Okay so I would like to have a game swap with some folks. I'm looking for four brave souls: You play in one of my games and I will play in one of yours. First come first serve but I reserve the right to two vetos based soley on "gee, that game doesn't sound like my cup of tea" and as long as it does not lock me out of Russell's Contract Work playtest.
My games are: FRI 9am - SPIRAL - a playtest of my new Lovecraftian horror game Sat 9am - Artesia: Adventures in the Known World - Four criminals escaping their fate; traditional with a SG spin Sat Mid - Survivors - My Contenders hack about Zombie Survivor horror Sat 8pm - D&D v3.5 - this is a purely tactical endevour with a heap of Mountain Witch paranoia to add flavor
Looking forward to playing with you all at Dreamation.
Emily and Rob, as usual, many thanks for your hard work, - Don
Okay, so back on track! Swap with me PEOPLE! Come on. Too many cool games for me to choose from. Play my game and I'll play in yours. I want to get some cool gaming in with peeps from here - especially ones I rarely play with.
What's in it for you? What is it about my games you will like?
What's new and exciting about SPIRAL?
Flexible player roles between Victims and Cultists. You can run with all Cultists and one victims, visa-versa and anywhere in between for a really varied play experience. It's sort of a middle ground between GM'd games and those without GMs.
Unprecedented use of the "artifact." You need the book to play. The book itself is part of the victims sanity track and is integral in determining where in the story the critters and cultists pring up.
Collaborative setting and character design. It's not ground breaking, I just happen to like what I've seen from games that do this.
What's new and exciting about Artesia?
Using Story Games techniques to bring the setting to the players yet give them a great deal of authorship to reshape the world and events.
Using the Book of Dooms tarot to influence story and provide flashbacks and fore-shadowing for the players to frame their story in.
Although I am still using the lion-share of the best adaptation of the Fusion system available I will be taking a more stakes-based approach to conflict resolution and really focusing on player intent.
Here is an opportunity for you to learn a little bit about the rich world and a hint of why Artesia won Best RPG of the Year in 2005.
What's new and exciting about Survivors?
Your role in the Zombie Apocalypse!
I wouldn't think you would need anything else but for the REALLY cynical... Here is a cool new way to think about player vs player conflicts and ways to utilize Hope and Pain with very little effort. This hack is really just about turning the color of the setting on it's ear with little change in the flow of the game.
If you haven't played Contenders yet you should try it and there are a multitude of ways (see Remi and Joson's hack, Food Holes). Contenders is one of my favorite narrative games and it's almost flawlessly GMless.
What's new and exciting about D&D? ... uh, well, nothing. But here's what's cool about my game.
An entirley tactical endevour, the entire 4 hours will be tempoed in rounds! You will be chased and harrowed every step of the way. If you want rest you need to carve it out of your enemies' flesh!
I've tried to remove a lot of the games ambiguities. It will be very goal oriented packed with action and great decision-making, both tactically and characterization.
How often do you get to romp with fully painted minis in a 3D multi-level environment?!
Prizes provided for top THE WINNER and for a few other honorable mentions.
Project Bearclaw is a game being designed by Kevin Allen Jr. and me. It is like caveman Damnation Alley with blood-drinking machine theists. You play vampire robots on a mission from God, or you play the miserable, post-apocalyptic human communities who hate, fear, and destroy them. Or both. It's like reading the Book of Enoch on a crank bender with L. Ron Hubbard and Herschel Gordon Lewis.
Food Holes, like all things good, is a Contenders hack (see Survivors, above). Remi Treuer and I are working on it. It is based in the horrible and savage world of competitive eating. The original in-ring traits are replaced by Technique, Speed, Control, and Capacity, and you will either eat until you explode or you will crawl back to the gutter from whence you came.
I'm also running Grey Ranks, which is not as zany but far, far more fully baked.