The Gaming Den

People keep suggesting a social hacker. That seems much more counter to expectations than 'physical hacking'. Biometrics are a thing, as are physical vaults that require two simultaneous key turns... Maybe in the future you have to be in your designated workstation in order to access the network. H...

"Guy who's good with computers" should never be the defining role of a PC in any action game. In the abstract I can understand the appeal of the autistic savant who develops a semi-sapient bot that can trash a corporate database and steal the goodies. But it's a lot more fun for the party ...

Heck, they don't even get an interest in corporate business, so that to have them actually doing something, they had to introduce a "the world at risk" metaplot which, and I think it all boils down to that, made every other plot and character insignificant story-wise. "World at risk&...

I'm not a big fantasy guy but I've had a lot of books recommended to me. I haven't read all of these but they're sitting on my bookshelf right now: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, The Black Company novels and Dread Empire novels by Glenn Cook, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, and the Eternal...

1. Fighting Fantasy. Spectral Stalkers is legitimately awesome, but even the bad books are entertaining in a way bad non-interactive fiction isn't. 2. M:tG tie-ins that have to do with the Weatherlight , and Tom Holt. Really? A paperback RPG I read as a lonely junior high school boy and a licensed ...

I haven't touched the revised Gold edition so I can't speak to those changes. BW can be played without using the sub-systems, so long as you're cool with a campaign that revolves around court politics rather than personal combat and spell use. The game isn't tough to understand once you've played it...

Is it just me or does Superman work better as a foil than as a stand-alone character? I mean, when I think about all of my favorite Superman stories (Lobo, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Batman, The Elite) he's taking center stage with another character and contrasts them in some way. Grant Morrison's All Star Supe...

Ellis' run was fine for what it was: the Justice League vs. Fu Manchu, Ming the Merciless, and Cthulhu. Millar fell off the rails when he focused on media-whoredom and a sex-pervert Dr. Who analog. It didn't help that 9/11 and Time Warner's corporate oversight cut bits of his final arc into a nonsen...

Male and female restrooms run an equal risk of filth though with tampons and sanitary napkins in the mix, women's restrooms run a higher risk of clogging and plumbing damage. Check out the London sewer that required a robot to remove literally 15 tons of fat and lady things.

If you´re implying early SR 1e/2e art is "generic cyberpunk" then I totally disagree. On the contrary, for me the 1st/2nd editions artwork are the more authentic and exotic of all, giving the setting´s visual identity a strong personality of itself which the subsequent editions lacked. In...

SR3 was notorious for its plagiarized artwork. Some of the spot illustrations from Rigger 3 were traced from GI Joe comics. While I love me some Jeff Laubenstein, early SR's black and white art was very hit and miss. Bradstreet gets a lot of props but his illustrations are overly photo-referenced. I...

As a graphic designer I've freelanced on several PDF-only products that you can find on drivethrurpg.com and the like.

Mongoose has an open submissions policy for the Traveller line and I've had a few puff pieces published as a writer. No mechanics development so nothing to get excited about.

If the GM doesn't want runners to loot stuff he needs to make the loot worth less than the time lost looting - which means the payments for the runs should be far higher than the gear the guards use. Don't want people killing guards? Tell them up front. Anything else is just a challenge for players...

Which is what tells me you didn't actually read Vice .. I read it. I own it. There's more stuff in Vice ... the big syndicates got more word count, there was a bit on law enforcement, the Ghost Cartels, Vor, and Red Mafiya got a bump up, and the Koshari finally got some spotlight. And black and oth...

And this is the other side of the shit I dealt with. In Runner Havens we were reviled for not serving warmed-over pap in sufficient quantity; in Vice everyone assumed they had already read the fucking book. I had to deal with some of the same arguments "Oh, it's just all the old stuff regurgit...

Vice was both the spiritual and format successor to the Underworld Sourcebook . It didn't break any new ground but it didn't mess anything up either, with the exception of a couple of minor inconsistencies between editions. The Met should have been referred to as "rozzers" ( London Source...

Some of the books I thought were out most terrible ( Runner's Companion , Seattle 2072 , and Unwired ) were loved by fans, some of the books I thought were our best ( Street Magic , Vice ) were met with "mehs." Such is life. I agree on RC and Unwired , but what did you dislike about Seatt...

Cyberpunk RPG players are notorious for missing the forest for the trees. Instead of focusing on the greater themes of loss of personal identity, privatization of government, and post-humanism they would rather focus on how cool it is to stand around sporting mirrored sunglasses, leather coats, and ...

It has the vibe of someone who thinks Vertigo Comics are hip and edgy.

Numenera is out. Kickstarter backers got their copy and it's for sale to the general public. I'm not a fan of his work but props to him for putting out completely new TTRPG products rather than coasting along on Numenera splats. Well...the Strange is based on Numenera mechanics, so yeah. After actu...

I've been hearing from the SR5 apologists that the priority charagen system helps to avoid certain unbalanced builds, like the rigger who hides in an armored car trunk. True? False? Unless overcasting and spirit summoning were reworked from scratch I'm not sure the "balanced" sweet spot th...

codeGlaze wrote:What happened to/with Numenera... or w/e it's called?

Numenera is out. Kickstarter backers got their copy and it's for sale to the general public.

I'm not a fan of his work but props to him for putting out completely new TTRPG products rather than coasting along on Numenera splats.

I wouldn't wish the thankless, painful, and not at all rewarding task of "designing a large product that doesn't suck as a business venture" on any of the talented people around here. I like most of them too much for that. This. Is it possible to separate game design ambition with aggress...

Dan Simmons, who was apparently kidnapped and replaced by Glenn Beck when writing Flashback... and everything else post-9/11.

The anime adaptation of Planetes.

Tangentially related: http://lookrobot.co.uk/2013/10/14/ten-t ... shadowrun/