Finding That Perfect Game

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/07/06 – 00:00 -

After last month’s escapades I’ve been interested in setting aside a couple of games for my new brother-in-law. I’ve been ruminating on setting and play style trying to figure out how best bring him into the fold. I finally made up my mind; I’m going to be using the plot point campaign from Slipstream.

Why Slipstream?

Besides my personal nostalgia for the setting it lends itself to be a good starting adventure for newcomers, and a kid who has some serious attention deficit when something that is not a TV is front of him. As an added bonus the Slipstream campaign is setup to run like a television season, with small episodes and obvious stopping points. If he gets bored or generally wants to stop and do something else it’s easier to push him to the end of the episode before we finish playing.

It’s Easy to Understand

Well, kind of. The main premise is simple enough; you and your team will navigate a space ship from fragment to fragment looking for adventure. As an added bonus there are aliens, psionics, and a big nasty queen to rebel against. All perfect for an angsty teen to vent his frustration against, besides ray guns are awesome, and rocket ships are cool. The plot point campaign means I can focus on the players and not have to worry about crafting the story around them. It’ll focus my attention on making sure they are having fun, and teaching the rules as needed.

If All Else Fails, It’s Silly

I mean let’s be honest, we have ray guns space ships and you can breathe in freaking space; this is not a setting that should be taken seriously. I can take it seriously if needed, play up the grave wounds they receive; give some nasty descriptions of their enemies, it can happen. Though more likely I’ll be playing up how dashing the Heroes look as they cock a big grin; teeth gleaming from the ships lighting that happens to be perfectly placed. How they make it all look so effortless and so gosh darn awesome.

What setting would you use to introduce a new group of players to roleplaying in general or Savage Worlds specifically?


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The Power Of Trappings

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/06/01 – 00:00 -

While reading Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, I ran across an interesting article (as happens more often then not) by Spenser Isdahl discussing how to change the feel of a campaign by removing specific classes from the game.  I was enjoying the thought of making some changes to my current Dungeons & Dragons game when my thoughts wandered to Savage Worlds (as we all know they tend to).  A basic design philosophy struck me:  in D&D, to change a setting you need to add to the world (be it new classes, feats, skills, weapons, etc), changing mechanics to get a new game.  In Savage Worlds, you modify the descriptions, or the trappings–no new crunch required.

Trappings can be powerful.  A veteran Savage GM understands this at an almost intrinsic level.  As we’ve discussed in our primer, a trapping is typically a change in description.  While a change in crunch can happen, it’s not required to get the feel of the game.  In Slipstream, for example, you can breath in space.  In Ravaged Earth, the Heroes just don’t die.  Neither one of these changes required a change in the rules. It’s simply noted in the description text and away we went.  One could even make changes to a spell such as Blast.  Do you want to set stuff on fire? Done.  Be so hot to melt stone? Done. You’ve only changed the description; the crunch hasn’t changed.  In D&D, these would have to be represented through different levels of spells.  Fireball could burn some wood, but melt stone? Maybe, if it was three levels higher.

With that being said, I still play both games; they satisfy different styles of play.  In Savage Worlds I get high flying hero action with a one-two punch of cool. In my D&D games I like that the heroes can withstand boat-loads of damage, and I enjoy having lots of crunch for my weapons and spells. Both of these satisfy my inner GM.  Besides even Pinnacle has said their game isn’t for everyone.

What’s your favorite trapping to employ? What’s your favorite campaign style that you’ve emulated?


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How Rocketships Saved Gaming

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/04/30 – 00:00 -

Once a week we go behind the bar at Apathy Games and discuss gaming in more personal terms.

Savage Worlds is a bit of a mental leap; at least, it was for me.  I’ve mentioned before that Shadowrun is my one true love of gaming.  That holds true, even today.  I’m committed, or should be (mental institution’s are standing by).  The system and setting are both very nuanced, complete, and malleable.  There’s a clear logic in the design, and the mechanics suit my view of reality.

Savage Worlds does everything backwards.  Plus, it’s simple compared to other games, like a bicycle compared to an F-22.  I love F-22′s.  Yet, I’m probably more likely to ride a bicycle.  Somewhere, my inner child is crying in a dark alley.

