Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

I've been thinking about picking up a cheap load of Hackmaster stuff. Anyone here played it? I hear it's like a bulked up 2nd ed dnd, true?

We own a copy and while we haven't played it, when I look at it that's exactly what it looks like to me. 2nd Ed D&D. It's got all the same charts and tables and things.


As for your poll, it's difficult for me to vote. We've got a whole "arcane library" full of RPGs. Many of them are great, some of them suck... some of them have great systems and lame scenarios, and some have great scenarios with stupid systems. D&D (I don't play 3rd) is but one of many we have enjoyed.

Hackmaster started as a (theoretically playable) bloated parody of 2nd ed; if you haven't read Knights of the Dinner Table, flip through a few strips to see the genesis of Hackmaster, and the joke behind it.

Heh... Knights of the dinner table. There's a blast from the past.

Sorry about the horribly arbitrary nature of my poll, I play or have played a wide panapoly of rpgs, fantasy and otherwise. I made the poll two fields just because your strip seems mainly dnd but I suppose I still should have put a few more in.

Anyone voting other, please feel free to post an example. If you put in a why you might even be able to influence my next gamebook fix.

Oh, no problem. I shall go ahead and vote anyway. (vote)
Incidently, this may be a good place to begin the discussion then:
What RPGs (tabletop) do you like? Here's my list:

AD&D (2nd Ed) -A little unweildy, but if you're comfortable with it, it works.

Pendragon - Wonderful scenario - Arthurian legend. Unfortunate system. Really clunky and hard to follow. Good luck finding anything.

FVLMINATA - Imperial Rome with guns! Alternate history where the Romans develop gunpowder. The system is workable, really interesting in its historical nature, but needs a bit of fiddling to make it playable.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten - Zombies!!! Any possible zombie-type scenario you can think of, this game covers it. Lots of fun, great and simple system.

FASA: Star Trek - Old out of print game. Fun if you like Star Trek. System blows but it can be dealt with.

FASA: Doctor Who - Unbelievably the system is even WORSE than Star Trek. But if you're a fan of the good Doctor, you don't care.

New Star Trek - Meh, system has some interesting aspects to it, but it's difficult.

d6 Star Wars - YEAH! Perfect simple system for a fun universe!
d20 Star Wars - Um. No. Bad idea.

d20 StarGate - Good resource. We don't use the system.

Teenagers From Outer Space - VERY silly sitcom style space opera highschool drama! Great for an evening of laughs. System's simple, universe is hysterical!

Macho Women With Guns - System isn't actually playable. But if you like the idea of sleezey, big busted PCs making everything go 'splody, you'll make it work.

Toon - Cartoons gone wild! Fun but exhausting bit of utter nonsense. You've got to stay high energy to make this work.

Tribe 8 - Great horror scenario. Sort of a Hellraiser type thing. System is very realistic without being overly complicated. At least, it was in the 1st edition. Haven't played the re-release.

Jovian Chronicles - Great SF scenario. Realistic science, biiig lumbering spaceships. No aliens. Same system as Tribe 8.

Gear Krieg - Pulp fiction superscience. Indiana Jones meets Transformers. High action adventure, can be comedic or gritty. Same system as Tribe 8.

For Faery Queen and Country - Fun! England in the 1870's, but Faerie magic is alive and well. Great setting. System is simple and has some really interesting twists. Love the magic!

7th Sea - Nice pirate scenario, but I can't get over the alternate Earth crap. Theah instead of Earth. Really bugs me. And the system is weird.

White Wolf -Vampire, Werewolf, etc. : Grrrrr. Piece - o - crap. The Vampire scenario was interesting. But tooo political. Not enough horror. And what's with the stupid dot system! Toss it out the window and play All Flesh.

Good lord that's a hell of a post! I hardly know where to start.

FASA - I used to do a lot of Mechwarrior/Battletech stuff, mostly in the woderful setting of Solaris. Gangster driven mech prizefighting, fantastic, but the game system still sucked and I'm not really about the miniatures gaming.

Toon - Epic stuff! We did some fantastic scenarios. Playing Daphne in a Scooby doo parody was particulary memorable when my character goal was to have sex with Fred. A very red faced evening.

