The Role of Character 5 Alignment

Articles about better playing, Battletech RPG, D&D, Doctor Who, Featured, Hackmaster, Iron Kingdoms, Pathfinder, Rifts, Savage Worlds, Shadowrun 1 Response »

May 072015

Alignment is one of those weird game mechanics that can be viewed as both a hindrance and an aid. Because of this it is often the victim of a love hate type of relationship among players that can cause some heated disagreements. If they could apply their thoughts to its use they would not have so many words in lost to indifference.

When I speak of alignment in this article I’m not referring to any one system or style. I’m instead writing about the concept of what it can be in the development of character. If you apply such a system to developing the personality of your individual I believe it can be invaluable. Many of us walk through our lives with no “moral” code, at least not the way an alignment is is presented in game terms. That’s because games have a difficult time presenting alignment in an effective way. Since many alignments are presented as a code that creates a struggle of some sort, usually good and evil, they have to be broad so players can use them effectively with their creations. Not to mention many characters are created with to be adults ready to start their adventuring career. In reality this couldn’t be farther from the truth. In the real world we develop our “alignment” over years of character growth. For us our alignment is directly linked to what we believe, or to be more accurate, what we have come to believe. That is our faith directs our choices. This could mean you are guided by religion, science, or philosophy. It doesn’t matter what guides your thoughts what matters is that when you apply this to your character she has already lost years of development.

Valiant RPG Rules Review

Catalyst Game Labs, Featured, RPG's, Valiant Comments Off

Sep 182014

The Full book is about 200 pages. Nearly two thirds of the book is about the Valiant universe, its characters and some adventures. That means the meat of the rules are contained in about fifty pages. This sets the stage for a rich setting, great roleplaying and light rules.

I’m a big fan of this book. The art alone makes it worth the purchase. You find great valiant art on nearly every page. If you’re new to the valiant universe, like me, You will find this book to be a tome of vast knowledge. It was way too easy for me to become immersed in the fluff – not something I normally do.

I have already reviewed the QSR, but if you haven’t read that here is what I think you should know. Valiant is a storytelling game. The players each take turns narrating a chapter. They must combine their efforts to play through the challenges while attempting to overcome the obstacles thrown at you from by the lead narrator (ln) – who is also playing a character.

As you might expect you will face challenges that will require you to pass a test or two along the way. In order to make such a check you roll a d12 plus the appropriate stat die vs d20 plus some modifiers. The higher number wins. Luck is the wild card and it always remains a static number. When the die roll plus the static number match luck it’s a crit!. The other cool part about this is that the stats are represented by dice.

Which brings us to character creation. It is a pretty fast and smooth process, I made my first character in 20 minutes and my second in about 15. Creation uses nine steps one of which is assigning power dice and picking powers. This system is fast and easy. It’s so easy I think Valiant could be a great gateway game for a college dorm.

I have played a few time now and I find that the system flows smoothly, with very few hiccups. I was really surprised at that the narration works. It seems that there is never a dull moment in this universe, largely because each narrator is trying to out do the other. With all that said, I’m concerned for theValiant RPG – it might just be too much fun.

You can find a copy at DriveThruRPG or visit Catalyst to learn more

Valiant RPG QSR Rules Review

SR Crossfire this August From Catalyst Game Labs

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Jul 282014

Shadowrun: Crossfire Case Pack Deal

$299.95 SRP

Shadowrun: Crossfire is a deck-building game in one of the most popular game settings of all time!

Crossing cyberpunk with fantasy and plunging players into a world dominated by ruthless megacorps, Crossfire gives players a chance to dive into the shadows to see if they can survive.

Shadowrun Crossfire: Base Game

$59.99 SRP

Shadowrun: Crossfire is a deck-building game set in one of the most popular game settings of all time. Crossing cyberpunk with fantasy and plunging players into a world dominated by ruthless megacorporations, Crossfire gives players the chance to dive into the world’s shadows and see if they can survive. Players’ imagination and ideas aren’t limited, so the characters they use in Shadowrun: Crossfire shouldn’t be limited either.

I had the chance to play this at Origins 2013, while they were still working out the kinks. In fact we even used proxies. I was very impressed in the earliest stages of development. I can’t wait to see what they have done.

Words with Randall Bills from Catalyst Game Labs Part 1-3

Battletech, Board Games, Card Games, Catalyst Game Labs, Featured, Origins 2014, Shadowrun, Shadowrun Crossfire, Sprawl Gangers, Valiant, Words With 1 Response »

Jul 162014

First I’m sorry this took so long, but I had a lot of unforeseen problems after Origins that prevented me from taking the time to break this down into three parts. For example flooding put our internet provider under water, that makes the whole social media thing pretty difficult. There were other weather problems but no access to the internet was the worst. But Randall and I did talk at Origins game Fair about nearly everything Catalyst related. Since Randall had so much to say it was necessary to break it into smaller segments.

Sprawl Gangers
Battletech and SR box sets
Valiant, The Duke, and Hostile Takeover

Part one is about the current trends with Sprawl Gangers. The Skirmish Game that takes place in the Shadowrun Universe. We do chat about Valiant briefly but we come back to it later.

