Game Table Interview: GM Marc

GM Marc is one of the many GMs in A.E.G.I.S. who has constantly tried to promote the hobby by running games and providing venues for games. I remember him running games way back when organized open meets were being run in the Greenbelt foodcourt, but have rarely seen him since them.

He works for Level Up Games as a Transition Manager. He used to be a GM and worked with them to try to insert Roleplaying elements into MMORPGs. He currently GMs for a loose group of 20 or so friends that call ourselves “The Dice Project”. They hold RPG sessions and boardgame sessions with various GMs every weekend at varying venues.

What was the first RPG you remember playing?

Star Frontiers, Alpha Dawn, all the way in Grade 5 in 1988. All because I saw a bunch of 6th graders play Robotech, I was too shy to ask to join and I couldn’t find Robotech in Nova Fontana.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?

Power. I was the Referee / GM back then and being able to create my own worlds where the players were acting in it was endlessly fascinating. However nowadays I have a more altruistic motive for continuing. I love telling stories. And I like bringing the Awesome out in people. There’s a thrill when you see players roar in triumph as their character does something absolutely amazing.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?

Back then it was all about power and escapism. I was a pretty mean GM. I set scenes up according to a fixed script that I forced my players to run with, or else I’d tantrum. Hahaha. Over the years though, I’ve changed. My focus has shifted from indulging my own fantasies to working with the players to have the whole table entertained. Less Power, More Escapism for everyone!

What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run? Why?

Two Sci-Fi novels and a Fantasy Novel

• The Crisis of Empire series by David Drake gave me my first taste of military sci-fi, which shaped most of my games.
• The dystopian epic Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom by David Wingrove inspired me to run darker games, where power politics and attitudes towards technology shaped the world.
• Recently, I’ve been reading The Wheel of Time in Audiobook format. (okay, so maybe it would be listening) and that has definitely influenced my games. (Especially how I’d copy the male reader’s inflections for both male and female characters)

What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run? Why?

• Robotech – Giant Robots and Military SF. It’s the genre I love and this show epitomizes it.
• Another anime show: Gate Keepers, Its premise of superhero teen secret agents in the 60s was the inspiration for a long running campaign. (And still inspires an ongoing one!)
• Third show… uh… no other shows really come to mind.

But mostly, my games have been inspired by video games:

• The Wing Commander series pretty much defined my preferred style of combat and personal interaction. And of course it’s Military SF, my favourite genre.
• Final Fantasy 7 and Xenogears have also inspired my storytelling style. Because of those games, I was inspired to use “cutscenes” in my sessions.

What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run? Why?

Hrm. Movies. That’s a tough question since I rarely watch movies. I don’t think any three movies really inspired my gaming style. Though the Matrix trilogy comes pretty close. (Hey, those are three movies, right? XD)

What is your favorite published RPG of all time, and why?

Well that would have to be White Wolf’s Exalted. Aside from the whole pseudo-anime theme and an incredibly detailed world that you are encouraged to destroy, warp or alter, Exalted is such a kitchen sink setting for almost anything you can put in fantasy… or even some elements of science fiction. .. now only if the system didn’t suck. It’s a book keeping nightmare. I remember playing a half-hour mass combat encounter… in EIGHT HOURS because of the clunky system. I love the setting but I hate the system.

In terms of system though, I would have to say the FATE system is my favourite system of all time. It’s robust enough to encompass any genre and can be customized to provide unique game experiences. Also it’s an “open source” system so anyone can publish work based on it. There are several implementations, with the popular ones being Spirit of the Century, Diaspora and Starblazer Adventures. My personal favourite implementation is, well, Legends of Anglerre…. But that’s partly because I had a hand in writing that particular implementation of FATE. But seriously, check it out, for me it has the right balance of fluff and crunch. And 80% less book keeping then Exalted’s Storyteller system!

What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time, and why?

As a Military SF junkie, perhaps the supplement that has had the most impact on me is GURPS Space. I based all my high school and parts of my college games using information found in that supplement. It guides you to make decisions about the sci-fi world you’re building and discusses many alternatives. And it also inspired me to learn Calculus. (All throughout high school, I could never compute my own burn trajectory travel times… because you need calculus to do so!) Even when I moved to other systems I’d still use the information in that book. Though now since I’m a FATE junkie, I’d recommend it’s successor in FATE Starblazer Adventures now.

What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?

Bliss Stage – It’s an indie game that’s like Lord of the Flies combined with Neon Genesis Evangelion. The players are all teenagers in a post apocalyptic world that was invaded by aliens that kill adults in their dreams. The kids can fight the aliens in their dreams and when they do so, they use mecha like the Evangelions with weapons and armor made from the character’s relationships with friends and lovers. It’s really awesome stuff.

What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?

• Tenra Bansho Zero – it’s a Japanese RPG translated into English. Only the second RPG to be done that way. (First is Maid RPG, which yeah, I have a copy of.)
• Dresden Files RPG – It’s the ultimate FATE implementation for Modern Horror games. You can play pretty much all of the World of Darkness characters with the Dresden Files system. Plus it’s magic system is the best I have seen. Beats the pants off Mage: The Ascension.
• Legends of Anglerre – The ultimate FATE implementation for Fantasy Games! It can handle anything from gritty to epic power scales and can handle personal and mass combat with very surprising mechanics. And I helped write it.

Game Table Interview: GM Beej

I don't actually know GM Beej that well.

His name has come up on the Alliance of Eclectic Gamers and Interactive Storytellers (AEGIS) mailing list, most recently announcing the release of a D&D 4E supplement titled Tikbalang: Guardians of Kalikasan.

