Chatty DM Presents: Stargazer’s World

Last week’s post where I presented Zach’s RPG Blog II was a frank success, particularly among the blogging crowd.  I guess that means I can continue!

This week I want to present you a blog straight out of gaming-friendly Germany. I give you Stargazer’s World.

In the world of its author (who goes by the Stargazer alias) this blog is…

When I found out that there are quite some excellent roleplaying blogs out there on the internet, I decided to start my own blog dedicated to the pen&paper roleplaying hobby. And as soon as I had some posts, I joined the RPG Bloggers Network, in hopes to get some people interested in what I have to say. The Stargazer‘s Blog features mostly reviews of roleplaying game books and music suited to set the mood in roleplaying session or gives my thoughts on the job of Game Master. I’ve also written some posts about one of my pet projects namely the steam-fantasy world of Asecia, that I am currently working on.

Stargazer is a modest, friendly blogger that is making slowly making his way out of the RPG blog pack by discovering his own voice and pushing through the periodic dips in motivation that blogging entails.

Here’s what I have to say about a few of his best posts (As submitted by the author):

Roleplaying Music- Five Essential Soundtrack albums

In which Stargazer presents 5 movie/game soundtracks that are good to use in Roleplaying sessions and explains what each specifically brings to the table and what genre they are best suited for.

I’m a big fan of using music at the table but I’m terribly lazy in that aspect of gaming.  I usually just put on one of my playlists from Last.FM (ID: pamenard) or ask one of the players (usually the game’s host) to put some background music.

Laziness aside, I’m well aware of how music can affect a game’s mood and energy level.  For instance, whenever someone puts the Matrix soundtrack during a combat scene, you can feel the thumping sounds of Rob Dougan infuse the game.  Players are head nodding to the beat and the pace of playing is faster. It’s also quite evident to see that a series of slow tempo, somber tunes (like the seconf half of the Trainspotting soundtrack) creates a drop in energy and focus.

So choosing a specific mix of music for a game is definitiveky a plus.  If you don’t have time to create your perfect playlist (or mix-tapes for any rabid technophobes among my readers) a soundtrack is a great timesaver.  I might give the Conan or Oblivion ones Stargazer proposes a try.

No Capes!

Stargazer’s contribution to the Blog Carnival I hosted before the holidays.  He explains how to inspire yourself with the premises of the Heroes TV show to create a Superheroes campaing without the use of the common tropes of capes, costumes and secret identities.

As I was reading that, my trope-starved brain kept telling me, that’s not what YOU want in a supers campaing right?  I’m very much the Marvel 1980’s era superhero fan.  Were I to DM a supers game, I’d go all out with the costumes, the secret identities and the corny catchphrases. These tropes are what I like in a supers game.  It would not be serious, it would not be dark.  It would be over the top, filled with Robot ninjas and gadgetering Evil Overlords!

And I’d have a random table to determine which way the PC’s capes fly so that they look exactly like City of Heroes where a family protrait has 7 capes flying in 7 different directions!

Hmmm, maybe not that silly.

CthulhuTech

Stargazer reviews this H.P.Lovecraft meets Robotech cross-genre RPG.  His thoughts seem to be: looks nice and the idea and setting are intriguing but the mechanics are iffy.

While I won’t comment on his review itself (I’ve limited interest in that game) I must say that it seems that the ‘looks like a winner, plays like a road wreck’ comments crops up relatively often about these new small press RPGs.

This makes me realize just how hard it is to design a RPG, much less one whose mix of rules and setting/theme elements will meet general approval. I think that one of these reasons is that amateur game designers tend to trip on rules and either over-think or over design something.  Having discussed game design with some friends lately, I’ve notice just how easy it is to lose oneself in one subsystem and before you know it, you’ve got 15 pages just to explain how to mix and match medieval armour.

I’ll stick to prepping games and writing adventures.

All right there you have it.  Stargazer’s World is a typical example of a quality RPG blog that may ‘make it’, the author is still mastering his ‘voice’ and has a modest readership, but through the posts I’ve read, I feel a potential to grow quite a lot more.  Good luck!

You want to be next?

All right, if you’d like your blog to feature here, remember, send me a one paragraph description of what your blog is about and links to the three articles you are the proudest of.  I’ve received a few proposals, but I’m always willing to see more.

Send your submission to chattydm@chattydm.net.