Amazing Alternatives to D&D

Dungeons & Dragons is the big brand that everyone recognizes, but there are dozens and dozens of other table top role-playing games out there. Here is just a small sampling of fantasy and science fiction games that you might also enjoy.

Shoot! I totally forgot to mention Numenera which is also Kickstarting a source book for 5th Edition, to add some science-fantasy to your D&D!



00:00 Introduction - 45 Years of Dungeons & Dragons
02:15 The One Ring / Adventures in Middle Earth
07:20 Castles & Crusades
09:30 Other Old School Revival Games
     OSRIC
     Swords & Wizardry
     Labyrith Lord
     Basic Fantasy
10:35 Runequest
12:00 13th Age
     I didn't spend enough time on 13th Age - Backgrounds and ICONS are awesome.
13:00 Tunnels & Trolls
14:20 Lone Wolf Adventure Game
20:20 Dungeon Crawl Classics
22:30 Mutant Crawl Classics
24:30 Hackmaster
29:00 Mouse Guard
31:30 Savage Worlds 
33:40 GURPS Dungeon Fantasy
36:15 The Expanse
39:00 Paranoia
40:40 Deadlands, Metamorphosis Alpha, Dragon Age, Fantasy Age, Dungeon World, Apocalypse World, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying, Dr Who

GM 101: Con Game Lessons Learned

PARANOIA 2nd Edition

As with many of my articles, the advice I give is not necessarily "You should do this" as much as it is "Don't do what I did wrong". This is another of those.

Now that I've been to a dozen or so cons over the past decade, I've experienced my share of good and bad GM issues. This year I decided to throw my own hat into the ring to help out my local con by running my first ever con game... and I ran into my own issues.

I've been a game master for various systems over the years, but running a con game adds elements that you just don't get with a home game.

1) Players generally don't know one another, so their comfort level is much lower.
2) As GM, you also are not aware of how comfortable the players are getting into character or immersing themselves into the setting.
3) Players may not be familiar with the mechanics of the system if they are testing out a new game.
4) Time is the enemy. There is a lot to get accomplished in a 2 to 4 hour time slot, so there is literally no time to waste.

I made a few rookie mistakes for my first con game.

Origins 2017 Post-Game and Owlbear 500K

Last weekend, I spent my long overdue vacation time attending Origins Game Fair. During that period, Raging Owlbear crossed the 500,000 page view mark. Three years ago, I could have never guessed I’d get more than a couple thousand page views in any given month. It’s been pretty surprising the blog has grown the way it has. Thanks for the support!

Anyway, back to Origins… If you don’t already know, Origins is one of the largest tabletop gaming conventions aside from Gen Con. This year saw approximate 17,000 attendees in the Columbus Convention Center.

In a prior post, I ranted a bit on the issues encountered during pre-registration. Thankfully, the on-site badge pick up this year was fairly quick and painless. This year they had multiple laptops available on which one could perform a self check-in and have your event tickets printed.This was a welcome improvement over the last year where check-in took anywhere from ½ hour to 2 hours depending upon when you arrived. This year, we were in and out of the line in a matter of minutes.

For the most part, the convention appeared to run fairly smoothly, although I did hear from a Mayfair representative that all was not perfect. Mayfair, who is a major sponsor of Origins (and publisher of many popular games such as Agricola, Caverna and Patchwork), submitted over 700 events into the pre-registration system which, due to a technical snafu, were not in the registration system, nor printed in the events program. Because of this, the Mayfair hall was very lightly attended in comparison to other years. There is bound to be some damage to the relationship, as Mayfair has been a headline sponsor of Origins for as long as I can remember. I hope this doesn’t create a permanent rift.

From my perspective, the convention went quite well and some of the lost esteem due to pre-registration was regained over the course of the weekend.

Highlights:

• Played Castles & Crusades with author Davis Chenault (which I wrote about). He’s a true mensch.
• Had a chance encounter in the hallway with Chris O’Neill of 9th Level Games. Not only did he remember who I was, we had a pleasant (but quick) conversation about 9th Level and their new releases. Super nice fellow.
• Briefly watched Ken St. Andre GM’ing a game of Tunnels & Trolls. I would have liked to say hello, but I did not want to interrupt his game.
• Won a Tie F/O model playing X-Wing. 
• Played a truly enjoyable home brew Savage Worlds scenario.
• Participated in a crazy Paranoia LARP
• And a crap-ton of D&D Adventurers League (probably too much, to be honest).

