I was cleaning out old email archives and saw James Ward was involved with a company called Fireside Creations which made several Gamma World-ish looking RPGs that I never heard about. I went to their homepage, but information about the games were limited. As a fan of Ward's GW work, I'm surprised these RPGs flew under my radar.

Anybody play any of these games? Or ever read them?

Quote from: Spinachcat;1127271I was cleaning out old email archives and saw James Ward was involved with a company called Fireside Creations which made several Gamma World-ish looking RPGs that I never heard about. I went to their homepage, but information about the games were limited. As a fan of Ward's GW work, I'm surprised these RPGs flew under my radar.

Anybody play any of these games? Or ever read them?

77 Worlds

Yes, I have it, and many of the supplements as well. A bit of background for you before we really get started with this... Back in 1998 Iron Crown Enterprises went into bankruptcy after losing the Tolkien Middle Earth License, and after trying to save the company and not being able to, Pete Fenlon put up ICE on the auction block so that the creditors (Primarily the JRR Tolkien Estate) would get the royalties money that they were already owed from earlier ICE MERP print runs. On the auction block was all of the IP for ICE Including RoleMaster, Spacemaster, and Terry Amthor's published RoleMaster campaign setting Shadow World. By that time MERP had already been taken off the table by the Tolkien Estate, all the way back in 1998. The Tolkien Estate already knew then a major movie deal was in the works with Peter Jackson to turn the Lord of the Rings into a AAA major motion picture, so they canned ICE, and went looking for new AAA RPG licensees.

Now there were two primary bidders that showed up for the actual bankruptcy auction on November 19th,  2001, The RoleMaster Investment Group, LLC. led by none other than Stephen Lee, and a mysterious individual, John R. Seal of London. I had spent the previous eighteen months as the publicity liason for the Rolemaster Investment Group. I talked and corresponded with gamers and ICE and RoleMaster fans all over the United States to drum up support and gather funding for our bid that we were going to make to get the IP and assets of Iron Crown Enterprises. It was actually looking pretty good for us on the day of the auction, we had gathered over $60,000 in cash to make the bid for Iron Crown Enterprises. Up until that day, the written bids submitted to the court had been about $40k, or so, so we were feeling pretty good.  Stephen Lee showed up in person to represent for us, and we had about two hundred Rolemaster and ICE fans that were part of our Investment Group.

In bankruptcy court though, things took a different turn, and we were simply outbid.

John R. Seal of London paid $78,000 for the inventory and intellectual property, which was estimated by the debtor to be worth about $1.95 million. Seal's original offer of  $42,500 was scheduled to be considered by a judge at 9:30 a.m. on November November. 19th – evidently someone else (Stephen Lee) showed up to offer more money, which prompted the judge to auction Iron Crown's assets in court. Seal won that auction.

The Guild Companion  (//www.guildcompanion.com) reported then that John R. Seals firm buys intellectual property to license to others and is not likely to publish new editions of Rolemaster, Spacemaster, or Iron Crown's other games.

This of course, was patently untrue, and in fact was the exact reason that he had flown from London to Virginia to buy ICE. On this day that I was very surprised to learn that foreign companies and corporations could simply buy American companies. It surprised me even more that they were able to do it as part of a Bankruptcy proceeding. Water under the bridge though. After I found out they did start a new RPG company in the UK for Rolemaster, I simply sold my entire Rolemaster and MERP collection, and have never played those games again.

Also the auction did not include any inventory from Iron Crown's Middle Earth products. Those were being destroyed at the request of the Tolkien estate, according to the attorney of record.

What had happened though that turned out to be very interesting. Stephen Lee and I had just spent about eighteen months working together, in an attempt to salvage a renowned and well regarded American RPG Company. Now I had never met him in person, he lived in Georgia at the time, and I had just recently moved to Indiana.

Flash forward fifteen years to 2016. Mike Noe invites me to help out at GaryCon IX in 2016, and I'm helping people getting them their badges at the show and the registration booth first day I show up, and this guy shows up and say I'm Stephen Lee. So I asked him "You don't by chance happen to be the Stephen Lee, from the RoleMaster Investment Group, are you?"

