Pulp Fantastic meets the Cthulhu universe, all on Roll20

 SO, I have got to say, I love this Roll20 system, and gaming with an open computer, with two screens! Who would have thought it!!!!

I am not one to embrace technology, and yet, I seem to all to often, a truly strange thing. First off ROLL20 is a great little system. It allows me to upload images that I can reveal to my players as they progress through an adventure. I can show them maps of where they are, or images of what they see, the characters that they meet, etc, etc. Now true all this could be done in person, either with handouts or computer display, but for me, it allows me to be better organizes for a turn. My games are free flowing, limited set scenarios or fixed schedules. So what I do between sessions, is to create pages upon pages of images that might come up in any given session. Better than flipping through papers. With the internet in use the players and I can each look up information related to the game. As we are playing a game set in 1920's England, simple questions can be looked up and answered without the players realizing what I am doing, so less of an interruption to the game play.

We do not use Roll20 to show tactical maps, to allow players to move their avatars through thr floor plans etc. We never gamed that way, and I see no reason to change this late in life. Old school quick sketch battle maps and maybe tokens to represent general position (more likely just an X) is all we ever did. A description of the area, indicating targets and objectives works fine. So nice though many of the battle maps, scenery tiles etc might be, not required by me.

However the biggest thing about Roll20 is that it actually makes/allows me to run games. As I grow older I seem to be less inclined to travel beyond my house to run a game. My players, some at least, have busy schedules, so travel back and forth for a game session can be problematic. Often I am tired or anxious before a game, sometimes life is a little hectic before we 'get' together. With Roll20, somehow those issues do not dominate me. Twice now I started a session thinking it will be a quick session because I was beat, or not certain what to do in the turn. But, the ability to flick a switch rather than do all the social pre-game activities, means that I have been able to power through and get the game turns going. Somehow, the not in person aspect is working for me! 

I like the distance from my players, but I like the video presence in front of me. We may chat non gaming stuff for a while, but we quickly get down to playing the game and rarely fall out of it. It suits our style of play, so far. Now I have 2-3 more player joining in, this time as a group, something we rarely do. Time will tell if it will still work for me, but I am optimistic!

So, a base of the Vortex system, add in a helping of Timewatch, and dash of various other time games...

 

Yet another game that uses the Gumshoe system, a system that I kind of like. However in this case I plan to use it as a source book, along with any number of other games that have a time component.

So now I am leaning towards the Vortex system

 

The what system? Yeah, I had never heard of it until recently, but it has been in use for a number of years, without an actual title. It is the system that powers the Dr Who game and Rocket Age.

So, what game will I play...

 

So maybe, it will be Top Secret SI, with the fine Agent 13 supplement. It could still be Call of Cthulhu, or even a FATE type game, like Spirit of the Century, or simply Fate, who can say...

A slip of the tongue, a misunderstanding, and now we are looking at playing a time travel game!

Recently I started pondering the running of an historical based game, Napoleonic to be precise. In broaching this idea to my long term player, our conversation got a little skewed. as I also brought up the idea of running an anthology style C&S game, in which we would play quick one off games, exploring areas of the world that we have not made it to, and maybe even exploring past events. Well somehow these two separate game ideas (historical, and C&S) conflated into an overall 'real world' time travel game.

Hornblower novels have inspired me to look at this...

 

This game and the land based Duty and Honour look interesting. A certain amount of abstract gaming, with a nice feel to it. 

I also looked at Privateers and Gentlemen, a game from the 80's by FGU and still available. It certainly shows its age, and while it has some nice flavour aspects, I am not certain there is a good game in the convoluted rule books. The companion rules, Hearts of Oak do look good, should work for players who want to control a ship, but do not want to take up sailing.

While not the same time period, I will also be reading Pirates of Legend, to see what ideas are contained therein.

Current front runners for Superhero RPG, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

 Well, I have read through the Marvel Universe game, and many of the reviews, and while I do like certain aspects of the game, I have to say the two games pictured above are still my current favorites.

Stumbled upon a copy of an old (2003) Marvel game

I found this and an X-men source book at a game store out in Orleans (east end of Ottawa), only $10  each.

My quest leads to D & D 5th ed and BASH!

Long time since I posted anything here, sorry. I have looked at a number of RPG games, and I have a keen interest to play an RPG, if only I could land on a rule set! The pics on my blog show Call of Cthulhu, and Champions both games that are near and dear to me. While it looked like we might start a CoC campaign, or at least a series of adventures, it did not pan out, for a number of reason...

I am currently running a Chivalry and Sorcery game, based in my long time world, first seen in  1978/1979. While it has always been a C&S game, and world, I have looked at options to modify the rules a bit (never played any RPG as written) C&S 1st and 2nd edition had a spectacular magick system, great world building background, and very nice combat rules. What it lacked, in my opinion were character rules, and a coherent skill system. That is where D&D 5th ed may come in.

The plan is to superimpose the abstract resolution system of 5th ed D&D into C&S. I also kind of always like how characters gained extra abilities as they increased their level, so I will most likely import that in too. What has always made this a C&S game was the attitude, the low magick style, and the Magick system. But even the Magick system will see some modification by me, as I have only ever had one player with the dedication to tackle a mage, and as a GM I do not want to get too caught up in running a NPC mage, so some changes will be made.

A superhero game is also something I am keen to do, but what rules? Champions is probably the best game to create in detail the exact character that you want to play. It has a balanced system, that is reasonably straight forward to use, and flexible, maybe too flexible. The beauty of the system is also the ugly part of the system, it can take a long time to build a character as one tends to sit there endlessly tweaking the character.

This also presents a challenge to the GM as they must spend a lot of time populating the world. Fine when I was younger, but just not something I want to do at my advanced age.

I have looked at a lot of super hero game system;
Superworld, Villains & Vigilantes, Icons, Marvel Saga, Marvel RPG (Civil war), Marvel FASERIP, BASH, Mutants & Masterminds, Supers!, DC RPG, Venture City, Worlds in Peril, Silver Age Sentinels, and I am sure I have missed some.  

The current front runner, is BASH!.
So far it looks flexible and abstract enough to offer a variety options, but has a structure to it.
The next step will be to coerce my test subject into generating yet another character, hopefully this one will be played.