A-Z A for Adventuring in my games

For some reason only games I have ran adventures are fantasy games. Fantasy games I mean games like Praedor (Finnish low-fantasy rpg based on graphic novels), Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, Blue Rose, Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Fading Suns (even though Fading Suns is science fiction I see it more fantasy than sci-fi). Other games I have ran are more character, location or politics of the place oriented. I haven't hand adventuring in Vampire: the Masquerade or Call of Cthulhu for example.

In my Vampire games focus is in city and how character fits in or what character does in there. It is not like adventuring but more like life in there. Also Call of Cthulhu games have been revolving around how character is affected by the situation rather than character following a path of an adventure.

In fantasy rpgs (like those I mentioned in the beginning) it's been somehow easier and more natural to run an adventure. There's a beginning and a end and things in between and character follows it. It doesn't matter that much what kind of character is as similar adventure would have been with different characters. Of course some parts of the adventure might differ depending on character's actions and even the outcome of adventure might vary based on that. But for fantasy type of games I usually make an adventure. Something where it begins and what should have accomplished in a way or another for adventure to end. Other games are more freeform for me. There is this overall situation where character is put and while playing we see what happens to the character.

Difference is, that in fantasy games character is put in the adventure and we see how character deals with it and what he does before it ends and how his actions affect the ending.
In other games there is a situation, starting point, we put character there and see how character affects the surroundings and how surroundings affect the character.

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.

INTERVIEW: Ville Vuorela from Burger Games

Ville Vuorela is a man behind Finnish hobby game publisher Burger Games and leading
independent roleplaying game publisher in Finland. He also actively participates in different hobby
related conventions and is active in roleplaying forums.

Ville is not only roleplaying games developer but also an author of the following books:
Vanha Koira, pub. Jalava 2004; Pelintekijän käsikirja, pub. BTJ Finland 2007; Elämäpeli, pub. BTJ
2008 and Häirikkötehdas, pub. Finn Lectura 2011.

You can find Burger Games' website here: http://www.burgergames.com/

For some time I have wanted to interview him and he agreed to be interviewed. Here it is, interview
with Ville Vuorela from Burger Games.

At which point and why did you decide to start to publish your own roleplaying games? I bet that before your commercial games you have done your own games and possibly additional homebrew material for existing games?

I had been writing my own game systems since late 80's but it was only after I became interested in setting
design that I really wanted to push stuff out onto the market. The original impulse to do that came from watching  "Three Musketeers" by Richard Lester (1973). There was a scene where the protagonists engage in a mock tavern fight with the real intention of actually stealing food while at it. Looking at this, it suddenly dawned on me what kind of heroes I wanted and what kind of a world I was going to build around them. Rules-wise it was an evolution of my primitive early systems but the power was in the setting and the role the player characters played in that setting. The end result was Miekkamies (1994).

What happened with Taiga? In the book there are many plans and hints about upcoming sourcebooks but something didn't go according to plan.

Every Indie RPG writer does it at some point: overextends his resources and marketing potential. Taiga was a niche game to begin with and I took a far too big print run of it in 1997. The sales were a disaster and I was left with a big bill and an even bigger pile of boxes. That was the last time I went through with a game project just because of I though it was cool. Most Indie RPG-writers drop out at this point. Fortunately this was already my second game and the first one, Miekkamies, had been a success. Still, continuing the product line did not make commercial sense and I was depressed about the whole thing that it killed off my personal interest in Taiga for a long time.

Why is Praedor so popular? It is still sold and asked and most definitely played.

It was made into a pre-existing franchise and no matter where you open the book there is always something
beautiful and topical from Petri Hiltunen to look at. The system is also very popular and that came as a bit of
surprise. It was a radical departure from my earlier approach to system design but although I did a lot of work on it, I did not expect to get it so right to begin with. But most importantly, I consider Praedor to be a validation of my belief that strongly defined character role in the setting is the key. Experienced players can easily deviate from this niche if they want to but for new players Praedor offers an instant, enjoyable and intuitively recognizable "job" as adventurers and the system really supports the intended pulp-fantasy playstyle and genre.

What kind of gamemaster Ville Vuorela is?

You are better off asking this from one of my players. I would say that he is a descriptive and eloquent, with
great emphasis and even pride in not becoming stymied whatever the players do or wherever they go. My focus is on otherwhere, the sensation that players are in a different world where lots of things are happening even without them. Wherever they go, there is something new and interesting there, even if I have to whip it up on the fly.

Unfortunately Vuorela has also become a very busy gamemaster and my dayjob and roleplaying draw on the
same reserves to some extent. I was able to run multiple campaigns simultaenously as a young student but
now stress at work may lead to creative blocks before and during gaming sessions, which I find very frustrating.

Apart from your own games which ones are your favorites or worth to mention?

