Simlasa

I think the people who wouldn't try and enjoy BRP now that D+D 4e is out wouldn't have tried/enjoyed it before 4e was out... even if BRP was out months ago they would have skipped past it to look for more 3.5 compatible stuff. It's nice that it only takes a handful of other people in order to enjoy a game... and I've met more open-minded folks, willing to try a new set of rules, than I have people who insist on the 'one true way'.

oh, I thought this thread was a writeup of a 'My Little Pony' RPG... a 'gateway game' for pre-teen girls.

Angst & Anguish... Battles & Beers... Caverns & Creatures... Holes & Horrors... Places & Things...

I read a copy of SOTC way back when it was the darling of RPG.net (maybe it still is)... and I can see that it's well written... a good read... had some good gaming advice. But it really left me cold... and a good chunk of it stands as a perfect example of what I DON'T want in my BRP games. I mean to avoid 'stunts' or whatever... and 'fate points' or whatever... and any other mechanisms to make the game 'cinematic'. That being said, I'm sure it's the cat's pajamas to lots of other folks.

My first thought of reference, from the description, was Athas/Dark Sun... but somehow more 'Gothic'. Lately I've had a real zen for post-apocalyptic fantasy settings... like Athas and Tribe 8... and on-the-cusp-of-apocalypse settings like WFRP. Still not sure how interested I'd be in Ashes... but so far it sounds intriguing.

The new cover is a nice surprise to me... I really like it. I liked the idea of the basic Chaosium logo cover... but I'm not sure it would mean as much to someone new to the game...

Hmmm... I thought he had been dead for years... I can't say I've ever read anything by him... but still recognize the passing of greatness.

Good news... for lots of reasons.

One of our regular game settings has a huge area that is basically Athas with the serial numbers filed off... and minus some of the more obvious D&D critters. Most of what we've played has revolved around the slave tribes and the Veiled Alliance.

A/State is in the top 3 of games I want to get a hold of... what I've read about it is certainly evocative and 'up my alley'... No one in our group has it yet... I'm not sure if it would ever get much play... but I still want a copy, if only just for reading.

There's always been competition for the RPG audience... The guys who initially got me into RPGs were all brothers in a family that didn't have a TV... they're parents wouldn't allow one in the house, so all the kids (there were 6 of em) were raised without it. They were a fascinating bunch of guys... well read, creative, hilariously funny... Then one day their parents broke down and bought a television. I'm pretty sure they never played another RPG... They certainly became a lot less interesting... since all the stuff they talked about was the same drivel 90% of the other kids were talking about. As for games going out of print/companies going under... there is some comfort to be taken in knowing that once that happens the rules will NOT being seeing version X.umpity... will not be twisted into some unrecognizeable mess to capitalize on some current cultural trend... they won't become a CMG or have a set of online tools to supplement them... they'll just stay the same great rules you always loved... and play pretty much the same as long as you want them to.

Just as a matter of point... the 'magic motorboat in my pocket' statement wasn't a crack against the 'competing' group... since it was an item that featured prominently in the one game of theirs I ever attended. It's just an example of something our group would have shied away from. It's interesting to me that I'll PLAY in just about any sort of game of just about any 'style'... but if I'm gonna be the GM I get much more narrow-minded...

Role-playing a Space Marine sounds really dull to me... maybe cause I picture them as drugged up religious fanatics who spend all their time fighting and praying. The Rogue Trader/Inquisitor stuff seems much more interesting... or anything dealing with the common citizenry. I'd much rather deal with the intrigues of the Imperial nobles and glitterfolk... the hive-world gangs... the pirates and smugglers. I'd rather have all the WH40K battle stuff as background that could occasionally creep into the game... running into a squad of Space Marines would be pretty scary... rather than try to find a storyline for marine characters who, IMHO, would have very little in the way of free will. Fading Suns seems like a much more gameable (roleplayable) setting...

I've always wondered about mecha RPGs... they seem like they'd be so equipment/combat oriented that I'd wonder what the storylines would be like... they seem more suited to wargames to me... Though I do see the attraction of playing something like Appleseed or Bubblegum Crisis... so...

