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gentleman john wrote:Now if only you'd said that back at the start ...

Any thoughts, given the fact that some systems just don't cope as well as others with some concepts?

To start off the fun, I'll do a comparison of Basic Roleplaying and Hero System, 5th edition in a separate thread (so I won't derail yours).

I discovered that I also have the trial version of Squadron UK, the Second Coming of Golden Heroes, on my hard drive. It's an old-fashioned random-roll-your-powers type game like Marvel Superheroes/4C and Villains & Vigilantes as opposed to a point-buy your powers game like many of the systems you've reviewed so far. The trial version is supposed to be a complete, playable game although with fewer powers than the full version and no character creation or play examples.

Old GH player from way-back-when. It is on my list to do and I will tell you why I love it. However, I am still in the bedroom (games-wise) and not truly digging through my archives yet. Next review should be Wild Talents, but I have to read it first to remind myself exactly why I have never played it! By my reckoning, I still have another 9 games to go before I can say I've finished!

I've umped and ached about this one. However, I've finally come to a decision and I have decided, what the hell. After all, the titular character's parents are Superman and Wonder Woman, the anime has aliens and mecha, and there's enough applied phlebotinum to keep Reed Richards and Tony Stark happy. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a review of …

The Project A-Ko RPG

Project A-Ko was an anime series that was extremely popular in the early 1990s. It concerned itself with the adventures of three Japanese schoolgirls (Eiko, Biko and Shiko) who lived in Graviton City, a group of transvestite aliens looking for their lost princess and superpowered battles with lots of collateral damage. Somehow, Dream Pod 9 managed to get hold of the licence to produce a RPG based on the anime series.

The System

The Project A-Ko RPG was actually two games. The first game was a classic RPG using a sawn-off version of the original Silhouette rules (DP9's house system), while the second game was a card battle game similar to the Heavy Gear and Video Game fighter game sets. They both came in the same softback book. Admittedly, the card game did require some preparation with a craft knife, but it was a nice addition.

The RPG rules are very simple. Silhouette uses a dice-pool system, where the number of dice rolled is equal to the skill in an ability. Characteristics provide bonuses to the result of the rolls. The dice scores are compared to a difficulty to determine a margin-of success. Different combinations of skills and characteristics could be used depending on the situation. Want to fly a plane through a series of stunts? Use your Pilot skill and Dex characteristics. Want to wrestle the same plane to a landing after you failed the last set of rolls? Pilot skill and Strength. Simple and flexible. Project A-Ko stuck to this formula, but reduced the number of characteristics and skills available from the default Silhouette rules, helping the game to move faster.

Character generation was also simplified from the default Silhouette rules. A points-build system was used, with points split between characteristics and skills. Each character was also allocated two Schticks and a Cross. These were the Project A-Ko's versions of powers and drawbacks. A brief list was provided for both, but players were encouraged to make up their own, with responsibility for adjudicating their effects placed firmly on the referee. The list of Schticks ran to such things as Heightened Strength, Super Inventor and Flying Fists of Fury; while the list of Crosses included the classic Masculine Appearance (if you've seen the anime, you know who I mean when I refer to Mari). If a player wanted more Schticks, they had to take more Crosses to balance their characters. Gadgets and vehicles were also dealt with simply. These were treated as Schticks that gave extra powers that were only available to the gadget, with certain Crosses being mandatory.

Combat in the game was quick and not at all deadly. Characters would be knocked out, covered in bandages or just too embarrassed to hang around. Large scale weapons did whatever damage the referee thought was cool, funny or both.

The card game was designed to run alongside the RPG as an alternative, but stand-alone, combat system. Actions were determined from a hand of cards that specified modifiers and damage. The emphasis was definitely on hand-to-hand combat, with very few ranged attacks. Combat using the cards was slower than the standard system, but was definitely more visual.

The Games

Project A-Ko didn't spawn any games, but it did serve as a good introduction to the Silhouette system and the games derived from it.

On the Shelf

For a short, but glorious time.

Of the games you've reviewed, which ones did you and your group play most, and why? What caused one (or two) titles to win out over the others?

Of the games I've reviewed? The game that we played the most would have been Champions 4e. That would have been entirely due to circumstances as we played it while we were at university and sharing digs. On top of that, we were all fans of the Wild Cards series of books (they had only gone as far as no. 6 at that time), and so we played a game set in the Wild Cards universe.

We chose Champions because it was very flexible. It allowed us to create the characters we wanted to play. There were also a large number of sourcebooks that came out for the game, allowing us to add in various bits and pieces that we liked. Ninja Hero was a favourite for the martial artist characters, for example. The other thing was that once we had created the characters, there was very little need for the rule book - unless we needed to "discipline" an errant member of the group

Of course, there were other SH games that got played a lot. I haven't reviewed them yet as they are in the archives in the box room. I'm currently retrieving them from the shelves so I can review them. that and I still can't face reviewing Wild Talents.

The actual game I played most was Villains and Vigilantes, and that was when I was a teenager in Ireland. It was easy to get hold of and, like D&D, oh so house-ruleable. It also had a shed-load of support materials that were ripe for plundering. AMSH and Golden Heroes came somewhere down after Champions in the running. In the case of AMSH, we used to indulge in PvP (before we knew what PvP was) games using various heroes and villains. Most of the fun was had from fighting up and down the maps of Marvel New York. The fun I had playing Jack O'Lantern sticks in my mind to this day. Golden Heroes was not so much about the game as to what went on outside the game. Simon Burley had seen fit to put a system of campaign ratings into the rules, which we soon squirreled out into other games. The campaign ratings provided enough meat for "situations" that they almost became a game in their own right.

Anyway, I promse I shall review these games. Honest. When I've recovered from the massive day-long Mah-Jongg marathon I have just indulged in ...

did you ever play heroes unlimited? and will you be reviewing it?

Yes, I have played HU. However, I much preferred TMNTAOS. Most of my gaming during the late 80s and early 90s was SHRPG.

As for reviewing it ... Maybe I should just give up on that copy of Wild Talents and follow my grandmother's advice.

And your grandmother's advice was ... ?

seneschal wrote:And your grandmother's advice was ... ?

Don't forget to bring a sweater?