Eh.
Well, it's about time for my bi-weekly blog update. Sorry for the delay, dear reader (trust me, I'd rather be worrying about the blog than the other crap I have been). The wisdom I've earned over the last month is, "Never say, 'It can't possibly get worse.' It always always can." Day jobs are hell, and college professors live in the lowest pit - and I'm not even studying with them! Pfff.

But on to the update. I've been on Stargate: System Lords, off System Lords; on Stargate: Season One, off Season one; and now I'm on System Lords again, with an eye towards Mastermind, one of the 2004 Spycraft books, over the last 3 weeks or so. I still know dick-all about the line, but I'm intrigued by certain aspects. I'm cooking up some rightfully evil stuff for System Lords that should be a lot of fun to kick your friendly neighborhood SGC team's ass with. Whooha! I've also finished building about half my modular wargaming table, so that's gonna be a lot of fun methinks. It's only been in the works for about 5 years *groan*

Aside from Spycraft stuff, I've been doing a little buying, so that leads to our latest book On The Game Table. So without further ado...

On the Game Table: Millenium's End - err, anything but the main book
I don't know about you, but I've always dug the technothriller. While I wouldn't call myself a Clancy- or Ludlumphile, I've always dug spy flicks that dig on this genre - The Recruit, Spy Game, Enemy of the State, The Bourne Identity, Clear and Present Danger, and yes, even those crummy Mission: Impossible flicks. Technothrillers are kinda like modern day science fiction - they have heroes who are real people, gadgets that are real gadgets, and touch on the cutting edge of threats to world peace (like terrorism and organized crime). Fun stuff. Spycraft does a servicable job in letting you play in the technothriller, but it occassionally goes the Bond route in a big way too - and with the setting of Shadoforce Archer as the flagship, well, it gets further away from technothrillers in a lot of ways.

But before Spycraft and after Top Secret: SI, there was a big old vacuum in the espionage gaming genre. Into the fore steps Millenium's End, a little game from the now-defunct Chameleon Eclectic (and also by Charles Ryan, AKA head writer of the much-reviled d20 Modern). Millenium's End is a technothriller game set at -- wait for it -- the end of the millenium, as the world is going through huge social, political and technological upheavals. It's almost like a proto-cyberpunk world - poverty has crippled a majority of the world, bush wars are breaking out all over the place, the cities are devolving into dangerous concrete jungles, you know, that kind of stuff. Players play agents of Black Eagle Investigations, a private investigation, security and corporate espionage firm that works all over the world.

Seems like a pretty cool stuff, right? Let me preface that I have not played ME before, but I have talked to some people that have, and most have said, as one game designer called it, "unplayably bad." On top of it, the books ain't much to look at - plain text on most pages with very sparse graphic design, even more sparse art, and gigantic margins (though I kinda like these - plenty of room for notes). I'm not here to judge the system or the graphic design - as I noted above, this is 'anything BUT the main book.' What got ME into OtGT is not the main book or the rules, but the supplements. These things are freakin' AMAZING resources for the GM/GC who wants to run a technothriller game, hands down.

At the top of my list is Terror/Counterterror - not surprisingly, a book on terrorist groups and the groups that fight them. Chapter 1 gets into what a terrorist group is, devoid of rules (very lucky for us). Chapter 2 is a fairly complete list of the terrorists of ME; histories of the organizations, their agendas, leaders, structure, activities resources and so on and so forth - great stuff for any spy campaign, some of which are real (IRA) or not (Worldwide Islamic Jihad). Chapter 3: Counterterrorist Agencies covers the groups who fight terror, ranging from real world units like Germany's GSG-9 to imaginary groups like Firewall. Chapter 4: Resources contains the only stats of the book, but the archetypes presented are presented with detailed descriptions of psychology and hooks, making them useful for any game, while the Maps are fantastic for all self-respecting counter terrorism units. A truly great book that should be useful in virtually any spy game.

