The Lord of the Rings and my Roleplaying Hobby - Disaster strikes!

In the early 1990s I realised the reason why it was I had never tried to game in Tolkien's wondrous creation before.

It was because I was a snob.

I was trying to run a MERP game with a couple of players - post War of the Ring - but couldn't quite figure out why it was I wasn't enjoying the game. It hit me at the beginning of the second session; the players weren't playing the game the way I wanted them to. I had an image of Middle-earth in my head, the way everyone acted, spoke and basically presented themselves, and the players were not playing it that way. They were playing it the same way they played old D&D and WFRP games, speaking normally and messing around. They just weren't taking this amazing setting and world seriously enough. I'd even go as far to say that I was angry at them because they didn't have the same level of respect that I did for Tolkien's world.

Crazy? Oh, yes, it was a crazy attitude to have but after more than ten years being brewed in my head it was going to be difficult to let go of the images and attitudes I thought should be present in a Middle-earth game. Before the game descended into madness I did exactly what my former MERP GM did; I changed the setting to a fantasy Europe. The games were considerably better and the campaign, though short, was a good one.

This was a dilemma - how could I game in Middle-earth when the players involved didn't have the same approach to the setting as I did? Had I ruined any chance at gaming in my favourite fantasy setting? What I needed was something that would unite imaginations, make sure that we were all working from the same page and were approaching the game with the same attitude. This was why my Star Wars D6 games worked so well, because we all had the same visual and emotional attachment to the films so they were very easy games to run and get involved in.

So when Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' movies were released, and the Decipher version of the rules was published, I had my visual and emotional anchor. I thought I'd give it another shot.

Dead Gentleman Productions

"Dead Gentlemen Productions is a group of filmmakers located in the Seattle/Tacoma area of the Pacific Northwest. Their recent film The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, is currently distributed by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment.

The group met each other over 1996-97 while attending Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. Between 1998 and 2000, the Dead Gentlemen filmed two feature films: Demon Hunters, and it’s sequel, Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake. The films were met with great acclaim on campus. In 2001 they shot what would be their flagship property for many years to come, a 45-minute featurette called, The Gamers. A comedic short film, The Gamers follows a group of college students playing a role-playing game, switching between the players squabbling at the table to their fantastical characters in the world of their imaginations. The film gained worldwide attention at game conventions and related film festivals. With the success of The Gamers, in 2002 the group founded Dead Gentlemen Productions, LLC.

Since then, Dead Gentlemen Productions produced several comedy sketches and short films, the high definition feature The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, and co-produced with Margaret Weis Productions, creating the Demon Hunters Roleplaying Game, containing the newly canonized world of their original Demon Hunters and a short film entitled: The Brotherhood Orientation Video. To this very day the Dead Gentlemen exercise their super power of unmatched collaboration to create projects together."

Source - Dead Gentleman Website

I've been following these dudes since I first saw their feature 'The Gamers' on Youtube. I was instantly enamoured with the film and loved the concept of watching an RPG being played out in both the real world and the fantasy world of the game. Then 'The Gamers: Dorkness Rising' hit the net and I found myself totaly hooked.

Recently I watched their live stage performance and right now I'm really enjoying 'The Gamers: Hands of Fate', their new 'Gamers' title released as webisodes.

I think they should get a lot more attention, especially in the UK, and I'm trying to sort out the best way to screen their movies over here.

Check them out and have fun!

Warzone: Resurrection

I had a lovely time at the rather wonderful Titan Games this afternoon. I met two dudes called Mark and Rob from Prodos Games, and these guys are the driving force behind the new Warzone game 'Resurrection'.

You may remember Warzone, and the whole Mutant Chronicles line, from the wargame and roleplaying game of the 1990s. I had great fun with the Mutant Chronicles roleplaying game; suited and booted big gun soldiers fighting mutated zombie undead from space? I'm a smoking hard-drinking long-haired party animal in my early twenties. Sold. The thing is, beyond the cool factor there was an excellent and well thought out background and a brilliant atmospheric setting. I played it for a good long while. You can read more about the setting at the Warzone website.

