The Pink Dice Chronicles

Though I am a big fan of Monte Cooke, I decided not to participate in the Strange Kickstarter .  Quite frankly, this year has been a really good year for gaming with Numenera, 13th Age, and DnD Next all coming to fruition.  It is sad to say, but I have too many other good RPGs to play.  Oh, and I am moving, which doesn't exactly make for the most opportune time to get involved in new kickstarters. I guess I have other reasons too.  Kickstarters that offer non-exclusive content make it hard for me to feel special as a backer.  For Numenera, my book came in after GenCon, and while I was there, I saw lots of other folks buying up Numenera stuff without taking the risk of the kickstarter.  So how was being part of the kickstarter worth the risk?  Because my name was in the book?  Did I get a big discount?  Its hard to tell on RPG books and certainly what risk is their with receiving PDFs?  I remember at the end of Numenera, there was an em...

Playing Shadowrun (4th Ed) has gotten me thinking about the contrast between leveling up in traditional D&D and its derivatives (Pathfinder, 13th Age, etc), and completely different games (Numenera) in contrast with Shadowrun.  Shadowrun has a very unique economy with the gaining of karma points over time. Numenera and Shadowrun both have a mechanic that allow a player to accumulate a few points each session and you can use these points to make you character better.  The D&D sphere and Numenera both also have significant level ups that occur after many sessions, unlocking all sorts of new things.  Where Shadowrun is substantially different, is that once you are really good at doing something, getting even a little bit better requires some significant hoarding of karma points over time.  It simply isn't easy. So for example, I was a bit of a dunce and didn't put much into my perception at the beginning of Shadowrun.  To make up for this and other skil...

I GMed my first Numenera game last night as a demo at our FLGS.  Unfortunately, with the short bit of advertising I did in advance of it, we only got one other player in addition to my two daughters.  The recipe was simple, build characters and play the first adventure in the book. I helped each of the players through understanding the rules, and helped them learn how to build a character.  Character creation always takes too long, especially when there aren't lots of copies o the material.  I only had a hard copy of the player's guide and the core book.  The core book, as a limited edition, doesn't leave my hands. Two glaives and a jack formed the party.  My daughters tried to incorporate the PC hooks; the third player ignored them.  Oh well.  I could tell he was uncomfortable with two teenage girls playing. We got underway.  I felt a bit leading as I set up the scenario.  The first monster attacked them on the path.  We bare...

My limited edition leatherbound Numenera book arrived yesterday!

So if you are interested in Numenera, here are a couple of things to look at: and a write-up on playing Numenera at GenCon with Monte Cooke .

Yeah, I was a backer of Numenera and just received the core book and player's book PDFs.  Like all games, the first read is a bit overwhelming.  That being said, I think I really want to run this game. The last year or so I've been leaning more and more towards rules light systems or Pathfinder.  Shadowrun has been frustrating me for a while now with two big flaws:  extremely complex rules and ever more powerful add-on books.  I am very hopeful that Numenera is not going to suffer from either of these things. In many ways, Numenera is what d20 should become in a rules light world.  It simplifies the stats down to three, adds a little flavor, simplifies leveling up, and puts the focus back into the story.  It fixes an age old problem of who rolls the dice.  Even in Pathfinder, which is widely played, it isn't always clear who should roll the dice. I also like how Numenera can be played with two dice -- a d20 and a d6.  There are other di...