Shrapnel Games Blog

…and another thing that has me bothered with the latest Star Wars episode…The Jedi Knights are supposed to be a bunch of jolly swell guys, right? They wear the white hats, rescue stranded kittens from trees, always have exact change at toll booths, and so on. Yet Obi-Wan cuts off Anakin’s legs, one arm, watches him catch on fire, and then walks away. Considering the fact that his wounds are cauterized by the lightsaber, and that he didn’t die from shock, that meant that Anakin could possibly live quite a long time as a stump next to a river of molton lava. Now, is that really a good thing? Wouldn’t the proper thing have been to finish the job?

Of course in Episodes IV - VI Obi-Wan is portrayed essentially as a liar who keeps the truth from Luke, bending it when it suits his purpose. When Luke says he won’t kill his father, good ol’ Obi-Wan responds with, “Then the Emperor has already won.” Wait a sec there geezer ghost, you couldn’t kill him, you left him to lie there in misery, and now you’re playing head games with his son to get him to kill him?

Stuff, thy name is free

On the Internet you can find things for free, such as game systems. Unfortunately very often you get what you pay for, and yet once in a while, when the stars are right and sleeping Cthulhu blesses us with a series of delightful dreams, you can actually find free games online that aren’t a steaming pile of crapola (which is a lot like granola, only packed with more nuts).

Recently I came across two games that are both free and worthwhile, and in the interest of sharing I wanted to pass these along to you. Hopefully you’ll find some interest in them also.

I like PT Boats. I’ve always thought torpedo boats were cool, zipping along and shooting off torpedoes and all that jazz. They’re the fighters (as in aircraft) of the sea. So one day I was looking online to see if anyone had created some rules for wargaming small boat naval actions, or would I be forced to create my own ruleset. Amazingly I found a set of rules that do feature plenty of MTBs, but also cover the spectrum of WWII naval combat.

Fire On The Waters is an excellent game on WWII naval warfare that boasts a huge number of scenarios. The rules aren’t too complex, there are helpful examples to download, and overall it’s a solid package.

The author also has several other naval wargame rules on the site, primarily covering earlier 20th century actions, although I have not downloaded them.

Next up is Risus, a free RPG system with only six pages of rules. Designed by S. John Ross, Risus is a universal comedy RPG that can also double for a serious game system if you so desire.

The heart of Risus is the cliché system, which essentially describes your character and tells you what you’re good for. For example, if you’re the Other Kind of Vampire cliché you’d be good at self-pity, erotic blood poetry, and wearing black. All clichés have a dice pool associated with them, and the GM decides a difficulty number for accomplishing a task, which is then rolled for by using the proper dice pool.

Combat in Risus could be anything from actual fist to jaw combat, to dueling banjos. Any time you’re in a task where someone is trying to do something and someone else is opposing that someone, then you are in combat.

There are plenty of sites that support Risus, along with a number of really cool scenarios. If you’re into RPGs check it out. While it probably won’t replace the system you normally play, it will provide you with a nice option for those weekends you forgot to make up a adventure and you need something quick before your players start shoving dice into every orifice they can access on your body.

-Scott

“Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane.”
–H.P. Lovecraft