Super-Powered ROLF! (Wanna give feedback?)

[Steve Miller]

There are one or two people here who have some experience with ROLF!: The Rollplaying Game of Big Dumb Fighters, so I am sending up a flare and asking if you want to comment on rules for adding super-powers to the game.

Click here to visit the NUELOW Games blog and take a look at what we're planning to include in "Bullets to the Head."

(I know this is non-horror--and I know this STILL isn't ROLF! At Sea, for those of you have have been waiting many, many years--but the group that did the play-testing is being run by my co-designer and it's 850 miles away, and I feel like I want input from others. )

And I'm hoping I can turn to old friends.

--Steve Miller

[alhoon]

Superpowers are an interesting deviation from the original game. I wouldn't mind having a couple of superheroes fighting so we can solve the "Batman vs Superman" thing once and for all, but generally I would prefer the Superpowers to remain a deviation when you want the something extra. I.e. for me at least, ROLF! will be about the usual weird heroes with the occassional superhero fight thrown in the mix.

However, I would also like to see some "deathray" superpowers for the evil mad doctor.

[Steve Miller]

However, I would also like to see some "deathray" superpowers for the evil mad doctor.

Your wish is our command. I don't know if the Death Ray product will be done for release this weekend, but it's designed and off to the editor and play-test group.

"Death Rays at Forty Paces" or "Mad Scientists Gone Wild" are the titles we're currently considering for this release.

(You can send me your email at stevemillermail@gmail.com if you want a copy for review and/or play-testing.)

[alhoon]

All my ROLF! friends have left the town for their hometowns. I don't have anyone to play ROLF! with anymore.

I may meet them 1/month when I go back to Athens or something, but I don't think we could pull a game. A pity.

I would like to ask you, are there any semi-official ROLF! tournaments in Europe? I live in a town of 65K people, so are you people supporting tournaments in so small places?
We have a small RPG shop that arranges events. ROLF! rules are fun, easy, quick and cheap. With a bit of promotion, a ROLF! afternoon would be possible I think.

[Steve Miller]

I would like to ask you, are there any semi-official ROLF! tournaments in Europe? I live in a town of 65K people, so are you people supporting tournaments in so small places?
We have a small RPG shop that arranges events. ROLF! rules are fun, easy, quick and cheap. With a bit of promotion, a ROLF! afternoon would be possible I think.

I don't know that there are ROLF! tournaments ANYWHERE, semi-official or otherwise, but let me know how you see such a thing working. I'll see what I do as far as giving you support!

(And I got the final edits on "Mad Scientists Gone Wild" from L.L Hundal today... I'm going to do some minor revisions, and have it available for purchase tomorrow.)

[alhoon]

Well, Since ROLF! seems quite tournamentish, I thought there would be some tournaments or something organized by local shops / groups of people that play ROLF!
Personally I don't know how tournaments are done anyway. I just knew that an RPG shop in Athens held Arenas of various RPGs every once a while in a back room. Nothing official or fancy. People gathered, made chars according to the system and played in an arena. The prizes were more or less a nice certificate and something minor from the shop if the turnouts were large.
A friend of mine has been a referee-DM there a couple of times.

There were similar semi-official tournaments in many cities according to friends abroad. But here in my town, we don't have enough people for such things. There are only a couple planned RPG events from WotC/year, you know the adventures they send to shops once a while.

[Steve Miller]

I will speak with Lynx about this idea... but I think I'll be able to provide some ROLF! materials that will be "organized play" friendly. Basically, I think the characters would have to be in the format used for "Bullets to the Head" (go here, click on "Full Preview" and scroll down to pages 4 and 5 to see what I mean) instead of our usual habit of putting 4-5 characters on a page... or as many as six if it's a "Houseboat on the River Styx" tie-in.

Prizes... I see a very easy way to arrange for prizes.

