Golden Age

Ask anyone when the golden age of RPG gaming was or is and you are likely to get a lot of different answers.

Plenty of people know the rich history behind RPG games. Others probably only know the more recent games.

Where we are today there is a rich catalogue of systems and adventures. With the advent of the internet more people than ever before can publish their masterpieces.

But equally there is a sea of total chaff to wade through. Sometimes you have parted with cash and you feel cheated, other times you feel elated at what you have found.

When people had to get publishers and editors and all the other bits lined up for real world publishing, when they had to persuade someone (possibly themselves) to part with real cash to make this happen. Bad reviews would leave copies unsold, so quality was paramount.

Oh I'm sure people can probably reel off the bad ones but the people out of pocket more than anyone would have been the writers publishers etc.

So that leaves me at when do I think the golden age was/is? I think it is here, right now. Never before have gamers been able to connect with each other so easily globally. The resources are richer and more abundant than ever and gaming systems far more accessible. All this leads to a great environment for gaming. So let's all go enjoy it!

Completing an adventure

So. I'm so close to being able to playtest and release/publish the carnival of dreams that I can taste it.

However every step forwards also seems to have 2 steps backwards!I have a definitive list of what I need to do.

Pre generated character sheets are first on my list.
Then maps.
At this point it's time for play testing.
Commission the front page art.
Tidy up the layout and consistency.

Publish.....
Shout out to everyone that it is in the wild.

I figure it will come in at around 60 pages give or take. That's. A ruck load of information . Yes it's a one night adventure but the GM can use or ignore whatever they want. There is enough depth (I hope) to support less experienced GMs giving them lots to fall back on. For more experienced GMs, they can ad lib throwing in random NPC's and flexing the story to make it their own.

In the meantime while I continue on that I am waiting for MonkeyBloodDesign to start their Midderlands Kickstarter. Slated for 1st of July. Can't wait!

Till next time.

UK Games Expo

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get to the UK Games Expo. I have to say it was a fantastic event and certainly something I plan on doing again.

So here are some musings from the event!

Getting their Early(ish) the traffic was ok. I arrived around 10.

I didn't plan what I was going to do! My son some friends and I sort of wandered the stalls, chatted to a few people and generally soaked up the atmosphere and spent money for 5 hours.

There was a lot of Pathfinder stuff there! I have to say I knew Pathfinder is popular but the amount of stuff there for Pathfinder was breathtaking. I've tried reading the Pathfinder rules and I just couldn't get on with them. Maybe I need to give them another read through but to be honest I like the simplicity of Swords and Wizardry. If you haven't checked it out then do, you can get the PDF from Frog God Games for free so worth checking out!

There were a load of new and upcoming board games. I wish we had sat down and played a few!

There were board games... I mean lots and lots of board games. Lots of stalls, and lots of variance in prices which is interesting. I saw the same board game vary from 26 - 35 pounds so it pays to scan around.

Oh and while on the subject of what we saw, there was quite a lot of Cthulu based stuff which all looked pretty fantastic.The Black Hat stand was brilliant, nicely laid out with some great stuff on there. 

There were some good Fate powered products there, but I wish there had been more, they were swamped out by D&D Pathfinder and Cthulu. Oh and Doctor Who .... which did look very tempting!

I may just have missed some of the products though as I know at least one book my mate turned over had a Powered By Fate logo on the back.

So what would I change ... well here goes with the plan for next year!

Plan is the word .. I would aim to plan the visit with more structure. So I want to get round all the stands for sure ... more than once as you always miss stuff! However I want to break it up and play some of the great board games people are demoing!

If I can pre-book then I want to pre-book on some of the RPG stuff, especially anything from from 4 - 6 ish time frame. 

I want more money to spend .... I need to start saving now!

So there you go, in a nutshell. Take cash, plan the trip, have fun!