He's like, "...Yes??, that's me. ...how do you know about that?"

and I was like, "...Oh, I just happened to be your publicity liaison and investments guy, and helped you round up the cash that we made the bid with."

...and then we spent some time catching up on what we had been doing over the last decade and a half since we had parted ways. Just so's all of you know, after we failed in the bid, the cash the Investors had ponied up to make the bid was returned in full to the Investors, and we just went our separate ways. Stephen Lee ended up eating the travel and correspondence expenses for the marketing and court appearance, although as I understand it, that's all a valid tax deduction for your business. (not all of it, but a good chunk)

Then I asked "What are you doing now?"

And Stephen said "I started a new RPG Company with my son, I want to get him into the business, and I wrote a new game with some help from my good friend Jim Ward, It's called 77 Worlds"

"What's it about?" I asked while I was laughing, because ...you know, ...Jim Ward, ...with a completely new apocalyptic future game.

"It's about an Alien Invasion of the Solar System. Basically they destroy or mutate just about everything. On Luna the old base was laid to waste, however the resort and most other installations were left mostly intact and those who maintain the facilities along with the guests and a few "new" life forms survive. The vacationers in the various theme park domes on Luna continue to live and thrive in the environments. As the vacations are part of a total immersive experiences little knowledge was passed down through the generations so most of the guests remain oblivious to the outside world and the nature of reality beyond the domes"

My personal tagline for this game is "Westworld and Futureworld meet an actual alien invasion, at an amusement park on the moon!"

Characters begin their adventures on the moon some three hundred years after a deadly alien attack on the solar system was stopped by unknown forces. Unknown to the characters, three hundred years ago vast alien armadas attacked all of the Seventy-Seven Worlds settled by mankind. The powerful defenses of mankind were crushed and each planet was heavily blasted or even destroyed from space. Special battle cruisers controlled by artificial intelligences retreated from all those worlds and came back to lead a last defense of Earth. They came too late to the solar system and found Earth Prime in Ruins.

In those times the moon was a tourist area, An exotic resort destination for people from all 77 of the colony worlds. Thre huge domes were vacationing spots for people wanting to enjoy the cultures of Ancient Egypt, King Arthur's Camelot, and Chicago of the Roaring Twenties.

The Lost 77 Worlds
Apocalyptic Space

The Basic Core rules teaches you how to generate a character. Then characters adventure, gain ranks and new abilities as they move from dome to dome. No dice are used in the game, instead a deck of playing cards is used as the randomizer for game mechanics.

Every year I go to GaryCon, I pick up a new 77 Worlds book from Stephen or his son. You can get a boxed set (maybe, if they still have them)  that includes more detail on Luna Resort, as well as The Blasted Earth (book 2).

In 2017 I got Doom of The Blasted Earth written by James Ward. It is a simple adventure set on the surface of Earth Prime

In 2018 I got Doom in the Ruins of London written by Christopher Clark. The cover features a Cthuluesq creature attacking some characters in the London Tube.

Last year I picked up an autographed Copy of Rise of Juneau, which is the final Adventure of the Blasted Earth Series written by Craig Martelle.

I need to pick up a new book even though I was unable to attend this year, either Apocalyptic Mars, or Jupiter Shipyards seems like good choices. There are about a dozen writers now working on 77 Worlds supplements. Over the next few days, I'll write detailed reviews of these here not giving away any spoilers though...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4297[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4298[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4299[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4300[/ATTACH]

Oh, and the 77 Worlds Facebook Page if you want to get ahold of them directly!
https://www.facebook.com/77Worlds/

Wow GameDaddy! Nice little piece of history there. Thanks for sharing!

GameDaddy, that was awesome! Have you run 77 Worlds? If so, how do you feel about dice vs. cards as the randomizer and how their system and setting plays out at the table?

Quote from: GameDaddy;1127286
77 Worlds

Yes, I have it, and many of the supplements as well. A bit of background for you before we really get started with this...

