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Post by kaitoujuliet on Jan 30, 2012 20:41:18 GMT -8
Winter War 39 last weekend was great.
My favorite session as a player was, hands down, Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX). Anyone here tried it? It's as fast-moving and chip-flying as you guys describe Savage Worlds being, and the setting has all the delicious, pulpy, gonzo over-the-top-ness of Synnibarr. And I mean that in a good way. I'm sure it helped that the GM was a real firecracker: high-energy, highly descriptive, and a great cheerleader for the players. I badly want to play more of this game. Has anyone here tried it?
On Friday night, I also ran my first con game, Time & Temp (think "classic Doctor Who meets Office Space"). The session was full; some of the people I met in fun games last year signed up for it, which gave me an irrational but pleasant feeling that the "cool kids" wanted to hang out with me. A good time was had by all, and I might even try running again next year.
I also dropped about $40 on pretty, pretty dice. In my defense, I found a guy who had the discontinued Borealis pattern in every color they ever made, including the rarer-than-hen's-teeth orange. And then there was the place selling IronDie dice (http://irondie.com/images/IronDie/manyonwood.jpg if you don't know what they look like) at only $5 apiece. Not only are they beautifully intricate, but they're heavy and highly satisfying to roll.
And finally, I also discovered a trend in my gaming: I seem to gravitate towards short characters who either spew fire or make things blow up. In one of my regular games, I'm playing a Spelljamer dwarf space pirate with an enchanted, fire-shooting blunderbuss; in HEX, out of the pre-gen characters, I immediately grabbed the wizened old mad scientist with the giant steampunk flamethrower; and in a game of Red Dragon Inn, I made a beeline for Wizgille, the gnome artificer. I'm not sure what this reveals about my character...
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HyveMynd
Supporter
Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
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Currently Running: The Sprawl
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Post by HyveMynd on Jan 30, 2012 22:37:09 GMT -8
My favorite session as a player was, hands down, Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX). Anyone here tried it? It's as fast-moving and chip-flying as you guys describe Savage Worlds being, and the setting has all the delicious, pulpy, gonzo over-the-top-ness of Synnibarr. And I mean that in a good way. I'm sure it helped that the GM was a real firecracker: high-energy, highly descriptive, and a great cheerleader for the players. I badly want to play more of this game. Has anyone here tried it? Yes! Yes! And hellz yes! Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) is the game that uses the Ubiquity system that I keep trying to convert people over to. It is an absolutely fantastic system (better than Savage Worlds in my opinion), and I have all three of the HEX books as well as the supernatural horror Musketeer setting "All For One: Regime Diabolique" that I am dying to run. I'm glad to see that someone else out there likes Ubiquity as much as I do. I literally held my breath when I clicked on this post, hoping that you were talking about the system I love and not the six-sided polygon with the same name. I'm not alone any more! Yes! Praise the Lord! Can you tell us your thoughts on Time & Temp? My group has the paperless office edition and we intend to run a game of it at a local con. The Matrix looks like a really interesting mechanic, but seems kind of complex. Especially for a one-shot. I'd love to get your opinion on it.
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Post by ironnikki on Jan 31, 2012 8:43:56 GMT -8
I've seen the Irondie dice before. They're pretty cool, and the actual game that they're meant for sounds interesting to boot. I've just realized that there's a retailer near me who sells the dice; perhaps I'll be paying them a visit this weekend once my paycheck goes through.
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Post by kaitoujuliet on Jan 31, 2012 19:19:06 GMT -8
Yes! Yes! And hellz yes! Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) is the game that uses the Ubiquity system that I keep trying to convert people over to. It is an absolutely fantastic system (better than Savage Worlds in my opinion), and I have all three of the HEX books as well as the supernatural horror Musketeer setting "All For One: Regime Diabolique" that I am dying to run. I'm glad to see that someone else out there likes Ubiquity as much as I do. I literally held my breath when I clicked on this post, hoping that you were talking about the system I love and not the six-sided polygon with the same name. I'm not alone any more! Yes! Praise the Lord! HEX badly Needs More Love. I must spread the word. I know our GM of Sunday (Joseph Wolfe) actually writes for the system; I think he said we were playtesting something that he was working on for publication, but I'm not sure whether it was the adventure or the setting. I want to say the setting. The ubiquity dice were my only complaint with the session...not because they're bad dice or confusing or anything, but because I had just bought a bunch of new dice and was dying to roll them! ;D I've run the game several times for my group, and it went over very well at the con. Have you tried running the game for your own group yet? I'd say the matrix is actually more intuitive than it looks on paper, or to put it another way, describing how to use it is more complicated than actually using it. Here's what I did to teach the system. I printed out copies of the "summary cards" (the last 10 or so pages of the paperless edition) for everyone, and I spent a good 45 minutes at the beginning of the session going over those cards point by point. I also made up a page of "strategy tips," which I'd be happy to share with you. I showed the players an example of a filled-in matrix from a previous game. Finally, I asked them to think of a sample task that they might want to roll on. We went through the negotiation of setting the effort and effect, then we talked about modifiers, and then I had someone actually roll for it. This was all before we started character creation. It may sound like a lot of introduction, but I think it was definitely worth it. By the time the story started and they were entering numbers into the matrix, everyone at the table knew enough about how it worked to have discussions about the best numbers to plug in and where to put them. I actually recorded the game (not including the rules-teaching part) and would be happy to share that with you as well if you think that would be helpful. Also, I'd love to trade scenarios with you sometime. I like to pull this game out for a one-shot when not everyone in my group can make it, so it would be good to have a few ideas in hand. I've seen the Irondie dice before. They're pretty cool, and the actual game that they're meant for sounds interesting to boot. I was just browsing their web site, and the game does look rather interesting, though surely expensive! The dice would be especially fantastic for any sort of sci-fi game.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2012 20:07:30 GMT -8
I cannot get my group excited to play HEX. I've been trying for more than a year, but they just don't seem to be pulp fans. There was some interest in All for One, mostly because of the fancy hats and capes. Ubiquity is at the top of the list of systems I want to try. They need to make a sci fi game of catgirls and sleek starfighters to hook my group (I play with women who have very specific interests).