He became aware of me, however, through this blog and my recent post on Filipino fantasy settings. We got in touch with each other and so I sent him the interview questionnaire. Here's the result:

What was the first RPG you remember playing?
I have some dim memories about playing a sort-of RPG with a bunch of classmates back in 3rd grade. One person would be the storyteller, while the rest enacted characters in a familiar TV show (at the time, the most common would have to be the first Power Rangers, and everybody wanted to be green and avoided pink like the plague). We had no dice to roll - we instead used the DBZ "Charge" kid-game to handle combat.

An aside: Charge is a very fast game that we used to play as kids, and I'm sure many kids of my generation played a version of it. Here's how our version worked: Two players would choose a cartoon/sentai/fighting game/anime character. Each turn of play is done by clapping both hands together and then making a move. The moves are either a charge, or attacks that the character is known to do - kamehameha, hadouken, ray gun, slice with green ranger's dagger, etc. Each attack, however, will only damage the opponent's life by the number of charges the player already made. The other rules, like how much life a player has, how many charges it will take to have your kamehameha destroy a planet (50?), blocking, etc are as mutable as the whims of a nine-year old.

Now that I think about it, the nine-year old who thought of incorporating such a simple game with storytelling is a genius. Six kids could sit in a circle, clap at the same time, and  resolve a combat scenario in one or two minutes - not even the fastest pen-and paper RPGs could do that.

It would be a full ten years before I rolled up my first D&D 3.5 character, so I guess Storytelling Charge qualifies as my first.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?
Let's fast-forward to D&D 3.5 and beyond from here on in. 3.5 had just come out, and I had money then, so I decided to buy the Player's Handbook on a whim. My character was a wizard, and you could say that I was spellbound. I kept reading through the various spells in the PHB, and I was mesmerized by the promise of eventually learning ever more powerful spells.

Eventually, however, it evolved from just wanting to get to epic levels. While my fellow (optimizer) players jumped from character to character, I stuck with my wizard all throughout. As such, my DM at the time was able to weave my character's story really well, and I became as invested in his character development as a dedicated viewer would become invested in a telenovela's main heroine.

Character growth, which began with getting more and more experience points and evolved into watching my characters grow from "naive farm boy" to "contemplative Jedi Grandmaster," remains as my motivation to keep playing to this day.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?
I first became a GM out of convenience - our constant GM at the time was suffering a burnout, and he wanted to become a player, for a change. No one else wanted to take the role, so I took initiative and grabbed it. What kept me coming back, however, was how much I sucked at the job initially: I let a total of ten people join in one game, I gave them outrageously powerful opponents to compensate, characters died left and right, and so people kept making new characters. My only saving grace was that I knew the mechanics of the game (D&D 3.5) very well.

My games were a mess, and to me that was a challenge. I was challenged to run something worth playing, and luckily, I had players that stuck with me through all that disastrous gaming. There were a lot of hits and misses, but sometime during the third or fourth campaign I was running, someone told me, "That was a great game!" From then on I was hooked. Why do I want to run RPGs? It's because I'm a sucker for praise. That may sound selfish, but it also means that I'm always doing my best to run a great game.

What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Brother's War, a novel set in Magic: The Gathering's world of Dominaria. - The brothers Urza and Mishra grow from young best of friends to bitter old rivals, and the novel was the first one that taught me how to use grey areas instead of black-and-white "good vs evil." Jeff Grubb also handles the passage of time really well, not just showing characters growing old, but having changes in the objects and the environment as well.

Other than that, however, I haven't read too many novels that inspire my games. My focus is instead in short stories. It takes skill to craft a world in a limited number of words. While campaigns may last for months or even years, it's best to settle on the story. Sometimes, novels take too much time exploring the world at the expense of the story's progression.

One short story that I keep going back to whenever I work on Buan (my Filipino-themed Campaign Setting for D&D) is the "Sugilanon of Epefania's Heartbreak" (by Ian Casocot available online at the PSF sampler). That story was able to balance the feel and power scale of our epics with a feeling of being fresh and new. Through Buan, I hope to do something similar by interpreting the stories of old into the newer medium of storytelling that is D&D.

What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Sliders - It may have bombed from the 3rd season onwards (darn you Kromaggs!), but I stuck to this series from the beginning up until its cliffhanger ending. Sliders is an inspiration because it shows that worlds can become drastically different from our own by simply altering one element. What if Egypt is still a world power? What if penicillin was never discovered? What changes, and what stays the same? These questions are especially useful when running a game set in the modern world.

Rome - Historically inaccurate in many respects, HBO's Rome nevertheless presents an array of characters that fit very well into any fantasy world. From the badassery of the soldiers Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus to the literal backstabbing of the the Roman senators, I was able to model numerous NPCs to populate my games.

When I next run an Eberron game, I will be sure to take inspiration from both shows of the Fullmetal Alchemist series. Militaristic nations, forbidden arts, and the fusion of magic and technology are prevailing themes in both shows, a trait that they share with D&D's latest campaign setting.

What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick - My main game system right now is D&D 4E, where the player characters are a cut above everyone else. Riddick is the perfect example of such a character.

The Dark Knight aka the Joker movie - The joker is the poster boy of the chaotic evil alignment in D&D, and whenever I have a chaotic evil villain these days, I use this movie's Joker as the measuring stick. He is also a a good model for most recurring villains - the types that really get to the player character's skins.

That already makes three, right? No, I have to mention one more? Well, then it will have to be all six Star Wars films. A lot of people don't like the prequel movies, but they did give us Darth Maul, the purple lightsaber, and Yoda fight scenes. (Of course, the original movies are still hold a place in my geeky heart.)

What is your favorite published RPG of all time, and why?
I think it's fairly obvious that I'm a D&D guy, and 4E for me is the best interpretation of the game to date. I am aware that in many ways, the whole class and level system limits D&D somewhat. And from time to time, I run or play in other RPGs to clean the gaming taste buds (did that make sense?). Right now, I'm running a Dark Heresy game, and I've been itching to run a Changeling: The Lost game - diwata style.

