[Q&A] Egg Embry, Leland Beauchamp, and John Robert McGuire (Love’s Labour’s Liberated) and Sean Hillman (D.I.R.G.E.zine)

<+Egg_Loves_Labours_Liberated> My name is Egg Embry, I’m a columnist for EN World, the Open Gaming Network, the Tessera Guild, and Knights of the Dinner Table. I just funded my first Kickstarter, POWERED by the DREAMR, a Powered by the Apocalypse zine.

<+Egg_Loves_Labours_Liberated> I’m here to talk share the other zine I’m working on (as a co-creator), Love’s Labour’s Liberated for D&D 5e.

<+Egg_Loves_Labours_Liberated> (Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737521052/loves-labours-liberated-a-5e-rpg-zine)https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737521052/loves-labours-liberated-a-5e-rpg-zine

<~Dan> (Welcome to #randomworlds, Leland_Loves_Labours_Liberated!)

<+Sean_DIRGEzine> I am Sean Hillman and while I currently live in Atlanta GA, I began life in Maryland. I write for EN World and I run my small press, known as Reign Dragon Press from here. I launched my first Kickstarter this Feburary for #ZineQuest, called D.I.R.G.E.zine

[Q&A] Ben Doran (Dead Halt)

<+BEN> So my name is Ben Doran, I am from Upstate NY and have a very recent degree in stopmotion animation. Always loved beautiful games and I started slowly adapting a rough hack of Paranoia XP into a game that my friends and I really loved to play.

<+BEN> After a while and a bunch of sessions I would run this game for people that had never played RPG’s before because I could have them sit down and just start, without a a ton of preparation and number crunching.

<+BEN> I run a youtube channel where I started talking about Dead Halt (then named Beyond the Fall) and a bunch of people asked me if they could get a pdf of the rules to try it out.

<+BEN> I figured yeah sure, I’ll just write it down real quick.

<+BEN> Well, I got carried away and really started enjoying the process of creating the small rpg. Dead Halt started to emerge and get lodged deeper into my thoughts and so I decided to go all the way and really make it something I was proud of, and something that other people could enjoy. From those that love RPG’s to those that just want a relaxing night.

<+BEN> Dead Halt is now a ridiculous romp through an endless Hotel, where you create characters that take jobs as simple maintenance staff, and then slowly uncover the absurdity of the Hotel around them. One where Body parts are replaced by cybernetics and Computer consoles are very snarky.

[Q&A] Sean Jaffe (Commandroids: A World Transformed)

<+Sean> I’m Sean Jaffe of Nerdy City, I’m a co-creator of Rememorex and RPGNasty, and the recently-announced first game in the Radical Shadows line, Commandroids: A World Transformed!

<+Sean> Commandroids is the first in a line of tabletop RPGs about poplar 80s mythology, and it focused on transforming, combing giant robots!

<+Sean> It uses the same system as Rememorex and RPG Nasty, and has a whole host of new rules for creating transforming robots based on any vehicle you can imagine.

<+Sean> That’s the short version. Happy to answer questions!

[Q&A] Stephen Fleetwood-Joyce (Leviathan Rising)

<+StephenFleetwood> Hi! I am Stephen Fleetwood, who writes for Hand over fist games. I am publishing Leviathan rising, a fate powered rpg of high action 17th century rebels, fighting for freedom justice and equality

<+StephenFleetwood> Leviathan rising is on kickstarter as we speak!

<+StephenFleetwood> Leviathan rising is a game about being rebels who are empowered by fusing with a spirit, making them the champions of the rebellion

<~Dan> (Welcome to #randomworlds, DopeGuest666!)

<+StephenFleetwood> As such the characters are high power heroes. The system also has a subsystem that the characters only get access to their supernatural powers when they are working towards their ethics

<+StephenFleetwood> Which means the game rewards heroics.

<+StephenFleetwood> Is that enough 🙂

[Review] Grimmgard

Introduction

The name’s Davenport. I review games.

So the other day my buddy Scotty the Dwarf came by for a visit to my office. Thing is, he ditched his usual grimy armor and battle axe for some really fancy new duds and one serious hand cannon. What gives, I wanted to know?

