Issue 3 of Wanderer Bill’shttps://lkh.sdf-eu.org/wandererbill/grenzland/ just landed in my mailbox yesterday, with, among other things, an NPC class written by me (“The Anointed of Abyssal Slaughter”). It mostly was me combining the given topic of the issue with an interest in NPC classes a while ago.
The ‘zine also contains a one-page dungeon by Alex Schroeder (“The Crown of Neptune”), a game report (“Schiffbruch”), rules for sailing ships (“Salt’n’Tar”), and another scenario (“Eingekerkert”), the latter three all by Wanderer Bill. The ‘zine is a mix of German and English, and you can get it for the phenomenal price of free at the website.
(he does have a few more physical copies for 7 Euros left over though)
The original game Fantasy Wargaming: The Highest Level of All (or just Fantasy Wargaming in some editions) was a 1981 book by Bruce Galloway, a clear variation on Dungeons and Dragons, based on Galloway’s home rules. Unlike it’s competition it was not afraid of using actual historical concepts like astrology and occultism in it’s descriptions, although it also was written so densely it was hard to make sense of it in any shape or form by someone not already familiar with roleplaying games. And, well, it was called Fantasy Wargaming.
Which made this a problem, as the game was published both in the UK and the US by mainstream publishers obviously trying to break into the nascent TTRPG market. The most available version was most likely the one published by the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club, which made the game available to many people who did not have any experience with roleplaying games before.
Unfortunately one has to say, as the game’s size (300pgs) and conceptual denseness made parsing the book quite a feat, meaning if people used this as an introduction to roleplaying, it might not have been very successful.
The Story of Fantasy Wargaming goes into this, and into the development of the game. It could have been a bit more thorough and a bit more critical, but for what it is it’s a nice look into the environment that created it. And well, it’s free.
(I learned about this book from an episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast which had the author on and talked about this project. Well worth a listen)
@zdl@gmkeros.wordpress.com@gmkeros.wordpress.com If I remember correctly, a lot of FW seemed to be riffing on C&S specifically. I may or may not be remembering correctly.
@edheil@gmkeros.wordpress.com@gmkeros.wordpress.com I've read it. I've read (and played) several editions of C&S. I have no idea. The writing in Fantasy Wargaming was just that bad.
And with that… I’m done with Octopath Traveler 2. I know there’s some post-final chapters epilogue story and boss, but after 80 hours, I think I’m done. I’m beat.
Score: C+
Good: Combat and graphics.
Bad: Random battles, short dungeons, 1000 boss fights, fractured story lines, & annoying party management.
@repeatro and the HD release of FF X for the Vita is ultimately how I finished it, even though I bought it for PS2 when it originally came out. 😅
I never could get to terms with the weirdness of X-2 though.
Finding interesting people on Mastodon has been my biggest challenge 😅, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. If you're an author, aspiring writer, book lover, fantasy reader, tech lover, roleplayer, tabletop gamer, or anything in between, feel free to follow me! I'd love to connect and follow you back 😄📚🎲 #Mastodon#fantasy#rpg#ttrpg#gaming#tech
Still feeling a little unnerved that the party appeared to make some progress in our Cthulhu Eternal investigation last night. We may be on the wrong track, I suppose, but the usual Whartson Hall method is to rope a red herring and ride it erratically into the sunset, whereas @RogerBW seems to have put his finger on a highly plausible possibility (given weight by the traditional Lovecraftian investigation marker: it prompted a handout from the GM).
@scribblemacher Yeah. It’s been interesting. Agnea’s final boss got me good, but I was under-leveled a touch. So did some tasks to get better weapons, did a little grinding, and boom, bobs your uncle. Next fight was easier. Hopefully when I get to the last one, I know it’s a long one, but hopefully we’ll all be good and ready.
Rob Heinsoo just dropped by La Taberna de Rol’s YouTube channel for an epic 1-hour chat about 13th Age 2E! 🎲🗡️ Dive into the latest insights, behind-the-scenes stories, and what’s new in the upcoming edition. Don’t miss this deep dive into the world of 13th Age! 📺✨ #13thAge#RPG#TabletopGaming#13thAge2E https://youtu.be/2CDHGfB0tPk?si=7VSr8pOAcK2fRDSM
@masukomi yeah I think they're in the final slog stage of that Kickstarter where it all gets out to backers but you're dealing with international shipping woes and it's probably very hard to have bandwidth for the next stage. Hopefully won't be too long!