New Meeting: Test Drive -- Talislanta, 4th Edition

Announcing a new meeting for The DC/NoVa Gamers' Guild!

What: Test Drive -- Talislanta, 4th Edition

When: Saturday, May 3, 12:00 PM

Where: (A location for this meeting hasn't been chosen yet)

Who should come: Anyone who wants to take a shot at trying a new RPG...

Meeting Description: Hey Everyone!

This is the first of what I hope will be an irregularly scheduled string of one-shot games. I recently took a look at my RPG collection, and came to the conclusion that I have somewhere around 40 or so games that I've never had a chance to play. This is my attempt at fixing that.

No experience is necessary for any of these test drives; in fact, chances are good that I'll know only marginally more than you, having never played these games myself (heck, you might know more). I'm going to try to have between 4 and 6 seats for each game, and I'll be setting RSVPs to "yes or no only," as "maybes" in this sort of situation mean the difference between a full table and two players.

So, without further ado, let's learn some new games!

-- Jim

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The debut Test Drive is something of a cheat on my part. Though I've played a lot of the first edition of Talislanta, I haven't had an opportunity to try the fourth edition, and there are a lot of differences in the system between the two (most notably in the magic system, which in the fourth edition is much more flexible, a la Ars Magica). The game's official site is www.talislanta.com, and though they've since moved into a fifth edition, I think I'll try the fourth edition first before I move forward.

Our location is currently TBD, but I'm hoping that I can get the meeting room at the Shirlington Branch of the Arlington Library. More details to come!

Learn more here:
http://dnd.meetup.com...

Though I have to miss this one, I am definitely up for participation in future games.

I'm looking to run one-offs of the following games in the nearish future:

Weapons of the Gods
Dark Heresy (WH 40k RPG)
Call of Cthulhu
Aces & Eights

Someday I dream of running an Exalted campaign.

Though I have to miss this one, I am definitely up for participation in future games.

I'm looking to run one-offs of the following games in the nearish future:

Weapons of the Gods
Dark Heresy (WH 40k RPG)
Call of Cthulhu
Aces & Eights

Someday I dream of running an Exalted campaign.

Did you manage to grab a copy of Dark Heresy? I was planning to run it myself at one of the Test Drives, but if you're willing to volunteer...

Oh, and you've probably heard the good news by now: Games Workshop licensed all of their Black Industries stuff to Fantasy Flight Games (the Twilight Imperium folks). Not only will FFG be producing a new edition of Talisman in the near future, but they're picking up and running with the RPG lines, too! Which sort of sucks for Green Ronin (who won't be doing the WHFRP stuff anymore), but is good for those of us who wanted to see Dark Heresy, and the other 40K RPGs, live on.

I did pick up a copy of Dark Heresy. And I did hear the good news about Fantasy Flight Games. I'm a big fan of their games (Arkham Horror, Runebound, and the granddaddy - Twilight Imperium) so I'm looking forward to what they'll do with the 40k RPG line.

I did pick up a copy of Dark Heresy. And I did hear the good news about Fantasy Flight Games. I'm a big fan of their games (Arkham Horror, Runebound, and the granddaddy - Twilight Imperium) so I'm looking forward to what they'll do with the 40k RPG line.

Thus far, I've been pretty pleased with their RPG stuff. Dawnforge is a fun setting for D&D (decidely super-powered, but sometimes that's what you want), and Fireborn is a game with some pretty cool ideas, as is the full version of Grimm. Those latter two will defintely be test driven at some future date. I have a lot of confidence that they'll do right by the Black Industries games.

I never played Dawnforge or Fireborn, but I did run a campaign of DragonStar for awhile (cool merge of D&D with guns in space). It was a lot of fun -- gritty, exciting, and utterly unlike anything else. Too bad the campaign ended in a TPK with the party getting butchered by an armored wyvern supported with suppressing fire by trolls with submachine guns.

I never played Dawnforge or Fireborn, but I did run a campaign of DragonStar for awhile (cool merge of D&D with guns in space). It was a lot of fun -- gritty, exciting, and utterly unlike anything else. Too bad the campaign ended in a TPK with the party getting butchered by an armored wyvern supported with suppressing fire by trolls with submachine guns.

Yeah, I fogot that I own that one! Which should tell you how bad the situation here really is. Never played Midnight, but I also heard that it's a pretty good setting.

I had a last minute change of plans and will not be able to attend this session. I changed my RSVP but figured I'd post here as it might get the attention of someone who was interested but found the slots full. Ya'll have fun now... hopefully I'll be able to make a future event.

The after-action report:

Well, there's really nothing to report, as there was no action.

Of the five final RSVPs we had for the game, two people (and myself) showed up. Jeremy, Bryan and I sat for about an hour, talked gaming in general, and then packed it up and went home. Not a complete loss, as good conversation was had, and none of us live more than about 10 minutes from the game location, but definitely a bit of a downer in the actual gaming department.

Just a reminder, guys: I ruled out the "Maybe" RSVP to rule out "maybes." "Yes" does not mean "maybe." If you're unsure of whether or not you can attend, put "no." If you think you can attend, then find out later that you can't, change your "yes" to "no" (and thanks to the folks who did this; hopefully you'll be able to join us next time). When it comes to RPGs, the difference between five people and two people is the difference between a game or no game.

I'd like to try to put another game together for June, but I'm not sure when. Kurt, Shannon, I know that we briefly discussed rotating GMs in the comments section for this one; if you want to take a shot at running something, I'm game for it. Otherwise, I'll take a look at my library, try to come up with something, and update the site accordingly.

Sorry to hear the session was a bust, Jim. That really blows. Yes, folks, let's please be responsible with our RSVPs and respect the time and effort that other people invest to organize a gaming session.