I wrote a review of Mage Made Easy just after it came out, see here. I had wanted to make a video, I’ve finally gotten around to making it. 🙂
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/314476/Mage-Made-Easy-Advice-from-That-Damn-Mage-Guy?affiliate_id=11172 (Mage the PodcastMage the Podcast Affiliate Link)
You can also support Satyros at https://www.patreon.com/philbrucato/
Continuing with RPG Impact. The seventh RPG that has had a big impact on me is Street Fighter. I love martial arts (real, cinematic and even silly) and of course love role-playing; sadly because of damaged wrists I cannot play competitive Beat’em ups anymore. I was tempted to write a lot, but I’ve blogged about SFRPG several times, so for those that would prefer the succinct version:
Whilst there are several martial art games available, I’ve enjoyed Street Fighter the most. I’ve found that this is the game that is typically met with scepticism by a new player, who later says that they were shocked at how great it was.
Huzzah, I’ve just submitted a story for another writing competition; this one was for New Writers North. During my writing breaks I chatted with a few players about game ideas. Some more Play-By-eMail games have been preliminarily arranged. Besides tabletop games, I am currently running PBEM:
I might now also be running
I had put a lot into the primary #SecretRage chronicle. Originally it focused on Werewolf: the Apocalypse. The idea changed to allow the PC to be a spirit, and I also incorporated some of my designs and code from old PBM games. The game would span the whole World of Darkness, allowing for any time or place to be explored. Despite being quite ill at the time of planning this, I managed to do a lot of preparation. I even made a comic; not bad for a rubbish artist with hand problems. Sadly, #SecretRage faded away, but I kept tinkering with it, making new scenes, hoping it would get going again.
Motivated by various chats, as well as discussion tonight in the Mage the Podcast Discord server, I have tweaked the comic that I made and uploaded as a complete PDF.
I originally published this opinion piece in 2015 on Noobgrind, a computer game website, but since that has gone I’m posting it here. Whilst the original article’s focus was about computer games, this article is more about my influences, how old games led me to martial arts and my RPG designs. Part 1 = https://batjutsu.wordpress.com/2019/11/18/way-of-the-exploding-fist-lookback/
This is the third article in the series exploring the impact of the game Way of the Exploding Fist (Commodore 64) had on me, the life path seeds that were planted. Because of my dad’s interest in computing, for years I’d had access to decent home computers and a big collection of games, and in 1987 he bought an Amiga 500 resulting in me being given the C64. Due to living in a seaside resort, I had access to many arcades, but I only had a tiny amount of pocket money. So when I visited the arcades with my mates I generally just watched, preferring to save what little money I had towards buying a new RPG or computer game
The first arcade game I felt compelled to play was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), even though it was just a variation on such classics as Double Dragon, it was different, because it was TMNT! So that anomaly was understandable to me, since I was such a fan of the cartoon, but I was quite surprised to be hit by the virtual tsunami that was Street Fighter 2 (SF2) in 1991. The first Street Fighter (SF) looked okay in the arcades, I’d never played it and in retrospect it seems odd that I don’t recall anybody ever mentioning it at school; the 8-bit version of SF on the C64 looked horrid.
After playing a few games of SF2, I was horrified to find out that somebody else could join in beat me and take over; since I had limited funds I was not keen on this design approach. I soon grasped the financial implications of trying to figure out hidden moves. My paper-round money was already failing to cover my three main hobbies: computer games, tabletop role-playing, and wargaming, so I made the sensible but frustrating decision to watch other people play SF2, and like my days of watching Way of the Exploding Fist, maybe I’d learn, but without the financial cost. I got to see some pretty spectacular players who’d said they spent quite a lot of money getting that good. Watching helped me develop a better understanding of the depth of the game, but it also gave me an appreciation of the calibre of opponents that could easily beat me. In 1993 a friend got SF2 for his Sega Mega Drive, so I finally got to play the game for countless hours.
I appreciated the diverse martial art styles that SF2 included. Although the game included mystical abilities, it was cool to see how they had integrated them into different martial arts style, enhancing them without commandeering them. Granted, the plot of SF2 was extremely simple, but it didn’t matter, as the playability was exceptional. In 1992 I saw Mortal Kombat (MK), which was an impressive evening of watching a crowd of people challenge each other. Personally, I preferred the more in depth fighting in SF2, but I quickly became a fan of the MK game and universe; not that MK 1 was an amazing story, but it seemed a bit more fleshed out that SF2, in particular Outworld. Mentioning that SF 2 story was simple is of course obvious, but I mention it because in 1994 a tabletop role-playing company called White Wolf released Street Fighter (SFRPG).
