Observations of the Fox

Two options: On or Off. Do you have the skill? Yes, then you gain a bonus in situation X (maybe you get a bonus to your die roll, or maybe it opens up a new sub mechanism or game option)...No, then you just roll your flat attribute (or maybe you just can't perform this type of task at all). I've played with this idea a few times in my game designs. FUBAR basically does this...if you have a trait that's relevant to the task at hand, you add an extra die to your pool (conversely if you possess a trait that's detrimental, you either take a die away, or add a negative die if you're all out of positives). Ghost City Raiders does this. The basic mechanisms simply get you to draw a card versus your attributes in a series of basic situations. New skills allow you to gain bonuses across a range of situations, or allow you to open up new situations. Tooth and Claw does this, by simply allowing an extra die to be rolled if you've a skill appropriate to the task a...

Classic D&D has six attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. Classic World of Darkness has nine attributes (don't get me started on nWoD), three each in three categories: Physical (Strength, Stamina, Dexterity), Social (Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance), Mental (Intelligence, Perception, Wits). Palladium's System has eight: Intelligence Quotient, Mental Affinity, Mental Endurance, Physical Strength, Physical Endurance, Physical Prowess, Physical Beauty, Speed. I vaguely remember Rolemaster having ten attributes, but I don't have a copy any more and it's been years since I played, so don't ask me to name them. Monsterhearts has four: Hot, Cold, Volatile, Dark (and most *-World games seem to also have 4, but the specific four are based on the tone of the game). Big Eyes Small Mouth as three: Body, Mind, Spirit (where everything social is handled by character advantages and disadvantages) And among my own publ...

Every once in a while we hear about a game with a "revolutionary" new combat system. I've heard it said about dozens of games that might simply use a d8 instead of a d6, or maybe an armour system that absorbs damage rather than increase the chance of a damage saving throw. People often think mundane things are revolutionary if they haven't encountered anything beyond the vanilla systems of rolling a d20, then rolling damage. When I developed Ghost City Raiders, I really wanted something different from the game. I wanted something fast...so I created a set of hit locations and a series of combat stances that could be adopted by characters as they faced off against one another. This idea made the basics of combat quick and intuitive...Do you pick a defensive stance or offensive? Do you aim for the high parts of your opponent or do you strike low? Simple, you just pick your character's stance from the to and bottom edges of the character booklet and present it to y...

I've been playing Mordheim with Leah over the past two days. The games have been just the way I remember them. You get the fiddly start up where you try to generate an optimal team without the full resources that you need to do it (so you end up making a team that generally fits what you're aiming for, but you hope that a few games will generate the funds needed to truly create the team you want). Then you get the actual game play where strategy, team synergies, and quirky skills can give you an advantage, but a string of good (or bad) rolls can easily overcome player skill or strategy. We've both decided to play four teams on a semi-random play selection roster. Each players uses a team, and once the game is over each player lines up the leaders of their three remaining teams then rolls a d6 to determine which team to play next. 1-2: Team A, 3-4: Team B, 5-6: Team C. It means you don't get the one team played constantly, there's always a change-up. Eventually...

Last night, my wife Leah said..."I'm bored, let's play Mordheim tomorrow". So today we did. We dug up the old rulebook, the town criers, the annual ( can you really call it an annual if there was only ever one of them? ), and our assorted print outs that have sat in untouched folders ever since we moved house over two years ago. We've played other miniature games in the meantime, not many, but a few. But Mordheim was the game that hooked Leah into the hobby of lead figures (she still hates plastics with a passion, I dislike them too and we've been put off several games that use plastic figures). Mordheim is a fun game and its design concepts have played a major influence in several of my designs, but it has it's problems. The mechanisms of the game are heavily derived from Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Combat consists of many interconnected rolls...first a roll to hit, then a roll to injure, then a possible roll to save versus that injury, and then ...

What sort of game play do you expect from an RPG with this logo?

For those interested...here are the range of Ghost City Raiders character images so far.  Many more to come.