With Crackdown 2 coming out on the Xbox 360, there’s chatter on the original. Many people hold the first game in great regard – but not everyone. On the OXM podcast, Ryan McCaffrey often talks about how he famously gave the game a “7”. Personally I think the game is a lot of fun, definitely better than a 7.

Why the discrepancy? I think the difference lies in the fact that Ryan had to finish the game. He needed, at some point, to write a review. Myself on the other hand, I had no interest in playing though the game’s admittedly weak storyline. I just wanted to run around and make my character stronger and jump higher by collecting all of the special items in the game. If I was forced to play though the game to the end, I might give it a 7 as well. As a sandbox though, I had way more fun than a 7.

In some ways, assigning quality by way of a number is kind of weird. The TV listings give Schwarzenegger’s Commando two stars, and yet how boring would the 4 star version be? Things with flaws can still be a lot of fun.

Here’s hoping that Crackdown 2 fixes what was broken without washing away what many people found so appealing about it.

RPG link: I like characters with lots of cool abilities. When designing Spellchrome, I made a point of letting all characters have access to some spells, skills and equipment that makes them special, but not to the point where the game becomes just about super heroes. As for the story lines, I can help – but ultimately it’s up the group’s GM to deal with.

Give it a read, if only for the different types of players out there and how they might affect your game.

While I touch on some basic tips for running a Successful Gaming Session and a Successful Gaming Campaign in Chapter 9: Running the Game, Samuel’s article goes further in-depth, talking about, for example, why the group will benefit from taking an entire session to create characters, etc.

I think that it’s cool that important RPG subjects that would get omitted or a brief mention in a “Core Rulebook”, can find places to be talked about with greater depth.

So head over and give Stumbling Blocks To Starting A New Campaign a read.

I bring this up only after reading a Penny Arcade comic entitled “The Old Ways”, which I believe speaks for itself.

First imagine the Player Characters are not familiar with Starwars (the gamers live in an alternate universe, where Starwars never came out).

Second, the Game Master is taking his PCs, who normally play a Medieval Fantasy game (like DnD), and having them play in his made-up space world.

The comic really shows the difference between a film narrative and an RPG adventure (and player tendencies). “Qui-Gon: I take all the blasters!“

Make sure to look at the commentary below most of the comics. They really go on to explain the strange relationship between PCs, the GM and Adventure Plots.

The comic points out a lot of the oddities of RPGs in general. All are funny when they point them out, but some are kind of frustrating when you’re actually playing them. A good portion of writing and designing Spellchrome is born out dealing with or avoiding such oddities. For example, the comic makes a funny point about vehicular damage tables. In Spellchrome, I state that the GM should just be able to make the right call as a vehicle loses hit points. (Not that I have never been tempted to make up vehicular damage tables in the past.)

I’m really getting a kick out of reading this online comic. Funny stuff if you’re a gamer.