By 1994 the universe of Street Fighter had been expanded, particularly via manga and anime. My friends and I enjoyed Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994). Like a lot of popular settings (IP), more and more things were produced, adding ideas and variety to the original idea; some great, some not.
At the time White Wolf was known for its flagship game Vampire: the Masquerade, one of the many games set in the World of Darkness; I was an avid player and collector of these games. In the various World Darkness games, players could play characters (monsters) with incredible powers. The games tried to focus on storytelling and role-playing; a character’s story was the priority, not their powers; of course some groups focused on the power, not that there is anything innately wrong with that if the group agrees. So I was willing to give SFRPG a go, appreciating the foundations for an interesting gaming world based off the simple SF2 story. I am not claiming that White Wolf had written a masterpiece of world building, instead they had captured the essence of what had made the Street Fighter series so good. Although a gaming group could do whatever they wanted, the base focus of the game was all about a fighter’s journey to improve, set in a world of rampant crime and obscure mystics.
I was the Games Master / Storyteller (GM / ST) for several groups, and I also chatted with several other gamers at my local gaming shop, so I got to talk to lots of people. Typically, the initial response to the RPG was a quick list of surprise comments, followed by ridicule, then questions. My answers highlighted the fast combat, the depth of options, plus how intriguing M. Bison’s Shadoloo was, how similar to other secret societies/criminal empires, asking them what they thought Bison was up to. I’d explain an important game mechanic, that characters used Chi to activate certain powers, they could gain Chi points back by making Honor rolls. So if Bison had no honour, how could he regain Chi? Some role players were willing to try the game, and impressively they generally enjoyed it.
Over the years I have run several SFRPG campaigns, all were fun and some I’d even rate as good. I think it is also noteworthy to consider that the majority of players know little to nothing about martial arts. What was great was that playing the arcade game had educated its players enough that they know what different styles roughly looked like, as well as what sort of techniques used; granted SF2 added chi powers to the mix, but did so without ruining the martial style. This SF2 education was an interesting bonus, as it generally affected a player’s ability to role-play comfortable and better, since it reduced learning the setting, styles, combat and powers. I loved that many SF2 players trying out SFRPG were pretty much veterans when it came to describing their character’s attacks, plus understanding what was happening in a detailed fight. The combat mechanics in the RPG were effective (but not perfect). An emphasis on streamlined simple mechanics better enabled players to learn how to play. The combat cards, whilst not perfect, could help fights play out quickly, all in all, very efficient just like SF2. Interestingly the combat mechanics had some key differences to the other World of Darkness games, a few years later an optional book was added to the World of Darkness beautifully/amusingly entitled Combat.
I was disappointed with how the Combat book mostly handled Mage: the Ascension. Effectively it did not add anything, suggesting Mages can perform True Magick like Stunts is IMHO pointless, since that is what a Mage game is basically like anyway. I do understand why this approach was taken, I am not saying it is worthless/garbage, just disappointing to me. Whilst there are a few special maneuvers for a character with Do 3+, which was nice, but, since Do was basically an Akashic Brotherhood (now: Akashayana) special skill. I think this approach sadly reduced a setting with infinite potential and options to cliché views of ‘Asians are best at martial arts’, ignoring the numerous world cultures with exceptional fighting systems, and the commonality of violence and the human body. This is partly why I have experimented with various ways of integrating the SFRPG mechanics and Combat Cards with other games, my own games, and for the last few years Mage.
Debates about tabletop role-playing game systems is a major part of that hobby, mechanics matter and add to that so much of what we know is from movies/games/books and not personal practice. The designers of any role-playing system need to acknowledge the fact that truly simulating reality is far too complicated, never mind the fact that so much is not understood, therefore a game needs to be easy to understand, and usually quick to play whilst not sacrificing too much realism. Linking back to the above point about game accessibility, reducing player learning requirements, and helping players understand game events, I think overall SFRPG did a great job.
Overall I loved the core rules for SFRPG. Whilst the expansion books introduced many great things, unfortunately it also added some garbage into the game. In interviews it has been explained how rushed the game line was, sadly this shows, which is a shame because if more time had been given to the designers then maybe some of the garbage could have been more great additions. The most famous example is the Cartwheel Kick, in was so clearly broken it took most players only a few seconds to figure out that it was godly. Likewise the magic shoes in Savate. This lack of playtesting stands out, and is a disgrace to the quality of SF2 core game. Fortunately all role-playing game mechanics can be altered by groups introducing house rules, and generally a veteran gaming group can run a good campaign despite any rubbish game mechanics or bad story/world design. Having worked at a games company I have a good appreciation for the difficulties of hitting deadlines, costs of running a company, and how easy it is to miss things, which is why playtesting is so important. Ideally a product should have as few problems as possible.
