Your Paper RPG Revue

By David Rasmussen
19th Jan 08

The King’s Quest Companion
Herald back into your memory of ancient PC gaming past, and the golden age of Sierra.
You remember Sierra, way back when they were actually noteworthy (and not just cranking out alsoran games as they seem to do these days with little innovation in them), making games worthy of notice (and fan praise). Games like King’s Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest (lots of games with the word “Quest” in the title) and… yes… the early age of Leisure Suit Larry (before it was spade and neutered by the Fascist Nanny Nation State in it’s last incarnation, which kinda sucked that Sierra wasted time for it on the PS2 when it had far better games it could have revived on the PS2... King’s Quest for instance.

If you’re like me (scary) then you have fond memories of the King’s Quest franchise (I logged in my tour of duty from King’s Quest II all the way to King’s Quest VI if your wondering), and so you’d like a book that reminded you of that heady day of early point & click adventuring. So when I heard of this old Silicon Valley book “The King’s Quest Companion” I had to check it out.

Yeah, talk about a major major dose of utter disappointment on my part, let me tell you.

I don’t know about you, but for me a good King’s Quest book (or any book that relives the good old days of some PC game past) requires a few things.

1-Lots and lots of pics from the games.
The book should be overflowing with screenshots of the games, the most visuals you can refresh my memory about from the game the better.

2-A straight up guide to the game (from the opening creds to the end I want to be walked down the primrose path and showed what I did to complete this game.

2a-Subsequentily I’d also like to have all the secondary side missions laid out so I can see if I got them all or not (and what I missed).

2b-Note all the quirky humor and sight gags of the game (the appearance of the Bat mobile (Adam West era) in King’s Quest II, or the three bears from Goldilocks in King’s Quest III for example).

2c-Multiple ways to complete certain tasks.

2d-Backstory about certain scenes and content.

3-Maps and info (like the spells from King’s Quest III to the stuff you need to complete the game and a quick reference guide to find these items).

4-History of the games (lots of juicy behind the scenes stuff).

5-Wrap it all together with a few bells and whistles and we got ourselves a book.

So what is missing out of this book?

1-There is a guide… it’s just not “straight up”, it meanders and it has stuff to note but it’s not as spit and polish shiny as I would have wanted it to be.

2-Half of the content of the book seems to be rambling “prose fiction” tellings of the games… boring! If I want to read a prose fiction style retelling of the games I’d have wanted a prose fiction novel set on the games and not whatever this is.

Content is here, But it lacks the interesting stuff (you have to read between the lines to know that (in King’s Quest II) the thing that follows you out of the cave that cannot be named is the Batmobile) and that sucks because I played all the games (and it’s been a long time since I played them) so I would want to know more… sadly this particular book was released when these games came out (came out after King’s Quest IV) so you’ll have to find a latter book of this nature to find one with all seven games (and all the screenshots and easter egg content).

Subsequently this book is only if you must have another piece of King’s Quest stuff in your large bookshelf, otherwise it will neither dredge up fond memories in you of the series nor help you relive the series as I thought it would. A latter, more complete (and more content rich) book is needed for that.

This book does have some interesting content, but too much is censored (and then there’s the lack of any screenshots though a few original artwork pieces depicting scenes from the games are in this book) and lacks any real depth for a true fan.

Read (and search for) at your own leisure. 2 King Graham Crackers (with that fleshy meaty Graham Cracker crunch) out of 5.

Battletech RPG & CityTech Battletech Expansion
Show me a shooter slash rock em’ sock em’ robots slash RPG slash whatever game with mechs and 9 times out of 10 I’ll hold these books up and tell the creators to retake their Mech Combat 101 lessons. (That goes double for you people cranking out crappy Gundam games!)

Back in the ancient days of 1985, the FASA Corporation brought forth a paper RPG that wasn’t about swords and sorcery, but instead about massive mechanical mech armors and wide scale combat of a city shaking variety. Inspired no doubt by such visionary series as Mobile Suit Gundam (ironic since these days the people who make MSGundam video games in Japan need to start being inspired by Battletech’s original paper RPG and stop making terrible video games), Battletech brought a fresh innovation in the paper RPG world by changing your view of what you played in a paper RPG. Instead of a single human of many possible talents, you piloted a large mech into battle. Your “character” charts reflected this, giving you the means to micro manage your mech instead of yourself as you plodded through hexagonal fields and cities instead of square blocked dungeons and wilderness.