The models and demo I saw today was for the wargame and the system seemed really quick and easy. Using only 20-sided dice, rolls to-hit were made against a target number or lower (so, to hit with a certain figure might be 14, so you have to roll 14 or less to hit). A hit does a wound, and to protect against a wound you roll against an armour save, again a certain number or less on a D20 (in this case,the guy had armour of 12, so had to roll 12 or less to save against the wound or boom - death). There are cards you can play which enhances rolls or gives you another chance (the effects varied but this was a simple demo game), and other rules besides.

Sorry for the quality - this is what happens
when you only have a camera phone

In the game that I watched, presided over by the dudes from Warzone, two completely new players got a decent fight on the go with about seven figures each side, and after six rounds of combat - which took about half an hour - the victor was the Necromutants, and Mishima were the losers. It was quick, fun and the players had a great time. I certainly had a good time watching. The models are well detailed and of very high quality, and they looked great painted up. I just wish I had a better camera with me.

Look out for more reports on this game in the future - I think I'll be keeping my eye on this one. The world of Mutant Chronicles definitely deserves another stab at the hobby.

Time to create a new D&D campaign

I have the Forgotten Realms box set...

...and I have the 13th Age RPG...

... and it's time for me to create a new D&D campaign.

I think the Realms will be a good fit for 13th Age. I've already decided to set it pre-spell plague, or whatever the hell that was, so I've bought it back a hundred years to play it as I remember it when I was reading the Icewind Dale and Dark Elf books. I'm determined not to have anyone play introspective Underdark dwellers with scimitars. Not a freaking chance.

I'll be designing it the way I used to - that means listening to Beethoven and Wagner as I write, I do it all longhand without computers and I used hex and square pads to design maps, locations and dungeons. I've not done it that way for twenty years so it should be interesting.

I might drop the Icon part of the 13th Age for now and just run with background skills and the One Unique Thing. The group didn't really want to do anything as detailed as Pathfinder or as simple as Basic D&D, so I reckon this will be perfect.

We'll see.

The Lord of the Rings and my Roleplaying Hobby

My love affair with The Lord of the Rings began when I was in the third year of school. I was eight years old and it's one of the things from childhood that I vividly remember*.

Every week were made to sit in groups around a tape recorder that had about six huge, clunky sets of headphones plugged into it, and through this we were subjected to the BBC radio dramatisation of 'The Lord of the Rings', all 26 wonderful, magical parts. It was the most exciting few weeks of my school life as I became immersed in this incredible world of magic, monsters and heroes of all sizes.

And that was it. After finding out that we had copies of both the books at home, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I set about reading them from cover to cover and savouring every page, and I also did my best to record the BBC drama on an old radio cassette player. And that was it. I declared my love for all things Tolkien and as the years passed by my  meagre collection grew and grew.

Roleplaying in Middle-earth never truly started until the late 1980s, and even then the games never really delved into the richness of the world. I'd been playing fantasy games since 1983, roleplaying since 1984, and even though I immersed myself in the fantasy worlds of the game I never had the chance, or really the urge, to game in Middle-earth. Tolkien's world never had the plethora of monsters that the D&D worlds have and I was having fun making my way through the beasties of the books, and exploring whole new fantasy worlds such as Titan, Forgotten Realms and several home-brewed locations of varying quality.

I began to play once a friend of mine got his hands on the Middle-earth Role Playing game - MERP - and I created my first ever fully-fleshed and detailed player character, Tere Swordsong. It was with this character that I was able to finally understand the creative power of roleplaying games and I allowed myself to become fully attached to the character. It was an amazing adventure and I was giddy with excitement when I walked through the doors of The Inn of the Last Bridge in the Trollshaws, and I finally began to roam the lands I loved so much.

The divergence began when the gamemaster began to create adventures that became bigger and bigger in concept, and began to affect not just my character or the location but the world as a whole. We were both wary of contradicting established Tolkien lore, probably I was more than him, and so it was then that he decided to change it form Middle-earth to a general fantasy Europe. As it turned out, it was a great choice. Now he could bring in all kinds of monsters and bad guys and have full control of the game, without any second-guessing or worrying about what was right or wrong in Middle-earth, and he didn't feel hemmed in or restricted by the setting.