You get all this already, I know.  But I promise this is leading somewhere.

The Apathy Games team, before we were a company, were a gaming group.  That group had just finished a epic level D&D Third Edition campaign, and it was time to play around with something else.  So I decide to give Savage Worlds a try.

I’d become enamored with the Plot Point books from a design perspective, so I picked up a copy of Slipstream and an Explorer’s Edition handbook.  With quite a bit of prodding, I convinced my group to play a single session.

Now, thirty levels of D&D is a very serious event.  An epoch, even.  We weren’t just burned out; our brains were week old stew left on the oven to mutate.  Most of our other breaks included games of Shadowrun.  Gritty, deadly, slightly pornographic Shadowrun.

Suddenly, before our eyes was this simple, stupid setting based on 1930′s serial sci-fi.  Rayguns & Rocketships, I called it.  You can breath in space, and the whole thing is ruled by the Evil Spider Queen Anathraxa.  Laughter was most evident.  It would not be incorrect to say we giggled like children.

One session turned into two.  We slowly figured out these backwards rules.  Terrible mistakes were made that would make Clint and Shane wince if they saw us.  But we played on, fighting space pirates, saving Lion Men, and jetting our rocketships between broken planets.

And suddenly something happened that would change our gaming lives forever.  Our dashing hero yelled “CUT!  That is not what the script says!”.  Without missing a beat, the players went from playing characters to being actors playing those characters.  The actors were developed on the fly.  Names generated when needed.  History created on the spot.  It was most grand.

And it was crude.  Much of the conversation was racially/gender/human-race inappropriate, but it was fun.  For the rest of the session, and the one that both followed and terminated that game, we regularly jumped back and forth between actors and characters, all the while still playing through the campaign.

And get this, for it’s reason behind everything you have read on this entire site:  we did it all without ever slowing down the game.

A crude comparison is in order.  We had also taken this time to play some D&D Fourth Edition.  You know, to try it out (I was shamefully enamoured at the time).  If you’ve played, then you probably know how the game grinds to a screeching halt during the Paragon levels.  It was at this point, after an hour and a half fighting a single monster, that I said, “We could have fought three large-scale combats in this time if we were playing Savage Worlds.”

The worlds that Savage Worlds has opened up for us are strange, creative, and often under-developed compaired to their mainstream cousins.  Slipstream could never support an entire product line.  But, because you don’t have to learn a complex system, and because the rules get out of the way and let you just enjoy what you’re playing, you can play a savage setting like you would engage in a movie:  without commitment.  Like Popcorn.  Like a 1930′s Serial Sci-Fi.

This is Jeff.  Blasting Off.


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Savage Status Report: Slipstream

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/04/29 – 00:00 -

Each week we take a look at one setting or genre in the Savage Universe and see how it’s doing and what the developers have been up to.  This is not a review, but a guide to what’s available today.  Updates to each Savage Status Report will occur more or less twice a year.

This week we look at a some first-party pulpy space fiction:  Slipstream

What is it?

Buck Rogers.  Flash Gordon.  Rayguns and rocketships.  Slipstream brings back the 1930′s serial science fiction.  It’s campy.  It’s silly, and it’s a ridiculous amount of fun.

The basic premise is that your rocketship got sucked into a black hole, and was spit out into a small micro-universe called Slipstream.  Here, whole fragments of planets swirl around the slipstream wave.  They are home to all kinds of strange aliens:  Lion Men, Bird Men, Robot Men, and dozens of others, also obviously named.

Hard science is pretty much out the window.  You can breath in space.  All ships and planet fragments have standard Earth gravity.  Everyone speaks English.  The basic lesson is, “don’t worry about it.  Just play.”

Core Products

Slipstream

160 page Hardcover:  $34.99.

160 page PDF:  $22.99.

From the Studio 2 page:

Ruling over Slipstream is the diabolical queen Anathraxa and her horde of Hand Maidens, Primals, and Minions. All bow before her, paying tribute to avoid destruction. None have had the courage to stand against her forces, at least not until now. For this is the role your heroes will take-bastions of light against a dark foe! Strap on your rocket pack, charge your ray gun, and prepare to blast off on wild and exotic adventures!

