Submit your RPG wish to Secret Santicore. I might even fulfill it!

It's that time of year again. Time to beg the malevolent elder god Santicore for your RPG content desires. Want something for your game that doesn't seem to exist yet, ask Santicore! All you have to do is write or draw something someone else in exchange.

I haven't written anything on this blog for months because I've been in a general funk and complete block when it comes to games. I've made my request to Santicore and look forward to whatever terrible task he has in store for me, in hopes that it will kickstart my gamey juices.

Submit your soul to Santicore here. 

You only have until this Friday to submit your request, so do it quick!

Crafting the Charmies Catagories

Due to my disappointment with a certain annual RPG awards show, I have decided to start my own. The Charmies will be an award for the best RPG products, blogs and even people who I have encountered in the year from June to May every year. I'll be the only judge regarding nominees (since I am an expert on what I like) but I will hopefully be able to set up a voting booth for the public to voice their opinion.

In the meantime, I need to figure out what categories I want in the Charmies. Below is a list of categories I think work, many scrapped from that other award group that should be doing better. I have gotten rid of the categories I felt are redundant and added some I think are important to the RPG community.

If I'm missing something important or should cut something, please let me know.

Best Adventure - An 'adventure' is a supplement that focuses on a specific story or plot. This includes dungeons, mega- or nega-.

Best Setting - Less focused than an adventure, much more 'big picture.' This includes sandboxes that don't expect a specific plot to take hold.

Best Supplement - A more vague category, but intended for books like rules options, classes, races, spells, weapons, etc., that don't focus on a setting or adventure.

Best Aid/Accessory - Products that help people play games that don't fit the typical 'book' format.

Best Art - A product that contains the best art, either by an individual or a team of artists.

Best Cartography - Best maps, with a focus on artistic merit and functionality.

Best Rules - A focus on clear, concise rules that maximize fun at the table.

Best Monster - Best specific monster or villain. Not necessarily the best collection of monsters.

Best Production Values - Best overall production, including artwork, material quality, PDF features, layout and design.

Best Writing - The product that brings the most joy from simply reading.

Best Website - This includes blogs, web apps and more traditional sites.

Best Blog Post - Best specific blog post.

Best Old Product - I'm not only going to read or buy new products this year. This award is for best product I encounter that was released before the relevant year.

Best Free Product - The best product that costs no money to procure, including Pay-What-You-Want.

Product of the Year - The best single product. Anything is on the table.

Person of the Year - The one person who made the greatest single impact on RPGs in the year, hopefully for the best.

The Zak S. Memorial Award for the Advancement of Diversity in Roleplaying Games - The name is (sort of) a joke, but the award is totally serious. I want to see who is actively working towards diversity and inclusion in the RPG hobby and praise them for their efforts. This includes designers of minorities who produce excellent games or people who foster productive discussion about helping RPGs reach a more diverse audience. Smug white dude who weaponize minorities need not apply.

My Uninformed Opinion on the 2014 Ennie Award Nominees.

The nominees for the 2014 ENnies awards have been posted and I don't know what 90% of this stuff is. Was I completely out of the loop in 2013? I feel like that was probably my most attentive year regarding mainstream RPGs. Looking over the lists, I'd think I was in a coma for the entire year if it weren't for the release of Shadowrun 5e and Razor Coast.

However, having a pathetically inadequate knowledge of something has never prevented me from forming an opinion about it. Here are my picks for the 2014 Ennies.

Best Adventure: Trail of Cthulhu: Eternal Lies. Haven't read it. Could have if the ToC Bundle of Holding was more successful. I'm still bitter about that. Regardless, it's a campaign for Trail of Cthulhu, which makes it pretty awesome.

Best Aid/Accessory: Noteboard. The only accessory on the list that looks actually usable for most GMs. 

For all that is holy, please don't vote for the Fate Eldritch Dice. They are just fudge dice and they don't even have the best color scheme of all the dice set that Evil Hat made.

