Foot note 1. I find that interesting, because I'm not a massive con-goer, but I hear people talk about this one compared to the aforementioned GenCon, and reportedly, the GameholeCon one is a massive improvement. No idea though.
Foot note 3. Yeah, I can't get into Shadowrun. I don't want magic in my tech game, personally.
Foot note 6. I gave a gimme during my Sunday AM game. I don't even remember what it was. Was it BoxcarVampire's roll? But it was something stupid and I made it a gimme as well, so I'm guilty there. (I want to say it was some easy roll where I made everyone roll, more for who than if, but I'm failing to recall).
First of all, Points for reading the footnotes! I didn't think anyone read the footnotes. ;)
Second, not only do I not want magic in my cyberpunk game, I also don't want elves or orcs!
Third -- I get gimme rolls sometimes. We're all guilty of sometimes asking for rolls when there's really no point -- what will failing even mean, what's being accomplished, etc. Without getting into the theory and practice of how different games should spell out the kinds of things that should be rolled for, and how many rolls might be expected in a session, I still think for chips-are-down rolls the GM should *never* handwave it or allow a reroll / pass for no reason. If nothing else, ask the player if they want to sacrifice something to pass!
Yeah, I'm one of those people who love Crawford's #WN stuff. Sorry that you didn't have a good time with it. I love the open sandbox and its flexibility. I don't mind the wordiness. He's cramming everything you need into one tome unlike many other games where you have to buy multiple books in order run a game. And I think that it's less complicated than all of the generations of D&D that came after 1e.
As for Shadowrun, I get what you're saying about mixing magic and tech (Hell, I don't even like psionics in my sci-fi). Having never played it though, I joined in Nezz's Shadowrun one-off using CWN rules. I'm in it primarily to play in a CWN game. And to make it interesting, it's set in Thailand.
I really do have *tremendous* respect for what Crawford does; I just really, really struggle with getting through it all, with processing it. It’s just not my preferred way to learn or even reference RPG material. New school OSR layout has ruined me — love that science of information conveyance.
Cities Without Number definitely looks cool; I should check it out. (I have the PDF, but haven’t even paged through it.) I need another cyberpunk game in my life I’ll never run. :)
(I think in terms of unplayed games in a genre, cyberpunk might only be behind westerns for me.)
Last thing on Crawford — my biggest regret is not being able to get through Wolves of God. I -know- I would love that game! But when you pair this usual style with freaking faux olde English spoken in the first person… oh man!
I love that faux olde English! It really adds flavor to WWN. I can't remember if it rolled over into CWN or SWN. I might be too used to it to notice. ;-)
Foot note 1. I find that interesting, because I'm not a massive con-goer, but I hear people talk about this one compared to the aforementioned GenCon, and reportedly, the GameholeCon one is a massive improvement. No idea though.
Foot note 3. Yeah, I can't get into Shadowrun. I don't want magic in my tech game, personally.
Foot note 6. I gave a gimme during my Sunday AM game. I don't even remember what it was. Was it BoxcarVampire's roll? But it was something stupid and I made it a gimme as well, so I'm guilty there. (I want to say it was some easy roll where I made everyone roll, more for who than if, but I'm failing to recall).
First of all, Points for reading the footnotes! I didn't think anyone read the footnotes. ;)
Second, not only do I not want magic in my cyberpunk game, I also don't want elves or orcs!
Third -- I get gimme rolls sometimes. We're all guilty of sometimes asking for rolls when there's really no point -- what will failing even mean, what's being accomplished, etc. Without getting into the theory and practice of how different games should spell out the kinds of things that should be rolled for, and how many rolls might be expected in a session, I still think for chips-are-down rolls the GM should *never* handwave it or allow a reroll / pass for no reason. If nothing else, ask the player if they want to sacrifice something to pass!
First, of course I do, context is important to text. Unless it's spelling, then text is important to context.
Second, agreed.
Third, I agree with that as well.
Well I appreciate it. Footnotes take me back to my college and grad school paper and thesis-writing days…
Yeah, I'm one of those people who love Crawford's #WN stuff. Sorry that you didn't have a good time with it. I love the open sandbox and its flexibility. I don't mind the wordiness. He's cramming everything you need into one tome unlike many other games where you have to buy multiple books in order run a game. And I think that it's less complicated than all of the generations of D&D that came after 1e.
As for Shadowrun, I get what you're saying about mixing magic and tech (Hell, I don't even like psionics in my sci-fi). Having never played it though, I joined in Nezz's Shadowrun one-off using CWN rules. I'm in it primarily to play in a CWN game. And to make it interesting, it's set in Thailand.
I really do have *tremendous* respect for what Crawford does; I just really, really struggle with getting through it all, with processing it. It’s just not my preferred way to learn or even reference RPG material. New school OSR layout has ruined me — love that science of information conveyance.
Cities Without Number definitely looks cool; I should check it out. (I have the PDF, but haven’t even paged through it.) I need another cyberpunk game in my life I’ll never run. :)
(I think in terms of unplayed games in a genre, cyberpunk might only be behind westerns for me.)
Last thing on Crawford — my biggest regret is not being able to get through Wolves of God. I -know- I would love that game! But when you pair this usual style with freaking faux olde English spoken in the first person… oh man!
I love that faux olde English! It really adds flavor to WWN. I can't remember if it rolled over into CWN or SWN. I might be too used to it to notice. ;-)
Damnit. Now reading Wolves of God and wanting to run / play it.
Great write-up! Nice to read your in-depth analysis of what did and didn't work well in the games you played. Looking forward to the next part.
Such as great con, though. Was awesome hanging out and playing some games together. Can't wait until the next one!
Thanks, and YUP. Was a *great* time! Kind of funny that you posted your Gamehole Con video within minutes of my posting this!
Indeed! And we both mentioned the Gaming and BS podcast and gave a shout-out to Sean. :)
As we should have!