General Gamery: Civil War X-men

I WAS just going to talk about the newest game book that holds my name in the credits, but I kinda think I should give a bit of backstory first:

I am very lucky as a freelancer. I have very good friends.

A few years ago at Gencon, I met a game designer that had written the best Dragonlance adventures I had ever read- Cam Banks. Cam worked as a writer for Margaret Weis Productions (I know! Margaret Weis!) and his success in writing for the 3.5 version of Dragonlance helped to catapult him to writing his own novel in the Dragonlance universe, The Sellsword.

At the time, I was shopping around an early draft of Superhuman to try to get the opinions of better, more seasoned game designers than myself. And somehow, Superhuman stayed in the back of Cam's mind. A year or two later, Cam contacted me to work on an unnamed super-hero game for Margaret Weis productions. That game turned out to be the award-winning Smallville Roleplaying Game.

I got to see my name in print by someone other than my own labels, I got to work on a masterfully innovative project, and I got to work with phenomenally talented game designers to work on one of the greatest collaborations of my life. I was awed, and soaked in every word of advice from my fellow designers- even when they didn't realize they were giving it.

While Smallville was earning well-deserved accolades for innovation in roleplaying, Cam and Co. at Margaret Weis Productions were preparing to reveal their most impressive coup. MWP had landed the Marvel I.P. and were going to begin a series of gamebooks that were going to be Event-centric.

In the Q&A after their initial announcement, I asked the question that was nipping at my noggin- was Annihilation one of those events? As a lifelong Nova fan, Annihilation was high on my list of great Marvel Events, and of course Cam answered a bonafide "Yes." I practically assaulted him to beg to be allowed to write a few words in the Annihilation book. Cam just smiled, he'd already planned to have me aboard for that Event. He was well aware of my Nova fixation. I spent the rest of Gencon on cloud 9 (No, not the kid from the Initiative. Get your head out of the gutter!).

Working from the foundation that Smallville and her sister ship, Leverage, had started with updating Cortex into Cortex Plus, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying was a breath of fresh air in the superhero genre of Roleplaying. This was some of the best stuff to come out of a game house, and if the supplements were 25% as good as the Operations Manual, they would number among the best supplements written.

Cam tries to keep the team from an Event book working on the supplements, which is a great writing model. By the time an Event book is done, the writers are already intimately familiar with the major players and themes involved and are truly invested in the story. For example, for Annihilation, I'm lucky enough to see my name in the credits for the War of Kings and Thanos Imperative books that will follow the Annihilation Event book.

But for the Civil War supplements, births and illnesses sidelined some of the talented writers, so Cam sent out the call from within his exisiting freelancers. He needed writers to fill the vacated spots and fast. Of course, I volunteered. One of the places left blank was Peter David's amazing run on X-Factor. I had to be a part of it.

By the time I had begun to adapt the Civil War-era X-Factor books to the mighty Marvel manner of gaming, I was already an old hat at it. Other than my tendency to ramble on... over and over...I understood the structure involved and had the time of my life bringing my little corner of the Event to life.

While in the comics, I didn't enjoy Marvel's Civil War nearly as much as Annihilation, I can't be anything but totally impressed with what MWP has brought to gaming in the Civil War Event book. It allows so much flexability to the event and shows so many sides.. it's just..spectacular.  And Civil War: X-men adds to that experience, especially when seen through mutant colored lenses.

Civil War: X-men is available for preorder in dead tree form from Margaret Weis Productions for 19.99 (with a free pdf) or you can get the pdf from Drive Thru RPG for 12.99.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

~Joe

A Tragic Goodbye

This isn't really game related, but I needed somewhere to talk about this.

My twenties were defined by my friends. In the long, long nights we spent at the Peter Pan Diner and out and about on Long Island, friendships were forged that could never truly be extinguished. My co-conspirators were Abed and Jamie. The three of us were mostly inseparable. If one of us was going out, usually one or both of the others weren't far behind.

Jamie was introspective, but stalwart and reliable. He was the one to call a spade a spade, but never when it would hurt the wrong person. Abed was fun personified. If you were down for any reason, it was his neverending goal to remove the cause of your discomfort. I don't know what my role was, really, but we were 3 peas in a pod. Women came and went, but Jamie and Abed were always there.

Until recently. We lost Abed. He has no idea how much we already miss him.

When I crashed my car into a van at the diner, Abed helped me hammer out the dent in my trunk until 3 in the morning in the Toys-R-Us parking lot to keep my parents from seeing it. we did a piss-poor job, but that's beyond the point.

I remember racing Briareos (my yellow Sentra) against his old Ventura up and down Ocean Parkway. His car was faster, but I was a better driver (Abed would probably beg to differ). I think I won that one.

He was my barhopping partner, always willing to play Wingman and never letting his awesome light eyes get in the way of his friend's choice in girls.

When my band started getting some notice around Long Island, Abed was our first and best fan. He made it his duty to promote us in anyway he could and sang along to every song we wrote.

When we couldn't get everyone together for game, Jamie, Abed and I would play alone (usually with me GMing). In Shadowrun, Jamie had Misery and Abed had Kamahl (gods I hope I spelled that right). In Marvel, Abed created Mad Season, and in White Wolf... actually I don't remember his character. He might have been running that one instead of me.

Needless to say, Abed was an enormous part of of my life. And it is now far poorer without him.

Goodbye my friend. You are loved and you are missed.

General Gamery: The Red Dragon Inn- Appetizer

A few months ago, the president of Slugfest Games, makers of the beloved Red Dragon Inn Card Game, asked me to help write a teaser for a Pathfinder compatible RPG product related to their popular Red Dragon Inn line. Of course, as a huge fan of the Red Dragon Inn, I jumped at the chance.

Appetizer was a lot of fun to write. I got to write up two of my favorite characters from Red Dragon Inn, got to expand on the drinking rules for Pathfinder, and best of all, got to work with two of my closest friends- Dave and Jeph.

Appetizer is just a teaser, however, for the upcoming Red Dragon Inn: Guide to Inns and Taverns. While I'm not directly involved in the writing of the guide, I have high hopes for my buddies in Slugfest. They'll do me proud! It's on Kickstarter as you are reading this, so go check it out!

The Appetizer can be found on Paizo's website for free and we will be handing it out at Gencon.

Enjoy.

Marvel Burger #1 (redux)- The Man Called Nova

Sorry I haven't updated in over a month, but I've been hard at work on two major projects. One is the teaser book for the Red Dragon Inn Adventure Series coming out at Origins this year (more on that after it is released) and the other has gotten me thinking about this column. First, I wasn't happy with Zorr, so I wanted to freshen him up rules-wise and make him look all prettified like the Watcher Characters in the Marvel Heroic Basic Game. And secondly, I'm not happy about the idea of not including Scenes to make the entire Man Called Nova series playable- so that's what I'm going to do. Not only will I give a synopsis, and datafiles but I will include relevant scenes for Watchers to use on their players.

Good thing I didn't get too far- heh.

