I play a lot of games. Being unemployed for a portion of this year, it was easy to make this happen!<\/p>\n
I don’t really make New Years’ Resolutions, but I did decide that this year I would try out more story games. Until now, Amber<\/strong> was basically the limit of my involvement in this type of system. I figured, there have to be a few others out there that grab me, right? I did found a new winners. Here are a few of the highlights.<\/p>\n Star Wars – Edge of the Empire:<\/strong>\u00a0I got both the hardback, full version and the beginner’s boxed set. The boxed set would make a fantastic introduction to roleplaying, while the hardback book is well-written and fun. Be warned that if your group, like mine, loves Jedi and Force users, this game has minimal support for them. 2015 will see the release of Force and Destiny<\/strong>, which will provide full support for Force users. We played a couple of sessions of this, but I’m just kind of burnt out on Star Wars right now, which is a shame, because I’d like to see how this die mechanic works a little more.<\/p>\n Fate:<\/strong> I didn’t get to run or play any Fate games, but I picked up Fate Core<\/strong>, Fate Accelerated Edition (FAE)<\/strong>, and Strands of Fate<\/strong> (and its sourcebook, Strands of Power<\/strong>). Core<\/strong> is … not bad? It looks like it could be fun, but it’s just not screaming “play me!” in tones I can hear. FAE<\/strong> seems like another great game for pickup games and new gamers, but the real winner for me is Strands<\/strong>. I haven’t loved a new game like this in a long\u00a0long<\/em> time. All the attention seems to be on Core<\/strong> right now, but Strands<\/strong> is much more to my liking. Maybe it’s because it’s crunchier, maybe because the writing and examples in these two dense tomes are so goddamn inspiring, but Strands<\/strong> has grabbed me like a rabid, starving dog and shook me. And I like that it did that. I am working on converting a couple of my old campaign settings to Strands<\/strong> right now, although I haven’t gotten to run it yet. Go buy Strands of Fate<\/strong> and Strands of Power<\/strong> now (http:\/\/www.voidstarstudios.com\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n Thirteenth Age:<\/strong>\u00a0Remember how I said Fate Core<\/strong> just didn’t do it for me? Same here. I wanted to like it so much. The Escalation Die is worth stealing for other games, the Icons and the setting-sketch is fantastic, but the more I read, the more I realized I’d rather just be playing\u00a0Swords and Wizardry<\/strong>\u00a0in this setting. All that said, it is a very fun-looking game, and I can see why people might like it. Maybe the problem is that the Archmage Engine is based so much on D&D 4th Edition, which really didn’t work for me or my group, either. I read it cover to cover and will probably be trading or selling it some time soon. Maybe D&D 5th Edition (Dear God, I hate the term ‘D&D Next’) will be better than 4th, but if Thirteenth Age<\/strong> is D&D 4.5, nope, sorry.<\/p>\n My love for old school games continues. I added the AD&D reprints to my collection, and found another new love.<\/span><\/p>\n Swords and Wizardry Complete:<\/strong> So far S&W is tied with Dungeon Crawl Classics<\/strong> for my favorite OSR game. The author is Matt Finch, and his capsule advice “Imagine the hell out of it” seems like it should be the motto of the OSR itself. So many thanks to Erik Tenkar of Tenkar’s Tavern (http:\/\/www.tenkarstavern.com\/<\/a>) for bringing this game to my (and many other peoples’) attention. I’m running a Swords & Wizardry<\/strong> game right now for my group (running the Anomalous Subsurface Environment http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/spotlight\/PatW<\/a>), and it’s been a blast.<\/p>\n OSRIC:<\/strong> This game started out as a vehicle for publishers to release AD&D materials, and it’s true to its lineage. AD&D was a huge mound of loosely-coupled rules, and it was easy to tinker without breaking anything, even on the fly. I’ll admit I love it partly for nostalgia, but for new gamers, I firmly believe they should get a chance to play the old games and learn to judge them for themselves, for each game’s own unique flavor. I’m running an OSRIC<\/strong> game for my wife right now.<\/p>\n