Reflecting on Current Projects and SIX, Count 'em, SIX Reviews
I’ve been putting some thought into the material I’ve been writing. Mutant Future is a fun retro game, and BECAUSE it’s retro, it needs a lot of work. Thus all the material I’ve produced for it over the years.
See – here is the problem.
Likewise because it’s retro, there is not a huge market for the game. A typical issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands sells maybe a hundred or so copies. It tends to take YEARS for an issue to hit Copper best seller. I’m quite certain that a lot of my issues have never even hit that mark.
There just isn’t the kind of market for the game that I would like to see.
I’ve tried to add rules which were inspired from various sources to the game to make it more playable. At least in my opinion. I believe one of the reasons that some retro games are so popular is because they are rules-lite and you don’t need a math degree to play, like Pathfinder.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Pathfinder and it’s my favorite game to play, although I would really enjoy being able to play a modern or SF version of it.
As it turns out at least one reader does not appreciate the fact that I have been inspired by other games to write up rules to cover what I believe is missing from Mutant Future.
The issue with this is its damn nigh impossible to write up anything without the idea having been used elsewhere.
So it’s quite the conundrum.
After this I have really begun to wonder if I should bother finishing the Powered Armor book and the Robots book. A lot of material from both will have been covered in other RPG’s, no matter how original I try to be.
So – I believe I’m going to abandon both projects as well as the still in its infancy Vehicle book. I’m going to update and finish the mutation book but I do believe that is the extent of the work.
Does this mean that I’m done with the conversions and New Mutant Monday? Or Wisdom from the Wastelands?
Kinda, sorta.
I just started New Mutant Monday series two last week. I guess I will continue with it. I also want to hit that magical 300 conversion mark and then have it re-written and edited for publication.
After this? I don’t know if I’ll bother with conversions, unless I decide to write it up for Pathfinder or 5th edition.
If I want to write material that will sell, I need to shift gears away from ancient and retro games to what actually sells.
As for Wisdom from the Wastelands, I will continue to write material for that publication. I still have quite a few ideas that can easily fit into a 27 page issue so this will continue.
Still – look at how long I’ve been talking about the various sourcebooks for MF and have yet to see ANY completed.
Years.
Time to drop those and see what the future will hold when it comes to creating material for games.
Who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind, maybe I won’t. It does seem like a waste to let the two books fall by the wayside.
Oh and speaking of New Mutant Monday – here are last week’s first entries. Chickzilla and Zant. Yes two more will be posted in the morning.
No new releases this week, and due to a couple of the hosts being tied up with other engagements (Congratulations to Brenda Cass for getting married!), there was no D-Infinity live episode. That will return next week if I’m not mistaken.
Now this week I have quite a few reviews to discuss. Let’s start with Vin Diesel’s ‘The Last Witch Hunter’. Good effects, a few really good actors, but the story was pretty flat and it just did not engage me. I can see why it got blasted by the critics. Overall the story is about a man who killed the ‘witch queen’ and was cursed by her to never die. He spends the ensuing centuries hunting and incarcerating or killing witches who have crossed the line and harmed humans and others.
As it turns out the curse was something more than granting him immortality.
Really this movie was not worth the time to watch, I hate to say.
So many of you know how much I enjoy the game Talisman. Last week saw the release of Talisman: The Horus Hearsay. This is set in the Warhammer 40K universe and is pure gothic SF (some might say retro due to the types of units used by the miniatures game).
Instead of spells you have strategems. Instead of lives you have resolve. There is melee and ranged combat (which replaces psychic combat). The game uses the same sort of board with three regions, and instead of adventure cards you have data plates.
It plays just like Talisman and it is enjoyable, but I found there simply were not enough ‘data plates’ to the game. Saw the same plates show up over and over and over. This game has real potential and I am quite eager to see what sort of expansions will be produced for it.
Like the Talisman computer game, this is very much worth your time to purchase and play. It supports online play and you can likewise have multiple people playing on the same computer.
