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10 More Zombie Survival Intro Scenarios

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Last year I shared a list of 10 Random Zombie Survival Intro Scenarios based on my ad-hoc zombie survival/horror game (which is kinda like a DCC Funnel but set in the modern world, and with zombies). It was actually one of the most popular posts I ever wrote on this site (people still really seem to like zombies , go figure) so I thought it was time for a sequel. Last time the set-ups were pretty standard fare. Scenarios you've seen in many zombie movies, games and books. A rag-tag bunch of strangers, thrown together in an every day situation (a crashed bus, locked in a mall, hiding in a cabin in the woods) and they must survive the overwhelming onslaught of the undead. Death is rampant and expected (each player begins with four 0-level characters), and only the best (or more likely luckiest) will survive. This time a few of the scenarios are quite a bit weirder and may take some more prep work. If you don't want them, don't pick them, or if you roll them randomly,

Casting the D&D TV Show, Season 3

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It's that time again! No, it's not time for me to clean my gutters (it certainly needs to be done, but I don't see myself ever getting around to doing it). It's time for me to fantasy cast that every-elusive TV show that should have happened years ago, Dungeons & Dragons! A new Dungeons & Dragons movie is actually currently in the works, set to start filming next year and supposedly starring Ansel Egort (I'm not sure if that's the actor's name or his D&D character), but until this damn thing actually happens I'm going to keep making up my own show in my head. Hell, I'll probably keep doing it even after the movie comes out, because I assume it will be better than whatever Hollywood spews out anyway. To get you up to speed: In Season One , a Badass Crew of adventurers team up under the leadership of Sir Brador (Jonathan Banks) to bring down a rebellion led by Ezbar (John Leguizamo). The crew is hired by the weird and creepy Ba

Home Brew Black Ocean RPG

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About 6 months ago I read through all of JS Morin's Black Ocean series.  These are short novellas, episodic in nature and feel a lot like the TV show Firefly where a crew of a ship gets up to silly hi-jinx while always looking for the next job, the next score, or the next get rich quick scheme. The whole time I was reading the series, I felt like there was potential for a  RPG to be based on this setting.  It has all the essentials - an easy to sum up background, potential for fun quirky characters, and a familiar enough feel to get the uninitiated in to it.  Keep this last point in mind while I tell this next part... Yep, this gets complicated.... A group of 6 or 7 of us have been playing a D6 Star Wars adventure fairly regularly for the past 4 months or so - typically meeting on Skype twice a month.  While not everyone can make it every time, we've managed to keep a fun adventure going with different characters popping in and out as available.  to be fair we're pre

Roleplaying Blind

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To clarify, this post has nothing to do about playing a visually-impaired character, or playing a game whilst being visually-impaired yourself. In retrospect, it was probably a terrible idea for a title. Sometimes it's nice to have no idea what you're doing. On Friday I went into a game with a nearly complete blank slate. As I've said in the past, it's very unusual for me to play in a game (instead of game mastering), so when a number of my regulars couldn't make it to our Star Wars campaign , I quite happily agreed to let one of the players run a game of his own. It meant a change of pace for everyone and a bit of a break for me. The game was a homebrew D6-hack based on JS Morin's " Black Ocean " series of novel s. I didn't know the system (it was the GM's own invention and his first time running it) and I've never read the books, so I had absolutely no knowledge of the setting. I had made my own character with the scant informati

Playing RPGs with a 4-Year-Old is Exactly the Same as Playing with 35-Year-Olds

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I had a funny experience a couple weekends ago. On Saturday night I played what is rapidly-becoming one of my new favourite games, Dungeon World. (We'll ignore for a moment that one of the players brought a Super-Flu into the house that knocked out my entire family for 2 weeks, which is why it took me so long to write this). On Sunday morning, I played "Secret Lab" with my 4-year old son, which is basically sitting in a blanket fort making up "secrets," which usually end up being variations of "I stole treasure from the chocolate factory and hid it in the back yard." Guess what? Turns out they're both exactly the same game. Stick with me here. For those not familiar,  Dungeon World  is a "de-crunched" version of  Dungeons & Dragons  where the rules have been dialed back to allow more room for storytelling. It is of course based on another game,  Apocalypse World,  which is a similar set of rules used in a post-apocalyptic

Revisiting Star Wars, the Greatest RPG of All Time

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It's been five years since I started writing for Rule of the Dice, and a lot has changed in my life since then. Having two kids is certainly the biggest event(s), and publishing my first novel was also cool. But of particular interest to this blog is how my outlook on and taste in role-playing games have changed. One of my first posts here was fawning over my favourite game of all time, the old D6 Star Wars RPG by West End Games. Recently I've started running a Star Wars campaign again for the first time in many years, thanks in part to the buzz and excitement provided by the first good Star Wars movie in many, many years. Yet playing this game again regularly for the first time since I was a kid has struck me with an odd thought: I'm not sure if I still like it as much anymore. In honour of my new game, the new movie and my five-year anniversary with Rule of the Dice, I thought I would revisit my previous argument and touch on the five reasons why I originally stat

My Biggest Issue With The Force Awakens is Not What You Think

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Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed The Force Awakens. It was familiar and just felt like an updated version of something I loved as a kid, paying homage to it lovingly while adding enough new touches to open up a new world for future stories. But therein lies the problem, at least from a gaming perspective. A day or two after I saw the film, I sat down to stat out the characters and ships for use in a game. (Everyone does this right? You see the world around you in terms of RPG statistics? For instance, I know my boss has a really high bureaucracy skill, but a middling command/charisma. My Hyundai Elantra has a pitiful maneuverability and movement score, but it has decent cargo capacity for a vehicle its size. My kids have amazing saving throws - all kids do, otherwise they would never survive all the dumb stuff they do.) Anyway, I started statting out the material from the movie in a system I know ( Star Wars D6 ), comparing it to existing material in the system as a ba

The Lamest Magic Swords of All Time

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Excalibur. Narsil. Stormbringer. Shieldbreaker. The Vorpal Sword. Lauralee . These are mighty swords of power and legend, of myth and song, blades that shall be remembered until the end of time. The following blades, however, are probably best forgotten. Not every sword can be an artifact of immense power. Not every sword is even a boring "long sword +1." And not every sword can be cursed. Some swords, despite their enchantment and pomp and circumstance, are merely, "meh." These are those swords. Sword of Itching The grey, rough blade of this sword chips and splinters easily. A fine powder - like iron filings - flakes off it almost constantly. When it's first found in its scabbard, if it hasn't been used in awhile it's probably even covered with a layer of rust and corrosion. This irritating, flaky oxidized iron powder is transferred to anyone wounded by the blade, and will remain in the victim's body if they survive being struck by the

The Swords of Splatter-Elf

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Splatter Elf's back, man! Well, as a literary genre, it's never gone anywhere and is actually alive and well in the a new series of stories by Philip T.D. Overby (they're available on Amazon !). But now, for the first time in quite a while, Splatter Elf the game makes a triumphant return. The main character in Philip's stories is a half-elf mercenary obsessed with collecting swords, so I decided to stat out a few of her favourite weapons for use in Splatter Elf: The RPG . Now, these weapons are specifically designed for the SE version 0.3 rules, which have not been widely shared, but you get the idea. Also of note, these are completely unofficial versions of the weapons and how I envisioned them to be used in the game. Philip would have his own take on them, which obviously supersedes anything I say here. Hey Phil, does this mean you've now generated your first fan fiction? Lauralee "The warped, cracked blade looked like hammered shit, but i