Best Art, Interior: Numenera. I don't know much about this game, but I've been consistently impressed with all the artwork associated with it. Shadows of Esteren is a close second.

Best Art, Cover: Razor Coast. Honestly, none of these are great covers. Busy art with a million characters throwing magic missiles does not impress me. That shark guy is probably the only cool thing in this category.

Best Blog: Illuminerdy. The only nominated blog I remember visiting in the past year. I don't remember what brought me there but I enjoyed the stay. 

Best Cartography: Qelong. I don't know shit about the maps in any of the nominated books. I do know what Jez Gordon was robbed for his amazing work in Qelong.

Best Electronic Book: Faerie Tales from Unlit Shores: Prince Charming, Reanimator. This is the only book on this list that I even recognize. As such, I assume it's the only one that made any impression on games as a whole. 

Best Family Game: Camp Myth: The RPG. It takes place at a summer camp for mythological beings. From what I've heard from podcasts, the system is pretty dandy too.

Best Free Product: Super Powers Companion Villain Supplement. It's about 15 pages of stats and write ups for generic supervillains for Savage Worlds. It doesn't attempt to sell you anything. Is pure function. (By the way, quickstart rules should be banned.)

Best Game: Pass. The only one I have read on this list is Fate Core. Consider this a unvote for Fate.

Best Miniatures Products: Whisper & Venom Collector's Set. This must have been a rough year for minis or mini producers just don't care about the Ennies. Still, the minis in the Whisper & Venom set are very cool and instantly made me regret not getting in on the Kickstarter.

Best Monster/Adversary: Creature Decks. I saw these at Gen Con and had a hard time passing them up. Monsters are made to be on cards.

Best Podcast: Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. I can't believe I was so slow to actually listen to this podcast. It's Ken Hite and Robin Laws talking about various things that are always relevant to my interests. What more can you ask for?

Best Production Values: Whisper & Venom Collector's Set. Seriously impressive for an independent publisher.

Best RPG-Related Product: Strange Tales of the Century. Seems to be the only usable product in this list. I don't understand RPG soundtracks as they seem like more trouble than they are worth at the table. And that card game definitely shouldn't have counted. 

Best Rules: Pass. Like "Best Game," I didn't read most of these books. The only one I did read is Fate Core. While they seem like pretty good rules on the surface, most of the chatter I hear about the game is people not understanding how to actually run the game. That's not the sign of a good rule set.

Best Setting: Numenera. Sci-fi high fantasy is something we needed this last year. 

Best Supplement: M&M: Power Profiles. Seems like many of the books in this category are companion pieces to very recently published games. Sort of seems like the stuff that should be included in the core books. The Power Profile books isn't that, so that's why I like it more than the others.

Best Software: Old School Monsters Database. There needs to be more good RPG apps for Android and this seems like a step in the right direction. 

I did kickstart Wild Card Creator and the software shows a lot of promise. Unfortunately, the last time I used the program it was buggy and missed key features that prevented it from being at all usable. It's an ambitious piece of software that is maintained by just one guy.

Best Writing: Doctor Who RPG: The Third Doctor Sourcebook. Haven't read it, but if it stands up to the standards of the other Doctor Who game books, this it a good one.

Best Website: See Page XX. Why are most of these sites so fucking ugly? See Page XX has tolerable design and is usable at the table. Tabletop Audio seems cool for people who use music at the table.

Product of the Year: Fuck if I know. My hunch tells me that Fate Core will get it as they made a huge splash with it and people are still riding the high that comes with vague, theoretically malleable rules. I suppose I'm rooting for tremulus, which appears to be the dark horse candidate.

By the way, I've nominated myself as a judge for the 2015 ENnie Awards. Please vote for me. I can't make promises, but I would do my best to keep a card game from getting nominated for anything.

My RPG Person Profile

(Created on the gentle suggestion of +Zak Smith)

I'm currently running (at home): Cyberpunk Savage Worlds

I would especially like to play/run: Unknown Armies; DC Heroes
...but would also try: weirdo horror RPGs.