Adventures

As far as support goes, Slipstream has been rather lackluster.  Aside from the included plot point campaign, only the following two adventures have been published.

One Sheet – The Hunt

2 page PDF:  Free

Exerpt:

Stranded on an alien planet with nothing but their wits and the will to survive, a group of desperate heroes must play the most dangerous game with a voracious pack of proud hunters.

Heart of Steel

24 page PDF: $7.99

From the Studio 2 Page:

When your intrepid band of Streamers comes across the floating shell of a spaceship, how involved could it get? From that one simple discovery comes a parade of adventure—love and betrayal, secret police and hidden gardens, endless night and technophobia, robots and fungus—fit for any spacefaring crew.

Accessories

Here, slipstream does a little better.  Pinnacle has provided an insert for the Customizable GM’s Screen, and a number of free aids on their downloads page, including a Map of Slipstream, a couple of rocketship maps, and even a set of adventure cards to be inserted into the full deck.

Slipstream Customizable GM Screen Inserts

PDF:  $3.99.

These inserts are designed for the Customizable GM Screen.

Slipstream Character and Ship Sheet

2 page PDF:  Free

This sheet may be the coolest looking character sheet ever made.  That alone makes it worth your time.

Community Support

Here is where Sliptream really shines.  The fans love it, and have put a lot of time into trying to create the ultimate experience.   They’ve uncovered props, including these Invisible Playing Cards that look very spacey.

There are many discussions about finding the right miniatures, including answers for Lion Men and a couple on rocket ships.  Here are a few threads about generic sci-fi miniatures that should work.

After finding miniatures, you’ll want maps.  Check out this thread, as well as this one on map tiles.

If you’re looking for inspiration, you have to check out Retropolis.  Everything there is absolutely stunning.

Lastly, one of the best parts of Slipstream is the race generator.  This thread is chock full of great user created races ready for your game.

What’s In Development?

To be perfectly honest, we don’t know.  No news regarding Slipstream has been announced in a long time.  While it probably isn’t dead, don’t expect it to ever have a consistent product cycle.  Fortunately, the material that has been provided should be enough to keep you going for a long time.


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The Rule of Cool

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/04/28 – 00:00 -

“What is the rule of cool,” you might ask? It’s making everything more badass then what came before it. It’s a high octane kick to the balls of ray guns and dimpled cheeks. Being cool is more than just acting cool–it’s a freaking lifestyle change. Super charge your game with pulpy non-stop action with these rules of cool:

The MST3K Rule

“If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes

and other science facts (la la la),

Then repeat to yourself, “It’s just a show,

I should really just relax.”

Plant your tongue firmly in your cheek and work on sharpening your wit to a razor fine finish. You’re going to need it when you’re fighting zombies and pirates at every turn. What fun is drop kicking a man-cat into cold clutches of breathable space unless you quip some pun about putting the cat outdoors? Oh, you read that right: breathable space. Where we come from, our glinting teeth and shining charisma have enough gravity to contain a breathable atmosphere; Batman once tried to steal this from you. That’s right. You took on Batman.

The Running Gag

“ACME Rocket Skates, 1 Pair.”

A joke isn’t funny unless it’s told every time you have the opportunity. It doesn’t matter that it’s the fifth space pirate you’ve seen today. Your dashing good looks insist that you fire off your ray gun, smile into the camera, and utter your catch phrase. It’s mandatory. The fact that the camera in question is only the security camera on your own ship is irrelevant. Someone, somewhere will watch this, and they need to see you in your shining glory. Make sure to shake the flowing hair out of your eyes.  The ladies love that. Trust me.

So Bad, It’s Good

“It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.”

“Hit it.”

Dashing good looks are all they are cracked up to be. A couple of rules are needed regarding sidekicks, though. They cannot be older then you.  In fact, the younger the better. When they inevitably get caught and tied up by your arch nemesis, you look that much more heroic when you save them. Also make sure that they worship the ground you walk on. That way, you can take credit for all the work they do for you. Hey, who said that being a hero had to be hard work? Isn’t it hard enough to be this beautiful?

