I've been hitting garage sales and thrift shops for years in the Poconos, hoping to stumble across and RPG gem and always coming up short - until this morning.
Albedo, The Role-Playing Game was found in a stack of games in a thrift shop in Honesdale PA. Holy crap!
I remember the game (and the comic) but never owned either. I was friends with a few gamers that were also into anthropomorphic comics - although their tastes went a bit off the scale. What they read couldn't be left around for third parties to stumble upon.
The box is in surprisingly good shape, everything is included and the 25 year old game was only a buck and a half. I've already started reading the background info during a bathroom reading session, and although I'm not all that impressed so far I'm still happy with my find.
The system itself seems to love charts. I tend to not like charts so much ;)
I have owned that game, but could never get my friends to play it. I always thought it'd be a fun three or four shot affair.
ReplyDeleteI still have my copy (though I never did get the supplements). I agree that it's not a very good design. The author, Paul Kidd, continued to refine his system, presenting it for Renaissance-flavored fantasy (with a bunch of furry-like races, such as "half-horses" [centaurs] and such instead of elves and dwarfs) in Lace & Steel, which wasn't half bad, though it had some annoying card-based mechanics that meant that the game couldn't be played if the game group lost their decks (say, in a dramatic Coca-Cola-based accident - fortunately for me, this has not happened to my copy).
ReplyDelete(Aside as a hint to prospective game designers: if you must include a card-based mechanic, base it on either normal playing cards or tarot cards. This allows players to more easily replace their decks after your print runs have been exhausted.)
That's just cool on principle if no other reason. Wasn't there a different Albedo game as well?
ReplyDeleteGiven the realistic 'hard' approach the comics took, I imagined classic Traveller would be the idea system for the universe. Never got around to it though. Could never get the old group interested in running Red Wall, or Mouse Guard for that matter, never mind full anthropomorphics.
I once found a copy of the Hollow World Dungeon Master Guide at a thrift store. I really didn't want it, but I had never found a gaming book at a thrift store before. And I felt if I did not buy it, I would be angering the thrift store demigod. Of course Cheapobuyz is a fickle demigod, and to this day I haven't found another game book at a thrift store.
ReplyDeletebloggers eating my comments again.
ReplyDeleteblogger tagged the earlier one as spam - no idea why
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