Holy crap, dude! You're like a nexus point of RPG history. Every other thread I see you post in you seem to have a story where you crossed paths with key people in the industry and were right there when stuff happened.

What a dirt bag move by that John R. Seal guy, though--outbidding a game's IP at the last instant away from the actual fans pooling in resources to keep the game afloat. I hate empty suits, they're soulless parasites.

Cool retro feel in those 77 Worlds covers, though.

Crazy. I've never even heard of this.

Quote from: VisionStorm;1127314Holy crap, dude! You're like a nexus point of RPG history. Every other thread I see you post in you seem to have a story where you crossed paths with key people in the industry and were right there when stuff happened..

Well, just like Forrest Gump I suppose. I have been very lucky to be close to the heart of a major cultural and technology shift during my time. I actually haven't sought out any of the key people in the Industry with the exception being Ryan Dancey. I did meet him though in 2006 or 2007 I think at GenCon, and got to thank him in person for saving D&D. I would like to run into him again though, not to question him, I'd much rather just sit in with him and play in an RPG game together, preferably D&D of course.

These things don't happen in the ways that I would expect. For example in 2016 I was invited by Ryan Thompson to GM at UCon just outside of Detroit. One thing I didn't know when first went there is that for may years M.A.R. Barker ran his Tekumel game there because he was teaching at the University, and so this was his home gaming show. One of the events I organized while I was there, was a fantasy worldbuilding workshop called "Dawn of Worlds" based on the the rules designed by Bob Pesall out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. With Dawn of Worlds, the players and the game ref all get together and design a brand new fantasy world using their imagination and a simple set of rules. In about four to six hours or one session, a group of player can flesh out a very rich and detailed fantasy campaign. Because they invented the fantasy world, the players already know much of the lore and history, and they are invested in playing, because they want to see if their characters can alter the events of history and legend as they are occurring, It adds just an extra layer of immersion to the fantasy world. Anyway, after the workshop was over one of the players, George Hammond invited me to join him in one of his games the next day, Tekumel.  Having only played once before in 1993, I readily agreed and joined his group the next day, which turned out to be pretty much everyone in Detroit, as well as a bunch of MAR Barker's personal friends from Minneapolis and even a friend of his that had flown into UCon from London just to play Tekumel. M.A.R. Barker has been gone for awhile now, however It really doesn't get any better then finding yourself at the very table the Gamemaster once GMed playing his game, with his former players GMing and playing.  

At the same show I ran an original D&D one-shot event based on the Crusades in Europe, and three kids, maybe ages ten to twelve sat down to play. I of course accommodated them ,and we had a great fun and a good gaming round, even though it got off to a sloooow start being very early Sunday Morning. I have these little foldable cards I put on the table where the players put their characters name on the card as well as their name. Two of the kids last name was Perren. Later on at GaryCon I ran into Jeff Perren in his wheelchair, and I of course mention the game I ran in Detroit for the kids that had never played D&D before but have the same last name as him. He let's me know that they are his grandkids, and is quite delighted to learn that they were trying out D&D while their parents were playing other games at the show.

