Fate Kickstarter PDF Download Frenzy

I finally have enough time to sit in front of my computer and download my Fate Kickstarter PDFs. I ended up with Fate Core, Fate Accelerated, Fate System Toolkit, Fate Worlds (Volumes 1 & 2), Strange Tales of the Century, Sally Slick and the Steel Syndicate, Deck of Fate, Fate Freeport Companion, plus a lot of smaller items too numerous to list. I went in for two print books, Fate Core and Fate System Toolkit, which should be coming in the next month or so.

I have almost played a Fate-based game on two different occasions. The first time, we had a group that spent two sessions creating characters for Dresden RPG. I was bummed we didn't get to play (half the group consisted of college students, the other have being their parental units, so scheduling stopped us in our tracks). My wife had the best character ever--an teenaged Amish wizard. Our second attempt at Fate was with Spirit of the Century, with the intent of just doing a one-shot. Again, scheduling became an issue and we ended up with an Apples to Apples session instead.

I have been following Christian's posts (destination unknown) as he prepped for a Fate Accelerated game. I was encouraged by his notes on his game session. I am not sure how it would play with our Monday Night gaming goobers, but it would have been awesome with our old in-house group (the kids and their parental units).

Five For Friday 1: Five Games I Want To Play

Sometime in the last year, I slid from "casual gamer" into "serious hobbyist gamer" (someday I will write a blog post on my system of gamer categories). Anyway, I am think about gaming more and am interested in things beyond whatever game I am currently playing (which happens to be GURPS). As we head into a new year, here are five role-playing games that I have not played but would like to give them a try (in alphabetical order):

1. Amazing Adventures: A D20 Pulp-Era game from Troll Lord Games, utilizing their Siege Engine mechanics. I really like the look and feel of this game. The magic system is particularly cool for a D20 game, with spell casting based on intelligence, wisdom, and charisma.
2. Crypts & Things: A D20 OSR game, using Swords & Wizardry as its point of departure. I really like the setting, the classes, the magic system, and the insanity rules. A very simple and groovy approach to sword & sorcery gaming.
3. Don’t Rest Your Head: A rules-lite horror game from Evil Hat Productions. The product description really says it all: Don’t Rest Your Head is a sleek, dangerous little game, where your players are all insomniac protagonists with superpowers, fighting — and using — exhaustion and madness to stay alive, and awake for just one more night...
4. Legends of Angelerre: A FATE-based fantasy game from Cubicle 7. I really like FATE, based on my experience with Dresden Files RPG, I am very curious to see how FATE works in a fantasy setting.
5. Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies: A joint venture of Evil Hat Productions and Atomic Sock Monkey Press...just reading those words together in one sentence is a lot of fun. This game uses a varient of PDQ, called PDQ Sharp. This looks like it would be perfect for our in-house-face-to-face-very-casual-meets-only-occasionally gaming group.

Runners Up: Blood & Treasure, Spirit of the Century

Which five games would you like to try?

A "Plan B" Game Night

After making it through Sandy a few weeks ago without a blip or a blink, we lost power here in our eastern Pennsylvania neighborhood for much of the afternoon. That was some serious wind today.

Anyway, instead of our first session of Spirit of the Century (FATE) at our place, we relocated to the home of our fellow gamers and settled in for a rollicking session of Apples to Apples. My personal favorite was matching the red Underwear card when the green Hardworking (industrious, diligent, busy) card. Something about "hardworking underwear," "industrious underwear," "diligent underwear," and, of course, "busy underwear" set off some major giggles.

While I was hoping to get in a session of Spirit of the Century, I am not disappointed in the way our evening went. Good friends always make for the best of times.

The First Time Is Always Special: Our Upcoming Session with "Spirit of the Century"

So this weekend—if all goes as planned—I will have my first experience running Spirit of the Century. My face-to-face gaming group has only met once in the last year for a Castles & Crusades session, although previous to that we did have a couple of character creation sessions for the Dresden RPG (a FATE-based system, like Spirit of the Century). I think FATE will be a good match for our group.