What’s Cool From The What’s Cool Seminar At DunDraCon 33
The What’s Cool seminar is a soapbox where Ken Hite (RPG Luminary) and Darren Watts (Hero Games CEO) get to talk about some RPG product from the last year that they felt were particularly “cool”. From past experience with this seminar I can tell you that these two really understand “cool” as it relates to role-playing products. 😉 Here are some products that each mentioned with some editorial comments from me. I’m sorry if the facts for some of these are not 100% accurate…I am not familiar with some of these products.
Ken’s List
- Sweet Agatha – Both Ken AND Darren had this at the #1 spot on their list. They admired the production values and loved how the game changed each time it was played.
- Urban Fantasy Hero – This was tagged as Ken’s best suppliment of the year. It can be used for Dresden to Buffy to Shadowrun.
- Hunter : The Vigil – Ken thought this was the best retread of the year. He mentioned that the book really hits the right spot when it comes to hunting all those angst ridden goth types presented in other White Wolf Products.
- Mysteries Of Candlewick Manor – According to Ken this is answers the question as to what people are supposed to do with Monsters and Other Childish Things.
- Zombie Cinema – Movie zombie game that comes in a VHS box. Really neat marketing ploy. The game has a token mechanic that might be found in a board game. Really captures the feel of zombie movies.
- Mutant City Blues – On my prompting Ken and Darren talked about Mutant City Blues. This is a new product from Pelgrane that was sold out in about an hour at DunDraCon. Mutant City Blues is a Justice League meats Homicide setting based on the Gumshoe engine.
Darren’s List
- Sweet Agatha – Ditto.
- A Dirty World – Darren listed this as his pick for the most creative mechanic. I’ll try to quickly explain the concept…it is really neat. Characteristics of the PC are grouped into diametric pairs. For example, Compassion and Wrath. (I’m not sure if these are the real stat names but I’ll try and explain usnig these terms.) Each stat pair has a sliding scale of 5 dots. If Compassion is 3 then Wrath is 2. If your Wrath goes up then it makes it easier to take out your agressions on someone but harder to be compassionate. These can slide during a session to reflect how a noir hero changes through the course of the adventure. Really neat idea.
- Mouse Guard – Darren listed this as his pick for the best adaptation of a property. The Mouse Guard RPG is written by Luke Crain of Burning Wheel fame. This is a beautiful hard cover book with art from the Mouse Guard creator/artist. It will not surprise anyone to learn that the mechanics are a simplified version of Burning Wheel.
- Summerland – Darren thought the background for Summerland was very evocative although he did not particularly care for the mechanics. At a high level the setting is post-apocalyptic. Plants overgrow the world then begin to draw in people. The PC can resist the call because they do not fit into the world for some reason…what happens when they begin to fit?
- Tour de Lovecraft – This is Ken’s companion to Lovecraft stories. It is full of insight and great Ken Hite mojo.
