Products
Fiasco
Fiasco (with PDF)
Fiasco is a wonderful game about incompetent criminals. A game takes an evening and you don’t need a GM.
It’s an absurdly comic game, in which you manufacture comic situations and get yourself deeper into trouble. Think A Fish Called Wanda, The Italian Job or a funnier version of Ocean’s Eleven.
I have fifteen copies. This is the third printing, which corrects various things in the previous two printings.
When you get it, I’ll put some playsets in the envelope: one of them is an exclusive one that’s not generally available. The games also come with the PDF.
November 2, 2010 12 Comments
Kagematsu
Kagematsu
Kagematsu is a beautiful and subtle game of courtship and seduction. In it, you play women trying to convince a samurai to defend your village.
According to the rules, the GM, who plays Kagematsu, should be a woman. This adds a lot: in most games, men play women characters, trying to impress a woman playing a male character. I can’t describe how much this messes with your head.
I played this game in Italy this summer. It’s a clever, wonderful and moving game.
November 2, 2010 1 Comment
The Dying of St Margaret’s / The Watchers In The Sky (sold out)
(I’ve sold out of both of these products. There’ll be new limited editions of these in the future.)
The Watchers In The Sky and The Dying of St Margaret’s are my first two scenarios for Trail of Cthulhu. They were written partly as a response to scenarios I’d played at conventions. I liked them, but wanted something different. So, with each of these scenarios, I’m essentially saying: all right, then, see how you deal with this.
These are the GenCon versions. They were laid out, with the help of a friend of mine, just before the convention. Although they’re remarkably cheap, they are beautiful things. Basically, they’re US Letter paper folded lengthways, which makes them long, thin and easy to use at the gaming table.
Most excitingly, they have stuff dripped on them. The Watchers In The Sky has black ichor, which is referred to in the text, while The Dying Of St Margaret’s has yellow unpleasant stuff, which isn’t referred to in the text. It’s nail varnish. The third in the series, The Dance In The Blood, has realistic-looking blood.
The Dying of St Margaret’s is the bleakest thing I’ve written. It’s superbly fun, too, if you’re prepared to go mad. It takes the Investigators to a boarding school on a remote Scottish island, where Bad Things Happen.
I have one solitary copy of this! More will arrive eventually, but I don’t have them yet.
Look at that nasty, inky fleuron. I’m proud of that.
The Watchers In The Sky sends the Investigators after mysterious black creatures that watch from the rooftops. It’s Lovecraft with a touch of Hitchcock. One of my most reliable convention scenarios.
I have eight copies of this.
This time, for a text ornament, we’ve got feathers with an unidentifiable black liquid.
If you’re ordering them, you might also consider ordering Poison’d, to save yourself shipping. It’s also very reasonably priced and a great, great game.
August 26, 2010 No Comments
Poison’d
Poison’d, by Vincent Baker
Poison’d is, hands down, my best convention game. It unites lovers of traditional and indie games: the traditional players love it, because they’re encouraged to fight each other. I have fond memories of killing one traditional player within the first few minutes of the game. (Perhaps I should have settled for killing his character).
It runs best in a player-versus-player style, so that the GM’s job is to incite conflict. This makes it superb fun to GM.
It’s a beautiful and simple book: it’s US Letter-sized paper, folded lengthways, with a cardboard cover. This makes it cheap to ship, so if you’re ordering with something else, choose “Put it in with something else” and I won’t charge you shipping.
And, look, it’s really cheap. Just buy it. You won’t regret it.
August 26, 2010 No Comments
Soap
The stall that made me happiest, at GenCon, was the Geeky Clean soap stall. Their soap has d20s embedded in it.
It’s nice soap, too. It is, to my untutored nose, pleasant smelling. It looks nice. It would probably make a good present.
There are different types, too. Cure Light Wounds, which you can see above, is pepperminty. Barbarian Scrub, however, smells of apricot and orange:
Meanwhile, Tub Invaders smell of melon:
There is also the Dice Bag. I think these ones smell of coconut, but I’m not 100% sure. They’re very nice, though.
Finally, there is the d20 Soap On A Rope. This is made by a different company (Geeksoap) who don’t list, on their website, what their products smell like.
So I can only really say “It smells nice” and “It’s got aloe in it”. I’m not entirely sure what aloe is, but I gather it’s a good thing.
Anyway. Do get some, because they’re nice and fun. Make sure you say, in the text field, which sort you’d like (unless you’d like me to choose for you.)
August 20, 2010 No Comments
Apocalypse World (sold out)
I’ve sold out of Apocalypse World. If you order it now, I’ll send it when I get new stock.
Apocalypse World, by Vincent Baker
300 pages, 5.5” x 8.5”
Apocalypse World was the best game I played at GenCon. It’s beautifully designed: the rules cause the characters to collide with each other, so that, for much of the game, the GM simply needs to incite conflict.
The rules for the GM are also beautifully done. The game gives the GM “Moves”: Ask Questions Like Crazy, Have A Fight. So running the game is wonderfully simple: you simply perform your Moves.
Players also have Moves and they’re startlingly innovative. For example, if you Read A Person, you get to ask the following questions:
What does your character intend to do?
What’s your character really feeling?
Similarly, if you Go Aggro, you’ll cause someone to:
Get the hell out of your way
Tell you what you want to know
It’s simple but clever.
The books are beautiful and I have 10 of them. They come with a GenCon special character, The Faceless, which isn’t normally available with the book.
(I’m hoping to persuade Vincent to sign the books, since he’s down the road from me at the moment, but we’ll how that goes. I’ll ship the books on my return to the UK next week.)
August 16, 2010 6 Comments