Over the years, my favourite games have been those I have been able to pull long and successful campaigns
out of: Stormbringer/Elric, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (the old edition and really for the setting), Legionnaire (ancient scifi-rpg by FASA) and finally Shatterzone (the original Masterbook System RPG from West End Games). In addition, I have a great deal of respect for games like CP2020, Harnmaster, Traveller and Syndicate. I also have a special soft spot for D&D Cyclopedia rules and Heimot for its bold and ambitious setting.

However, very few roleplaying games are outright bad and almost all of them are worth mentioning, especially if they do come with a setting. They are doorways into other worlds, in a way that non-interactive fiction can never be.


In which direction in your opinion Finnish roleplaying games publishing is going? Am I right that in late years Finnish roleplaying publishing is in high rise?

I am living fossil, having both seen the previous boom of the Finnish RPG industry and survived the ice age that followed from 1998 to 2004. As far as writing RPGs is concerned we are in another boom, largely because the remaining gamers that were drawn into the hobby during the previous boom are now ambitious young adults. However, I am worried about finding players for all these new roleplaying games. The global RPG market has all but collapsed and from what I know about Fantasiapelit sales the Finnish market is not doing too well either.

This is a point of contention between me and other RPG authors out there. I sincerely hope they prove me
wrong.

With or without miniatures?

As necessity dictates. In a highly tactical scenario you are probably using graph page or other improvised
markers anyway. Having miniatures to help you out does not hurt. However, I find it odd that miniatures would be a core part of the game. I love social interaction and intrigue in my games and neither of those requireminiatures in any shape or form.

Probably Dungeons & Dragons is the most popular just because of its name. What kind of influence the game and it's newest edition's style has in general roleplaying in your opinion?

Actually, it has had surprisingly little impact. The impact of D&D3.5 is still being felt and while D&D4 did
introduce an alternative playstyle for roleplaying games, unlike its previous iterations if failed to replace what
had been before. Lots of people have dabbled with the new D&D and then returned to the older and in my
opinion much deeper style of roleplaying they know and love.

What are current plans for publishing STALKER in English? According to RPG.net forum STALKER as a setting is interesting and you have rights for the roleplaying game.

Yes on both counts. The proofreading is still going on (we are being both busy elsewhere and just plain lazy at times) but should be done this fall. There will be a PDF version of the rulebook available from some relevant store (RPGNow springs to mind) and a crowdsourcing scheme for a small print run of physical books.

Do you believe that something would be different with STALKER if it used dice based mechanics?

It would be easier to sell but far less cool as a game. FLOW really does help to build the atmosphere and I think abstracting the gameplay challenges into dice algorithms would only hurt it. Of course, in retrospect I should not have made the game completely diceless. The anomaly and artifact tables could use some dice and the game as a whole would benefit from a few more loot tables. But I will not give up on the diceless challenge resolution and combat.

From your own games, which one is your favorite?

Stalker. For me, personally, Stalker is not only my best game but one of the best RPGs ever written. Perhaps the best, although it is naturally limited to its specific genre and niche. I know that this sounds awfully selfish but I really do believe all this.

What would you say to Burger Games fans and to foreigners about Burger Games?

There have and always will be these one-man shows in the RPG publishing. What sets Burger Games apart
from the rest is its very survival to this day. And the Stalker RPG.

Thank you for your time and honor to interview you.

No worries, it was fun.

Praedor, one of my favorite fantasy games (A-Z letter P)

Praedor from Burger Games is one of my favorite fantasy games. Instead of reviewing it (for now) I just give a list why I do like it so much.

1. Artwork is really neat made by Finnish comic book artist Petri Hiltunen. Also game setting is based on Petri Hiltunen's comic books.
2. Character creation is mix of old school dice rolling and more customizable point buy system. You roll attributes, but divide points for skills.
3. Damage system is brilliant. Even though characters have lots of hit points, they could die from a single good blow. There is "deep wound" value, and every point damage exceeds it you refer the amount to a table to see the additional effect of damage. Smaller damage decreases hit points in slower pace, but bigger blow can in worse cases even cut your character's hand off.
4. Task system is simple. Character's attributes and skills are in range 3 to 18 and you roll D6's based on the difficulty usually from 2D to 4D trying to get lower than the value you roll against.
5. Successes come in 3 steps. Normal success, 2 steps success with 5 or below and 3 step success on 10 or below. It determines the effect for example parrying a blow (2 step to hit wins 1 step to parry for example).
6. Setting is awesome. Takes too much space from the list to describe it, but world is small round spot and after it's borders is endless destruct ancient city with wild magic, mutated monsters and demons. Also all kinds of adventures can be ran in known "safe" world you can ever imagine.
7. Praedors (treasure hunting mercenary characters) are kick-ass.
8. You only need six sided dice to play this game.
9. Easy to learn, rules are quite light even though realistic.

Burger Games website: http://www.burgergames.com/

Praedor website: http://www.burgergames.com/Praedor/

Praedor website Google translate from Finnish to English: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=fi&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=fi&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.burgergames.com%2FPraedor%2F

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.