The time I did spend in Middle-earth was incredibly gratifying and the fact that it also enabled me to finally get under the skin of a player character and play him to the hilt was a vital turning point in my roleplaying hobby. Every character I have created since Tere Swordsong has failed to recreate that feeling I got when playing him and, even though I played the characters as well as I was able, they never measured up.

It is strange that, considering my love for Middle-earth, I never spent much time gaming there. I could never figure out quite why that was, not until I ran my own somewhat disastrous MERP games in the mid-1990s and realised fully why it was I had shied away from it.

To be continued...

*I obviously don't remember it that well - it was actually 1981 and I was ten years old.

Interview - Steve Turner of Brittannia Game Designs

Please welcome to Farsight Blogger Steve Turner, the man at Brittannia Game Designs and the gentleman who procured the licence for the classic fantasy roleplaying game 'Chivalry & Sorcery'.


'Chivalry & Sorcery is a fantasy role-playing game that was first published in 1977 by Fantasy Games Unlimited. Originally created by Edward E. Simbalist and Wilf K. Backhaus in 1977, Chivalry & Sorcery (C&S) was an early competitor to Dungeons & Dragons. Historically, the two designers of the game were dissatisfied with the lack of realism in Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and created the first gaming system derived from it, which they named Chevalier. They intended to present it to Gary Gygax at Gen Con in 1977 but changed their minds once at the Con, where they met Scott Bizar who wrote out a letter of intent. After some final changes to get rid of the last remnants of D&D (e.g. the game contained a table of "Saving-throws" similar to D&D), Simbalist and Backhaus published the first edition of their game - now renamed Chivalry & Sorcery - shortly after the release of the first edition of Advanced D&D.

According to Michael Tresca, Chivalry & Sorcery "embraced a realistic approach to medieval France in the 12th century, complete with feudalism and the Catholic Church. Chivalry & Sorcery was most noteworthy for creating the term "game master." It was one of the first games to place the setting at utmost importance over the mechanics of the game." More focused on medieval chivalry than fantasy, Chivalry & Sorcery (C&S) had from its first version a sophisticated and complex set of rules. The game has been published four times to improve its presentation and to modernize its game mechanics. C&S was the first to introduce new concepts like levels for monsters.

The game was reissued by Highlander Designs but when they went bankrupt it was bought by Brittannia Game Designs Ltd. (BGD), a company based in England and directed by Steve Turner. The fourth edition of C&S, called "The Rebirth" was born a few months later. The result was the return of some medieval references and some gameplay mechanics (such as "bash" or "Targeting" for spells) adding this degree of realism that was lacking in the previous edition. Moreover, many additions to the rules (such as "Laws of Magick") brought novelty to the game.

The core rules had several extensions, including the "Knights Companion", "Armourers Companion," "Dwarves Companion" and "Elves Companion". '

Source - Chivalry & Sorcery Wikipedia Page

Perhaps you'd like to tell us a little bit about yourself?

I am rapidly approaching 50 and have been gaming for 40 years or thereabouts.  As well as running Brittannia Game Designs Ltd (more on a part time basis) I also run Turbo Business Services Ltd, an Accountancy Services Provider for small business.  My background is 30 years in Credit Management and debt recovery.  I am also learning to murder songs with my guitars (my mid life crisis).

Tell us about your RPG history - what got you into the wonderful world of tabletop roleplaying?

I started our gaming as a wargamer using Airfix miniatures moving from WW2 to Ancients via Napoleonic. Then in 1979 I was introduced to the GW print of AD&D and thus began my forays into RPG (although my wargaming heart still beat strong).  The whole excitement of first person adventuring into the unknown was a big attraction.  Over the years the group of friends I gamed with spread their wings into other systems, Chivalry & Sorcery, Traveller and many others.  In 1982 out of one game came the first scribbles that became the Dragon Reaches of Marakush (DRM).  I then became involved in UK Gencon writing scenarios and GMing tournaments.  This led to me becoming an RPGA Regional Director, one of the remits being to run a local convention.  Thus was the "Dudley Bug Ball" conceived which ran for a number of years culminating in a three day residential con at the Hilton Metropole NEC in 2002.  

