Free RPG Day coming Up

Are you going?? If you're not, you're missing out on some great freebies...Pair A Dice sent me a reminder email....so they're having Free RPG Day once more this year!! 

June  16th - Free RPG Day- Once again Pair A Dice Games will be hosting Free RPG Day. On Free RPG Day, you will be able to grab brand new material for a variety of RPGs --- no overstock, retail-priced or dead product here. The goal of Free RPG Day is to inspire gamers to play a new RPG, which will in turn, create sales through local game stores.

Pair A Dice Royalty Rewards Customers can pick out 2 items each. A bonus item can be selected when you purchase $10 or more in the store on free RPG Day. All this happens from 10AM till 6PM on Saturday June 16th. Come early, cause this cool stuff is 1st come 1st serve and won't last long.

Check out the list of amazing product!

• Blue Panther
  Sample (1 per box), Dice Tower
• Catalyst Game Labs
  Gold (10 ber box), A Time of War: BattleTech RPG/Shadowrun Quickstart flipbook
• Catalyst Game Labs
  Gold (10 ber box), Cosmic Patrol RPG Quickstart
• Chessex
  Silver, 4 Commerative Dice For Store Owner
• Columbia Games
  Platinum (15 per box), Harn setting material with world map
• Dice Candies
  Sample (1 per box), Set of 6 chocolate polyhedral dice
  (Final shape of chocolate NOT guaranteed with delivery)
• Eden Studios
  Silver (5 per box), Conspiracy X Quickstart & Adventure
• Fantasy Flight Games
  Gold (10 per box), Warhammer 40K Roleplay Only War Adventure, "Eleventh Hour"
• Gaming Paper
  Sample (1 per box), "Slavers of the Sunken Garden", Pathfinder Adventure
• Goodman Games
  Silver (6 per box), Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Quickstart & Adventure
• Jon Brazer Enterprises
  Bronze (3 per box), Pathfinder, "Shadowsfall: Temple of Orcus"
• Louis Porter Jr. Design
  Bronze (3 per box), NeoExodus Pathfinder Adventure
• OffWorld Designs
  Sample (1 per box), "Ask me about Free RPG Day" T-Shirt (XL) for employees.
• Paizo
  Platinum (15 per box), Pathfinder Adventure, Dawn of the Scarlet Sun
• Pamean Games
  Sample (1 per box), Brass & Steel Quickstart
• Q-Workshop
  Gold (10 per box), Unique Dice
• Troll Lord Games
  Sample (1 per box), Castles & Crusades Adventure
• Wizards of the Coast
  Platinum (15 per box), D&D 4E Adventure, "Dead in the Eye" 

If you're in North County, head to Pair-a-dice games:

Pair A Dice Games Inc
www.pairadicegames.com
760-940-0139
2020 Hacienda Dr Suite A
Vista, CA 92081

In addition if you're down south, you can head to At Ease Games in Poway to get the goodies instead!

At Ease Games
ateasegames.com
12373 Poway Rd. Suite A&B
Poway, CA 92064

If you're in Temecula, looks like you can head to 

Hobbytown USA

www.hobbytown.com/Temecula-CA/

951-699-7492

27452 Jefferson Ave #7

Temecula, CA 92590

Review - Hostile Takeover (Interface Zero)

Been a while since I posted a review, so Dave over at GunMetalGames comped a review copy of Hostile Takeover to me, which I always love since I'm a fan of Interface Zero, and GMG puts out some nice product. 

Hostile Takeover (Interface Zero (Savage Worlds)
GameMetalGames

First Glance 
First and foremost it appears that GMG has been reading the reviews on the previous products. There's still plenty of great art, but only one full-sized piece of artwork. In addition the layout has been simplified, making for a little less content, but a lot easier to peruse.



Main Review
I was a little skeptical at first, playing on the business side of MegaCorps, then I thought, wait, if I the GM am playing the business side, that will give me lots more options of what to throw against players, and if they decide to start a business of their own what would happen? Let's see what's in here shall we?

The book is divided into two main sections, and orientation section for new employees, including a biz-speak section, so you can really feel like you're an 80s power broker! ("Don't you worry about blank, let me worry about blank...")

In this Welcome New Employee section, a hacker named Tetsubo has left new hires commentary in the file.
The most interesting thing we see in this part is the fact that "The Company" in question is a Christian company as it's part of the NAC. Showing that religious companies are fairly common in the NAC. Biz-Speak is a pretty fun section as the "Dazzle them with Bulls**t" sidebar indicates. The section drops into how skills can be used differently in an office environment. An example being Gambling for betting pools. Tweaks on Edges and Hindrances, such as Big Mouth (minor), being (major) in a corporate environment because letting company secrets out can land your a** in the lock-up, or taking a leap off the top of the building in an assisted suicide. Also added is the Knowledge (Business) skill.

Some useful new hindrances and edges are presented. Black-Listed, Compassionate, Dependance (major/minor), Freelancer/Consultant, Jinx,  NDA (yeah Non-disclosure agreement...), Out of your League, and lastly  Owned, this one is great for other stuff, like people who want way more than the standard chrome, you mave have gotten a lot of debt, and now you're 'owned' by the MegaConglom like an indentured servant of old.(This will work great for Juicers and Full Borgs in my Rifts conversion.) Most of these are edges hindrances which make sense outside the office with a little tweaking. Some interesting new edges, so you've got cash from being Rich or Noble...but where's that dynastic power? Trust Fund Baby and Improved Trust Fund Baby, bring you that fame that a well-known name brings. Rainmaker is the good-luck of corporate life, good things happen for the business when this guy's involved. Three Combat edges make this supplement pretty sweet for non-Corp games. Fire Team drill (bonuses for combat teams well versed in working with each other...AKA, watch out Legends, those 20 SWAT officers are still dangerous.) Non-Lethal Take-down and its improved version can be handy for pretty much any SW game, especially for pacifists, or games where killing someone might have some legal ramifications.

