Author Archives: Tim Hall

Perverse Access Memory: WISH 36: Supplements

What do you think about supplements to game systems? Do you like the additional material, or are you just annoyed about spending the money for the additional rules? Name up to three supplements you’ve really enjoyed, and describe why you liked them.

I have many shelf-feet of gaming books, about half for GURPS, about half for other systems. Naturally, the vast majority of these are supplements. I’ve also got very clear ideas of what I like and don’t like in supplements.

Let’s start with what I don’t like, and use as an example of the worst series of supplements in my game collection, the “Relevations Cycle” for Steve Jackson’s Angels and Demons game, In Nomine. These were unfocused scattershot books, a mixture of rule expansions (half of which were later superceded), further detail to the game world, adventures, and that abomination of things, metaplot. You needed about 10% of each book to play the game. Ugh! Sadly In Nomine never really recovered from this disaster, even though later supplements were much improved. Then there are those supplements containing material that really belongs to the core rulebook; Castle Falkenstein‘s “Comme Il Fait”, while excellent in itself, falls into this category.

The best sort of supplement, for me, is a book that does one thing, and does it well. Many, if not most GURPS books fall into this category, which is why GURPS remains my favourite game line even if the system is probably a bit rules-heavy for my tastes nowadays. GURPS supplements generally fall into two categories, those that are mostly crunchy rules, such as the magic, martial arts and technology books, and those that give game worlds to adventure in, with little in the way of game mechanics and much in the way of game setting.

GURPS Psionics is my favourite book in the first category. Probably the most well-thumbed GURPS book apart from my 15-year old Basic Set, this book expands the Psionics system, with a range of additional powers, psionic drugs and psionic technology. It gives a lot of advice on running psionic-heavy campaigns, and includes a sample modern-day setting, the Phoenix Project. This book has been a major influence for my own psi-heavy fantasy world, Kalyr.

GURPS Alternate Earths is one of my favourites from the second category, and tops my list of ‘Campaigns I’ll run some day’. It’s intended for parallel worlds dimension-hopping games, describes six parallel worlds where history took a different turn. Three of the are alternate history staples, ranging from Reich-5 (where the Nazis won the second world war), Dixie (where the South won the American Civil War) and Roma Aeturna (where the Roman Empire never fell). The other three are perhaps the more interesting. Gernsback, who’s pivotal figure is Nicolai Tesla, is a wierd-science 50s sci-fi world, Shikaku-Mon is a cyberpunk world with a four-cornered struggle between a Catholic Japan, France, Brazil and a frighteningly totalitarian Swedish empire. Finally Ezcalli features a world where Europe was crushed by the Mongols, and the major world power is the Aztec Empire, which has managed to cross the Atlantic with the intention of invading Europe. Each world is described succinctly in about 20 pages or so, giving a flavour of the world, but giving GMs plenty of freedom to improvise.

Finally, let’s go back to the early days of gaming, for a supplement I don’t actually own, but have used a lot. Cults of Prax was the first supplement for Runequest. While AD&D expanded their system with more and more monsters to bash, Runequest started out by describing a dozen religions for player characters to follow. This not only expanded the magic system, for the cults were the main source of magic, but gave shape to the culture of the world, and the adventurers place within it, an idea that was quite revolutionary at the time. Example cults were the pacifist healers of Chalana Arroy, the fanatical warriors of the Storm Bull, and sages of Lhankor Mhy.

Perverse Access Memory: WISH 35: Music

How does music influence your campaigns? As a GM, do you feel there are “soundtracks” for scenes, and as a player, do you perhaps have “songs” for characters? Name three songs that relate to favourite characters or situations.

Interesting question. I’m a big rock fan, such that this blog is as much about music as it’s about gaming, so this ought to be much easier to answer than it is.

I don’t tend to think of music for individual scenes in games, but I do occasionally hear songs that strongly remind me of characters, not only my own, but sometimes other player’s characters in games I GM. For instance, the song Paper Chains (The Crime Part 3) from the now-defunct British prog-rock band Grey Lady Down is to me the theme tune of Kalnyr, the demon-possessed wanderer of Kalyr. Not sure what his player would make of that, as far as I know she’s not much of a prog rock fan.

Of course, I have to mention the rock musician character I play, Karl Tolhurst. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to come up with a list of songs that illustrate how I imagine his band Ümläüt to sound. They’re influenced by the 1990s British goth-metal scene, including such bands as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and most of all, Anathema. I actually bought several albums by these bands as ‘research’. Probably Anathema’s album “Alternative 4″ is the closest; when I first listened to that album, my first reaction was, “That’s Ümläüt!”. There is of course the infamous Ümläüt tape recorded by my brother, which Karl’s original GM (also Kalnyr’s player) stubbornly refuses to listen to. At the moment I’m trying to come up with a list of covers the band played before they started writing their own material.

Now I could try to link my first long term character, Mudgard, with Yngwie Malmsteen’s ridiculous “I am a Viking”. But I won’t.

Finally not so much individual characters, but a couple of songs who’s imagery evokes scenes from published game settings; I can’t hear Black Sabbath’s “Neon Knights” now without thinking of Malakim from In Nomine. And the song “Master of the Wind” from the mostly risibly awful but occasionally brilliant Manowar powerfully evokes the storm-god Orlanth from Glorantha.