We're now on iTunes

Hi everyone,

A Game of Whit's podcast is now up on iTunes! Please check it out here, if you haven't already: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-game-of-whits/id515164948

Ep.2 Sess.0 Character Creation Necessary Evil with Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

Podcast Episode 2 - Character Creation for the MGA Actual Play of Necessary Evil using Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

Our second episode is character generation for our upcoming campaign of Necessary Evil in the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying system. You'll get to see what making characters is like in the system, and get to meet the members of the Miami Gaming Authority.

Episode 2: Show Audio

Ep. 1 Sess.0 Mechanics Discussion Necessary Evil with Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

Hi Everyone! It's been a little while since you've heard from a Game of Whit's and here is the reason -- I've been hard at work putting together the first episode of our new podcast format. Don't worry, a Game of Whit's will still provide quality reviews and gaming discussion in a written format, but we'll also be providing audio reviews and actual play recordings from the Miami Gaming Authority.

Our first episode is a discussion of the gaming mechanics in the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying system, in preparation for our upcoming campaign of Necessary Evil. This will be a super-hero campaign in which the only heroes left after an alien invasion are the super-villains. If mechanics are less your taste, check out our upcoming episode in which the Miami Gaming Authority make their characters.

Show Audio

Quick update

Hello All,

It's been a ton of fun posting up reviews to share with everyone! I am steadily working through my library, and there is still much to hear about. However, if there is a specific product folks would be interested in hearing my take on as a review, please stick it up as a comment to this post and I will be happy to consider it.

Thanks!
Whit

YSDC - Shadows by Gaslight - Actual Play Review

Hi All, this is an Actual Play review, but it's not quite what you think. This is actually a review of the actual play audio game from Yog-sothoth.com (YSDC), in which the Bradford Players tackle the classic Call of Cthulhu module, "Shadows of Yog-sothoth" by Sandy Peterson. In this recording the campaign has been recast in the Gaslight era. For those less familiar, most Call of Cthulhu campaigns are set in the 1920's, but some are set in the Victorian era circa 1890 or so.

YSDC is well known for it's podcast, "Yog Radio," which recently had its finale after a very impressive run ("News from Pnakotus" and the "Silver Lodge" carry on this tradition, YSDC is certainly not disappearing from

MGA Update - Epic Gygax Conclusion and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying One-shot

Hello Everyone,

In addition to reviews and discussion I also like to keep everyone up to date with what is going on at the table with the Miami Gaming Authority, the gaming group to which I belong.

Last night brought us the epic conclusion of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, the classic Gary Gygax module. The GM for this campaign, Dan, recast the original adventure to work with Savage Worlds.


It's been a long time since he took the GM seat, and pulled off a pretty ambitious undertaking for his return. He also added some extra spice to the end, including some extra meta-plot, a self-destruct sequence, and diving away from an explosion. Now we fervently hope that our poor characters didn't irradiate themselves too much to reproduce in the process. A good time had by all.

Next up I'll be running a one-shot of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. This may end up replacing Savage Worlds for the upcoming Necessary Evil campaign if it plays well for our group. For those unfamiliar with it, Necessary Evil is a plot-point campaign for Savage Worlds written by Clint Black, Scott Pyle, an others. The conceit of the setting is that an alien invasion has eradicated the super-hero population of Earth. The only people left to save the world now are the super-villains. It's a bit toward the "grim'n'gritty" side, but has a dark humor about it which both loves and lampoons its source material. I'm hoping the system change will ramp up the comics flavor, if it's not to taste we'll have our go-to Savage Worlds to fall back on.

Expect more updates as they develop, hope that you enjoy hearing about our exploits!

Death Bringers - 3:16 - Supplement Review

Following up on the review of 3:16 a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to let you know about a campaign setting for that same game. 3:16 focuses on the brutal lives of space marines as they blast their way through alien worlds and emerge victorious with goo splatters coating their MandelBrite armor. The original game is designed for campaign play and gives a system for creating a unique campaign, but largely leaves the GM to fill in the particulars. This can be great or a little lackluster, depending on the GM or the group playing. Death Bringers by Felbrigg Herriot picks up the standard from the random generator and runs screaming back into the fray.

What Death Bringers gives you is a complete

Read-through Review: Trail of Cthulhu, GUMSHOE

Happy Anniversary of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's Death! Morbid, I know, but I really feel the now-esteemed writer of cosmic horror would enjoy us celebrating his eventual demise as much as his birth. So much of his work centers on the end of his protagonists, straight jacketed or daisy-pushing. To that end I shall spend the day by reviewing Trail of Cthulhu, a role-playing game which pays loving homage to the horror writer's works and the body of Mythos fiction which he inspired.

Trail of Cthulhu was written by Kenneth Hite, a devotee of H.P.L. in his own right, and published by Pelgrane Press. The book has been around since 2008, and has been faithfully and consistently supported by a slew of adventures, campaign frameworks, and supplements. Trail of Cthulhu does not pretend that it has no relation to Call of Cthulhu. The opposite actually, it seeks to update the classic for a slightly different audience, to the point that Chaosium, the original publisher, has officially licensed it.


The core of the game is based around the Robin Laws' Gumshoe system. The main tenet of this system is

3:16 - Carnage Amongst the Stars: Read-through Review

Next I'd like to take a look at one of those indie gems that never quite get the press they deserve. While its been out for some time, 3:16 - Carnage Amongst the Stars accomplishes a number of things which small indie games usually fall flat on. It's mechanics are simple but not shallow, it encourages role-playing without leaving groups that are lighter on the role-play in a vat of awkward narrative spaghetti, it isn't a one-shot wonder but is built on campaign play. This is all really impressive because the core of the game was written for a write-a-game-in-24-hours contest (24-Hour RPG, which is a neat idea in and of itself). What this leaves us with is a very tight game, meant to emulate the bug-splatter military sci-fi - Starship Troopers, Warhammer 40K, Armor, Starcraft, Aliens, etc.

The core of the game is so clear-cut, it seems simplistic

Blood and Honor - Actual Play Review

This time I'd like to tell you all about a game that has a particular charm for me, John Wick's Blood and Honor. This samurai game is basically John's answer to the years he spent on Legend of the Five Rings following his publishing of Houses of the Blooded.

Houses of the Blooded was touted as an answer to D&D. I think really it was a call for everything in a game world to have the kind of polish embellished love that combat is afforded. I loved that message, and the clean mechanics that went along with it. The thing that rankled me a bit was