Set in a grim post apocalyptic future, you are a member of a House (I’m thinking Dune in ideal of House) and fight for whatever your House believes in (besides total dominance over the other Houses you fight against). Once you pick a flag (and a belief), and get set up -- speaking of which…

Odds are you will probably get ahold of this much the same way I did (BookMooching or trading with a friend or from a second hand bookstore or whatever), and odds are (thusly) the game is missing some of it’s key components. For instance the original 85 game came with 48 full color stand up playing pieces (representing 14 different types of mechs). There was also a map (which means this game is most likely one of the rare tabletop RPGs like the old Warhammer 40K before it went PC gaming on everyone) , but I don’t seem to have one here. However these days \you should be able to recreate maps with all the supplies you can find at your better stocked Ben Franklin or other paper craft store, and finding mech pieces should be as easy as finding a well stocked gaming store (or a large toy store with a wide selection of things including miniature toys). That shouldn’t be a problem.

Once you got your supplies it’s off to the mech making races, from there you absorb the book and learn all you need to know for classic old school hexagonal mech battling (something I hope the makers of the BattleTech DS game (or did they call it MechWarrior, I forgot which title they used) remembered when making their DS game). This is definitely a game for a group, by the way, single players need not apply.

IF you can get this classic (yet thin) booklet of 85, why stop there? One year later the CityTech expansion (detailing urban combat in cityscapes including using cities as battle zones, new tech including non Mech rolling armored vechiles, as well as the ability to deploy human infantry into the battle zone) came out. Get that one too if you can… FASA? If you’re still open for business how about repackaging these two books (and maybe one or two more) into a massive Boxed Set! It’d be nice to see the game re-released (maybe with it’s more up to date rules as this is 85/86 and, well, with the passage of 20+ years I’m taking it a more up to date rule system for BattleTech might be available. And when your done? Gift a Boxed Set to the makers of crappy mech video games… maybe they’ll learn something from these books.

(For the record if your looking for a game that is as close to this style of gaming you should get Front Mission 4 for the PS2, but not the more recent Front Mission Online as nobody is playing that anymore -- something Final Fantasy XI players know too well, and only FM4 (and previous FM games) has the feel of playing the Battletech RPG (right down to shooting that seems to be virtual dice rolled affected -- explains why you can be point blank range to a target and still miss it).

Still if you want to see the golden age of mech combat then Battletech’s old school RPGs are for you.
Now if only the makers of most terribly done throwaway excuses for mech video games could learn the lessons of BattleTech (and other well made mech gaming) and give us better than what they shovel out year after year, then maybe people would have more respect for mech video games than they do now.
4 rock’ em sock’ em city smashing mechs out of 5.

Horizon RPG : Spellslinger
Just when you thought you couldn’t find anything inventive in the wild west (after playing games like Gun and Call of Juarez (which actually sounds like a survival horror game… but isn’t)) along comes Spellslinger, and all of a sudden the west is interesting again.

OK, it didn’t just come along. Back in 2004, Fantasy Flight games released this game (the 4th in a long chain of Horizon RPG self contained worlds set to the d20 System of rules (from Wizards of the Coast, who handles the better known D&D these days) this one takes place in an alternate reality wild west, where magic and so forth walk hand in hand with gun slinging and trail blazing.

However this isn’t just a D&D world with cowboys, no.
First off note how the world has a mystical taste, but is set firmly in the parameters of the old west. Job classes in this game have that old west feel, for starters. Gunfighter, Maverick (yeah, like in the TV Series and movies) and Trailblazer start you off on the non magical side. Magic is not the magic of old D&D style, instead of learning complex xpells (gathering ingredients and so forth) ala Ultima, you’ll find magic is far simpler as it is the user’s own willpower (and the “Brand” he/she is marked with) which sets for magic use in this game. Magi (magic user), Padre (cleric), Pale Rider (paladin?), Skin walker (druid) and Steel heart (great with metals, a class most D&D Dwarves wish they could achieve) make up the magic of the world… and, if you have a hankering to stomp on “finger wigglers” there’s the Blackhand class (they hunt mystically inclined characters).

Non human races are not as diverse as in mainstream fantasy games, but this game has more than enough to suit you. Besides the usual Elves (half elves), Dwarves, Halflings there are the Half Orcs and (unique to this game) the Grey Runners (wolf/human hybrids that act as the Native Americans of this game).