But I will keep going back to D&D because of two things. 1st, I know the rules inside and out, and whenever I think of a creative scenario, I can model it with the D&D rules without consulting the books too much. 2nd, when casual gamers think of pen and paper RPG's, the D&D brand simply wins out. So when people are interested in trying out RPGs, D&D is usually the game they have in mind.

What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time, and why?
I would have to go with the Fiendish Codex series of late D&D 3.5. These are actually two supplements, with the first focusing on chaotic demons and the second focusing on the tyrannical devils. I love these two books because there's so much information on the 666 (infinite) abyssal layers and the nine hells, as well as its denizens. Also, unlike their predecessor (The Book of Vile Darkness), the codexes don't give me that ever-so-slight Catholic guilt from reading them.

Even though I don't run 3.5 anymore, I still keep going back to these two for motivations in a 4E campaign. 4E supplements, in contrast, are easy to reference in game, but there's really no motivation to just sit down and read the books.

What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?
Always is such a strong word. For the longest time I've wanted to play in NWoD without any supernatural powers whatsoever (I hear Hunter: The Vigil does that pretty well).

But recently, I shelved that idea, and I instead want to play Fantasy Flight Games' latest rendition of Warhammer Fantasy. They have unique dice (no numbers!), decks of cards, various counters, and even something that's called the party sheet to determine how well the characters work as a group.  Added together, it actually kind of looks like a CCG rather than an RPG, but I personally like a lot of visual aids for my games.

What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?
Mostly, I'm looking forward to my own releases. I have another supplement for D&D 4E coming out soon, entitled, Asuang: Shapechanging Horrors. It has eight new monsters (nine, if you count the manananggal twice), mostly for the early levels of play. Beyond that, I really want to see myself releasing more and more Filipino-themed supplements. My hope is to get D&D players everywhere to become more familiar with our own fantastical creatures.

Game Table Interview: GM Adam

I've gamed with Adam once before, if I recall correctly: a one-shot Pulp Hero game. That aside, I chat with him from time to time and we always fall into a discussion about game settings, game systems, new and old news (often peppered with discussions about DC Heroes/MEGS and Legend of the Five Rings).

Here are his responses to the questionnaire:

What was the first RPG you remember playing?
You mean besides "Play Pretend" as a child? I remember being about 8 or 9 and playing with a kid who lived across the street from my grandmother. He always got the newest toys first and had the Dungeons and Dragons boxed set. Once we played, I was completely hooked. I returned home, I sought out the varying boxed sets and taught all my neighborhood friends how to play. Eventually the hardbacks for "Advanced" Dungeons and Dragons came out and I got each of those.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?
One thing that has drawn me to RPGs is the ability to create drama for anyone. I have been involved with theatre most of my life and I really find RPGs to be a form of theatre. Normally, when we watch TV or a movie, we see others having adventures and creating stories. Role-playing games puts all of that in the hands of the player and allows them to be both performer and audience all in one.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?
I've always enjoyed creating stories and casts of unusual characters. When I'm running a game, I don't just create and play one character like players do. I get to create dozens with little personality traits, goals and abilities. When you GM, you get to be the rest of the world the players have to explore and interact with.

I also love watching how players can suddenly take a story in a direction you never conceived it going towards. Scrambling to figure out what will happen when the main character does something totally unique can give a much more rewarding story and experience. Comparing it to online games, you generally are limited to boxed in area that has been created. Deciding what happens when characters take a jack hammer and pulverize one of those walls that weren't supposed to be able to is a lot of fun.

What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Everything I've ever read has had some influence. One series that has had a lot of influence over my fantasy worlds was the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. It's a series about a young orphan who eventually becomes the hero of a kingdom and more. The Disney movie The Black Cauldron is based on one of the books but didn't even come close to the original story. It's based very much from Welsh mythology and the Arthurian tales which have always appealed to me. One thing I drew from here is that NPCs are not always what they seem and every hero needs a good bad guy.

Geoffrey Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain certainly has to be cited as a source of inspiration, directly and indirectly. Written to be a historical work (though many historians question its veracity), it is the first written account of Arthur and Merlin. In his tale, Gawain was the mightiest knight and Arthur single-handedly fought battles with hundreds of giants and won. All of the Arthurian tales we know of started here. So when I read TH White, Mallory, and others, I often think of Monmouth. One thing this has always reminded me in an RPG, is that while the players can have other heroic characters and an intricate world around them, the story (if it's going to be good) must be about them. If it's a classic good vs. evil story, this means that they must be necessary to defeat the evil.

For the third, let me pick the Mistress/Servant/Daughter of the Empire series by Jannie Wurts and Raymond Fiest. This is about Mara of the Acoma Clan and her ascent into power of a feudalistic fantasy Asian Empire. Considering one of my most recent campaigns was a Legend of the Five rings game; this series was invaluable as a source of inspiration and understanding how to run a game of political intrigue in a setting of Bushido based honor.

Overall though, I'd say inspiration can come from any book. Many good science fiction stories are actually fantasy stories or political beliefs wrapped in science fiction trappings and vice versa. Using inspiration from one type of story and seeing how it would work in a completely different type of setting can result in some great tales. I even once ran a super hero campaign based loosely on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Farscape was a wonderful show. It was very character driven and many episodes revolved as much around how the characters interacted with one another as it did with them interacting with any outside threats. This is a great example of how to make and play with a group dynamic within a party.

As a teen, I watched everything to do with GI JOE. One thing that's interesting about this show from a Gming perspective is how they had dozens of "Joes" but they were each powerful in their own way. They each had a niche to fill and each had their occasional moments of character development and time in the spotlight. A lot is made in games about "game balance." While game balance is important, it's really just a tool to drive towards characters getting their time to shine in their own way.