So, here is how that last post SHOULD have looked:


The Man Called Nova #1
Release: September 1976
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: Joe Sinnot
Letters: Joe Rosen

While dying Nova Centurion Prime Rhomann Dey pilots his massive starship to Earth, trying to chase down the space pirate Zorr, seventeen year old high school student Richard Rider is playing a guys vs. girls basketball game on the basketball court at his high school, Harry S. Truman High School in Hempstead, New York. Due to a bad block, Rich allows his opponent, Donna-Lee Dover to score the game winning basket. After the loss, Mike Burley, all around jerk on campus, yells at Rich for his performance on the court and tosses him aside in frustration. Rich's friend, Ginger Jaye, rushes to Rich's side to console him as Rich wallows in his own failure, but he eventually agrees to go with her to the local ice cream parlor, Uncle Fudge's.

Ignorant to Ginger's affection for him, Rich begins to feel better thanks to her attentions. Unfortunately, Mike Burley shows up at uncle Fudge's to make him feel worse, knocking him off his seat in his greeting. At the same time, 800,000 miles above the Earth, Nova Prime Rhomann Dey laments the destruction of the planet Xandar at Zorr's hands. Paralyzed by Zorr and unable to fight the space pirate in his condition, the Nova Prime transfers his powers via an invisible mind blast to a random human with hopes the power he bestows won't make a greater evil than the one he needs help defeating. Back on Long Island, the blast strikes Rich and sends the high school student into a deep coma.

While Rich recovers in Hempstead Hospital, Rhomann Dey telepathically tells Rich of the centurion powers he has inherited, the horrors Zorr inflicted, and most importantly his duties as the new Nova Prime. Rich wakes up in a panic and gravimetric beams shoot our of his eyes blasting a hole in the hospital wall and nearly hitting his doctor. When Rich finally returns to school, his musings about what he had learned from Dey distract him from his class, but suddenly, he finds he knows the answer to a difficult math question right off the top of his head. This makes him reconsider the idea that Rhomann Dey was a dream, since math was always Rich's worst subject. Upon his return home, no longer denying the abilities bestowed upon him, Rich changes into the man called Nova!

Souring through the skies, Rich tries out the new powers he knows about: flight, strength, and stamina; when his helmet tunes into the police band and Rich decides it's time for a real test. That real test ends up being the  man Rhomman Dey charged Rich with defeating, Zorr! The new Nova manages to avoid most of Zorr's attacks, even landing a few hits of his own, but when Zorr decides to crush Nova with an apartment building, Rich decides to save an occupant opening him up for Zorr's attack. The arrival of Ginger, Mike and Donna-Lee distracts Rich, so he over-calculates his trajectory in avoiding Zorr's attack and collides with the damaged  apartment building. Despite the fact that it will open him up to another attack, Nova holds up the building's weight long enough for his friends to get away. When he returns to the fight, Nova sees Zorr disappear into thin air. Giving his life in the process, Rhomann Dey had used the last of his power to teleport Zorr to his starship, finally defeating him in his death. This leaves Rich alone to learn about his new powers and decide his own fate as Nova.

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying:

I'm not going to do a write up for Rich Rider/Nova since it stands to reason that the pre-Annihilation Wave version of Nova will appear in the Annihilation book in July. By the same logic, I'm not going to stat up Rhomann Dey as Nova Prime because we have yet to see how the Nova Corps is handled in that book. I can always come back to write them up later.  That leaves Zorr.

Action: Enter: Zorr the Conqueror
Zorr has decided to take refuge on Earth temporarily. Tormented by the destruction of his world by Galactus, Zorr has stopped conquering planets, instead he destroys them and siphons their energies into his orbiting space ship. The destruction of Xandar didn't fill his energy reserves with enough power to take on the Devourer of Worlds, so Earth is to be next. Fortunately, he was hounded by the Nova Prime, and though he believes Rhomann Dey to be dying, he's not taking any chances in attacking the planet from orbit. Instead he is "hiding" on the planet. But Zorr's idea of hiding is destroying everything in sight- in this case, Manhattan!

Zorr knows how to handle heroic defenders. If he is outnumbered or faced with an obvious threat, he will throw heroes into buildings or wreck the structures himself creating COLLAPSING BUILDINGS or ENDANGERED CIVILIANS complications in order to force the heroes to waste their time in saving civilians or stopping buildings from crashing to the ground. The moment they have their back turned, rather than run away, Zorr will use the chance to attack the heroes while their defenses are down.

The scene ends when Zorr or the heroes run off.

Options with Enter: Zorr the Conqueror

• If one of the heroes wears the uniform of a Nova Corps member, Zorr will focus his attacks on that hero, believing them to be Rhomann Dey or sent by the dying Nova Prime.
• If the battle begins to go badly for the heroes and one or more of them are stressed out, Rhomann Dey can use the last of his energy to teleport Zorr to the dying Nova Prime's orbiting space ship. The endeavor takes the lives of both Zorr and Rhomann Dey.

That's all folks- see you next time with The First Night of the Condor!
~Joe

Marvel Burger #1- The Man Called Nova

The Man Called Nova #1
Release: September 1976
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: Joe Sinnot
Letters: Joe Rosen

While dying Nova Centurion Prime Rhomann Dey pilots his massive starship to Earth, trying to chase down the space pirate Zorr, seventeen year old high school student Richard Rider is playing a guys vs. girls basketball game on the basketball court at his high school, Harry S. Truman High School in Hempstead, New York. Due to a bad block, Rich allows his opponent, Donna-Lee Dover to score the game winning basket. After the loss, Mike Burley, all around jerk on campus, yells at Rich for his performance on the court and tosses him aside in frustration. Rich's friend, Ginger Jaye, rushes to Rich's side to console him as Rich wallows in his own failure, but he eventually agrees to go with her to the local ice cream parlor, Uncle Fudge's.

Ignorant to Ginger's affection for him, Rich begins to feel better thanks to her attentions. Unfortunately, Mike Burley shows up at uncle Fudge's to make him feel worse, knocking him off his seat in his greeting. At the same time, 800,000 miles above the Earth, Nova Prime Rhomann Dey laments the destruction of the planet Xandar at Zorr's hands. Paralyzed by Zorr and unable to fight the space pirate in his condition, the Nova Prime transfers his powers via an invisible mind blast to a random human with hopes the power he bestows won't make a greater evil than the one he needs help defeating. Back on Long Island, the blast strikes Rich and sends the high school student into a deep coma.

While Rich recovers in Hempstead Hospital, Rhomman Dey telepathically tells Rich of the centurion powers he has inherited, the horrors Zorr inflicted, and most importantly his duties as the new Nova Prime. Rich wakes up in a panic and gravimetric beams shoot our of his eyes blasting a hole in the hospital wall and nearly hitting his doctor. When Rich finally returns to school, his musings about what he had learned from Dey distract him from his class, but suddenly, he finds he knows the answer to a difficult math question right off the top of his head. This makes him reconsider the idea that Rhomman Dey was a dream, since math was always Rich's worst subject. Upon his return home, no longer denying the abilities bestowed upon him, Rich changes into the man called Nova!