Right behind this is the GM's Companion, a fine supplement for GMs running nearly ANY modern game. Like most GM-centered books, this book includes info on running games, but it also fills out how to run a thriller, including constructing properly intricate plots, running NPCs effectively, and the like. I'm a fan of the checksheets in the book, such as "Trait of Memorable NPCs" or "Great Things to Do with Flubbed Rolls" - they're short and an excellent nudge if you find yourself stuck mid-session. Chapter 2 is all hooks for stories (again no stats - bad for ME, good for us). Chapter 3 is the best - 45 pages of maps and descriptions for filling in the details (bars, yachts, offices, terrorist training camps, fast food joints, cult compounds, etc.), NPCs, lots of computer network layouts (even without the main rules, they provide enough detail you could probably use this as a basis for computer hacking rules in Spycraft) and lots of little goodies. For the inexperienced GM, this book may seem incomplete, but for most of us vets, it's just the right amount of detail to hit the genre just right. Sweetness.

Finally, there's the Miami Sourcebook. This is how cities should be. It's a great look at the city of Miami (obviously), in Millenium's End terms. According to my colleagues at Paradigm Concepts, the book is so good you can actually use it to find your way around and hit the best tourist traps, restaraunts and landmarks. The book is just about the city, with very little frills, but I think any GM using this book would be overjoyed at the loving detail and character that seems from this gem.

So there you have it; Millenium's End - so-so game, fantastic Spycraft resource. Do yourself a favor and hit eBay or Bartertown and see if you can't dig one up. Your technothriller will love you for it.

The winds of change are a-blowin'...
But some blow harder than others. It appears that WotC has changed the System Trademark License (the agreement that lets you use the d20 logo on your book) and the d20 System Guide to allow them right of refusal on which products it appears on, retroactively (though that's still under debate). I'm not sure what impact this may have on the d20 industry; at first, using the d20 logo is a boon for new publisher, especially when d20 was in its infancy, but considering the proliferation of the system in the market and the regression from the spirit and base upon the STL was founded (see the gamingreport.com comment by Ryan Dancey), there are plenty of reasons for publishers to start ignoring the STL and just run off of the OGL now. Mutants and Masterminds and Everquest have not been hurt by the fact they are not using the STL - in fact, they are amongst the most successful d20 games right now, IIRC.

I can see why WotC might be intimidated by the fact that their brand (and the STL does require you to put their name on the cover and use their copyrighted logo) maybe associated with books like The Book of Erotic Fantasy and Naughty and Dice (even though they DID print the Book of Vile Darkness, which I feel is resounding 'proof' for all the conservative religious types who feel gaming is depraved and Satanic). If they want to change the STL, it's their property and they can - and there's always been a clause in the STL that said they could review and bust you for violating procedure using the OGL or their logo - but I agree with Mr. Dancey that the retroactive clause is counterproductive, demoralizing for the industry, and an unwise use of WotC's resources (which seem to be growing more and more limited). Personally, I hope this is a CYA by WotC for people that are out in left field, and will not be an aggressive campaign of censorship or attacks against publishers that WotC sees as a threat to the success of their own product (of which Spycraft may indeed be one). If that's the case, I don't imagine Projects X and Y will be carrying the d20 logo on their covers - but even if that's the case, I think they could do just fine.

Care to educate me on the nuances of the issue (Will, I know you're dying to here :) ), please comment below. I love a good discussion.

Bow cha-cha WOW WOW
Well, I've decided to suddenly change career paths, to something both more profitable, more fame-inducing, and certainly more enjoyable. That's right, dear reader, I'm joining the ranks of adult entertainment, and I owe it all to this one little conversation between a college friend (quyetX) and an associate. I quote:

"Probably Someone: I've been thinking of running something, myself.
Probably Someone: I've been noticing a marked lack of D&D in my life.
quyetX: hah
Probably Someone: Could I be so typical? Yes.
quyetX: if you're going to run a d20 game, run star wars
Probably Someone: I did manage to drag along my Oriental Adventures book, so that might prove interesting.
Probably Someone: Or Spycraft. No one knows Spycraft.
Probably Someone: Nah, see, I don't have the Star Wars books.
quyetX: heh, one of my friends from college writes for spy craft
Probably Someone: I do, however, have Alternity. And no one knows Alternity, either.
Probably Someone: ...S/he does?
quyetX: yup
quyetX: Alex Flagg
Probably Someone: Looks like a porn name."

So my career path is set. See you in the pictures!

Wil-E.-freakin'-Coyote
Ever watch those old Warner Bros. cartoons, with the Road Runner and Wil E. Coyote fighting in the desert? You know, the ones where he gets the Acme 50 kiloton firecracker, lights the fuse, and it blows up in is face, and all left standing there is a pile of ash and pair of eyes blinking quizzically? Yeah, that's me right now. Burnout city baby! A month and a half of late nights, ultra-stress at work and bad personal life juju has caught up to me and I'm just very very tired.

