“Biting” the Bullet

Few people remember, but my wife used to roleplay. She got her start when I did—with second edition D&D—but her true passion turned out to be Vampire: The Masquerade.

Long Live the King: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game

A lot of ink may be spilled today about the “death” of the most recent incarnation of Marvel role-playing games. Margaret Weis Productions has lost the license and the digital sales for the books end with the month of April.

The news has me feeling a little like somebody shot my dog. I’m shocked, upset, and saddened by the sudden loss. I feel no need to lay blame over this, however. I prefer to remain positive by remembering the good that has been acheived in its short life and to look towards the future.

53 weeks later, I stand by my initial impressions.

There’s probably a lot more that I can say about the game but I’l probably only be repeating myself.

If you are so inclined, you may read it all again here. All the relevant text has the “Marvel Heroic Roleplaying” tag on it. This includes my first, post-PAX impressions and a report on the first session that I ran with two friends in order to try and grasp how to play it.

There are also a handful of posts on getting myself prepared to run an Age of Apocolypse event. Most of his is played out here…

Sadly, I’ve had to put the game on hiatus before playing out the end. I hope to return to it this year.

I’ve had somone asked me if I would ever publish the AoA event since MWP won’t be anymore. The answer is “Probably not, and certainly not without significant help.” I’ve run the whole thing off of less than 10 pages of plain text, datafiles included. Most of the writing was done prior to the first session. I started rewriting datafiles from the very beginning and my notes only became less coherent and useful as I began to improvise more and more. The materials that I have are in nothing resembling a publishable state.

When I first began blogging here, it was because of Fourthcore D&D and the people associated with it. I didn’t expect that to happen again but it did with Marvel HRP. I am now acquainted with more designers and excellent GMs/players that I can name, or properly thank.

Thank You.

Excelsior! (Play more Marvel HRP)

Tabletop Day 2013: Revenge of the Iron Lich at Kirwan’s Game Store

Despite the last-minute announcement and it’s temporal proximity to PAX East & Easter, I decided that I wanted to record a live D&D session running some of the D&D that I love best, Fourthcore. I approached Kirwan’s Game Store, my FLGS, and they game me a quite room in their basement and a camera. This is the result.

If video isn’t your thing, Serva V of SVD Press, the publisher of Revenge of the Iron Lich, has made an audio-only version available here: SVD PRESS.

I’ve gotten enough positive comments since these videos hit that I will definitely try record and post more one-shots to share. I’ve got a whole folder full of them! It’s just a matter of finding the right people and borrowing that camera again.

The Marvel Age of Apocalypse Game is on Haitus

In case you missed it…

Actual Play: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying AoA 11 & 12

I would like to apologise for the delay between game posts. (To skip ahead, the shows are after the jump.) The reasons for the delays are two-fold.

First, I’m running games for the local FLGS. This, as with my previous efforts with a local library, is more than just running one type of D&D. There’s some community building and promotion involved, which I am entirely responsible for. I’m making an effort to run a fairly diverse selection of game systems and play styles, which takes a lot of prep time and talking up.

Second, life hasn’t been easy. For a while, we were down to a single-income and money matters have made it necessary to focus more on bringing in the extra cash whenever and where-ever we can. In the vice between of time and money, some things get left in the lurch.

Fortunately, most of the prep for this game was completed last June! This is the main reason why I can keep it going–though the time is coming soon when I have to prep for the final confrontation.

I’ve learned a lot about running the game and if I were to do it again now, I would have designed things differently. As it is, I’m trying to make adjustments on the fly. I can do better and I hope that it shows that I am trying.

Faux Ex Machina

So I have another back-burner idea that needs dragging into the light. This one is for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

Thus far, my plot summary looks like this:

Star Wars & FATE

I’ve had a Star Wars game in mind for some time that I have never gotten around to writing/running. I’ve toyed with the idea us using FATE to run it but that meant reading up on the various incarnation of the system, separating it from the settings it has been implemented in, and extracting what I needed. Now that FATE Core has crested the horizon, I have no excuse.

Here begins the process of laying out all the fragments so I can fill in the blanks.