Author Archives: devilsjunkshop

The question is: An RPG with great art?

A great many role-playing games have fantastic art; work that really adds to the general vibe of the game.

For example:

The most recent edition of Runequest; Free League’s The One Ring; and then there’s The Wildsea.

If I had to pick one right now (which is in fact what I’m doing here), I’d have to go with Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City.

I only have the first edition at present, and I’m not sure how the art differs (if at all) in the 2nd edition. But the first UVG is a glorious ‘psychedelic metal’ world of Moebius style art and Heavy Metal style European weirdness.

I’ve not run it yet, but the setting is incredible and the game looks amazing.

Strange and beautiful

The question was: When did/will you start Gamemastering?

I was a GM within days of getting D&D, as far as I remember how it went. Things were a bit shambolic to begin with, and then there was a bit of a break where I didn’t do much GM-ing at all for various reasons. And by bit of a break I mean it was probably years, as I was just a player for a while in various groups. The second game I ran after D&D was probably the original Judge Dredd RPG, which I’ve just remembered was the next game I bought after Maelstrom.

I’ve just remembered designing a whole Mega City One sector featuring slightly off-the-wall Judges, lots of mysterious goings-on and multiple cross-overs with other games. Odd.

Today’s question: What is the 2nd RPG you bought?

It was MAELSTROM, a reasonably obscure release from the early days, written by (then teenager) Alexander Scott and released by Puffin Books in 1984 as part of the same line as the Fighting Fantasy game books and such like. Maelstrom was set in a vaguely 16th/17th century milieu, and featured nobles, mercenaries, priests and the like; not to mention herbalists and folks who could work magic to shift the world to their own liking. Sort of a proto-Lamentations of the Flame Princess, I guess.

As a book format game, it had the benefit of being sold in my local newsagents/stationers shop Stewart Millers, which is where I saw the tremendous cover and had to buy the game/book.

To be fair, I only ran combat trials with it a couple of times, and don’t think I ever ran it as an actual game, but I remember it fondly. Great setting, interesting magic system, very dangerous combat.

The whole thing has expanded since then and all of it is still available in PDF format for anyone interested in something a bit different.

Way back then I had the benefit of being part of a group that owned a lot of RPGs, so I mostly just had to turn up. Aside from some AD&D bits and bobs, I think the next RPG I bought after Maelstrom was probably Cyberpunk 2020 in 1988. Or maybe Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in 1986? I could be wrong. It’s so long ago I can’t remember half of what we played.