On the Game Table
This is a little idea I had about telling you faithful readers out there what those of us on the design team (and friends in the industry) spend our time playing. I love promoting good games, so I'll be infrequently using my space to share it. And without further ado:

On the Game Table: Iron Kingdoms The Witchfire Trilogy and WARMACHINE by Privateer Press
If I were to define my gaming tastes, I would never call myself a 'fantasy guy.' Sure, I started out with DnD like almost everyone else, but I quickly moved on to Top Secret: SI, TMNT and Other Strangeness and a host of other modern or scifi games when I was growing up. Something about fantasy never really grabbed me - maybe it was the shameless Tolkein ripoffs, the bland storytelling of so many games, or just the tired old game feel that saturated many fantasy games I saw. I was excited when d20 came out - the system seemed to make DnD accessible (and cheap) to play again, and I had been playing White Wolf, Cyberpunk and Deadlands for long enough that I had rinsed most of the bad taste about fantasy from my mouth. My group played through the Pool of Radiance freebie module to get a handle on d20 and it was pretty bland, so I ended up trying Oriental Adventures (themed in a homebrew pan-Asian setting) instead. In a 10th level game, I quickly was overwhelmed by the sheer power of the spells and magic items. The bad taste was lingering again, and it was actually starting to break up our group - the former hardcore DnD players wanted to stick with fantasy, while the GM/players wanted to go back to Deadlands, Project X or something less frustrating. In one last ditch effort to get us all back on the same page, having fun again, I picked up the Iron Kingdoms setting, and I can say with confidence it has made us enjoy fantasy gaming again.

The Iron Kingdoms setting is actually developed through the Witchfire Trilogy, which began as a series of modules for standard DnD with a steampunk feel. The land of Caen (similar in many ways to Tolkein's Middle Earth) is a Western European-styled continent, inhabited by 6 large kingdoms established following the defeat of the Orgoth (think Mongols crossed with Vikings and you're on the right track). A key part of this defeat was the development of technology such as gunpowder, the steam engine, and the steamjack, a steam-powered robot driven by a magically attuned brain called a cortex that can be keyed to a wizard for extraordinary feats. The time is 600 years after the defeat of the Orgoth, when these kingdoms are fully established and frequently war against one another using technology ranging across 700 years of human history, from Dark Age to Victorian Era. The story of Witchfire could fit in nearly any standard fantasy setting, but the creative additions and sparing use of technology in the Iron Kingdoms setting creates a unique flavor of the world on the brink of industrial revolution - a time of chaos and definitive change. The players compendium Lock and Load does wonders for enhancing play in the setting as well, providing new weapons, relgions, player races, skills and so forth. At only $12, it's a worthy investment if you plan in playing thru Witchfire

Similarly, WARMACHINE (all caps, per the creators), a skirmish level tabletop wargame set in the IK setting, has a distinct and entertaining flavor about it that sets it apart from its peers. You lead a small army of warjacks (steamjacks built for...well, war) and infantry against opponents from one of 4 rival kingdoms. Each force is led by a warcaster - a fighter/mage hybrid that is the equivalent of a superhero on the table top - who distributes his focus (a representation of arcane power, leadership and inner strength) to cast spells, enhance his 'jacks or increase his own prowess. Warcasters are almost like DnD player characters, host to a handful of special rules, their own unique spell list, named magic weapons and a feat - a once-a-game game breaking power that effects a huge area of the battlefield, from freezing your enemies solid to making single attacks against everyone within 12" to stripping enemy warcasters of all their magic ability for a turn. The overall power level of models in the game, even at the lowest eschelons of infantry, is high, with many special rules and unique abilities - there is nothing crappy or 'cannon fodder' in this game - so if you are a player of GW product, you may go through a little shock. This favors exciting, risky, over-the-top play and tactics, where decisive well-planned actions can turn a game in a single round. And it's cheap - a boxed force contains a warcaster and 2-4 'jacks totalling around 300 points, where 500 points is the standard tournament sized game. Overall investment averages around $100 to play whatever you want in a force - not bad, all things considered. These are the many reasons I love this game to death. Go Privateer!

Next in On the Game Table, I'll probably be talking about Savage Worlds from Pinnacle, Fantasy Flight's Redline, or some other prattle. More later.