsaken, but it died because I actually never ended reading the book. So I didn't have enough background information about the setting to make it interesting. And atleast I can say I have played it. Werewolves are quite interesting, so I decided to buy Werewolf: the Apocalypse. Maybe we never got into W:tF because there is something in nWoD that doesn't work for me. So, maybe Werewolf: the Apocalypse could be great game to start new campaign with?
Other games from nWoD what are interesting are Changeling and Hunter. Haven't read either of them though, but I've heard only good about Changeling: the Lost. Could be really interesting and magical yet grim campaign. Something like Tim Burton would do. I am not that interested in Hunter: the Vigil, but Slayer seems to be really cool.

We had one shorter campaign of Call of Cthulhu and it was quite enjoyable. It was long hard road to get my player into gaming it, and I gave him not that horrific mind shattering tentacle monsters from another dimension campaign, but more horror/mystery style. She did like the campaign, and asked if we could play CoC again some day. So, Call of Cthulhu it will be in the future.

Kult is a game where is setting I love. It is terrifying. Rules I don't like that much though. I have imagined grabbing Kult again, enjoying to read it, and enjoying to scare hell out of my player. Not sure is it going to happen ever though.

One game I would like to give a try, also one game system I don't like, and genre what is not for me... yes. Dungeons & Dragons. I have read 3rd edition once so I got basic mechanics somehow in hand. Some basic fantasy adventure could be quite fun. I have to give this a try some day. I also got AD&D 2nd ed. but that is just not for my taste.

So, here's the list for potential competitors for my next campaign:

1. My Life With Master
2. All Flesh Must Be Eaten
3. Werewolf: the Apocalypse
4. Changeling: the Lost
5. Hunter: the Vigil/Slasher
6. Call of Cthulhu
7. Kult
8. Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition

Give your vote, what I could play next!

Too much great rpg's

I have nice Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle running (blogging it in finnish), yet my game shelf is full of interesting products calling my name. Reading them is fun, but trying them out would be more fun. Unfortunately there is not enough time to learn them properly, and even less time to run them. As I have this V:tM chronicle going on, I wouldn't want to put it on pause to try something else. There is always a risk, that game gets stuck where it is last left for some time.

If I am so darn busy, how can I storytell Vampire then? Reason is simple, game is familiar, I know the rules and setting already. It is easy to just grab and start playing right away!

Games, what I own and I would really like to give a shot, are:

- All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I know I did plan running BBQ from hell, but it never quite worked out. Thanks to learning rules and writing a campaing. I just didn't have enough time for that at the time. AFMBE would be nice for one-two-shots though, as there is survival and if character dies, it is because of the genre. Usually I don't prefer characters dying in the middle of story, but in the case of AMFBE it wouldn't matter that much. Zombies won!

- Star Wars SAGA. D20 is not exactly my game, but still this game feels good. I have read it from here and there, skipping pages, but hey, it's Star Wars and it is asking to great adventures, drama and action. And somehow I got a feeling that D20 suits it quite well! Not sure does D20 win D6 system, but I'd give D20 a shot in this case. If I'd run SW Saga, character should be a jedi. What's the point running short adventure of SW if you play some pilot, or rebel scout? None! You can play those character archtypes in any scifi rpg out there, but playing a jedi? That is what SW Saga is for.

- Unknown Armies. I like horror, alot. Somehow though even if I love Kult's setting, the rules don't tickle me from right places. UA could be answer to that. I also have heard that it is a good game, with good rules, and setting is also grim and good. Haven't read it actually much, so cannot say much about it. Still I am curious towards it.

- Call of Cthulhu. Hey, everyone loves CoC, right? What would be better for horror-mystery game than CoC? Yes, I know, nothing. CoC is a legend in roleplaying games. It is old, but still kickin'. Agatha Christie meets monsters from the deep... priceless.

- Savage Worlds. This one I have heard alot of good also. I also got free download of demo rules (Test Drive version 6), and it seems cool game. Fast, simple rules, not much accounting. Flaw is that it runs better with miniatures what I don't prefer much. And this test drive rules is cool. It pretty well shows what game is about and it looks neat too. Unfortunately there is no setting or world to play with, but I've found nice Aliens versus Preadator stats for it, what would be cool to try out. I was thinking about gettind Deadlands Reloaded, but it is quite expensive for now.

- Werewolf: the Apocalypse. Yeah, started playing Werewolf: the Forsaken and it was cool. Unfortunately game basically died because of my lack of knowing rules and world properly. And there is something in nWoD I don't quite like. Not sure what it is. Even if I have heard that Forsaken is Better than Apocalypse, I think for me Apocalypse is more fun to read and run. I was fortunate to get Apocalypse by luck some time ago, but haven't had time to read it yet. But it would most definately be a game I would run immediately, if I knew it well enough. nWoD might be better than oWoD, but oWoD has magik!

- Violence RPG. I am not sure is it ment to be just a joke, or can you actually play it. It is fun to read, even if sometimes it just get's too harsh on text. Rules are fun to read, because writer gives the picture he is inventing rules same time he is writing the game. And the rules... pffft, they are a bit complicated. Still, I'd give it a shot, just for fun. Not sure though, will I ever.

- Fading Suns. Love the setting, rules are ok. Have so good memories of campaing what was a diamond. That is a great game. Still, not sure if I will play it any time soon. Too much things to do, and still, I have those good memories of it.