Two more stories, real quick, and I'll get back to 77 Worlds with an update as I corresponded with Stephen Lee earlier this week. While I was getting ready for this D&D game, I had to pregenerate some 0D&D characters, and wanted to find a nice quiet out of the way place that wasn't my hotel room to get this game prep work done, and found what looked like an empty conference room, so proceeded in, ...only to find Bill Webb running a group of about fifteen players  through Tegel Manor. There is just a quick pause in the game and Bill asks me what I'm doing. So I tell him, and he just motions me over to the empty table next to the conference table where everyone is playing. For the next three hours, I'm sitting in on one of Bill Webb's signature old School D&D games, a fly on the wall, while I'm rolling up pregen characters for my old school game that I'm hosting the next day. Tegel Manor is a fantastic dungeon and there is a very high mortality rate. If the player died Bill made them roll a new character up, then they had to sneak back into the dungeon, dodging the wandering monsters, then join the party as the party continues exploring. Well, just about the time I showed up this guy had ran into some wights or wraiths and had died his third miserable death within the first hour of play, as he tried to unsuccessfully bull his way through a wall of undead. So he furiosly goes to re-roll another character as fast as he can so he can rejoin the action again, while all the other players are laughing at the stupid way that he died, and very carefully trying to avoid a similar fate. Last I heard of him in game, is that he had died again after rejoining the party getting unto a fight in the upper levels of Tegel Manor, where he failed some spectacular attack attempt, then failed his Dex roll, then fell through a window, bounced off the roof, and then fell two stories down to his death. When I left about 1 AM (the game was just really getting rolling by then) he was furiously rolling up a new character. I heard sometime later from Ryan Thompson, who is the RPG coordinator for UCon that guy had set a new record for PC deaths in one session of play for Tegel Manor.  

I met Mike Noe about 20 years ago, just after 2000. Just after I had moved to Indiana, I learned that Iron Wind Metal had their manufacturing plant in Cincinnati, so went to go buy some minis direct from the factory and just showed up one day, with some cash in hand, and met Mike who was running the show. I generally go about once or twice a year and buy new fantasy and sci-fi minis direct and in bulk to add to my gaming collection. He's Viking with an Anglo-Saxon name, direct descendant of real Vikings who were also great traders and business people by the way, and he told me not long after we met that he wanted to be buried in the tradional viking fashion. Being cremated in a longboat that is set adrift into the Ocean. I laughed and agreed. My true family name from my Mom's side is also northern German Saxon, so we are like shield brothers, for real. Shortly after I met him in 2001 he had just        acquired Iron Wind Metals (Formerly Ral Partha) from WizKids who already had their own minis line. Wizkids had gotten Ral Partha from FASA which went belly up right at that time. Starting in 1982 in the foundry pouring minis in the foundry, he rose up in the ranks over the years, and ended up being an operations manager at FASA. He has grown Iron Wind Metals over the years, and he helps at least ten people who work for him, and probably more. I should do a separate post on this sometime later, Anyway  If he asked me for help, I would do my best, because he is the kind of guy that would absolutely do the same for me, if I asked for help.

Anyway he did. In 2016 the GaryCon leadership committee asked him to be the Operations Director for GaryCon, and he agreed, and when I visited him right before Christmas in 2015 to do my annual minis buy, he asked me to help out with the show, and I'm glad I did. I get a badge for the show, and give up 20-30 hours during the show doing anything and everything needed, getting guests their badge, selling GaryCon Merch at their booth, Running refreshments to GMs at the show, fulfilling special and honored guest requests, helping with the online auction. Whatever is needed to make sure the guests are secure and have a good time at the show. So I guess I'm a RPG gamer and wargamer that hangs out with other gamers. Lots of other gamers! Go figure!

I only mentioned Mike today because the State of Ohio has ordered him to close his business until further notice, and he is unable to operate normally except for personally fulfilling direct mail orders, and he is not able to fulfill orders for other RPG companies. Iron WInd does all of the Mechwarrior minis, has a contract to do Game of Thrones minis, as well as for other major boardgame manufacturers. Right now, they are taking direct mail order business via internet and mail order, and he is going in by himself just once or twice a week to ship orders, just like Jolly Blackburn is over at Kenzer & Co,. So if you are getting some extra cash from stimulus or unemployment or whatever, remember these guys. because as a business owner, he doesn't really get to claim unemployment,  His only income right now is coming what people are ordering. First link for today where you can order something off of their webstore.

IronWind Metals
https://ironwindmetals.com/

Okay, so back to 77 Worlds. After we talked about it here, I did get in touch with Stephen Lee, and went to mail order Apocalyptic Mars, and/or Jupiter Shipyards. Turns out they have not been published just yet, but are like 85% done, and Stephen said that in the next couple of weeks they are going to do a Kickstarter, so I'll add a link here when it goes live, so you can order the next Death in SPAAAAAAACE awesomeness that is created together by him, and Jim Ward! I'll also be asking Stephen for an interview on Dragonscales because I don't have a clue what that is...

