Thanks to a post over at Vulcan Stev’s Database, I got thinking about what RPG’s could make a good transition to either the big or little screen. Now most of you have heard to the old rumors of the Rift’s movie and the Vampire: The Requiem movie (and few of us still remember the disappoint Vampire: The Embraced TV series). There’s a Mutant Chronicles movie out. I’m not sure how bad it is but it is sitting there in the good old Netflix queue. I still bear the psychological scares of watching two horrible D&D movies but still have fond childhood memories of the Saturday morning cartoon.
So why aren’t there more transitions of RPG worlds to the screen? And why are the one’s that do happen so bad? I think the first part of the problem lies with the way Hollywood handles any IP they get. The execs making the decision to green light a project really don’t bother to actually read or understand what they have. Instead they get an intern to do like a single paragraph synopsis and decide from that, then make all sorts of creative suggestions to the crew on what should be done without even knowing what they’re talking about. Look at the D&D movies. They sucked because they tried to make a movie based on rules set not a world. Those weren’t Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Dark Sun or Spelljammer movies. Those movies were made in creative vacuum with the D&D label thrown on for marketing. Another thing is why would they pay for license when they could just something just close enough not to get sued.
Anyway here’s my list of RPG worlds (in no particular order) that could make a neat transition to the screen:
Shadowrun: It’s just my opinion but the cyberpunk genre has become passe. But with fantasy elements added this world is original enough that it could make the transition.
Paranoia: A dark comedy about Big Brother gone over the top. How could it miss?
Deadlands: I’d say that this most likely to happen. There very credible rumors that Deadlands is being developed as an MMO.
Unknown Armies: This is odd enough that it could make a good transition with the right creative talent behind it. Characters having to do sometimes unsavory things for the sake of power. Hmmm.
Over the Edge: This is what I consider one the finest RPG settings out there. It’s quirky and yet has so many familiar themes.

It’s been a while since WOTC decided to pull the legal PDF’s from the net and I really meant to post about this a long time ago but real life can be crazy and distracting. But thanks to Roleplaying Pro, it brought those thoughts back.
Now, I could make this long and rant and say so many things that other people have already said. So instead, I offer up to you some interesting reading to get your thoughts flowing.
Basically, RPG’s are books. So let’s turn to a very interesting publishing experiment. I’m talking about the Baen Free Library. (Please read this and the links to the Baen letters). Now this isn’t exactly how the RPG market works but something could still be learned here.
My own rather simple philosophy is that locks only keep out honest people. Yeah, I know this is a really short post but it’s more about getting folks to think rather than me just ranting.

I finally scraped together the dollars to pick up the Supernatural RPG PDF. In case you haven’t heard this is the licensed RPG using Margaret Weiss’ Productions Cortex Rules for the Supernatural TV series.  The dead tree version should be coming soon.
First, this PDF has pretty hefty price tag, just under $30. Personally, I don’t think this is because MWP is trying to mess with the PDF market. Licensed RPG’s are always a gamble for the publishers. They have to get approvals from the rights holders and give them a decent chunk of change.
The Cortex rules are pretty solid. I’ll admit that I haven’t had chance to play them but reading through them I can see where they will shine. The system has made some pretty big steps since it’s initial release as the Firefly RPG. A few kinks were worked out and the editing and organization is better. The rules are pretty simple roll Stat + Skill against a Target Number where stats and skills are a die type, just like Savage Worlds. I like it a little better since there are skill specializations add a little more customization to characters. Disads/Advantages are also ranked by die type and will raise the target number or give a bonus accordingly. Another thing is that skills aren’t tied to an Attribute. GM’s are free to mix and match as the situation requires like in World of Darkness.
The Supernatural game is pretty. The layout is like the infamous journal from the series, full of little sketches, sticky notes and newspaper clippings. Another neat and somewhat entertaining thing is that the whole thing is written as if Dean Winchester did it. This makes the book at least entertaining to read rather than a really dry rules dump.
The thing is do you really need the game to play a Supernatural campaign? Not really. There’s enough fluff material available on line or from books like the Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons and Ghouls that you could easily adapt to your favorite system. Personally, I can see using Savage Worlds, Unisystem, WoD, Chaosium’s BRP (with some heavy Call of Cthuhlu influences), possible Gurps or even d20 (OGL Horror would probably be nice). I’ve seen lots of folks posting this point and some home brews are already in the works. In this tight economy, folks might opt to do this more quickly. Also, I know how much “fun” it is to try to introduce a new set of rules to a gaming group.
This book has been really slow to hit the shelves. The last time I checked Amazon still said it will be available last January and the MWP site is still messed up. The best place I’ve found to following anything on the system is the Cortex Fan Forums (and the designers do post there).
Overall, it’s a very nice product. I like the game and probably will pick up a copy of the dead tree version.

Our adventurers continue their trek through the woods, this time they come to the aid of the local Bear Clan and run into a few surprises. This time the adventure wasn’t based off any of the Broadsword adventures so this time no spoilers here! And thanks to our chronicler for this session, Bruce, who always adds in his own commentary to each every scene.
session_summary_06-21-2009.pdf

So I finally had a chance to see Caprica this weekend. In case you haven’t heard this the spin-off of Battlestar Galactica. It takes place years before the first Cylon war, and is the story of two powerful families. Sigh.
The good news is that they’ve maintained the themes of paranoia, xenophobia and religious extremism and fanaticism. The bad news is that I’m not really sure if they let anyone read through the script to see it made any sense. I think they should of.
While Galactica had political drama personal and moral conflicts with a bit of military action thrown in. Caprica gives us this weird blend of The Godfather, Dallas and Frankenstein. It just plain falls flat.
These are the things that I learned from Caprica. The average human brain contains only about 300 MB of information. You can take Google and use to create an AI virtual copy of person. Yeah. I’m paraphrasing (except for the 300 MB part) but I’m not really that far off the mark.
It just didn’t click and it was pretty much bleh. You really didn’t feel that much for any of the characters and the plot while starting off kind of interesting. I just feel that it didn’t go any where. Over all, I guess that this show isn’t going to last all that long unless they do a major over haul but that may just be their plan. Release the pilot movie, judge fan response and tweak. If you have the time and loved Galactica then maybe watch it. But if not then well…

So here’s one and only warning. BIG SPOILER AHEAD.
Continue reading ‘Caprica WTF?’

It’s been a year and the Edition Wars are still freaking raging in the dim corners of the Internet. What do you do when something gets so tedious that it becomes absurd? Simple, turn it into a drinking game.

The Basic Game:
Step One: Find an RPG Forum or blog and find a flame war thread.
Step Two: Start reading and drinking
Step Three: As soon as both sides of the argument start making sense to you. Stop drinking.

The Advanced Game
Steps One and Two remain the same. For Step Three, take extra drinks based on the following chart:

1 Drink: Old School or New School

2 Drinks: Grognard, Gary Gygax, World of Warcraft, MMO, Paizo, Pathfinder, Collectible Card Game or Minicentric.

3 Drinks: 4anboys, 3tard, t$r, OGL or GSL.

The Advanced Game is over when 5th Edition is announced and a whole new set of flame wars begin. Til then just sit back and play what ever game you damn well please and enjoy it.