Friday, February 6, 2015

A Passionate Love Affair

Since I first entered into this hobby over a decade ago there have been certain games that I have an irrational love for - and I'm not talking like, I think they're really neat. No. I have a massive fucking hard on for them. Like if they were people I'd leave my wife for them and she'd be all, "Well, I saw this coming" as she sat on Doctor Phil's couch and tried to figure out how she was going to plunge a knife in his fat fucking face and get away with it. 

What games?

You guys, you guys. I fucking love Burning Wheel and there's no logical reason behind my love affair. Like for years it was the white whale I chased. I would go into every used book store and every RPG store I could find just hoping that I would stumble across a copy of the game in the wilds. And the I fucking did and it is god damned amaze balls. Like this game doesn't have the sort of crazy production values that you find with games like Dark Heresy but it makes up for it with just being brilliant. And there are aspects of this game that I keep stealing and bringing into my D&D games because it is just fucking amazing and holds to some of my favorite traditions while being able to create its own. My god, the whole way that they do skills and think about time in that book was just a fucking revelation on its own!

Then there's Rifts which I love and that's a can of worms. I mean the system is bloated as fuck and Siembieda's internet policy is crazy. BUT if it weren't for that internet policy you'd see more Rifts shit on this site than you could ever imagine because I am completely infatuated with the setting and the idea of working my way through the system in a way that made it not only fun but interesting for other people is just the best thing I could imagine doing for a summer. Only that internet policy is bullshit and I don't want to do anything for a company that would even attempt to enforce that - no matter how unenforceable it is.

Oh, and Gamma World. My god Gamma World is the game that haunted my dreams after I saw a boxed set in a comic book shop when I was, like, thirteen. I had been looking through and picking up back issues of Groo and the Defenders when I stumbled on that box and just wanted it. I wanted it like the first girl who makes you realize that there's more to them than just someone to chase about the playground with a snapping turtle. Only they wanted forty bucks for it and that was my whole vacation budget so I got 25 comics instead because comics are the awesome sauce too. 

Then there's Metamorphosis Alpha which I keep looking at like it was the first step down a long walk with the love of my life. Oh, and I would be good to it and we would be fantastic together! I would rock the shit out of that spaceship with its mutants, robots, and crazy cults. 'Cept here's the thing. No one else wants to play it.

None of my friends want to play any of those games right now because life is hectic as fuck and just getting together to play Dungeons and Dragons once a month is a chore when you've got kids, jobs, wives, and all the rest that comes along with being an adult. Still, that doesn't mean that I won't get to play them all eventually. And when I do the heavens will part, angels will sing, and peace will reign on earth. 

Have I mentioned that my son only allowed me to sleep three hours last night and I'm a bit punch drunk right now?

29 comments:

  1. LOL you said "Groo" to this day any sword I draw the hilts have a little diamond pattern on them because of Groo,
    Also love Gamma world as much as you do.
    I have burning wheel and the Character burner, and really love reading the game though I have never had a chance to play it , I think after reading your post I will revisit it.

    "life is hectic as fuck and just getting together to play Dungeons and Dragons once a month is a chore when you've got kids, jobs, wives, and all the rest that comes along with being an adult." so true.

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    1. Groo is that fucking shit, Holmes. I have not slept yet because my son feels that such things are beneath him. We are opposed to one and another on this and it will end with my death, I fear. For he is young and filled with more joy at being alive and I am increasingly getting older and am filled with disgust. I shall die this day from a little boy who never let me sleep again. And tomorrow I will rise a new man, fully refreshed and praying that my son will again let me sleep.

      He will not.

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    2. I am so there with you. The twins have been sick every week since Christmas. I feel like I will never have sleep for more than a 4 hour stretch ever again.

      We played the $#!t out of Gamma World when I was a young man. I would love to revisit that amazingly crazy setting. I've even heard the 4e-converted version is actually pretty good too. I would play either old or new in a heart beat with the right GM.

      Never played Metamorphosis Alpha, but would be more than willing. I'm curious about Burning Wheel (BW-curious?), but think it may be too crunchy for my liking. I'm interested in paging through Torchbearer, but haven't bought it.

      Paranoia is the other game I'm dying to get back to... but like yourself, if my group manages to play in a D&D game twice a month, that's a good month.

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    3. Between your Burning Wheel curious and Tom's deep love for Supers I feel like things are getting way too sexy in here. Guess I'll just have to take off my shirt and turn up the heat.

      "Paranoia is the other game I'm dying to get back to... but like yourself, if my group manages to play in a D&D game twice a month, that's a good month."

      Oh, paranoia, how you haunt my dreams!

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    4. Let me try that again, have you ever thought about trying Burning wheel using roll 20 over Google hangouts?

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    5. The key to getting the chance to play games other than D&D when you have limited free time, is to not allocate that time to D&D.

      Try it. It works!