It was during this time that C&S was brought back with third edition and I approached the then owning company with a view for a licence for supplements.  We produced and released DRM and then found out the owners of C&S were in difficulties.  We managed to secure the IP and bought the game to the UK.  Following the last DBB my wife and I were suffering burn out so we stepped back into the shadows. Following a hiatus and a need for a break from RPG gaming I went back to miniatures with GW.   Then in the last couple of years with the changes in POD and the likes of Drivethrurpg we decideded to start dusting of old manuscripts and start producing again.

What is it about the tabletop RPG hobby that attracts you? What do you enjoy most when playing a game?

What attracts me to Tabletop RPG is the sheer variety of what you can do in so many settings, and the social aspects, the chance to meet up with friends and chat over drinks and food.

What's your favourite game? What games that are out there at the moment float your boat?

My favourite games over the last 30 years have been C&S, Call of Cthulhu, Harnmaster, Traveller, Savage Worlds, Leagues of Adventure and Star Wars.

Do you still get time to play? What are you playing at the moment?

I manage to game twice a week, currently playing Star Wars Edge of Empire, various Savage Worlds and look to run Leagues of Adventure.  I also currently play Flames of War, WH40K and looking forward to some Kickstarters that are due the end of this year.

The tabletop roleplaying hobby has been through a lot changes over the years and it seems that its death-knell is always sounded when newer hobbies come along, such as collectible card games and online computer games. It still seems to be able to hold it’s own, though – what do you see happening to the hobby in the future? What changes, if any, do you think will have to be made to ensure its survival?

I dont see the RPG hobby dying anytime soon.  This can be seen by the uptake on kickstarters.  However, from a publishers viewpoint there have been many changes.  The notion of printing, selling to wholesalers etc I dont think is sustainable in the long term for small publishers.  POD through outlets like Drivethrurpg or as co-operatives like Chronicle City is going to be the way forward.  Small Publishers are now being forced to deal direct with the end customer or Bricks and Mortar Stores as distributors do not make it financially viable to deal through them.   This is going to make word of mouth via the internet and social media more important than traditional advertising.

Out of all your projects, what are you most proud of?

Out of all of our projects I am most proud of the Dwarves and Elves racial supplements, the cover art worked so well and Wiggy's writing is superb (as can be seen with how well his own company Triple Ace Games has fared).  I am also proud of C&S Rebirth (C&S 4), although I do feel it didn't quite hit where I would have liked it to have reached.  We hope to rectify this with 5th Edition.

Tell us more about Chivalry & Sorcery, it's history and where you are with it at the moment. What was the attraction in acquiring and developing the game?

Well, C&S has a long history. Suffice to sat we now have our hands on the game which is a registered trademark.  The future looks strong with our ongoing print partnership with Chronicle City.  The main attraction for acquiring C&S was the history of using the 2nd edition for DRM, my original campaign, and being in the right place at the right time.  Also, the chance to mould an exisiting recognised game system with the addition of a british twist (correct spelling of English for a start).  Future plans include getting 5th edition out there, and polishing the many other manuscripts that we have waiting to be worked on.  What is against us is time, not enough of it.  We can be found on Facebook  and also at Drivethrurpg.

Lord of the Rings Online

I've been playing a lot of Lord of the Rings Online this year and I've concluded that it's the best free-to-play out there at the moment. I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan, I've been following it since the late 1970s, so an MMO based on the property had a lot to live up to as far as I was concerned.

I'll be writing a series soon regarding this; why I played it, my history with Lord of the Rings roleplaying (from MERP to Decipher to my own Dragon Warriors and Cthulhu: Dark Ages versions), what Lord of the Rings means to me and why it's a great game for lovers of these kind of online RPGs to get involved in.

