Gaming

Gaming has been a long time passion of mine. Over the course of the past 18 years, I've played or been exposed to almost every system in existance, and I have to consider myself somewhat of an expert on the topic. I've dabbled in game design, even to the extent of creating a game for submission to a major company (which sadly never saw release), and redesigning a major aspect of the rules mechanics for one of the most popular RPG's out there today (which DID see print, but not with any credit to me...note to any game designers, never send in your work to someone who works for a game company and ask "What do you think about this?" unless you already have it iron-clad copyrighted. 

    Below are a listing of the games that I'm familiar with, as well as a little blurb about them, information about them, and possible more detailed listings for some of the best campaigns that I've been involved with over the long years. While I realize that most of it won't mean much to the average reader, the campaigns that I list here have been the very best of the best of an eighteen-year period, and the characters herein really do have a life of their own. If you take the time to get to know them, they're probably at least as interesting as the characters in your average novel...maybe more! 

    Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is the classic RPG...let's face it, it's the game that most of us probably first got into roleplaying with, it's the one that has the most press, etc...etc. It also has among the worst reputation among gamers, who tend to feel they've "grown out" of it. Kludgy rules, out-of-date suppliments, and the constant money-sucking juggernaut that is T$R. 
  
    But the simple fact of the matter is that these days, after Wizards of the Coast took over TSR, they've managed to do a pretty good job of turning it around. AD&D 3rd Edition (yes, I KNOW they say it's still Second Edition, but anyone who has looked at the Player's Option books knows it's Third Edition). It's now a point-based system, which gets away from a lot of the goofy randomness, and allows players to play characters the way they WANT (Want a wizard who uses a longsword, like Gandalf? No problem...). The Forgotten Realms campaign setting is a good, well-rounded world, rich in NPC's, history, and plenty of plot elements. These days, you can play a good AD&D campaign without needing to completely ignore ALL the rules (though they still have a few genuinely stupid ones to get rid of...). 

    Below are a few of the elements that have been truly memorable over the years for me in AD&D: 

    The Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game is quite possibly the finest system and concept I've ever come across in roleplaying. Let's face it...why are there dice in roleplaying? To provide a random element, true, but also to remove the countless "I hit you! No you didn't!!" arguments that pop up like a kid's game of Cowboys and Indians. 
  
    The Amber system avoids this by creating a point-based ranking system, and the simple concept that if you are better than your opponent, you win, unless your roleplay determines something otherwise (What a concept...you mean I have to ROLEPLAY my fight instead of just throwing dice? Wow...). It's also set in the same universe as Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, which means that you can incorporate virtually ANY setting or genre into the game, and still be able to run it with as much or as little crossover as you like.  It has the distinction of being one of the most intricate and difficult games to Gamemaster, due to the fact that your NPC's are phenominally more intelligent than normal humans (and you, as the GM, are a normal human), and immortal. That means that you have to be able to think on about twenty different levels at once. Definately a hard game to run...but one of the most rewarding, especially if you have good players. 

    Below are a couple elements that I'll always remember from running Amber: 

    Champions/Hero System is one of my personal favorites, just because it's really the only attempt at a truly universal system that I've really seen WORK. With it, you can do fantasy roleplaying, martial arts, westerns, superheroic, espionage, and just about anything else. The modular nature of the powers enables you to construct just about anything, and since you define the special effects, a 2d6 Killing Attack might be a .44 magnum in an espionage game, a Colt Peacemaker in a western, a wakizashi in a martial arts game, a Magic Dart spell for fantasy, and so on. 

    The Champions rules are a bit pricier than most starting games, at $35.00 - $50.00 to get into it...but you can also genuinely play with that ONE book, unlike most systems, where you really can't, even though they say you can. It only has the downside of having a new rules system, since the ownership seems to keep changing. The new Champions "Fuzion" system has some GREAT roleplaying concepts...and some TERRIBLE rules. The original rules ARE complicated...but that complexity gave them great versatility and power. In an attempt to dumb them down, they succeeded in simplifying them, but turned a good system into a much less flexible, and overall lame rules system. 

    Below are memorable moments and people from Champions games... 

    DC Heroes was an attempt by Mayfair Games to try and create a Superhero roleplaying system to reflect the characters within their comics. Unfortunately, the system isn't terribly efficent. As far as the mechanics go, it's average...not bad, and not good. And it works well if you want to play actual DC Comics characters, who are already pre-statted out. 
  
    Unfortunately, when it comes to playing original characters, the game falls a little short. It's hard to make new characters, and even harder for them to fit in with the already-established ones. The stock powers they list in the book lack the Champions-ish advantages and limitations, which means they're not as flexible, and it's just not as easy to make the character that you might have in your mind come to life within the framework of the stats there. 

    Below are a couple memorable setups from DC Heroes games: 

    Earthdawn is an excellent game that is probably the best fantasy game I've yet seen. The system is streamlined and balanced, character creation goes quickly, and the concepts are VERY good. The source materials are very good on presenting a feel of the world (although they COULD stand to provide a little more hard data), and it has the best setup for magical items that I've yet seen. 

    The only problem with the Earthdawn game is that it's not going to be out there anymore!! That's right, yet another great game has fallen by the wayside because it couldn't be simplified down into sterilized mental pablum for the lowest common denominator. 

Elfquest 

Immortal 

Marvel Super Heroes 

Rifts/Palladium 

Shadowrun 

Star Trek 

Star Wars 

Storyteller System 

Torg