Most of the Leadership feats are very oriented to this setting, Management Material, Dedicated Focus, Promote from Within, Inspirational Speech, Protege,  and Master Planner.

Two new weird edges have some coolness to them. Hound let's the weird individual sense Zeeks (psychics), this one is perfect for certain Stalkers of Psions in Savage Rifts. Monstrous lets the player take a 'monstrous' ability, I think out of the monster section (I'll have to clarify with GMG). FIVE new professional edges are in this section as well. I always love professional edges, it's one thing to have an archetype idea, it's another to have some mechanics to go along with that meme. Infiltrator, Social Engineer, Security Specialist, Street Rat and the Business Wizard.

There's a 2 page section on Expense accounts, which works well to make the company pay for stuff you need, however you push too far, and you might get the sack when they audit you!

Speaking of expense accounts, the Malmart catalog includes: Armored Executive clothing, look good and kill em in the boardroom! I luckily wasn't drinking my tea when I came upon the L'il Mogul sleepware, it's an ARMORED ONESIE FOR BABIES!!!! HAH! Brilliant and Hilarious! Hah, the next section is the Useless Sh*t section, execs are always buying crap they don't need....this should cover that.

A good offense is just as important as a good defense in 2088, so you might find a monofilament sword-cane to your liking for maybe a briefcase gun (aggressive sales pitch with the artwork on this page as well).

The rest of the Malmart catalog and Section 2 will be posted tomorrow

MW2039

More on MW2039.

So I want lots of pulpiness to be included in this setting. What's more pulp than Cthulhu? Now in CthulhuTech, humans finally have a fighting chance. However in MW2039, it will still be a dicey encounter as the more ancient creatures will be more than a match even for the advanced technology of Tesla. And of course in any encounter, losing your sanity is a possibility. But as humanity reaches further into the galaxy, they begin to encounter the creatures of the Mythos more and more often.

Of course I'll have to get permission from the Chaosium to use Cthulhu...MW2039 is still in the early stages of development.

I'm hoping to have something concrete for next years con season, and run some games next year in my setting.

Reminiscing about Comic Con

Did a bunch of stuff around the house after 10 hours at work, then say down for a little Old Republic.

I will update tomorrow.

If anyone remembers going to Comic Con in the OLD Days, you might be interested in the Comic Fest at the El Cortez taking place later this year. First time I went was in 1986, still a teenager, but man was it different from today. I remember one year getting a sketch and autograph from Wendy Pini at a walk-up booth on the floor. How times change.

We actually took the boys one day when they were 3 years old in 2002. Next time we took them was in 2006, they remember that trip...heh. 

Gamex Report

Well GameX was a fun day on Sunday. First and foremost, walking with without having been pre-registered, getting the boys and I in took all of maybe 1 minute. The con was laid out with lots of room, we never made it to all the different areas as they were laid out all over the hotel. However it was simple to find what we were looking for as they had nice signage pointing to the different areas. Very well-run con, can't wait to hit it in September.

We got to play some Traveller on Sunday morning (9AM slot) with Mongoose Cadet: Nicholas Hallsey. Murder on Achates IV. The adventure was a murder mystery set in the Imperium. We arrived on a transport, and as the only ones at at the starport that arrived after the murder we were quickly recruited to solve the mystery. We blew through the content, moving to immediately check the security footage of the crime, which of course had been tampered with. While we were under psion assault it wasn't hard to see something was afoot, We finished with nearly an hour to spare. I enjoyed myself and I'll let the boys say what they thought of the game and have them post in the comments.

We headed down to the dealer hall after the game to get a lay of the land as to what was for sale and what new stuff was going on there, first I picked up Dominion: Intrigue for $40, not bad. After we went and played some Infinite City, we got a $5 coupon for the AEG booth, So combined with the con special, I was able to pick up L5R War of Honor for $45! Which was like 25% off.

We hit the 2PM timeslot ready to rock, Ian decided he wanted to play something on his own, without Sean & I. So he headed to another Traveller game with Nicholas Hallsey. "On Board the Sun Tzu". Sean and I headed to a Castle Falkenstein hack for Malifaux, run by James Forest of plustentoawesome.
 It was EPIC! and fully captured the feel of Malifaux. Several members of the Guild return to the mining town to find it under assault by ghouls, which had of course stolen the huge shipment of soulstones. This was my first encounter with the Castle Falkenstein RPG, and I must say it's a rather nice fit for Malifaux. I wish it wasn't so out of print, I'd love to get my hands on a copy of it.

Pictures to follow tomorrow.

Strategicon - Gamex 2012

We're heading to Strategicon tomorrow. Now since we're just going for one day it's going to be a bit of a chore, early rise, long drive, FUN FUN FUN, long drive and late to bed...

BUT it should TOTALLY be worth it.

MW2039 System

So now I need to make the decision about what I want my game to be based upon. It's pulpy so something cinematic, but I kind of want stats to be in there. I also love aspects.

Now as far as OGL systems, there's Pathfinder/d20 system of course, but not really what I want, as I want the game to be a bit more simplistic, actually a lot more simplistic.

FATE has a lot of what I'm looking for, but no stats. It definitely has aspects.

Savage Worlds isn't OGL, but for a free setting, there wouldn't be an issue of course. Savage Worlds doesn't have aspects, but that's something easily modified....

Legend is OGL, but I'm not sure how well it would work for a sci-fi setting. I'm sure it's been done somewhere, I just haven't found it yet.

Decisions....decisions....

any input?