Sunday, March 4, 2012

Dreamnation Update with an Assurance that I'm Still Alive

Hello there fellow gamers! RoseRage here again. I feel bad that with college taking up a lot of my time, I haven't posted as much as I promised to. I'll have to work on that.

Anyways, here is my overview of the fun I had at Dreamnation last weekend! For brevity's sake, I'll only give a brief overview of the games I played in each day.

I got to the convention in the afternoon due to class, so I missed out on earlier games.

- Maid: Trouble in Orcu-sama's Underground Castle
Actually, this was the game I ran! It was my first time DMing at a convention, so I was really antsy about how people would like my game. It went alright, but I felt like I could've done more to get my players really silly.

-Marvel RPG: Breakout
Well, to be honest I didn't actually play in this game (all the Marvel slots filled up pretty fast) but my boyfriend managed to squeak in. I got to watch him play for a while. I really like how intuitive the system is and how combat really seems to flow.

Saturday
I put on my Steampunk costume and I'm ready for the weekend!

- Maid: Trouble in Saru-sama's Mountain of Mordor!
Again, starting my day off with Maid. This time I poured more effort into my prep and it really showed. The game was wacky fun complete with Hobbit flinging and Aragorn-punching!

-Arcane Circle:Adventures in Middle Earth: The Beginning of the End
This was an interesting take on the Lord of the Rings, influencing pre-Fellowship events. I felt bad since I was tired and unsure of how to play my character. But the GM was great and whoever was playing the wizard was hilarious!

This was run by creator Russell Morrisey. What an entertaining (and delicious) game! Just writing this makes me crave some sweet n sour chicken with a side of percentage dice. The game was fast and funny, just as the creator said it would be. I look forward to playing this with the guys back at my dorm.

-Star Wars D6: Ship of Death
This was a more sci fi horror take on the abandoned Sith ship Desolator. It somewhat reminded me of Shadowrun and was pretty easy to pick up despite missing the quick start rules due to a broken elevator.

Sunday
And now it's cyber punky time.

-Maid: Romance Sprouts at the Royal Castle! A Royal Stranger Appears?
This would have been my third, and possibly best, Maid game but only one person showed up and I had to cancel the game. Sad face. Instead I played...

-Coming of Age: Scions of the Superspy
I was pleasantly surprised by this play-test where I was the illegitimate daughter of International Superspy James Bond. The creator described it as "Fiasco with a happy ending" which I think aptly described the feel of the scenes. Still, I felt the die system was more like the Marvel RPG where you build your die pool based on certain sets of information about your character. It was quick to pick up and fun to play.

-Shadowrun: Hostage Situation, 2072
This was my last game of the convention back with the creator of Fortune Cookie Kung Fu, Russell Morrisey. Even though I felt kind of distance, I still really enjoyed the game because I felt that's exactly how my hacker should be: spazzy, unseen, and only contacted outside of meatspace. I also love the little nuances he added to the character sheet, such as "Universe of Starcraft" listed under my future videogames. Even though I didn't help out in fights, I definitely felt like I could contribute meaningfully to the action if I had the guts to hack through the security system.

I had a wonderful time gaming at the convention, and met many wonderful people. I can't wait to see them again at Dexcon!

Ooh and before I forget, I picked up some games and started playing them this week:

-Kittens in a Blender: This card game is from the company that brought you Poo and Nuts. You must tuck your cats away in the safe and cozy Box while your push the other players' cats into the blender. It takes less then a minute to explain the rules before you start whirrin and stirrin. I thought this game would be funny, but it soon became cutthroat once someone dared to touch my beloved kittens. I highly recommend this game for cat lovers and cat haters alike.

-We Didn't Playtest This at All: If I had to describe a pick up and go game in six words, it would be "We Didn't Playtest This at All" which kinda seems to defeat the purpose of a short description. Still, with a box about the size of a deck of playing cards, it's a great grab and go game. The rules are simple: draw one, play one. From there, the craziness begins. Games can be anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes. If you like Fluxx but don't like how long it can take to get a goal or think it's not weird enough, this is definitely the game for you.

-Zombies!!!: I haven't been able to play this game much, but it has been getting rave reviews from around the dorm. You play the survivor, trying to rack up zombie kills to become a bad ass or try to scrap your way to the helicopter pad and salvation. But you can't see the helicopter pad anywhere. That's because you build the board as you go, connecting roads and placing zombies as you go. With special ability cards and endless ways to screw others over, it's a tense, fun survival game that's rarely the same twice.

-Munchkin: Axe Cop: "Put flame decals on it, that'll make it go faster." 10 year old logic reigns king in this edition of Munchkin. I've played classic Munchkin, but reading Axe Cop and the hilarious art on the cards made this game the funniest it's ever been. Definitely worth a look.