I'll add Kindred: The Embraced as the third since it was probably the first real TV show (not counting the Saturday morning cartoons) actually based on a role-playing game. Certainly you could learn a lot wbout White Wolf's world and the dramatic tensions in that world from the show. But the most important lesson of the show was that RPGs were, in fact, cool and they really could inspire success in a mainstream audience (a lesson that the video game industry has learned from quite well).

What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Star Wars has to be at the top of this list (the original trilogy, of course). It has such wonderful characters and inspired my love of spirit and belief in trying to do what's right. It also echoes what I said about the Prydain Chronicles and the need for a great villain. It also inspired a couple of campaigns in the excellent WEG d6 system. The soundtracks created by John Williams are a must have for any gamer.

The Princess Bride has inspired so many gamers I think it must be mentioned whenever talking about movies. The structure of the plot, and weaving the group together along with the clever situations and dialogue in this movie add to its charm. It provides a blueprint to adventure and comedy that every gamer can use to add to their game.

Finally, I would have mention Superman. This is one of the first comic book movies and could arguably be said to have inspired the rest of the comic book movies that have come after it. One thing this move does demonstrably well is showing our hero beating up on a couple of "average" opponents to get him used to his powers as well as showing us how powerful he really is. The first time we see the "S," he saves Lois (as always), catches a cat-burglar halfway up the side of a sky-scraper, rescues a kitten from a tree, and  catches some other random robbers. This reminds us to give the heroes time to feel badass before we introduce the villains (Luthor and Zod) that will give them a real challenge which builds the dramatic tension. Let your heroes have small battles every now and then to remind them that they are the heroes.

What is your favorite published RPG of all time, and why?
Probably DC Heroes by Mayfair games, sometimes referred to as "Mayfair's Exponential Game System" or MEGS. I used to read comic books a lot during college (I worked part time in a comic shop during college and was paid only in store credit -the guy running the shop was smart). So during this time, I enjoyed running games based on comics. When using this as a tool to introduce people to RPGs, I found similar success to the current glut of comic book movies and TV shows.

At first, I was running Marvel Super Heroes by TSR (which is another really good system). Generally, I could ask people if they could have any super power, what  would it be? Give them a character with that power and let them get a feel for the game. Marvel's system was good, but very random and very simplistic. DC could do most of the things the Marvel system could do, but also gave people detailed control over their own character. It also did "Batman" types much better than Marvel did. DC also implemented a number of techniques that were revolutionary at the time which are carried over in many RPGs today that gave players cinematic abilities to recover at dramatically appropriate moments, subplots, and generally was one of the first systems that significantly encouraged playing the role of the character as opposed to just blasting whatever got in your way.

What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time, and why?
I don't usually use pre-fabricated adventures, preferring to make up my own. That being said, I think one of the greatest series of supplements was the Otosan Uchi set and the Winter Court books by AEG for their Legend of the Five Rings line. They basically introduced the main characters and locations within the place and proposed varying different potential ways to use those settings. Some you might use, others you might ignore.

In these books, they introduced a wonderful series of hooks in a "Challenge, Focus, Strike" format. Sometimes I call this the "Bait, Hook, Strike" format. The Bait or Challenge portion is a scenario that may draw the PCs interest in the situation, for example the PCs could see NPC X wandering the halls at night outside NPC Y's quarters suspiciously. The Focus (Hook) section usually details more of the background that the PCs will only know if they take the bait, NPC X is secretly in love with NPC Y and has been delivering poems to her as a secret admirer. Then the Strike portion has details of how a GM might handle potential fallout if the PCs get involved and details that may impact that fallout. NPC X's uncle betrayed NPC Y's father 20 years ago and he has not trusted anyone of that clan since. He would be much happier if someone else were courting his daughter. Whether the PCs help X win over the father or they woo Y in place of X helps give them enemies and friends for the future. One thing that was especially handy about this is you could realistically drop out the bait to several potential subplots at once and have each of them progress realistically with or without the PC's intervention.

What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?
I've played in Con games and tournaments of Shadowrun but I've never gotten to play in a full campaign. I've always wanted to explore this system more since it seems to have a lot of potential and possibilities. It seems like a very fun game.  Also, one of my friends in college ran a legendary Shadowrun campaign (he even contributed to a couple of modules), but my schedule never seemed to match the times/days he was running.

What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?
Naturally, I'm looking forward to the 4th edition of Legend of the Five Rings with bated breath. I hope that it will include some stuff for the 7th Sea setting since the main rules are supposed to be more "setting generic" and allow for expansions like Burning Sands without re-writing the main rules.

Also, John Wick recently announced he's working on an entirely new samurai based game system. That will be interesting to see. I still think his first edition of L5R is one of the best editions.

One thing I'm looking forward to that isn't necessarily an "RPG Release" but I think will greatly impact the way we (especially I) play table-top RPGs is the iPad and the Microsoft Courier and the rest of the e-reader/web-browser hybrids. The problem with the current e-readers is that they don't do PDF well or color. With this next generation of readers, PDF format will be much more accessible at a gaming table. It will be nice to store my entire gaming library in a digital, portable device.

Game Table Interview: GM JP

If I ever gamed with GM JP, I don't remember the game. I remember running into him during one of the Twilight 2000 runs of GM Bobby, but the rest is all fuzzy.

I do remember that we seemed to share a fascination for games like Delta Green, and the results of this interview certainly show that his interests in gaming run parallel to my own in some areas. Take a look:

What was the first RPG you remember playing?
Ah! That would have to be TSR’s Dungeon and Dragons Basic Set, the good ole red box.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?
I enjoy how rpgs allow you to participate in a story, to be in the midst of deciding how the direction and ending will come about. To be able to interact with other characters and the surroundings put before you, where the limit is only your imagination.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?
I’d have to say its in being able to try to run and tell a good story. The reward is where you see that your friends really enjoyed in participating as well as conveying their character’s roles and actions.

What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run?