Palladium need a mention - Heroes unlimited, while needlessly complicated by bad layout and copy/paste rulebooks is loads of fun and we're still playing today. Ninjas and superspies, same problems, but who doesn't want to roll dice and kick someones spleen out of their nose? Oh, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... My gaming friends still cringe at the mention of Steven Seagull.

Rolemaster - Whoa, this system is hard work. Amazingly well detailed but I think way too overcomplicated. Anyone who remembers MERP will know it can be done with a lot less effort, and I reccomend people stay away from HARP. It seems to combine complicated gameplay with simplified realism.

Killer - Does anybody still play this? I hope it's still alive and well.

I think I should stop there. If this thread gets going maybe I'll pull a couple of other old chestnuts out of the bag, but in the meantime, did anyone really belive it was possible for white wolf to make a new world of darkness setting that was even more pointlessly political than the old one?

Damn they have a talent.

Oh, and I've got a copy of Macho Women with Guns. Am I the only one? <grin>

I ran a Killer game (Assassin, technically) in uni, which went very well. BK ran through about half the games on our shelf, but many of the others I picked up as swag at one point, or because they looked interesting to read, and haven't actually played them yet. The End is one of those - I have no idea what the system is like to play, but the setting is intriguing.

We also have Way Too Much 2nd ed Heavy Gear, same system as Tribe 8, Jovian Chronicles and Gear Krieg, though I've never managed to arrange a time for BK to play it. I really enjoy the setting - far future giant robots against a complex political landscape.

I quite liked the politics of Vampire, though the dot system did, in fact, blow. I'm not hugely enamoured of the Unisystem stuff (All Flesh, etc from Eden Studios), I think it loses something with its lack of granularity, but I have to grant that it is nicely flexible.

My favourite is still 1st edition Tribe 8, but I'm biased.

I actually enjoyed White Wolf Games, though i have not played the new editions. The rules were confusing at their best, but i think the atmpsphere made up for that!

I always wanted to play a Star Trek-themed game, but my GM won't let me within a million miles of any weapon with a "disintegrate" setting. Probably just as well though. The entertainment possibilities are endless.

Has anyone here played the matrix game. I read a transcript of a session and it looked good, but I'd like a little feedback from players.

Oh yes, someone fly over to wales and gm for my group. I'm getting bloody sick of doing it.

Since our heroes are on it right now has anyone played Al' Qadin? We have the books and they look beautiful.
And they have lots of harem stories, which is always good as Glon demonstrated with original half orc subtleness!

Oh gee... twist MY rubber arm. Problem is affording it. If DM and I can get good jobs out there and a nice place to raise our baby and we can afford to plane ticket, ZOOM! I'm there break out your dice and let's go.

GMing is a passion of mine and Wales is a beautiful country where my ancestors lived right up to my grandfather. *sigh*





*Hand raised* It's a lot of material that depends heavily on the atmosphere. Fortunately, the campaign I was in was run by a master GM (from whom I learned much) who was also Muslim and half Turkish and he KNEW what he was talking about. It was sublimely awsome. One of my all time favorite games ever. We played it for...something like... erm... six years? Starting with weekly sessions which after a year or so started to peter out to monthly, bimonthly, semi-annually.. annually... then whenever we could get together. Fortunatley we were able to bring our characters to a place where they could park, possibly forever.
Word is that the ole' GM is getting his stuff together for a revival, but sadly we're a planeride away and commuting just isn't feasable. So I shan't be in it.

I played Naakim. Will do a 'character bio' for him in the appropriate thread.

I just saw the Nakim post. I love it when the charactes settle naturally in the end of a campaign. In the previous one i did as DM all of the eight characters had gotten their heart's desire by the end without me planning it consciously -one became a general in Silvery Moon, another a high priest in his temple, another got pregnant (by a dragon of course, she was lvl 19 then) and decided to raise the child... By then they were level 20, and combined with the dificulty of creating plausible stories for characters that powerful we retired them and began anew. Still their stories stayed so much with us we still call ourselves the Royal Knaves.
Sometimes when normal people are within earshot. And this is how gamers make a weird name for themselves.

Ah yes, the inadvertant conversation about roleplaying in front of the Hoi Polloi. I find that gang based cyberpunk games cause the most uncomfortable shuffling away.

Also, where in Wales are were your family from BK?