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HyveMynd
Supporter
Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
Currently Running: The Sprawl
Favorite Species of Monkey: None
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Post by HyveMynd on Jan 31, 2012 22:10:52 GMT -8
How did the Ubiquity dice feel to you, kaitoujuliet? I made some of my own (they were just blank d6s with green Os and red Xes painted on them), but I really want to try out the 'official' Ubiquity dice.
That's really too bad sentinel. Ubiquity is a great system that needs more love, as kaitoujuliet said. If I had one complaint about it, it would be the lack of a 'stand alone' rule book. You can only get the Ubiquity system as part of the Hollow Earth Expedition or All for One settings. At first I thought it was weird when White Wolf released the new World of Darkness rules as it's own book (with Werewolf, Mage, Vampire, Changeling, Hunter, and Geist as separate books), but now I realize how brilliant of a move that was. It allows players to use the core nWoD rules to run any game they want to without having to strip out stuff that they don't want to use or doesn't fit.
I don't know what your group is interested in, but cat girls and sleek starfighters seem pretty damn pulpy to me. One of the HEX expansion books, Mysteries of the Hollow Earth, has rules for Amazons and beastmen characters including, wait for it… panthermen. There's your cat girls. The other expansion book, Secrets of the Surface World, has great rules for making pulp "weird science" gadgets, vehicles, and gear. It would take some work on your part, but you could simply reskin everything from the HEX setting as pulp sci-fi. The airplanes and dirigibles become space fighters and cargo haulers; Colt .45s are now atomic blasters that shoot lasers rather than bullets; the psychic powers are still psychic powers used by aliens, or get reskinned as cyber- or bio-implant abilities. I'm actually in the process of converting Eclipse Phase over to the Ubiquity system; I love the EP fluff but find that the rules are too much to remember.
Everyone always says that Savage Worlds is great because you can reskin the rules to do any game you can think of. "Just Savage it!" is the battle cry. I always counter with "Ubiquity can do the same thing, guy. What else you got?". Not to be presumptuous here sentinel, but I'd actually be pretty keen to help you mold and reskin Ubiquity into a more palatable form for your picky female group. I love doing conversions!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2012 19:04:38 GMT -8
We did a half noir, half pulp space detective game with Ashen Stars. I love how Gumshoe gets out of the way of roleplay and investigation, but it's not a system for action or combat. It would be nice if Ubiquity could bridge the gap in a future adventure.
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Post by kaitoujuliet on Feb 2, 2012 16:58:28 GMT -8
They need to make a sci fi game of catgirls and sleek starfighters to hook my group (I play with women who have very specific interests). Hmm, like hyvemynd, I would think that converting the fluff of HEX to space-opera-with-catgirls ought to be child's play! If it's truly the setting and not the system that's standing in the way for your players, and you would really like to run the system, you owe it to yourself to give it a whirl. Do either of you speak German? The GM of Sunday's HEX game told me that there's a Space 1899 supplement for the Ubiquity system, but it's only available in German. I drooled. How did the Ubiquity dice feel to you, kaitoujuliet? I made some of my own (they were just blank d6s with green Os and red Xes painted on them), but I really want to try out the 'official' Ubiquity dice. The "official" Ubiquity dice were eight-siders in three different colors/configurations: white (zero to one successes), red (zero to two successes), and blue (zero to three successes). They're very slightly biased in the roller's favor, since the red dice have three ones, three twos, and only two zeroes. They were extremely fast to roll and read, and it only took me a few minutes/rolls to get used to them. So, no complaints at all with the way they work. The GM at Sunday's game said that more settings were in the works, but I don't remember him mentioning a stand-alone book. He did encourage all of us to go on the HEX forums and comment, though. Maybe you should shoot them a suggestion about this!
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Post by kaitoujuliet on Feb 16, 2012 17:31:51 GMT -8
*pokes Hyvemynd* So what's this about your plan to run Time & Temp at a local con? You can't just toss out a statement like that and leave me hanging...
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HyveMynd
Supporter
Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
Currently Running: The Sprawl
Favorite Species of Monkey: None
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Post by HyveMynd on Feb 16, 2012 19:12:13 GMT -8
Indeed I can't. Although it's my buddy who'll be running the T&T game, not me. We're having some scheduling issues lately and haven't had a chance to play many games unfortunately. I'll have a look through the book again tonight though.
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Post by kaitoujuliet on Mar 16, 2012 9:11:25 GMT -8
I'm making this thread resurface for two reasons. The first is so I can mention how I described the HEX game session to a friend recently:
"Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean in the Land of the Lost."
The second reason is to tell Hyvemind that I've uploaded my recording of the Winter War game to a Yousendit folder. PM me with an email address if you'd like me to send you an invite to the folder. (That goes for anybody else who might be interested as well.)
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