Help Me Make a Purchase!

[IAmBatman]

Well I'm getting to play a one-day DnD event on Saturday, so that should scratch the full RPG itch for a bit.

I actually kind of just wish that my game group liked Descent or Heroquest better, (or that they hadn't mostly grown tired of Pathfinder ACG), but in lieu of that I have high hopes for Defenders of the Realm.

[Grishnakh]

OK, I'll give you a recommendation. Realize however that this is really old sckool stuff. And admittedly, perhaps it's one of my favorite games due to the nostalgia I have for it. Regardless, I've shown it to many people over the years and they've enjoyed playing it. Or at the very least they've enjoyed reading through the rules from a history of gaming perspective. This little game definetly influenced a lot of games that came after it that's for sure.

The game is Melee and Wizards (together called The Fantasy Trip) (TFT) and it's a classic wargame/RPG that was first published back in the late 70s, early 80s by a company called Metagaming. It was Steve Jackson's first published game. After Jackson left Metagaming, the company died a quick death and he went on to found Steve Jackson Games. GURPS was his attempt to redesign TFT and escape any copyright issues (being his first game he had signed away all of the rights to TFT).

While GURPS became very popular there are some of us though that still love the simplicity and clarity of the original TFT rules. The entire original rulebook set is included in two small books: Melee (combat rules) and Wizard (magic rules). While not necessary Melee and Wizard also had advanced rulebooks. These were called Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and In the Labyrinth (roleplaying/campaigning rules). All of this represents the core of TFT.

There are a few sources for the rules online, from the original Microgames (basic melee and Wizard) to TFT (Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard and In the Labyrinth). I've included a few links below.

Now the game is what I like to call an RPBG, which stands for Role Playing Board Game. The combats are played out using either cardboard pieces, or miniatures to represent the player's figures. The game is played on hexes (hopefully you have some of those ) The game has it's roots in the older SPI style war-games of the late 70s so the combat is very tactical, man-to-man level stuff. The combats are linked by the scenario book, which is an early example of the choose your own adventure booklets. You read the story out loud, the players make decisions as to what to do and the direction they go in. This removes the need for a Game Master. When a fight happens you go to the tactical map and play it out. Thus the Role Playing Board Game label I like to give this game.

There's a huge similarity to Heroscape here. I asked Craig at a GenCon years ago if there was any kind of connection between the two games. He just smiled and said nothing to me. It's almost like he took HeroQuest and smashed it together with Melee/Wizards to create Heroscape. Anyway, it's just my personal theory. Regardless, I originally bought Heroscape to play Melee Wizards on the hex tiles, and still do to this day. In fact this game is the driving factor for most of my custom terrain, not Heroscape.

The good thing about all of this is it's free. Or, in the case of the scenarios, really cheap. Here are the rules, in all their late 1970s glory.
http://bluwiki.com/go/Tft-melee
http://bluwiki.com/go/Tft-wizard

Over on BoardGameGeek Kwanchai did a more modern redesign of the combat rules (he never did the wizard book):
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/50...melee-redesign

In fact our very own Malechi did some equipment cards for the game, in the same style:
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/51...quipment-cards

As for scenarios:
A few years back a couple of us determined that there were enough old gamers out there still playing TFT that wanted new material to give it a go at creating some. We formed Dark City Games and decided to rewrite the rules just enough to avoid any copyright issues and offer them for free (when Metagaming went out of business, the copyright status of the game became questionable anyway, and still is to this day). Some people prefer these new rules. (I personally still like the older version, but hey, there is a choice.)

The free rules can be found here:
http://www.darkcitygames.com/docs/Legends.pdf

On the Dark City web site we include two free scenarios. These are trial run scenarios that are easily playable in one evening and give you an abbreviated feel for some of the larger scenarios. They are found under Sample Modules (Orcs of the High Mountains and The Sorcerer's Manor.) In fact, the newest scenario, Upon the Wind, was written by our very own Taeblewalker! (As for me, I've done the cover art for several of the scenario books.)
http://www.darkcitygames.com

Now, this isn't a commercial. Please understand that Dark City Games is a gamers labor of love. We don't make any money off of it. We charge $12.95 for each of our books mainly to cover the cost of making and shipping the durn things. If you like what you see, and you do give the free scenarios a try, then let me know and I can point you in the direction of what I consider to be the best longer scenarios.