Misses:

• I did not get an opportunity to chat with any WotC people.
• There were a few well-known authors/bloggers I wanted to meet, but did not.
• I really wanted to get to play a demo of Dragonfire which looks like it could be a hit.
• There just isn't enough time in the day to fit in all the extra gaming.
• I don't have tickets to GenCon this year... sigh.

Let me know about your Origins experience in the comments!

Owlbear and the Troll Lord	These come equipped with ER-PPCs, right?
Bit of a furball going on...	7 evades in a row?!?
Hey Guys... What's in here?	Meeting Chris O'Neill in 2016
Dice Tower's Tom Vasel	Acerak demands your.. erm... devotion.

Not Loving Friend Computer is Treason - A Paranoia Love Story

Secret Journal of THRILL-R-GON-3

I awake to the blaring klaxon of Morning Comforts in my ear. I've gotten pretty good at springing out of bed even when still half-asleep because the Pleasant-Shake-Awake-Bunk sometimes malfunctions and sends several hundred volts through the frame. I reported the not-problem with the bed to Housing Preservation Development and Mind Control (HPD&MC). The repair bot Tech Services sent 4 week-cycles later made some minor "fixes". It didn't have a mouth, but I swear it was smirking at me with its speaker when it reported all was working fine. The jolts seem to be even more frequent now, but disconnecting the power might be seen as an act of vandalism against Computer-issued equipment, so I've learned to sleep lightly.

A second klaxon breaks my reverie and I begin Morning Comforts whilst loudly singing "The Computer is my Shepherd" with my pod-mates. I've always wondered about the song. I'm not quite sure what a "sheep" is, but when I asked, I was warned that information was above my Security Clearance. I am only a Red Troubleshooter, after all. We don't get told nothing, except where trouble is and how to shoot it.

#RPGaDay Part 3: 21 to 31

21) Favorite Licensed RPG - Perhaps Mouse Guard or the original Marvel Super Heroes.

22) Best Secondhand RPG Purchase - Dragonlance 5th Age, which is a great system which I picked up relatively inexpensively. I also purchased the Rules Cyclopedia well before it started to be hugely overpriced on Ebay.

23) Coolest Looking RPG Product/Book - I do not own The One Ring, but the artwork I've seen paging through it is gorgeous. I've also always really loved the starship artwork and schematics in Traveller... just because I like those kinds of deck plan drawings. Car Wars artwork has also always been a favorite for me.

24) Most Complicated RPG Owned - Probably GURPS. I don't have any of those overly complex games from the 80's and 90's like those from Palladium (RIFTS) or Iron Crown (Rolemaster). I technically own a second hand copy of one of the Middle Earth Roleplaying books, but never even really cracked it open except briefly to browse, so I'm not counting it.

25) Favorite RPG No One Else Wants To Play - My group of players doesn't usually have too much difficulty trying something new, but the issue usually comes up when no GM is willing to run a system they don't already know/understand. The players are almost always willing to try a new system, but the few GMs are not so much. Mouse Guard is at the top of this list.

26) Coolest Character Sheet - I don't have an opinion. I tend to like functional over flowery.

27) Game you'd like to see new edition - Boot Hill might be a fun one to resurrect, although I suppose Deadlands could technically be used to play a "straight" version of the Old West instead of a Weird West. Star Frontiers might be fun to revisit as well.

28) Scariest Game - I've never played an RPG where horror was executed very well... but I also haven't played many horror RPGs. So I don't really have a good answer for this one.

29) Most Memorable Encounter - I talked about this one in the Most Memorable Character Death. There was also a fun Red Dragon encounter in that same campaign, but the details are a bit foggy after 20 years.

30) Rarest RPG Owned - I have a copy of the 1974 White Box D&D "donated" by my brother.

31) Favorite RPG - D&D will always be king. It opened the world of RPGs to me and I'm excited about the 5th edition… but, I will also always love some of the other old, but great games on my shelf like Paranoia, Car Wars, Gamma World, etc…

#RPGaDay Part 2 - 11 through 20

Continued from #RPGaDay Part 1...

11) Weirdest RPG Owned - I don't own a "weird" RPG, per se, but I do own a few odd source books for a normal RPG, namely GURPS IOU. IOU is a little weird, but mostly satirical. I have downloaded Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but have not played it. Also, since it's really just a darker variant of D&D, I don't consider it particularly weird.

12) Old RPG You Still Play / Read - Paranoia It's still fun to peruse the rule book and old adventures longing for a GM that will run it for me.