I live in South Bend, IN

Some well-known RPG products other people made that I like:
Vornhiem by Zak S.
Dungeon Crawl Classics by Goodman Games

Some novels I like:
The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
Those Song of Ice and Fire novels
VALIS by Philip K. Dick

Some movies I like:
Batman Returns
Pootie Tang
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

Best place to find me on-line: Google+

I will read almost anything on tabletop RPGs if it's easily manipulated for on-the-fly rulings, breaks from traditional settings.

I really do not want to hear about: What you find offensive. Games that aren't worth playing.

I think dead orc babies are ( circle one: funny / problematic / ....well, ok, it's complicated because....)
Problematic. For orcs.

Games I run are like this.

Free RPG Content I made for playing Attack on Titan in D&D is available here.
... for using Wealth as a Trait in Savage Worlds is available here.

Stop Taking My Money!

There is yet another Bundle of Holding. This one has indie horror RPGs, including Dread, which is famous for basing its fear mechanics around a Jenga tower. Also included is Don't Rest Your Head, which I have heard good things about. Kingdom of Nothing and Murderous Ghosts are also included, but I know nothing about them other than they have cool titles. Luckily I can resist beating the average to get the bonus games, which is rare with these bundles as the BoH crew have made an art of getting the most money for the games they offer.

I've also broken down and tossed my money into the indiegogo campaign for the revised LotFP referee's book. I don't even run LotFP, but I found the original ref's book to be the best thing about the game's Grindhouse Edition. The revised book along with the revised classic adventures made it difficult to resist pitching in at the PDF tier.

I'm supposed to be saving up to buy a new computer. Stop taking my money, you guys!

Link Dump: Oct 9, 2013

News
Bundle of Holding: Stars Without Number
Intrigue at the Court of Chaos, a new level 1 adventure for DCC available for pre-order.

Resources
Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque: The Clockwork Crackdown in Halloweentown, a spooky setting sketch that draws inspiration from the works of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman.

New Releases
The Metamorph, a new playbook/character class for Dungeon World.
Arnhack, a complete medieval horror-fantasy game.

Crowdfunding
Josiender, a fantasy tabletop RPG featuring multilayer puzzles, rich ecosystems, ever-progressing timelines, and the Discipline System.

Link Dump: Oct. 8, 2013

News

• Bundle of Holding: Unknown Armies Bundle of Holding Ends at 8:00 PM today.
• OSR Compatible Site Launched: The goal of this site is to promote an open, flexible standard for Old School Renaissance publishers. OSR Compatible is a quick and easy way to indicate that a product will work with all the games, classic and modern, that OSR gamers enjoy. 

Resources

• RPGnet: Best Setting Blogs
• Monster Manual Sewn from Pants: Crazy tables, including instructions on making Pandemonium Fracking Coffee.
• Tenkar’s Tavern: Compiling a List of Good Low-Level Adventures by Goodman Games.
• Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque: The Hand-Maiden, an excellently creepy OSR-compatible monster.

New Releases

• Ravenloft for AD&D 1e now on dndclassics.com.
• Cyber-Fate, a cyberpunk setting for FATE

Crowdfunding

• Lamentations of the Flame Princess Referee Book: Tower of the Stargazer reprint is the next streach goal.
• Unwritten: A FATE-powered tabletop RPG based on the video game series Myst.

Design a Game in November

Those familiar with National Novel Writing Month know that every November thousands of people attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in only 30 days. I have participated several times and have completed at least three terrible short novels. NaNoWriMo is frustrating but incredibly fun. Although it is unlikely that anyone participating in the event will produce a novel even close to readable, it's still a worthwhile creative exercise.

One option of NaNoWriMo is to produce something other than a novel during November. The organizers of National Game Design Month (NaGaDeMon for short) have decided that designing a complete game in 30 days can be just as fun. Participants can write their own RPG or design a board game and are encouraged to publicly discuss the creation of the game.