Lastly, I offer my horribly out dated, tribute web site to TFT:
http://www.meleewizards.com

And specifically this page:
http://www.meleewizards.com/photos_dark%20vale.html

Wether you find any of this stuff of interest is up to you. It does seem to match what you said you've been looking for. Hope it helps! -Grish

[IAmBatman]

I'm definitely intrigued. I'll have to look up some of that stuff (especially the free stuff ) when I have more time! RPGBG sounds about perfect for me, especially if it's DM free.

[Porkins]

I'm intrigued by the RPGBG DM Free too. I tried Castle Ravenloft, but it just didn't feel right.

[Hahma]

I have Defenders of the Realm and enjoy it. I have played it solo, with my daughters and also with my gaming group.

I've never played Pandemic, but I've heard people say that Defenders of the Realm is a fantasy version and has some other things that ar better about it. Comparing it to Flashpoint, you have unique characters to control that have certain among of action points to spend on their turn, and then reveal a Darkness Spreads card that does mostly bad things, kinda like when fire spreads in Flashpoint. But of course there are a lot of differences, in that you have to stop the Generals from getting into the city, as well keeping the minions out of the city, as well as keeping all of any of the minion types from being placed on the board, as well as keeping all of the tainted crystals from being placed on the board.

There are several expansions for the game, but I don't have them. Fortunately, my friend John has them, and they are nice additions.

Another game to consider is Galaxy Defenders. It's a campaign style game where players get a unique character that can be leveled up during the course of the campaign. It's pure co-op, with the alien enemies being AI driven. It's neat to be able to level up, as well as start out with some different equipment. Combat is neat, where you red d10's and the number of hits you get determine how many blue d10's you or the aliens roll to defend with. You have certain amount of ammo and can roll a symbol that causes you to have to expend on of your ammo tokens, or roll a jam and have to waste an action to unjam.

My buddy Jeff kickstarted this game and 5 of us played through the campaign last year. He kickstarted the first (big) expansion for it and just got the minis back from getting commissioned to be painted. So we'll start the next campaign soon.

Here's a few of the minis he got painted.



My Marine character in the last mission of last year's campaign



Galaxy Defenders stuff at CSI

Anyway, it's something else that is out there

[Tornado]

Not a big fan of the anti-DM talk. DMs rule!

[Hahma]

DM's drool

Main thing is that it's tough to get people to commit to RPGs. Certain games that have the DM type player, like Descent or Imperial Assault, may make it easier, but sometimes nobody wants to take that role, as they all want the experience of running a character. So games like Galaxy Defenders or Mice and Mystics may work.

I may at some point be willing to commit to an RPG, but have Galaxy Defenders campaign committed to, and have committed to Seafall campaign after GenCon, and am also getting my Gloomhaven KS around that time, where that is a legacy game that is a dungeon crawl that has 16 character classes and probably 90 scenarios (though not all played in the campaign since you can choose different paths). So maybe in a couple years I'll be ready

[quozl]

<--- is a DM

[Grishnakh]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Not a big fan of the anti-DM talk. DMs rule!

Well, in my case I never said you can't imbellish the publish scenarios. In fact I'd encourage it. Plus it works well if one person takes the role of the DM, reading the descriptions and playing the monsters. The scenario just eliminates all of the prep time a DM usually has to go through. Unless you do what I do and build "miniature sets" for the main combat areas.

[Porkins]

Building miniature sets sounds like a lot of prep time

[IAmBatman]

Galaxy Defenders looks really cool, Hambone! Thanks! Adding it to my wishlist.

[Grishnakh]

Originally Posted by Porkins

Building miniature sets sounds like a lot of prep time

Yep. It certainly has been. However. Everything I've done over the years has been modular. Years ago I was building multilevel hex maps out of foam core and model railroad grass. Once I had established the size of the hexes, as I built terrain, I based all of it on that hex size. Then Heroscape came along. The ability to build an interlocking hex map was to good to pass up. So I redid a lot of my terrain to now fit the larger Heroscape hex size. Now I have modular custom trees, rocks, etc. I can use them in Heroscape but also scifi games, fantasy games, pulp games, dinosaur games, superheroes, etc. It's become a bit of a modular, custom terrain library if you will. So my prep time really isn't that bad, unless I want to create something new for a scenario specific peice of terrain.