Victoriana

[Nefaro]

Inspired by Gameleaper's post about the Mythic GM Emulator here,  I decided to give it a shot.  Not only for playing solo, but to help eliminate most prep-time.

Then I realized the only modern tabletop RPGs I own are both futuristic sci-fi & cyberpunk, Shadowrun 5th and Star Wars: Edge Of The Empire.  Those are great but I also wanted some fantasy or alt-history alternatives.

After much digging, I found a few titles that stood above the rest in my preference for a mix of interesting setting and equally interesting game mechanics & character options.


I ordered the core books for these to try out:



1) Victoriana 

My most anticipated. 

It's basically Shadowrun in the Victorian Era.  Containing a good bit of Magic and the Occult, along with some light Steampunk, varied demi-human races (dwarf, Elderi/elves, Ogres, Beastmen, etc), and starting in 1856 London.  Another thing I like is that it uses Dice Pools, with "exploding" dice and negative/opposing "black dice" for penalties, so there is less DRM Hell to keep track of.  I just find the "bucket 'o dice' method more enjoyable and less of a hassle.  It's not a terribly unusual dicing system but the genre still seems to be dominated by various d20, d10/100 systems I'd prefer avoiding.

Obviously the setting is in the same vein as the PC game Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic, which I greatly enjoyed but experienced regular CTDs so much I never got too far. 

Also.. been really enjoying watching Penny Dreadful lately so this definitely piques the mood.




2) Qin: The Warring States

This is something quite different for me.  A tabletop set in the ancient Chinese Qin period. 

Besides reportedly being a gorgeous book, the thing that really enticed me was the way the mechanics fit Eastern style philosophy & legend.  For example, the usual character statistics (STR, etc) are replaced with such things as Wood, Iron, Fire, etc along with all the Magic and Fighting styles.  Like a Wire-Fu movie but in a lower-powered way, not so over the top.

It's another unusual RPG from Cubicle 7.  There was a trend in this RPG search.  I need to keep an eye on this company in the future!


3) Ars Magica 5th Ed

Some of you are probably familiar with this one.  I still have a 2nd Edition (IIRC) packed away somewhere, but I wanted to see how this oldie has grown.  When I picked up the first edition, in my young years, I was infatuated with this thing.  The Magic system was pretty damn awesome, and much else was good, too.  I hope it's even better. 




I had also taken a brief look around from the latest Pendragon stuff but it seems those are now Out Of Print.  ::)  Same with the latest Twilight 2013.   I'll have to keep a wary eye out for decently priced (and probably used) copies.  :-\   I definitely want to get some of the latest Pendragon eventually, as that was another of my favorite oldies.  Fortunately Ars Magica is still in print.. and I'm a Motherfuckin Sorcerer!  >:D

[bayonetbrant]

if you're OK with PDFs, then 5th ed Pendragon and T2013 are available at DriveThruRPG

[Nefaro]

if you're OK with PDFs, then 5th ed Pendragon and T2013 are available at DriveThruRPG

Yeah, I saw those there and bookmarked. 

I don't mind small supplemental PDFs too much.  But 200+ page core books are just too much.  The 63-page Mythic GME was about my preferred limit.

I definitely want all my RPG books to be printed.  That's just how I roll with tabletop stuff.

DriveThru offers some of the large ones via their own print services but others, such as Pendragon and T2013, aren't available for print - PDF only.  So I have to assume that getting permission to have someone else professionally print the things isn't going to happen.   :-\

If DriveThru offered printed copies, I'd be all over it.

[Nefaro]

Now that I think about it, pretty sure I still have a 3rd or 4th Edition Pendragon along with 'The Boy King' supplement.   Somewhere. 

Hopefully it's in good shape still.