Why Does Your Game Rock?

[Lxndr]

Fastlane definitely rocks.  No question about it.  What other than rocking can one do when one lives the kind of decadent high-stakes lifestyle it endorses.

Fastlane rocks because it is the one and only roleplaying game in the world to take advantage of roulette bidding, and is written and played in such a way that the system is easy to grasp, even if you've never gambled before.

Fastlane rocks because it limits not just the power of the protagonists, but also the power of the gamemaster, forcing every player to worry about resource management across the table.  It consistently stacks the house against the protagonists just enough to increase the "pressure cooker" feeling, and every time the players lose, their loss is the gamemaster's gain.

Fastlane rocks because it encourages GM and player collusion during character/campaign creation.  

And finally, Fastlane rocks because, apart from the cover, it has no art at all, just a kick-ass layout that focuses on the one most important thing about any roleplaying game - the text.

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Snowball rocks because it is the ALPHA game in the No Press Anthology (of which I sold three (3) copies yesterday to a local game store).  Not only is it based on a rocking game called The Pool, but it was designed to facilitate play in the style of the Memento - play that starts at the end of the story, and reverts, scene by scene, back to the beginning.  But it rocks even more because it plays JUST as fun going forward.

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Shangri-la will rock because it's a dream game that defines its characters through allegories, and makes relationships in the real world significant without devoting any in-play time to actions, tasks or conflicts in the real world.

That's all for now, though my other games will rock too.  I mean, I'm on a roll!

[Ben Lehman]

You know, Ben, I knew I'd get you when you wrote this part about

all that sex I wished I was having when I was 15

Bliss Stage and Barbaren are, like, pretty much opposite each other when it comes to games about sex.  Barbaren is all about sex as a physical thing, Bliss Stage is all about sex as emotional intimacy.

I so want to play both of them in the same night.

Are you doing a US release of your game?

yrs--
--Ben

[Frank T]

Are you doing a US release of your game?

Man, there's not even a comlete written version of the German game yet, much less artwork and layout, the playtesting is in an early stage, and you ask me if I'm doing a US release?

Well, of course I am! ;-D

[Michael S. Miller]

Okay, Ben. I'll be a putz, too.

With Great Power... rocks because:

•  It is rife with tension from the defining the Struggle during Hero Creation, through every cardflip in Enrichment scenes, in every grueling Panel of Conflict Scenes, to battling it out for the ability to redeem Devastated Aspects.

• With every choice, the players decide what they're going to protect, and what the cost is.

• It's got a head-to-head card-based conflict resolution system that combines strategic thinking with story flexibility. Failure is never the end, but neither is success.

• Everyone has a hand in everyone else's story because folks not in the scene are cast as Supporting Characters.

• Players choose which Aspects of their hero is vitally important to the villian's plan. The GM figures out why it's important.

• In every one of the last five playtest sessions, one person put down a card without saying a word, and everyone at the table either laughed or did the low "oooo." When playing cards provoke emotional responses, I KNOW the game rocks.

• It's got the Thought Balloon. 'Nuff said.