Latest Haul, and some thoughts
Been reading the PDFs for some books I got. Kind of spoiled now, how I can buy a book and read it digitally before it even arrives.
Anyway, I went and splurged like a total mo-mo at the start of the month and got some cool RPG books. Ive read the PDFs so I will take a moment to write some short thoughts on each!
EXALTED FUNERAL
In the Light of a Ghost Star by Nate Treme
- Great title.
- Got this one because it is listed as inspiration for another book I got.
- Light sci-fi roleplaying, comes with a funky hex crawl so it'll get at least as much play.
- May serve as inspiration for my own rules lite system down the line.
In the Light of a Setting Sun by Sivad's Santum
- Inspired by the above.
- Rules light western gaming.
- Some tables in the current "Bonanza Edition" are of dubious usability. In the previous "Saddlebag Edition" there are tables for generating towns and the like, here is more abstract tables like for what's in somebody's pocket.
- Game seems cool enough and if Ghosts of the Sierra Verde is ever completed, it is the intended system for that campaign. It doesnt come with a lot of tools for the GM, so I am not sure how quickly I can bring it to the table.
- I dont like the hex travel/generation rules.
In the Light of a Blood Moon by Micah Anderson and Luke Gearing
- Supplement for Setting Sun
- Super inspiring southern gothic occult shit
- Some of it maybe goes over my head
- I want to turn it into some kind of campaign immediately.
MONOMYTH GAMES
Castaway by Matthew Chiamis
- Mork Borg hack, survive on an island. Maybe escape.
- I got the solo supplement and GM screen. I really, really prefer having a GM screen for easy reference.
- The game seems to run without necessarily having a map. You can generate it from the book and keep notes that way. A bit more abstract but I think it might be cool to try something a bit more improvisational.
- Going to run it as a duet game, possibly using some of the supplementary material from the solo add-on. There is a system for companions and nemeses which could likely be used in any game.
- The author is very friendly and helped me decide if this game was what I was looking for in a shipwreck RPG: I think it is.
WHAT'S NEXT?
So, I'll definitely play Ghost Star but I might save it for a rainy day. Just a cool space excursion when there's nothing to do.
Setting Sun, I dont know if its the wild west ruleset that Im looking for BUT Im also not totally disenchanted with it. Blood Moon looks cool as Hell and it seems that Setting Sun supports a more mythic kind of west anyway which is cool and I can lean into that and come up with something crazy perhaps, using Blood Moon as a resource to my fantastical frontier. Still looking for the right system for the Western one-shot I have in mind. Going to have to look at Boot Hill 3rd edition. The nice thing is, if I get a number of western systems and settings books I can use them interchangeably to a point.
Im so stoked on Castaway and I really look forward to running the duet ASAP. The book is really fully featured and makes itself clear in how it should be played. That's my issue with Cy_Borg, I just cant wrap my head around the campaign framing somehow? But I have the game and the Asset Pack, I promise I will figure it out. I think its just somewhat more of an advanced game than others, in that it leaves things open for the referee to figure out.
I am excited to finish the short Mothership campaign Ive been running. It isnt that there's anything wrong with it, I just immersed myself in MoSh for so long I want to play around with different maths, themes and game design philosophy etc. There's still a ton of spacefaring horror in my future, trust!
And then there's the purchase pipeline, what's in my sights for the next haul? I dont think it'll take terribly long to exhaust the Castaway duet, so I want to do another duet. For this, I am thinking of pairing Scarlet Heroes with Hot Springs Island. That would be cool, I think.
Cheepa Cheepa Cheepa CHAPU ! Bye, now