Souring through the skies, Rich tries out the new powers he knows about: flight, strength, and stamina; when his helmet tunes into the police band and Rich decides it's time for a real test. That real test ends up being the  man Rhomman Dey charged Rich with defeating, Zorr! The new Nova manages to avoid most of Zorr's attacks, even landing a few hits of his own, but when Zorr decides to crush Nova with an apartment building, Rich decides to save an occupant opening him up for Zorr's attack. The arrival of Ginger, Mike and Donna-Lee distracts Rich, so he over-calculates his trajectory in avoiding Zorr's attack and collides with the damaged  apartment building. Despite the fact that it will open him up to another attack, Nova holds up the building's weight long enough for his friends to get away. When he returns to the fight, Nova sees Zorr disappear into thin air. Giving his life in the process, Rhomman Dey had used the last of his power to teleport Zorr to his starship, finally defeating him in his death. This leaves Rich alone to learn about his new powers and decide his own fate as Nova.

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying:

I'm not going to do a write up for Rich Rider/Nova since it stands to reason that the pre-Annihilation Wave version of Nova will appear in the Annihilation book in July. By the same logic, I'm not going to stat up Rhomann Dey as Nova Prime because we have yet to see how the Nova Corps is handled in that book. I can always come back to write them up later.  That leaves Zorr.

Zorr the Conquerer
Zorr was one of the few Luphmoid survivors after Galactus destroyed his planet, only surviving because he was offworld invading another planet. He is responsible for destroying the Nova Corps homeworld, Xandar. As a result, Nova Prime Rhomman Dey chases him to Earth, where he is taking refuge.


Affiliations: Solo d10, Buddy d8, Team d6


Distinctions: Destructive, Planet Killer, Zorr will Conquer!


Power Sets:
Luphmoid Conquerer
Enhanced Stamina d8, Godlike Strength d12, Superhuman Durability d10, Weapon d10
SFX: Area Attack. Target multiple opponents. For every additional target, add d6 and keep +1 effect die.
SFX: Invulnerable. Spend d6 from the doom pool to ignore physical stress or trauma.
Limit: Exausted. Add d6 doom and shut down any Luphmoid Conquerer trait. Activate an opportunity to recover.


Specialties: Combat Expert, Cosmic Master, Menace Master, Tech Expert





That's it for this week's Marvel Burger. See you next week for Condor and Powerhouse!
~Joe

Things to come....

Hello Fearless Readers!

Starting this weekend, I plan to add a new column to Underwear on the Outside. "Marvel Burger" will marry my favorite bronze age comic, The Man Called Nova, and the roleplaying hobby I love. Not only will I give a short summary of the plot each of the twenty-five issues (one or two issues a week), but I will give you a write-up of each of the characters (heroes and villains) that appear in each issue for the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game. I will, of course, only mention but not stat up heroes that we can expect to show up in upcoming supplements of MHR or the current Operations Manual, focusing instead on the characters we may never see.

I want to take a look at each issue with a gamer's perspective in the same way that Steve Kenson approached the first season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest heroes in his Avengers Assembled column on his blog. And only hope I can do so with as much charm and skill as he did.

Interspersed with those articles, I will still toss in my usual posts including an update for my Blood Bowl team with some awesome pics.

Hope you'll tune in!

~Joe

Reviews: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying- A Phenomenon in the Making

I wanted to give Marvel Heroic a couple weeks to simmer before I reviewed it. I wanted to have the book in my hands (which I do), and be able to dive into its pages in order to give a well reasoned review. But, like last month's review of DC Adventures, I also wanted to give this a bit of background first.

A History Lesson

Marvel Superheroes Role Playing Game - TSR (1984)

Ah, FASERIP Marvel...how you colored my superhero roleplaying from the get go...

In 1984, TSR scored the Marvel License based on the success of their pioneering Dungeons & Dragons. Marvel Superheroes (or sometimes "Marvel FASERIP"- a reference to the character attributes: Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, and Psyche.) was a wildly successful superhero RPG in the early days of roleplaying. It could be argued that this game was a major influence for all superhero roleplaying that followed. I know it was probably the biggest influence for my work on both Smallville and Superhuman and singlehandedly brought the monstrous robot Dreadnoughts to the hearts and minds of superhero gamers everywhere.

The game was a percentile based game with attributes rated both in number and by varying degrees in levels like Feeble, Incredible, Amazing, Unearthly, etc (see below). Mechanically, it wasn't very difficult and emulated comic books pretty well. Even the game maps went off that premise, with spaces meant to show how far you could move or how large an area would fit in a single comic panel.While Marvel FASERIP had a robust character creation system, the emphasis was really more about playing existing Marvel characters (as there are many) and playing in a very well established universe. TSR released a metric ton of supplements for this game over a period of four years and even had a regular column in their popular Dragon Magazine called the "Marvel-phile".

My own memories of FASERIP started with playing Captain America in the Basic game in 1984 and eventually dovetailed into the Marvel Superheroes Advanced Game (pictured) in 1986 where I moved on to my own creations, Enforcer and El Capitan. Even years later, when that gaming group had moved on, I continued to break out this game in between games of Shadowrun or White Wolf and I'm delighted to see a strong following still to this day with awesome websites and a plethora of available materials still on the web.


Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game - Wizards of the Coast (1998)

The SAGA edition, as I will refer to it, was the first version of a Marvel RPG released after TSR was bought by Wizards of the Coast. I've heard that it was rushed out to avoid TSR losing the Marvel license, but it never felt that way to me. Despite my love of FASERIP, this version of the game quickly became my go-to superhero game until the release of Mutants and Masterminds  from Green Ronin in the early 2000's.

Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game uses a card based game system called SAGA that TSR created for their popular Dragonlance property.While not as successful as other versions of Dungeons & Dragons and Marvel Roleplaying, SAGA was well received critically and remains one of my all-time favorite game systems. SAGA rules eschewed multi-sided dice for a deck of cards called the Fate Deck. Fate cards were numbered and came from a variety of suits. Two or more of the same suit could be added together when played (called a "Trump") to get higher numbers. This was necessary when performing actions like skills and attacks, but also when removing cards from your hand for taking damage. Higher level characters had larger hand sizes allowing them greater opportunities.

I loved how this game allowed you to really express how much effort you were putting into a task. While low numbers showed the character not putting all that much effort into a project, big trumps showed going that extra mile- something not as easy to emulate with dice. Not to mention that the rules were simple enough that when playing a SAGA Dragonlance game, I was able to pull off 12 players without anyone feeling left out. That being said, FASERIP better emulated a comic book, but SAGA was the better game. SAGA even influenced Superhuman as major characters Chance and Downtown found their first incarnations in this game.


Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game - Marvel Comics (2003)

While full of innovation like the SAGA rules, Marvel Comic's first foray into self publishing a roleplaying game didn't hit the mark with me at all. Marvel put their all into the game, divining a system that centered on resource management, but I always thought it fell flat. Every action, if your ability was high enough to achieve it, required the use of red "stones" to represent how much of your energy reserves you were using.

