Welcome to Cranial Herbs & Rice

CH&R is dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and roleplaying game fans.  
Join us for discussions on politics, the web, gaming, film, TV, and the world in general.

We also develop our own RPGs.  Ask us about Cold Iron, a fantasy system based on the FUDGE engine, Dark Reign: Fear the Dawn, a horror game using our Tarot engine, Midgard, a fantasy system where the players are Norse gods, using our Runedraw engine.  We have developed much of the core for our own D&D 3.5 game world.  Though these days, we play GURPS more than any other engine.

Feel free to look around and join in on the discussions!

It was the best of Games, it was the worst of Games...

We've referenced many of our games in past.  Here's place to share those stores in more detail.  Give us some of your best and worst, funniest and saddest, scariest and happiest gaming moments.  Every player and GM has a story to tell.  So tell yours!

Haley and I had a discussion the other night about playing styles.  We basically came up with a limited set of game styles:

• Miniatures War Gaming; i.e. D&D without those annoying plots.  Games like this are typically dungeon crawls, where characters are designed for their combat effectiveness and little else.  Party balance means having a suitable mix of heavy hitters, spell casters, and sneaks to accomplish any physical goal.  Plot and characterization are minimal beyond hooking into the dungeon.
• Character Storytelling; i.e. Characters before all else.  These games typically focus on characterization.  Before any action, the player asks WWMCD (What Would My Character Do?)  Sometimes those goals run counter to whatever plot the GM has provided.  That's ok, so long as everyone has something to do.  Character concepts are chosen based on the player's idea of what would be fun.  Combat effectiveness takes a serious back burner in character design.  Party balance only exists if / when the GM's plot requires it.  Sometimes entire sessions can take place around nothing more than the characters meeting each other.  Combat is best when it's avoided. Many of the old Cold Iron games fit this style, as do most of Eric's Dark Reign games.
• Plot Storytelling; i.e. Story line before all else.  Games like this have a serious story line to follow.  The GM has mapped out a series of goals toward some end goal.  PCs are designed with at least some of those goals in mind.  Party cohesion is maintained by the existence of these goals.  Combat exists, but can often be avoided without compromising the goals.  Many of Brian's games follow this model.

Are there any other models you can think of?  What style is your favorite to play in?  To GM?

Personally, I enjoy hybrid games--those that have some aspects from all three.  I like a good fight scene, but I like having depth to characters.  I don't enjoy spending weeks writing back-story for a PC I'm only going to play once.  I do enjoy expanding on very brief backstory notes as I play a PC.

Another part of that discussion centered around playing styles.  This is basically where you apply the various gaming cliches to our games.  D&D games are the best for this.

• If this scenario / encounter / event really happened would a PC react in this way?  Why or why not?
• If this campaign were real, would these characters really choose to travel, fight, and work together?  Why or why not?

More to follow...

I haven't read the new D&D rule books. Nor do I plan to.  But a very good "First Look" can be heard at http://www.pulpgamer.com/player/?p=2541&e=134109. This is from some seasoned D&D gamers, as they play the fast-start game and take their first stab at playing the game.  they highlight some nice features and some not-so-good as well.

Some major changes:

• No Monk or barbarian
• No Gnome or Half-Orc
• Saves work completely differently
• Healing and hit point work completely differently, changing the Cleric's role dramatically as well as how the character responds to damage in fights
• Rather than adventures and campaigns, it's focused on linked encounters
• Fewer skills, less point accounting for skills ie Thievery for the thieves' skills
• Powers (video game like element that gives more options during fights) - at will, per encounter, daily
  • Wizards can cast Magic Missile EVERY ROUND, since it's an at-will power instead of a "spell" and it now requires a to-hit roll.
  • All classes get Powers.

Combat is still king, so expect more roll-playing than role-playing.

Give the podcast a listen, though, as Pulp Gamers' review is a good take on it, I think.  It sounds like D&D 4 seems to borrow heavily from modern MMORPG computer games.

As always, far more detail in the 33-minute podcast at the link.