A call back to the previous article regarding Gene Lebell and Bruce Lee. It is a shame that Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) had not happened decades earlier. So many RPGs could have been fixed in regards to the martial art clichés. This is one of the interesting things about Street Fighter 2, for all the made up and fantasy aspects, the game has a diverse range of fighting techniques shown; granted no ground game, but at least grappling is a core part. I think this has helped SFRPG stand out against other RPGs, for example Palladium’s Ninjas and Superspies. The Contenders expansion added many styles and maneuvers, of particular note is groundfighting, but there are other gems like Chi Push.
The SFRPG rulebooks were full colour, which was very unusual for that time. Although the books had a distinctive White Wolf design with the flavour text and story snippets, the layout of the SFRPG books were more exciting/dynamic looking than their other games. The artwork was mixed, whilst some pieces were great, others were less so.
Character creation was straightforward, particularly for players familiar with other White Wolf games. Choosing a character’s special moves list was an interesting and fun part of the process, since it would be a major part of the character’s abilities and development. Interestingly, the game encouraged players to declare the names for their moves, just like Hadoken in the computer game. Whilst not everybody did this, nobody complained about it being silly, I put this down to the fact that SF 2 had taught players that this was a somewhat normal the thing to do.
Even after writing several of the negative points about the tabletop RPG, I still think that overall the core SFRPG was brilliant, providing players with a great toolset to explore the intriguing world of SF2. Along with the animated movie, it is nice to know that some game tie-ins aren’t complete garbage. Whilst there have been other good martial art role-playing games, my players and I still fondly recall many great Street Fighter gaming sessions and rate it as our favourite of the genre. Every few years we play it again, playing with new ideas and house rules.
The Street Fighter series has millions of fans, but a few of us crave more than just the fights. We are also nostalgic about the espionage of the World Warrior circuit, rising up in rank, to more epic stories of training under Ryu, discovering new/lost techniques, and I suspect in a few cases usurping Bison to take over Shadoloo! I’d love a great computer RPG set in the SF world, whilst I doubt that will happen, maybe one day it will?!
From Way of the Exploding Fist to Street Fighter RPG 3 part series
Part 1 = https://batjutsu.wordpress.com/2019/11/18/way-of-the-exploding-fist-lookback/
Part 2 = https://batjutsu.wordpress.com/2019/11/18/fist-2-exploring-mystical-fighting/
Part 3 = https://batjutsu.wordpress.com/2019/11/18/a-fist-full-of-dice/
I love role-playing games (RPG), and in particular the Mage: the Ascension (MtA). There are many podcasts covering different RPGs, but at the start of 2018 there was none dedicated to Mage, so Joseph Aleo launched Mage the Podcast. Joseph explained his reasoning in what I think is quite an attention grabbing pithy introduction.
https://magethepodcast.com/index.php/2018/04/14/what-is-mage-the-ascension/
Impressively the first episode has an interview with the overall main Mage writer and current Line Developer: Satyros Phil Brucato; Satyros has many other writing credits and projects, covering numerous World of Darkness books, as well as other games (Deliria, Powerchords) and numerous fiction. Satyros was quite the scoop for the first show, plus unquestionably the best person to discuss Mage with. I found the interview informative and professional, which I am sure was helped by Joseph’s experience running radio and other podcasts. After this episode I was hooked, each week I eagerly looked forward to the new episode.
I think one of the strengths of the podcast is the mix of hosts. For episode two, Joseph introduced the show’s co-host, Adam Simpson, in a discussion about Mage’s Lexicon. Over time the team was expanded to include Terry Robinson, who has hosted most of the recent episodes, often with Adam Simpson. Other hosts include Mark Hope and Joshua Heath. These different voices, ranging in MtA experience, bring their own take on things. Useful, since the podcast is for a game that typically varies in interpretation from person to person; after all Mage is a vast game about reality and individuality.
“The Podcast that works hard towards Ascension, so you don’t have to.”
The focus for each episode is varied, with a wide-ranging of topics discussed, which I think keep things interesting. One week there is an interview with a Mage writer like Rachelle Udell, another week the guest is Dr. Anders Sandberg the creator of the old Anders Mage Page (new site). An extra noteworthy episode was about Gods and Monsters, with the writers: Satyros Phil Brucato, Hiromi Cota, James Sambrano and Isabella Price all present.
