An RPG for Boardgamers
Friday, September 9th, 2005I have recently been listening to Have Games Will Travel, a podcast about RPGs and boardgames. I asked Paul a question I have been wondering about for years, but did not know who to ask:
I am a hardcore board gamer now, but I got into gaming through RPGs. I used to love RPGs as a teenager, but have not played one for almost 20 years. Please could you do a show for someone in my position? I am sure you would get plenty of interest. What I am after is suggestions for a game I might be interested in.
Basically, as a father and working man I have found that I just do not have enough time for RPGs these days, at least in the old style. I want an RPG that takes the work out of it. Something generic like GURPS would be good, but something that does not require 3 hours of work just to generate a character. Additionally, it would be good to have an RPG that has lots of highly detailed published adventures with pregenerated characters, so we can get going with the minimum of fuss. At the same time, a combat system, where you can use miniatures would be fun. Combat as detailed as GURPS is out of the question and something as unbalanced as D&D would offend the board gamer in me. I would also like to avoid the fantasy stereotypes, unless it’s pure Lord of the Rings, but on the other hand, some of the subjects mentioned on your weblog sound a bit too way-out for me. Cannibals in concentration camps? No thanks.
In a nutshell, I suppose what I am after is something very accessible, rather like Ticket to Ride is to boardgames.
Almost immediately, he responded in his podcast. (It is strange to get a reply to an email through your headphones.) He recommended Savage Worlds, although he said the modern incarnations of D&D or GURPS have evolved into something I might still enjoy.
Inspired by this, I read the Test Drive rules. I am pretty impressed. It is almost everything I want. The system is simple, but looks elegant. The game settings are interesting and varied. The introductory module has pregenerated characters, little cardboard hero miniatures and maps to fight on. The module looks like it could easily be finished in an evening, which is very important. You could almost say it’s a Germanisation of RPGs.
I will try to persuade my group to give it a go.