So. If there's a desire, I think I'll be able to provide support... I just need to get a little more educated about how it's done. (I happen to game regularly with one of WotC's ex-organized play/promotions people... I think I will have to talk shop with him when our Thursday night game resumes later this month.)

[alhoon]

Well, personally I think a couple of pages on how ROLF! is played (not all equipment rules or all traits and maneuvers) as a cheatsheet and to introduce new players + a few somewhat balanced premade characters would be nice.

[Steve Miller]

Well, personally I think a couple of pages on how ROLF! is played (not all equipment rules or all traits and maneuvers) as a cheatsheet and to introduce new players + a few somewhat balanced premade characters would be nice.

Balanced? In ROLF!? I think that might be against the design philosophy of the game.

[alhoon]

actually that's very true... I'm ashamed of ever suggesting that. To my defense I said "somewhat" though.

Perhaps a system to rotate through characters in the tournament? So you can try out 2-3 different chars, 2-3 battles each? It's not that 8-10 ROFL! matches take long.

[Steve Miller]

actually that's very true... I'm ashamed of ever suggesting that. To my defense I said "somewhat" though.

Perhaps a system to rotate through characters in the tournament? So you can try out 2-3 different chars, 2-3 battles each? It's not that 8-10 ROFL! matches take long.

Rotating characters is something we've been doing in several of the battle scenarios in the ROLF! supplements for a while... including the latest one (kinda-sorta): "Mad Scientists Gone Wild."

But it's something we're going to think about formalizing. ROLF! *is* a great game for conventions and in-store, as it's quick to play between other events and just quick. It's just that neither L.L. Hundal or I are big convention goers, so it's not something we've given much thought to.

Although now that the idea's been planted, we're working on it.

Meanwhile, if any of my Ravenloft buddies wants a free copy of "ROLF!: Mad Scientists Gone Wild," you just have to click here. It works with any version of ROLF!, including the free "ROLF!: Old Skool." (The offer is good until the end of June.)

You can also click here to visit the NUELOW Games blog to see a "bonus mad scientist"... Doctor Horrible as he appears with ROLF! stats.

[alhoon]

Weeeell, if it's free, I won't say no.

As a note, I also don't go to conventions. We don't have any after all. But a small shop could benefit from a nice and quick ROLF! tournament. I don't speak about our small town I say that ROLF! is very cheap, fast and easy to learn. It could give a small boost to a shop and a small boost is a morale riser in a bad economy.

[Steve Miller]

Weeeell, if it's free, I won't say no.

As a note, I also don't go to conventions. We don't have any after all. But a small shop could benefit from a nice and quick ROLF! tournament. I don't speak about our small town I say that ROLF! is very cheap, fast and easy to learn. It could give a small boost to a shop and a small boost is a morale riser in a bad economy.

L.L Hundal asks if there are popular figures in Greece that are quirky enough they can be given ROLF! stats... like a popular singer or a supermodel or television character; the ancient gods might be too easy, I feel, although she was doing something with Aphrodite for Valentine's Day she never finished. She says she'll devise something just for Greece... and it may or may not be titled "Greece is the Word."

[Steve Miller]

Oh... honest ratings or actual reviews over at DriveThru and RPGNow are always appreciated, if any of you downloaded any of the NUELOW Games items.

[alhoon]

Greece?

How about the "economic crisis monster" spawn (superhero rules) of dr Miser using the last rules for the mad scientists?
With the politicians (Merkel, Olande, Obama, Sarkozy, etc) to fight it, you have a set.

Also making it the economic crisis monster puts it in Spain, Portugal and Ireland too.


NOTE: Hoping I don't break our rules for non-politics, we ... had an incident today. I'll just give the link instead of discussing it. The video, although without words, speaks for itself.

With the exception of two reporters, all else are actually MPs. The guys we sent to Parliament to deal with the economic crisis. The most "active" one, the two women, and the guy that sits there with the white hair that does nothing.

Perhaps it's too sad even for ROLF! though.