But how will I know the good side from the bad?

Over several months of contemplating Star Wars and the two older RPGs thereof (don't have anything like the money to even touch the FFG trilogy of tomes), I've continued to find my mind split right down the middle. I own the core books for both the West End Games D6 version (the original one), and the Wizards of the Coast d20 version (revised). My miniatures habit has continued to swell like Val Kilmer's ego once did, and I'll briefly put some notes in bullet points.

• The Star Wars Miniatures game based on the d20 rules is pretty good. Relatively fast to play, and the abundance of characters in the Fringe faction means that I might be able to adapt the rules for three sides instead of just two (living with two other nerds, one wants to include them when possible). The very small number of New Republic minis that aren't Luke or Han's kids is a bit disappointing, but there are still some gems out there.
• Thirdly, as much as I like the core of the d20 System for combat skirmishes, the roleplaying games based on it are just too much. Not running Star Wars d20 unless at least one of my potential players makes a massive commitment to mastering the rules - in exchange for which, I might be persuaded to make a similar effort for her Starfinder campaign. Quid Go Pro, and all that.
• Next, the D6 version has some peculiarities. Part of this is my own unfamiliarity with things that aren't D&D or D&D-based, but some of the rules are a bit confusingly worded and structured. Perhaps the 2nd edition resolves some of these issues, but I'm reluctant to drop more cash on that core book without trying this one in more detail.
• Sixth and lastly, this White Star game that everyone's been talking about (or was a few years ago, back before the Renaissance turned into the Old School Ragnarok). It's pretty cool! Rules-lite enough for me, but maybe a bit too rules-lite in places - especially where starships are concerned. Still might pick it up at some point, though.
• And in conclusion, I nabbed the Star Munchkin RPG at my game store. Might actually be persuaded to give this a shot if I find the right group - who I might have to sew together from HackMaster 4e and Halberd players.

Bases & Spaces

As I've been slowly sowing the seeds of an old-school RPG campaign (probably using White Box, supplemented with things from the Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules and various other sources), my mind has turned to the question of miniatures. I like collecting them (though not painting them), and several of my players find them extremely helpful in play. But the current vogue for RPG minis - 28mm tall, with a 20mm circular base - makes enforcing detailed facing difficult.

I can't use 1" square bases with 1" square spaces on a mat; if someone needs to face diagonally (which will probably happen a lot), they'll be partially blocking all four cardinally adjacent spaces. I thought about hexagonal bases, but the problem of front/flank/rear spaces - or rather, assigning them so they'll be consistent between figures with symmetrical, wide, and long bases - gave me several days of headaches a little over a year ago before I just decided to drop it. So as far as shape goes, I've got two main ones: square (for obvious reasons) or octagonal.

Why octagons? Simple: they fit just as snugly as square bases of the same size, but allow for easy 45-degree rotation. The downside of octagons is that they aren't nearly as common as squares or hexes, but this site has a good selection of them, plus a handy custom-build option that lets you choose your material and size. An option I've been considering (octagons made of clear acrylic) runs under $8 USD for a 25-pack.

Now for the size... 3/4" square bases are a great option for a number of reasons. They don't overlap 1" spaces as much, they're easy to find (I grabbed a big bag of wooden squares from a chain craft store's woodworking section), and they're the size used for a number of games - including Battlesystem, vintage Warhammer, and Daniel Collins' rather excellent Book of War. And something else I realized: if I go with 1 1/2" spaces on the tabletop (to more closely model oD&D's 1"=10' scale), then up to four figures could fit in a single space if packed tightly enough. The downside of 3/4" bases is that some of my minis have a bit too wide of a stance to easily fit on a square that small - hence my consideration of 1" octagons.

Having said all of that, as much as I like Fitz's mat of offset squares, it wouldn't play as nice with octagonal bases. They could still work, but I'd be a bit miffed at two whole sides going unused. And 3/4" octagons would be even harder to fit some figures onto.

I honestly don't care if this meme is dead.

House Rule: Uniform Damage for Monks

Just a quick note about monks (aka mystics). One thing I love about original Dungeons & Dragons and its descendants is the option to have uniform attack damage - 1d6, regardless of the length or type of the weapon. This makes for extreme portability (as players would only need to bring a d20 and a few d6s), especially when coupled with the digest-sized books used by oD&D and many of its clones (White Box immediately springs to mind).

This table isn't in any way a brilliant idea, but it's definitely something I wanted to jot down. Instead of using the funny dice for open hand damage, monks can use only d6s with the following table; to stick to pure, unadjusted d6 rolls, simply ignore the "pluses".

House Rule: Health & Stamina

As I work on my own "fantasy heartbreaker" (as JB terms it), I've been thinking about the balance between deadliness and survivability. The following set of rules is a stab at addressing this. These rules have not been play-tested, and the concept of them is not original to me - I think the d20 version of Star Wars used something similar, though I'm not certain. I'm providing my rough draft here both as a safety in case my hard drive and other storage methods fail, and in the hope that someone else will find it useful.

For Gold & Glory: First Impressions

My copy of For Gold & Glory just arrived in the mail today! It arrived much sooner than expected, which is fortunate since I'm planning to get my AD&D game back on its feet in the next few weeks. I'm looking forward to having a single-book rules reference to use in-game, and I'll likely post a more in-depth review of it once I've actually gotten to use it as such.

For now though, I can comment on its physical quality. I opted for color hardcover, and even then the price was just over $25.00 USD (including shipping). It uses matte paper, which doesn't show off the art as well as glossy (and some of the art - mostly drawn from Renaissance and later paintings, as far as I can tell - is very good), but it looks like it'll take pencil much better. Since I'm using this as a reference guide, and it's not a vintage or rare item, I will try to overcome my compunctions and make some notes of my own! It's also quite easy to read, being in my absolute favorite format: serif font, somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10 pt, two-column layout.

More to come! (...at some point)

(Unrelated note: I'm so glad for the new, larger mailbox that was decided on after the previous one fell over in a storm. The whole book fit in it easily!)