Review of SIGMATA

The game SIGMATA popped up on my radar a while back and the tagline caught my eye: “This Signal Kills Facists.” Maybe it’s the news, but the idea of a game about a determined Resistance fighting against a totalitarian vision of America really struck a chord with me. The game was headed up by Chad Walker, writer of Cryptomancer, and before entering a book I thought this could be some amazingly cathartic roleplaying or a hollow mess of punching “Nazis” in the face with little substance. Which did it end up being? Read on and find out.

It’s My Birthday, Bashers!

This year my birthday falls on a day when I’d normally be posting content here,  so I’m giving myself the day off instead. Rather than write up something long reflecting on my life and how lucky I feel, I’m keeping it short and sweet with some suggested sources you should check out in lieu of Mephit content today. These are some amazing podcasts, blogs, and artists who I think everyone should be checking out so go see them and I’ll see you all on Thursday!

Holodecks in Star Trek Adventures

I was watching Star Trek with Dr. James the other day, and the episode happened to be one of those centering on the holodeck technology. Specifically, it was the Voyager episode “Heroes and Demons” which involves holonovel characters, a photonic alien, and the ship’s EMH venturing out of sickbay for the first time. It’s not the most dramatic episode but it led me to explain to Dr. James (she’s just getting into the series) all about holodecks and how they’ve been explored in Star Trek in the past. After the conversation my mind naturally drifted to holodecks in Star Trek Adventures where there’s a lot of awesome potential.

City of Mist Characters – Introduction

So a while back I wrote about the fantasy-noir PbtA game called City of Mist. I still have this game on my list of long-term campaigns but now that it has a new campaign book on Kickstarter it seems like the time to revisit this awesome game and give it the attention it deserves. In order to explore the possibilities of this game, I’m going to go through the process of world- and character-creation for the campaign that I’d happily launch tomorrow, players pending.

Cthulhu Invictus 7th Edition Review

I love everything having to do with the Roman Empire. I think it’s the mix of familiar places and then exotic names and culture. I also love everything Lovecraftian so needless to say Cthulhu Invictus was pretty high up on my list. When Golden Goblin Press announced that they were Kickstarting a new version using the 7th Edition ruleset, needless to say that I was pretty excited. The Golden Goblins told me that the supplement will be available soon on their site but in the meantime, here’s what you can expect!

Numenera Destiny Review, Part 3

The last articles covered a lot of ground and in particular detail but it really just covered Parts 1 and 2 of Numenera Destiny. The book promises to expand options and flavor in your Numenera campaign and this is where we take a look at all that. Come with me into the heady world of building a settlement a billion years in the future!

Numenera Destiny Review, Part 2

Last time I talked about Numenera Destiny, it was a lot of information all at once: lists of descriptors and foci, details on the arkus’s abilities, etc. This was of necessity but today I’m happy to dig a little deeper into a specific aspect of this new vision for Numenera: the wright, the delve, and how to salvage and craft numenera devices.

Expanding Squads in Star Trek Adventures

I was thinking the other day about things that I’d covered in my now-defunct Cypher System treatment of Star Trek and what isn’t already available in Star Trek Adventures. One thing that I’d thought of, and something that turned out to be in the works for the new Numenera Destiny, is teams of NPCs. Groups were covered in a combat sense in the mass combat rules in Red Alert and today I’m jotting down some of my thoughts on how this can expand to non-combat situations.

The Mephling Plays an RPG!

Earlier in the month I was out for a little bit. Baby Grue arrived and I took family leave from work and personal leave from this blog. During that period I got quality time with the new arrival but I also had to frequently entertain Little Mephling (Grue’s three-year-old brother) and after many days of trips to various locations I wanted something quiet that we could do at the kitchen table. As always (and unsurprisingly) I thought of RPGs but even No Thank You, Evil! starts with five year olds. Tired and with nothing to lose, I pulled a dirt-simple RPG based on Cthulhu Dark out of my butt and ran with it.

It worked like a charm.