Hello everybody,

I am seeking people interested in playing or reviewing I game I just published through RPGNOW.com. It's at: www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2256

It's called The Swing. The first book it the Reality Guide. This is the most realistic RPG ever (or so I believe). The Step Game Engine, used in The Swing, is highly realistic in it representation of the real world.

Features:
Secret Initiatives
Realistic Firearms Damage
New Deception Method
In-depth Character Creation
Magick
FEAR
and more inovative rules.

Description:

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play a game before the cataclysmic event has happened? Or how about before the Evil Ones awoke? What about a world with endless possibilities, a world that is up to those who play to shape? Have you ever wanted to change the setting of certain games so as to add a twist to them and not contradict the whole system?

Well now you can, because all of that and more are possible with “The Swing”.

Reality is like the swing of a pendulum. Sometimes it swings in one direction; sometimes it swings in the opposite direction. Sometimes reality is dragons and faeries, sometimes it lasers and computers. The Swing is about making your game into what you want it to be. The Swing is designed around the thought that a persons WILL can shape reality. If that is true then your characters WILL can shape the game. One main difference between this and other games is that instead of playing in the world after the change, you can create the change.

Or if you wish, take the combat system and/or Magick system and change timelines. All is possible with just an application of ones WILL.

By using The Step Game Engine, The Swing offers the most realistic combat system to date. Never again will you see the lone paladin fighting hundreds of kobolds, or the guy who always lives through grenades. Damage is serious business in this game. Taking a .45 to the chest in the real world pretty much gets you a one way pass to the creator, in The Swing, it will too. Death and killing are not to be taken likely.

This game will not be about how many creatures you can kill, it’s about exploring the interaction between the WILL and reality. The goal of all games is the have fun. Now you can anyway you want to.

__________________
Keith Taylor
93 Games Studio

Hmmm. Ok. So you decided to take the huge marketing risk of declaring your game "the most realistic game ever". Always a dangerous claim to make, but potentially rewarding if its backed up.

So, I guess I'm going to start with 3 questions for you.

1) "what makes it so realistic". I've checked out your site and your list of features, and I see things "secret initiative" and "deadly combat". Simply haveing "deadly combat" does not realism make. What is particularly realistic about secret initiative? I'm assuming that you must have done substantial research into areas such as ballistics before declaring your system to be the most realistic one ever. What sources did you use? Can I shoot a guy 6 times from 3 feet away at least once in the face and have him not only live but be released from the hospital a day later...that's realistic...because its actually happened in reality. What where your starting assumptions for what makes a game more realistic.

2) "what other games have you regularly played or studied". For you to declare this to be the most realistic game ever, I'm sure you must be intimately familiar with nearly every other RPG ever written. What makes this game more realistic than GURPs, or Hero, or Fuzion, or BRP, or FNFF, etc?

3) The premise of your game seems to be the ability to alter reality through the force of ones will, going so far as to say the world really used to be flat. Surely if the world can change that dramatically, that the very laws of physics must be alterable. For instance the Law of Gravity would have to be based on something very different than mass if the world is a thin flat sheet. How does your realistic rule set alter and change to account for the changing laws of physics? If you have rules for how far someone can jump, do those rules change when the Law of Gravity changes?

I would be happy to take a look at it and include it in a future column.

Please email me privately at ross_winn@ mac.com

Great questions Valamir. I hope that this helps, let me know if I do not make any sense.

1) Some of the innovations that are used in this system such as Deception. Deception is no longer a skill of its own. How can someone lie about Nuclear Physics without knowing about Nuclear Physics? There are ways to do it, but is you have the Skill Nuclear Physics then you can lie even better or vis versa, if you have the Skill Nuclear Physics and someone is lieing to you about it then you can detect the lie easier.

Secret Initiative is a system where everyone declares their first action prior to rolling initiative. This action may be canceled if the character has enough resources available, but if not they have to carry it out. Such as when a character might decide to pop his head around the corner as their first action, however, some one with a higher initiative might be laying in wait for it.

Weapon damage is modeled directly off of bullet ballistics, some weapons are more powerful than others, some penetrate more armor than others and some even cause other effects to happen. Yes, there is a way for someone to take 3 to the face, but as in real life they have to be real lucky, or more to the point the shooter has to be real unlucky. Damage effects are more realistic, instead of always acting the same until the character is dead, each wound reduced the characters combat ability.

2) I have studied many systems in my time Dark Conspiracy, Mechwarrior RPG, BTech, Vampire (and its troupe), D&D, D20, D20 Modern, Rifts, FASA Star Trek, WEG Star Wars, D20 Star Wars, The Hunt, Star Frontiers, and many more. The one thing I can say is that all of the combat situtations I have been involved in with this game, everyone acts as if the combat is real. There seems to be a real sense of danger when using these rules. It is something I can not truly explain nor convince you of, but it exists and I hope it makes the game more entertaining.

3) While yes Reality can be changed it true. There is a difference between theory and practice. While it is relatively easy to change minor aspects (mainly to create small spell like effects) major changes can only be accomplished through the directed effort of mankind as a whole. So while it is true that the Laws of Physics, Nature, Gravity, etc. can be changed, the change is relative to the person creating the effect and the location they are in. Sort of like the Matrix. While Neo can alter the rules governing certain things, such as giving him the ability to fly, it does not change the rules for humanity as a whole.

Which is the purpose of the game... to show mankind that anything is possible.