Review - 13th Age

By Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo

Recently, I figured out that I was playing basic Dungeons & Dragons for mainly nostalgic reasons. I do like the game and I have great fun playing it with my gaming group, but I’ve recently started to drift away from the system and I’ve been looking at more story-driven games. Oh, it’s easy to play a D&D game and have it story driven but the mechanics don’t really support it, and if the gaming group isn’t on the same page it can be difficult to do such a thing.

So, this game has come around at a good time for me. I wanted to do more story-driven and dramatic games but the group was loathe to drift away from a system they like to play, and 13th Age pretty much covers both those bases.

THE BOOK

The hardback 320-page colour rulebook is impressive. It’s robust and hardy and I’ve always liked a book that’s bound in such a way that you can lay it out on the table so that it sits nicely at the required pages, without having to weigh down the edges of the book or crack the spine. The glossy pages are in an easy-to read font, very clear and concise. It’s a very well laid out book with some really good artwork – I can find very little to criticise about the presentation. The cover image alone certainly made me want to play, and the full colour maps on the inside of the covers are quite exciting, to be honest, as it immediately opens a whole new world to game in.

THE CONTENTS

Chapter 1, ICONS, details the great influential characters of the game. They’re there to lead certain factions and areas present in the constant power struggle that envelopes the land, and the relationship between the Icons and the player characters unfolds the world is shaped. This means that player characters aren’t simply gaming in the world, they’re helping to shape it as they interact with, defy or aid the Icons.

Chapter 2, CHARACTER RULES, is the character creation part of the game. It’s what you already know about the D&D game with some changes to suit this particular incarnation. You can roll for or point-buy character stats which gives players greater control over the abilities of their characters. There is no skill list but a general background description that a player is allowed to choose via a points system, so you could choose something like ‘Wild Mountain Tribe’, and this will enable skill checks to be modified should the PC encounter anything to do with mountains, such as survival or climbing rolls. Skill rolls are made by Rolling D20 + relevant ability modifier + level + the number points in a relevant background versus a difficulty number set by the environment. It’s a neat skill system that doesn’t let a player simply choose a skill they feel they might need, but makes them consider why they are skilled in that area and maybe even add a bit of detail or flavour to the history of the character.
You’ve got plenty of Feats to choose from, too. General Feats, which everyone can choose form, Racial Feats for your chosen race and Class Feats for your chosen profession.
Characters progress from level 1 to level 9. Starting as a level 1 Adventurer, once they reach level 5 they become a level 1 Champion, and get plenty of extra benefits. Upon reaching level 8 they become a level 1 Epic character, with even more benefits. As the levels grow, so does the drama…
My favourite party of the chapter, probably the entire book, is the ‘One Unique Thing’ section and this is what moves the game from a simple set of rules for moving playing pieces around to a much more story-driven game. It not only gives the players an impetus to heavily participate in the unfolding drama of the game but it can also help create a detailed, dramatic background for their characters. The One Unique Thing cannot influence or change abilities or rolls and it cannot give the player any benefits that might influence skills. It has to be something that will give them a specific trait or quirk and it will, through the story as the game progresses, create a larger, possibly world-changing plot device that the GM can weave using the Unique Thing about the player character. It enables story hooks and plot paths that directly affect, and can be directly affected by, the PCs. This helps build drama, suggests the relationships with the Icons and how they can be handled, and allows players to set their character apart not only from the normal people of the world but also from other heroes. Players really can create their own ‘special snowflake’ of a character and the game encourages them to do so.
There are plenty of examples in the book but I’ll use one that one of my players used while I was running this game. His One Unique Thing was ‘Lost in the eyes of the Emperor’s favourite’. Quite simply, this meant that he had fallen in love with a lady in the court of the Emperor who the Emperor himself loved. As the player was also a devotee of the Emperor and had already blood sworn his service to him, making him very close to the Icon and resulting in a barely suppressed father/son relationship, you can see why this would create some incredible drama later on. Maybe the PC decides to elope with her. Maybe she desperately tries to make him love her as she loves him but he denies her because of his duty to the Emperor, making her desperately bitter and making her vengeful. Maybe they meet in secret and the Emperor finds out… who knows what will happen? The actions of the player will help decide, so even though I’ve already had thoughts as to where the story could go it becomes very much a collaborative effort on both mine and the player’s part. I think it’s a fantastic inclusion and will make for some seriously excellent melodramatic roleplaying opportunities.
The rest of the chapter provides some very simple goods and equipment lists and some excellent advice for players to really get into their roles.