Sad fact, however.
When they say this game is “self contained”, they meant that in the respect that they figured you already owned both copies of the Player’s Manual & DMGuide of D&D’s revised 3.5 Edition rules! Yeah, that means you should get both before playing this! Also… cough cough… maybe a copy of the d20 System magic spells could be helpful (which I just so happen to be reviewing in the near future). And, if that wasn’t enough… you’ll need Character Sheets. This game forgot to include that. Otherwise this game is mostly self contained… of course if you can get ahold of supplement adventures set in the old west (or close enough to suit your characters) you can intergrate them into your gaming as well.

So much for this having all you’ll need to play. You still have to drop a bit of coinage to get all the books you need to really be able to play this to the hilt. Still, once you do get them, you’ll find the old west is fun again once you start shooting down your monsters in a hail of gunfire with this game as your guide.

It’s not standalone, sure, but once you get what this book asks of you and set your posse down to play you’ll find a great time here plying your paper RPG skills in the old (made new again) west.
Now if only someone would make a video game as fun as this, then maybe we wouldn’t bitch so every time a lackluster western game graces our attention at the video game store!
4 mystical shape shifting cattle roundups out of 5.

Tunnels & Trolls featuring Goblin Lake solitaire adventure
Paper RPG gaming lives on, people. Never doubt that it’s not around anymore! Just check the loads of paper RPG stuff you can find (past and present) still being sold at places like Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com! Or, better yet, check out the yearly “FREE RPG DAY” (June 23rd of 2007 was the last time they had this day, I’m not certain when 2008’s Free RPG Day is).

This year I’m going to sit you down and speak to you of these, both past and present, and why they should either be put into collection (if you are an avid RPG fan) or avoided like a plague.

Speaking of Free RPG Day I picked up (thanks to an associate at this book swapping site I frequent, BookMooch.com) two books from Free RPG Day 2007. The Chronicles of Ramlar preview and Tunnels & Trolls preview… let’s spin on over to Goblin Lake over in Tunnels & Trolls and see how the fishing is!

Unlike Chronicles of Ramlar, Tunnels and Trolls starts off by making the grand announcement that it’s game system is “One of the easiest RPGs to learn and play”… yeah, well I’ll be the judge of that!

Tunnels & Trolls, a paper RPG of Flying Buffalo (hmmm… honey barbeque sauce!!) sports solitaire gameplay (despite the fact the whole draw of paper RPGing is to associate with other living human beings in large social environments), with 17 solo adventures currently in print (as of June 2007).
However it’s big selling point is the quick ability for anyone to pick this up and play… let’s see.

The start-up is quick and to the point, and is even laid out for the non-paper RPG fan (I.e. people who can only get ahold of six sided dice). Mind you, however, if you do happen to have more than just your standard six sided dice you CAN retool these rules for a higher batch of dice (d4, d8, d10 (both regular and percentile versions), d12 and (yes) d20 will serve you well here).

The only thing missing (I don’t know if this book had it and someone used it or if it never had it) was a character sheet to work with. Of course you could just as well jot all this down on a piece of paper, but where’s the fun in that if the company could have supplied you with a photocopy ready character sheet to work off of. One of the missing joys of this game.

Otherwise roll roll roll away to gear up. Get your stats down, buy provisions and gear, learn combat rolls and (if you picked a class good at magic) get your magic on. Once you got that you read the rest (about “time” management, experience gathering (otherwise how ever will little Level 1 head splitters grow up to become Level 2 head splitters) and so on. Then you go into the adventure itself.

Since this is a solo adventure there’s no need for a companion to help you play this… bummer… instead you’ll read this like a Choose Your Own Adventure slash Endless Quest type adventure, going where the story tells you (sometimes making your own choices as you go along). Nice, but not all that innovative as it is (still) just a solo diversion without any need to form a party and do something in mass quantities (play, eat, drink, watch whatever it is paper RPG players watch while they play paper RPGs in mass quantities). Of course since Tunnels & Trolls prides itself as to having an extensive set of solo adventures once you get the main Core Rulebook of the game and settle down with a few solo modules… well… get ready for the solitaire lonely life (which seems to be a slowly growing norm as people are becoming less and less likely to gather together for anything, let alone paper RPG playing… dammit! Are the terrorists winning again?!? Stop rejecting human companionship people!!)