• Declare by Tim Powers
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (no, not for the vampires but his writing skill in trying to evoke terror and fear --- I believe thats what a gm needs to master if he runs a horror/terror rpg).

What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run?

• BBC’s Spooks
• NYPD Blue
• Jim Henson’s The Story Teller

What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run?

• Ronin
• Dog Soldiers
• Legend

What is your favorite published RPG of all time?
I’d definitely say Chameleon Eclectic’s Millennium’s End but I’d also count in Game Workshop’s 1st edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Millenium's End was the first system that I encountered with a unique way of resolving armed conflict:

1. it didn't use the standard ablative system, (i.e. hit points);
2. damage done by weapons to characters translates to almost real world effects;
3. combat for firearms, armed and unarmed HTH utilizes body maps together with a hit template which lets players know if a hit was successful and at the same time the location of the hit made.

With one roll in combat (say using firearms), you get the result if your hit was successful or not, where exactly it hit, and from the damage of the firearm (hyrdro-shock) what would this potentially result in. A damage table will give impairment levels (i.e. penalties to skills of either physical, mental or both depending what was exactly hit), determine if bones were broken, determine if a critical area was hit (i.e. neck, heart abdomen), establish blood loss (the rate of which will determine how long you have before dying) and shock effects. And yes, all effects ARE cumulative.

This all translates to quite a realistic combat system; it may sound daunting at first, but after maybe 2-3 sessions of getting your feet wet, it's all a snap - with casual references being made to the impairment and damage table.

And all this came out in the early 90's, when at best you only had the general abalative combat system of most systems back then. (There were some exceptions to the ablative mechanisms in the 80s and 90s -- BTRC's first version of TimeLords comes to mind, along with the original combat system for R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk RPG: Friday Night Firefight. -- Blogger-Editor Ka-Blog)

It was a new idea that worked well -- slick and fun. It's just too bad that Charles Ryan the designer and author closed the company Chameleon Eclectic.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay came out around 87-88 I believe

Back then, this puppy was fresh to my gaming group where the standard fantasy staple was D&D and AD&D.

The world was nicely done -- it conveyed an Earth similar to the medieval-renaissance era. Perhaps due to the fashion styles, architecture and technology of the time, it had a similarity of sorts once you read the regions (ex Tilea was a version to our Italy or Estalia was Spain and the Empire was the Holy-Roman empire whose seat was in Germany) even the names of the people and locales lent an air of our real world - in short, it conveyed familiarity without actually being the Europe of our reality.

Mechanics-wise it was (and still is in my opinion) a simple system but didnt gloss over outher nuissances players would enjoy. for instance combat is percentile based and from the one roll you can also glean the hit location (if you roll a "50" and it hits, you read the roll backwards to get the location in this case "05"). Skill base resolutions were also the same.

It was simple and it was sweet; I say this because it was the first game i ever GMed. It wasn't so rules heavy that you'd probably have some measure of memorizing certain points, or so table heavy that you'd have to be constantly flipping pages. You basically just had to understand the order of things and you were off!  As a GM that was a load off my shoulders, allowing me to conentrate more on the story and trying to evoke the feel of the scene at the moment.

It was the late 80's and you had an RPG which was a foray into gothic-fantasy of grim and perilous adventure; what's not to like?

My recommendation: try the first edition first before the others. I've stuck to my copy ever since.

What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time?
Man, there are about a dozen I could name right now but if you’re asking just one then it would be, hands down, Pagan Publishing’s Delta Green.

What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?
The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen RPG where you gotta tell a good tale on the wager of cheese, did I get that right?

What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?

Well,  so far, there’s...

• Pagan Publishing’s Targets of Opportunity which is basically further material on the Delta Green milleu as well as some articles and scenarios;
• Mouse Guard by Archaia Entertainment, I know its based on a comic, but its also an acclaimed comic with a good story, the reviews I’ve read about it say a lot of good things (mechanics wise) about the system (its supposed to be loosely based on Burning wheel);
• Eclipse Phase by Catalyst Labs, I’ve read a good review about this game which is basically horror/science fiction but I’d definitely like to try this out as a player.

Game Table Interview: GM Dariel

To my knowledge, I have ever gamed with GM Dariel, though we have chatted (in person and on the interweb) about RPGs, game systems, game design, writing fiction, and the early days of the Alliance of Eclectic Gamers and Interactive Storytellers (AEGIS).

He currently maintains a blog on gaming, F&SF, and writing at The Madman's Cave.

And here are his surprising answers to the questionnaire:

What was the first RPG you remember playing?
D&D, using the red Basic books, back in '91. I actually got into gaming relatively late in life - I was already done with college by that time, while most of my peers had been gaming since either high school or college. I think that's a major factor affecting my taste in games -- for one thing, I've never been fully able to enjoy D&D. There was always something missing in the experience, fun as it was.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?
There've always been two great facets of the hobby that I liked - first was being involved in an evolving story of adventure and exploration, and second was the social interaction with friends. Under the latter I'll also lump in the incredible amount of time I've spent laughing while playing and after -- my first gaming group had a very wacky sense of humor, and it's something I've brought with me and perhaps even amplified a bit when I started GM'ing, myself.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?
The same reasons I enjoyed playing, plus one more -- I love world-building and entertaining others with my creations. One thing you'll notice about the games I run is that I always try to give a detailed, life-like world, and that I always make the game's challenges and scenarios revolve around elements of that world. So for example when I ran a game based on the legends of Cuchulainn, I made ancient Celtic beliefs in honor and the world of Faerie central to the game.

What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run? Why?
I've only run one game that was directly based on a single novel, and that was my Red Branch campaign based on Morgan Llywellyn's novel of the same title. Maybe a better answer to your question is to list which authors have most influenced my games: they're Robert E. Howard, Poul Anderson, and Frank Herbert.

