I am NYT bestselling author of horror, science fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy. I am also a professional gamemaster and gaming fanatic. Thanks for listen to me ramble about stuff I love.
Let me run a game for you: thedanwells.com
Check out my Actual Play campaign on Twitch: www.twitch.tv/typecastrpg
Learn more about me and my books: www.thedanwells.com
I like this game, but I modded the rules in two areas. First, I added the two-handed weapon rule. A 2-handed weapon does 2 damage, and 1-handed weapons do 1 damage. Second, I added another psychic power called Percognition. Its four powers are 1. Savings throw when attacked. Roll of 1 means you are still hit, 2-4 miss, 5 or 6 and you deflect the attack (or makes a riposte style attack yourself) and the enemy is hit. 2. Roll a normal/2D6 check, and get a Trait for the rest of the scene. If you fail, then you cannot try again until the GM says you can. 3. Meditate and roll a normal check. Success means the GM can give you a hint of what is coming. 4. You roll a normal check, and if you succeed your character thought to bring a bit of gear that was NOT mentioned to be in their inventory until now.
I know this channel hasn't been active for a while but I'm thinking about doing a CoC game based on incestigating the cult stuff in The Hollow City. On the off chance Dan sees this comment, I'd love to hear his (or anyone else's) thoughts on how to make it work good
Another amazing review! Thank you Dan. I hope all is well with you and cant wait for you to come out of semi review retirement and review Pendragon 6e!!!
This is a great game and I'm jonesing to play it but I think that the vampires are an over kill. If/ when I run it I'm going to leave out the blood suckers.
It may have been patched since then, but I know a guy who found a loophole that got him banned from a table. There was no solid feature for detecting traps and the strongest monster written had his vulnerable spot in the head. He specialized his character in explosive traps, got an explosive collar on said strongest monster, and was immediately asked to leave.
Just to counter on the ‘railroady’ stuff at the beginning of the campaign, it isn’t smooch about narrative development but more about giving characters personal opportunities to develop. So the herbalist in Wittgenstein is there to give a herbalist character (included in the pre-generated list) to get some training. The start of Death on the Reik is basically a ‘levelling up’ session with a bit of sideline narratives attached.
From an operational security viewpoint, the location of Castle Refuge, in relation to Coalition territory, bases, and staging points, makes absolutely no sense. If Loard Coake were a halfway decent strategist, he'd abandon that position asap.
I wasn't sure what these companion books were going to provide, but it looks pretty great! As a semi experienced GM, though I love improvising, the idea that there are effectively fully fleshed out NPCs in here is wonderful to hear. These days I'm looking for more ways to reduce the mental overhead for preparing for sections, and to have so much done for already makes the idea of running these campaigns seem less imposing. Thanks for the review!
This is cool! Very important but not often talked about aspect of the craft. Speaking of mirroring TV plot structures, have you ever tried doing an A Plot/B Plot style? I've found it useful to cut between groups of players on a stinger to build tension. This can fall apart if combat breaks out, but it's a fun one to pull off. Thanks for the video!
Looks pretty good. The 2d20 system is fine but a Infinity RPG would of run fine with just a modified version of the tabletop wargame rules. It's a really detailed yet straightforward ruleset.
RIFTS is easily the most fun RPG to play. The world is utterly amazing. I started out with Shadowrun and graduated to RIFTS. I tried D&D later after that and realized that D&D is just hype, no substance. It's a garbage game for garbage players who don't know that better exists. SPLUGORTH!
The way this adventure is structured is rather neat. Whilst giving lots of options it seems to make sure that the plot moves on. SPOILER-ish from here on: It mainly achieves this through the plot happening due to stuff outside of the players control. The main plot points move on without any involvement of the players in the background (unless they call major disruption like eliminating key players prematurely), though the outcome can be changed. What's particularly ingenious is, that depending on their behavior, the players can obtain a whole lot of background info or end it totally oblivious on what actually happened.
You might be reading too much into the use of the word "gonzo". Dungeon Crawl Classics wears the description like a badge of honor. Ted Nugent's first live album, Double Live Gonzo, did, too. Hunter S. Thompson was the first known to have used the term about a style of journalism that he himself became known for. They're not looking down on you.
Haha! I never knew you liked Rifts! I feel the same way about it you do, and in fact this Christmas got a few books to run a campaign with my kids. The system is for sure... clunky, but I personally LOVE percentile skill systems.
The mechanics are easy. The game is cinematic, not simulation. The fault lays in presentation and looong character creation, which tends to lose a lot of todays attention deficient players. They have plans to straighten out the presentation but not alter the rules. This game ROCKS!!
The protectorate aren't villains as often as Khador, however the protectory are truly neutral, but in that they have extreme evil and good, to balance to the middle. The Harbanger and her paladins are quite good, and Reznik and the testament are quite evil.
I've been collecting dwarven forge terrain for about 8 years, and I paint it myself. I can tell you using terrain w/ things like 3d printed and painted minis, Syrinscape in a gaming room with SONOS surround /sub (largely for building mood with music and occasionally a sound effect), and ChatGPT to assist me with the story and descriptions, along with also having miniatures of the monsters in my games is something that creates an incredible cinematic experience. I recently tried to play at another table that is 100% theatre of the mind after running my own with all the toys, and I can't go back to it - not alone. It's not been cheap by any stretch but there is no doubt who the players are attacking, how far away they are etc. Regardless of all the bells and whistles though I am a HUGE story guy.
Agreed on the whole rifts obsession. At one point I loved the world so much that I ported all that I had to shadowrun 3rd edition rules. I love palladium, hate the system XD. That world is rich, and it is my absolute favorite.
I’m just getting into Dune. Finished the first novel. Got the RPG. What other books would you consider required reading? Some say just the first 2 or 3. Some say first 6. A few folks say read them all. What’s your opinion?