Continue reading »

Our Kickstarter Project has Funded

Featured, Gen Con 2014 1 Response »

Jul 082014

I’m proud to announce that our fans have backed us in our kickstarter endeavors and we can now start safely planning our trip to Gen Con 2014.

I have to thank all of our current and future backers. We look forward to bring you great media coverage from Gen Con . Here is a list of some of the highlights we have planned

Interview with Uwe Eickert from Academy games on Kickstarter.

Origins Awards Winners 2014

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Jun 152014

The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Announces 40th Annual Origins Awards Winners

COLUMBUS, OH (June 14, 2014) The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design is proud to announce the winners for the 40th Annual Origins Awards.

The Origins Awards are presented annually by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design to recognize outstanding achievement in design and production of games and game-related products.

The winners were voted on by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design. The Fan Favorite Awards were voted on by attendees at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH on June 11-15th. The winners were announced and the coveted Calliope statues were presented at the Origins Awards Ceremony on the evening of Saturday, June 14th.

The Academy would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to the jury members, GAMA staff, and everyone who submitted a product to the 40th annual Origins Awards.

Best Role Playing Game

Numenera – Monte Cook Games, designed by: Monte Cook

Fan Favorite: Shadowrun: Core Rulebook – Catalyst Game Labs, designed by: Jason Hardy, Aaron Pavao, Adam Large, Mark Dynna, Steven “Bull” Ratkovich, Peter M. Andrew Jr., Michael Wich

Best Role Playing Supplement

Night’s Watch – Green Ronin Publishing, designed by: Joseph Carriker, Lee Hammock, Brett Rebischke-Smith, Ian Ireland, Michelle Lyons, John Hay

Fan Favorite: DC Adventures Universe – Green Ronin Publishing, designed by: Darren Bulmer, Seth Johnson, Steve Kenson, Jon Leitheusser, John Polojac, Aaron Sullivan

Best Board Game

Trains- Alderac Entertainment Group, designed by: Hisashi Hayashi

Fan Favorite: Trains – Alderac Entertainment Group, designed by: Hisashi Hayashi

Best Traditional Card Game

Love Letter– AEG, designed by: Seiji Kanai

Fan Favorite: DC Comics – Cryptozoic Entertainment, designed by: Matt Hyra, Ben Stoll

Best Family, Party, or Children’s Game

Three Little Pigs – Iello, designed by: Laurent Pouchain

Fan Favorite: Walk the Plank – Mayday Games, designed by: Shane Steely, Jared Tinney

Best Miniatures Figure or Line

Malifaux: The Guild’s Judgement – Wyrd Miniatures, designed by: Wyrd Miniatures

Fan Favorite: HeroClix Wolverine and the X-men – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games

Best Miniatures Rules or Expansion

Marvel HeroClix: Avengers Vs X-men Starters – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games

Fan Favorite: Marvel HeroClix: Avengers Vs X-men Starters – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games

Best Collectable Card Game or Expansion

Pokemon Black & White Legendary Treasures The Pokemon Company, Intl., designed by: The Pokemon Company

Fan Favorite: Pokemon Black & White Legendary Treasures – The Pokemon Company, Intl., designed by: The Pokemon Company

Best Game Accessory

Space Gaming Mat – HC+D Supplies, designed by: Andre Garcia

Fan Favorite: Pathfinder Battles: Skull and Shackles – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games
Best Game-Related Publication

TableTop – Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day

Fan Favorite: Tabletop – Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day

Best Historical Board Game

1775:Rebellion – Academy Games, designed by: Beau Beckett, Jeph Stahl

Fan Favorite: 1775:Rebellion – Academy Games, designed by: Beau Beckett, Jeph Stahl

Best Historical Miniatures Rules or Expansion

Fields of Fire – Proving Ground Games, designed by: Larry Yeager, Chris Brutsche, Mark Brown

Fan Favorite: Fire and Sword – Wargamer, designed by: Konrad Sosinski, Rafal

Best Historical Miniatures Figure or Line

Malifaux: The Guild’s Judgement – Wyrd Miniatures, designed by: Wyrd Miniatures

Fan Favorite: HeroClix Wolverine and the X-men – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games
Congratulations to all of the winners!

The Whole Hole Vol. 1 (Savage Worlds)

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Mar 132014

The Whole Hole Vol. 1 (Savage Worlds)

$29.95 SRP

The Whole Hole – A Gadabout’s Guide to Mutha Oith, Volume 1: Keister Island is the first in a series of guidebooks designed to immerse the reader within and among the places, peeps, beasts, and happenings of the various realms of Mutha Oith.

Join intrepid gadabout Toucanacondor Flaminguez as he tours Keister Island. You’ll explore dozens of locales, meet hundreds of peeps, examine new religions, gawp in awe at wondrous magics, and run in terror from a bunsload of horrifying monstrosities. Here you’ll investigate the Fundamental nature of all things, dabble in smellcasting at the Garden of Smellemental Glee, chug suds with Floom’s elite, and marvel at the bottomless Keister of Gawd. There’s new Holy Crap, new Edges and Hindrances, New PC species, new setting rules, and twenty pages of new monsters. Seriously, stop reading the description and just buy the goosin’ thing already.