I am seriously considering participating this year since I have been kicking around an idea for an RPG for some time now and probably should just put pen to paper at this point. I did have a sort of five year plan for this game with designing an original system being the final step, but I've always found a close deadline to be extremely motivating.

Unknown Armies is the new Bundle of Holding

The newest Bundle of Holding showcases the Unknown Armies RPG. I don't know too much about this game, other than it has been described as the closest thing we have to an Illuminatus! Trilogy game. That description alone has made me very interested in this game.

Pay what to get the core rules. Beat the average to get a bunch of supplements. Currently the average is just under $11.

For more info on the game, check out the page on Atlas Game's website.

Today is H.P. Lovecraft's 123rd Birthday

This day in 1890 a man was born who would go on to become one of the most influential writers in science fiction, horror and gaming. A lot of things that I love would be very boring if it were not for Howard Philips Lovecraft.

If you're in the mood to celebrate Lovecraft's birthday by supplementing your gaming collection with come tentacled monstrosities, DriveThruRPG is having a sale on many Lovecraft-inspired products, including Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Delta Green, CthulhuTech, Achtung! Cthulhu and a ton of stuff by Chaosium and Cubicle 7. The sale lasts until August 26.

New Bundle of Holding Includes Ars Magica and Colonial Gothic

The newest Bundle of Holding includes some doozies. Pledge more than the average (currently $20.54) and you will get a copy of Ars Magica 5th Edition and Colonial Gothic, both games that I have been interested in for some time. The third bonus game Clockwork and Chivalry looks pretty cool as well.

You have until August 12, 2013 to take advantage of this deal.

Wild Card Creator Public Beta Released

Almost one year ago a young man walked up to me as I waited to get a seat in a game during Gen Con 2012's Savage Saturday Night and handed me a business card. The card directed me to a Kickstarter campaign for a Savage Worlds character creator that would take all of the heavy lifting out of generating a character. Although it isn't exactly a nightmare to create a character in SW, I immediately thought of all the time I could save when creating characters for a new campaign, with new players. I backed the project as soon as I got home.

One year later Wild Card Creator has been released as a public beta. I've been a part of the closed beta for a while but now anyone can jump in. The cost of the beta (and the finished product once it is done) is currently $20.

Wild Card Creator is a very simple program that runs in Java and has builds for Mac, Windows and Linux. The no-frills approach provides an easy to use interface. Once you've created a few characters, you'll find yourself breezing through the process in less than a minute. After you've created the character, it can be exported to a setting-specific character sheet or a basic, clean print-out. The character can also be saved for easy advancement later.

For all its simplistic beauty, I'm hesitant to praise Wild Card Creator too highly. Currently there are several key features that are missing, such as creating custom Arcane backgrounds and Knowledge skills. While I can get around the Arcane Background problem, I believe that the Knowledge skills are a key way of making a character unique on the fly. To get around this you will need to create a homebrew campaign and manually create these custom skills, which is a lot of work for something that is designed to be easy. 

One of the selling points for Wild Card Creator is the ability to import all of the special character rules from various published settings, just by owning the PDF. This is the feature that really sold me on the program since my SW PDF collection is only growing day-by-day. Several PDFs are already supported, such as Realms of Cthulhu and the Fantasy Companion, but I expect the inclusion of additional settings to be very slow coming. The promise of this product makes being patient very difficult. Wild Card Creator is the work of one man, which means that updates are few and far between.

All things considered, Wild Card Creator is shaping up to be a fine product. If you're committed to running Savage Worlds in many different genres, it's definitely worth checking out. Just don't expect it to be a perfect product any time soon.

ENnies: Nominate your favorite publishers

You can nominate your favorite RPG publisher for an ENnie this year. In fact, you can nominate up to six.

If you have a hard time coming up with a publisher to nominate, may I remind you that Lamentations of the Flame Princess had an excellent year.