I'm currently in the process of preparing to run a campaign using the Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stone RPG.  I first learned of Hellas during GameStorm 11 last year.  The authors had a booth and I was lucky enough to sit down and play in a game run by Jerry Grayson.

Hellas's game engine is built on the OMNI system from  Morrigan Press.  The basic premise for the system is all roles are made on a single d20 with modifiers then compared to a single results table.  I feel the simplicity is the systems real strong point as it allows you to focus on the characters and the situation instead of crunching numbers.

The campaign world the adventurers travel in it very interesting.  Here is a quote from their website:

In ancient times, the spacefaring Hellenes and their Gods defeated an empire that threatened the entire galaxy. Now, after centuries of darkness, their enemies have returned for a final reckoning, and only a chosen few -- wielding the power of the Gods -- stand between them and certain destruction.

The setting is a blend of ancient Greek ideals and theology mixed with futuristic alien races and technology.  It should be noted that Hellas is not Greece as we know it but is simply inspired by the culture.  Because of the game embraces a few adult concepts, this would not be a game for younger players without being heavily modified.

The player characters are constantly striving to find their places among the gods through glory and actions.  And as with ancient Greek heros, it may take generations before the legacy is fulfilled.  The game plays into this by offering a system where after your character dies, the new character gets written into their history and carries on the legacy left behind by the fallen hero.  This might be a son, daughter, apprentice, or even friend of the family.  This is why it is said that the character a player starts a campaign with will likely not be the one they end it with.

I really look forward to running this game with my group.  For anyone interested in trying it out for the first time, they have a preview of the game available for download at their website.  If you do give it a try, stop by and leave your feedback.  I'd love to hear how it went.

Last weekend I ran the demo from White Wolf of Changeling: the Lost. This was my first White Wolf game I've ever played and a first look at Changeling: the Lost for all of my players. In all fairness the entirety of our experience was based off the demo packet as none of us had source books to reference. This was intended to be an exercise to see if it would be worth purchasing the source books and if my gaming group would even be interested.

The demo was very well put together. I did have to visit the forums to clarify one or two details but I'd have to say that everything we needed to play was contained in the demo packet as promised. I do with they had broken the PDF into two separate files though so that I could send one to the players with the quick start characters and the rules without sending them the actual adventure. The rules were on the first five pages of the PDF while the characters were at the end of the PDF. It took a lot of work preparing primer documents to give the players without spoiling the story.

With that said, the story that comes in the demo was excellent. With only the smallest exception there was a good balance between block text and story information. The story did an excellent job of instilling paranoia in the players which is a hallmark of the Changeling setting.

The basic premise of the story is that the characters are recently escaped from Arcadia and living in Miami. The Summer Court has been controlling Miami well beyond their normal reign and refuses to hand over control to the other courts. The players are invited to a coup to overthrow the summer king and for their individual reasons they agree.

Over the course of the demo they players get a chance to experience combat, social manipulation, and the every day risks that Changelings face. It did a great job of running the gambit of the various aspect of Changeling: the Lost.

The thing we found wanting about it though was the game engine. We found combat to be far too lethal. Defenses didn't seem to balance well with offenses so NPCs and players would die too quickly. It's the nature of the setting that people aren't running around in full armor like in a medieval fantasy. Unfortunately that would have helped.

I understand there is a realism aspect to the idea that a normally clothed person has no special defenses against a bullet or a knife. Realism aside, there isn't a lot of fun factor in an NPC dropping a PC on the first round just because of a lucky roll either. Perhaps we weren't understanding something correctly but I feel fairly confident we were running things the way the demo intended them to be run.

Everything considered we had a great time though. I think we'll try another White Wolf demo in the future, at least to give the system a second chance. They have demos for a few of their games. Perhaps Mage: The Awakening next?

While I'm not quite sold on the game system the setting was a blast and I've got Monte Cook's World of Darkness on order. Once that arrives and I get a chance to dig into it, I'll be sure to post a review here.

At the end of GameStorm 10 I got to talking to one of my buddies I frequently play Arcanis with. Steve told me about a SpyCraft 2.0 campaign he was running that really caught my attention. Using the various expansions available he was running a fantasy campaign.

Previous to this every time I spoke to someone about SpyCraft, it was in the context of secret agents, espionage, and elite commandos. While intriguing, it wasn't a setting I was in a hurry to jump on. Steve's fantasy SpyCraft setting had some fascinating elements about it though. So when he invited me to join the game, I was anxious to do so.

The SpyCraft system is not at all like what I expected. I understand it had it's roots in d20 but where it sits today seems far from it. There are still come common concepts such as difficulty checks, skill ranks, damage reduction, and the more armor the better. The real differences come in with the details.

Skill checks can be made with synergy from other skills. These are bonuses based on ranks gaining in the other skill. Many of the special abilities can be used on a per scene or per combat basis. This allows you to use your abilities much more often. The system also uses action dice which are a pool of dice from which you can add them to various rolls you make or spend them to further affect the outcome of some conflict as you see fit. The players are also encourage to take a more active role in the story telling aspect of the game too with rewards of action dice for especially well delivered scenes.

The game feels much more like an action film with the hero's pulling off crazy stunts and the NPCs being categorized into grunts, characters, and bosses. The differences between the various levels of NPCs also affects their power. If you play World of Warcraft the difference is comparable to standard mobs, elite mobs, and elite boss mobs.

My character in the campaign is an Assassin Sniper. I came into the campaign at level seven. "Lucky Bet", as my character is known, is a brooding rebellious trouble maker with a dark sense of humor. Dressed in casual attire he rarely goes anywhere without his ornate composite bow at his side. On those occasions you don't see him with his bow your fairly certain it can't be far away. When he is not on the job you'll find him at a nearby Inn enjoying his two favorite hobbies, beer and women. While his goals involve making the world a better place, his methods leave a long trail of corpses.

We've played two sessions so far and I've had some wonderful movie moments already. Steve plans to wrap up the current story line and start a post apocalyptic one when it is done. I'm looking forward to starting a character from scratch.

I like the game system so much I'm currently writing a one shot to play with my son. Here is the basic hook I have in mind:

Your on the way to your bank to make a withdrawal when you notice a black van with opaque windows parked out front. You call to HQ to have them send the police but it sounds like they won't make it in time as they are dealing with a bomb threat at the far side of town. HQ gives you permission to deal with them as you see fit.

If I take the effort to do it up right I'll post the module here in PDF form for download. The game is weekly and I can't wait for this weeks session. Steve is a great GM and we're just starting to sink our teeth the latest mission.