So Excited
A Generation, Kanal, Ashes and Daimonds. I think it’s safe to assume that I ought to see these already.
Fair Play
Grey Ranks Playtest
I had a short playtest of Grey Ranks this weekend that exposed some mechanical problems with die currency. No big deal. It also demonstrated some other problems with traits and the age rule, which will require some more thought. Thanks, Lisa and Eric!
Thank you, LC!
How many times has the Library of Congress come to my aid? Many times. This time, they just happened to have digitized a 596-page Warsaw telephone directory from 1938-39. This page has the Polish phonetic alphabet on it, in case you were wondering. Other pages have great stuff, too, like wonderful mid-century typography and a full page add for the frickin’ Boy Scouts.
Grey Ranks Mission Example
From page 39:
Steve has been made leader for Act 3, Scene 8. He reads the scene description aloud and decides to create a mission involving stopping a tank. Since it is scene 8, he has eight points to work with and consults the mission builder in Appendix B.
He chooses Śródmieście (that’s 2 points, and it happens to be his old district, giving him a bonus die). It’s a combat mission (5 more, for a total of 7) and he’s one short. So Steve looks closer and decides to set it outside the Powiśle electrical plant, which is a prominent location in Śródmieście worth 3 instead of the generic 2. Read the rest of this entry »
Weird Ideas
Just a quick note to say that I’m still chewing on Grey Ranks hard, and that there are some weird ideas buzzing around the blogosphere that are pretty gratifying to me. I’m talking about sticking it to the notion of “character” the way we’ve stuck it to the notion of “GM”, and I think GR approaches this in a couple of interesting directions - traits assigned by others and, more importantly and interestingly to me, the idea of mechanically compelling romantic pairings of player characters. I may try to amp that up now, freight it with even more goodness. What if there were no NPCs to mack on? That may be the way to go - I’ve asked my brain trust and we’ll see what they say. Right now “no NPCs, period” seems like a tornado of very powerful hotness, though.