Saturday 11 July 2020

Shopping in the great shut in
























So as my local shops/work prospects are terrible I normally buy interstate on trips and do get lots from Noble Knoght, Drivethrough and local only FB groups. I suspect lots of gamers my age were feeling poor last year as I replaced most of my 80s collection in a year......see my want list on rh sidebar. So recently a dealer I know decided to sell lots for charity and we have been friendly over a few years so I got lots.....

A bag of mostly GURPS/Gurps Traveller/AAADA region guides still on way.
I have a few stupid doubles of late....

So today guy left me a few parcels (rated out of 4 stars)

I got greenstuffworld.com terrain texture rollers for some model making. I'm thinking of making up some terrain squares with texture and grass and some dungeon floor tiles. Possibly make some tiny cottages for a quick village. As I use 1/72 scale I have to use more wargaming and train type terrain stuff. Look forward to a play with these and kids might like too.****

I got a Paranoia box set as I stupidly got rid of my hardback living in tiny rooms in Sydney. I prefer early and mid paranoia. This ed quite crunchy but mostly it ran almost as a Larp. But the SF skill-based SF system I liked and how it fit into the world. I might try and find a few more. I have acute paranoia somewhere which can live in here too****.

More Darwins World stuff. Including The Ruin at the End of the World. An amazing hexcrawl campaign of LA with great history and revealing secrets of the setting that kind of amazed me. I like it when you can piece together info to explain whole setting and changed how I think about it. Map a bit ghastly and I would fill out street map geomorphs or use other sourcebook to pad out. One of best post apoc region books - id rate it with Gammaworld PitzBurke, Mutant Epoch Pitford and probably my own broken hill****.

Glorantha The Second Age: The Clanking CIty. Last mongoose RQ thing I wanted after nabbing most at a RQ con in melb last year. I normally dislike magic tech but this is done well and it fits in an amazing setting. The machine cult of Zistor of god learner wizards are cranking out cheap magic items, artificial limbs, war machines and weapons. They have built a machine god which is very heretical and the Dragon empire next door don't like it. It fits in with drarf ideas of magic in setting well to, Lots of good ideas here to enjoy and If you need a evil magic capitol of sweatshops this is pretty good ****.

The real treasure trove was an afterthought....a big pile of Iron Crown History campaign sourcebook. Some have Fantasy Hero stats too which remind my why I quit champions in 84 but still have fondness for it. I am not a fan of the Rolemaster System and some of the playbooks are pages of tables and stats dedicated to the game. 

Robin Hood. I wouldn't mind the GURPS one too. Why Robin Hood? As a time period it suits many DnD and fantasy games. We know the tropes and the IP is free. I recommend reading up on England as a land of banditry with knights robbing the next area as bandits to ruin rivals and lords supporting bandits who rob rivals. I guess nations all do stuff like this and quite a few bandits are victims of politics and possibly also rebels. This book has lots of detail on an England of anglo Saxon culture with a slappening of norman which suits lots of DnD worlds. Great timelines, lots of illustrations, maps, ships, church life, aerial village images, myths, a whole campaign with events, maps of prisons (lol), choc-full of goodness. Maybe some humancentric pseudo-history might be your thing. Interesting traditions of RH on film and TV. Especially making more ethnically diverse which some have problems with. UK 80s TV series had lots of magic and paganism and Robin server Herne the Hunter and sought the 7 magic swords of Britain so I wanna see that again. 160 pages****

Maybe I could be a jerk and say some people like Roleplaying certain eras for racism and classism. I know lots of hip ethicist gamers who hate dnd but have a softspot for nobility in games. Current popular discussions make me wonder.

