20 essential RPGs

From Gamasutra.

Something interesting that they point out, that I had never totally grokked before, is that OD&D never refers to itself as an RPG.

Dungeon Dwellers Fantasy Adventure Game

Last year I wrote my first ever board game and now the fine folks at Empty Room have released it.

Dungeon Dwellers.

Explore a randomly generated dungeon using one or more of 8 pre-generated characters. Battle monsters, find treasure and level up!

You can play it like a board game, where everyone starts each game from scratch, or you can continue playing the same character and continue to level up and grow in power.

There are cooperative and competitive play modes as well.

All you need is a pair of 6 sided dice to play.

The PDF currently in release is a playtest version, meaning those who buy it and offer feedback might see those suggestions incorporated into the eventual print release.

I hope everyone enjoys playing DD as much as I enjoyed designing and playesting it.

Chuck

Some news

Some folks have asked me about the news that Chris Davis, owner of RPGObjects is stepping away from RPGs for a bit and what that means for me.

In the short term, not much. As I mentioned earlier, I am currently converting Reality Deviant's excellent Interface Zero from True20 to Modern20.

After that, I will be serving as editor on a new modern system from a new company.

In the wake of this news, I've added a couple of extra freelance projects to my schedule, including a proofreading gig and a conversion of Mike Lafferty's excellent Soldiers and Spellfighters from Modern20 to True 20 (hah! didn't see THAT coming did you).

So basically, I'll be working for others for the next 2-3 months or so, which will give me time to think about what my next step should be.

This will most likely be a much more serious emphasis on Vigilance Press than I ever gave in the past.

Whatever happens, when I know more, so will you.

Open letter to all PDF publishers

It would be really nice if I could download a PDF, pull it out of the zip, and throw it right into my PDF folder (which has about 1000 PDFs in it) without having to rename it.

I know it's cool to spell out the name of your PDF in binary code and use that as the file name but could you cut it the hell out?

Thanks.

What would YOU like to see me write?

Serious question.

Let's say I owed you a big favor and what you wanted in return was a book written for you and only you.

What would it be about? What system would it be under?

Down the pipe?

Yeah, been quiet for awhile.

Sometimes the writing doesn't go well, and then the only thing I know how to do is go into bunker mode.

Turns out, if you bang your head against a wall long enough, the wall gives- if your head is hard enough.

Anyhoo... down the pipe! Yes, that's where I was!

I am currently writing a conversion of Reality Deviant's classic True20 setting, Interface Zero, converting it to Modern20.

Modern20 cyberpunk has been one of the most requested additions to the line. Given that IZ does it better than I would, I took on the task of converting it myself.

I am also going to serve as editor for a completely new modern system being developed by an outside team. I was excited to be invited on board and when this gets to a stage where I can say more, I surely will.

And of course, Voyage of Discovery continues its Bataan death march-like shambling toward release. It really is getting close now.

I estimate VOD will be released at least 3 years before Duke Nukem Forever!

Some new stuff

Over at Beyond Reviews there are reviews of Steam and the Steam edition of Sacred Gold.

Oddly enough, I recommend both!