As far back as I can remember there was bickering over how people were 'supposed' to roleplay. I lucked out and was in a pretty solid group who were in happy agreement... low fantasy, gritty post apocalypse... not a lot of resurrections or magic items being handed out. But there was another group we knew... member of whom visited our game... and completely hated it... they were much more of the 'magic motorboat in my pocket' variety of D&D players. There was quite a bit of enmity stirred up between our group and their just based on a couple of games they sat in on...

I've been re-reading some old (late 1800s) fantasy lately... the stuff by George MacDonald... Lilith & Phantastes... has my brain going... cobbling together a relatively adult fairy-world out of those, and MacDonald's other, stories. But then, I've been wanting to do a fairy-tale/folklore game for a long while now...

I broke down and bought a copy off Amazon for half price... I figure it will make something of a reference for converting stuff into BRP terms at some point... and I've been waiting for such a book since the old Rogue Trader days. Mostly hoping for more idea on Imperial life that doesn't revolve around enormous battles...

Well... it certainly seems that way... until you actually read some of his stuff and notice that very few, if any, of his stories fit that mold. The thing with the Mythos stories is, that once you've read a few... you start to anticipate the Mythos in all his stories... kind of a variation on 'the butler did it' syndrome in English mysteries... though how many actually feature muderous butlers (I suspect not many... but I wouldn't know). Thats why I always thought it was important, in COC games, to toss in plenty of sessions where the Mythos played no part at all... and leave plenty of evil to good old human nature.

My friend went to a sneak preview of Cloverfield this week. He enjoyed it a lot, said it's very brutal and realistic... not at all like a Godzilla movie (he said it is totally from the perspective of those anonymous people you see fleeing in those Toho movies...). The monster may or may not be Lovecraftian... but it's NOT Cthulhu... there's no supernatural element except that the thing is impossibly huge. He also said not to sit too close to the screen or you'll throw up... cause of the camera movement.

The only one I can recall going obviously and permanently bonkers was the narrator from 'The Rats In The Walls'... the rest screamed and ran away... or got eaten.

Seems like it was real hit or miss with people... the guys I saw it with all knew it wasn't a 'real' documentary but we were all 'edge of our seats' anyway... I've only met a few gullible people who thought it was a 'true' story. I'm pretty sure that it was, at least partially, inspired by Karl Edward Wagner's short story 'Sticks'. (interestingly, the new giant monster movie Cloverfield is very much in the same style as Blair Witch... fake 'documentary' footage, shaky cam, etc... and people seem hit or miss on that one too). Anyway... like I said, hit or miss... like a Lovecraft seems to be for a lot of people. My high school American Lit teacher introduced me to Lovecraft's stuff... and I wrote papers on him in undergrad... it wasn't until later that I found the game.

What's 'special leather'?

Yeah, I've definitely got bias... but that's the nature of the thread... so. The only reason I jumped on that 'these things won't drive people insane' bit was because I've seen lots of people say that with regards to Lovecraft's writing and it kind of bugs me... I think a lot of it comes out of modern desires to see everything in a bright light and covered in gore (not saying that's your take, necessarily, it just seems to coincide with complaints I see about Lovecraft... 'well, Jack Ketchum is a REAL horror writer!'. The same sorts of complaints that claim the Blair Witch Project isn't scary because they never show anything. Besides, seems to me very few of Lovecraft's characters were driven insane anyway.

There was a 'Masque Of The Red Death' RPG? What, like a game where you were at a party waiting for the plague to strike?

... and I wasn't really making the two out to be the same... Just saying, watching war movies doesn't prepare you for war. Watching horror movie doesn't prepare you for monsters. I worked in a forensics lab with all sorts of body parts and organs... that doesn't insure that I won't wig out if I come home to find my girlfriend's guts scattered on the kitchen floor. The element of surprise and danger plays a big part in how people react. I agree that MOST people aren't necessarily going to come unhinged over such things... but everyone has a breaking point. Well, Stephen King and Ramsey Campbell mention him as an influence... definitely Thomas Ligotti... Clive Barker has several stories that have his airs about them... that's a pretty good starting line-up... I really don't think COC has all that much to do with people knowing about Lovecraft and seeking out his books. If I ask a random group of folks... lots more of them are going to have heard of Lovecraft than have heard of COC or Chaosium. Most of the really bad fantasy I've read I can't name... cause I didn't finish it or keep the book. A lot of it was attempting to out-Tolkien Tolkien... and instead read like someones record of their RPG sessions.