Chapter 3 details the playable RACES of the game; Human, Dwarf, Dark Elf, High Elf, Wood Elf, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc and Halfing. As the Icons are scattered across the alignment board from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil it gives you plenty of scope as to what kind of race to choose. There are some guideline for optional races, too, and these are Dragonic/Dragonspawn, Holy One/Aasimar, Forgeborn/Dwarf-forged, and Tieflings/Demontouched.

Chapter 4 deals with the CLASSES; Barbarian, Paladin, Fighter, Cleric, Sorcerer, Rogue, bard and Wizard. This gives you the details of each class, the base stats, level progression details, gear, abilities and tier talents from Adventurer to Champion to Epic. It also includes the spell lists for the relevant magic-user classes. There’s some very nice flavour in here and, for the first time ever, it made me want to play a Bard. I honestly can’t tell you why; it just looked kind of cool.

Chapter 5, COMBAT RULES, is a simplified and streamlined version of the general D&D combat rules. It still suffers from a little of the problems I feel that D&D combat suffered from and that’s the switch from story game to conventional dice-rolling wargame; for me that’s a slight shock to the system as the flow of the roleplaying is interrupted for lots of dice rolling, but there’s plenty of options that you can do with or without. I found that by stripping combat back and asking players to describe hard hits, killing blows or their reactions to being severely injured helped. This honestly depends on the group and how they like to play, but it’s a good system and it’s what you’d expect from D&D.

Chapter 6 is all about RUNNING THE GAME, and this details Icon Relationships and how they can affect the character and the story, how to run the three different tiers of play, advice on traps, environments and levelling, campaigns, treasure and magic items, and the gaming world in general. This is all very good support material to help in running a game and there’s some good advice on how to make the game your own.

Chapter 7 is the MONSTERS section and here you’ll find all your monster rules and stats. There’s plenty of beasties here that’ll keep you going in adventures and encounters for months. The statistics are wonderfully simple, literally a title, a few lines of description, stats in the nature of Level, Initiative, Attack and Armour Class, Defences and Hit Points. If it needs them there are also some special rules for magic or special abilities, and that’s pretty much it. The monsters have symbols and icons to represent them; I’m a bit of an old-school gamer and I like to have proper illustrations next to my monsters so that I can hold them up to show my players, but the monsters are your generic fantasy beasts so there should be no difficulty.
There’s a cool little section for DIY monsters, too, so you can create your own foul beasties.

Chapter 8 tells you all about THE DRAGON EMPIRE, the lay of the land and the primary points of interest. This is the default setting of the 13th Age but, as with D&D in general, you can set it wherever you want. However, the realms of the Icons of the 13th Age are detailed here and it’s all filled with flavour. The maps really make me want to explore this place and adventure in the uncharted areas of the realms, both as a player and a GM. It’s a general fantasy setting open to plenty of modification by the GM and the gaming group, if they so wish. There’s also the potential for different kinds of gaming; high adventure, horror, warfare, grim and dirty, politics… the game allows for all kinds of adventure styles.

Chapter 9 gives us MAGIC ITEMS, to both help and hinder the player characters. I’m not sure why this wasn’t included in Chapter 2 along with the equipment but I guess there’s plenty of stuff in here to warrant a section of it’s own.

Finally, Chapter 10 is the introductory adventure BLOOD & LIGHTNING. It helps to introduce the Icon relationship and combat systems, which is great for gamers who are new to it, but it is otherwise a standard cover-all-the-beginner-points adventure for level 1 player characters.

The book is rounded out by a character sheet, an index and glossary, and some charts and tables.