Next in line is Destroyermen: Straits of Hell. This is the tenth in the amazing series about a WW2 Destroyer and its crew that is mysteriously transported to an alternate Earth where dinosaurs still exist and the indigenous intelligent life are cat-like Lemerians and the deadly and predatory lizards, the Grik.
Ten books! The crew has gone from being refugees and in a desperate fight for survival to the leaders of a massive alliance consisting of Lemerians and other human empires they have discovered, and the fighting has spread from not only the Grik (Grek?) but to human-only empires like the Dominion.
The battles in this novel were far greater in scale and more intense than ever before, but then again the stakes are higher than they ever were.
Great book, can hardly wait for book 11 in April.
I do purchase the Pathfinder Player Companions every month they are released, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve reviewed any of them. Friday I purchased Blood of Shadows, which like all the player companions, introduces new class and racial traits to the existing game, but these are all based upon the denizens of the darklands, AKA the Drow and Fetchlings as well as others.
Nothing really stood out when it came to this book, but I guess it’s perfect for the next adventure path the company is producing. Of course if you’re playing a game where the GM will allow Drow or other similar races, or playing one which takes place in the darklands, the book will be invaluable.
Then again I love to collect books, so that’s why I purchased it. I doubt I’ll ever use any part of the book, as I don’t GM, I just play, and I really hope that our current GM will stick to our campaign and we won’t have to start over again.
After wanting to play for years I FINALLY got around to playing ‘Descent’. This is the second edition, and holy hell there is a shit-load of expansions available for the game! It boggles the mind how many expansions are now out there! The game is damn pricey as well, with the basic game starting at $120 Canadian, and at least two of the expansions sell for $80 each.
Still, after spending four hours reading the rules and playing it, I think the next time we give the game a shot it will run a LOT smoother. A few of the rules don’t make much sense, but that might be because we never played before, but in all honesty the game runs quickly and smoothly. I don’t know how much replay value the basic scenarios have (the game comes with 32 quests) and there is a campaign book available that sells for $35.
Yeah I’ll probably be buying these expansions as time progresses, and I want to make sure that I pick up the most expensive ones first. I think I’ll have a good time with the game! Would I recommend it? Hell yeah, but just remember, the game is friggen expensive!
And finally I want to give a shout out to Metal Galaxy Social Bistro and games. First things first, they’re on Macleod trail and have a really good location. Secondly there is quite a bit of room in the place, although I can see it filling up to full capacity during the weekends.
Now don’t get me wrong, but I found this really funny – they sell what would be considered healthy food! No burgers or greasy food like that, but salads, sandwiches and the like. I had one while I was there and it was a bit expensive, but rather tasty. I’ve paid more elsewhere for less.
My friend and I played Descent there, taking up a whole table. Luckily we were not charged for use of the table, which I think they charge either $2.50 per person or per table after a certain time, but only on the weekends. I guess during the week they don’t charge for table use.
And they do have regularly scheduled tournaments. When I was there today they were playing Ticket to Ride and of course Magic the Gathering.
I know the location must be damned expensive to run a shop out of, and at least they have quite a selection of board games for sale – as well as Magic cards and all the other really popular card games.
Yeah I’ll probably go back again in the future. I liked the ambience in the place, after all. I can’t say what the prices were for the games, as I did not really check, and I was really surprised to see they did not have any of the Descent games for sale!
Oh yeah and they have a huge selection of games you can take down and try out, so you don’t even need to bring your own.
If I had a negative comment, it was the credit/debit machine. It gave you the option of cash amount or percentages for tip, but no option for not leaving a tip.
Yeah I’m a cheap bastard, and I didn’t feel like leaving one, so I just hit the percentage and put zero.
That is annoying, as it pretty much MAKES you leave a tip!
And that’s it for this week. I hope everyone is enjoying 2016 and have not been scared too badly by the idiots running for the highest office in the United States.
Stay safe and happy folks.
Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook Creatures of the Tropical Wastes sourcebook, co-author of its Wisdom from the Wastelands game supplement and contributor to the 'Sword of Kos: Hekaton' Anthology. Check out his Twitter, FaceBook, Pintrest, Reddit and Fan Fiction accounts!