On the bright side the game does include the set-up for a team adventure, and there’s a list of adventures you can buy listed here in the back for both the solitaire… oh my god most of these are for the loner… or the team adventure (so few!). Hmmm… I guess I can drop some money on these and give you another look into the lonely world of Tunnels (deep, dark, lonely tunnels) and Trolls in the near future.

However for this adventure? Goblin Lake fishes up 4 goblins out of 5.
Why? Because it does what it says it does, delivers an adventure for one. Sure if you want to expand you should get the… say what?!? VERSION 5.5 rules?!? Not even D&D goes that high in the amount of times they dragged the rules back to the drawing board and retooled them!!… that doesn’t seem to bode well for the game if the rules had to be retooled about 5.5 times!! Still… it is an adventure, it does it’s job, and if you can get expansion modules for… what? Between $5 to $9? That’s not half bad!

A budget RPG for the single player without a Game Master or traveling companions to journey with.
Hence why it’s getting a 4 out of 5, for the record.

The Chronicles of Ramlar : Black Arrow Run Preview module

Paper RPG gaming lives on, people. Never doubt that it’s not around anymore! Just check the loads of paper RPG stuff you can find (past and present) still being sold at places like Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com! Or, better yet, check out the yearly “FREE RPG DAY” (June 23rd of 2007 was the last time they had this day, I’m not certain when 2008’s Free RPG Day is).

This year I’m going to sit you down and speak to you of these, both past and present, and why they should either be put into collection (if you are an avid RPG fan) or avoided like a plague.

Speaking of Free RPG Day I picked up (thanks to an associate at this book swapping site I frequent, BookMooch.com) two books from Free RPG Day 2007. The Chronicles of Ramlar preview and Tunnels & Trolls preview… let’s spin on over to Ramlar and see what’s up.

This “Quickstart Rules” version of White Silver Publishing’s Chronicles of Ramlar game (the preview module “Black Arrow Run”) is impressively art worked, and I am sure if I studed the game itself thoroughly (as in the adventure offered) it might be a good one. It’s a beginner’s module set for a group of 4 to 6 Level 1 players of the Chronicles of Ramlar RPG. Hmmm… guess that means once you go through this you continue on by investing in the Core Rulebook and so forth. Too bad it is NOT part of the d20 System family. The d20 System is a widely used system that many paper RPGs in the 21st Century are using (including, yes, TSR/Dungeons & Dragons). That means your first practical use of the d20 System was when you first put Dungeons & Dragons Tactics into your PSP, because it originated from 3.5 Edition rules (and 3rd Edition D&D is the first to use the d20 System).

However that doesn’t matter as Ramlar does NOT use the d20 System.
The people at White Silver uses a system they call the A/B System.
In the A/B System all characters use eight primary attributes.
Some are familiar ones (Charisma, Intelligence, Strength & Wisdom). Four, however, are either new or stats you don’t usually equate with your main character stats. Things like Endurance, Nimbleness (which usually would fall under Dexterity in the d20 System format), Perception and Tenacity. Nice stats, but seemingly unnecessary as they usually are substats of other stats (Endurance from Strength, Nimbleness from Dexterity, Perception… hmm… I say Intelligence/Wisdom, and Tenacity which probably comes from Charisma).

Then the game unnecessarily creates a “Character Hit Point Body” with parts of the body split up into 12 zones from head to leg, each with it’s own hit point stats. I don’t know what the importance of this is, but it seems needlessly complex for a paper RPG to keep track of your body parts and their life point stats.

Everything else is standard paper RPG fare. Classes, skills, magic and so forth. This is just a whet your whistle module so you’ll have to drop major coinage on the Corebook of gameplay to understand the full scope of the game, but at least this should get you started (and deciding whether you want to do this game or not). Seems to me, however, it’s an addition to your RPG collection and not a new course for you. Somehow I don’t think the A/B System will ever trump out the d20 System, no chance of that happening. That and the whole keeping track of specific body part health in battle seems rather complex when d20’s simple hit point stats make it easier (that and, well, how fair is it when you’re character is full of life points and I decide to… oh I don’t know… zero out your life points in your NECK section… I don’t know, doesn’t that equal decapitation of your head or something?)

A/B System will never be the next d20, but at least if you want a slice of something different (and don’t mind muddling through the rules in order to master it, as it doesn’t exactly roll off the old thought processor as easily as d20 System rules) then adding Chronicles of Ramlar might be your thing.
As for this promotional preview of the system? I’m going to be generous to it and give Chronicles of Ramlar : Black Arrow Run 3 shots to the neck out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 19th Jan 08