A couple other links for you today...

Knights of the Dinnertable, Kenzer & Co,. Web Store
https://www.kenzerco.com/

Dawn of Worlds - Your Fantasy Campaign Creation Kit (Free!!!)
http://clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf

The Convoluted Story of Iron Wind Metals, Ral Partha, and Battletech Miniatures
http://www.purplepawn.com/2010/03/the-convoluted-story-of-iron-wind-metals-ral-partha-and-battletech-miniatures/

Quote from: Spinachcat;1127295GameDaddy, that was awesome! Have you run 77 Worlds? If so, how do you feel about dice vs. cards as the randomizer and how their system and setting plays out at the table?

I haven't actually had an opportunity to run the game yet, however do plan on doing so in the near future. 77 Worlds is cinematic and narrative in nature, the cards are used to determine initiative and for combat. Once init order has been established (Highest club in the players hand), each player draws a number of cards equal to his/her rank (or level if you prefer). Any hearts are solid hits and deal heavy damagewith a chance of generating a critical hit , diamonds are glancing blows which deal light damage. The Defender gets to draw one card, and if a spade shows up damaged is reduced or mitigated entirely by the defense.

You don't get to pick you character, a draw of four cards determines the basic attributes, skills, and experience your character starts out with.

Very interesting! I'm cool with card based mechanics, especially if they're fast at the table. Hope you post an actual play review of their games in the future.

Quote from: GameDaddy;1127868Well, just like Forrest Gump I suppose. I have been very lucky to be close to the heart of a major cultural and technology shift during my time. I actually haven't sought out any of the key people in the Industry with the exception being Ryan Dancey. I did meet him though in 2006 or 2007 I think at GenCon, and got to thank him in person for saving D&D. I would like to run into him again though, not to question him, I'd much rather just sit in with him and play in an RPG game together, preferably D&D of course.

These things don't happen in the ways that I would expect. For example in 2016 I was invited by Ryan Thompson to GM at UCon just outside of Detroit. One thing I didn't know when first went there is that for may years M.A.R. Barker ran his Tekumel game there because he was teaching at the University, and so this was his home gaming show. One of the events I organized while I was there, was a fantasy worldbuilding workshop called "Dawn of Worlds" based on the the rules designed by Bob Pesall out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. With Dawn of Worlds, the players and the game ref all get together and design a brand new fantasy world using their imagination and a simple set of rules. In about four to six hours or one session, a group of player can flesh out a very rich and detailed fantasy campaign. Because they invented the fantasy world, the players already know much of the lore and history, and they are invested in playing, because they want to see if their characters can alter the events of history and legend as they are occurring, It adds just an extra layer of immersion to the fantasy world. Anyway, after the workshop was over one of the players, George Hammond invited me to join him in one of his games the next day, Tekumel.  Having only played once before in 1993, I readily agreed and joined his group the next day, which turned out to be pretty much everyone in Detroit, as well as a bunch of MAR Barker's personal friends from Minneapolis and even a friend of his that had flown into UCon from London just to play Tekumel. M.A.R. Barker has been gone for awhile now, however It really doesn't get any better then finding yourself at the very table the Gamemaster once GMed playing his game, with his former players GMing and playing.  

At the same show I ran an original D&D one-shot event based on the Crusades in Europe, and three kids, maybe ages ten to twelve sat down to play. I of course accommodated them ,and we had a great fun and a good gaming round, even though it got off to a sloooow start being very early Sunday Morning. I have these little foldable cards I put on the table where the players put their characters name on the card as well as their name. Two of the kids last name was Perren. Later on at GaryCon I ran into Jeff Perren in his wheelchair, and I of course mention the game I ran in Detroit for the kids that had never played D&D before but have the same last name as him. He let's me know that they are his grandkids, and is quite delighted to learn that they were trying out D&D while their parents were playing other games at the show.

