Wednesday 25 May 2011

Dice or Cards? Choose your weapon!!

My regular gaming group (Hello Dualers!) have had the opportunity to sample my products in the early stages of development and this Friday was no different as I used them for playtesting my Decision Deck.

What's a Decision Deck? you say, well it's a pack of cards which I use instead of rolling dice.  Each card has a dice roll value corresponding to the size of dice be it a coin toss or D3 to D30.  In the production version I've added a number of other random metrics including Critical Hit, Fumble, Poker Hands and Dice Hands.  It means I don't have to look for the appropriate dice anymore or have to consult a random result chart.

I know some players object to using cards instead of dice themselves but I gotta say as a GM I really felt they worked for me.  I had my numbers ready at the turn of a card and the combat ran smoother and quicker than with dice.

What are your thoughts on the legitimacy of GMs using anything other than dice?

Tuesday 24 May 2011

MOVIEWATCH: Limitless (15)

Little clip here from the movie Limitless starring Bradley Cooper (of The Hangover and The A-Team fame) which somehow managed to slip under the radar here at Rolplay-Geek HQ...



++REVIEW++

Watching this movie was as much a revelation, for me, in how you make a superb superhero movie as was, Akira to animation or Blade Runner to near future Sci-Fi.

If you haven't seen this movie, put it at the top of your list (or at least above Green Lantern) you will not be dissapointed.  Unfortunately I can't tell you anything about the plot in the sameway as you don't talk about Fight Club... it spoils the punchline.

Bob DeNiro is of course playing Bob DeNiro again, but there are shades of Travis Bickle in there which overshadow even Bradley Cooper's utterly believable performance as Eddie Morra, both as struggling writer and limitless hero.

5 STARS!!

Monday 23 May 2011

...Errata, Erata, I love you Eratta...

...You're only a fay say day away   


As you are by now aware I have started a little publishing venture, and proof reading has kept me away from blogging.  Today, was the first time I have had to publish an errata notice and this got me thinking.

I don't know of any other publishing genre which has so many errata which slip through the net.  Fiction certainly doesn't, magazines and newspapers print retractions, but that's a content matter and not typos or other cockups.   Do we the buyers seem to accept these errata more readily because we see ourselves as RPG fans first and consumers second?  Do we appreciate the publisher's hard work that goes into even the smallest $1 PDF download, rather than wail on their poor proofreading skills?  I'd like to think we're a better kind of people and we know how much love goes into the games we buy.

BTW if you've bought RGP001 - ITEM CARDS Set 1: Adventurer's Gear the errata have been corrected and you can download them in the FREE Item Card Sampler.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa...

Tuesday 17 May 2011

MOVIEWATCH: The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn

Probably the most eagerly awaited movie of the year (well in my house anyway!!), only 7 more months to wait...

Saturday 14 May 2011

Grimtooth's Most Useless Machine Trap

I stumbled upon this video of the Angriest Most Useless Machine. 



For those of you not initiated in the ways of Most Useless Machines, it's a device whose only function is to turn itself off.  Each time you turn it on a finger pops out and immediately turns itself off.

Which got me thinking, perhaps Grimtooth might have invented something similar for one of his trap catalogues?  Something like this perhaps:

The trap consists of a 100ft long, 10ft x 10ft corridor, at it's far end is a featurelss door with no handle.  Protruding from the wall beside the door is a lever with a sign above it which reads "OPEN" and one below it which reads "CLOSE".  Behind the wall sits an ogre, troll or other dim but dangerous creature who has been told to guard this door and stop anyone trying opening it by flipping the lever to CLOSE.

How to play it

The first time a player flips the lever roll 5d6, the resulting number is the PATIENCE of the guarding Ogre, make a note of this number.  Each time a player flips the lever to the OPEN position the Ogre flips it back to CLOSE and reduce the Ogre's PATIENCE by 1.  When the Ogre's PATIENCE is reduced to 0 it opens the door from his side snaps off the lever and bashes the PC with it before returning through the door and closing it.

Player's Solution

Go back the way you came.

Other RPG Uses

Unmodified, the machine would make a perfect Alpha Complex experimental robot...

"Listen up troubleshooters... The Computer, in its infamous wisdom, has granted you temporary security clearance to escort the experimental bot U-SLUS-MASH1N to R&D sector, please make sure that it gets there in one piece... "