Wish List

Posted on by Paul Beakley

Wish List

Been thinking about what I’d like to run in 2019. Because kids, I’m having a tough time dredging up genuine enthusiasm right now. End of year blues I guess.

I think my aspirational list goes, in no particular order other than what pops into mind:

* Invisible Sun (many thanks to the patronage of Lester Ward)
* Mechat*R*on
* Masks
* Forbidden Lands (maybe, the setting book is seriously bumming me out)
* Ars Magica (for reals!)
* The Sword, the Crown, and the Unspeakable Power (if we can find our way back to healthy melodrama)
* Würm, maybe? Looks trad but also very weird and interesting.
* Paladin, if I can wrap my head around what a campaign would look like.
* Maybe straight up Blades in the Dark, but I really need to nail down a better handle on how the downtime game drives the rest of play. I’m just thinking I really did enjoy running Scum & Villainy.

Stuff recently read but not on my list, sitting on my shelf, watching, judging:

* Kult (that whole book bums me out)
* Prince Valiant, doesn’t seem like there’s much there there. Maybe I’ll bring it to a con as a lark, pick a scenario out of the book at random or something.
* Wrath of the Autarch, because Legacy showed me that lack of character monogamy/investment is really hard on my folks. :-/
* … actually this list is disturbingly long and it makes me sad so I’ll stop here.

I dunno, just writing all that tired me out. Might be time to hide in my chrysalis for a while.

Published by Paul Beakley

I founded the Indie Game Reading Club in 2010. I've written and developed RPGs since the mid-90s, now I mostly talk about playing them.

0 thoughts on “Wish List”

  4. My selfish vote would be Invisible Sun because I’m curious how you would treat the juggernaut. Plus someone basically gifted it to you for that purpose.

    Mechatron would also be interesting because I’d be curious about how you see its differences compared to MYZ.

  11. MechatRRRRRRon sorry sorry.

    I’ve got Mechaton here as well, and shittons of little pink, green, purple and baby blue Legos. (No I do not buy my daughter “girl” Legos.)

  13. Fraser Simons I’ll write more about Forbidden Lands at some point but the tl;dr is that it’s a huuuuge and pointless setting download. And the Raven’s Purge campaign looks approximately 48% as good as the MYZ campaign. Mostly because it’s a set map (kind of) and not a true Zone style crawl.

    The FL rules are exactly what I was expecting when they announced it, which is both good (the Mutant engine works) and bad (it’s unambitious).

  15. Ah, rough. It was a gamble for me too. I wasn’t sure how much they’d adapt the engine to the OSR or what. I was hoping it’d be a cool point crawl at least. Hmm. I’m playing it in February anyways. Hopefully it’ll play out less uninspired than the materials. I barely started reading the PDF.

  22. We’ve been having a good time with Low Fantasy Gaming for more than a year and a half now. And I’m writing a couple supplements for it.

    But it’s a D&D, and I don’t see other D&Ds in your list, so.

  23. If you haven’t already, you may want to pick Mark Diaz Truman’s brain about BitD down times. in our definitely-still-alive-and-not-at-all-dead game, down times were probably my favourite part.

    From what I could tell from the player’s side, he just ran normal free play scenes for each player (sometimes with other PCs joining, sometimes not) except that we all knew that we were safe from major consequences up until we made our roll. Scenes would often continue on after the roll, but then we were in actual free play and everything was on the table.

  25. Cam Banks I’m having a very hard time telling if it’s important to know, in which case there’s too much of it, or not important to know, in which case what’s the point?

    This is 2018, there surely are other ways of conveying deep time and mythic history in-game other than actually making you learn the fucking history.

  26. Run Runequest Glorantha and bask in the glow of Mark Delsing’s anguish. Of the ones you’ve listed, I’d love to see you take on Ars Magica. My old high school group ran a short campaign just before or just after the first White Wolf version came out. As a group of teenage miscreants, we weren’t ready for troupe play and its interesting possibilities.

  30. Right now my 2019 GM’ing list is:
    * John Carter of Mars
    * Night’s Black Agents setting / Ubiquity system
    * EsoTerrorists setting / Genesys system
    * Wrath & Glory (Want to give it a spin.)
    * Legends of the Five Rings 5e (Want to give it a spin.)
    * Shadow of the Demon Lord (This is already arranged.)
    * Symbaroum

  31. Ars Magica: game mechanics wise it’s simulation with lots of cool scenery to chew. Plot wise it can go either into mystery/puzzle solving which requires heavy lifting from the GM (preparation and being a fountain of information) or PvP with strong player characters pursuing agendas at odds with each other. Some PvP seeps in already from character building but there is little mechanical support for exploring it in the game. So definitely a game that requires heavy GM lifting.

    I did a one shot GM less game for a condensed PvP experience a few years ago: The death of Rapacus. Not officially AM, no setting knowledge required but fans will quickly recognise the universe.

  32. I genuinely had a blast with Prince Valiant when I ran it for some friends earlier this year. I knitted four of the episodes together into a “four seasons in the village” kind of thing. I think you’re right that the base game is pretty thin, but I think there’s some fun to be had with the advanced game, once players start being able to put their own episodes on the table.

    Plus, it’s just lightweight, adventurous, and fun, and sometimes that’s all ya want.

  36. Paul Beakley you can play with the players working as a team with a shared goal – that is what I meant with the mystery/puzzle solving. However, if players choose houses freely, some of them are obviously at odds with each other. It is fundamental to the setting that the gift makes other people distrust you. Will you trust someone who has the power to disintegrate a countryside on a bad day?

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