Other Games to Play: 7th Sea Second Edition

So you are cancelling you Dullards & Dumpsterfires subscription and are wondering what to play next. If you in the mood for an entire change of pace I recommend 7th Sea Second Edition from John Wick/Chaosium (https://www.chaosium.com/7th-sea/) Imagine a RPG where your characters are special, heroes, the center of attention. Are you tired of writing pages of backstory and getting in touch with your PC’s mind and soul only to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time and roll a 1. We all love our DM/GM/Judge for running games but who hasn’t missed a plot important roll …

D&D Begone, my take on things

There’s a lot of churn and chop in the TTRPG industry thanks to Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro trying to change the foundation of the Open Game License. There’s a lot of coverage on lots of web sites about this. If you need more background, check out the Youtuber DndShorts at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4kGMsZSdbY My opinion: The game Dungeons and Dragons has been in a toilet spiral since the fourth edition and WotC is still trying to migrate the TTRPG game to a video-game style of play. 5e was an attempt to stifle Paizo and other companies who were trying to fill the …

Autumn updates

Some updates for Gamemeisters’ fans…. There’s a new Explorer’s Society module in the works based on a Lefanu story (no not Carmilla) that is entering play testing soon. It will be a true 7th Sea single shot with only four main sequences/scenes and set a of pre-generated heroes. My hope is that people see it as an easy on-ramp for the BEST TTRPG game. Keep an eye on DriveThruRPG. The underdark wandering Von’Gleas is at it again and musing poetic about our favorite dark elves. Look for another installment of our crafty wizard’s travel journal as he moves in dangerous …

Pieces of Soul

A kidnapping and a chase brings the heroes to the dark and mystical mountains of Eisen where they must confront an ancient horror. Can they rescue the victim? Can they stop the evil plot of a creature who’s lived for centuries? You and your 7th Sea second edition group can find out. This is the last installment of the Tale of Art, Love, and Fear story arc now available for purchase at www.drivethrurpg.com

Missed GenCon this year

So normally this is where I’d post my GenCon haul and talk about the ones that got away or the ones that other people stood in line for and didn’t tickle my fancy. Alas with the shift in schedule I was not able to make it to GenCon. I didn’t even make it to Indy. Last year I took a trip to Sun King Brewery in downtown Indy because I was so bummed out that the con was cancelled. I did poke into the web site and the discord a few times during the convention but it’s not the same. …

GenCon Online after thoughts

This was the very first online GenCon. It was sad not to attend the best four days in gaming live and in person. I think that the on-line experience that was put together in such a short time was good. It felt like GenCon when I was watching Twitch streams or browsing in the virtual exhibit hall. The virtual exhibit hall was brilliant. Who ever came up with that presentation model deserves many accolades. It was chaotic and packed with places to visit and companies to explore. It was a good approximation for being in the hall. Websites and Youtube …

The road to GenCon

This summer I had planned on going to Origins and skipping GenCon and then life happened and I was in Vermont in June and busy. This August I find myself in a position to get to Indy for the best four days in gaming, so why not. Getting into the GenCon mindset this late in the game has introduces some challenges. I haven’t been following the normal YouTubers or really paying attention to the BGG GenCon preview forums. I am far too late for any of the exclusive content from Fantasy Flight (Thanks FF for artificial scarcity, Not!) so that’s …

Traveller T5 first impressions

The PDF files for the recently concluded Traveller T5 3 big black books have been released to backers via drivethrurpg. I’ve read through Book 1 and here are my initial impressions: Wow. It feels like the little black book. These PDFs are visually similar with a simple black and white presentation and a writing style that is concise and focused. For modern RPG people this will be a very different experience from the glossy full color pages with rules explained in great detail in multiple sections. I have started on Book 2 and the same feel and style are consistent. …

New Pathfinder ACG Core set

The new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game core set arrived at the house yesterday. I broke it open and read the rules. The rule book has an excellent section for those of us who have played this game a bunch to highlight the new rules and some of the changed terminology. Tonight I tried the starter adventure a few times with one character and it did not go well. These are some of the changes: Locations that have small, medium, and large deck settings that controls how many cards are at each location. Blessings have specific powers vs the generic give …