Treasures in the Mailbox

So I have not been buying much in the way of gaming stuff. Oddly enough, I don't buy much while I am in the middle of GMing a campaign. I also bought a bass guitar a few months ago and that seriously deleted my fun money account. However, I did get Tim's (Gothridge Manor) latest volume of The Manor. The Manor #4 is the best one yet, although I admit to being biased as I have a few critters published within. The monster cards are a nice touch.

I also ordered GURPS Mysteries (4th Edition) and it arrived today. I haven't had a chance to look through it yet, as we had our Monday Night Gaming Group session tonight, but I plan on starting my reading during my morning smoothie. I have heard good things about this book but it is out of print (still available in PDF). I have been keeping an eye out for a used copy on Amazon, but the price had been hovering around $50. I managed to score a copy for $17.00. Happy I am. There are still some copies available on Amazon for the same price. I am not sure why the price bounces around so much..maybe a group of speculators creating havoc in the market?

I also received some gaming goodness from my wife for Father's Day back in June. I finally have the hardcopy of The Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. My wife and I talked about playing but we have not made any definite plans yet. I have not tried out the PDQ system (or, in this case, PDQ Sharp), but I am intrigued by it. Plus, the setting is awesome...it easily lands in my top 3 settings of all time. Thanks, Deb!!

In-House Gaming

For the past few years, my gaming has been restricted to our Monday Night Gaming Group (via Skype). Our in-house gaming group ground to halt when the offspring half of the group up and went to college, leaving the rest of us to foot the bill. My wife and I have talked about starting up our in-house gaming group again, even if it ends up being just the two of us.

We are looking at two very different games, Trail of Cthulu and Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. Trail of Cthulu is a Pelgrane Press game, written by Kenneth Hite, who also written one of my favorite GURPS books, GURPS Horror. Trail of Cthulu uses Robin Law's GUMSHOE system, which is designed specifically as a system to support investigative RPGs. I have read nothing but good things about GUMSHOE and about Trail of Cthulu.

I have had a crush on Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies for a while, but I keep delaying its purchase because I always find some more urgent and immediate gaming need. I really like the concept of the PDQ system and the setting for Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies looks neato cool. Pirate air ships, fencing, muskets, and islands in the sky...what could be more groovy than that?

I told my wife that either game would be a great Father's Day gift.

PDQ--The GURPS/Fate Rules-Lite Lovechild

I have been interested in picking up a PDQ-based game for a while. Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies is tops on my PDQ wish list, but on a whim, I ended up purchasing Dead Inside (PDF) from RPGNow. I won a $10 gift certificate from Erik Tenkar et. al. as part of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day celebration. I was a random winner, which means I posted that day (thanks, Erik!).

It may seem blasphemous to purchase a PDQ game with "old school money" but PDQ is like the Swords & Wizardry of new school games, kind of a rules-lite lovechild of GURPS and Fate. You can get the generic PDQ Core rules for free and also get PDQ Sharp for free as well. PDQ Sharp is a variant that serves as the basis for Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies (which is still on my wish list, I just want to get it in hardcopy).

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?