The Savage Worlds rules system is required to play the game, but not necessarily to enjoy the book.

224 pages, Full Color

German Ship to play:SMS Wolve in Leviathans

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Jul 212013

From Catalyst Game Labs

German Ship To Play: SMS Wolve

Hey all,

Sigh…once again, have to start with an apology. The launch of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition has been an all consuming project that has sucked up most of Catalyst’s bandwidth and all of mine almost across the board. For those that don’t follow such things, the PDF & Print Preorders went on sale yesterday. Still a ton of SR-retaled stuff to do moving forward, of course, but SR monopilizing so much of my time is finally near an end.

Course, as an aside, the more fantastic Shadowrun does, the better it is for Leviathans as it gives us a better war chest to deal with the production issues still nagging at this game’s heels.

Nevertheless, I will be getting a swath of my time mostly back, which means more regular updates of various things, including getting PDF releases back on line.

As an apology for the dry spell of the last month or so, thought I’d give you the German SMS Wolveto play, along with the rules for the two new slots on this dangerous destroyer.

You can click here to download the PDF for this destroyer.

And the rules:

CHAFF SLOT

Whenever a Breach Roll for any type of aerial torpedo is made against a Location containing an undestroyed Chaff Slot is about to be made, the defending player first rolls 1DRed, adding in a die from any standard Crew Slot (i.e. Screening Crew, Bracketing Crew, and so on, cannot be used) that is undamaged and in that Location (even if there are multiple Crew Slots, only a single Crew Slot die is added).

On a result of 8-10 the torpedo is shot down, causing no further damage or effects; on a result of 7 or less the chaff does not shoot it down and a standard Breach Roll is now made by the attacker to determine if the torpedo strikes the target.

SCREENING CREW SLOT
A Crew Slot with a white diamond icon is known as a Screening Crew Slot.

A ship containing a Screening Crew Slot need only spend 1 MP to either Defensive or Offensive Screen (as opposed to the standard 3 MP).

***

To get a sense of the German vibe, feel free to field the Wolve with the HML Leviathans or HMLMedusa.

See ya next duty shift!

Randall

EN World Launches “RPG Spotlight”: Shadowrun First Up!

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Jul 212013

EN World Launches “RPG Spotlight”: Shadowrun First Up!

By RANDALL | Published: JULY 12, 2013 | Edit

EN World.org, one of the premier online sites for news and reviews for tabletop games, is launching an “RPG Spotlight” program next Monday. Each week will feature a different RPG, where publishers/designers will interact with the EN World community, answer questions, and more.

With the wildly successful launch of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition PDF & Print Preorders yesterday, Catalyst Game Labs is pleased to see Shadowrun first up in this great new program.

“I’m very excited to have the chance to interact with the EN World community!” said Jason M. Hardy, Shadowrun Line Developer. “They are a passionate, knowledgeable group, and I’ll do my best to be ready for whatever questions and thoughts they fire off.”

The Shadowrun RPG Spotlight will run from July 15th to July 21. One participant from next week’s Spotlight will be chosen to win a free Shadowrun, Fifth Edition Limited Edition book!

“I’m really excited to launch our weekly spotlights with Shadowrun, a game which has so much history,” said Russ Morrissey, of EN World,” and which was voted by EN World members into the Top 10 Most Anticipated Games of 2013.”

Check out shadowruntabletop.com andwww.shadowrun.com to learn more about all that’s happening in the Year of Shadowrun, as well aswww.enworld.org for the spotlight program and great news and reviews for all things gaming.

EN World?
EN World (www.enworld.org) has been reporting tabletop gaming news for over a decade. Originally the world’s largest Dungeons & Dragons fan site, it has evolved into one of the world’s leading tabletop gaming new sources and covers the whole gamut of roleplaying and board games. EN World also maintains the premier RPG awards program, the ENnies, at Gen Con every August. The SPOTLIGHT GAME program is a new initiative to highlight game systems and for fans to discuss their favourite games with the publishers, designers and creators to make them.

Catalyst Game Labs?
Catalyst Game Labs is dedicated to producing high-quality games and fiction that mesh sophisticated game mechanics with dynamic universes, all presented in a form that allows beginning players and long-time veterans to easily jump into our games, while helping fiction readers enjoy our stories even if they don’t know the games.

Catalyst Game Labs is an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC, which specializes in electronic publishing of professional fiction. This allows Catalyst to participate in a synergy that melds printed gaming material and fiction with all the benefits of electronic interfaces and online communities, creating a whole-package experience for any type of player or reader. Find Catalyst Game Labs online at www.catalystgamelabs.com.

Box Breaking 72 Balance of Power from Catalyst Game Labs

Board Games, Catalyst Game Labs, Featured Comments Off

Jul 122013

Watch as Matt Breaks open Balance of Power from Catalyst game Labs. balance of Power is a game of world conquest. That is players create kings and try to gain territories.

Thanks for watching , we hope to have a demo up in a week or so.

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EN World Launches “RPG Spotlight”: Shadowrun First Up!