Author: Leprekawn

Once upon a time I was deep in a search for a class-less game system.  Having spent years mired in D&D 3.5, with it’s level progression at the front of my personal annoyance, I was in the market for a game with similar ideas (magic, adventure, tombs to rob) and conducted not a little research in this pursuit.

It wasn’t until years later my good friend Scott convinced me and my roommate to play Dresden Files.  At first I was caught relatively off guard.  Unlike many games you make characters last.  The people you’re about to play don’t come into the equation until after, as a group, you’ve talked about the game and the world and made decisions on key locations or people with which to interact.

So far I’m splitting my favor 50/50 with World of Darkness for ease of play.  While it makes an interesting story-spin for the Dresden Files books (which I’m told are quite good) I find it’s potential for other games is an under-discussed point.  You spend almost a whole session on building the world you’re about to venture into, why not sand off the minutiae of conventional Dungeon Plundering and weave a compelling story of adventure and high fantasy.

I’m not sure where I was going with this.  Dresden Files is worth playing if you happen to roll dice on a regular basis.

Part of my journey in 2014 is trying out new and old games, their mechanical route and figuring out what I like and don’t.  I’ve picked up more TableTop pencil and paper RPG books than I care to comment on.  Among them stories and histories that I can’t always remember.  I’ve started my run through Mutants & Masterminds, a journey that started some years ago as D&D 3.5 was offering it’s infrastructure to anyone who wanted it.  This lead to various games with basic rules that were all the same and only the details changed.  Crossbow here is a Lazer Kanon there.  It was what we might call a second Dark Age after TSR got devoured by Wizards of the Coast (who was then eaten by Hasbro).  History aside, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good.  Currently at it’s 3rd Edition it’s replaced some of that infrastructure for a simpler approach to Superhero gaming.

All you need is a single d20 and time.  For RPG veterans, it falls solidly between Storyteller system and Pathfinder for complexity with combat being the only troubling point.

Character construction is very open and allows for a variety of powers in styles I’ve played in other games.  Notably I rebuilt a City of Heroes character with the assistance of a sidebook they made “Power Profiles” which was easily the second best purchase I’ve ever made following a main book.  There they make themed suggestions on powers and build them using the rules in the main book.  No, there’s nothing new, no new powers or options.  Everything you ‘need’ is in the main book from civil weapons and vehicles to animals and thugs.  I took the time to build myself a resource document to see where Normal People sit compared to Supers.

It’s well done and and easily amusing.  You enjoy superhero table games, give me a chat we could meet online and play a dash or if you’re in the PDX we could have coffee over smashing a car and stealing minds.

And there we were, standing on a tower laden with five ballistae each capable of oblitering my team six ways from Sunday at least a half dozen times.  Each ballistae stockpiled with ammunition that would spell out the aforementioned doom should any one of them detonate via sharp impact or fire.  Being a aptly prepared wizard I did what I do best.. Edged what I’d call a leaning lightning bolt down a narrow 5ft line through five ugly dudes I really wanted to take off the battlefield.

They responded in kind by one of them trying to stab me with his impromptu spear at great disadvantage.  I did my wizard thing with a spell called Mirror Image which always seems to amaze the DM.  So several rounds later when the Barbarian had enough of the fight and the Ranger’s player, eager to recycle this character to the Great Beyond, exchanged what would be described in-character as a knowing look I started to panic a little.  The barbarian, who I’d Hasted as a means of empowering us to kick even more butt, rushed me and picked up the fighter and myself as he ran us like a linebacker hauling groceries over the edge of the tower, down it’s side and out into the forest some 100ft beyond.  Then the tower blew up.

I did that math.  That was a scary fight.

Post Update: As the Barbarian is rushing over the side of the tower I remark “Wait.. what about my Clone!?”