The next episode could be a discussion about cross-over games. For example: Changeling & MtA with Victor Kinzer of the Walking Away from Arcadia podcast. Joshua Heath (Werewolf : the Podcast & High Level Games) discussing Werewolf & MtA. Charles Siegel discussing Demon & MtA. David Herman discussing Wraith & MtA (The Geekly Oddcast). I do love fusing different RPGs, increase that RPG Mental Toolkit, plus helps justify the collection 😉
Something extra dear to my heart is the old White Wolf Street Fighter RPG (SFRPG), so I particularly appreciated the chat with Kris Newton (MegaDumbCast). The chat was about the potential of a Street Fighter cross-over with MtA; a topic I thought I was the only one that cared about. I’ve been slowly running a cross-over game with one of my groups, I’ll write more about this when I am happy with the fusion.
Another week has a wonderful discussion about something typically less focused on in the general Mage chats. For example Darling Rose of the Midnight Express podcast chatting about all things WoD, but in particular Quiet. Terry and Josh discussing Cosmicism (Lovecraft Mythos). Mark Hope discussing running street level games. Or a fascinating chat about Mage and Live Action Role-Play (LARP/LRP) with Matthew Webb of Jackalope Live Action Studios. There are also episodes interviewing the author of a Storyteller Vault product such as: Joshua Heath, Victor Kinzer, or Charles Siegel.
A regular feature of the podcast is to discuss one of MtA books, which there are quite a lot of; the release of Gods & Monsters meant I had to rearrange my games library ;-). This classic episode format for RPG podcasts is always a hit for me, since I have not read some of the books in many years. This review series also helps remind me of the differences between editions, which is extra helpful given some of the dramatic changes over the years; never mind our memory’s tendency to fade and/or summarise things over time.
There was a Mage Twitter game setup by Ira Grace called Duplicity that started in August 2019. I made a character and also offered to help summarise the tweets, which is how I became involved with the podcast team, albeit in a minor way. Since I am not involved in making any podcast episodes, I don’t think this counts as me fanboying myself 😉 this blog post is just to praise something I appreciate and support. You can also join the Mage the Podcast Discord server and chat about all things Mage.
If you are a Mage the Ascension fan, then this podcast is definitely for you. If you are a player of other RPGs but not Mage yet, then definitely check out the podcast’s first episode and learn about what makes this game extra special.
https://magethepodcast.com/index.php/2018/04/14/what-is-mage-the-ascension/
“Until next time, Truth Until Paradox, baby.”
At the time of writing Trinity Continuum: Aberrant is in the final 24 hours on Kickstarter. I’ve been waiting years for this event, a reimagining of Aberrant. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-aberrant
Aberrant is a fabulous Supes/Super RPG that was part of the Trinityverse, now called Trinity Continuum. Back in the late 90s Aberrant presented a world obsessed with super powered celebrities (Novas), hyper focused reality TV (N!), individuals with the power of gods but also dark conspiracies, and power that tainted the Novas. The old game was very socially minded, why rob a bank when sponsorship and mercenary work is available, etc. The new Trinity Continuum: Aberrant builds upon this, but crucially there are some differences that I love! The game requires the Trinity Continuum core book, I wrote about this last year https://batjutsu.wordpress.com/2018/02/28/impressive-reboot-of-trinity/.
“What would you do with the power of a god?”
First a quick shout out to Ian A. A. Watson (@VonAether), who in particular has spent years trying to create a new Aberrant. There are many interviews covering the process, so here is a summary of the journey about how the old White Wolf merged with CCP Games. Richard Thomas formed Onyx Path Publishing and producing old and new RPGs. Later Paradox Interactive purchased the World of Darkness IP, whilst Onyx Path negotiated to buy Trinityverse outright, which is now solely owned by Onyx Path. Hence the IP of Trinity, Aberrant and Adventure! have had quite the journey.
I’ve run a few Aberrant games over the years. Some of the games were more like D.C. Comics or Marvel 4 colour style, more carefree fun, sometimes a bit silly. Whilst with my main I ran a dark investigation game for over ten years. This chronicle was about hope, about trying to prevent the inevitable Aberrant War. When we last played it seemed that maybe the PCs had helped solve so many problems, that the future looked positive; I’ll not froth about this campaign, whilst I loved it, typically with RPGs you needed to be there ;-). Like many RPGs the tone can be tweaked, along with keeping in mind PCs motivations and player preferences, to create the style wanted. The new Aberrant includes an examination of this, with an explanation of how to approach the different styles of Supes.
