For Gold and Glory - Released

Thanks to the Retro Roleplaying blog for posting about this.

From the For Gold and Glory site.

After 3+ years of work from several talented individuals, I’m proud to officially announce the first complete release of [i]The Adventurer’s Compendium:
A Comprehensive Guide to Adventuring [b]For Gold and Glory[/b] and How to Survive Long Enough to Enjoy It[/i].  This is a role playing game adapted from and based on the Advanced Fantasy RPG (2nd Edition) published in 1989 by TSR and developed by David “Zeb” Cook, Steve Winter, and Jon Pickens.  As a “simulacrum” game, the goal is to update, compile, and revise the material in compliance with the Open Game License to be compatible with old material and create new, derivative work.

Downloading now.

Have updated the Retro Clone List.

Note (30 Mar 2013): The site seems to be down. If you go to the bottom of the Retro Clone List you should find an updated link.

Hulks and Horrors Core Set -- Indiegogo

http://www.indiegogo.com/hulksandhorrors?a=562939 Came across this on another, better, blog.

Sleeper RPG: Playtest @ Birmingham Games Expo 2012 (Updated)

Introduction

[30 May - Added scans of documents

13 June - Added more scans of missing characters. Thanks Anna :) ]

I turned up for my first ever games expo excitedly on Friday morning to pick up my tickets and rush off to play an unreleased RPG game called Sleeper.  A disaster occurred, they could not find my tickets. Within minutes someone introduced himself as Tony and whisked me away and sorted me out with tickets then virtually escorted me across the road for the game.

Thanks Tony, disaster to superb customer experience in minutes.

Sleeper RPG: Before The Game

UK Games Expo: Game Link - http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/game.php?id=RPG37

Having never played a game at an expo before I thought I would try something new. The write up above looked quite intriguing and the briefest of scans of the Death Spiral website helped.

A bald gentleman introduced himself as Ben Counter, freelance author and one of the creators of the game, and said he would be running the session.

After a few minutes I figured out where I knew the name from, minus ten points for me.

The Famous Ben Counter

Sleeper RPG: Introduction

Ben introduced the general game concept. (from the Site)

Sleeper is a roleplaying game of Cold War relics and secret wars. It pits your character’s superhuman powers and elite training against the deadliest relics of the Cold War. The game combines military action, ultramodern gear, science fiction horror and the secret history of the twentieth century in deadly and thrilling battle for the survival of the world. During the darkest days of that conflict, the superpowers came to believe that nuclear war was a likely event. So they took their biggest secrets – the artificially enhanced agents and soldiers, possessing superhuman powers and the highest levels of training – and buried them in secret facilities from which they would wake when nuclear war had finished. These sleepers would then help found the post-nuclear world according to the principles of the regimes that created them.

I had a feeling of Cold City, Hot War meets military action movie. We had six pre gen characters to choose from. I selected Gravedigger as he was frankly the best. A teleporting KGB sniper agent. When I played him he developed a strange liking for the hot tub, I don't really know why.

Gravedigger

RPG Book Binding For Fun and No Profit Whatsoever

I love games. All of them. I like computer games, board games and pen and paper role playing games. I love reading. I love reading on electronic devices, especially ones with e-ink screens, like my ageing prs 505.

What I do not like doing is reading heavily formatted books, like RPG rulebooks, on a computer screen. Even with the best hyperlinks and formatting I think some things are better read on paper. I did have a few problems though.

1. PDFs are generally a lot cheaper. Though sometimes not much, here I glance in the direction of Mongoose publishing.


2. I had the PDF of ACKS for under a tenner.


3. I really wanted the hardback book but it cost a lot and I could not find a supplier in the UK.


4. A friendly and cheap print on demand service was not being offered.

What to do I thought, what would Mr Maker do? He would make his own!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="72" caption="My first attempt in progress."][/caption]

Do It Yourself Book Binding

I have been thinking about doing this off and on for months now.

Playing Yesterday's Games Today

Recently I ran a quickie beginner friendly game at the grand opening of Fife's newest gaming arena Minmax Games, if I am feeling brave I will post a link to the scenario at the bottom.

Since I rediscovered role playing games I have run some sessions of Savage Worlds, played a fair amount of Dungeons & Dragons 4E and am now running a regular Traveller game. My current experiences with 4E are not the best, this I suspect has more to do with my play style and gaming memories than the actual system itself. The system seems well balanced just not my cup of tea. I did find myself thinking back to basic Dungeons and Dragons.

[caption id="attachment_546" align="aligncenter" width="220" caption="D&D Expert Set (Source The Acaeum http://www.acaeum.com/)"][/caption]

My memories told me the game was quicker, simpler and just more fun.

Updated retro clone post.

Updated my Retro Clone list.

Nazis and Cthulhu

Finally the game I never knew I was waiting for:

 

[caption id="attachment_983" align="aligncenter" width="211" caption="Achtung Cthulhu"][/caption]

The Secret War Has Begun!