At Rapiers Point.Three musketeers with some notes on adapting to other fantasy games. The swashbuckling spirit of Dumas if huge in gaming (and many robin hood films).  Good tables on income and jobs. Setting wise some good maps but a bit lighter than say Robin Hood. Id liked more info like districts of Paris, regions of France and local problems, England and the rest of the world gets more detail. Price lists for era with omissions like a horse price. I liked Chateau map in adventure. Overall I didn't learn as much and more superficial treatment. 128 pages and fairly dense. Modern art ok but pretty light on graphics compared to others. Lots of art does not really illustrate anything.**

Arabian Nights. Here we go. Might show all my Arabian night Games to some Islamic friends and see how they rate as respectful.... Away this features old Arabiabian nights art for cover and interior, much of it very nice and European victorian even nuveau style. To be fair it probably is the very definition of orientalism. Seems to use the core rulebook more. I think they put in a good effort in this book and it good tone on genre, asking reader to choose history or western romance and has a variety of options for the class system and how true religion works. It says some genre tropes not in accordance with modern ethos (1994). Having this discussion is a good thing. We are all still having this conversation in 2020. Various periods of play are outlined and ethos of the day. It deals with Islam in some detail. Has over a page on women, then social classes and other good cultural and geographic details like Bagdad. Desert survival in detail. Some ideas to cross polinate into other settings like er Middle Earth. Arrow snakes are a cool monster. In one adventure you go to Irem. Another seeks a Frankish Crown and more. 4 page glossary. 2 page references for gamers. It is much better than the Musketeer book and I think they mostly cared. I guess portraying any living religion in games has issues. I guess I like Bronze Age for these reasons. 112pages dense well illustrated**** 

Pirates. Have hopes for as it is branded like the Robin Hood book and fatter at 160 pages. More system mechanics early on blah. The world has lots of cool maps you could copy and mod. Ship and fort plans. Seaside towns. Islands.  Lots on combat and sea battles. Gazeteer is good with maps you can add too. A good timeline. Big fat champions stat blocks. Quite a few short adventures. Lots of games have don this subject and this is dense and well-illustrated. BPR pirates seemed flawed, broken and a bit odd from that rushed era of Chaosium. The good history here and feel but has more stat blocks than others in the line***. 

Mythic Greece. 160 pages. Mix of mostly arhaic Homeric greek and classical athens in art and victorian clip images. Proposes races including nymphs, satyr, centaurs. I wish available equipment was just in a price list not reference to another book rule sections that could have just put prices in. Good setting stuff and maps by page 63 it's onto scenarios and world and it focuses on archaic Greece of city-states mycene and Knossos then moves onto the world including Atlantis which I would like to do destroy. Lots on people and gods. Maps of forts and houses and locations in the back. Lots of good content here but the Arabian Knights book has a better more consistent feel for the art. Lots of Illustrated characters for player looks and bronze age kit is good***.

Wish i had Vikings volume.....

Mythic Egypt.  Thinner but dense with art and art made for the product with probably the most over the top cover of gods fighting on front. It is an enthusiastic hot mess cover, fun but kinda takes vibe somewhere stranger. Maybe it is the Fantasy Hero compatibility cos rolemaster was crunch and gritty while hero system champions is is crunch and over the top. Lots of deliberate new art, maps and victorian clip art (like they paid for it and had to use it). Djinn, sphynxes, Werecats and other lycanthrope races for players. Good timelines, lots of maps, illustrated gods, diagram of where the sun hoes at any hour not in sky, a few pages on language. Lots of good  adventures with maps to recycle in play. Six pages on gm tips that i don't understand why it is here as it feels like its a left over from some other work it is so not on point. Gods are good but some mechanics for magic just not interesting to me. Probably one of my favorites with some odness. Definatley the most art and maps any one could use****. Also noticed random generated pyramid dungeon generator. So many good snippets. 4 types of mummies. Keeps getting better and possibly one of my fave rpg thing list

2 comments:

  1. Rolemaster Arabian Nights was my first full-length game book and I'm pleased to hear you enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete

I love and welcome feedback but not spambots
Good feedback and suggestions inspire me to write more