The system is not the old Storyteller one, instead using the Storypath. I’ve still yet to play the system but I do love what I read when I backed Trinity Continuum. In addition to the great momentum mechanic, is the idea of Scale. Scale is reminiscent of the old D.C. Comic RPG, but is designed to be easier to allow for quick decision making, allowing everyone to focus on narrative. From the Kickstarter page Danielle Lauzon explained:
“Okay, so Narrative Scale is for when you just want to know how badly you crush something because of your difference in Scale. It’s described liberally as a multiplier to your successes on a simple roll to get a thing done, but what that really means is that a Scale 1 difference doubles the number of successes you have to do the thing, Scale 2 difference triples, Scale 3 quadruples, etc. Narrative Scale is there for the following kind of scenarios “Superman flies through a building, and we want to know how much damage that does to the building.” We accept that he flies right through, so the roll isn’t to see if he can, but instead to find out his damage to help figure out if the damned thing falls down. Sometimes the SG might just look at a Scale difference and decide narratively that we don’t even need a roll, it just crumples.
I loved the old Aberrant the most out of the numerous Supers RPGs, even though I appreciated it had a few mechanic problems. I’ve read/run/played old Heroes/Champions, GURPS Supers, Mutants & Mastermind, D.C. Comics, Marvel and Palladium. For me, I think the old Aberrant presented both a great setting and rules that worked well enough. Trinity Continuum: Aberrant seems to stride the middle ground between these various systems, providing a vast range of powers, in a setting with different types of powered and baseline characters, with rules that better understand what they are focused on. I’d be very surprised if I don’t love the game when I run it!
Usually I’d write about different game ideas, even crazy ideas about merging various RPGs together. Instead I look forward to returning to my old long running chronicle, which included Adventure! and Trinity. The fact the group and I have had so much fun over the years speaks volumes about the game, and I am sure we will continue to love it for years to come.
The factions are still there, but there have been some important tweaks. Another titanic difference is that Taint is now Transcendence; Novas are no longer time-bombs towards physical and psychological disaster. Characters can still grow distant from humanity, for example Dr Manhattan (Watchman) is a great example of ludicrously powered individual who has very high Transcendence. Check out these two interviews for more details about changes:
Onyx Path have a free Aberrant comic at http://theonyxpath.com/comic/you-are-not-alone-cover/
Join the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-aberrant
#TCAberrant #TrinityContinuum
This continues on from part 1 PBM Thanks & Secret Rage.
It has been a while since I blogged about my #SecretRage PBM campaign, Richie and I have been busy so it has been on the back burner. This at least allowed me to explore ways to link ideas about the potential psychology of spirits, something that relates to two other projects. I considered abandoning this campaign and playtesting my new setting, but since I’ve put a lot of preparation in to this campaign, plus Richie and I wanted to play Werewolf, I decided to stick with things. I participated in #RPGaDay again this year, I mentioned #SecretRage on several of the days. For Day 26 I talked about Ambitions.
This urge to keep changing projects is an ongoing problem for me, so I gave myself a deadline; following advice from The Bestseller Experiment. I finished up the comic pages and the introductory turn as well. Finalising everything for this project helped re-inspire my passion for #SecretRage, plus given me inspiration to run something else, Cyberpunk, D&D, Pendragon, Cthulhu, etc.
I won’t be posting the turn data since I’ve added another player, plus I am considering inviting other players to join in, maybe some of the people from the #RPGaDay community. Below are those comic pages, which once again I found the writing of to be an interesting puzzle to figure out, in part due to writing about a messed-up Luna, but also because comic writing is different.
So many choices, like most gamers. I kept my video short today, in part to avoid rambling about some of the long running campaigns/chronicles.
Besides my main group, currently playing Mage, I have a few 1 on 1 games being discussed, so there is a chance I might get to play several of these games soon. I bought a lot of terrain to help run a megadungeon, good chance the game will use either D&D 5th or GURPS Fantasy.
Straight forward video answer today, I love things that help propel PC play, that help inspire players, that are personal to the player, typically something additional that sets an individual PC apart. I did contemplate talking about ideas I’ve been working on for years, but I’ll save them for another time.
Doh, I forgot to mention Life Paths, like in the Cyberpunk systems.
I have uploaded an in-character video for my current Mage 20th chronicle. I originally started work on this a while ago, but due to health problems, limited time and not knowing much about making videos I placed the project on hold. My health has improved a bit, plus I’ve had time to think and do a bit more research, so I’ve remade the video; I accept that my video making and acting skills will take time to improve.
This introductory video is part of a series for my current World of Darkness chronicle, focusing on Mage 20th. There are a whole bunch of things I think I need to work on, but at least it’s a start.
Batjutsu 