Two more stories, real quick, and I'll get back to 77 Worlds with an update as I corresponded with Stephen Lee earlier this week. While I was getting ready for this D&D game, I had to pregenerate some 0D&D characters, and wanted to find a nice quiet out of the way place that wasn't my hotel room to get this game prep work done, and found what looked like an empty conference room, so proceeded in, ...only to find Bill Webb running a group of about fifteen players  through Tegel Manor. There is just a quick pause in the game and Bill asks me what I'm doing. So I tell him, and he just motions me over to the empty table next to the conference table where everyone is playing. For the next three hours, I'm sitting in on one of Bill Webb's signature old School D&D games, a fly on the wall, while I'm rolling up pregen characters for my old school game that I'm hosting the next day. Tegel Manor is a fantastic dungeon and there is a very high mortality rate. If the player died Bill made them roll a new character up, then they had to sneak back into the dungeon, dodging the wandering monsters, then join the party as the party continues exploring. Well, just about the time I showed up this guy had ran into some wights or wraiths and had died his third miserable death within the first hour of play, as he tried to unsuccessfully bull his way through a wall of undead. So he furiosly goes to re-roll another character as fast as he can so he can rejoin the action again, while all the other players are laughing at the stupid way that he died, and very carefully trying to avoid a similar fate. Last I heard of him in game, is that he had died again after rejoining the party getting unto a fight in the upper levels of Tegel Manor, where he failed some spectacular attack attempt, then failed his Dex roll, then fell through a window, bounced off the roof, and then fell two stories down to his death. When I left about 1 AM (the game was just really getting rolling by then) he was furiously rolling up a new character. I heard sometime later from Ryan Thompson, who is the RPG coordinator for UCon that guy had set a new record for PC deaths in one session of play for Tegel Manor.  

I met Mike Noe about 20 years ago, just after 2000. Just after I had moved to Indiana, I learned that Iron Wind Metal had their manufacturing plant in Cincinnati, so went to go buy some minis direct from the factory and just showed up one day, with some cash in hand, and met Mike who was running the show. I generally go about once or twice a year and buy new fantasy and sci-fi minis direct and in bulk to add to my gaming collection. He's Viking with an Anglo-Saxon name, direct descendant of real Vikings who were also great traders and business people by the way, and he told me not long after we met that he wanted to be buried in the tradional viking fashion. Being cremated in a longboat that is set adrift into the Ocean. I laughed and agreed. My true family name from my Mom's side is also northern German Saxon, so we are like shield brothers, for real. Shortly after I met him in 2001 he had just        acquired Iron Wind Metals (Formerly Ral Partha) from WizKids who already had their own minis line. Wizkids had gotten Ral Partha from FASA which went belly up right at that time. Starting in 1982 in the foundry pouring minis in the foundry, he rose up in the ranks over the years, and ended up being an operations manager at FASA. He has grown Iron Wind Metals over the years, and he helps at least ten people who work for him, and probably more. I should do a separate post on this sometime later, Anyway  If he asked me for help, I would do my best, because he is the kind of guy that would absolutely do the same for me, if I asked for help.

Anyway he did. In 2016 the GaryCon leadership committee asked him to be the Operations Director for GaryCon, and he agreed, and when I visited him right before Christmas in 2015 to do my annual minis buy, he asked me to help out with the show, and I'm glad I did. I get a badge for the show, and give up 20-30 hours during the show doing anything and everything needed, getting guests their badge, selling GaryCon Merch at their booth, Running refreshments to GMs at the show, fulfilling special and honored guest requests, helping with the online auction. Whatever is needed to make sure the guests are secure and have a good time at the show. So I guess I'm a RPG gamer and wargamer that hangs out with other gamers. Lots of other gamers! Go figure!

