Car Wars pocket box edition out in PDF

For those of you who don't follow the Steve Jackson Games Daily Illuminator, you might have missed this:

Car Wars is out in PDF

It's the little pocket box version, with a 64-page rulebook and 100 or so counters.


Pretty cool. Car Wars was the first SJG game I ever played, followed later by Ogre, then Man-to-Man, then GURPS. I still have all of my old Car Wars stuff (plus a replacement set of counters I got used, after my originals mysteriously disappeared en masse.) I'm looking forward to the new version of Car Wars but it's cool to think you can play the old for for $6 plus some printing time.

GURPS Underground Adventures is out

Well, today is shot. Between work, I'm going to be tearing through this:



Yay, stuff about how sound carries underground, light sources underground, temperature, etc. Oh yeah, and stats for Ymir. He's a bit big.

Random Thoughts VII

Just some musings in a brief break.

- This kind of thing is why I left D&D for Rolemaster and then GURPS (via Man-to-Man). Not that D&D is bad, it's a lot of fun and I loved it. But we could never deal with the issue of "how many swings" and "what does melee mean" and "why doesn't that mean I shoot lots of arrows?" and all of that and I sure don't miss the arguments. I ultimately went to a system that really did pare it down to one blow being one blow, an arrow shot is an arrow shot. It's not free from abstraction, of course. But the bottom-up design - it started life as one man, one blow, one second instead of a mass combat system - is for single person combat and it shows.

- I like stocking treasure randomly, but GURPS DF 8 sure requires a lot of rolls and page-flipping and calculating value. I'm hoping someone else automates it. Still, DF 8 does have some cool stuff in it, I just find myself rolling up valuable clothing for aquatic encounters and weapons for rust monsters, that kind of stuff, and needing to re-roll or just decide for myself.

- I've been drawing a few more levels of my megadungeon, and editing a bit on the ones not yet reached. I'll post another megadungeon lessons post once I'm sure I know what I've learned from it.

- I was reminded of Rolemaster recently several times. Especially the herbs. I think my DF game needs more off-the-shelf edibles like the Rolemaster herbs. So I'm starting to write some up.

- I really want to draw your attention to this cool news: the re-release of the Slaver Series!
I loved the A1-4 series. I ran the combo supermodule once in AD&D and once in GURPS, and ran the separate modules at least one other time in AD&D and was run through A1 solo once as well. A bit railroad-y, like most early (very linear) tournament modules, but full of cool stuff.

I'll get this, if I can, just to see the new adventure. I already have good copies of all four of A1-A4.

Somali Pirates vs. Delvers

I couldn't help but think, after reading this article, that delvers and pirates are a lot alike. And towns near dungeons, borderlands, uncleared hexes, etc. in a gaming world are a lot like those Somali coastal towns.

Not to make light of either the lethal pirates or the suffering they cause, or the suffering of the townsfolk, but there are similarities worth considering for gaming.

Boom vs. bust While the ships are there and pickings are good, money flows into town. Creditors extend loans. Prices rise tenfold or more ($0.05 tea going for $0.50). When the ships aren't there, or it's too risky to extend money to the risk-takers, it all dries up.

Delvers are like that, too. Dangerous job, and they go into the teeth of danger because the payoff for the few is great. Sure, the guys who buy the treasures from them and purchase the magic items might make even more of a profit. But for a brave soul who is willing to risk death (and has little skill besides smacking monsters), there is the lure of fortune.

Notice how the townspeople feel about the pirates - nothing good comes of them. It's likely they didn't say that out loud when pirates were dropping $1000 a night on prostitutes and paying 10x the going rate for food, snapping up luxury cars and bidding up housing prices. But as soon as they can't make their payments, it's over.

Delvers probably should get the same treatment. The Ruins of Razelgar are turning up scads of silver coins, handfuls of gold, gemstones by the score, and magical items worth more than the local town? Great, welcome! They can throw parties and celebrate and the inn is packed. All hail the brave adventurers! Welcome back from your dangerous and oh-so-brave descent into danger!

But then . . . the dungeon is empty, and you come back empty handed and can't afford a new round of rations and 10' poles? Take a hike, you economy-wreckers. We never liked you. All you brought was disease, death, and massive inflation. And in a fantasy world, likely strange hangers-on, monstrous intrusions, and blowback from the annoyed goblinoids at the Caves of Chaos. Oh, but you saved the town from a dragon/zombie horde/menace of fungi-men? Think of the reaction of the villagers at the end of The Seven Samurai - okay, thanks, but now you are a hindrance, not a help, and you can go now.

One can only hope that in reality, the days of the Horn of Africa being a pirate haven are over. But keep the lessons of the coastal towns in mind when adventurers show up, cash in hand . . .

Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen progress

Over on his Livejournal, Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch revealed the title for our latest collaboration:

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen

I won't add anything here about what's in it, but the title is pretty revealing. If you noticed my players having the occasional henchmen and hirelings (Korric, Orrie) and NPC companions (Red Raggi), yeah, I used the stuff we came up for for the book. And the book uses stuff I came up with for my game.

Eaten by Aliens, Campaign Starts Now

I'm sure most of you guys have heard of the report done about possible human-alien contact, and what it would mean for humans.

This chart from National Geographic is basically a campaign matrix.

Pick and choose. Want post-apocalypse from alien contact? Choose a "Harmful" alien interaction, such as "Unintentional Harm: Acts of Incompetence." What if Earth went all Gamma World because aliens unintentionally caught Earth in a solar-system wide science experiment?

Want friendly aliens? Well, how did meeting them go? Was it good, neutral, or bad? If it was good, was there exchange of science or were they essentially uncaring?

How about "Intentionally Hiding." Come on, how can you not create a fun adventure when the PCs stumble upon proof of the aliens who don't want us to see them? Maybe they fear our violent ways, or unleashing theirs on us, or fear our diseases or social contamination? Are they like Tokugawa Japan, an advanced culture seeking isolation? Or are they like fearful sasquatches of legend, running off when they see man?

This matrix is pure gaming gold.