CONCLUSION

First things first – I think this is a great game. It’s wonderfully presented, colourful, full of flavour and brimming with great ideas that can not only work for 13th Age game but pretty much any roleplaying game, D&D or otherwise. I like the Icons idea as they can add some seriously good depth to the game, and even though it’s only a small part of the game I really like the background skills as it adds even more depth to characters. The proof of the pudding is, though, the One Unique Thing that defines a character and makes them special. This can create all kinds of fantastic discussions around the table regarding the events that led up to the One Unique Thing and the possible repercussions. These conversations alone can spark the imagination and inspire GMs to come up with adventures, plots and courses of action they may not have otherwise even considered. Not only that but these One Unique Things can affect not only the adventure or the campaign but the world as a whole as the Icon relationships unfold, change and progress. It makes for some great roleplaying and allows interesting and creative collaboration between the GM and the players. Usually I’d steer my players away from creating a ‘special snowflake’ of a character. In many ways this game encourages it without compromising the game or the group.

I could see this system being used in any of the D&D settings; Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, any of them. If you want to use the One Unique Thing idea in your existing D&D campaign world I see nothing that stops you from doing that. You will no doubt benefit from the other ideas and changes in the book, as well, so it’s worthy getting even if you’ve got an established D&D game on the go using your favourite interpretation of the system. It’s not simply tied to the world of The Dragon Empire or the rules in the 13th Age book.

The system is D&D and, even with the tweaks and changes they’ve made, it is how we all know it. In fact, I like the changes they’ve made and would recommend this even without the Icons or the One Unique Thing implementations. It’s still a great game in it’s own right and I find the system much more playable with enough detail to make the game feel very rounded and full but not too much to make it feel overly complicated. There is a feeling, however, that this game has been designed with experienced players in mind. Whenever I read a new game I always come at it from the perspective of a first-time roleplayer, a person new to the RPG hobby, and I never got the feeling that this really caters for gamers who have never picked up a roleplaying game before. It’s written as if the reader is already familiar with RPGs and D&D in particular.

Another thing I liked was the little snippets of personal out-the-game information and examples supplied by Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo. They give you insights into how to use the new ideas, how they used them in their games, and lots of other stuff besides. It’s very handy and work well as examples as to how to implement certain rules into your game. It’s handy, informative and makes the game feel very personal.

I can very highly recommend 13th Age, both as a general OGL D&D game - as the changes and streamlining of the rules is very good - and the new Icon and One Unique Thing rules make for an incredibly well put together story-driven system that marries narrative games with old-school roleplaying goodness.

Review - X-Wing Miniatures Game

Along with Jedi News Editor Mark Newbold, we were thrilled earlier in the year to be invited to play test the new Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing Miniatures Game by the gang over at Titan Games in Lichfield.

We had a fantastic battle, the results of which you'll see in the video and we're pleased to report that the game is fantastic and comes highly recommended. Here's a brief video review, featuring the music of the awesome James Semple.

Genesis

This photo was taken today while I was accompanying my son to a swimming lesson at the secondary school I used to attend in the 1980s. The set of windows on the ground floor tucked into the corner is Room 1A; well, it was back then, I have no ideas what it is now.

I went to Netherstowe Comprehensive School from 1982 to 1987. It wasn't the greatest time of my life and nor was it the worst as I simply kind of existed there, I never got involved in any of the groups and I pretty much kept myself to myself. School came and went.

I was already into fantasy and science fiction before I came here and it was something that I did on my own. I never had a solid circle of friends and those I did know weren't really into the same things that I was. I met my best friend Mark in 1983 and we soon hit it off with our shared love of Star Wars.

But in 1984 I was invited to Room 1A at the school to take part in 'Dungeons & Dragons' club. And for the first time ever I mixed with like-minded people who wanted to use their imaginations and indulge in the stranger things in life.

And for the first time, I actually felt comfortable. I didn't mind talking about what it was I enjoyed doing and I shared my love of all things strange and fantastical. I never felt awkward and I never felt like I needed to hide my passions. I felt liberated, and a great sense of relief washed over me; I wasn't alone.

It was all thanks to this room. I've not stood here, on the grounds of the school, for 26 years, more than quarter of a century. Seeing the room and remembering what happened in there hit me pretty hard and I started laughing as the memories washed over me.

A couple of people looked at me like I was crazy. But I didn't care.