“Laddie, today I’m here to talk to ye about Grimmgard,” he says. “In Grimmgard, I’m one of the Dwarven. We’re the sophisticated, amiable types. Got damned fine technology, too.”

“So you aren’t the short-tempered ones?” I says.

“Don’t start, laddie…” he says.

“Well, if you’re the sophisticated fellas, where does that leave the Elves?” I says.

“No Elves,” he says. “But there are Ogres, and Beastfolk, and these wee mushroom gnomes, and a lot more besides. And they have all sorts o’ technology, from airships and trains to plasma rifles and teleporters.”

“Sounds good,” I says. “I’ll get to it shortly.”

“I’m warnin’ ye, laddie…”

[Review] Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game Second Edition

[NOTE: This is one of my earliest reviews from RPGnet, reposted here for convenient reference regarding the D6 System.]

As much as I liked the Star Wars movies, I’ve always shied away from the roleplaying game. I suppose I felt that, in the words of a friend, it’d be like “playing in someone else’s back yard”. But, after unsuccessfully trying to buy the second edition dirt-cheap on eBay, I figured, “Eh, what the Hell – let’s do this right!” So, without further ado, here’s my review of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition – Revised and Expanded.

[Q&A] Patrick Flynn (Eisen Path)

<+TGG-Patrick> My name is Patrick Flynn, I’m the co-owner and lead developer of ThreeGold Games, and I’m super happy to be presenting Eisen Path, a Space Opera-themed TRPG.

[Q&A] Charles Ferguson-Avery (Into the Wyrd and Wild)

<+Charlie> My name is Charles Ferguson-Avery, an illustrator/game designer based out of rural PA

<+Charlie> My book is “Into the Wyrd and Wild” a toolkit-style book for GMs and Players to use in creating (and surviving) in a strange and dangerous woods (done)

[Q&A] Sean Jaffe & Gia Grillo (RPG Nasty)

<+Sean> I’m Sean Jaffe, I was a creator on Rememorex, which we Kickstarterd almost two years ago (feels like yesterday.) However, now I’m the proud Co-author of RPG Nasty, the storytelling games of silly VHS Horror.

[Q&A] Joe Sweeney (Slaughter: the Horror Movie Making Game)

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> Cool. First up, HELLO from sunny, hot and humid Sydney Australia.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> I’m the founder, head, grandmaster and dreamer behind StoryWeaver Games (SWG). \

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> I’ve been designing games since the age of 14, when D&D was having its first big hooray in the market.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> However, SWG was only really came into existence about 10-12 years ago.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> I created it because I was horrified with the way some of the big game publishers treated (paid) writers and artists.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> We wanted to be able to publish high-quality products (both in terms of writing and art), but using an indie profit share model.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> The first product we published was Rapture: The End of Days – are very hard sci-fi meet dark horror setting.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> It was a moderate success (stayed on RPGNow’s top ten list for over 10 weeks at the time) and got excellent reviews.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> We then published some savage worlds books, including Hael and High-Space (our best selling product) and Deniable (my fav. indie game)

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> Along the way, we picked up some great writers and editors, and hired our first full time person, Jaie (she runs admin and production control and also helps me with research projects in my day-job)

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> At the moment, we are in the process of publishing two new products:  The boxed set second edition of Rapture, which includes a new 144 page worldbook setting called The Confucius Initiative;  and Slaughter The Horror Movie-Making Card Game.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> Slaughter is something very different for us.  It is an RPG, but it is targets a non-RPG demographic.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> We wanted out expand out market in new ways, so we took the Rapture concept and put it on steroids. Slaughter was the result (after a few false starts)

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> Slaughter is a game where you collectively make a horror movie. However, since a big part of horror movies is killing off characters, we wanted to make character development even faster than in Rapture.  The idea of using cards was introduced and it’s been a huge success.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> A big part of the game is that you earn XP (death points) by having your characters killed off in horrible, dreadful ways.  You then can take another member of the cast to play and THEY get the XP boost. This is accumulative through the entire movie.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> This of the movie Alien, where Ripley is almost a non-character until about 15min into the movie. But as all her friends die off, she gets tougher and more of a survivor. By the end of the second movie, she is wresting an alien queen to the death in a mecha.

<+DocJoeofStoryWeaverGames> So… questions?