Marvel was wise to use terminology that reflected the genre (like Panels to represent actions with in a round- or Page), and like it's predecessors, Marvel Universe centered on using existing Marvel characters with character creation still there, but not necessary. But the stone rules system never felt right for character driven games.. let alone a comic book game. It never organically gave me what I wanted in a Marvel game and so after several initial tries at it, I largely ignored the game and went back to SAGA or Mutants and Masterminds. The rule system isn't wholly objectional, however. I would have thoroughly enjoyed a stone system in a sci-fi game based around starships or a Mechwarrior variant- it just never belonged in my Marvel heroes.


Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game - Margaret Weis Productions (2012)

Marvel Heroic.. ah yes. I'm not going to go too far into detail about the rules here because, well, just type Marvel Heroic Review into Google- EVERYONE has already done that for me. But I should give full disclosure here: I've worked for Margaret Weis Productions before as one of the writers of the Ennie Judge's Award Winning Smallville Roleplaying Game (shameless plug)- the first game honored with the fantastic Cortex Plus system. I consider MWP's staff, especially their creative director, Cam Banks, to be some of my most valued friends in this industry, and in general. I was among the playtesters for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and I will be working on a supplement in the near future for this game. That being said, I like to believe I will always call a spade a spade and call them like I see them rather than pad my resume and social circles. If the game sucked, I'd be the first to say so.

That is in no way close to what I'm saying here. I love this game. L-O-V-E.

Early Cortex products never seemed exactly right to me. With its escalating dice types, Cortex felt like the bastard son of TSR's sci-fi gem, Alternity, and didn't change much from property to property. While Firefly was my favorite television show, the Serenity Game felt lackluster in comparison: Not bad like the Farscape or Buffy Roleplaying Games, just not inspired. The rules felt like they were just stapled on, and I felt the same with Demon Hunters and Battlestar Galactica. Supernatural felt like a better fit, but that seemed to be a simple increase in quality coming out of the MWP braintrust.

I learned of Cortex Plus while working on Smallville. Cortex Plus took the heart of the old Cortex system, and made it adaptable. From property to property, no two Cortex Plus systems were the same.. the core was there, but the variations were large and noticeable. This is a very good thing. Smallville absolutely displays the back and forth banter and tropes of the modern television drama, while Leverage dives deep into the type of crime capers that not only show the charm of the source material, but films like the Italian Job and the Ocean's flicks.

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game takes that idea and runs with it.

From comic terminology to an inspired initiative system, MHR embraces its comic roots and wears it proudly on its sleeve. For me, there are three parts that really stand out and make it my new go-to gaming experience.

First, Affiliations. While Smallville relies heavily on its relationships, and MHR follows suit in a very Marvel way. Rather than centering on the interpersonal relationships, the Affiliations reflect how well the character interact with each other and with three simple stats show you the cardinal difference between characters like Captain America, Luke Cage, and Wolverine. The fact that it is circumstantial offers a great deal of ROLE-playing opportunities simply to negotiate that simple attribute.

Character Creation in Marvel has been called nonexistent by some, but to me, better emulates the discussion between writers and editors in developing characters for a comic series. Of course, MHR offers lots of spandex-clad premade Marvel superheroes to play, but the character creation rules are more about imagining who your character is and putting that to paper. For the naysayers, MWP was happy enough to release a random character generator, but honestly, I'd rather create a good story about a hero and build from there than just lump in a bunch of numbers that I can ignore for story anyway. But then, I'm not as much a fan of number crunching for roleplaying. I'd rather center on the character's story and development than a bunch of numbers that belong in a board game. I'm a ROLE over ROLL kinda guy.

Finally, Milestones, the MHR experience system, appeals to me most of all. Milestones essentially reward you for acting in character or within the confines of the story. They encourage you to be true to certain characteristics (like Iron Man's alcohol issues) or to play out certain scenes that appeal to the character (Captain America's teambuilding). What I like most is that they are an agreement between the players and the gamemaster (called the Watcher) in which the player will make his character act if the Watcher frames the scene for them.  Great stuff.

Final Rating:

Underwear on the Outside uses a FASERIP rating system derived from TSR's beloved Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing Game from 1984. We will give a numerical score somewhere between 0 (for the REALLY GODAWFUL) and 1000 (for the "slit your wrists because now you can die it's that good"). These numbers fall into categories on the chart above. Through varying degrees of dislike we would likely not recommend things from Shift 0 up to Typical. We feel fairly "Meh" about Good and Excellent. We'd spend money on Remarkable and Incredible but anything above that we get into varying levels of like, love and geeking out.  There's also a little space there numerically. We may give one item a rating of 35 and another 38. Both are considered REMARKABLE, but we think one is a little better than the other. 

As a Marvel Game, Marvel Heroic stands out above the rest. But my love of two of the previous incarnations makes it only stand out barely. That isn't to it's detriment. Among a pair of games that sit as an Incredible 48 and Amazing 55 respectively in my book, Marvel Heroic rates an Amazing 60 (with Marvel Universe falling far behind as Typical 8).

However in a broader category, Marvel Heroic shines a great deal. With its comic emulation and unlockable experience usage, Marvel Heroic is pure gold as a comic book superheroes game earning a much higher rating. The usual Cortex Plus adaptability makes this one of the most hackable games in recent history and in my opinion, one of the best games of my generation. Final score: Shift X 150.

~Joe

Reviews: DC Adventures- From Bad to AWESOME!

With Marvel Heroic Roleplaying on the horizon, I thought it only fair to review the most recent role-playing venture for the DC Universe before I dive headlong into Marvel. But before I do that, I think it might be best to give a historical perspective of the DC game lines.

A History Lesson

DC Heroes - Mayfair Games (1985)

In 1985, to correspond with the release of the massive event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Mayfair Games released the first DC Roleplaying game, DC Heroes. It was meant to directly compete with the already successful Marvel Superheroes RPG.

This game marked the birth of what would eventually be known as MEGS or the Mayfair Exponential Game System. The claim to fame of the system was that it's attributes were measured exponentially allowing characters with phenomenal powers to fight alongside the average street level hero. This worked to a point, but ultimately got a bit annoying to keep track of since it affected EVERYTHING.  The best feature of this game was that it gave you pre-Crisis and post Crisis stats for all the characters to have a point of reference for either style of gaming.

DC Heroes Second Edition - Mayfair Games (1989)

Take two. Second edition refined much of what had come before but excluded the pre-Crisis character writeups. It added gadgetry rules that were a bit fiddly at the time but in my head, I remember it most for adding limitations to powers- which was a necessary evil at the time. The game still had the same dice mechanics- which is not a bad thing, but for my money, failed in light of the better FASERIP game from the house of ideas.




Batman Role-Playing Game - Mayfair Games (1989)

Batman was essentially a pared down version of the second edition DC Heroes game. However, it modified the core game by introducing Advantages and Complications that further defined the characters in much the same way as was being used in the White Wolf games of the time. Mayfair made a point of attempting to improve the annoying gadget rules from second edition and did so to a marginal degree. But considering the limited list of villains in the book, not to mention the timing with this book coming out around the same time as the first Tim Burton Batman movie, it was obvious that the Batman Role-playing game was little more than a marketing move to capitalize on the popularity of the dark knight at the time.