From Howard I got my narrative technique, my ideas of pacing, and my taste for running combats in a cinematic style. From Poul Anderson I derived a love for finely crafted and detailed worlds, whether fantasy or science fiction. And from Herbert's Dune saga I picked up a taste for mining history for ideas and using the machinations of various NPCs to drive the story.

What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run? Why?
I don't watch TV much, and interestingly enough I've found no taste for the current crop of fantasy and science fiction TV series, so my answer to this one is - zilch. I do mine the Discovery Channel and Nat Geo a lot for ideas and info, however. (Blogowner Alex: I wonder if this includes such shows as Meerkat Manor and Mythbusters)

What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run? Why?

The three movies that most directly inspired game ideas were of course Star Wars, the 1970s adaptation of The Man Who Would Be King, and - uh, can I mention Legend of the Overfiend? No? Guess I'll have to stick with the Star Wars series and Man Who Would Be King then.

Star Wars is of course seminal to the SF gaming as a whole, it's easy for any player to get into because it's a well-known franchise, and I've always enjoyed the idea of the Jedi and the fact that a Jedi's life is one of constant testing and temptation by the Dark Side. You'll never lack for story material with those premises.

The Man Who Would Be King on the other hand helped inspire the visuals and some scenarios for a game I ran entitled Foreign Devils on the Silk Road. The title and idea -- Victorian era explorers in the wilds of Central Asia -- were inspired by a history book. The movie decided me on setting the game in 1870s Afghanistan, inspired some of the character concepts (I used pregenerated characters as it was a playtest of my Cineflex system), and some setting details, the idea of a hidden kingdom lost since Alexander the Great's time. The setting's also one I'm very interested in, as I've hiked in Kashmir and lived a year in India.

What is your favorite published RPG of all time, and why?
For me this would be West End Games' version of Star Wars. It was the first system I ever encountered that espoused a cinematic way of doing things, an enormous and refreshing change from D&D and AD&D. The idea blew my mind. I'll also have to mention my love for Pendragon, which I think is the most immersive RPG I've ever encountered.

What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time, and why?

I'd say the one I enjoyed the most was Pagan Shore, by Chaosium. It gave very good information and rules for a milieu I was very interested in, the pre-Christian Celtic kingdoms of Ireland. I was already loving the Pendragon RPG, but when Adrian showed me this supplement I was really impressed. Pagan Shore laid down in very easy to understand terms what it was like to be a character living in that milieu, which is great for players, and gave lots of ideas for adventures and elements to introduce to the game. The result was my Red Branch campaign, which to this day I think was the best I ever ran.

What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?
Fading Suns. Loved the setting and its ideas.

What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?
My own :-D. I'm looking for illustrators so I can ready Sea Rovers of Syrene for publication, everything's already written. This RPG will be a distillation of the things I love best -- exploration and a sense of wonder, the sea and sailing, the Arabian Nights, and the richness of Asia. There's more to Asian gaming than ninjas and Shaolin monks and Hong Kong gangsters, so SRS will be my contribution to that.

Game Table Interview: GM Tobie

And rounding out this batch of Game Table interviewees, we have GM Tobie. GM Tobie is one of the local GMS who has been very active in promoting the hobby here in Manila -- he used to hold short campaign runs geared toward new players, and at one point juggled two or three regular campaigns (if memory serves). He also dressed up for the kids at the New Worlds conventions to get them to roll huge stuffed dice as an introduction to gaming.

I've been in a couple of his campaigns -- his short-lived "The Art", a riff on the nWOD Mage (one with the cacophony of factions and conspiracies WAAAAY in the background or even non-existent) with PCs with different backgrounds and talents drawn together against a shadowy extremist plot; and of course, his DC Heroes-powered Legion of Super-Heroes campaign.

Here are the responses of this tireless GM:

What was the first RPG you remember playing?
My first RPG experience was Dungeons and Dragons.  I was an elementary student in Don Bosco when some upper classmen were playing in our schoolbus.  Being me, I nagged them to let me play and they let me play an elven ranger whose story can easily be summed up this way.

"Where am I?"

"You are on a mountain.  The ground is shaking."

"I look around, what do I see?"

"You see a tree."

"I climb the tree.  What do I see?"

"You see you are on a volcano.  It erupts.  Game over."

Clearly, they had hoped I would not get into this hobby.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?
The biggest draw for me about gaming was the endless possibilities the game offered.  While I love videogames as well, only table top roleplaying games have ever truly offered an unfettered experience each time.  No being forced to simply talk to the NPCs.  No being forced to do mindless quests that don't really affect the game world.  And this bottomless well of potential resonated with me as well with my desire to craft stories that touch people, a desire born from my love of film.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?
While playing was always fun, running them meant being much like a film director where you can craft scenes, come up with memorable casts of characters, and emotionally touching events.  You can ask anyone who has played in my games and they'd tell you there's a certain cinematic quality that I always use in my games -- that very quality is what I always wanted to achieve in filmmaking, but due to financial (and other) constraints realized I probably wouldn't be able to do as frequently.  So running games became the closest thing to making movies for me.

What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Numerous books have inspired me to run games, but if I were to select a top three that influence my approach to gaming, I would have to cite Clive Barker's Imajica for always making me want to have tales that have a grand scope yet a personal focus, Christopher Golden's Strangewood for the interplay of real and fantastic and the power of the imagination, and William Gibson's Idoru for having interesting technology and environments which never overshadow the uniqueness of a human being.  These books have in many ways become key seeds in shaping how I tell my tales in gaming.

What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Millennium and The Twilight Zone are two of the biggest influences to my approach to gaming.  Having dark somber moments intercepting ordinary family scenes... having the lines of real and dangerous blur too closely... these things are staple in my games thanks to these two shows having left me such an emotional impact.  Lately, Lost has become a huge influence, with its use of flash-forward, backward and sidewards.  As well as its approach in dialogue and the slow revelation of secrets.  I was never a fan of quick resolution of questions the way X-Files or Heroes did things.

