Tuesday, March 22, 2011

This Just Zeppelin!

AKA: Blatant Zeppelin-Mongering

You may recall that some time ago I posted my review of Brandon Sanderson's excellent Mistborn series? You may have also heard that Sanderson is working with Crafty Games to produce a Mistborn roleplaying game. However, if you aren't listening to the excellent (relatively) new Ace of Geeks podcast, you probably haven't heard this (the news is also available at Crafty Games' website, along with other information, I'm sure).

If you've ever wondered how many links I can fit into a single paragraph, now you know.

Anyway, if you don't want to follow the link and listen to the entire episode (which is understandable, since Ace of Geeks follows the "meander at length about awesome stuff" model of podcasting, so if what you're after is the news I'm talking about you'll probably be frustrated), the news is this: the Mistborn RPG will use the FATE system originally popularized by Evil Hat's Spirit of the Century.

And you thought I was done with links.

This is excellent news. I don't know anything about Crafty Games, except that they are the makers of SpyCraft and FantasyCraft, both games I know absolutely nothing about. What I do know a lot about is FATE. I've read and loved a lot of games based on FATE, including Legends of Anglerre, for which I've written my own setting. FATE is an excellent system, one I think is particularly suited to the world of Mistborn.

In any case, my level of anticipation for this game just, ah, gained a level. I'm really eager to get my paws on this thing and run the heck out of it.

Before I depart for the evening, I'd like to throw a shout-out at Ace of Geeks. This is an extremely solid podcast, full of cleverness and fun. The hosts are both my kind of people: clever, smart, open-minded, socially conscious, and extremely nerdy. They have the most important quality of all podcasts: fun. Not that they're fun to listen to - which they are - but that they're clearly having so much fun podcasting. It really rubs off. One of the hosts, Mike, also plays D&D with me at the local Borders. I really enjoy Ace of Geeks, and I'm willing to bet you will, too.

If you are an obsessive archive-trawler (like me), be warned: the early episodes, before the Aces bought new microphones, are a bit... rough. I found some of them very hard to listen to. If you are less deaf - or less commuting in an increasingly loud car that probably needs a tune-up - than I, you might very well have no difficulties. Anyway, the most recent episode is completely audible at all times. I look forward to watching this podcast continue to grow and improve, as all things do.

And that's it for tonight. Until next time, folks, how exactly does one mong a zeppelin?

3 comments:

netherwerks said...

So, as someone who really knows about FATE, where would you suggest that someone who was interested in learning more about it should start looking? What are your top ten FATE links, if I might ask?

Mark said...

I'd start by checking out the FATE website (http://www.faterpg.com/). This is pretty much your hub for all things FATE. From there, you can find links to various FATE products, as well as the FATE SRD and licensing information (I believe they use a variant of the OGL).

If you're interested in buying FATE games to dig more deeply into the system, I'd recommend...

• Spirit of the Century: The first FATE game, and a very solid - albeit inflexible - one at that. The purest incarnation of FATE.
• Houses of the Blooded: A good example of how flexible the basic FATE engine can be. Takes FATE in some very interesting directions. Also, a very small, tight little game.
• Dresden Files RPG: The opposite of Houses, Dresden Files is huge, with options for everything.
• Legends of Anglerre: I can't really conclude this comment without noting the generic incarnation of FATE as fantasy game engine that I used for my own setting.

netherwerks said...

Interesting. Thank you for pointing these resources and sites out. We will have to take a more serious and in-depth look at FATE now...