Every now and then I make a holy pilgrimage to John Wick's online diary, to offer a silent prayer of thanks for L5R and 7th Sea.
"I got to play Universalis -- which KICKS MAJOR ASS. If you don't have a copy of it, you'd better get one RIGHT THE HELL NOW. " John Wick. (link to John Wick's Gencon report) (http://www.livejournal.com/users/wickedthought/83183.html).
Yeah, that little gem is going up on the website :-)
I hate slipping into fanboy mode, but I played the hell out of L5R, 7th Sea (borh pre splat book hell) and bought 3 copies of Orkworld (one for me, one for players, one to remain in a state of pristine unopenedness).
And then I got to play my game with him. Mike immediately promoted him to Universalis Samurai for the ease at which he picked the game up. In fact, John came back later brought Tom Denmark (artist of Orkworld, and Dungeoneer which I've also been playing the hell out of and all around nice guy) to play. Mike ran that one, and from the sounds of it John was explaining as many of the rules as Mike was.
How cool is that.
Quote from: ValamirHow cool is that.
Very.
In fact, I'd say that John very nearly made sensei in two bouts of play. OTOH, can we really be surprised that so talented a designer would pick up on it so quickly? No, the real surprise is just how much he liked our little game. I'm honored and humbled by the praise.
Thanks John, and glad you liked it.
Mike