So you know,  just reading this has already made you cooler.   Good job, Kid! In a couple more years you will be ready to run with the big boys in the space lanes.

How have you kicked out the pulpy jams in your games? What are your daring tales of the space lanes?


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Heroes with Fuzzy Morality

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/02/26 – 00:00 -

I’m currently reading The Belgariad and I keep finding myself comparing the characters to a party of PCs and finding the similarities striking. Most notably, our heroes have a rather blurry moral compass, and that seems to hold true for almost every roleplaying game I’ve ever been a part of.

Killing, lying, stealing, and intentionally intimidating people are only a handful of the tricks players tend to play on NPCs in order to save the world. Perhaps the ends do justify the means, and perhaps roleplaying is just an escapist fantasy, but if I were to meet most player characters in the real world, I’d run in terror.

Not that this is a bad thing. The truth is, it’s fun to play this way. While we may not want to play someone who is downright evil, there is a desire to throw out some of the constraints thrown on us by reality and play sort of a Fuzzy Good. In fact, I’m officially adding that to the Alignment system.

Saving the World, My Way

Fuzzy Good characters actually make sense in the “Save the World” type scenario. The goal is what matters, and a party who can bend the rules is far more likely to succeed. I’ve played games, like Slipstream, where you’re expected to play the strong jawed hero of thirties sci-fi, but to make that work, they keep having to be attacked by things like space pirates, and have the plot come to them. There really isn’t any problem solving in that style of game.

On the other hand, Necessary Evil replaces Fuzzy Good with Fuzzy Evil. There, you play super-villains who have to save the world after all the heroes have been captured and destroyed. The only rule is that your party should probably work together, making Necessary Evil, perhaps, the most sincere RPG ever made.

In parting, I’d like to know. Have you ever played a character that wasn’t Fuzzy Good? If so, how did it turn out?


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Ringing in the New Year with drinks and games

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2009/12/31 – 08:00 -

As the year winds to a close and our second month of blogging comes to an end we here at Apathy Games find ourselves a little celebratory.  So when you hunker down to game find yourself a worthy drink to go with it.

Dirty Martini – The perfect adult beverage, it has class poise and says that you are awesome.  Combine with a prop pistol, a Savage variation of a Bond game, and then shake to taste.

Arrogant Bastard – You are not worthy of this drink, it’ll come right for you kick you in the balls and shag your mother before you have a chance to get back up.  Take a tankard of this, the Super Powers Companion and punch it right back.

Captain Jack Sparrow– With this drink in hand you’ll be swashbuckling across the Spanish Main.  Once everyone is liquored up you’ll be plundering and ravaging the nearby neighborhood. Just remember, your car is not armored to ram other cars, please don’t try it.

The Six Shooter – Start exploring the weird west with this drink.  While it’ll get you some funny looks in Deadlands you’ll be able to gun them down before they get to ask why your drinking such a sissy drink.

Blue Champagne Cocktail – This alien looking drink will blend in perfectly with a Slipstream campaign.  Have the characters attend there favorite bar and serve them this blue bubbly drink. For added giggles have the characters be actors in a 1950′s sci-fi show.

How do you plan on celebrating the new year? Did we miss a drink that should be on the list?


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Savage Mondays – November 23, 2009

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2009/11/23 – 08:00 -

It’s a Savage World out there, and if we’re going to survive it, we’d best keep an eye out. Apathy Games does just that. Every Monday we bring you the latest news and ideas about the Savage Worlds game. For those who don’t know what this whole savage worlds thing is, we hope to have a guide for you soon. In the meantime, check out the Playtest Rules. Here’s what’s happening now:

Why Should I Care About Savage Worlds?

We’ve been asked this question a few times now. While we are currently working on a guide to all things Savage Worlds, we thought we would share someone else’s opinion. Kurt Schneider of Gnome Stew has a very good and easy to read review of Savage Worlds. Please check it out.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Savage Worlds Licensees


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