Comments on: An RPG for Boardgamers

By: Son of Random Notes « The (New) Tao of Gaming

Son of Random Notes « The (New) Tao of Gaming — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:09:53 +0000

[...] the game Iain found did look interesting. But I’ve manfully held off on Arcana Evolved, which still sounds better [...]

By: Gameblog

Gameblog — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:51:45 +0000

Indie role-playing games

Iain wrote about role-playing games for boardgamers, looking for a role-playing game that would satisfy the needs of a modern…

By: Iain

Sat, 10 Sep 2005 18:07:39 +0000

Yes, my podcast minutes are getting pretty full these days too! I am using my MP3 player continuously. Good job I have rechargeables.

Thanks for your advice. I’ll think about upgrading to d20 if Savage Worlds is a huge success and I’ll check out Iron Kingdoms.

By: geekadept

geekadept — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:03:13 +0000

Thanks for the post. I had not heard of this podcast, and think I still have a few podcast free minutes in my life to squeeze this one in. I will have to do as you did with Savage Worlds, read the test drive rules. I have been playing some RPG, even though I am mostly a board gamer now. The d20 system, for all of its complexity, does simplify down pretty well. And with the right grop of platers, in the right setting, is quite enjoyable. I am playing in Privateer Press's Iron Kingdoms setting. This is the same setting they use for their Warmachine Miniatures game.

By: Mikko

Mikko — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 14:25:30 +0000

Eero Tuovinen, a Finnish indie RPG evangelist has been shouting about Dust Devils (http://www.chimera.info/dustdevils/) – well, of course he’s shouting, as he’s done the Finnish edition, but anyway – which sounds quite charming.

Setting is dark and gritty Old West. The game uses poker chips and playing cards as a mechanism – suits the theme well. The main issue of the game is the question of using violence to solve your problems. Player characters are driven by their devils.

The mechanisms are interesting. Players play poker hands to resolve the situations. You either succeed or not, but this is interesting: the player who played the highest card narrates the scene.

This of course takes a lot of power away from the GM, which I think is good: no more time spent preparing adventures! I’ve tried that once, and while the story wasn’t that superb in the end, we created it together and it was fun. That’s good enough for me.

It gets even better: the publisher sells it as a PDF, which costs seven dollars.

Read the RPGnet review: http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_7364.html

Even though I’ve officially given up roleplaying, Dust Devils has me tempted to plunge back in. If I buy, I’ll skip the PDF and shell out 15 euros for Finnish edition, as the fact that somebody has the guts to publish a freak niche RPG like this in Finnish is something I must support. Besides, Eero is a pretty nice guy and the chairman of the Finnish Boardgame Society…

I’m rambling, but I think Dust Devils is something bloody cool. And if the Western isn’t your thing, there’s always Deadwish, which is James Bond version of the same.