What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run? Why?
The Flight of Dragons was a huge influence. I loved how it "explained things" at the same time while moving forward in the narrative.  So totally new to gaming people can "grasp" the system without having to learn it before playing.   Another huge inspiration to the games I run was the movie American Beauty, because it helped me realize one can have scenes of totally normal every day moments and still find them interesting and meaningful.  The last movie I would have to cite is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  That movie launched so many games for me as well as gave me ideas on how to approach combat, more so than say Matrix did.

What is your favorite published RPG of all time, and why?
This would have to go to White Wolf Gaming Studios.  Their World of Darkness line remains for me the best developed and expanded universe for people to run games in.  Their system is light on crunch and yet heavy enough for those who want their dice to be meaningful.  And their latest approach, with a much more toolkit focus to books, allows you to practically run any kind of game using their system, be it one set in the past, present or future, with humans, mutants, or Gods.

What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time, and why?
In terms of actual play, I would have to place my vote on Wraith: the Oblivion.  The concept, the use of the Shadow-Guides, and the approach to the powers was down-right a perfect fit to what they wanted to achieve in a game about life after death.  The game was not an easy game to play, however, with truly dark and disturbing issues tackled directly.

In terms of concept, I loved this game called Psychosis (I think) which I vaguely recall wanting to play way back in the eighties.  In that game, each game session you are given a blank character sheet and you have to work with the storyteller to figure out who you are and what you are doing where you are, since each game you are lost in someone else's body with no idea what you are supposed to do.  I can't recall if that was really how it was played, but that's what I recall and it sounded like a game I'd love to play in.

What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?
I guess this was answered above.

Assuming that game didn't exist, however, I would have to admit I would love to play either a full fledged Cthulhu based game or a truly over the top Wuxia game.  Of course, the problems there are, I'm not really well-versed enough in H.P. Lovecraft's stuff to appreciate it, and in terms of a Wuxia game, I haven't seen a system that seems to capture how I want the game to feel.

What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?
The World of Darkness has an upcoming supplement called Mirrors which even pushes the toolkit nature of the new World of Darkness to its limits.  The book supposedly expands on the rules to allow even further changes to the game, with everything from different time periods to having something less horror and more fantasy or science fiction in feel.

Game Table Interview: GM Adrian

GM Adrian started his gaming career early -- perhaps due to the virtue of being a wee bit older than most of my fellow gamers. I've had the pleasure of playing in a number of his games -- a low-level adventure when D&D 3E was till new, and a horror adventure set in his Manila Unseen setting (did I get that right?) using the New World of Darkness rules.

Many of our gaming-oriented discussions normally deviate into gaming nostalgia, so it's with eagerness that I present his responses to my questionnaire:

What was the first RPG you remember playing?
The Holmes Dungeons and Dragons boxed set; the one where only the first 3 levels were available.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?
The hobby allowed me to imagine worlds of my own and challenged me to make each world better than the last. I found myself enjoying everything I experienced in life on two levels: first for its own sake and second as material for my next world-building project.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?
The hobby is first and foremost a social activity and I found that it allowed me to forge bonds with my players that no other hobby could, except maybe experiencing being shipwrecked on a desert island--but that's not a hobby as far as I'm concerned; that's Gilligan's Island.

What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Le Mort D'Arthur -- this started me on the 'knights in shining armor' bit; The Lord of the Rings -- this started me on the world-building bit; and The Mists of Avalon -- this got me started on the twisting expectations bit.

What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Star Trek (all shows) - this showed me that there was more to adventure than simply slaying the monster of the week--sometimes it is even more fun to just talk to them; The Twilight Zone (original) - this showed me that even though it may be fun to talk to the monster of the week, it is sometimes a good idea to simply slay them; Farscape - this showed me that sometimes the characters can come up with their own drama that is more interesting than meeting the monster of the week.

What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run? Why?
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: the epic scale of the movie inspires me to build my worlds on a similar scale; The Princess Bride and Stardust (taken as a series): the wit and humor of the series informs the way I run my Non Player Characters; The Matrix: the idea that reality is not what is seems appeals to me and is often a theme in the games I run.

What is your favorite published RPG of all time, and why?
Castle Falkenstein: because it combines adventure with romance and a non-intrusive lightweight system that favors story over mechanics.

What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time, and why?
Sorcerer's Crusade: unlike its parent book Mage the Ascension, this supplement opened the players up to wonder and exploration and explored what it meant to be awakened instead of making the life of the character one desperate escape after another.

What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?
Warhammer Fantasy

What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?
Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. 

Game Table Interview: GM Bobby

I've played in a couple of GM Bobby's campaigns -- a GURPS/Twilight 2000 game, a Fading Suns campaign -- and enjoyed his take on military and political post-apocalyptic and space opera settings. Also, I've been following his ongoing reports on his Mutant Future campaign through his blog.

Without further ado, here's GM Bobby's response to the questionnaire:

What was the first RPG you remember playing?

The Holmes' Basic D&D set. 

Editor's Exposition
GM Bobby is referring to the D&D Basic Set edited by J. Eric Holmes. This preceded the D&D Basic Set edited by Tom Moldvay, with the Erol Otus cover. Both these sets came before the D&D Basic Rules Set 1 with the Elmore cover.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?

Creativity. The best avenue for someone with so many ideas to express them and have others share them too. Reading all those science fiction and fantasy books helped too…

What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?

Reading all of the above( see last response) made me want to share these with other like-minded people in an interactive activity wherein all of us could have fun.

What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run? Why?

