Difficult Simple

Panzer Grenadier: Afrika Korps looks interesting and fun, but $64.99 is a lot of money to pay for a game sight unseen.

Before I post this advert to PBeM2, I wanted to run it past you folks:

Mighty Marvel Game Exchange

They are the multiverse’s mightiest heroes, but there’s one problem: they tend to work best on their own (the Avengers notwithstanding). So what’s a would-be superhero to do when most solo games revolve around various and sundry sexcapades? Offer a game exchange.

I’m not looking for a long-term commitment; two or three months with an option to go longer if mutually agreeable ought to be plenty to tell a fun little story in a PBP or PBeM environment. Similarly I don’t expect to find a good match right away. Solid storytellers willing to give me a good time will receive some solo fun in return. Sorry, no cyb0rZ, despite how that last sentence read.

A few preferred heroes:

• Captain America
• Nick Fury
• The Hulk
• Iron Man
• The Punisher
• Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu
• Wolverine

Clearly I seek something specific, but as for what you’re looking for… let’s discuss it. Genre is fairly open, though I have system/systemless preferences we’d have to hash out.

A Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying game? Want, want, want.

Who is the Rogue Trooper? Just about any comic/SF nerd in the UK could answer that question in a heartbeat, steeped as their subculture is in the long and storied history of 2000 AD, Britain’s premier SF comic. For those on the western side of the pond, however, Rogue Trooper can be summed up fairly succinctly: a genetically enhanced clone, the last of his kind, hunts the wastelands of a futuristic battleworld for the Traitor General, the man whose duplicity cost the lives of the Rogue Trooper’s brethren.

It’s a bit more complicated than that, but luckily Rogue Trooper the game does an excellent job of bringing new fans up to speed quickly. And fans they will become, because Rogue Trooper is not only a great little game, but a terrific-looking and -playing showcase for its main character and setting.

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I have had a tumultuous relationship with Dungeons & Dragons over the years. It was my very first roleplaying game, but almost from the start I was less interested in number-crunching and shoving miniatures around than I was in character and story. Other systems — no less crunchy, but with more room for the things I preferred — quickly supplanted D&D and it was only at the turn of the century that I returned to it for another go-round.

The less said about the d20 glut of that period the better, especially since an overwhelming majority of the products shoved into the marketplace to capitalize on D&D’s resurgence were shelf-wasting garbage. Hidden among the dross were good ideas, however, and while I remain unconvinced of d20’s ability to give me the gaming experience I desire, I am always glad of anything that sparks my imagination in a positive way. And truth be told, I don’t have any problem roleplaying (or storytelling) with dungeons, dragons, elves, dwarves and the whole lot; I just won’t do the former with D&D, that’s all.

A new edition of D&D is out there, and from what I’ve read so far, the issues I had with the system in the past haven’t been addressed. If anything it seems headed off on another rules/miniatures-heavy tangent that is like unto, but not exactly the same, as the road it traveled once before. This time I doubt it (or I) will come back. I’ll keep an eye on what sees release, both officially and in the world of licensees, because of that inspirational potential. You never can tell.