DC Heroes Third Edition - Mayfair Games (1993)

The third edition was really just a retooling of everything that had come before making it a bit more numerically sound. The Hero points mechanic was added to quite a bit allowing it to be more than just a do-over for bad rolls. Eventually, when Mayfair games lost the DC license, they sold this version of the MEGS ruleset to Pulsar games. Pulsar Games released a game called Blood of Heroes, which was more or less the DC Heroes game with the DC characters stripped out.

This was definitely the ultimate version of the DC Heroes line, with refinements that made for a much more balanced game. I still preferred Marvel Super Heroes, but felt that the improvements from the previous editions made it a game that would not be a bad game to have on my shelf.

DC Universe Roleplaying Game - West End Games (1999)

In '99 and into the early 2000's ( I think the game went out of print around 2002), West End Games got their hands on the DC license. West End wisely used their winning formula from games like their fairly successful pre-d20 Star Wars: The Role Playing Game, the D6 system. In the late 90's and into the early 2000's, West End Games' D6 system found it's way into a metric ton of role-playing games (much like GURPS and D20), from Ghostbusters and Men in Black, to Hercules & Xena and Indiana Jones. This was not always a perfect fit and there were variations to the main system.

For DC, the variant referred to as the Legend System was more of a success based game than other D6 games. Success based games work well for most superhero rpg's and though I found myself a far greater fan of DC Universe than it's predecessor's, I still found the game falling a bit flat. Still, West End published some pretty cool expansions like the Metropolis and Gotham City sourcebooks that are still in my collection today.

Smallville - Margaret Weis Productions (2010)

Margaret Weis Productions had already earned a name for themselves with licensed properties by the time they got the Smallville license with games like Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, and Supernatural. At the time, the existing Cortex system didn't change all that much from game to game, so it would not have fit right in the context of the TV drama that Smallville made of the DC Universe.

This was remedied in a spectacular fashion with the creation of Cortex Plus. With Cortex +, games were more closely based on their source material and though the core mechanics were the same, the games varied greatly from license to license.

I find this game exemplifies the great strides that game design has undergone since the dark days where D&D was pretty much the only way to write a game, but really shows its teeth in its adaptability. The Smallville version of DC is not for everyone, but this game can fit wherever character interaction is important. Now, despite the fact that I love this game, it is really difficult for me to be objective about it since I contributed to it as a writer.

So there that is.

DC Adventures - Green Ronin Publishing (2010)

Which leads us to the most recent game to truly tackle the DC Universe as a whole: Green Ronin's epic DC Adventures. DC Adventures began life with Mutants & Masterminds (or M&M). M&M was a refreshing take on the venerable D20 mechanics released for Dungeons & Dragons a few years earlier born from the mind of the awesome Steve Kenson. Unlike D&D that used a wide range of dice, M&M was a more "pure" D20, using only a single D20 for character actions.   It also included a Hero point system similar to the old DC Heroes mechanic.  M&M second edition refined the game further by making super powers more balanced than the previous edition, though it sacrificed a little of the smoothness of the M&M 1st edition.

When DC Adventures was finally released at Gencon 2010, it was built on the 3rd edition of Mutants & Masterminds. M&M 3rd edition got rid of many of the D20 tropes without sacrificing gameplay. Character creation was much more involved than in previous editions due mostly to the development of powers which was more akin to creating your own powers from scratch in previous editions than it was to pulling from a list. The more involved character creation resulted in a more balanced game with faster, smoother gameplay. Once you had created your characters, it was far easier to understand the character's abilities in M&M 3rd edition than it ever had been before.

However, it was ultimately built on the D20 engine which is full of crunchy numbers rather than less esoteric game systems like FATE. This is not a bad thing for DC, but from the trends I've noticed in modern game design it feels aged,  like it is a step backwards. This puts me in a quandary. I like DC Adventures, and I feel it's the best version of M&M I've seen. And despite the love and respect I have for everyone involved, I think as a game designer, I would have gone a different way.

So let's rate this thing...


Final Rating:

Underwear on the Outside uses a FASERIP rating system derived from TSR's beloved Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing Game from 1984. We will give a numerical score somewhere between 0 (for the REALLY GODAWFUL) and 1000 (for the "slit your wrists because now you can die it's that good"). These numbers fall into categories on the chart above. Through varying degrees of dislike we would likely not recommend things from Shift 0 up to Typical. We feel fairly "Meh" about Good and Excellent. We'd spend money on Remarkable and Incredible but anything above that we get into varying levels of like, love and geeking out.  There's also a little space there numerically. We may give one item a rating of 35 and another 38. Both are considered REMARKABLE, but we think one is a little better than the other. 

DC Adventures is nothing short of the best DC Roleplaying game I've ever seen. It is not, however, in my opinion the best superhero RPG I've seen. (I'll have to review Steve Kenson's brilliant ICONS at some point, I suppose, since I like that game better.) It is a good, maybe great game. I have both books for this game on my shelf and I'm eagerly awaiting the third. I also own every book that has come out for M&M 3rd edition, and will continue to buy them as they come out.

As a DC game, like I said, DC Adventures is the best of the bunch and earns a  55 Amazing  rating in that respect. But Final Rating as a superhero RPG in general? 45 Incredible. Maybe it's the tie to D20, I'm not sure. I still think it is fantastic, but not the best I've seen.

~Joe

Reverb Gamers #20 - #31

Reverb Gamers is a project from Atlas Games that includes 31 question prompts to kick off gaming in 2012. It gives a structure to gaming conversations and asks all the right questions. My plan is to do at least 2 questions a week starting here. Also, check out @ReverbGamers on twitter or check it out on Facebook to keep the conversation going.

In an attempt to catch up a bit, I'm doing these in bulk.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #20: What was the most memorable character death you've ever
experienced? What makes it stick with you?

The most memorable death is a relatively recent death and wasn't one of mine.

In Star Wars Saga RPG, I was gamemastering the Dawn of Defiance campaign for my friends. The group of  proto-rebels were deep in Imperial territory on Coruscant. And they were in the skyscraper fortress tower of the Inquisitorus. As the tower began to fall, the resident scoundrel, Jaster, decided the best thing to do was to make sure his friends and the scientists they were sent to rescue were safe. Unfortunately for Jaster, despite securing everyone in pods that would inevitably keep them alive for the fall of a couple hundred stories, he had only his jetpack to keep him alive, and it was out of fuel. Jaster fell to the ground and severl thousands of tons of building fell on him.

Heroic deaths are always the best in an RPG, and the group felt like it was missing something without Jaster, despite the fact that his player built a new character to keep playing. I've seen many other character deaths in my years of gaming, but Jaster riding a building down to his own end remains my favorite.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #21: What's the best bribe you've ever given (or received as) a GM? What did you get (give) for it?

