Roleplaying Games
Like most players I started with Dungeons & Dragons, In my case in the summer of 1984.
Like most players I buy more games than I ever play. Some go quickly onto the shelf to gather dust while a few become favourites.
An (incomplete) list of the games I own includes:
- 2300 AD (GDW)
- A near future science fiction RPG.
- Alternity (TSR)
- A science fiction game that never got the chance it deserved.
- Big Eyes, Small Mouth (Guardians of Order)
- I am not sure what to make of this yet. Manga is not really to my taste but it promises to be a useful but simple generic system.
- Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium)
- The definitive horror system. A useful generic system as well related to that used for Runequest, Stormbringer and the almost mythical Ringworld
- Castle Falkenstein
- A beautiful but crazed work set in a steampunk europe.
- CORPS (BTRC)
- Greg Porter's generic roleplaying game.
- Deadlands
- Interesting setting crippled by a poor system though a D20 version is also available.
- Dungeons & Dragons
- The first roleplaying game. Recently reborn using a clean new set of mechanics, the D20 system.
- Fading Suns (Holistic Design)
- The Middle Ages in space. Not a copy of Dune but it has a similar feel.
- Forgotten Futures
- A very nice Steampunk game using a variety of literary settings.
- FUDGE
- A simple generic system.
- Fuzion
- A free generic system.
- GURPS (Steve Jackson Games)
- A good game. While the game is not to everyones taste it is very well supported and has the best range of supplements bar none. The historical supplelemts are especially useful no matter what game you play.
- Hong Kong, Action Theatre (Guardians of Order)
- A sibling of Big Eyes, Small Mouth where you player the actors and characters of your own films.
- Lace & Steel
- A fantasy version of Europe. A quirky system but the setting grips when others fail to. Beautifully illustrated by Donna Barr
- Legend of the Five Rings
- Interesting setting but crippled by a metaplot and a poor system.
- Pendragon (Green Knight, formerly Chaosium)
- Roleplaying a knight in the days of King Arthur. Wonderful.
- Run Out the Guns (Iron Crown Enterprises)
- A Ceolcanth. Despite its recent date it looks like something from the mid eighties. It comes in a box with dice. The usual cut-down version of the Rolemaster system from the late ICE.
- The Seventh Sea
- A not quite Europe with magic and alas a metaplot. The setting fails to grip and the system is a warmed up version of that used for the Legend of the Five Rings.
- Skull & Bones (Synister Creative Systems)
- A historically based pirate game with a few (optional) additions using the D20 system.
- Space: 1889 (GDW)
- The first steampunk game. Victorians in space. A delightful setting but a mediocre set of rules. Recently reprinted.
- Star Wars (Formerly West End Games, now Wizards of the Coast)
- D20 based. This might be a good system if they would finish editing it. The old, unrelated, system from West End Games still has a strong following though I fail to see why.
- STOCS (Wastland Games)
- A cheap, simple, generic system. A preview is available from the website.
- Twilight 2000 (GDW)
- A limited nuclear exchange leaves a survivalists paradice. The first edition was strange. The second used GDW's house system in common with Traveller the New Era and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.
- Traveller (GDW)
- I have 6 copies including one of every edition and three of various forms of the first edition.
A D20 version is in the pipeline along with a fifth edition.
- Underworld (Synister Creative Systems)
- Weird game, weird setting, weird system but clever and likeable.
- Weird Wars Pinnacle
- A new series of games from Pinnacle using the D20 system starting with Blood on the Rhine. History with a horrific twist (as if war is not unpleasant enough).
- Roleplaying Links
Magazines
- Pyramid
- Wonderful weekly online magazine. At $15 dollers a year the reason I got a credit card.
- Dragon
- The great survivor. Exclusivly for Dungeons and Dragons. I wonder why I still buy it. The artwork is poor, most of the articles are rubbish and it has some of the worst cartoon strips I have ever seen.
- RPG.net
- Wonderful online magazine. Excellent reviews and good articles. Best of all it is free.
- Journal of the Travellers Aid Society
- Online reincaration of the venerable Traveller journal subsumed into Challenge.
- The Whisperer
Gone, But Not Forgotten
- White Dwarf
- Once the finest roleplaying magazine, now merely a house organ and glorified catalogue. Old timers still feel a strong sense of betrayal about this degeneration.
- Challenge
- GDW's house magazine for Traveller and Twilight 2000 as well as other games.
Character Sheets
I have a selection of character sheets that I have created.
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