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    6. Mark Van Vlack: "Let me try that again, have you ever thought about trying Burning wheel using roll 20 over Google hangouts?"

      What is this Roll 20 I keep hearing about?

      Delete
    7. Barking Alien: "The key to getting the chance to play games other than D&D when you have limited free time, is to not allocate that time to D&D.

      "Try it. It works!"

      Boo! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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    8. http://roll20.net/
      Online game platform or running games, it integrates with hang outs.. though in thinking about it, Burning Wheel combat might not work all that well.
      Our group uses it allot because we can't always get together.
      i am a basic level user, don't know how to do all the cool stuff, but some GM's can do some pretty impressive presentations with it.

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    9. @Barking Alien -- Unless all your gaming buddies just want to play D&D. Nothing ruins a game quicker than an a group pushed into a system they are not interested in. No matter how good the story, they will bitch and moan about having to learn a new system and the game will die.

      I've been there.

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  2. You are so fucking weird, sometimes. I love you man.

    You know what game gives me the big fat one? TSR's Marvel Super Heroes. In the yellow box. Man I probably made a hundred characters for that game in high school. I even got to play it back in the day, I love it so much, it inspired me to update the rules to a d20 mechanic and self-publish my own version. That's RPG love on a whole other level.

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    1. What are you trying to say, Holmes?

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    2. I'm just sayin' you crack me up sometimes.

      And I love MSH.

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    3. I know! (I was just giving you shit, Holmes)

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  3. I certainly have mine, and trust me, most of 'em are waaay more obscure than yours. lol

    To me the must incongruous game that turns me on like a red-headed, tatted-up, rockabilly big girl (Too much information?) is Champions.

    For a guy with a narrative focus, a preference for rule-light systems, and a disdainful mistrust of any hobby with a lot of math, it is absolutely startling to me that I love that game.

    Good post, punch drunk tired or not.

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    1. Awe, Champions is a game that doesn't get anywhere enough love. I played it once years ago and our Game Master had out an abacus, TI-93, and graph paper just to make our characters. Fun game though. I seem to have killed a lot of things because I thought they weren't being cool to this little girl. That could be a hallucination though so don't quote me on it.

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  4. I have a thing for the DC hero's third edition. I loved that game, and I don't even read comic books.
    I just thought the Mayfair exponential system was the shit and to this day I woudl play that game at the drop of a hat.

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    1. Man Mayfair is a really under recognized company. Whether you're talking about their board games or their older rpg stuff; they just put out great products!

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  5. For me it is Eden Studios' "WitchCraft". If I could only play one game for the rest of my life that would be it.

    But I TOTALLY understand your thing for Rifts.

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    1. AND IT'S A RIDICULOUS LOVE! I mean we both know Rifts is like craze balls but damn me if I don't love the hell out of it!

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  6. MWWG (Macho Women With Guns).

    I have 1st Edition, 2nd Edition and the abomination that is the d20 version. All bought when they were current.

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    1. Whoa. I've never heard of that freddyboomboom. I will have to check it out!

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  7. Always been a big fan of Rifts, Gamma World and Marvel Super Heroes.

    I'm going to add Star Frontiers to the list as well.

    Had stacks of Groo once upon a time.

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    1. I still have stacks of Groo and they are all amazing. As for Star Frontiers you can actually find it on-line for free if I remember correctly. Seems like the guy running the site kept trying to find out what he could put up there as the official website and Wizards just ignored him so he kept asking and putting more up until the whole catalog was up.

      http://www.starfrontiers.com/

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    2. That is awesome! Thanks for that!

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  8. I've played quite a few sessions of Rifts under different GMs but none of them lasted long because of players/GMs moving or other life issues. As far as Palladium, I've enjoyed TMNT, the original fantasy rules and a mishmash game of Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Super-spies and Beyond the Supernatural. In general, I don't have obsessions with specific games. My obsession is with taking the rules that I like from here & there to create the game that I want. I share your affinity for Gamma World. The optional damage rules from the Palladium system would actually work well with Gamma World or Mutant Future and would add a bit of extra grit to those games. I have fond memories of playing Aftermath from my teen years but that might be more the folks I was gaming with at the time than the actual game mechanic.

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    1. I've never actually played TMNT but I own the book. It's a lot of fun to read but I've never had anyone interested enough to play it!

      Ah, well, such is life.

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    2. It is a fun game to play. For all its warts, the Palladium system is fun when combat breaks out. I played it mostly in my teens (Oddly, we played it long before the animated series & Turtle mania began.) but I did play it again briefly in the late 90s or early 2000s. With all the random rolls, character generation is fun ... not as fun as Traveller character generation or Central Castings but comparable to rolling up a mutant for Gamma World or Metamorphosis Alpha. I didn't read a lot of comics when I was a kid but I had one issue of Luke Cage & Power Man and I liked that TMNT had a similar street-level hero feel.

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    3. That settles it, I've got to find a copy of it.

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