I'm not above doing art for the group or miniatures if it nets me extra XP, but I've rarely been bribed as a GM. Sure people have given me food for game, and I am always willing to give a reroll or some lesser reward.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #22: Describe the worst game you've ever played in. What made it so bad? Did your fellow players help, or make it worse?

I cannot blame the game, but I played an absolutely horrid game of D&D at I*CON one year in the RPGA room. It was an intro adventure to the then living campaign (Forgotten Realms, I think). I remember a game with dire cows and other insipid monsters, and it COULD have been funny, or at least fun. But the people that were running it.. Gods, it was boring as watching tar fill the gaps in a street.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #23: Have you ever experienced Total Party Kill (TPK), or been close to it? What effect did that have on you personally? On your group of players? Have you ever used retroactive continuity (retcon) to save yourself? Why or why not?

Actually, I just had my first TPK as a gamemaster recently. The party had stumbled across an angry Will 'O Wisp. Despite several ways to stay alive, a mixture of bad tactics and bad dice rolling cost the party their healer first. The rest followed within five turns after. I cheered inwardly at the genocide, but it was the end of the campaign as a result. Oh sure, I could have retconned it, but I have a rule. Unless you are a complete moron, I won't let you die in the first adventure, but from that point on it's no holds barred. That first adventure prepares you for the level of lethality to come, so despite it meaning the end of the campaign, it was a rule I stood by. I was even rolling in front of the players so I couldn't fudge the rolls to keep them alive.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #24: Have you ever been to a game convention? What was it like to be surrounded by so many other gamers? If not, would you like to go to one? Why or why not?

We regularly attend Origins Game Fair in Columbus and Gencon in Indianapolis both as representatives of Slugfest Games as well as on our own. Of course, I could take the low road and make the obligatory smelly gamer joke, but honestly, it's great to be among people with the same interests as myself. Knowing at any moment, I can sit down and play any game I choose, it's a little like nerdly heaven. Yeah, there's work and I spend more time like a zombie in my exhaustion than I'd like, but such is life.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #25: If you game enough, you're bound to run into someone being an ass. What's the most asinine thing someone's done in a game with you? How did you react? Did that experience change the way you game?

I used to game with a guy named Pete. I can tell Pete stories all day, because the man made some terrible, terrible decisions: in life as well as game. There were times he got bored so blindly ran into battle with Lone Star forcing us to fight off the cops just to pull his character, Rook's, miserable ass out of the fray. There were times he would speak up in tense negotiations only to make it all go to pot.

Yet we kept him around. Despite bing an ass, as a group we were able to sit back and laugh at him- often to his face. Sure, there were times we wanted to kill him, but as a whole, we were tolerant of him.

It did make me judge my gaming companions more thoroughly in the years that have passed, but that's no surprise.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #26: Who or what was the most memorable NPC you've ever encountered? Why?

Maybe I have short term memory only... but the only one that stands out is from a couple years ago. Long before he became the leader of The Shadow Lodge in Pathfinder Society Games, the information broker Grandmaster Torch was always a fun character to meet or control as a GM.

Pompous and less than magnanimous, Torch played PC's like chess pieces and ruled Absalom's underworld with a smirk, wink, and fire. He was scarred and burned on half his face, but used it more to intimidate than to make others feel sorry for him. And he was never really an ally, but often players had to meet with him to learn more about the goings on in Absalom.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #27: If you were an Ent, what kind of Ent would you be? Or, what other NPC creature would you be? Why?

An Ent? interesting question...  I suppose I'd be a willow: Big and bowed to protect the little things beneath my leaves. Bendable in the wind, but solid as oak in my trunk. Slow to move, but quick to change, full of beauty in unconventional ways.

Or maybe I just like that tree.


REVERB GAMERS 2012, #28: Do you have any house rules when you game? What are they, and why do you use them? If not, why not?

Our favorite house rule regards hit points when advancing in d20 games. The Gamemaster rolls a hit die in secret for the players as they advance. When the player rolls his HP, if he doesn't like it, he has the option of using the GM's roll instead. However, since the GM rolled in secret, they might end up with a lower roll. Regardless, if they choose to go with the GM's roll, they have to keep that number even if it is lower.

I don't know why I started this house rule, It just came out when playing Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 in the early 2000's and as I went from game group to game group, it followed. It even happens in d20 games I don't run now.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #29: What does the word "gamer" mean to you? Is that different than what other people seem to think it means? 

The word gamer, to me, means anyone that likes there entertainment with a healthy does of rules. It doesn't matter the medium, board, rpg, video game, all have rules and attract similar aspects of the player.

Game has a different meaning to the world at large. Images of fat, smelly, uncouth guys comes to mind rather than everyone and anyone that lets themselves enjoy games of role, board, card, and video.

Their loss, not ours.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #30: What lessons have you taken from gaming that you can apply to your real life?

Tolerance, to think before I leap, and never trust in luck alone. Luck is a traitorous, jealous temptress and she'll screw you every time.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #31: How would your life be different if you'd never gotten into gaming?

Gaming has been a very large part of my life for many many years so it's hard to imagine. When I wanted something to take the place of other addictions, gaming was there for me to dive in. And my dreams, of writing in the industry I love? Yep, I'm there now.. so wow. Where would I be without something that so defines me?

I wouldn't be writing, that's for sure. Gaming pulled that out of me and made it important. I'd still draw and paint, but my subject matter would inevitably be different. I think the better question would be "How would I be different" rather than my life.

And I would be someone else entirely.

Reverb Gamers #11 - #19

Reverb Gamers is a project from Atlas Games that includes 31 question prompts to kick off gaming in 2012. It gives a structure to gaming conversations and asks all the right questions. My plan is to do at least 2 questions a week starting here. Also, check out @ReverbGamers on twitter or check it out on Facebook to keep the conversation going.

In an attempt to catch up a bit, I'm gonna be doing these in bulk.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #11: Have you ever played a character that was morally gray, or actually evil? Why or why not? If yes, did you enjoy it?

That's a bit of a weighted question. I played Shadowrun and White Wolf games quite a bit in the 90's so evil/morally grey.. it's a bit of a given. Shadowrunners tend to be thieves, thugs, and corporate terrorists. They are driven by the almighty nuyen (or dollar for the unawakened) and can always be bought. In white wolf games, you are literally that thing that goes bump in the night. No one is a good guy- at least until the Hunter game came out. So both games really force you into that role.

However, in games where the choice was more mine, from Dungeons and Dragons to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I generally tread on the side of the angels. Oh don't get me wrong, No one is pure and true so there was a bit of moral flexibility, but rarely would I cross over evil's threshold. It's not that I don't enjoy those types of characters, in fact in most stories, the villain is the more interesting character; it's just that I prefer the role of the hero. I'd rather be lauded than derided. 

Maybe it's just me.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #12: Do prefer collaborative or competitive games? What do you think that says about you?

