Well, it’s pretty simple. You buy new dice.
A few weeks ago things went pretty bad during the Friday Pathfinder game. What are the chances that I would roll 1 twice in a row? And before you comment there were plenty of math mavens at the table to comment on the probabilities of my string of bad luck. OK, they actually took my dice away and gave me loaners. Can’t have the barbarian missing all the time.
So I went a little dream quest. Life with it or do something about it. Let’s face it folks, we all have some sort of ritual or superstition about our dice and there’s a really good chance you’re like me and have a secret stash of ancient dice from days gone by. But anyway, back to my story.
I decided I do it right. I went off to my FLGS and picked up a couple of sets (one red and one green) of Precision GameScience dice. Just plain opaque. No crystal. No gem. No pearly sheen. Just plain simple dice. And remember how I mentioned that some folks keep a secret stash of old dice. Guilty. I went through that hefty bag and guess what! I found a couple more old GameScience dice that I had gotten some long forgotten boxed set. You can tell they even have that little “G” next to the 1.
And, yeah, I already started a superstition with these. With Shaprie in hand, I sat down to ink the new dice. I, of course, did the d20 last and the last face inked was the 20. Despite the fact that my ranger died horribly (this more due to a lack of a cleric than bad luck), I’m happy with my new little gaming familiars. And, of course, I still keep my old dice handy just in case.

I finally had the chance to pick a copy of Runepunk from Reality Blurs and its pretty good. In case you don’t know they’re the folks who gave us such Savage greats as Realms of Cthulhu and the upcoming Agents of Oblivion.
Runepunk keeps the Savage Worlds tradition of off beat settings. It’s unique but still brings several familiar themes into a setting that’s fun to play. So what is it? It’s an odd mix of dark fantasy, post apocalypse, steampunk and pulp. The city at the center of this hodgepodge is Scatterpoint. There’s a nice section of the setting and the history of Scatterpoint.
You’ve got all sorts of interesting races you can play. There’s the usual humans but you also some fairly nifty races. There’s the rat-like Ferren, the steampunkish man-machine Overwrought, the half-demon Malakar and the gothy Andari. Of course, there are humans but do I really need to mention them.
It’s pretty easy to pull in just about anything your own demented imagination can drag up into the universe of Runepunk. Might I suggest kit bashing Realms of Cthulhlu with Runepunk. Numerous adventures from various genres can be tweaked to fit into the setting. Runepunk is really good if you want to run a game but you have absolutely no idea what you want to do.
On the crunchy side, It’s got some nice Edges and Arcane Backgrounds. They capture the feel of the Runepunk setting and like any good Savage Worlds book the crunchy bits can be easily exported to whatever setting happens to catch your fancy at the moment. Did I mention some cool Weird Science and Arcane Backgrounds? Of course, those are there too.
Now, I know why this a popular Savage Worlds setting. It was a good buy and I wish I had picked it up earlier.

Sooooo. The new big bad for Awakenings is the mutant love child of Gene Simmons and Skeletor?

Let’s face it. Pizza is favorite gamer food staple. Despite whatever dietary restrictions you may have, there’s a good chance that you can find a pizza to fit you needs. But this really isn’t about the noble pie. It’s about games.
It’s been a crazy week of plotting, planning and general brainstorming with the usual mundane crap screaming for my attention but I started thinking about this when I was looking at all the various d20 variants out there. You can fluff up the setting and tweak a few rules but at it’s heart any d20 game boils down to being a re-packaged version of D&D with all of its strengths and weaknesses. Different toppings but still a pizza.
You can say the same thing about any game. Whether you like GUPRS, Hero, Basic Roleplaying, Storyteller (AKA World of Darkness, Exalted, Adventure, Trinity/Aeon. . ), Unisystem or Savage Worlds. Each system brings it own set of mechanical baggage that encourages a particular style of play. It’s easy to tweak, twist and customize a game according to your current craving but at its heart the basic game mechanics remain the same.
Remember your game is like pizza. While you may the perfect toppings in mind, just make sure that they are on the right pie. Look at what you as a GM want out of the game. Think about speed of play, lethality, how much prep time you’ll need for your gaming sessions and what kind of characters you expect the players to be. Remember extra mechanics that a game may or may not have that will help reinforce the feel and the style of campaign that you are shooting for. Let’s say you want to do your standard vanilla fantasy campaign. Fine, you have elves, dwarves, wizards and the whole standard load out. Even using similar builds and attempts at game cloning, if you use GURPS, Savage Worlds or D20 you are going to have three very different gaming experiences. None of them are better than the others. They’re just different.
Don’t forget your players. Just because you love a certain set of rules doesn’t mean that they will feel the same way. Many players are resistant to change especially when trying to introduce a new game. It may be easier borrow mechanics, ideas and inspirations from other games than encouraging players to learn a whole new set of rules.
Before you start planning a campaign, know your players better than you know the rules. Just like ordering a pizza, find out what people like. As a GM, it may “your” game but without the players its just a bunch of notes. This is all GM 101 stuff but sometimes we get so used to gaming that we forget the basics and just run with our ideas. Discuss your ideas with players before a campaign even starts. There’s no reason that the GM has to do all of the campaign preparation. Let them throw around ideas and ask questions. They just might inspire you more. Get ideas for house rules and opinions on the new house rules you plan to bring into your game. The feedback you get now will be well worth the time and may avert confusion and confrontations in the future.
Here’s the best bit of advice I can give players out there. If a GM asks what you think before the campaign starts. TELL HIM. Bring up concerns and opinions before things start. If you have a problem with a genre or a mechanic say so. You aren’t doing your GM, yourself or anyone in your gaming group a favor by shrugging it off now. It’s easier to fix a campaign before it starts than throw up your hands in frustration half through because you didn’t say anything. Basic gaming lesson. Be honest and don’t be jerk.
Sometimes, we want just plain cheese. Other times,it’s the works. Sometimes it’s D20 and sometimes you feel like crawling neck deep in a big old pile of GURPS.

Yeah, Honest Abe abolished slavery, lead the nation through a civil war and killed Vampires. Move over, Buffy and Jesus. It’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

We get another of the new companions for Dragon Age Awakenings. This time Mhairi. Not to cool on the name, the first thing I thought of was Mata Hari. But this lady warrior and soon to be Warden will be at your side but remember folks, there’s no romance in Awakening.

The Best Tech Guy Call Ever wit Leo Leporte. He’s one of my heroes. But this poor clueless woman. The Linksys went away. Sigh.

It’s been a crazy week for me and a bunch of projects didn’t get done but not as bad as Cheyenne Wright’s. I heard over at the PEG forums that he’s in the hospital and the doctor’s are scratching their heads.
OK for all you Savages out there, Cheyenne has done a butt load of the artwork for most of Pinnacle’s stuff. He also colors Girl Genius and Buck Godot.
According to his Twitter feed, he should coming home sometime. Let’s all wish him well and prayers go out to him and his family.