Achtung! Cthulhu brings you a two-fisted wartime roleplaying game setting for Call of Cthulhu and Savage Worlds, packed full of fiendish Nazi scientists, terrifying ancient mysteries, legendary German war machines, desperate partisans, gun-toting paratroopers, determined investigators, and enough writhing tentacles to pack ten Reichstags.

 

Discover the secret history of World War Two - stories of the amazing heroism which struggled to overthrow a nightmare alliance of science and the occult, of frightening inhuman conspiracies from the depths of time, and the unbelievable war machines which were the product of Nazi scientific genius - and how close we all came to a slithering end!

 

Play a huge range of classic wartime heroes such as Russian political officers, German U-Boat commanders, British commandoes, RAF pilots, US rangers, Washington investigators, London journalists, Hollywood starlets, and resistance fighters from all across Europe, who must all unite in the battle against the darker side of World War Two. Play a full campaign leading from the opening shots of the War in 1939, through intrigue and adventure in Occupied Europe, the siege of Berlin in 1945, and finally the cold wastes of Antarctica in 1946!

 

Can be followed on it's Facebook page.

Cthulhu Dark

Just came across this:

Cthulhu Dark is my rules-light Lovecraftian game. (Or try the easily-printable version).

The rules are fun and incredibly minimal: they fit on one sheet of paper. You don’t need a character sheet to play, so you can start playing after two minutes of prep. Despite the simplicity, there are some interesting rules twists: look at the Suppressing Knowledge rule for an example.

More info here from Thieves of Time. Just about to print it out.

 

The Great Moon Hoax

My latest treasure dug up from the public domain using a combination of the Museum of Hoaxes, the Internet Archive and Smithsonian images. Everything apart from my introduction and my appendix at the end is in the public domain.

[ipaper id=80163753 key=key-24nd8zcmwej4uh1xuny2]

If you like you can download for free from Scribd. Or if you really like the idea and want to reward me for my time you can purchase it in kindle format from:

Amazon UK: The Great Moon Hoax

Amazon US: The Great Moon Hoax

If you find any errors or problems please leave a comment.

 

Adventurer Conqueror King Released (PDF)

[caption id="attachment_965" align="aligncenter" width="231" caption="Adventurer Conqueror King"][/caption]

This has finally been released. Have not downloaded it yet but will do so in the near future. From the creator's site:

http://www.autarch.co/

Autarch’s Adventurer Conqueror King system fulfills the promise of the original fantasy role-playing game by providing comprehensive, integrated support for play across all levels of a campaign. Any referee who has ever checked for random encounters, and every player who’s has rolled a twenty-sided dice to hit a wandering monster, will find the rules of Adventurer Conqueror King as elegant, familiar, and comfortable to wield as an heirloom sword. The system’s cutting edge is the way every table, chart, and assumption in the game encodes Gygaxian naturalism, Arnesonian barony-building, and the designers’ own experience of hundreds of sessions playing and running old-school games. With Adventurer Conqueror King, you get both the verisimilitude and consistency of thorough world-building with the power of improvisation and discovery through play. We look forward to seeing what you do with these tools!

Currently available here at DrivethruRPG.

Your Journey from Adventurer to King Begins Now!

Enter a world where empires totter on the brink of war, and terrible monsters tear at the fragile borderlands of men; where decaying cities teem with chaos and corruption, nubile maidens are sacrificed to chthonic cults and nobles live in decadent pleasure on the toil of slaves; where heroes, wizards, and rogues risk everything in pursuit of glory, fortune, and power. This is a world where adventurers can become conquerors – and conquerors can become kings.

Will you survive the perils of war and dark magic to claim a throne? Or will you meet your fate in a forgotten ruin beyond the ken of men?

The Adventurer Conqueror King System™ (ACKS) is a new fantasy role-playing game that provides the framework for epic fantasy campaigns with a sweeping scope. With theAdventurer Conqueror King System™ you can:

• Play 12 different classes, including the fighter, mage, thief, cleric, assassin, bard, bladedancer, explorer, dwarven craftpriest, dwarven vaultguard, elven nightblade, and elven spellsword.


• Easily customize your character using a unique, optional proficiency system. Make your fighter a berserker or your mage a necromancer!


• Buy, sell, and trade common merchandise, precious silks and spices, and even monster parts and magic items in a balanced and integrated game economy.


• Construct strongholds, establish kingdoms, and carve out a realm for your character.


• Run a thieves' guild and send your minions to carouse, smuggle, steal, and commit other hijinks.


• Establish a wizard's sanctum and explore the forbidden arts. Crossbreed horrific monsters in an underground laboratory, enact powerful magical rituals, build golems, craft magic items, or even transform yourself and your followers into undead monsters.


• Build and run a living world for adventure on a grand scale. With game mechanics built to support emergent play, ACKS is the ultimate RPG for sandbox campaigns.

Whether you want to crawl through dungeons, trade with merchant caravans, run a merchant emporium, conquer an empire, or even raise an undead legion, ACKS supports your playstyle with simple, fast-playing game mechanics.