and now a word from our non-sponsor

[reverancepavane]

While I remember, Cubicle 7 is having a PDF sale at DriveThruRPG. Main rule books are US$11. Supplements are US$5. Forgive the sounds of the gnashing of teeth here, given the prices I've paid for some of these games. Anyway, you might be interested in: The Doctor Who RPG: I can't believe they are selling this for US$11, especially given the licensing fees they are probably being forced to pay to the Beeb. Anyway, this is the latest incarnation of the Dr Who role-playing franchise, firmly set in the reimagined new series. Not a bad little game. Starblazer Adventures and Legends of Angleterre: Two games based on the same system FATE and two UK comics of the 1970s. Starblazer Adventures is an excellent tool kit for creating massive rock'n'roll space opera (or as I'm doing using it as the basis of a strategic space campaign ala Star Empires). Don't forget the Mindjammer supplement. Takes the feel of what is presented in the rules and stands it on it's head to produce a Culture-like universe. Although they still live on planets. Legends of Angelterre is the same game system based on a set of famous sword and sorcery fantasy comics. The Laundry RPG is based on Charles Stross alt.cthulhu stories. Captures the feel of the books very well, of people doomed to be fighting both the bureaucracy and the Mythos. I don't know which causes the greater SAN loss. Vastly amused that the Adelaide branch of ASIO is officially The Laundry's counterpart in Oz. Clockwork & Chivalry is the English Civil War with alchemy and clockwork mecha under the RQII system. I might get me some of these whilst they are cheap.* Victoriana is a steampunk and magic fantasy reminiscent of Castle Falkenstein. Considering how much I like the later game, I don't know why I haven't read the copy someone gave me. Apparently there is a new edition out though, so I may update it myself. Qin is naturally based in the Warring States China. Don't know much about this one. De Profundis is an excellent game of Cthulhu via letter writing (think in terms of those stories like Les liaisons dangereuses, He Walked Around The Horses and Operation RSVP, where the story is carried simply by the correspondence between individuals). * Speaking of RQII, Mongoose is also selling the pdfs of these games at a slight discount for the next couple of days through DriveThruRPG. RQII is really nicely put together, and binds fairly closely to current thinking about Glorantha (at least as far as the Second Age is concerned). Much better game than MRQ, which they tended to throw any old junk at and hope it stuck. This is much closer to the feel of Chaosium's RQ2. The one scenario they've produced (Pavis Rising) looks quite good. Also on the same order of sales (US$10/US$5), Margaret Weiss is losing the license for Battlestar Galactica and Serenity at the end of January, so this is the last chance to pick up a copy of these games before they are no longer available. [More gnashing of teeth.] Serenity is quite a good game for capturing the feel of the series. First appearance of the Cortex RPG and probably it's simplest form. I liked how it treated spaceships exactly like characters. Seemed to work. Battlestar Galactica modifies the Cortex system to add a sizeable morale element to the game. MWP has continued to adapt the Cortex system in interesting ways to new properties, and definitely capturing the feel of them (kind of like Chaosium did with the BRP-derived games). I really like Leverage, and Smallville isn't bad either. [There is also Supernatural, but since I can't stand the show I haven't bothered with the RPG.] Anyway go to the Drunken Goblin if you want to check these out.