column: The Nerdery #9

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

reference: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=948

I admit I haven't played a lot of Indy games. Most of the review copies I get from smaller publishers are d20 stuff. However, Atlas generally does a good job with cool mechanics and ideas. They're less Indy than a lot of others, but still not the most popular.

[JP Dogberry]

Someone jammed up the first link, but from a quick browse, the game is awesome.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

oh, it just didn't have the http:// part. THat behaves weird. anyway, if someone jammed it, my first thought is the guy with admin priveleges with "jam" in his name....

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I like Octane, and should also mention that Lacuna by the Same Author is cool and creepy with a David Lynch get out of my head vibe.
His other big game Inspecters also deserves a look.
Mark my words Jared Sorenson is going to go far.

My life with master is an award winner, and a fun RPG where players take on the role of a mad scientists minion, trying to master their own self loathing and unrequited love.

Dogs in the Vineyard is a narritive style cowboy game where interaction is the main mechanic. Its availible through the Forge website is also quite an interesting and fun game.

Little Fears and Wyrd is Bond deserve a quick look too.

Little Fears requires the characters to take on monsters just to survive. The Catch? Your play a nine year old.

Wyrd is Bond is a little like the Rap battle jam and I had, its hip hop mages slinging rhymes in south central and its out of sight.

Heroquest deserves a mention as a game you probably have never heard of (even though I tout its existance like it were the Sangreal)

Street Fighter, a white wolf version of the Computer Game deserves a quick mention for its fun play and impossibility to get.

MotoCaust is a cool post apocylptic thrill ride where the car is the star. Its a little different than Octane, mainly because of flesh eating zombie mutants but thats about it. Great art, great production....

[Mr_Pleasington]

There were a bunch I left out so I could revisit the issue at some later date.  I meant to include My Life With Master with this round, but forgot between the two sessions I wrote it in.

And while I think Jared Sorensen has some great ideas, I can't stand most of his mechanics.  He's also one of the designers who only rarely plays games, which is something I disagree with on prinicipal...and a possible source for the mechanical issues I have.   But certainly a great mind.  He's been teaming up with John Wick of late, who is a mechanical genius, so I'll be eager to see what comes out of the partnership.

[Spriggan]

Ahh, The Riddle of Steel.  That's a game I never thought would be mentioned in any positive manner on this sight.  Mostly because the guy who made it is from out here and Fell got a version of it for us to playtest and we couldn't figure it out.  So, since we were planning on getting a review copy, we help draw attention to the game at LUTE and tried to get him to help us with some of the rules so we could give a fair review, then he stiffed us at then end with nothing to review.

My big 2 complaints are:
1) Character creation is too stifleing.  It's designed to prevent min/maxing but takes a lot of fun out of my favourte part of learning new RPGS.  There was absolutly nothing I enjoyed about TRoS character gen system.

2) Combat.  Ya I know it's the selling point of the game.  But it's so complicated and its so easy to die that it turns you away from combat.  Here's a game that wanted to give you realsitic combat but players would never want to actualy fight since it's so time comsumeing and detremental to them.  And its skill system is only adverage so the game isn't worth playing without combat.

The only positive thing I liked about the game was the magic system, particulary how customisable creating your own spells could be.

[Mr_Pleasington]

I owned it...and then gave it to a friend.  I don't think its really suitable for actual roleplaying with more than a 1 v 1.  The mechanics would work great for some kind of Combat only game, Gladiator style and such.

Still, I like the XP system.

[Fellfrosch]

I wouldn't say that he stiffed us--we were a very small site and he was an indy publisher without a lot of free copies to pass around. He did give us the book on disc, which was cool. I agree with your complaints about the combat system, but I don't want people to think that we hate each other or anything.

[Spriggan]

Didn't mean to imply that there was bad blood, though I do know the reaons why no reveiw was ever done from the disk he gave you.

[JP Dogberry]

Ok, where do I find this wyrd game? Sounds like something I'd enjoy.

I DON'T have admin priviliges, else I would have fixed the link myself.

My picks for favourite indie games:

Powergame, awesome supers game.

Heavy Ordnance, which I reviewed.

Shards of the Stone.

Mutant Bikers of the Atomic Wasteland.

FATE, of course.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Key20 games...

and thats wyrd pronounced Word.... btw

http://www.key20direct.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=10&products_id=54&osCsid=052f63b42cf4d7b0d5dd6a5f0bda8666