• Synthetic Men of Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs) - all that swashbuckling, derring-do and weird science are a must have in my games in one form or another. this was also the first science fantasy adventure i read and really liked.
• Hammer Slammers (ok, this isn't strictly a novel but an collection of short stories of one subject by David Drake) - i always liked combat heavy games and Mr. Drake really brings the fighting men at war to life in an edgy way. They say my combats run like this when the setting is right.
• Elric of Melnibone ( Michael Moorcock) - all that interdimensional travelling, weird monsters, weirder characters and items, a brooding hero, large scale conflict. Again, these elements must be in my preferred games.

What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run? Why?

Can't think very much of this... movies were more of my inspiration. But if TV inspiration has to be selected, then stuff from the 70s and 80s I guess: Logan's run - the SF theme was really good: post-apoc adventurers running into/discovering a lot of weird stuff in post nuke America;The Rat Patrol - old stuff but the idea of wild men with guns in jeeps fighting like hell on wheels always appealed to me. I can only really think of those two for now....

What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run? Why?

Aliens - I played a lot of Traveller and traveller-inspired stuff so my military themed games always got a lot out of the tech, command structure, characters and uniforms of the marines on the Sulaco.

Star Wars - This was the first SF space opera movie I really took seriously as it has all the elements of a good game (my choice of SFRPG is space opera) - hyperdrive, laser swords, blasters and aliens in rubber suits.

Saving Private Ryan - This set the tone for many of the combats in my game (as I said, I love to run games that are very combat heavy). I also loved the character development and conflict buildup in the movie.

What is your favorite published RPG of all time, and why?

Classic Traveller. It is so simple yet so timeless. I see now it really isn't much about technology but about characters and space - the best of space opera.

What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time, and why?

Book 4 (Mercenary) of Classic Traveller – I’ve read a lot of supplements and adventures but nothing captured my imagination then as it does now. I used to (and still do) take the tattered old little black book out of town to read on a bus (or later on a plane) and it still is great to read. It has everything great – adventure seeds and great guns and gear.

What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?

The Morrow Project. Heard so much about it and I love the genre and setting but sadly, never had the chance to play it.

What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?

The projected third edition of Fading Suns (if it does come out). More old school stuff on the lines of Mutant Future and Swords and Wizardry – as well as their supplements and adventures. Future issues of Fight On!

Game Table Interview: GM Jay

There was a time that Jay and I used to belong to the same gaming group. While I ran games most of the time, Jay already had a lot of GMing hours under his belt, and after our gaming group fragmented, his streak of GMing continued -- and he's racked up significantly more GMing hours by now, I should think.

In addition to all that work, GM Jay somehow manages to keep his game blog updated.

Anyway, here are his responses to the questionnaire:

What was the first RPG you remember playing?
Star Frontiers. It was the first RPG I officially bought from Nova Fontana, in Shoppesville.


What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?
It was a fun outlet for my imagination when I was a kid, and it was amusing to churn out games that other people could enjoy, and feel like big damn heroes in as I grew older.

What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?
I enjoyed telling stories, and I found the idea of coming up with scenarios fun. Also, I was a geek, and I enjoyed the idea of having a hobby that not a lot of people were into, when I was a kid. Now that I'm older, I end up evangelizing the hobby.

What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Kingdom Come - Technically a graphic novel rather than an actual novel, the story pretty much hammered my outlook of having consequences matter. Nothing happens without a solid, and long lasting effect.

Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay's storytelling is evocative of an exotic fictional setting. Vivid descriptions, and complex characters and conflicting motivations between characters who are both heroes, despite how they're opposed.

The Elenium - Technically, a series of novels by David Eddings, the Elenium has memorable characters and an infectious optimism that echoes throughout his writing.

What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Fringe - J.J. Abram's funky pseudo-science mystery series has some of the best cliffhangers ever.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood - This anime has some of the best writing I've seen. Humanize a hated antagonist by having him utter a single line? Yes.

24 - Again, consequences. What you do, or choose not to do will come back to haunt you.

What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run? Why?
Ocean's Eleven - Actually the entire series. These movies are a great example of how to pull off a perfect heist, and how different specializations can be synchronized to make a great experience.

Dark Knight - The Joker represents a great RPG villain. Even if the motivation is a little muddy, there's very little need to have more evidence to decide that he's an EVIL bastard.

Solomon Kane - I like seeing characters evolve, and grow. Amusingly Solomon Kane actually has that in spades. Seeing the protagonist make a 180 (a justified one at that) is always entertaining and something I'd like to see in my games one day.

What is your favorite published RPG of all time, and why?

Mage: the Awakening. A game of hubris and ambition... and hope. It's interesting how players answer the question of what they'll do with unbridled power.

What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time, and why?
The Tome of the Mysteries, for Mage: the Awakening. Effectively the second half of the corebook, details the various metaphysics in greater detail, as well as the Ethics of Magic.

What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?
Changeling: the Lost. I have a copy, but the chances of actually playing in it? Nil.

What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?
Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition, due out this year. Being the game that I had run my first complete campaign with, L5R has a place in my library of books, even if I don't necessarily agree with the metaplot anymore.

Game Table – GM Interviews

I’m planning on having a series of interviews. Basically I e-mail GMs a list of questions about RPGs, and see what they say.

More than that, however, I hope to see what it is about the hobby that hooks GMs (and eventually players as well), and get a feel for the attraction and the thrill of gaming that keeps us coming back for more.

My GM Interview questionnaire for this round is as follows:

Game Table Interview Questions
• What was the first RPG you remember playing?
• What was it about the hobby that made you want to continue playing?
• What was it about the hobby that made you want to run RPGs?
• What 3 novels have most inspired the games you run? Why?
• What 3 TV shows have most inspired the games you run? Why?
• What 3 movies have most inspired the games you run? Why?
• What is your favorite published RPG of all time, and why?
• What is your favorite published game supplement or adventure of all time, and why?
• What RPG have you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to?
• What upcoming RPG releases are you looking forward to seeing?