Collaborative. I like both types and enjoy the rush of crushing my opponent, but I prefer the feeling of achieving a goal alongside a friend or three. I'm sure it's more or less related to my enjoyment of the social aspects of gaming. But winning a game of Shadows Over Camelot with my friends or losing to the timer in Pandemic or to the Count in Castle Ravenloft is much more fun and brings us together more as a group than facing off in a game of Diplomacy or the like.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #13: Who's the best GM/storyteller/party leader you've ever had? What made him/her so great?

This is a tough call because so many of the GM's I've played with have so many varied strengths. Some are more knowledgeable, some fall into their roles like they were born for them. It's a very subjective matter.

I'd probably go with one of my current GM's, Adam, as my favorite depending on the situation. When he is in his element (dark tales with political intrigue and things that go bump in the night), he is the bees knees. He uses voices and accents drawing on his acting past, and sets a scene very well. It's pretty impressive, but Adam's success really depend on the world and system. Like anyone, there are times when he's off, but it in no way makes him a bad GM.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #14: What kinds of adventures do you enjoy most? Dungeon crawls,

mysteries, freeform roleplaying, or something else? What do you think that says about you?

I like variety in my games. I can enjoy dungeon delves, political maneuvering, a good puzzle or six, and even simple social roleplaying. But I can't enjoy just one of the aspects, I need more to flavor my games. I don't want to just roll dice, but I also don't want to never role dice. Maybe that makes me greedy. But I like to think of it as "well-rounded."

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #15: People often talk about the divide between what happens "in game"and "in real life." Do you maintain that divide in your own play, or do you tend to take what happens to your character personally? Why?

I'm sure I get a little sad when one of my characters bites it, but I don't take it personally. It's a game, not living and breathing, and while I might miss him when my fantastic thief gets caught with his hand in the wrong pocket, I can't fault the GM that takes his life. For the most part, it's dice and perhaps Desna or Olidimarra, or whoever is not with me. But tomorrow, I can make my next FAVORITE CHARACTER EVAR!

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #16: Who was the most memorable foe you've ever come up against in a game? How did you beat him/her/it? Or did you?

I have two.

First, there was Molkoth, a tremere ancient that antagonized our characters in several games set in the old World of Darkness. When we were playing Vampire: The Masquerade, he was so old an powerful that there was no chance we could touch him. He left the Camarilla behind and had something of a cult following him. His cultists hunted both Camarilla and Sabbat vampires and burned them to ashes for their "impurity." He even burned my character's bar, Suspended in Dusk, to the ground while trying to start a war between Vampires and Werewolves in NYC. He succeeded at his intended task but was rumored to have died in the battle. Vampire ended soon after.

Later, we were playing a variant of Vampire called The Hunters Hunted. This thin paperback allowed us to play human vampire hunters with no special powers. My character, Jake, was a hunter back in the old west. When he rode alongside a local werewolf clan to hunt the local tremeres, the lead tremere (Molkoth) got rid of him with a spell that sent him 100 years in the future. In the 1990's Jake became a werewolf through a ceremony when he found his old werewolf friend was now leader of his clan. As a werewolf, Jake finally eviscerated Molkoth in the aforementioned battle of central park (the Storyteller was great at linking our adventures together like that), but never made it home.

The other was Dr. Phil. In a great Mutants and Masterminds game that we still tell stories about to this day called The Graveyard Shift, we found that the main baddy that was trying to take over the world through mind control and television was none other than the pop psychologist. We had to face the entirety of Freedom City's premiere supergroup while trying to get to him, but in the end we defeated him on live TV bringing a bit of fame to The Graveyard Shift.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #17: What was the best reward you've ever gotten in a game? What made it so great? How much do you need tangible rewards (loot, leveling, etc.) to enjoy a game?

Years ago, while playing 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons, my cavalier, Cray Rectrose, was rewarded with a fief for service to a king. This fief included a manor and lands around it. While it sounds like a simple duh- "OOO you got a castle...", what made it cool was that it changed the whole dynamic of the game. For one, the party had a cool home base and we had to staff the manor and explore all that was within Cray's lands. But also there was a wealth of adventuring that came to us as the local lord.. from political intrigue to invaders. It was fantastic.

I suppose leveling is always welcome, but I seriously enjoy those static level games like Mutants and Masterminds where rewards happen more in story than arbitrary numbers.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #18: Have you ever "cheated" on a die roll/random chance outcome, or looked up a quest solution on a fan site? Why or why not? If yes, was it worth it?

As a GM? Absolutely. There have been campaigns where my dice rolls guaranteed TPK, but I usually try very hard to keep the characters alive so that it is more fun for all. Of course, last year when I actually had my first TPK it was the combination of good dice rolls and bad tactics that killed my players.  Long live the Will O' Wisp!

As a player, I don't fudge my rolls, but I suck at math. So, I would not be surprised if my successes are more incorrect than correct. As far as reading ahead, I like to be surprised, but as long as its within a theme... If there will be undead, i like to know that but I don't want to know specifics. I'd rather see them as i grind them to dust.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #19: What's the weirdest character you've ever played? How did you end up with him/her/it?

Hmm.. Played or Created? I once made a character that completely consisted of bees for a game called Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stone, but never got to play him. Instead I played a tried and true human centurion. 

For the life of me, the weirdest character I can think of actually playing is Fester, and that's just because he was a bit outside the box.

~Joe

Reverb Gamers #3 - #10

Reverb Gamers is a project from Atlas Games that includes 31 question prompts to kick off gaming in 2012. It gives a structure to gaming conversations and asks all the right questions. My plan is to do at least 2 questions a week starting here. Also, check out @ReverbGamers on twitter or check it out on Facebook to keep the conversation going.
In an attempt to catch up a bit, I'm gonna start doing these in bulk.


REVERB GAMERS 2012, #3: What kind of gamer are you? Rules Lawyer, Munchkin/Power Gamer, Lurker, Storyteller/Method Actor, or something else? (Search "types of gamer" for more ideas!) How does this affect the kinds of games you play? For example, maybe you prefer crunchy rules-heavy systems to more theatrical rules-light ones.

After doing some research, I decided to pull my Gamer classifications from Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, by Robin D. Laws (published by Steve Jackson Games, 2001). His classifications are: The Power Gamer, The Butt-Kicker, The Tactician, The Specialist, The Method Actor, The Storyteller, and The Casual Gamer.

I found that two of these Gamer Types seem to apply to me after reading through the details. Depending on my role as player or gamemaster, I am equal parts The Specialist and The Storyteller.

The Specialist: As a player, I tend to play character types that I enjoy to watch. Almost always, i play the charismatic rogue, someone that is as quick with his wit and smile as he is with his rapier and pickpocketing. I can be kind of mouthy and love more dexterous characters.

The Storyteller: Almost always, if you play in one of my games, story and character development far outclasses rules time and again. If i have to bend or break a rule entirely because it suits the story, so be it. If your character does something amazing, I may not even call for a role just because it suits the story. And if you want a glorious death that hits a dramatic beat, I'm all ears. It's ironic then that when we were writing the Smallville RPG, I was the one person on the team that was the most reluctant to accept the direction we were going. I was looking for a crunchier method of superhero roleplay, and couldn't wrap my noggin around the choices we were making. In the end, however, I was 100% wrong and Smallville was by far a better game and more fulfilling experience when it was completed than a crunchier game could have been.