I only mentioned Mike today because the State of Ohio has ordered him to close his business until further notice, and he is unable to operate normally except for personally fulfilling direct mail orders, and he is not able to fulfill orders for other RPG companies. Iron WInd does all of the Mechwarrior minis, has a contract to do Game of Thrones minis, as well as for other major boardgame manufacturers. Right now, they are taking direct mail order business via internet and mail order, and he is going in by himself just once or twice a week to ship orders, just like Jolly Blackburn is over at Kenzer & Co,. So if you are getting some extra cash from stimulus or unemployment or whatever, remember these guys. because as a business owner, he doesn't really get to claim unemployment,  His only income right now is coming what people are ordering. First link for today where you can order something off of their webstore.

IronWind Metals
https://ironwindmetals.com/

Okay, so back to 77 Worlds. After we talked about it here, I did get in touch with Stephen Lee, and went to mail order Apocalyptic Mars, and/or Jupiter Shipyards. Turns out they have not been published just yet, but are like 85% done, and Stephen said that in the next couple of weeks they are going to do a Kickstarter, so I'll add a link here when it goes live, so you can order the next Death in SPAAAAAAACE awesomeness that is created together by him, and Jim Ward! I'll also be asking Stephen for an interview on Dragonscales because I don't have a clue what that is...

A couple other links for you today...

Knights of the Dinnertable, Kenzer & Co,. Web Store
https://www.kenzerco.com/

Dawn of Worlds - Your Fantasy Campaign Creation Kit (Free!!!)
http://clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf

The Convoluted Story of Iron Wind Metals, Ral Partha, and Battletech Miniatures
http://www.purplepawn.com/2010/03/the-convoluted-story-of-iron-wind-metals-ral-partha-and-battletech-miniatures/

That's an amazing string of circumstances and I wish I had such an active game life. You really seem to run into some interesting people and find lots of opportunities for play in those cons.

I think I heard about Dawn of Worlds a while back, and while I haven't had the chance to try it specifically I did try something similar once and I thought it was an interesting approach I would highly recommend if you don't have a specific setting in mind. This was during a random meetup after a long hiatus from RPGs where I met with some people interested in trying the game. One day I got a random call from a friend who had mentioned a bunch of times that he wanted to teach his daughters D&D and he finally got a group together so I just went there with my old books without preparation to roll some characters.

We went with AD&D 2e (what we played as teens) for old time's sake, using just the core rules to speed things up and play a quick session. But I hadn't ran a game in years and we had no idea what to play, so we just made some "standard" characters using just the core race and class options, then slowly cobbled together a world piecing bits of the characters backgrounds and adding stuff and locations we assumed should exist in the setting for our characters to make sense. I drew a rough sketch of the map, adding things and making modifications while everyone else finished their characters, giving me some time to improvise some ideas for a quick session based on what we had. Then I slowly filled in the blanks over time, coming up with a rough idea of type of cultures that existed in the region and general circumstances and such.

The process wasn't as structured as what I've read about Dawn of Worlds, but it was basically a similar concept and something I would try again (perhaps incorporating Dawn of Worlds) if we're stumped about what to play, or simply to engage in collaborative world building.

Quote from: VisionStorm;1127900That's an amazing string of circumstances and I wish I had such an active game life. You really seem to run into some interesting people and find lots of opportunities for play in those cons.

It's amazing who you meet at conventions. My favorite story is an old friend was running Firefly RPG at GenCon West (it was a short lived attempt to have GenCon next to Disneyland). Halfway into the game, Nathan Fillion - the actor who played Captain Malcolm Reynolds on Firefly - sits down at the table and plays the River character and teaches the players how to swear in Chinese. The dude was beyond cool and loved the game.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1127920It's amazing who you meet at conventions. My favorite story is an old friend was running Firefly RPG at GenCon West (it was a short lived attempt to have GenCon next to Disneyland). Halfway into the game, Nathan Fillion - the actor who played Captain Malcolm Reynolds on Firefly - sits down at the table and plays the River character and teaches the players how to swear in Chinese. The dude was beyond cool and loved the game.

That sounds freaking awesome! I had heard Nathan Fillion was cool at conventions, but having him suddenly showing up at your Firefly session sounds like a whole other level of awesome. It even makes up for him playing my choice character, but I'll just play Zoe instead.