-Order of the Stick: Deluxe Edition: I feel kinda lame leaving out a review for this one, but I assure you, once I crack it open, I will give it a thorough review.

-VT|RR
"You can't take my chair! No way!" "Actually, I think it does. Now you get to sit on the floor." "This is my room!"

Saturday, March 3, 2012

The Merc With A Mouth

 A friend of mine is dieing to play Deadpool in the new Marvel Heroic RPG just released by Margaret Weiss Productions but unfortunately Deadpool is not one of the heroes released in the initial book. I'm in the middle of fighting a vicious flu bug and the medicine I took induced some vicious insomnia so I spent most of a bizarre night (which may be appropriate for the subject matter) tossing and turning and designing Deadpool in my head. So without further ado, here he is with comments at the bottom to explain my reasoning.

DEADPOOL
Affiliations:
Solo D10      Buddy D8        Team D6

Distinctions:
     Merc With A Mouth
     Voices In My Head
     Misunderstood Hero


Power Sets:
ASSASSIN'S TOOLKIT
Big Frickin Gun D8              Katanas D8

sfx: burst. Step up or double a BIG FRICKIN GUN die against a single target. Remove the highest rolling die and add 3 dice for your total.
sfx: Focus. If a pool includes an ASSASIN'S TOOLKIT power, you may replace two dice of equal size with one die +1 step larger.
sfx: teleport. When deadpool suffers any stressed out result he may spend 1 PP to immediately teleport to his safehouse.
sfx: Holo-Projector. Spend 1 PP to use Holo-Projector and add a d8 to the dice pool for your next roll.
Limit: Gear. Shutdown ASSASSIN'S TOOLKIT and gain 1 PP. Take an action vs. doom pool to recover.

Weapon X Program
Superhuman Reflexes D10      Enhanced Strength D8      Godlike Stamina D12

sfx: Second Wind. Before you make an action including a Weapon X Program power, you may move your Physical Stress die to the doom pool and step up the Weapon X Program power by +1 for this action.
limit: Conscious Activation: If stressed out, asleep, or unconscious, shutdown Weapon X Program . Recover Weapon X Program when stress is recovered or you awake. If mental trauma is taken, shutdown Weapon X Program until trauma is recovered.
limit: Exhausted. Shutdown any Weapon X Program power to gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.

Specialties:
     Combat Master D10
     Crime Expert D8
     Covert Master D10
     Menace Master D10
     Acrobatic Expert D8


Milestones:

Twisted Path
1 XP: When you first fight alongside other heroes against villains or accept a bribe to sit out of a combat.
3 XP: When you fight a former employer or become romantically involved with another hero.
10 XP: When you sacrifice yourself to save a team member.

Wisecracking Basket-case
1 XP: When you first make any hero laugh whether on your team or not.
3 XP: When you make the final take-down attack on a villain and deliver a one-liner.
10 XP: When your team hears you arguing with the voices in your head.



So let's start with affiliations. This was pretty easy, Deadpool usually performs best when he is alone and outnumbered. He's been on a buddy team with Cable as well as others in the past and has been on several teams. Not much to consider here, I toyed with swapping the buddy and team dice but I couldn't find a strong argument for either case so I left this as I initially laid it out.

Distinctions were pretty straight forward too. Merc With A Mouth is appropriate, Deadpool may be second only to Spider-Man when it comes to wisecracking. Voices In My Head would make a great negative distinction to take frequently as Deadpool pauses to argue with himself. Misunderstood Hero represents Deadpool's attempts to sometimes do what is right even though the outcomes don't always match his intent.

The powersets were a little more tricky but I think I found the right balance. The first powerset is the Assassin's Toolkit. Of course he has to have his iconic weapons: guns and katanas. I used a couple standard SFXs (burst and focus) but created two unique ones just for him to represent the teleporter and holo-projector in his belt. I think these both work very nicely, the holo-projector adds an asset reflected in the dice he gains. This would represent Deadpool changing his appearance to confuse the enemy. The teleporter is his lifeline and is true to the way he always seems to live to fight another day no matter how badly he appears to be wounded.
The Weapon X Program borrows a lot from Wolverine's datafile mainly because Deadpool derived his powers by being infused with some of Wolverine's. He has an insane healing factor like Wolverine but his is more concentration based than natural, which made me choose Conscious Activation as a limit .

Not much to say regarding specialties, they are all pretty self explanatory.

Milestones was tricky. I thought long and hard about this one and hope they capture the essence of Deadpool. From his wisecracking to his failed romances and heroic attempts to sacrifice himself. Twisted Path represents his unpredictability and Wisecracking Basket-case is the Deadpool we all know and love.

Well that's it for now. Hope you like it, I welcome your feedback (positive as well as nicely worded criticisms!)

-Myrkwell