Now does this affect my choices in game? Not really, despite my preferences, I will play all kinds of games. Of course I love FATE and Cortex +, but that doesn't mean I don't love Pathfinder or even more involved games like Pendragon.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #4: Are you a "closet gamer?" Have you ever hidden the fact that you're a gamer from your co-workers, friends, family, or significant other? Why or why not? How did they react if they found out?

In Junior High and High School, it mattered WAY TOO MUCH to me what other people thought. I mean, sure I did things I shouldn't have. I wasn't a bad kid, but I certainly wasn't a good kid either. But other than my closest friends, Chris, Ian, and Melissa; nobody knew I gamed. And not just a game or two, I was deep into Dungeons and Dragons, Marvel, Shadowrun, and Warhammer 40,000 on top of the games that Chris and I wrote like The Sword & the Hand and Mystical Magic.

But I had something of an image to maintain and didn't know how freeing it would have been to wear my Geekery on my sleeve. It was my loss, however, as the wisdom of age has taught me to accept who I am rather than some image of who I should be. Because who was I hiding from? Prying eyes of my classmates that didn't really care?  Or myself?

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #5: Have you ever introduced a child to gaming, or played a game with a young person? How is gaming with kids different than gaming with adults?

Actually, yes.  Since returning to Cincinnati, my friends from high school have returned to my life and my gaming table. All of them have kids now, but Melissa's daughter is the oldest of them. Every now and then, when Melissa's ex-husband doesn't have her daughter for the weekend, she comes over to my place while we game. Sometimes, Melissa's daughter joins in, rolling dice for her mother or conferring as to what they should do next, and has been present for Star Wars games as well as some Pathfinder.

But every now and then, we'll bust out a board game or two and she joins in right away. I think my favorite time playing with my surrogate niece was a game of Ren Fair that we played after a comic convention. She jumped in feet first and her excitement at playing was a welcome addition.

Is it different? I suppose so, but only in the parts that she doesn't know all the rules to a certain RPG or that I try to watch my language more when she's around ( I fail, but I still try). But these are things easily remedied, and she is more than welcome at my table anytime.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #6: Describe your all-time favorite character to play. What was it about him/her/it that you enjoyed so much?

Heh. My favorite character? That would have to be Fester. In my buddy Luc's 3.5 game, Fester was a goblin rogue. Well, that was what his stat sheet said, but Fester hated letting the other party members see him work on traps or steal. He wasn't hired to be the rogue, Fester was the cook.

Famous (or perhaps Notorious) for being the genius chef behind a local inn called The Elven Lady (though Fester called it The Goblin's Lady), the party hired him to keep them fed. They were a bit daunted, however, as his kills became some of their odd, but delectable, meals. Scarier still when they realized the pair of daggers he used in combat were actually the pair of knives he used to so deftly chop up their meals when cooking. He would never clean them off, either, deciding he proffered to keep the "spices" on them.

But what made him fun was that if there was trouble to be had, he was always neck deep and made a great antagonist, deciding it was hilarious to give each of the other PC's derogatory nicknames and pick on them mercilessly for even perceived failings.

Sigh. He was such a dick. Good times.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #7: How do you pick names for your characters?

It varies. Sometimes I choose names from the source material- this happens a lot in Pathfinder where I will choose names from the Inner Sea Guide to get the right regional naming style. Sometimes, like with my Varisian Gunslinger Milosh, I choose real names that correspond with the character's race (in this case Romani gypsy)

For some, I try to find something humorous (my goblin Fester or Kaek -pronounced Cake- my Urseminite) or historical (Sinjin, my Keleshite Urban Ranger).

And finally, I sometimes just try to create a name I think sounds cool (Vesh Tsalamir, my Lone Star clone for Star Wars, or my go-to human fantasy RPG name, Boeric)

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #8: What's the one gaming accessory (lucky dice, soundtrack, etc.) you just can't do without? Why?

While I don't have lucky dice or the like, there is one thing I love. Visual representation. This comes in several forms depending on the game.

For games that use them, Miniatures. Over the years, I've proven to be a fairly good minis painter, even winning Best Painted at a tournament or five. And so if a game uses a board ever, you are dmaned skippy that I will be painting minis. And not just for my character. I don't expect other people to paint as well as I do, especially since very few other gamers I play with have put brush to mini, so I'm more than happy to remedy that situation by painting their PCs for them.

For superhero games, I go a different route. I've been drawing superhero characters for as long as I remember, and unless someone is a better artist or wants to do it themselves, I draw all superhero PCs for my group in games like Mutants and Masterminds and Icons.

Finally, for some games, I will make photo cards of PCs (and important NPCs if I'm Gamemaster) from pictures of the characters in the adventure I am running, or more likely, from celebrities the other players pick for their characters.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #9: Have you ever played a character of the opposite sex. Why or why not? If yes, how did the other players react?

I have played a female character. In the late nineties, I played a Night One Assassin named Bloo in a Shadowrun Game. And I did this simply because the character made more sense as a woman. And while I've played female characters here and there in one shots, Bloo was my only long standing female character. For the most part, my friends didn't react one way or the other, but it occurred to me back then why I don't like to play women.

I am not a woman, and while I might like the occasional so-called chick flick, or actually care and empathize when someone comes to me with a problem rather than always taking the logical route; that does not mean I have a clue what goes on in a woman's head any better than a woman will understand the nuances of my own mind. That's not to say that women are inhuman or deformed in some way. It simply means that I do not know what it is like to be a woman, so I could not accurately portray a woman. I find, instead, cross-gender characters generally end up lumped into stereotypes, and that does more harm than good.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #10: Have you ever played a character originally from a book/TV/movie? How did the character change from the original as you played? If not, who would you most like to
play?

In one of the many Shadowrun campaigns I got to run and/or play in the '90s, There was one time that the group needed a good rigger. I'd already played a droid rigger for years in my notorious paraplegic character, Forge, so I was the natural choice. That and after playing that game for nearly ten years, I'd played every type of character, so I was willing to go with whatever the group needed. Good getaway drivers are harder to build than most riggers because you have to not only build the character, but his getaway car is almost a character in itself. And I could have found inspiration in a few million characters from Bullitt to Speed Racer.

Instead, I chose to base my character on a little known anime called Riding Bean. Bean is a mean sonuvabitch, but no character until the Transporter movies has been nearly as much of a badass behind the wheel as that character.

So my rigger, Bean, was every bit the character that inspired him and is remembered for one incident. Another PC, a lowlife scum street samurai called Rook, was getting on Bean's nerves and our GM was cool with PC friction. So, when Rook tried to jack Bean's car, Bean drew his smartgun and said: "Get out of my car or I'll shoot you in the leg."

Fearing for his life, Rook got out of the car, and Bean immediately shot him in the foot.

Rook freaked out complaining that he said he wouldn't shoot, but Bean just shrugged. "It wasn't the leg."